The Exile wrote:grief hung heavy in the air, as cold and as empty as the frigid
leaf-bare air. snowstar sat still in the center of the camp, her
blue eyes hollow, her gaze locked on something much farther
away than rosetail's body before her. her heart--it ached with
sorrow.
hemlocktail sat nearby, and he leaned down, touching his nose
to the she-cat's shoulder with a soft, barely audible mew of
pain, a sound that only bred more fury in the white leader's
chest. beside him, spiderleaf was going over the cause of
death, trying to ease the sadness that seemed to swallow and
drown those around him. even he could barely hear his words,
still unable to process the terrible loss he'd been forced to
witness.his tongue felt heavy, his jaw like stone. how on earth
was he supposed to comfort his clanmates when even he could
not make heads or tails of the senseless violence?
"at least it wasn't like orangepelt or aspenfur." the tom croaked,
eyes shining with anguish. "at least--at least she wasn't... wasn't
eaten." his whiskers trembled and his voice broke as tears
beaded at his eyes, and he began to cry softly.
spiderleaf knew that pain all too well.
as he turned to look back down at the limp body of the cream
deputy, something caught his eye. a strand of white fur, the
color of the snow that fell in wet, fat flakes, swirling and
drifting to the ground so peacefully, so silent, as if they, too,
were mourning...
white.
spiderleaf stiffened, and his eyes widened. white fur, shining
like the fallen snow--no.
like the frozen waters of an icy brook.
snowstar, too, with her gaze intensely locked on her deceased
deputy, noticed the clump of fur. slowly, her eyes widened, and
her jaw slackened as something surfaced within her. a memory.
a memory that linked everything together, right from the
beginning.
the white she-cat stood, tense, and disbelief welled within her
as pawsteps approached. she turned her head, and her frosted
gaze met the cool blue optics of her younger brother, staring her
down with an emptiness in his eyes that cast shadows over any
sorrow she felt, washing away every emotion within her until
there was nothing.
"you killed them." she meowed, and those around her quieted,
the sounds of the clan in their grief snuffed out, silenced by
her clear, knowing words.
ever so slightly, icebrook's eyes widened, before narrowing,
the hint of emotion barely there, but not unnoticed. his
muscles grew taut, and his claws slowly unsheathed into the
snow at his paws as his tail twitched.
"...i did, sister."
"...you feasted on their bodies." snowstar replied, her words
hollow, as if she couldn't believe that they were leaving her
mouth. "you brutalized them like--"
"like you did to cloverface, sister."
for a moment, their was silence, before snaketooth's voice
rose over the deafening tension, wavering. "...what are you
talking about, icebrook? cloverface was killed by a fox or
a badger, there's no way... that..."
snowstar could feel the accusing glares shift in her direction,
but she did not deny the accusation. she couldn't. not to his
face.
"...like we did to cloverface." she returned, voice as even and
as calm as she could manage.
fire flashed across icebrook's gaze, burning pain and sorrow
that snowstar could only imagine felt like one thousand
slashes to his heart, and he bared his teeth, tears welling
at the edges of his eyes.
"so that's it? you just confess so easily to the crimes that you
committed? you can say it just like that?! that you killed and
ate my mate?!"
snowstar was quiet a moment, as if to allow the rage to cool
some, and her eyes ached to look away. she kept her gaze
steady--he deserved for her to look him in the face. "clover-
-face is the one who offered himself, icebrook. we were
dying--minnowstar was on his last life, and the clan needed
one of us to live. there was no food. we had to take his offer."
"LIAR!" icebrook shrieked in agony. "he wouldn't abandon me!
we had a life offered to us--we were strong and healthy, we
were getting by! we were going to raise spiderleaf, and we--
we were going to have a family!" anguish burned in his gaze,
filling him and threatening to drown him from within. "he
would never sacrifice that!"
"he would, and he did! things weren't fine, icebrook, things
weren't okay! you were dying! I was dying! we--this clan, was
going to die!" snowstar snarled in return, voice raising as she
narrowed her eyes. "he sacrificed himself so that you, so that
we would live! he became a part of all of us, icebrook--he
became a part of you!"
horror flashed across icebrook's features, and he looked as if
his heart had been torn from his chest. "...that rabbit you offered
us that day--the one you said was crowfood from the thunderpath--"
"it was the leftover of cloverface's body, icebrook. he told us--"
the leader bared her teeth. "he told us not to tell you. he didn't
want you to live on knowing what'd really become of him. if he'd
known you would have done this--" snowstar's eyes burned,
and guilt and pain and fury fought deep within her for dominance.
icebrook trembled, excruciating sorrow written over his features.
he looked up, and his gaze met her own, such terrible pain there
that snowstar herself felt bitterly angry.
the white warrior's maw opened, and he let forth a wail of fury
that had been festering within him for years. loneliness, sorrow,
pain, hunger, grief, fury--it boiled inside of him and spilled over,
and he darted forward, claws outstretched as he lunged, murder
in his eyes. snowstar stiffened, eyes narrowing as she prepared
to meet him, but a flash of grey passed over her vision, and he
was knocked away.
icebrook found himself pinned to the ground, teeth buried in his
shoulder, and he wailed, thrashing angrily against his attacker. he
and the grey cat rolled, hissing and spitting as the clan looked on,
bewildered. finally, the grey she-cat pinned him, jaws sinking deep
into his neck, and held him as he fought, twisting and shrieking
until the yowls turned to sobs of terrible, agonized grief.
the she-cat jumped away, gaze conflicted and shadowed with
regret, and frond-dash recognized her, standing up and moving
forward hesitantly.
"p-pebblefang!"
the she-cat looked back, and her eyes warmed for only a moment
before a cough from the killer made her turn back, tense. blood
welled from his throat, and he coughed, getting up, looking out
at his clanmates weakly, panic and fury on his features, a more
terrifying sight than any cat had seen before.
"why?" he croaked, eyes meeting snowstar's. "we were going to be,
to have a family-- y-you killed him, you gave spiderleaf to aspen-"
he coughed, choking on crimson fluid. "-fur-- you took- you took
everything i had--"
snowstar was frozen, before she willed her paws to move. she
passed by pebblefang, giving her a brief nod, before she came
to her brother's side, her face stoic, emotions pushed to the back
of her heavy heart. for a moment, she stared, before she raised
her claws.
"i'm sorry."
icebrook saw his life run through his vision. being an apprentice,
looking up to his older sister, meeting cloverface. falling in love,
becoming a warrior, and that time he'd fallen into the frozen river
and been dragged back out by rosetail and his beloved mate. the
warmth that had filled him when cloverface pressed against his
wet body and whispered how scared, how terrified he'd been, how
much he needed icebrook. the terrible agony he'd felt as he starved,
and the relief he'd felt when his belly had been filled, only to be
replaced with sickness when he'd seen cloverface's lovely body
mangled and torn. the betrayal and rage he'd felt when he'd learned
the truth.
as his life flowed out onto the snow, icebrook's tears began to
freeze to his perfect, white fur. regret and guilt and sorrow and
pain burned and festered within him, overtaking his body and
filling his lungs and nose like the freezing waters of the river.
the world became a blur of white, and darkness inched in from
the edges of his vision as his lungs burned for air.
"you could have died, you mousebrain!" a shaking, soothing voice
met his ears, and he felt a soft, warm body press against his own.
a tongue licked over his ears and neck, and he felt relief at the
touch, closing his eyes.
"i love you, you stupid, crazy tom--don't scare me like that! if i'd
lost you-- i couldn't live without you!" warm, salty tears wet his
neck. "great starclan, don't ever scare me again."
with warmth sinking into his neck, icebrook's vision grew dark,
and he breathed his last.
congratulations, riverclan! you've caught the killer! pebblefang
rejoins your ranks, and you are given a second chance to live
your lives the way starclan intended.
