The Exile wrote:it wasn't silverflare!
honeystar stared at the medicine cat apprentice's body. his
head drooped onto the ground first as palethroat gently set
his body down in the camp's center.
applesnow's cry broke honeystar's trance. she turned her
gaze to applesnow, who was making a good effort to hold
back tears. honeystar draped her short tail over her back,
worry and shock filling her gaze.
"so who is it? who killed thymetail?" nectarpaw keened. he
was normally confident, but, naturally, anxiety was starting
to shine through.
"i... i don't know," honeystar said. she looked desperately
at the gathering cats. no one really piqued her thoughts of
being a killer.
cypresskit suddenly plodded to applesnow, asking a ques-
tion that twisted the hearts of all the cats. especially apple-
snow's as she explained, eyes meeting with honeystar's.
pain and despair reared its head within the ginger leader.
she leapt up the highledge. "let all cats old enough to
catch their own prey gather beneath highledge for a clan
meeting!"
most cats were already gathered. some stayed by the third
body.
"we need to find this killer. cast your votes again, please,"
she said simply.
the cats voted. she couldn't distinguish whether they said
her name more than lemonleaf's, but she was hurt noneth-
eless. "all those who vote lemonleaf, say aye."
"aye!" said the cats.
"all those who vote me, say aye."
"aye!" the majority.
honeystar felt a loss for words. "i would've never done
this. i thought you knew that, but i suppose you don't. i
will leave of my own accord." she looked at palethroat.
"palethroat is your leader now."
"palestar!" someone shouted. a few cats joined in chorus.
"palestar! palestar!"
with her last shred of dignity, honeystar climbed down the
highrock and left camp. she hung her head, not bothering
to run. how could they exile me, their own leader? she
looked back one last time.
the woods felt suffocating. the birds chirped, but they lent
no solace to the exiled leader.
a rustle startled her. abruptly, a tom hurdled out of the
bushes, pinning honeystar. she paused for a moment before
biting his foreleg. he lifted it, allowing her to push him off
and stand up. there was no thunderclan scent on him, just
ashes that stung her nose.
the tabby tom darted forward, striking honeystar's neck.
she stumbled backwards, blood claiming her white chest fur.
the tom tried to attack again, but honeystar managed to
slice his dark pink nose. he leaned forward and snapped at
her neck. she reacted too late. he shook her like a ragdoll
until she stopped scratching and kicking him. raja dropped
the limp form, starting to nurse his many wounds with his
tongue.
what raja didn't know was that starclan had granted honey-
star nine lives, and she still had six left. after some long
moments, she sucked in a breath hungrily, the blood ceas-
ing to drip from her injuries.
raja didn't seem to notice. honeystar got to her paws and
leapt at him, throwing him to the ground. he kicked about
futilely. she bit at the nape of his neck and held until he
went still.
honeystar stepped away, panting ever-so-slightly. she sta-
red at the tabby's body for a moment. little to her knowl-
edge, she had killed the cat who had brought the thunde-
rclan cat to start their murder spree.
with that, honeystar ran off, eventually being accepted
into windclan.
good job thunderclan, you exiled your innocent leader!
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