Across the clearing, her parents were engrossed in conversation outside the warrior's den, flank to flank. Whatever speck of hope that kindled in her heart was dissipated in the blink of an eye as her father's gaze collided with her's and hardened. Jayscreech flattened his ears as contempt rushed to his gaze. She hadn't even had a split second to rehearse.
Her mother, Palescratch, then actually unsheathed her claws and hissed spittle that resonated with venom. Lightpaw couldn't believe it. Her own mother, who had once suckled her at her belly and protected her from the eagle that had crashed through camp, was now allowing her to rot as a flotsam.
Lightpaw scurried away with her eyes screwed shut to hinder her brimming tears. Her vision would be useless either way, as the disused droplets of liquid obscured them entirely. A part of her heart was in her throat, the other in her stomach to be corroded with acid. But shutting her eyes, only an act of desperation, caused her to collide into Chaffinchgaze's haunches.
The tom was supposed to be her brother, her dearest littermate that once shared a nest, her mother's milk, and rusty mossballs with. However, the instant her eyes shot open, she met a gaze laden with hostility that was no longer astounding. Chaffinchgaze opened his jaws but failed to voice any scorn he harbored, as if his revulsion for her was inhibiting. Only a laborious hiss laced with abhorrence escaped his jaws.
Any onlooker would never discern that the four cats were a family that shared the closest of blood bonds. Chaffinchgaze's father was livid with him, as if he blamed him for not refraining his sister, which would've definitely added to his antipathy. She was helpless as she couldn't control her father's actions. But her brother was destined to despise her.
The only cat that didn't seem to possess any resentment for her was Honeybird who was heavy with kits from the nursery she just stepped past the threshold of to meet her fate head-on. It was one cat out of countless. Lightpaw was growing accustomed to the odium, and one queen wasn't enough.
But Lightpaw could only acknowledge that the phenomenon of expecting kits would've softened any hatred she was bound to feel. At the despondent revelation, everything Lightpaw once knew seemed to crumble, her light shattering and blinding her before vanishing from her vision forever...
She couldn't comprehend most of the animus directed at her. She understood that she'd committed something unconventional and immoral, but she didn't believe it burned to the extent of her maltreatment. Except Lightpaw was deliriously aware that such trauma could make her delusional and refusing to accept her dreary fate... It was worse when she couldn't even acknowledge what she'd done.
As if summoned by her troubled thoughts, the rain instantly unleashed its torrential force, driving every cat back to their dens. Lightpaw was consciously aware of how every apprentice gravitated towards one end of the apprentice den, leaving an entire expanse of ground for her unwanted body that was chilled by the breeze that wreathed around her.
...
It was nearly dusk and Lightpaw's status had been deterred to the final hunting patrol, as her kits had made a racket of ostracizing her, backed up by their very mentors. Lightpaw had found it ironic that the rhetoric of soiled role-models had been incorporated in their crusade since, if anything, the mentors were the despicable cats, not her.
However, Rainstar and Alderlark had acceded. Her former children and companions had been permitted the glory of sunlight hunting while she was assigned as nothing but an inferior backup hunter. Lightpaw had no energy or fluid-count -as she was always denied the crisp and newly soaked moss- left to weep, but her heart was still raw enough to feel everything.
To amplify her perturbation, Cloudslash had been assigned on the patrol- inevitably since he was her mentor- along with her irascible mother- that seemed to have ticks teeming under her fur- and Moonbristle paired with her apprentice, Mousepaw, that didn't hesitate to glower at her, unrestrained by her mentor who Lightpaw had once found shrewd when she'd analyzed her clanmates.
Cloudslash's presence was inexorable. But Lightpaw was still dejected from the fact that her mother of all she-cats was included. When she attempted to return Mousepaw's glare, she was only contravened. Both her mother and Cloudslash shot her an accusatory glare. "Don't harm your clanmates," They chimed in unison.
Lightpaw had no fight in her left to retaliate. She didn't even frown or lash her tail. She was emotionless, although something in her almost compelled her to loll her tongue at Cloudslash. She wasn't sure of Cloudslash reciprocated her urge and she didn't dare hope he did. However, he seemed to hustle the cats out of camp for their patrol. Lightpaw thought the best scenario was if her tension was intuitive enough for him to scent.
As they scouted their narrow wedge of territory that divided Shadowclan from Thunderclan, Cloudslash ambushed her in an area where shadows accumulated to a pitch black tinge, catching her by surprise and snagging his sharp claws on her hindquarters and then proceeding to slice her muzzle.
Lightpaw was about to let out an ear-splitting shriek, a caterwaul laced with all her boiled anger, at the hot pain that seared through her innards. However, she caught herself at the last minute, clamping her jaws shut. Cloudslash already had a paw raised, ready to gag her as if he'd sensed it. Lightpaw had the slightest passion left to swat at her former love-interest with indignation, claiming she could keep herself in check.
She was careful to keep affection out of her paw, and fortunately she had as her mentor's gaze blazed with derision before he got to his paws and sauntered away. Before vanishing from Lightpaw's sight, the tom ordered the apprentice to roll in a patch of mint stalks that happened to be in the vicinity. Lightpaw had no alternative but to comply. Part of her was glad to, as she didn't want to be faced with bleak reality when the medicine cats back at camp would make their reluctance to tend to her evident in their gaze.
