𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

-Chapter Twenty-Five-

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My innocence is drained

My soul is tainted

Can you see it through this face I've painted?

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     As the sun rose from its slumber the cats of Moonclan assembled underneath the large stone that was once Ashstar's den buzzing with a special ecstasy that only shows up when one prevails despite a dire circumstance, however Lionpaw could not take part in the happiness.

     Although it had been hours since the battle, and she had since then had a wash in a stream, Lionpaw could still feel the blood of those poor rogues clotting her pelt. She could not look down at her paws without seeing them stained crimson or seeing the brown she-cat writhing beneath them.

     She had always thought that she would be nothing like her mother, she had thought that where her mother acted out of hatred she would act out of love; instead she had become even more vile and cruel then her mother could ever be; she had taken not one life but two, and what's worse was she could've let them live. The brown molly had pleaded for mercy before she died and the tom... the tom's screams she knew she would hear in the night every time she tried to sleep.

     Lionpaw could not see why everyone was treating their conquest as though it was some great victory, how could it be a victory when the lives of innocent cats who were only following orders were lost. The worst part was no-one else had killed anyone, she was the only one who had taken a life in this battle, not even Ashstar was killed, they let him run away with the other rogues.

     Violetpaw hadn't spoken to her since the battle. She knew, she knew what Lionpaw had done, knew that she was a monster. However, Lionpaw also hadn't really talked to anyone since the battle and she hadn't seen Skyfire or Appleleaf since then either. There was no way they could know it was her that killed those cats, right? Everyone was distracted with fighting when she killed the brown molly and the only person who saw her kill the tom was Violetpaw. No, of course they wouldn't know, but that still left the question of where they were.

     She could've asked someone if they'd seen either of her friends around but she was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak the dead cats' screams and pleas would come out instead of her voice and then everyone would know.

     Lionpaw thought that they had made it out since she hadn't seen their faces amongst the dead Moonclan cats but perhaps their bodies had been dragged off somewhere else, there were rumours that rogues sometimes ate the dead bodies of their victims to conceal evidence...

     Lionpaw's worries of her friends' well-being dissolved when she saw them both leap atop the stone and call out to the clan "Cats of Moon clan! We know many of you might be confused why we, as Sun clan cats, are standing atop your meeting stone," Skyfire meowed to begin then Apple leaf took over.

     "The reason being it is time for you to chose your next leader.-"

     "But what about Ashstar?? Isn't he still seen as our leader by Starclan?" One cat meowed, interrupting Appleleaf's flow of words.

     "Don't worry we have that taken care of." Appleleaf meowed confidently. Up there on the stone Lionpaw's friend had adopted an entirely new persona, where normally Appleleaf was fidgety and energetic she had become bold and stable, although Lionpaw could still see Appleleaf's paws fidgeting slightly. Lionpaw zoned out of the rest of her friends speech; she felt as though someone was watching her, someone that knew what she had done and it wasn't Violetpaw. The feeling someone was watching her increased and she suddenly felt as though every eye in the clearing was pinned on her.