Hollyleaf's Fate - Another Story (Idea)

Because when I write about Hollyleaf, it a depressing AU where she deserves so much better.

Okay, I actually have yet to write this, but I have an outline. This is a basic idea of what I want to do without an actual narrative or tradional story set up. It is just an basic idea. I would like feedback on it, to see how I can improve it before I actually write it.
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Hollyleaf’s Fate: Another Story

Prologue

The narration speaks about an unknown cat who recalls the decades it has spent in the Dark Forest. It remembers the hunger, the loneliness, and the sheer nothingness. It remembers the tortures it enacted in life, and the joy it felt. It replies it hates the living. It hates the dead. It hates all.

It recalls reaching a river that was black and deep, and thick like blood. It thought about how this is water should be like. But the water opened up like a void, and through the void, the cat discovered something it could only speak of as impossible. The water showed the cat visions of things to come, of great battles, of things he could only consider ‘fate’ and ‘prophecy’. It also created a vision of the still living world, and the Clans he oh so hated. From the river, it watched as the living enacted upon their pathetic lives, struggling to survive, and relishing in that fact. Yes, it hated all.

Like an answer it knew all along, an idea came to mind. It could destroy them all. It could watch as everything living was destroyed while it purred all the while. Yes, it had that power. It was granted the power of prophecy, and it knew what the Clans would suffer through. From this place, it could change everything.

But no, it could not do so alone. It needed allies. As it watched a young kit from the river’s void being bit and mistreated by its cruel mother, an idea came to mind. It would simply create his own Clan of cats who felt the same hatred and wrath towards the Clans as it. It stared at the kit like a particular juicy bit of prey.

*timeskip*

Yes, the cat hated all. It watched in the shadows within the shadows of the trees as its loyal followers gathered, each and every one of them ready to kill, to torment, and to follow its will without question. It watched from his place at the river of the living world, and recalled what had happened within the past decades. It remembered the prophecies that had come to fruition by the wretched StarClan. How its plans to destroy everything had been constantly foiled.

The bloodied scourge was destroyed by fire. The vicious tiger, and his own pawn had been destroyed as well. Every time, StarClan prevailed by sheer luck.

Pure hatred filled its being. However, it was a patient cat. It would wait until the inevitable came, and StarClan could no longer protect their precious living. Wrath failed, and ambition failed. However, that first prophecy, the first it ever heard, that still assured it victory.

And that time was drawing very near.
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Chapter 1

Hollyleaf’s life flashes before her eyes as recaps of the fire, Ashfur’s death, the gathering, and Leafpool’s near demise loop through her head. She sees the tunnels collapsing above her, before completely burying her. She tries to dig her way out, and pokes her head to breathe above the surface, just as a jagged rock falls above her. Everything goes blank.

She immediately wakes up to a brightly lit forest and finds herself fine without any scars, although she is convinced she was hit by the collapsing rocks. Two cats, who Hollyleaf assumes to be Bluestar and Yellowfang both appear, looking very grim. Hollyleaf looks at them in surprise and shock, and quickly realizes she had died in the tunnel collapse. She asks them if they are there to take her to StarClan, to which Bluestar appears almost sad to respond.

Yellowfang speaks instead, and gravely tells her that because she killed Ashfur, upset the Clans, broke the peace at the gathering, and tried to kill ThunderClan’s medicine cat who was also her own mother, she is forbidden from setting one paw on StarClan’s grounds. Hollyleaf feels a lump form in her throat and her body feels cold and frozen as she stammers out that she’s sorry and that she didn’t mean to, that she wants forgiveness. Bluestar turns away, not looking at her, and tells her she cannot be forgiven for what she has done. To Hollyleaf’s horror as she fights back the urge to wail, shadowed, unknown cats chase her away into an endless fog.

*PoV change*

Unknown to Hollyleaf, Yellowfang furiously hisses a question at an unknown character with an unknown description hidden in the mist about their judgment towards this horrid ‘test,’ telling the character to find a good reason for it, or they’ll break its own rules and chase after Hollyleaf. Bluestar spits that Hollyleaf doesn’t belong in that place with so much evil.

The unknown character steps forward and reveals herself as Midnight, and tells them solemnly that Hollyleaf has six moons to redeem herself. When six moons have passed, if Hollyleaf has abandoned her pride and become repentant, she will be able to enter StarClan’s ranks. If not, she will be banished to the Dark Forest forever. Bluestar angrily yowls at the character that Hollyleaf was being repentant, begging both of them that she was sorry and wanted forgiveness.

Yellowfang even hisses that if Ashfur, after all he had done, had managed his way into StarClan, then certainly Hollyleaf could be pardoned. The unknown character again solemnly states that looks are deceiving. Hollyleaf was not feeling remorse for her actions, she was feeling sorry about the consequences. The character slips away, leaving the two StarClan warriors standing there.

Bluestar and Yellowfang watch Hollyleaf be chased away with shaking frames, feeling helpless and furious against the badger’s decision.
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Chapter 2

Hollyleaf wanders through the mist as awful, distorted voices surround her and forces back the wails she wants to let out for being chased away from StarClan. Fearful and wide-eyed, she continues running through the mist. She notes it is like a dream, or at least a dream turned into a nightmare.

Eventually, after what seems moons to her but is actually less than a few hours later, she finds herself in a dark, eerie forest. There is no real pathway through it. Her ears perk up as a voice calls out through the trees. The voice belongs to Ashfur, whose neck is twisted and lopsided where Hollyleaf killed him. His eyes are dull and lifeless while blood drips from his mouth. Her fur spikes up and her tail fluffs out in fear. She is paralyzed in terror. Flashbacks of Ashfur’s death are seen, and then the fire. She flashes back again to the gathering, and then her agonizing death. He gurgles in a ghoulish voice that she is the same as him; evil.

She backs away when she gets the courage to, and shakily hisses she isn’t like him. She desperately cries that she had to kill him to protect her Clan. He rasps her that her ‘noble bravery’ is a lie. She killed him to protect herself.

She screeches he is lying and lunges at Ashfur in rage. Her claws connect with nothing and she tumbles into the darkness. She realizes it was just her imagination. Shaken, she bolts off into the dark, dark forest.

She is unable to make a nest for herself, as the moss crumbles at the slightest disturbance and there are no leaves, not even dead ones. The trees are also too tall to sleep in the branches. She notes how there seems to be no end in sight to the top of the trees. Eventually, she’d simply hide as best she could in the shadows, tired and hungry. As she lays there, she eases off into a fitful sleep.

Dreams of ThunderClan invade her mind. She dreams all her Clanmates are starving, sickly and bleeding from the eyes and mouth. A twisted version of herself stands above them all on a pile of dead bodies, with eerie, shining amber eyes and gleaming white claws. Six torn off wings of birds are laid around her. With a shock, she realizes the bodies her dream self is standing on are those of Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and some pale gray cat she doesn’t know. She bolts up from her sleep, terrified. She circles around and finds the same Ashfur apparition staring expressionlessly at her.

Fearful, she backs away and runs off, not caring where she goes as long as it is away from there. In her wild running, doubt starts to eat at her mind as she thinks about how she even got to this point. She questions StarClan for banishing her here, and wonders just what she has done and whether it was worth this. Her thoughts slowly darken until she is only thinking clearly about how her starry ancestors abandoned her to this place. Meanwhile, the memories of why she was banished from StarClan in the first place start to become hazy.
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Chapter 3

Hollyleaf’s stomach growls loudly, and she notes she hasn’t eaten for a while. She questions if she even can eat prey here. Desperate for something to eat, she tries scenting out something, anything. She would take crowfood about now, if only to satisfy the pang in her belly. When she can find absolutely no scent to hunt for, she loudly curses her misfortune.

To her shock, a voice answers her outcry. A scarred, pale brown tabby with brilliant green eyes slinks from the shadows, with an agitated look in his face. She notes she can see through him as if he were a reflection in water. Hollyleaf is unable to react properly in the situation, as if she hasn’t had contact with another cat in what seems moons, but has only been a few days. Instead of running away, she questions why he was hiding from her if he knew she was there. She quickly realizes how badly she reacted and questions to herself if starving for so long alters thinking and common sense.

Clearly annoyed, yet amused, the tom replies in a gruff voice if she was trying to wake the entire Dark Forest. Confused, and hostile, Hollyleaf demands the other cat tell her what the ‘Dark Forest’ is. She backs up a few paces, mentally preparing herself to escape elsewhere if it came to it.

The tom replies this is a place of evil and suffering. He narrows his eyes and melts away back into the shadows. Hollyleaf becomes quite annoyed at the tom’s theatrics and the few answers she received. Unsatisfied of his reply, and irritable from hunger, she chases after him, demanding that he give her a proper answer. She bolts off into the forest after him.

She eventually catches up to him through the trees, and finds him talking to a badly scarred, broad shouldered tom. She crashes into the scarred tom, who then pounces on her in anger. Her claws slide out as she fights for dear life, barely managing to fend off his attacks. Just as the scarred cat has his jaws across her throat, the other cat she was chasing earlier calls the cat about to kill her ‘Clawface’ and tells him an idiot should not be killed for being an idiot. He calls Hollyleaf a ‘newcomer’ and says she’s probably not gotten used to the lack of food yet, and it’s make her irritable and rash thinking. In her head, she recoils at the thought of no prey. To her relief, the tom called ’Clawface’ releases his hold on her throat and gives her an eerie hiss.

She talks to the brown tabby and asks him why he disappeared without answering her question. He logically states he had answered her question, and thus had no reason to stay there. Hollyleaf seems shocked at his simple reply, and wonders how she could act so addled. She questions to herself if this forest is making her go insane.

Attempting to change the subject, she asks why the two cats are in such a place, and the brown cat almost sadly replies that some decisions lead to evil consequences that must be accounted for. Clawface is less vague but still rather vague. He hisses in a mocking tone that he’s here because he followed his leader, as the warrior code says. This deeply shocks Hollyleaf. Following the warrior code all her life, she is in disbelief that StarClan would punish a cat for following the warrior code. When she thinks about StarClan, she can imagine her claws tearing through their ranks until blood soaks every inch of StarClan’s grounds. Her eyes become unfocused as her claws slide out. Clawface bluntly replies she’s creeping him out, to which she promptly snaps out of it. She is shaken at how bloodthirsty the thought was.

As Clawface and the unknown cat pad off, she chases after them, begging them not to leave her alone in the maddening darkness. The pale brown tabby looks at her in confusion, while Clawface scrapes his claws against a tree. She tells them she thinks she’s going crazy here, and if she stays alone, she is afraid at what she’d do.

Both cats look at her in unison. Clawface just grunts and continues sharpening his claws. She can’t tell whether it means she can follow them or not. The brown tabby gives her a thoughtful look, before mewing it couldn’t hurt to have another cat. He even adds that she must have some skill they can use, since the main Dark Forest warriors hasn’t hunted her down and killed her yet. She isn’t comforted by this news. The two pad off together, Hollyleaf cautiously behind, as she still doesn’t completely trust these cats.

After walking a long while, she asks if there are other cats here, to which Clawface seems genuinely fearful to answer. He carefully replies that some cats are best left alone. Hollyleaf is curious and suspicious of his answer, but keeps silent.

The three head off to somewhere she can’t figure out and Hollyleaf asks them how they find their way around here. The unknown cat mysteriously replies ‘with time’, which irritates her. She introduces herself as Hollyleaf, hoping they don’t know who she is. She then asks the pale brown cat what his name is, stating she already knew Clawface’s. With a heavy heart, he says his name is Appledusk.
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Chapter 4

When Hollyleaf goes to sleep later on that night, she has another nightmare. She dreams she’s a fox that brutally kills Leafpool, before almost decapitating Squirrelflight. She leaps from her sleep, yowling in fear. She looks around, and realizes Clawface and Appledusk are nowhere to be found. She growls in frustration and wonders why she even followed those two in the first place. She then thinks back to the overwhelming loneliness, and remembers why.

She notices a pool on the edge of her vision. She races towards it without thinking, which she finds strange. She trembles as she realizes she isn’t moving on her own. When she looks in the water, she screeches in horror, and sees a fox covered in blood. She realizes she’s still dreaming.

She wakes up for real, and sees that Appledusk is standing over her with a confused look. He asks her if she thrashes in her sleep all the time. Haughty, she refuses to answer and simply states a burr was caught in her fur. Clawface, who is sitting a fox length away, quietly and sarcastically mutters that she can’t have a burr in her pelt when the forest around her is dead. Ruffling her fur and ignoring Clawface’s sarcastic remark, she questions why the forest is dead. Clawface contradicts himself, saying the forest is very much alive.

She sits there, pondering what that means. Clawface gives a look of suspicion and scents the air, suddenly becoming rigid and in a ‘defense’ stance. Appledusk fearfully murmurs to Clawface they should leave or ‘they’ will find them. Clawface quickly agrees. They turn to Hollyleaf and tell her to run if she fears to die again, because their very existence was in danger right now.

The three of them sprint off into the forest, Hollyleaf lagging somewhat behind, questioning ‘who’ they’re running from and why. Her constant pestering becomes annoying to Clawface who gruffly tells her to shut up and run. Appledusk notes more lightly but still in a serious tone that this isn’t the time for questions. They continue to run until they reach a dark, twisted hollow with roots entangling the ground. Hollyleaf questions in her head how the forest can be dead when there are roots in the ground, but also remembers Clawface stating the forest is alive. She becomes irritated about the vague answer and doesn’t notice where she’s walking in her thinking. Hollyleaf trips on one of the roots and tumbles straight into the hollow, nicking her shoulder on a sharp root as she’s rolling. She lands in a heap of fur and is unnaturally still, where she lays there hurting. Her fur burns in embarrassment at her mistake, and when Clawface yowls if she died again or not from the fall, she becomes unusually aggressive and forces her screaming muscles to move upright. She yowls angrily that she’s fine and that she found a cave all three of them could hide in.

Appledusk wisely decides that they should rest here for the moment, noting that ‘he’ is too big to fit through the gaps and the roots are too strong to bite through. Although he becomes extremely fearful and worried about a ‘she’. Becoming increasingly aggravated at being kept in the dark, Hollyleaf gets fed up with their secrecy and yowls from where she is at them to tell her why they have to keep running, and who’s chasing them. Appledusk meows towards her hidden location that her questions will be answered after he can find a way through the roots.

Meanwhile, Clawface expresses complaint that he’s too big to fit through the roots. Appledusk tells him that it’s been nice knowing him, and manages to squeeze through the roots into a small hollow cave. Hollyleaf, still very annoyed they are ignoring her, easily slips through the tangle of roots to meet up with him.

Eventually, Clawface finds a way into the small opening of the hollow, although the three are very cramped in there. Clawface sarcastically notes it must story time with the elders, which prompts a purr of amusement from Hollyleaf. Quickly, she recovers from it and in her earlier annoyed tone demands to know why they’re being chased and who is chasing them. Tired of her questions, Clawface bluntly replies that it’s Brokenstar’s group, probably Shredtail or Snowtuft. He says that since cats like he and Appledusk aren’t for their cause and just want some peace and quiet before they fade away, they’re considered enemies to be hunted down and killed. She becomes shocked at the mention of Brokenstar, a cat who scared her greatly as a kit, and the thought of being hunted down by allies of that cat.

Appledusk elaborates by saying that some cats don’t give up on their goals or revenge after death, and Brokenstar is one of them. A pause. Clawface asks accusingly that he and Appledusk are telling her all this information, yet she’s being silent. He asks her why she’s here and whether they should trust her. Bitterly, she replies that StarClan chased her to a vast, misty place, where she wandered for hours. She doesn’t mention the Ashfur apparition or her violent dreams, fearful they’ll think she’s crazy.

Appledusk seems to understand what she is saying, but Clawface just snorts and tells her StarClan is always like that. They let in cats they like or are bribed to let in, and banish cats they don’t like or that will cause problems. A lump forms in Hollyleaf’s throat at the thought that StarClan banished her because they hate her. She tries to recall what Bluestar said to her, but her memories are so hazy and fragmented. She just remembers how much she hates being stuck here and the doubt she feels about her starry ancestors.

Appledusk meows that StarClan is flawed. They are all good cats, but they have grudges and enemies too, and sometimes judgment is passed down to cats who don’t deserve it. He asks Hollyleaf rather tentatively what she did to be banished here. Hollyleaf honestly replies that she can’t remember, but she remembers Ashfur and something else that evades her mind.

Clawface and Appledusk suddenly become very serious, urgently telling her to remember. They tell her to clear her head of everything and think, thinking of what transpired before she died.

Tentatively, Hollyleaf does as asked and closes her eyes, trying to clear the haze in her head and makes a crude image in her head of ThunderClan and a gathering. Suddenly, bits and pieces rush into her head, as she remembers Leafpool, agonizing pain, tunnels, a gathering, blood, a river, WindClan, Ashfur, Ashfur’s death, her killing Ashfur…it suddenly all becomes clear to her and she cries out to make it stop. Clawface yowls at her to push past it and remember why she’s here, and she replies it hurts to remember. It hurts her to think she could do such things.

Appledusk pleads her to press on, despite the anguish she might feel. She remembers Bluestar’s back turned to her as she tells her she’ll never be forgiven for what she’s done, shadows chasing her away…She’s accused of murder, treachery, evil…She replies horrified in a small voice that StarClan will never let her into their ranks. She’s done too many evil things, no matter whether she wants forgiveness or not.

She wails in self-loathing and anguish while Clawface stares at her, genuinely sad, and Appledusk tries to awkwardly comfort her. He tells her that while it hurts to remember, she must remember why she’s here. He continues on and states that if she ever completely forgets, she’ll be left with nothing but the strongest of emotions, and forget who she ever was or stood for. That is the true punishment of the Dark Forest. She must live with her sins, or lose what makes her Hollyleaf.

Completely broken, Hollyleaf collapses on the ground, lays her head down and tries to sleep, while pushing the hatred she feels for StarClan at the back of her mind. She wonders to herself, if she really has been abandoned by her ancestors.
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Chapter Five

She dreams that she’s in the dark tunnels she almost drowned in before as an apprentice, lying still with a messed up leg while a strange ginger and white cat tends to her. She notes to herself that she can control herself in her dream, and looks up at the strange cat. Before she can see its muzzle, a jagged rock falls towards her, tearing her view from the mysterious cat and crushing her to death.

She wakes up with a jolt, and thankfully notices she’s not dead…again. She goes to ask Appledusk when they’ll be leaving this place as there isn’t enough room to move much less stretch her legs out, but notices he’s nowhere to be seen. Clawface is missing as well. She becomes irritated, thinking that they left her to travel elsewhere. She is about to exit the hollow when a she hears a she-cat’s voice and quickly slinks back to her hiding place.

The voice utters that it smells fresh blood, and growls murderously that it seems ‘he’ was with another cat after all. The voice furiously curses ‘her love’ for escaping her. She notes in her mind that the voice becomes tenser at the word ‘another’. The voice orders another unseen creature to slip into the roots and find ‘it’. Hollyleaf tries her best to quickly scoot back as far as she can into the cave, closing her eyes to avoid them being seen in the dark. She uses her ears to gouge the distance.

The other voice grumbles in frustration that the roots are too narrow to fit through and too strong to bite or claw through. Clearly agitated, but in a sugary voice, the gruff she-cat tells the other one that his incompetence is noted, and that she’ll alert ‘Thistleclaw’ of his failures. The other cat becomes very fearful and panicked, pleading that Sparrowfeather could fit through, but he was simply too bulky and broad-shouldered.

She asks in an even more sugary voice if he thinks she could fit through. Clearly terrified, he replies ‘yes.’ She calls him a liar in a Daisy-like voice, and a gruesome screech is heard followed by the stench of blood in the air.

The gruff she-cat voice yowls towards the roots that she knows she’s (Hollyleaf) is in there, and that she will be found, scaring Hollyleaf into tremors. The voice also notes that it is clever of her to close her eyes to avoid being detected. For that display of intelligence, ‘Mapleshade’ will let her flee. She adds on in an even sweeter voice that she’s impatient and the offer will only last for so long.

Hollyleaf is terrified and unable to move, yet still recognizes that this ‘Mapleshade’ is lying and wouldn’t leave based on those terms alone. She decides to hide there, waiting in the terrible silence for the she-cat to leave.

After what seems a lifetime to Hollyleaf (actually a few hours), Mapleshade purrs and replies that she is cleverer than she (Mapleshade) had thought. Trilling in amusement, Mapleshade replies that she’ll just have to finish her (Hollyleaf) off herself if she insists on being so stubborn.

To Hollyleaf’s horror, the roots concealing her from bigger cats are ripped out of the ground, slowly but surely being torn apart. Hollyleaf takes the risk to flee from her spot while ‘Mapleshade’ is busy focused on tearing the roots apart. She catches the first glimpse of outside and can only stare in shock and revulsion.

Blood is splattered in pools and drying across the roots and dead forest floor. Clawface and Appledusk are nowhere to be found. She also catches a glimpse of ‘Mapleshade’ while wriggling out from the roots. She sees that Mapleshade is a large, muscular, heavy-set tortoiseshell cat with scars all over her body and massive shoulders. Mapleshade stops what she is doing and turns to face Hollyleaf. Hollyleaf notes in terror that her muzzle is stained crimson red and her eyes are an intense amber and very, very…off.

Mapleshade replies in a sickening sweet voice ‘there you are’, calls Hollyleaf a ‘dear’, and makes a mad dash towards her, purring all the while about how she is going to catch her.
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Chapter 6

Hollyleaf flees for her life, completely certain that this cat will kill her brutally if she catches her. To her horror, Mapleshade is faster than she thought, and quickly catches up with her. Hollyleaf decides to use Mapleshade’s weight against her and climbs a tree to gain the higher ground. It doesn’t go as planned, and Mapleshade’s claws catch hold of her right hind leg. With a mighty tug, her claws are ripped painfully from the tree and onto the ground with a dull thud. She quickly gets back up, and realizes she can’t fight this cat and win, but she can’t run away either.

Desperate, Hollyleaf resolves she’ll have to fight outside the warrior code, otherwise this cat would surely kill her. She twists back around and lashes at Mapleshade’s eyes, hoping to blind her, even if it was dishonorable. Mapleshade easily avoids her and sweeps her paws under Hollyleaf, knocking her off balance. She swipes again at Hollyleaf’s side quickly after her first attack and knocks her completely on the forest floor, then pinning Hollyleaf down with her own weight. Hollyleaf realizes this cat is about to slice her throat open if she doesn’t get loose. Desperate again, Hollyleaf swipes the ground with her paws and scatters sand at Mapleshade’s face. She manages to wriggle free while Mapleshade hisses in annoyance and regains her fighting pose, watching the bigger cat’s movements. The tortoiseshell had landed a deep cut across her shoulder.

She ponders to herself if using her own developed moves would make her less predictable, and says to herself that they’re suited for close range fighting.

Mapleshade looks somewhat amused and yet still very, very unstable, musing it was clever of her to use her environment to her advantage in battle. Hollyleaf notes that it is almost as if this Mapleshade is toying with her. The tortoiseshell taunts that she’s easier to catch than a dead mouse. As Mapleshade goes on to say more, Hollyleaf angrily slashes at her muzzle and the sentence is unfinished.

In a bored tone, unfazed, Mapleshade replies that she might be useful after all. Hollyleaf, scared into an intense fury at being so helpless, lunges in a rage, her eyes unfocused. She is quickly batted away with one paw, and quickly finds herself out of breath with a pressure on her body. She realizes too late that she’s effectively being sat upon, and she can’t get up. She claws vainly at the ground, but can gain no traction. The cat replies to Hollyleaf, while is still being sat upon, and fuming with hatred and indignation, that her rage made her slip up. She must learn to control her emotions.

To her surprise, the tortoiseshell lets her go, although Hollyleaf is still furious. Her vision tinted red, Hollyleaf questions to the tortoiseshell why she attacked her only to let her go. Seeming amused, Mapleshade replies that ‘the prey was too small.’ Infuriated, and quite unlike herself, Hollyleaf demands if she wants a real fight. Still amused, Mapleshade replies she’s been itching for a real fight. But, if she seriously fought her, the ‘runt’ wouldn’t survive. Fueled by her rage and fear, Hollyleaf lunges at her, with every intent to kill.

Mapleshade looks at her, and states that now it has become interesting. Hollyleaf swipes fast with her left forepaw, aiming for the face and clawing wildly. Mapleshade tucks her chin in and swipes back at Hollyleaf incredibly fast, knocking the breath out of her once again and with enough force to push her down on the ground. Hollyleaf rolls away from her incoming claws but still manages to get grazed, getting back up to her feet and swiping at Mapleshade’s side, only to be knocked down again and back on the ground. She gets back up before Mapleshade’s hind legs can gore her belly open, madder than ever, and with shallow furrows across her stomach.

She lunges wildly again, only to once again be knocked back down. She quickly gets back up again, but this time leaps at the nearest tree. She shrieks to herself that she keeps getting batted away and pushed down like a piece of prey. If she keeps this up, she’s going to die again.

Telling herself to calm down she tries to control her rage, focusing on what she’s learned and what’s she’s taught herself. As Mapleshade’s claws almost catch her tail, she swiftly climbs onto the other side of the massive trunk, scaling her way up the tree, and climbing higher and higher until the bigger cat couldn’t reach her. She hears Mapleshade taunting her for being cowardly, but she focuses on controlling her emotions. She spots Mapleshade on the ground from where she is high in the trees, and knows that if she fails to hit her target, she’ll be too injured to fight back and will surely die. Her nerves on end, she extends her claws and leaps towards the speck on the ground, hoping to hit flesh.

To her surprise, she lands on the bigger cat, using the momentum of the fall to push off the cat after she landed. She hears Mapleshade hiss in pain, and Hollyleaf trills with an almost sadistic glee. She rams into Mapleshade’s side while the cat tries to regain her sense of surroundings from the sudden attack, and uses more momentum to push Mapleshade onto the ground until Hollyleaf is on top of Mapleshade, fully intending to slash her throat open. As she brings down her claws to kill the cat, Mapleshade rolls back up onto her feet, and Hollyleaf is forced to let go before she is squashed.

The bigger cat jumps high, intended to land on Hollyleaf’s back but Hollyleaf, calm, crouches low, and Mapleshade just misses her mark. Remembering some of her developed moves, Hollyleaf claws her left forepaw into the ground and uses momentum to twisted back around, using her hind legs to claw at Mapleshade’s side, feeling fur give way. She twists back around and springs high up onto a tree, and twisting in the air to land squarely on Mapleshade’s back. Her claws get stuck in the clumped and matted fur, though, she can’t get her claws free in time, and Mapleshade crushes her. She is out of breath, and Mapleshade quickly pins her down, making her unable to move.

The tortoiseshell sweetly tells Hollyleaf that she still has a while to go before she can be beaten. Still out of breath, Hollyleaf is released from her hold, livid and furious. She gets up, ruffles her matted and bloodied fur, and is about to flee from the insane tortoiseshell when she hears another voice.
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Chapter 7

As she is running away, she ends up bumping into a snow-white tom with blue eyes. She backs away from the cat, and ends up back at the tree where she fought Mapleshade. She whips around and sees Mapleshade a mere fox length away from her, the big tortoiseshell cat staring at her as if to yowl ‘gotcha.’

The tom meows that their little scuffle was interesting to watch, and that he had never seen moves like that used before. In a curious tone he asks Hollyleaf if she developed them herself. He walks casually towards the two cats, looking at Hollyleaf as if she is some particularly interesting bug. He then turns his attention to Mapleshade. He asks the bigger cat politely if she (Hollyleaf) was worth her merit.

To Hollyleaf’s surprise, Mapleshade replies offhandedly that the ‘runt’ actually tired her out some. Hollyleaf takes a look at Mapleshade’s fur and notices that she has scratches on her shoulders and back from where Hollyleaf managed to claw her. She looks at her own pelt, the blood dripping on the forest floor from all her scratches and cuts, and the cut on her side that would leave a scar. However, the sight of Mapleshade’s matted and stuck up fur lets Hollyleaf know that she fought hard, to which she feels satisfaction.

The white tom looks vaguely impressed. Still curious, he asks how long Hollyleaf has been staying here, and before she can respond, Mapleshade bluntly replies she’s fresh blood, and that her pelt doesn’t have the slightest sign of fading. She is confused by this response, but is too tired and terrified to reply.

Mapleshade looks at her with scrutiny and asks what her name is, meowing that she (Hollyleaf) looks familiar. Hollyleaf reels wildly in her mind at revealing her name, terrified that these cats would know who she was and what she did. Lashing her tail, Hollyleaf hisses that her name doesn’t matter and she doesn’t have to tell it to her.

Mapleshade’s eyes contract to pinpricks and in a sugary sweet voice she tells Hollyleaf that she should learn to respect her elders and their demands, else they teach her manners themselves. The white tom looks at her with some sadness. Mapleshade flicks her tail at Snowtuft and hisses to make himself useful and pin the ‘runt’ down so she can be taught some respect. Too exhausted from her fight to the death with Mapleshade to defend herself that well, Hollyleaf is overpowered by Snowtuft and shoved on her back onto the forest floor. Mapleshade sweetly replies again that she asked her a question. She asks Hollyleaf what her name is again. Giving her a sadistic grin, Mapleshade digs her claws into Hollyleaf’s exposed belly, twisting at her already bleeding wounds. Unable to be quiet, Hollyleaf caves in caves in and screeches her name repeatedly, yowling loudly to stop hurting her.

Mapleshade looks at her with a sudden increase of interest, tearing her claws away with brute force. She licks her claws of the blood, meowing bemused and almost in wonder that Hollyleaf was the cat they were so urgently hunting down. Mapleshade then snorts, telling her that whether she was useful or not, Mapleshade demanded nothing but respect. She flicks her tail at Snowtuft, who lets Hollyleaf go.

Hollyleaf can only whimper in pain as she shakes on the ground. White hot anger attacks her senses, hatred at being so helpless, hatred of being so hurt, and hatred at Mapleshade for hurting her. She hisses and spits in fury as she forces herself to get up, shrieking at Mapleshade and calling her a slew of insults. She can’t think clearly or rationally, only focused on how angry she feels. Suddenly, she buckles slightly, forcing herself to keep standing.

Mapleshade stares at Hollyleaf with barely suppressed anger, giving her a wild and crazed look. She hisses so sweetly, that Hollyleaf could almost mistake her for Daisy, that she (Mapleshade) doesn’t care if she was ordered to let her continue to exist or not. She meows murderously that she’ll teach Hollyleaf respect, and that her orders said nothing about bringing her in one piece. She walks over to Hollyleaf with unsheathed claws and whispers that she’ll claw Hollyleaf’s pretty face until it’s unrecognizable.

Just as it looks like Mapleshade really is about to tear Hollyleaf to shreds, she hears another voice direct a question at Mapleshade, which asks her if she ever respected her elders. Acting somewhat haughty, Mapleshade replies that idiots should be educated and taught a lesson. The gruff, rocky voice orders Mapleshade to ‘let the poor thing go’, and that Hollyleaf has no reason to be here, addressing her by name.

Mapleshade sneers and addresses the tom as ‘Maggottail’, hissing that the runt is too weak right now to even stand, and should be put out of its misery. She orders Snowtuft to help her stand regardless with a tail flick. Maggottail meows that while it may be so, they were under orders not to kill her. She notices faintly that Snowtuft is supporting her weight, and that the cats have surrounded her on all sides. She also knows she can’t run away in this condition since they could easily catch her and kill her. Snowtuft mutters an apology to her and tells Hollyleaf that he was just following orders. She shoves him away and hisses through the pain that she can support herself.

She catches sight of Maggottail and blanches visibly, and notices that his pelt looks almost invisible. The cat catches her look of revulsion and leers at her, asking her if she thinks he is ugly.

She truthfully replies yes, he is hideous. He looks at her oddly before purring and saying that he likes this one. He meows sadly that so few cats value honesty anymore.

He then becomes serious and asks why Hollyleaf is here and not in StarClan. Hollyleaf is reluctant to reply, yet remembers what Mapleshade did to her just a few moments ago, and the memory is painfully fresh in her mind. She hears Mapleshade hiss that she (Mapleshade) could always finish rearranging her face, but the hideous tom just flicks his tail and meows that he didn’t expect Hollyleaf to cooperate anyways.

However, he then adds that he’ll simply just wait until she is comfortable enough to tell them and tells her to take her time, whether it be a moment later, or a moon later. Hollyleaf understands the veiled threat, and knows that they can push her around with ease when she’s injured. Very, very reluctantly, Hollyleaf tells them that she was chased away by StarClan for killing a cat, betraying her Clan, and almost killing her mother.

Maggottail closes his eyes and reminisces about something, stating that he remembers when he killed his mother. He states she was a cruel thing, and that her death brought him nothing but happiness.

Hollyleaf blanches again. Maggottail purrs roughly and meows that a cat like her doesn’t belong here, but apparently she was banished here anyways since StarClan were weak willed fools who cared only about themselves. Snowtuft quietly adds that StarClan isn’t perfect, and StarClan has evil in it as much as here. Hollyleaf can’t help but agree, but at the same time is appalled that she can be talking so normally to such evil cats. Maggottail picks up on this, and asks her if she thinks they are evil.

Hollyleaf hesitates to reply, so Mapleshade states that she takes Hollyleaf’s hesitation as a yes. She notes in her mind that Mapleshade’s anger at her seemed to vanish, which somehow makes her even more nervous at how unstable the tortoiseshell is. Maggottail adds that all cats are capable of great good and evil, with their own ambitions and goals. Snowtuft chimes in quietly that even evil has a beginning. Hollyleaf again finds herself agreeing with them, much to her chagrin.

Maggottail then goes on and asks her what her ambition is. What does she want? Hollyleaf truthfully replies she doesn’t know. All she is sure of is that she wants away from this dark forest.

Snowtuft’s eyes are dark, and meows that she’s not alone. Several cats would love to be away from the Dark Forest. Mapleshade cuts in and demands to know what drives her. What is she fighting for, even in this darkness? She thinks about it, before replying softly forgiveness.

Maggottail bluntly meows to pick another ambition, because she won’t find forgiveness here. Hollyleaf states sadly that she knows this, and that above all else, she wants justice.

She goes into a passionate speech, stating she wants justice for being wronged, for every wronged cat who shouldn’t be here, against the cats trying to destroy the living Clans, and above all, justice against StarClan.

To her surprise, Maggottail starts purring loudly as he tries to contain his amusement, telling her of all the things he’s heard newcomers say, what she just said is the funniest thing he’s ever heard. She hears Mapleshade ask in an amused tone why she wants justice against her, Snowtuft, and Maggottail so badly.

Confused, Hollyleaf meows she didn’t want justice against them, before the pieces fall into place. Her blood running cold, Hollyleaf backs away several foxsteps closer to the tree, as she realizes these three cats are working to destroy the Clans. She meows ‘no’ to herself several times, stating this can’t be true. She tries to inspire them, asking them that weren’t they wronged and don’t they want justice? Mapleshade says that she prefers revenge personally, and Maggottail purrs in amusement. He tells her that she’s awfully naïve. He tells her that were wronged, do want justice, but they aren’t like her. Mapleshade replies with relish that she is an evil cat who has done evil things, and her place in the Dark Forest has been well earned. Maggottail adds that they fully accept that they are from redemption.

Hollyleaf starts to feel panic and her legs begin to shake, as she tries to find an opening past the two cats as they steadily advance towards her. She backs up further, and bumps into Snowtuft again. Maggottail gives a very creepy grin to Hollyleaf and asks her if she would like to follow them a little longer to the meeting place. She repeatedly replies she doesn’t want to, and all three of them sans Snowtuft, who is simply expressionless, look at her with an amused face.

Mapleshade replies it wasn’t a question, calls her a ‘dear’, and that they would be late if she kept this up. She is completely with her back to the tree at this point. As she goes to climb it, a paw reaches out to attack her and she hits her head hard on the tree, knocking her out.
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Chapter 8

Hollyleaf has a dream about Brambleclaw, Firestar, and another third cat who looks extraordinarily like Brambleclaw, but with icy-blue eyes that lack any kind of warmth. Firestar is trapped by a fox trap, and Brambleclaw faces this cat, yowling out words she can’t hear. Brambleclaw frees Firestar, and then suddenly the other cat yowls something at Brambleclaw. The icy-eyed cat attacks Brambleclaw with RiverClan style moves, almost winning before Brambleclaw stabs him in the throat with the fox-trap stick. The cat says words she can’t hear, bleeding so much that the lake turns red. She sees Leafpool, about her current age and pregnant, she notes with anger, look at the scene with horror. As the dream ends, she realizes the icy-eyed cat was Hawkfrost, Brambleclaw’s half-brother, the night Firestar lost his life to a fox-trap stick. She wonders why she would be dreaming about this.

She awakes slowly, groggy, and with a headache. She blinks open her eyes as she adjusts to her surroundings, and sees a strange part of the Dark Forest with a sort of Clan leader like high rock. She spots a cat slinking off from her far vision. She wonders to herself what happened, before bits and pieces rush in and she remembers some time earlier when one of the three cats circling her had attacked her. To her rising horror, she remembers that they talked about taking her to a meeting place. She concludes that since she was knocked out, this must be the meeting place. She strains her ears and hears the faint sound of cats fighting.

A voice that sounds like Snowtuft’s from earlier meows close behind her, telling her in an emotionless tone that she was asleep for a while. She scrabbles to her paws, her wounds from earlier stinging in protest, and sees that it is Snowtuft. He apologizes for attacking her earlier, stating he was just following orders.

Hollyleaf becomes furious at him, demanding that he explain to her why she was just effectively kitnapped. Snowtuft apologizes again and states in the same tone as before that he was just following orders. Hollyleaf gets annoyed and hisses sarcastically that he already said that before. Snowtuft replies in the same tone that there’s nothing else to say. He’s not very high ranked, so he doesn’t know anything but to follow orders. She gets exasperated at his lack of answers and lashes her tail in frustration. She questions his honesty, and asks if he was lying or not and why she should believe him anyways.

Another voice, a deeper, raspier voice behind her answers her question, telling her that Snowtuft is a failure. She whips around towards the voice’s direction, and finds a ragged tom with a horrifically split tail. He meows arrogantly that only ‘high ranking’ cats like him know all this stuff, puffing his chest out proudly. Bluntly, and thinking about how annoying this cat is in her mind, Hollyleaf reiterates her question towards Snowtuft to him, asking him why she was kitnapped. He rudely replies that he gets to know and she doesn’t. She inwardly thinks he acts like an idiot. She outwardly replies that is fine, and that she’ll find out one way or another and that fools are often keen to be fools. Snowtuft seems to show slight signs of amusement from the sidelines. The ragged tom scowls at her and runs off, growling that she’ll pay for her ‘insolence.’

Hollyleaf rolls her eyes, feeling proud of maintaining her sense of dignity in this place. She notes to herself that the blinding fear she used to feel had subsided, as if she had gotten used to the Dark Forest now. She blanches at the thought. The hunger in her belly is also easier to ignore now too.

Snowtuft again apologizes and states that the ragged tom is named Shredtail, and that he is an arrogant mousebrain. He then meows emotionlessly that provoking Shredtail was unwise of her, as Shredtail was a high ranking dark forest warrior. She mutters her contempt and hisses that high ranking or not, he still acts like a foxheart. Snowtuft matter-of-factly meows ‘that too,’ which elicits a purr amusement from Hollyleaf.

She then turns to Snowtuft and asks him suspiciously why he was being so nice. He states emotionlessly that being cruel is inefficient and only causes unnecessary rebellion. Hollyleaf inwardly agrees with him, though she refuses to show it. There is an awkward silence for a while as Hollyleaf looks around at her surroundings at an opening for an escape.

Eventually, Hollyleaf logically states that there’s nothing to stop her from leaving, to which Snowtuft replies he’s there in case she tried to escape.

She is overconfident in her abilities, sure that she can use force to escape if it came to it. Before she can make a single move, Snowtuft suddenly barrels into her, unprovoked. Unable to attack back quite fast enough, she is rammed in the side, her legs sweeped out beneath her in a flurry of white, and she is dragged hissing and spitting like a kit into a hole underneath the high stone-like rock. Snowtuft bashes her head on the side of a blunt rock and her vision becomes distorted and dazed, her eyes struggling to regain focus. When her vison becomes right again, she discovers she’s been pinned down. To her surprise, she realizes she had underestimated her opponent, a foolish thing to do. She then notes to herself that regardless of appearance, every cat here was dangerous.

Snowtuft meows that she was easy to analyze, and he could tell by her stiffness and lowered tail that she was about to make a move to attack. She underestimated his abilities by judging his fluffy appearance as ‘weak’. He then tells her that being predictable like that would get her easily killed. She vainly struggles to get loose, but after several failed attempts, her limbs become too tired and the best she can do is lay there, seething in indignation. She hisses inwardly to herself that she is tired of being sat upon.

There is another awkward pause, and she’s still pinned down. She tries to strike up a conversation and rationalizes to herself that if she can’t use force to get free, she’ll just talk her way out. She asks Snowtuft casually why he’s in the Dark Forest in the first place when he seems like such a nice and polite cat. Snowtuft swiftly corrects her and tells her that he belongs here and he knows it. He then adds that being kind is not the same as being good. Kindness is a means of control. When Hollyleaf tries to elaborate and asks about his past, Snowtuft bluntly tells her that talking her way out and trying to befriend him would be a waste of time. There is more awkward silence.

Hollyleaf politely asks if he would let her go so she could stretch her legs, and that she wouldn’t run. She notes to herself that it is a weak excuse, but it is her only excuse she can think of at the moment. Snowtuft meows emotionlessly if she thought he was mousebrained and tells her that she’s still easily predictable, and if he let her go on the basis of mercy, she’d still run off. Hollyleaf becomes more urgent, yowling her legs really hurt, and to at least let her groom her matted and bloody fur. Snowtuft cut off her complaints and responds coldly but not harshly that she’s trying to save her own pelt, not be honest. She is about to reply something when Shredtail’s face pokes through the hole and starts yelling at Snowtuft if he had done something right for once and subdued the ‘prisoner.‘ Hollyleaf does not appreciate being called a prisoner, and is about to respond with something sarcastic back, but Snowtuft just shakes his head and meows that Shredtail isn’t worth it.

A sudden smoother, unknown voice that Hollyleaf can’t figure out who it belongs to replies to Shredtail to be moron elsewhere. He then says prisoner is a harsh word, and that Hollyleaf is their ‘honored guest’, addressing her by name. She does not like the sound of being considered a ‘guest’ even more or how the voice knows her name, and she takes note that Snowtuft is tenser. She notes the air of authority and power the voice commands, just like Firestar and Brambleclaw could do. To her surprise, Shredtail just grunts and leaves the hole in the ground, hissing at Hollyleaf in a low voice that she is crowfood now.

The unknown cat then says to ‘let the cat (Hollyleaf) go’, and that ‘he’ll’ be taking her to go see ‘him.’ Snowtuft, who is usually calm and expressionless, shows annoyance. He mutters in low voice that the mysterious cat is a nuisance and foxheart. He meows to Hollyleaf in barely a whisper not to run off or make any attempt to flee when he lets her go, or ‘that cat’ will surely make her suffer for it. She is freed, and she immediately jumps up, stretching her aching muscles. Snowtuft quickly exists the hole, leaving her alone in there.

The voice yowls at her in the same commanding tone to come out peaceably, or force would be used. The voice then yowls that any opposition would be crushed instantly.

Although it stings her pride to be so completely at this unknown cat’s mercy, she defiantly stays where she is. Unwilling to yield, she tenses her muscles and crouches low, preparing to defend herself from whoever was trying to drag her out. She thinks to herself she’ll have to be dragged out clawing and screeching.

As she waits in the silence, the voice again replies that she is testing his patience.

Nervous but fierce, she hisses that she’s not coming out of there. She spits she’ll fight to the death with an intent to kill if she’s attacked, her eyes wild and bright.

There is silence. The voice replies, satisfied at her answer with “good.”

A sudden blur catches hold of her tail before she can turn around and retaliate, and she is dragged by sheer brute strength out of the hole. She does as she promised to do and claws at the ground, screeching loudly from the pain of having her tail dislocated. She attempts to twist around and fight but is jerked around with dizzying and forceful attacks that are more painful and painful from attack to attack. Eventually, when she’s on the verge of fainting from pain, the cat that is attacking her lets up, and she collapse in a heap to the ground. Slowly and shaky, she looks up and becomes completely horrified. Dozens of eerie eyes surround her in a circle, with claws unsheathed. She recognizes faces like Snowtuft’s emotionless expression, and Shredtail’s eyes glittering with malice. She even sees Mapleshade eyeing her like a juicy bit of prey. She whips back around and comes forehead to nose with none other than Hawkfrost, who she clearly recognizes from her dream.

He narrows his icy eyes and hisses at her that if she doesn’t want to go peaceably, he’d be more than happy to drag her there by her tail. He meows it wouldn’t be an issue, since it was already dislocated, and she was too weak to even stand and fight. She realizes in horror that all the cats gathered are fully prepared to fight her and that she had been trapped into a one-way situation. She growls to herself that Hawkfrost was a coward, relying on deceit and force like that.

However, she knows that being defiant would be foolish and only cause her trouble, possibly even killing her. Seething and hissing with her remaining strength, she furiously tells him to ‘lead the way.’
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Chapter 8

Hollyleaf is in too much pain to fight back, and is dragged by her scruff like a kit by Hawkfrost. While biting back pain, she spits furiously and screeches how he’s a foxheart, flailing in indignation.

She thinks back to how she got to this point. She remembers meowing that she couldn’t support her weight, before buckling from the strain of standing. On the verge of passing out, she hears Shredtail’s mocking voice state that she’s like a mewling helpless kit. She hisses exhaustedly and tries to stand up again, but is in too much pain to do so.

A voice she thinks is Hawkfrost’s meows that she can just be dragged away like a kit then. She faintly feels the scruff of her neck being tugged and watches through blurry eyes as the ground begins moving…

She thinks to herself about what she would do to these cats for her indignation, her thoughts becoming increasingly darker and sadistic. She starts hissing she’ll kill them, over and over again, until a kick to her stomach shuts her up. Hawkfrost lets go of her and pushes her on the ground with a massive paw on her throat. She is told to shut up and not move, or he would break her legs to keep her from moving. She’s too tired to move anyways. It doesn’t stop her from hissing the most obscene things she can think of, while shaking in fury at being so helpless.

Claws contract around her throat, and Hawkfrost hisses loudly in her ear that StarClan abandoned her, her family doesn’t know she’s here, and she has no allies. She would survive longer if she didn’t insult the higher ranked warriors. She can hear the arrogance and contempt in his voice.

Tired and angry, she hisses as ‘politely’ as she can who she was being taken to, meowing she deserved to know that much at least.

A voice from behind her answers her question, meowing at Hawkfrost with some amusement that he needed to stop tormenting the “poor thing” already. She glances to her right the best she while pinned down, and is instantly stunned into silence. The eerie orange eyes, bent, crooked tail, and scars on his face – Brokenstar. A chill runs downs her spine and she fearfully thinks about the elder tales about Brokenstar. The thought of actually meeting the horrid cat terrifies her into tremors. She hear herself whisper in fear that “this isn’t real” repeatedly.

Hawkfrost sarcastically meows he’s been deeply hurt. She wasn’t this scared of him. She refuses to answer him, feeling absolute hatred for the sadistic icy-eyed cat. However, she can feel herself shaking and trembling.

Brokenstar walks over to where Hollyleaf is pinned down, while meowing to Hawkfrost that his arrogance would cost him someday when he tormented the wrong cat. He asks him if he learned anything from Tigerstar’s mistakes.

The cat looks at her with some interest and introduces himself as Brokenstar, and offers an apology for her rough treatment. He then meows that he had hoped Hawkfrost would be more mature and civilized, but that he sadly miscalculated. He then hisses to himself that the younger they die, the more impulsive they are.

Hollyleaf is still too scared to reply, thinking to herself for some cat to please rescue her from this nightmare. She can only stare wide-eyed.

Brokenstar then pauses, and purrs to himself that he wasn’t really sorry, he was just trying to show some sense of courtesy. He then rather fondly states that violence solves many things, but diplomacy can also be manipulated. There is a long pause, as Brokenstar stares intently into Hollyleaf’s eyes, while she tries her best to stare back, but eventually blinks and looks away.

Brokenstar purrs again as if he had won a game. He asks if she is afraid of him and the tales elders speak about him. She doesn’t respond immediately, earning a growl from Hawkfrost.

Hawkfrost presses his claws deeper into her fur, hissing at her that she’ll give an answer or he’ll claw a mark in her pelt.

Brokenstar chastises Hawkfrost for being so impulsive and dramatic, and tells him that it was only natural she should be so scared. He then says almost a matter-of-fact that he is an evil cat and has done cruel, vile things that he feels no regrets or remorse over. He deserves to be feared. He then praises Hollyleaf and tells her that being afraid will let her exist longer.

Hollyleaf regains some of her composure. She stutters half-heartedly that she’d not scared, just surprised, to which Hawkfrost snorts in disbelief. She then more convincingly states that she thought Brokenstar ceased to exist after he died. Brokenstar looks at her with an unreadable expression. He then replies ‘not bad’, and that he could almost believe her lie. She is inwardly horrified at being praised by such an evil cat.

Brokenstar then meows that he’s tired of idly chatting as it gets nothing accomplished, and becomes much more serious. He tells Hollyleaf that it is time he told the truth as well. He states he would gladly kill her himself if given the opportunity, but that her existence was needed to achieve his goals. He then elaborates, saying that her knowledge and relationship with Lionblaze and Jayfeather would be needed to destroy the Three and the Clans.

Hollyleaf is absolutely horrified and passionately screeches she would never help the Dark Forest, and that they were fox-hearted mouse brained fools to ever think she would. She is about to say more but is cut off as she is kicked violently in the side by Hawkfrost, her left hind leg is twisted painfully around the wrong way, and Hawkfrost’s jaws clamp down on her leg. Brokenstar watches intently with his unsettling unblinking eyes, slightly amused.

Rather bluntly, Brokenstar meows he knew she would say something like that. He then rather sadistically hisses that she doesn’t need all four of her limbs. As she shakes in pain and fear, Brokenstar continues to stare with the same bemused expression and meows it would be difficult to run with a broken limb. Now, she could stay with then even longer to think about her ‘decision.’ He gives a nod to Hawkfrost, who proceeds to slowly and painfully twist her leg out of socket, pulling and biting until finally snapping into bone. With an agonizing screech, her left hind leg is fractured enough to render her immobile, and she is grabbed by the scruff like a kit again by Hawkfrost, barely conscious from the pain. Brokenstar calmly walks up to her with an insane look in his unblinking eyes, and tells her that when that leg heals, he’ll have two of her limbs broken next. He then states she shouldn’t worry, and that she has a few long moons ahead of her to rethink her choice.
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Chapter 9

3 days have passed since her leg was fractured. She woke up imprisoned in the same hole she was first trapped in, but can’t move her leg at all. Her leg is in so much pain that stars dance on the edge of her vision every time it slightly twinges.

At the entrance of the hole is Snowtuft, who watches her expressionlessly. She is in too much pain to speak. Fighting back is out of the question. Nothing can be done but stay silent. An empty, lifeless silence. She hates the silence.

She thinks to herself that she’d never help the dark forest. She would endure the pain.

As she thinks this, an involuntary muscle spasms in her fractured leg, and blacks swims on the edge of her vision. She catches a glance of Snowtuft’s blurry snow white pelt as she loses unconsciousness.
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10 days have passed since her leg was fractured. She awakes in the same hole she was first trapped in, but can barely move her leg at all. Her leg is in so much pain that a slight nudge sends pain shooting through her body.

At the entrance of the hole is a new cat. She is a tortoiseshell named Sparrowfeather. Hollyleaf is too much pain to fight back. The tortoiseshell she cat is constantly speaking about everything in an obnoxious voice. It is very different from the silence of Snowtuft. Hollyleaf hates the silence. She hates the noise.

The noise continues, and Hollyleaf is developing a headache. She hoarsely hisses through the pain, if Sparrowfeather could please be quiet for a bit. She wearily lays her head down, careful not to move her leg in the slightest.

She hears Sparrowfeather speak at her in a cheerful voice, calling her a ‘cute little kitten’ she could watch over, like an apprentice ceremony. Then, Sparrowfeather meows in a cheery voice that they could have an apprentice ceremony. But first, Hollyleaf needed to be groomed. Hollyleaf realizes in terror that Sparrowfeather is going to torture her for asking her to be quiet, but cannot move her leg for the pain. Sparrowfeather purrs happily and grabs Hollyleaf by the scruff, which causes Hollyleaf to scream in agony from the pain of having her leg jostled. She tries to fight back, but he makes the pain worse. Sparrowfeather drops her, meowing in bored, soft tone that apprentice ceremonies are no fun. They should play medicine cat and patient! Sparrowfeather happily trills she’ll be the medicine cat and Hollyleaf be the patient, just as Hollyleaf falls into unconscious.
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15 days have passed since her leg was fractured. She awakes in the same hole she was first trapped in, but can hardly move her leg it at all. Her leg is in so much pain every time she moves it that she cannot walk.

At the entrance of the hole is a gruff tom with wild gray and white fur, who is staring intently at Hollyleaf like she is an interesting bug.

She thinks to herself that she won’t give in. But, it’s getting harder to hold onto this conviction.

The cat’s name is Thistleclaw, and she can tell by the way he looks at her that he’s studying her movements. He mentions he could always use her as a prop in training. He states almost amusingly that Snowtuft deserves a break as a scratching post.

Hollyleaf closes her eyes and tries to sleep, feeling those bright yellow eyes studying her. She thinks to herself, that she can’t give up. She has to stay strong.

However, it’s becoming really, really hard to find a reason to keep enduring.
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25 days have passed since her leg was fractured. She awake in the same hole she was first trapped in, and can only slightly move her leg. Her leg is in so much pain that a bump into it will cause her to screech in agony.

At the entrance of the hole is Hawkfrost, who bluntly states he shouldn’t be watching some kit. She thinks to herself that he’s pretty young himself.

She wants to scream every vile insult she can think of, but she’s too hurt and terrified to do so. She can hear other cats – living cats, fighting outside with claws unsheathed. She realizes this is their plan. They’re recruiting cats to fight for them, forming their own ‘Clan.’

Hawkfrost slouches lazily by the entrance, asking her what it felt like to kill. He states he has yet to kill any cat himself. It’s almost a shame to him.

Hollyleaf doesn’t want to answer. The Ashfur apparition she first saw races to the front of her memory, and she cringes into a little ball, trying to sleep.

She hears Hawkfrost threaten to hurt her if she doesn’t answer her question, but she thinks to herself it doesn’t matter. Nothing can compare to what she has experienced so far.

Hawkfrost snarls in annoyance that she is not paying attention to what he said and slashes at her pelt. Blood drips down her fur to the ground. She watches it in disinterest, wondering how much blood loss it would take to kill her completely.
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50 days have passed since her leg was fractured, and Hollyleaf is on the verge of a breakdown. She hates everything. The dark forest warriors, her actions that lead her here, and StarClan. Her hatred of StarClan is clear now. She’s been imprisoned in the hole she was first trapped in fifty days ago, and she hates it as well. She can only sit still while her leg painfully and slowly heals.

She hates everything.

By the entrance that leads out of the hole stands Snowtuft, who is expressionless as usual. She doesn’t bother to look at him. She’d want to kill him. She thinks in her fragmented mind of how she would kill him if she could. Rocks, bashing in his head to death, clawing out his insides…She hisses wretchedly how she hates everything.

She hears Snowtuft meow that those words were the sixth time she uttered them.

She doesn’t turn around, but meows softly that she wants to die. Quietly, she bangs her head on the wall of the cave, over and over, until her eyes become unfocused and her head starts spinning. She think she can die if she does this enough.

Vaguely she feels something tip her off balance, and she falls to the ground, her leg jutting slightly out of its set place. She screeches in pain, her eyes lopsided and blood trickling down her face.

She hears Snowtuft meow emotionlessly that she is not allowed to hurt herself. He then meows that such actions are illogical. If she wanted the torture to stop, she should just surrender and tell the higher ups what they wanted to know.

In fragmented wording, she faintly meows she won’t. She won’t betray her Clan. She goes into a mantra, meowing she won’t, she won’t, she won’t.

Snowtuft looks at her with the same expressionless face, silent. He then meows if she surrenders and tells all she knows, then the Dark Forest will kill her. He states that logically speaking, if she wants to die, then that will achieve it.

She stops her mantra and glances up at him with her dull, lifeless eyes. She asks him brokenly, if he ever cared about anything before.

Snowtuft pauses, but quickly returns back to his emotionless face. He tells her that caring and compassion here is a moot point.

Hollyleaf closes her eyes and recites her mantra of ‘I won’t’ ‘I won’t ‘I won’t.’ however, she questions to herself what that even means anymore.
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Chapter 10

3 moons have passed by and Hollyleaf still refuses to join the Dark Forest. Her fracture leg is almost healed, and her home is the same hole she was once holed up in. She’s guarded by at least one cat at all times, and has come to resent and despise them all. She can now tell who will be sent to watch her, and how they’ll treat her.

Snowtuft, the most common cat that watched her, would just guard the entrance and silently stand there with an emotionless face. Shredtail would stand there bragging about himself, as well as complain about other cats. Thistleclaw, another cat Hollyleaf heard nursery tales about, would use that time to develop new fighting moves, using Hollyleaf as a test subject. Hawkfrost watched her a few times, and every time she ended up with a blood spilled because she refused to pay attention to the narcissist tom. It didn’t stop her from calling him every insult she could think of. Then there was Sparrowfeather, who she hated even more than Shredtail. Sparrowfeather was vain, petty and selfish, and her favorite thing to talk about was how great she was and how terrible every other cat was, especially Hollyleaf. Then there was Tigerstar, who Hollyleaf had yet to meet, yet by every other cat’s subdued reactions towards him, she knew running into the cat who almost took over the Clans would be the last thing she wanted to do.

She blames StarClan for sending her to suffer in this nightmare, her dreams now consisting of nothing but violent nightmares. She is fearful to sleep, and staying awake only brings suffering. She starts to see visions of a pale gray cat, and wonders to herself if she is going completely insane. She then purrs sadly to herself and quietly meows she lost her sanity a moon ago, she was just pretending things weren’t that bad. She starts to ask herself about right and wrong, good and evil, and whether the Dark Forest are truly the evil ones, or StarClan.

She surmises it must be StarClan, as they hide their evil instead of being honest about it. She falls asleep after trying not to for hours.

She dreams she’s running wildly on StarClan’s ground. She races after Jayfeather to talk to him and tell him she’s alright and she’s sorry. She suddenly slips, and ends up falling in blood. As she looks down, she notices the blood is like a river, lapping at her paws and covering all of StarClan’s grounds. Her dream-self trills in amusement, and asks why it had been so clumsy and didn’t look where it was going. It then says in a distorted voice that it forgot that everything has died, and begins purring in a nightmarish voice.

She wakes up, rather slowly will dull eyes, and sees Snowtuft is on shift, watching her with mild interest. She looks at her healed leg and sighs. She thinks to herself that she can get up and walk now, even fight, but then Brokenstar would find out and she would just have her leg broken again. She ponders if the pain would be worth the defiance. Shaking her head and slightly trembling at the thought of being tortured again, she grumbles it wouldn’t be and resigns herself to lay back down. She wonders to herself if the defiance is worth it at all, and whether it would be better to just lie about joining to the Dark Forest.

Snowtuft seems to have read her thoughts, as he meows that plan wouldn’t work. Brokenstar is excellent at spotting liars, and very few cats could hide secrets from him. She questions how he could know this, and he simply states that she is still a predictable cat. He can read her movements from memory and easily tell what she is thinking just by watching.

Hollyleaf gives a half-hearted hiss at him, but is too tired to retort fully. She looks at her healed leg and tells herself she’s running out of time. Her leg has been healed for days now, but she dreads the thought of going back to Brokenstar again when she still hasn’t made her ‘choice’.

Hollyleaf hears Shredtail’s raspy voice just outside her den and to her disgust, Hawkfrost’s. She makes out that Shredtail is complaining about some cat, and after some comprehension, realizes that it’s her Shredtail’s complaining about. She hears him whine about how she refuses to listen to him and shows him no respect. He then hisses that she snaps at all the cats who waste their time watching her, and she’s too much of hassle to deal with. He growls that they should just kill her permanently and weaken the Three’s moral.

Hawkfrost rather sarcastically replies that he doesn’t respect Shredtail, much less that some prisoner would, and they the only reason that Hollyleaf’s spirit hadn’t been killed yet is because of her link to the Three and the prophecy. Hollyleaf’s ears perk up in curiosity at the mention of ‘prophecy.’ To her chagrin, the voices become quieter until she can’t discern what they’re saying anymore.

The entrance to her prison opens up and Sparrowfeather appears, the last cat Hollyleaf wanted to deal with. Sparrowfeather arrogantly flicks her tail in Hollyleaf’s face and tells Snowtuft lackadaisically that she’ll be watching the ‘little mouse’ now. She flounces dramatically near the entrance and gives a small purr of amusement. Hollyleaf visibly shows her disgust at her theatrics.

Purring, Sparrowfeather yawns and remarks rather loudly and obnoxiously how awful it must be to be so helpless yet so pathetic. She then adds that the only reason Hollyleaf still existed was because she was kit’s plaything for the higher ups to torture. Hollyleaf thinks to herself that she could fight Sparrowfeather now. After three moons of putting up with her, she could finally lash back. She could kill her if she wanted too. She had that opportunity now. She forces herself to keep silent and bites down on her tongue so hard it starts to bleed.

Sparrowfeather seems to notice that she’s getting to Hollyleaf and provokes her further, taunting her for getting caught in the first place and calling her a gullible fool. She then goes on to say that Hollyleaf was playing with foxes now, not dogs, and that stalking Ashfur then coldly murdering him was nothing compared to the likes what the Dark Forest would do to her. All the while, Hollyleaf’s vision becomes a tinted red. She forces herself to keep still, and keep pretending she was still injured.

Sparrowfeather then pads up far too close to Hollyleaf, far too in range to be attacked, and asked her how it felt to kill her own Clanmate in cold blood. She goes to say more but doesn’t finish. With absolutely hatred and fury upon her face, Hollyleaf lashes at Sparrowfeather, and slices her claws deep into Sparrowfeather’s neck, spewing blood on the ground. Sparrowfeather stands agape, unable to move, and stares down at her throat, with a look of absolute fear and horror plastered on her face. She suddenly screeches an ear splitting scream, collapsing where she stood, her body disappearing in front of Hollyleaf until nothing but a bloody stain is left.
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Chapter 10

Shredtail and Snowtuft barrel through the entrance to investigate the noise, just as Hollyleaf comes to her senses. They both look at Hollyleaf in shock, Snowtuft more so just unnerved than shocked, and Shredtail yowls in horror to go get some cat. Hollyleaf doesn’t hear who, as she stands deathly still, unable to pay attention. She slowly looks down in horror and realizes what she had done, and sees the bloodstain. She is unable to make herself move, until a deep, smooth voice at the entrance of the hole shocks her out of her stupor. The voice casually remarks as if he was commenting on the weather that Hollyleaf killed his Clanmate. She notes it sounds a lot like Brambleclaw.

Hollyleaf slowly turns around and comes faces to face with Tigerstar of all cats, noticing how he looks exactly like Brambleclaw except for the numerous scars. She realizes it would be impossible to fight or even get past him. She becomes paralyzed, unable to move in fear, and feeling numb about what she had just done. She feels terror at the thought of what Tigerstar would do for killing his Clanmate. She stutters and stammers that she didn’t mean to, and that it was an accident, but is quickly cut off with a simple tail flick. Tigerstar demands Hollyleaf to explain why she was so nervous. She notes in her panicked mind the power he commands, just with his voice. She knows that one mistake could mean the end of her existence.

Regaining some of her composure, Hollyleaf shakily questions that it was his Clanmate, and that she killed Sparrowfeather’s spirit, still stuttering on her words. She asks that isn’t he furious and is going to kill her for her horrible actions. Tigerstar gives Hollyleaf an interesting look and seems slightly amused. He tells her that Sparrowfeather was a nuisance who couldn’t keep her mouth shut, and that it took Hollyleaf shorter than he had expected to kill her. Hollyleaf is horrified and feels sick at being played like a pawn, and that Tigerstar thinks so little of his Clanmate, but is too afraid to call him out for it.

Tigerstar then goes on to reply that if Hollyleaf hadn’t of lost her control, she would not have killed Sparrowfeather. He tells her that she uses her hatred of being trapped in the Dark Forest as an outlet for her fear, and that it would kill her quickly if she didn’t learn to control it. He then tells her that the Dark Forest warriors can teach her to control her rage if she would let them.

Hollyleaf stammers on more that even if they torture her, and keep her in a prison until she fades away, she’ll never join the Dark Forest. She won’t help them destroy the Clans she fought so hard to protect.

Tigerstar points out that she didn’t fight hard to protect the Clans when she revealed the truth of her birth at the gathering. She questions shakily to how he could know that, to which Tigerstar replies in a sarcastic tone almost exactly like Hawkfrost that StarClan aren’t the only cats who watch the Clans. Before she can reply, dumbfounded, he adds on that the Clans didn’t care too much about her either after she caused such chaos. He meows that the truth is StarClan left her to be killed in this place, and if they really cared about her, they’d risk themselves to get her back. She snaps back shakily that they care about her, but she gets silenced again with another tail flick.

Tigerstar then goes on to reply that as cruel as it is, that she is unimportant. Her death had no positive effect to the Clans, and her last memory was of her revealing her darkest secret to all the Clans, so her final memory was not a fond memory. She wasn’t a part of the Three, so StarClan could afford losing her. They could afford to leave her to rot in the Dark Forest and keep their good name or let a controversial cat into StarClan and ruin their reputation as all-powerful, all knowing warriors.

Tigerstar adds on darkly that StarClan is a lie. They are not powerful, and they are not wise. They are selfish cats who are willing to let a young misguided cat rot away in darkness to keep their reputation. After all, they kept the truth of her lineage hidden from her as well.

There is long pause of silence, as Hollyleaf hunches over while barely containing her emotions. She looks away and grimaces, thinking to herself that she doesn’t deserve this. In tight, controlled words, she asks if Ashfur, at the least, received his punishment.

Tigerstar gives a thoughtful look and meows that he hasn’t seen hide nor hair of Ashfur yet. He then adds that Ashfur was a well-respected warrior when he died and the living cats were greatly distraught, so perhaps StarClan could allow him to enter their ranks despite all he did.

Hollyleaf suddenly lashes out in anguish that it isn’t fair and slashes a furrow in the ground, her frame trembling in fury.

Tigerstar then asks Hollyleaf the one question she doesn’t want to answer. Who is more evil? The Dark Forest, or StarClan? Who is it that betrayed her, deceived her, and let her live a lie for so many moons despite all the pain she had to go through?

Quietly, Hollyleaf whispers in suppressed hatred ‘StarClan.’

More forcefully, Tigerstar hisses in her ear who is was that betrayed her.

Feeling more hatred and wrath than she has ever felt, Hollyleaf screeches STARCLAN. A silent pause, as Hollyleaf asks herself in her head whether it was worth it. She answers herself and tells her conscience that some things cannot be forgiven, and punishment must be received. Even if that means she must become evil, she’ll become what she hates to enact justice towards her starry ancestors who abandoned her. She thinks in her head for Lionblaze and Jayfeather to forgive her, since they’ll never understand why this is the right thing to do. Turning around with a hard look in her eye, Hollyleaf speaks clearly to Tigerstar with no trace of regret that she has made her choice.

She walks out of the den with same cold look on her face, her leg finally healed. A crowd of cats have gathered, all faces she’s seen before. Tigerstar walks out behind her and announces to the all the cats gathered their newest Clanmate. As the throng of cats cheer, Hollyleaf’s face is expressionless, but her eyes hold a hatred so intense, the world around her seems to gleam red. The reason for why she was banished to the Dark Forest seems to have been forgotten.
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Epilogue

The badger Midnight walks through the Dark Forest with an old and ragged tom. The tom is called by his name, One Eye, and the badger remarks how faded the tom has become. One Eye hisses that he was the first cat to find his home here in this desolate place, and he’ll still be here when the last cat fades away. He remarks he’s biding his time, waiting for the right chance to strike, which is almost upon him. He then asks about the false prophecy, to which the bulky creature replies that not much can be changed now. She remarks how if the Three never existed, this travesty would have never happened. She thinks to herself such cooperation is needed to do what needs to be done.

The tom purrs in satisfaction, and remarks how gullible StarClan could be. He then pauses, and asks Midnight if she would be there, or if she would stand by and watch. She replies she’ll be in the midst of it, patiently waiting for the end result. She thinks to herself of her true agenda.

One Eye replies he’s no fool. He’s aware of what the badger is planning. Midnight doesn’t deny it, stating she has confidence his plan will fail, and that she has her own agendas. The tom snorts in amusement, yet meows he can deal with her deception. After all, her plans work along his own. Midnight is silent and watches him speak to himself in fervor. He feels more alive than he’s felt in decades. He then purrs. “Alive.” He remarks how much he hates that word.

With that she-cat and the two others on the Dark Forest’s side, the destruction of the Clans is guaranteed. Finally, after waiting so long, and watching plan after plan fail, it’s almost time.

Midnight asks if the dreams were his doing, to which he replies they were all glimpses of the future and past he foresaw in the river. He remarks he wanted to scare the cat a bit. He never has any fun anymore, and watching her thrash in fear was quite entertaining. However, he also states that there was some meaning to it. Some dreams were not his doing, but by her own. She tried to warn herself, he explains, in her dreams about the different lives she could have led, with her survival of the tunnels following the destiny she wants.

Midnight replies then that Hollyleaf was opposing her destiny then, and trying to change it.

One Eye seems irritated at this, yet meows that is true. He simply needed to alter her destiny a bit. If the cat in the prophecy won’t do what she’s supposed to, he’ll simply make it so there is no other choice. He meows such a thing is possible for him.

Midnight solemnly remarks time has made him foolish and arrogant. Destiny cannot be changed or controlled, simply guided.

He replies that is true, which is why he’ll guide her to make those decisions. If he can turn an innocent cat into a vicious killer, then he can do anything.

He meows that according to the prophecy, her existence spelled doom to the Clans the moment she began to exist. However, the opportunity to follow through with his plan became more and more narrowed as the cat deviated from what she was supposed to do, so some adjustments were needed. He purrs and says he almost feels sorry for the cat, forced to be a pawn in game she was originally destined to never play.

He pauses, and then tell Midnight to send Rock his regards. He promises he’ll be visiting him very soon.