Chapter Text
By the time they reached home, black clouds had already cast their weight across the skies, and heavy rain plummeted down. The three kits lie huddled and buried beneath the thick, warm white fur of Gorseear. The tom could only meet their worried and confused gazes with an expression of sympathy. The oldest kit mewed something that Tom couldn't hear, but soon their attention was stolen when an ear-splitting screeching noise rang out in the clearing. Suddenly, frecklewish was on top of their mother, and the speckled she-cat lay furious blow after blow across her muzzle and her face before eventually being hauled off by two of her clanmates.
Frecklewish continued to spit and thrash as Mapleshade staggered to her paws, fat droplets of fresh blood seeping from the wound on her muzzle to coat her chest fur. Blood from her torn eyelid painted the wet grass as she doubled over, holding her stinging cheek as she hissed curses and threats at the leader. Frecklewish wriggled free from Seedpelt and Bloomheart grip, thrusting her face toward Maplesahde as she cursed her, she then directed her hateful gaze toward the three young kits. The fury burning in her eyes made them shiver. The speckled she-cat spat curses at the kits before turning to face her father. Everything was a blur after that. And the next thing they knew, they were struggling and staggering after their mother through the wet, muddy ground.
Mapleshade tightly held Petalkit in her maw as Patchkit and Larchkit tumbled after her, trying to hide underneath her dragging belly fur to get away from the pelting rain. Larchkit turned his head every once in a while to glance at the Black Tom who followed them. Ravenwing’s expression was unreadable, but he could not meet the kit’s gaze. They finally came to a stop when they reached the rushing river. Patchkit shuffled nervously as he watched how the angry river thrashed and slammed against large stones, and how large pieces of debris dragged on through the waves. Why had they left home? Did Thunderclan not want them? He wanted to ask, but he felt it was not the time.
As Mapleshade set Petalkit down, she stiffened as she heard the words Ravenwing speak: "You only have yourself to blame, you old fool." The small Tom spat horridly, his tail lashing in harash strides and sweeping up leaves. Mapleshade twisted around to face him. "My kits have done nothing wrong!" She screeched, "How could you endanger innocent kits? You are the biggest hypocrite of them all. To Shame me for my code-breaking, but damn my kit's to a life in exile! This will be your biggest mistake ever, you coward!" Ravenwing stiffened his fur, prickling, though he tried to keep cool.
He scoffed, rolling his eyes as he shook the rain from his sodden pelt. "I have made no mistake." He meowed. "What I have done is in the will of the stars. They have never led me wrong! If you are to be exiled for your treachery, then so be it. Those half-clan mongrels of yours and that murderer can never be trusted! Be thankful that we let you leave alive." Ravenwing yowled. His tail lashed side to side and he raked his claws into the ground. He stared her down, as if he were mocking her. Daring her to try something.
"You'll pay for those words!" Mapleshade leaped high, launching off her bended haunches, and landed on the startled black Tom. With unsheathed claws, she dragged her paws down into his soft, soaking wet fur. Ravenwing struggled and thrashed, fear seizing him as the furious she-cat tore into his chest and belly. He managed to land a hard kick to Mapleshade's belly, but the attack was in vain as that seemed to spur her rage on further. She landed a hard blow to his face, and he spat up blood as he lay disoriented. As Mapleshade went to deal the final blow, she felt a weight crashing into her and craned her neck just in time to see Seedpelt slamming into her side.
She landed on her side with a hard thud in a puddle of wetness. She quickly hauled herself to her paws to see Seedpelt hovering over Ravenwing. She was so focused on her rage that she failed to notice how the river flooded onto the shore and how her freighted kit’s desperately tried to scramble toward her for safety. She lunged forward, leaping onto Seedpelt's back. Sinking her teeth into his ear before tearing away the soft flesh. Seedpelt with a furious yowl, he kicked her as they tumbled around in the rising water. After moments of struggling she’d managed to get Seedpelt underneath her and shoved his face into the water.
As Seedpelt thrashed beneath her, she felt a burning sensation in her shoulder and glanced to see Ravenwing raking his dull, fitted claws into her. Mapleshade lifted a paw off of Seedpelt and back-handed ravenwing, but the pesky medicine cat kept at it. She abandoned her job of drowning her ex-clanmate and turned her focus to Ravenwing, clamping her jaws around his throat. The smell of heavy copper flooded her senses, and blood coated her jaws as the small Tom squawked beneath her. Warm blood flooded her mouth, and it spurred her on as she slowly drained the life out of him.
She paid no attention to the weight on her back or the claws that tried to pull her off. But soon it got annoying. She kicked at what she thought might have been Seedpelt, but her blood chilled when she heard the cries of her babies and, afterward, a loud splash. Mapleshade flung Seedpelt off, abandoning the corpse beneath her. "Patchkit!" She screeched, terror seeping into her once angry voice. Without hesitation, she leapt in after him, kicking her way through the harash currents, trying to get toward the kitten that was being swept beneath the murky tides. Her other two kits cried for her, and one by one, the remaining two plunged into the river after them. Seedpelt watched from just a few fox lengths away, hovering over his clanmate's corpse. He said nothing and didn't try to stop them. Just watching as the last two kits were swept away downstream along with their mother and other littermate. After a few moments, he grabbed Ravenwings body by the scruff and began dragging it back to