CotS #2: A Brighter Future (currently being rewritten)

Chapter Eighteen

Raindrop moved up to Goldenstar, her claws unsheathing dangerously. Goldenstar barely looked up from where she was fighting Oceanstar and Eveningprimrose. Goldenstar was fending the two dangerous she-cats off with pretty much no problem, but could she deal with the added damage that Raindrop dealt? Probably not.

Raindrop unleashed all her hidden fury that she'd hidden deep away in her soul. Her anger that her father and sister had been killed, anger at the dogs. Anger at her mother for abandoning her and committing suicide without a second thought for her surviving daughter. All her anger, unleashed into a few moves. She unintentionally raked her claws down Goldenstar's spine and paralyzed the leader. She quickly knocked Oceanstar and Eveningprimrose away when they tried to seize the chance to attack her now that she was down.

"No," she meowed, dark fury in her voice. "Leave her. Let her live paralyzed, unable to move. Let her get killed by foxes and badgers over and over again. Let's see if she's worthy of StarClan's healing." Raindrop looked away, eyes dropping to stare at the ground. She had just paralyzed a cat for life. That was complete cruelty, and yet Raindrop didn't feel bad about it. She had been right to paralyze Goldenstar, to stop her from killing. And she had done it without doing any killing herself. Because Raindrop wasn't a killer, and she never would be. Her forlorn expression flicked back to the dead body of the rogue Goldenstar had apprenticed. Mistypaw's cold body lay on the bloodstained earth, and Raindrop felt a twinge of sadness. She hadn't known her, obviously, but Mistypaw had fighting spirit and would've been an excellent apprentice, an excellent warrior. She could've had a future, and that was gone in an eyeblink. Her life had been taken by Raindrop herself, and Raindrop would be eternally guilty for that loss. No cat should have to die. SeasonClan had lived in peace until they had moved. Icestar had carried on, but it was the good fighters like Goldenstar who started wars. Wars, wars and wars. No cat wanted them, and yet Goldenstar started them.

"Won't you be merciful and just kill me?" Goldenstar whispered. Her head was about the only part of her body that could move at this point. She had a pained expression. But it was mingled with anger. There was no guilt on that face, the face of a murderer. There should be guilt but there was none, and that gave Raindrop the heartlessness to refuse.

"No, you will live your days like this," Raindrop meowed coldly. "You can die old and wrinkled, and paralyzed." She lifted her head and walked away from Goldenstar. She had to find out what had happened to Riverflame and Sparkdust. And Twilightshine. She had been out with Raindrop's apprentice – what had happened to Blossompaw? Raindrop desperately ran around camp looking for her puny apprentice. She was a natural fighter, but pitted up against some of SeasonClan's best warriors, there was no way Blossompaw had made it. Raindrop dashed around camp, sprinting and looking in every nook and cranny for her apprentice.

Finally, she found her. Blossompaw was curled up in a frightened ball behind Bunnypaw's dead body.

"She... she's gone!" Blossompaw whispered, terrified. "No, she isn't. You'll wake up in the morning and she'll be right beside you... and she'll be joking in the morning like she always does..."

Blossompaw buried her head in Raindrop's fur as she knelt beside her. Raindrop took in her apprentice's frightened whispers.

"She was supposed to get her warrior name with me in a few moons..." Blossompaw murmured. "I don't want her to go! She needs me. I need her. Briarpaw... we all need each other. That's not her, right? It's some other cat."

"It's her," Raindrop whispered sadly. "Get up. We have some work to do. Don't worry, I'll ask Oceanstar to give Bunnypaw a warrior's name before we stand vigil for her."