Crimson Flowers ~ A Rise Short Book ~ COMPLETE

[TheUnsinkableShips]

[Prologue]

It was dark. Midnight swirling, ink black, pure ebony. They say darkness is born from darkness, and that nothing good ever comes from obsidian colored skies, but I would beg to differ.
For I too was born from a charcoal moon. On a night so perfectly atramentous, it was like something from a story told to scare kits.
But unlike the night I was born, I was beacon of light. A ray of sunshine in the dark pit of my clan. The only hope the tortured souls of WrathClan had.
-
From the moment I was born, I barely saw my mother, lest to milk. My father and the higher-ups stole me away for immediate training.
I was a warrior in kit form, a weapon to be honed and wielded. I learned quickly that I was the son of the leader, my mother as fierce as a rogue, and that being a warrior runs in my blood. And yet, a small part of me resented that. The fact that I was meant to be used, and for what? New territory? Power? WrathClan was powerful. Incredibly powerful. Full grown warriors burst from the queens, and kithood was an urban legend.
And yet I was glowing. Not with the darkness of so many around me, but with a new glowing sort of light. A light that many cats seemed to fear, and that my father seemed displeased with. Perhaps that was the most fearful. My father. Perhaps that is what truly broke me in the end. The amount of hate that just one cat seemed to hold I deemed enough hatred to be rationed out to at least 3 clans.

I decided I hated trainings after the first one was held.
I was put in a small cavern, nothing but me and squirrel. A bushy tailed bright eyed scrap. It scampered around the small room, unbeknownst of its fate. My father barked an order, and in an act of simplistic fear, I followed it.
"Hunt." He growled.
I leapt at the creature without a thought of logic, the only word in my mind was 'fear, fear, fear.' I sank my claws into the prey, and looked up to see the eyes of my father, yellow, golden, aglow with pride, and an emotion I could not identify.
The adrenaline died down, and I turned to see the damage done by my actions. With fresh eyes, I took in the scene around me. Crimson claws. Metallic air. The squirrel, unmoving, on the ground.
Tears cascaded down my cheeks. I took a step back from my father and yowled, pain as clear as day echoing through the cavern, a pure heart, a glowing drop of sun, broken, shattered.

I was only 3 moons old.

===

The first training was not what subdued my light. I continued on, pushing through the unknown caverns of shadow, but each training dimmed that light.


"Stalk." Dim

1 moon

"Chase." Dim

2 moons

"Hunt." Dim

3 moons

"...kill." ...darkness...

The tear shaped jewel of light within my heart fractured, fragments of broken dreams, lost hopes, goodness, they all shattered.
Gold, light, ivory...grey, dim, midnight.

I refused. I could not attack the small kit in now in front of me. He was hardly younger than myself. A frightened scrap.

"Weak." My father claimed, shoving the bundle of tabby fur in the cavern. My ears fell back. Hunting was one thing. But having a kit as my prey? That was another...

"No..." I whispered. Red flashed in front of my eyes as my father struck me.

"Do it you fool! You are stronger! The weak have no place in WrathClan." He said, and his claw slid across my side. It was not the first. It was not the last.
Anger brewed in my stomach. Anger at my father, anger at the clan. My golden eyes filled with my fire, and suddenly, a dark beast took over.
A side of me I refused to acknowledge. The small part screaming at me to obey.

Stalk, chase, hunt, duel.

Crimson flowers spilt across the stone floor.
Crimson flowers grew from between my claws.
Crimson flowers covered the kit.

Crimson flowers grew from my heart.

And so I was broken. Hammered with rage until I too embodied the bottomless well of anger.

Stalk, chase, hunt, duel, death

(719 Words)

[TheUnsinkableShips]

[Chapter One - Nothing Good Comes from Darkness]

The woods were silent. Mist clung to the trees like vines as my warriors and I padded through the thick undergrowth. I am 13 moons, a leader, and I am known by the name Darkreach.
My father died during a recent battle with the troublesome clan we've been fighting. As his son, it is my job to seek his revenge. It is my job to follow in his footsteps.
I push forward through the darkness, a midnight harmony echoing around us.

It is quiet. Much too quiet. They are waiting, I can tell. I pause, and my warriors stop as well. We wait. We listen. We observe.

My deputy, a cat called Razorstrike signals me towards a tree. A few needles have fallen, a gentle crack, visible only to sharpened warrior ears. I grin, my teeth flash white in the dark. I signal my warriors, and we continue.

I can feel them. The eyes of tree-cats staring at me from perches, no longer hidden by the aura of mist.

I know enough about battles to know what they are waiting for. And they are waiting. Waiting for the perfect timing. Waiting for us to fall into their trap.

Step, step step. Closer, closer closer. I can feel where they are now.

I pretend to move forward, but motion for my warriors to surround the area with a flick of my ear. They disperse, and I tread forward.

Step, step, step, In-bound.

A frenzy of cats surround me, a rainbow of coats, the leader, a tom, Horizonstar, attacks from above, pinning me.

My warriors have already moved, inching in on the cats, so I lie still.
I do not struggle.

"Giving up without a fight, eh?" The piebald tom asked, but we both knew I was faking. His eyes said everything.
"Never." I said, just as my warriors leapt from behind greenery. The battle had begun.

Horizonstar, though suspicious of me, could have never anticipated my attack. I took advantage of his moment of distraction, flipping our positions. He had murdered my father at their stupid Jagged Peak. This was my revenge.

I grinned as I pulled my claw down his chest, crimson swirls bursting from his pale underside. His green gaze met mine, his eyes wide.
"Fool." I said, sheathing my claws. "You think you can kill my father, and not expect revenge?"

"I didn't kill your father! That is against our code!" The cat wheezed. "He fell, Darkreach. You know as well as I that he did. It was his fate."

I growled "Fate is meant to be changed. He was not supposed to die until much later. You and your wretched clan have doomed him too early. For this, I have taken all of your lives." He closed his eyes and smiled slightly, much to my dismay.

"Fine. Accept my life in exchange for his, but remember this: From ruin comes creation. From the wake cause by my death, my clan will rise stronger and better than before. My deputy, Silverrain, is more than capable of leading my clan to victory."

He shuddered, one, two, three, four, five, six. All of the lives that were left.

Crimson flowers soaked the forest floor as the clan cats retreated and we were left in the misty forest.

(547 words)

[TheUnsinkableShips]

[Chapter Two - We Are Still Cowards in the End]

I never felt remorse after a battle. That emotion, as well as any other emotion, had been beaten out of me years ago.

And yet, my heart felt heavy in my chest, the words of the leader struck in my head.

"From ruin comes creation..."

"Tch" I said, turning my head sharply to remove whatever emotion had passed over me. My tail thrashed angrily as I registered the empty clearing. We had failed.

No
NO
No

I never failed. My eyes closed. I could not let my father down. Revenge clouded my senses, anger, anger, my eyes opened. Rage.

"After them!" I screeched, knowing very well we were still strong, and the clan cats stood no chance should we meet again.

My cats cheered. Bloodthirsty cries flooded through my mind, and my vision hazed as a small kit shimmered in front of me. I blinked and he was gone, the only remnants of his appearance a small burning in my heart as I trudged through the silvery woods.

CRACK. A tree branch fell in front of me, a quick crackling sounding through the forest, and as I looked down I saw a small sprout now hugged by the branch like a shield.

"From ruin comes creation..." A voice whispered through the forest.

I pushed forward.

Pad, pad, pad, BANG.

I startled as a rock suddenly broke. I stepped forward.

Pad, pad, pad, gasp.

A small sapling once sheltered by the rock stood, tendrils of smoke whisping around it, nudged by the wind.

I stepped back.

Anger, anger, anger, rage.

I lashed a paw at the green bud, before surging forward.

"From ruin comes creation..." A voice whispered through the forest.

I roared.

And ran.

And when their camp was in site, I dived forward, caring not for defense, or strategy.

Anger controlled my mind.

We rushed the camp, but the clan cats were prepared. They leapt from higher ground, cries of helpless, ill prepared cats filling the ancient ruins.

But it was not clan cats who screeched.

It was us.

I stood still, unable to move as I watched my kin fall one by one.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

One for every life I took.

Drop, drop, swish, thump.

I fell, pinned by long silver claws attached to white and black tabby legs, leading to crystal blue eyes filled with passion.

"Aspentrail, help me hold him." She called, and a brown tabby with stunning yellow eyes came over. Our yellow eyes met, anger meeting determination as brown paws took the place of white.

"Do you retreat?" She asked me, and a burning anger told me no, no, no. But a burning passion told me yes, yes, yes.

"WrathClan retreat." I called out meekly, the ones who remained disengaging and fleeing.

"Tch." I said. Even after all this, we are still cowards in the end.

(485 Words)

[TheUnsinkableShips]

[Chapter Three - Break you Backwards]

They kept me as a hostage.

Locked in a stone prison, nothing but my thoughts to comfort me.

Everyday, a meal of a squirrel was brought to me by the yellow eyed tom, Aspentrail, I believe.

"From ruin comes creation..." Truly embodied this clan, I thought.

And one day, after what felt like moons of isolation, the white she-cat, Silverstar as she was now known, entered my circle of solitude.

"You have been broken." She said and I raised my head.

A small voice told me to nod, to call out 'yes, how did you guess', but I remained stoic.

"Someone has truly molded you into a bloodthirsty brute." She said circling around me.

"I pity you. To have been broken almost beyond repair is something I can never imagine someone of my own species doing, and yet, you are living proof of your father's cruel intentions."

Beyond repair. The words sank like rocks to the bottom of my heart.

Almost beyond repair the small voice called.

It was not until a few moments later I realized I had spoken that aloud.

The black tabby smiled.

"Yes, almost. You have invaded us at a good time. You have goodness left in you. You weren't always this way, were you?" She asked. "You were once a beacon of light, no?"

I nodded, my subconcious reaching desperately over the walls my father had built on my mind.

She nodded again, and I thought right then her nods must be the most elegant thing I've ever seen.

"I'll just have to break you backwards, then."

(265 Words, shortie as we finish up :0)

[TheUnsinkableShips]

[Epilogue - Ivory Light]

It has been 6 moons since then.

Everyday, for the past 6 moons, I went on walks with Silverstar or Aspentrail, exploring the territory.

I was too broken to run.

And I didn't want to run anyways. I felt happy for the first time in a long time.

I let them heal me.

Rays of light flooding out the parasite in my soul.

Slowly, the the tear shaped jewel of light within my heart healed, fragments of broken dreams, lost hopes, goodness, they were all being glued together by the cats of SequoiaClan.
Grey, dim, midnight...gold, light, ivory.

Silverstar kept her promise and broke me backwards.

And one day, my life truly changed.

"Attention." The white she cat said, and the cats immediately flocked to the base of the stairs leading to her den. I followed.

"We are here to change darkness to light, to make a warrior out of a broken soul. Darkreach, please step forward." Silverrain's silvery voice called, and surprised, I drew forward.
"I believe the name Darkreach no longer suits you. As an entry into SequoiaClan, I have decided you deserve a new name. Should you choose to accept the name, you accept the life of a SequoiaClan cat, and will be trained accordingly. Should you refuse, you shall be escorted out of camp to a remote location and banned from these lands for eternity." She called, and I gulped.

"Darkreach, should you choose to join SequoiaClan, I name you Sunreach. Please make your choice."

I stood, the eyes of the clan cats- no, my fellow clanmates on me as I made my choice.

I smiled and stepped forward, cheers of Sunreach echoing through the camp.

(280 Words)