Hello Curse readers and non-Curse readers alike, and welcome to another bonus scene for my Clans of the Valley novel, Curse. You truly do not need to read Curse to enjoy this piece of mine, but it is highly recommended, as some of the things I have written into this one-shot pertain to the major plot and connections and themes throughout Curse. If you have read Curse, then great! Think of this one-shot as being the bridge between Chapter 23 and Chapter 24. Plot wise, this one-shot takes place a few weeks before Chapter 23! Also, if you have been keeping up with Clans of the Valley, you will recognize this main character in another one-shot I wrote called "Don't Look Away". You could also check that out if you want the big scoop on this. (: I hope y'all enjoy!
{ Tнe Pяıce σғ Kпσшıпɢ }
Fire…the hungry soul of the deities.
It is the world’s destructive light, and also its last resort for protection.
This world will end in fire. It always will, over and over and over again until it is satisfied with the beings who are left standing.
You are either one of the lucky few who are oblivious to this truth; one of the common ones who do not carry a piece of the deities soul in your body, or you are like me, one who carries the burden of the will of fire.
But, the will of fire is very specific in its choice of host. It doesn't just inhabit anyone.
Firstly, you must have the perfect pedigree.
“Ashpaw, the nightly border patrol is back. It’s our turn next, let’s go.”
I sighed, lifting my head from my paws and staring up at my mentor, Fogtail, who wore a weary gaze as he observed my handiwork.
My claws were embedded in my moss nest in the apprentices den, little tiny shreds of the green foliage sprinkled all over my tabby legs and the side of the den wall. I had even begun tearing into the camp wall out of my boredom, my claw marks creating neat little tick patterns. It was in the shape of a smooth circle, with some of the moss stuffed in the middle and curled around itself to make a tadpole looking symbol.
Fogtail swallowed.
“Didn’t I put you on nest cleaning duty in the elder’s den?”
“Didn’t your father tell you not to repeat yourself?”
“What?”
I laughed, rolling my flaming orange eyes. “Nothing. Yes, I did, Fogtail.”
My father, Firestorm, had been good friends with Fogtail’s father. He remembers Fogtail’s father teasing his son about his terrible memory.
Now, if Fogtail had my memory…and the memories of all of my ancestors like I did…
“Alright…well, get up. We are leaving,” he meowed, turning and exiting the den, his extremely bushy tail almost getting snagged in the brambles outlining the apprentices abode.
Looking back at my masterpiece, I quickly leaned in and touched my nose to the mossy tadpole symbol.
“Soon,” I whispered.
I then turned and followed my mentor out into the PineClan camp.
. . .
“That’s all you are taking, Fogtail?”
Treestar is a very picky she-cat.
Fogtail squirmed, looking over his shoulder at me and the two other warriors he had picked out for the dawn patrol.
“Um…yes? I figured we didn’t need a large one sense we're just checking the GlacierClan border…”
Treestar narrowed her honey amber eyes, the color so vibrant and thick that it reminded me of tree sap.
Fitting, since she was named after a tree because of her ridiculously long legs…she got that from her grandmother who came from TundraClan. Another forbidden romance that was never discovered by the Valley Clan leaders…I wonder if anyone even suspects it?
“Bring two more with you, Fogtail. Remember that we have a pest problem with those rogues. I don’t want to experience the embarrassment of being the first Valley Clan leader in over five generations to be taken over by those bugs,” she growled.
Yes, Treestar is picky. Just like her twin sister who died two sun-cycles ago.
Fogtail bowed his head, his thick pale grey tail brushing against the ground.
“Yes, of course,” he replied. He then turned and walked toward the warriors den which was sheltered by a large fallen pine and some ferns.
Treestar narrowed her eyes at me, her dark brown tabby ear twitching, her thin frame slightly shivering as if being shaken in the wind like a leaf about to fall from its branch.
“What are you staring at, Ashpaw?”
I smiled. “Nothing.”
She huffed. “Always ‘nothing’ with you…go wait at the camp entrance with the others till Fogtail comes back.”
I dipped my head. “Yes, I’m sure you are used to waiting as well.”
“What?”
“Nothing!” I chirped, lightly trotting away.
She has had terrible luck with the toms. They were never on time for their scheduled hunts with Treestar when she asked them to go the day before. Just more proof that’s she’s just too intimidating and strange to really keep any tom’s heart. Thankfully that’s stopped now ever since she became old enough to be an elder about eight moons ago.
I guess I am the same, though I will admit, I’m not too interested in any of the toms here anyways.
Fogtail finally comes back with another warrior and her apprentice, Thornpaw, a simple dark brown tom cat with a white chest and one white hind paw.
He grinned at me. “Can you believe it’s only been one moon into our training, Ashpaw? It feels like it’s been so much longer! I just want to be a warrior already,” he sighed dreamily, his tail wagging like a wolf’s.
I rolled my eyes. “We’ve only been alive for eight moons, silly. We need much more experience if we are ever going to be as skilled as the warriors.”
But I already have countless moons worth of memories to use as experience…I guess it really can’t be helped. I have to go through training just like any normal PineClan cat.
Fogtail flicks his tail, motioning us to follow him as he exits out into the pine forest.
I follow, not bothering to listen to Thornpaw’s reply, already knowing what he will likely say.
He’s a lot like his mother.
. . .
Once outside I felt calmer. I could feel the life energy trapped inside every tree, every living being within the range of my gaze as I walked past them. It was a special feeling only a gifted few could experience.
And where are they now? Where are the others like me?
“Keep sharp! We are on rogue infested territory now,” Fogtail ordered, his pelt growing darker and then lighter as he passed under a thick pine tree branch above his head.
“We might as well call it theirs…we hardly even hunt here anymore,” one of the toms said, his eyes filled with annoyance. His name was Rockbreath, a newly named senior warrior.
“Yeah, no kidding, I wonder why Treestar hasn’t ordered us to exterminate them all,” another tom replied. He was obviously younger than the other warriors. I didn’t know his name due to the fact that he was sick most of his life, and was only given a name yesterday while I was busy with apprentice tasks.
Another unnamed orphan from the brief rogue surprise attacks during the time when Treestar was first named leader.
“It’s probably because of the report from the scouting patrol about a moon ago. Remember they said the rogues had successfully raided TundraClan, and had added more numbers to their ranks. There were queens with kits even!” Thornpaw’s mentor added, her white and ginger pelt slightly bristling along her shoulders. Her name was Sunpool.
“Ha! Like that’s even possible. They move around too much. They need a permanent camp somewhere to put their queens and kits in,” Rockbreath responded haughtily.
“What about any elders?” The un-named tom asked.
“You know they don’t keep older cats around, Rabbitleap. We find their bodies every once in a while drowned in the Siberian river,” Sunpool replied softly.
“How awful…”
Rabbitleap…a fitting name given his light coat and strong hind legs.
Fogtail paused, lifting his tail into the air. “Let’s place markers around here to make sure these rogues understand that this is our territory, not theirs. Split up so we can cover this area.”
Rockbreath nodded, turning away and trudging into the ferns behind us.
Sunpool and her apprentice headed out in the opposite direction.
Rabbitleap decided to go east towards the MountainClan border, which left me and my mentor Fogtail to take the west towards GlacierClan.
Fogtail twitched his tail. “Come on, what are you sitting there for, Ashpaw?”
I chose to sit while Fogtail spoke to the others, letting myself get away with glaring at him through my unnatural fiery orange eyes.
“Because you are a mouse-brain…,” I muttered, my jaws clenching.
“What?”
“We shouldn’t have split up you dim-wit!” I hissed, starting to feel the presence of more life energy coming from above our heads.
“What in StarClan’s name are you talking about? Just shut it and follow me. We have a job to do,” he growled, annoyed with my usual uncalled for behavior.
My mother was one of the ones who fell in those rogue attacks when I was just a kit…I was never raised proper. My dad wasn’t able to stick around long either after he lost her.
“Please don’t mention StarClan! You know how much it bothers me,” I growled, fuming as I stood and walked past him toward the western border.
He shook his head, following me.
“I never understood that. Why don’t you like the mention of…the mention of them?”
I narrowed my eyes, feeling that life energy above us begin to follow our trail.
It’s smaller than when it first appeared. Is there something in the trees? Whatever it is, it’s obviously following us…but how do I tell that to a cat like Fogtail who would ask me to explain how I know?
“Because beliefs always change, but enemies do not,” I hissed, placing a scent mark on a bush, and then calmly walking onwards into the western woods, achingly aware of the presence of such enemies following us.
. . .
We regrouped without incident, much to my surprise…and displeasure.
“Did you see any rogues, Ashpaw?” Thornpaw whispered in my ear as we walked back to camp to report to Treestar.
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“If I had seen any rouges, Thornpaw, I would be dead.”
“Oh…”
“Ashpaw! Can’t you be more…gentle?”
I glared at my mentor who was giving me a stern look through his pale, silvery green eyes.
“Why can’t you just remember things better?”
“What?”
“Nothing, just remember that ‘gentle’ isn’t my thing,” I purred, grinning.
He growled, “Ashpaw! I swear by-”
“Hello, there! You must be the dawn patrol.”
We all froze, slowly turning ourselves around to see a pure white she-cat standing on the path, her pelt glittering like freshly fallen snow, her eyes chilling and void of warmth, their color a glowing stark silver, like the moonstones you can find in the caves along the mountainside.
Rockbreath hissed. “She’s a rogue! How did she sneak up on us like that?”
“Better question is why is she here? One against six isn’t exactly great odds,” Sunpool growled, her tail lashing.
An excellent question actually…I thought those energies I was sensing earlier had vanished. I didn’t even feel her presence until she spoke.
Impossible…
The she-cat smirked, her fangs showing.
She thinks something is funny.
“Don’t you mean seven to one? Technically that little grey and black tabby apprentice there counts as two; assuming she is what I suspect she is,” she purred.
I felt the gazes of my clan mates burning into my flesh, and I growled, now really freaked out by this she-cat.
“Who in realms name are you, creature?” I asked, my voice harsh and demanding.
The she-cat smiled, fanning her face lightly with her paw, as if flattered by my words.
“I love the wording your kind uses…creature…realms…cursed…all such old ideas. I doubt any of your clan mates even know the names of all the seven realms, but I’m sure you do, Ashpaw,” she replies, a slight growl entering her voice.
She knows my name! But how? Where is she getting her information from?
And where is my information? I don’t recognize this she-cat at all…no memory from my ancestors can pin point her origins…only the eyes are familiar, belonging to Darkestday of MountainClan, and his forbidden product, Spottedmoon of GlacierClan who is now deputy…
Wait…remember…that gathering Firestorm attended…the announcement of the missing kit…
Come on! There has to be something! Who is this cat?
Fogtail snarled. “Give us your name before we take you by force!”
We really must get rid of that moral thing about names…do we really need to know the names of our enemies before we kill them?
Don’t forget, names do have power…
The she-cat laughed, a mad laughter that bubbled up and filled the air, and echoed through the trees…trees that were once again filling up with life energy.
No…no, this isn’t good! Those energies…they belong to cats!
“Fogtail! We must get back to camp, now!”
He turned on me then, raising his paw and striking me along the right side of my face.
I gasped, knocked sideways into the pine needle dirt, getting earth in my mouth.
My head rang as I slowly lifted my head and spat out the dirt, my eyes stinging from Fogtail’s swipe.
“You need to keep quiet! You are enough trouble as it is!” He shouted at me, fury igniting his irises.
The white she-cat then lunged, pouncing on Fogtail while his back was turned.
“Fogtail!”
She did quick work, biting savagely into his throat and then tossing him aside, separating him from his clan mates so that he would bleed to death without their help.
“Fogtail!” Sunpool wailed again, her body being held back by her apprentice and Rabbitleap.
Rockbreath stood with wide eyes, staring emptily at Fogtail’s still body.
I spat and got up on shaky legs, glaring at my mentor’s form lying on the ground.
Just like his father, a forgetful warrior with an unpredictable temper.
I won’t miss him.
The energies in the trees then appeared, dropping from the branches of the pines and surrounding us; a perfect ambush.
The white she-cat swiped her tongue over her muzzle, cleaning up Fogtail’s blood. A small group of rogues stood around her in a protective ring, but she left the space in front of her open. She was not afraid of an attack.
“My name…is Snow, and I am leader of the rogues. I have come to take Ashpaw, so that I may use her in my army,” she meowed, all calm and business like, as if she hadn’t just viciously murdered Fogtail.
Snowkit; that was the name of Spottedmoon’s missing kit from all those moons ago, but what are the chances that this is…?
Rockbreath snapped out of the shock, coming to stand in front of me, blocking my view.
“I don’t know why you are here for Ashpaw, but she is one of our own, and you will have to get through me and the rest of PineClan to get to her!” He snarled, his muscles contracting as he prepared for an attack.
What are you doing, mouse-brain? We have to run!
“Sunpool, take the apprentices and go,” he growled.
“But-!”
“Go!”
Sunpool gave in and pushed Thornpaw towards me, his eyes wide and scared.
“Come on you two, hurry!”
I didn’t want to leave Rockbreath behind. He was a good warrior, with a good family.
He just became a senior warrior…recognition for all his seasons of hard work and loyalty. Why waste it on me?
He looked back at me, a small smile lighting his brooding features.
“Hang in there, kid. Your parents didn’t die just so that you could be taken away from your clan!”
He then turned away, and leaped for Snow.
I didn’t get to see whether it was Snow or one of her rogues who killed him, but either way, she was going to pay.
I won’t forget you, Rockbreath…trust me when I say that I will avenge you.
. . .
“The rouges are attacking! Prepare to defend the camp!”
“Fortify the nursery!”
“Get the herbs ready!”
“Treestar! How should we proceed?”
I ignored the chaos, already having a plan in mind to end this attack.
I was going to disappear.
“This Snow couldn’t possibly just be here for Ashpaw. If this is anything like the attack on TundraClan, they are here for kits, herbs, and food. They are thieves, the lot of them!”
“What should we do?”
“Move all the elders, kits, queens, and two of our best fighters into the nursery. We might as well store some herbs in there with them as well. We won’t have to worry about prey shortages sense it’s warm-sun.”
“Alright, you heard her! Go!”
“We will mount a defense of the camp. Let them fall on our claws.”
“Yes, Treestar!”
I quickly ducked into the apprentices den, diving for my nest, not caring about how untidy it was becoming.
“Ashpaw, what are you doing? The rogues will be here any minute, we have to go join the warriors!” Thornpaw wailed, his eyes wide and confused.
I pushed aside more moss and cleared away the bramble tendrils from the wall of the den, letting out a sigh of relief at the sight of my scratched out circle with the mossy tadpole symbol in the middle.
“You go, Thornpaw. I am going to end the fight before it even begins!”
He gasped. “How?”
I turned to him and grinned. “I’m going to another realm.”
He opened his mouth, about to ask for details most likely, when a chilling screech echoed throughout the camp.
“They've broken through the wall!”
Adrenaline began pounding through my chest, my skull starting to burn, and my eyes casting a fiery orange glow.
“Go, Thornpaw!” I growled, shoving him back.
Then, before my very eyes, Snow appeared behind him.
And she sliced open the side of his belly.
“No!” I screeched, charging forward as Thornpaw fell.
Snow laughed, then choked as I careened into her, throwing all of my weight against her chest, and wrapping my paws around her throat.
“Do-Ashpaw…,” Thornpaw murmured, lying in torn up moss, his blood running freely from his side.
“You murderer!” I snarled, squeezing harder, satisfied as steam began rolling off of her skin where I was touching her.
No fear shown in her moonstone eyes though, she just simply grinned as I choked the life from her, and attempted to burn away her flesh with my power.
“So…young….yet so…very powerful,” she hissed.
Then two of her rogue body guards came crashing through, lifting me off her with ease.
“No! Let me go you hethens!”
I kicked and scratched and bit, but I was only an apprentice, merely eight moons old. No matter how much knowledge I had, or what advantages I had with my power, I was simply too physically weak to outdo three seasoned killers.
Snow stood, patting her smoking throat with her paw.
I took this moment to glance down at Thornpaw, whose blood flow was finally slowing, but he had passed out.
Don’t die, please don’t die! Not like this, not because of me…
“Now,” Snow purred, “you will tell me all that I wish to know. I know that you are cursed, and I know that because you have those stunning orange eyes, that you have an unlimited supply of knowledge from all of your past ancestors who carried the same irises, correct? So, you can tell me what you know of the other cursed cats, and where I can find them.”
I spat, satisfied as the big glob of saliva hit her square in one of her pretty eyes.
“Never!”
One of her body guards, a stunning flaming orange tabby with thick claws, whacked me across the face.
“Shall we make her talk, Snow?”
Snow wiped the spit from her eye, flinging it onto the ground.
“No, Firebird, she will talk.”
I shook my head, clearing the dizziness from Firebird's blow out of my skull.
“No, I won’t…,” I panted.
“Firebird…bring in Nightfang,” Snow ordered.
The fiery she-cat dipped her head and let me go, quickly exiting the den to go fetch this Nightfang.
I could still hear yowls and screeches outside.
This battle…it’s all a distraction so that Snow can get information out of me.
Firebird came back with Nightfang, another she-cat with one of the blackest pelts I had ever seen in my life, but what set my heart racing erratically was her electric blue eyes, like chips of energy ready to break.
She’s Nightfang of TundraClan! She was the deputy!
She didn’t look happy. Her lips were set in a straight grim line, and her eyes seemed disinterested in everything that was going on around her.
Snow smiled. “Nightfang, would you mind getting our friend here to talk for us?”
No…she can’t…not like this!
Nightfang nodded and began to approach me.
“No, Nightfang!" I cried, my heart ready to burst from my heaving chest. "Remember the covenant!”
She paused, her paw raised only a few breaths away from my forehead, her eyes glowing and lighting up the gloom around us.
“You think I want to do this, sister?”
My eyes were stinging, my heart tearing itself in two.
“You have a choice!” I whispered, “We are here to protect them, not harm them! If you do this then-”
“Then what?” She spat, her electric blue eyes starting to put out some heat. “We will be punished? We already have been given the maximum punishment; we are all destined to rot in the Realm of the Dead, forever blocked from our promised paradise waiting for us in the afterlife.”
I dropped my head, letting out a low moan.
“Do it then!” I resigned, giving myself to my fate
She sighed, then placed her paw on my skull.
“Temptation…”
I screamed.
Her fire split my skull from the inside, digging through all of my memories and pushing them to the surface.
But what hurt most was the knowing of what this meant. My kind was truly doomed to extinction.
“She’s ready. Ask her anything you want,” Nightfang growled.
Snow smiled, her pretty face triumphant. “Perfect.”
She then leaned down and asked the one question I had promised myself I would never have to answer.
“Ashpaw…where are the other cursed?”
. . .
“We head out for MountainClan at dusk. Make sure everyone is prepared for the attack.”
“Yes, Snow.”
Here I was, a piece of meat being carried around by a group of vegetarians.
I was spit on, cursed at, attacked without reason.
The rouges truly have lived up to their name as the bane of the cursed.
Long ago, when they were a fifth clan, they were the only ones who hated us. They saw us as unnatural; abominations to be eradicated and destroyed. We were dangerous because we broke our own laws of never using our powers on an un-cursed cat.
The ones who did such things were the minority. Sad how only a few bad mice can make the entire fresh-kill pile look unappetizing.
“Ashpaw, to me!”
I glared at Snow’s back where she was perched on a boulder overlooking the Lonely Lake through the pines. We were situated north of PineClan’s and MountainClan’s border, right under the shadow of the mountain chain.
I stood and went to her side, trying to ignore my bruises along the right side of my face where most of the rouges had been hitting me.
“Yes, Snow?”
Her moonstone eyes shown brilliantly in the light of the sinking sun, and her snowy fur glittered like crystals.
Such a shame that such a beautiful young cat is filled and consumed by darkness and blood…
“I want you to tell me what I should expect from this Shadowface…how strong is she?”
I closed my eyes and looked back through my memories.
“Her family is quite old, and the curse has been carried on successfully for many generations, but she isn’t considered one of my kind, Snow. She and the rest of her family were not born with it.”
Snow tilted her head, curiosity showing in her eyes.
“So she is weaker?”
I growled. “I did not say that, dim wit…”
“What?”
“Nothing. Shadowface has enough of the curse inside of her to be quite strong. From what I have gathered, she’s past the fiftieth generation.”
“Isn’t that rare?”
“Yes…besides my line, Shadowface’s is one of the oldest still around.”
“Hmmm, and you are sure that the crimson eyed ones are all extinct?”
Trust me, if they were alive, I would know…
“Yes. The last one of that house died in the Blood Wars hundreds of sun-cycles ago.”
Snow grinned. “Good. This will be easier than I thought…you may go back now, Ashpaw. I will be taking you with me when we ambush MountainClan.”
I dipped my head, thrusting my claws into the ground so that I didn’t gut her open right then and there.
“Yes, Snow.”
I turned and walked slowly back to my nest under an old pine, my eyes downcast, my body feeling like a large heavy boulder.
This is what I had been reduced to. Someone’s lap dog, their war stick.
This was the consequences of being someone like me, of being someone who knew the past, and of what was to come when this world ended.
We’ve failed you…we’ve failed all of you…
This was the price I paid.
This…was the price of knowing.