Kill The Queen

Chapter 1

         He struggled to breathe, the rusty scent of blood was overwhelming as it flooded his nose. The horror around him slowly unfolded, as the crimson site sent chills down his spine. Flowerstripe gave another shallow, raspy breath as he coughed out droplets of blood. The taste burned his maw.

        He quickly brought up his paw to wipe away the thick red fluid, but jumped at the startled sight of his paws stained scarlet. He twisted his limb to clearly take in the sight. A puddle mysteriously appeared in front of him and he peered forward, curious. He noticed his muzzle was stained with blood and patches of the color were splattered across his beautiful lilac pelt.

        "No-" he choked as another fit of coughing took over.

         Slowly, ghost-like bodies painted the misty scene, all stained red. The scent of sickness and blood was crushing and he felt like a boulder was on his shoulders. Flowerstripe's mind raced as his gaze flitted between the lifeless felines.

        The echo of coughing suddenly became louder as it rang across the hollow. The trees around him grew and covered the sky and all was dark but the atmosphere was still tinted red. He flattened his ears, desperately trying to block away the husky coughing. Soon, it was too much as it took over his other senses, leaving him blind of his surroundings.

         Cracked voices began closing in, interrupted by the endless wheezing.

         'Why didn't you do anything Flowerstripe'

         'You could have prevented this'

         'How could you leave us here to die'

         'She would have listened to you'

         One voice, though, stood out among the rest. Flowerstripe slowly opened his eyes as he was presented with a medium-furred tan feline with vibrant pine green eyes.

         "Cypresspaw..." The medicine cat breathed. He leaned forward and tried to muzzle the apprentice, but Cypresspaw quickly stepped back. The apprentice looked down, but the anger radiating from them was inevitable.

         They gritted, "How could you! All these cats are dead! Because of YOU."

         Flowerstripe winced, shutting his eyes close, the sight of his apprentice reminding him of his failure was suffocating. He opened his maw to reason, but no words left. He looked into his apprentice's gaze and tried again, "Cypresspaw... please."

         They said nothing as a fit of coughing took over. A pool of blood began rising from under them and they collapsed

         The medicine cat froze, memories began infiltrating their mind. No. No. No. No. No! He gasped as he was whisked out of his dream and into his den again. A blurry figure appeared in front of him and he slowly blinked to regain visibility.

         "Oh the stars! Thank Starclan you're all right! Your breathing was so shallow, you kept fidgeting in your sleep, you started sweating, and murmuring something about; Cypresspaw?" Splashpaw, his new apprentice, began pacing around the den as though some terrible tragedy had struck again. But Flowerstripe didn't blame her, she had seen too much from over the moons.

        Still lost in thought, he just simply mewed, "Oh." Slowly blinking and returning to the physical world, he straightened up and instructed, "Can you give Gooseflight his daily dose of herbs? I- have something to do. Oh, and, be careful." Minnowstar had been rationing the herbs, and only using them in cases of high importance. She claimed it was a test to only have the fittest of cats survive. So Flowerstripe and Splashpaw would pass out some herbs in secret.