Blood Flowers

 BLOOD FLOWERS

Episode Five, Season Two, of Rise.

Enjoy <3

Blood Flowers
The mess around me was too much for me to comprehend. The first thing I noticed was the lack of blood on the ground. (Okay that sounded morbid…) But by the looks of the horrified faces of the Coalition cats and the body strewn across the floor, I kind of expected to see a river of blood.

Nightshadow greets us grimly at the entrance, his wound a bloody scar, still bright and red. Feathershine cries out in relief at his safety and Nightshadow breaks the news to us in a flat voice.

“Hawkstar’s dead.”

I peer at the fallen body and recognize Hawkstar’s distinctively dark brown tabby pelt. His eyes are a faded color, I think sickly, and foam bubbles from his mouth.

There isn’t a sign of a wound or blood on his pelt, however, except for the thin trail that runs out of his mouth and to the ground.

“Blood flowers,” Karina whispers.

“Blood what?” Terran repeats dumbly.

Karina shakes her head. “Sorry, that was just what I thought of when I first saw his body.” She points with her tail at the crumpled pile of what seemed like choked up flowers mixed with Hawkstar’s blood.

“Blood flowers,” I agree grimly.

We draw closer and Feathershine looks pale. “His eyes,” she gasps, “what happened to them?”

“The flowers seem to have drains it of color,” Flameshadow says grimly, “don’t get too close,” he warns as I draw closer, “I don’t know what the effects might be.”

I do. I want to say, but I pull away anyways, right into Terran’s strong grasp. Terran wraps his tail around me, almost protectively and we draw to the side to gather our thoughts.

“I can’t believe someone murdered Hawkstar,” Feathershine says, a shocked expression frozen on her face, “I mean who would do such a thing?”

“I don’t think it was a Coalition cat,” I caution, “It wouldn’t make sense.”

Nightshadow shakes his head. “It wouldn’t, but we have to face that there might be a traitor amongst us working with the enemy.”

“Are you saying a Viper planned this?” I ask dubiously.

“Who else?” Terran frowns, “It’s not exactly a Viper thing to do, as they prefer bloodshed than an inner wound like poison, but that’s the only enemy the Coalition are facing, right?”

Karina bobs her head along and Applepaw bounds over. “What happened?” Her fur is spiked up with obvious distress and I realize that Emerald and Jewel are trailing the apprentice from behind.

“Hawkstar is dead,” Nightshadow tells her, and I gather my sisters to me.

Jewel glances up at me, “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s up in the stars,” I tell her, remembering how StarClan was described to me, “he’s up there.” I point with my tail up at the sky.

Jewel’s gaze softens and I hear her whisper, “Are Mommy and Daddy up there?”

I manage to nod. “They are,” I murmur, “and we’ll see them one day.”

It’s a loose promise but Jewel accepts it. Emerald on the other hand is glancing at Hawkstar’s body. “I want to go home, Bryce,” she tells me.

I sigh and scoop up Emerald so that we are level with each other. “We are home, Emerald.”

To my surprise, she pouts. “I liked our old home.”

Terran glances over and I give him a shaky smile. He stands and pads over to me with a questioning gaze. Emerald squeals with surprise and launches herself over to Terran. “You like Terran, don’t you, Emerald?”

She nods. “If we went back, we wouldn’t see Terran anymore. Or Applepaw. Or any of the others.”

Emerald stares up at me with her jeweled green eyes. “This is home,” I tell her quietly, “and I promise it’ll be better than before.”

Terran wraps his tail around me and I lean my head against him. Emerald nestles into our pelts and Jewel curls herself tightly in front of us. My broken little family.

When I glance back over at my other friends, I start when I see Shadeflower with Nightshadow. The she-cat has her unfocused eyes on her brother and seems to be holding onto whatever he was saying.

I want to go over and talk to the she-cat, but I don’t know what I could possibly say. Her life had already broken down around her, and there was no possible way I could understand.

“What do you think of Hawkstar’s death?” Terran asks finally, his speckled sky-blue eyes bright in the sunlight.

“It’s a bit fishy,” I murmur, “I don’t understand how he could have been poisoned if he was always around camp.”

“Maybe Flameshadow is right to be cautious then,” Terran gazes thoughtfully towards where the other cats are still gathered around the scene, “maybe the poison spreads through the air.”

“It can’t possibly,” I frown, “how would you explained the choked up flowers? Plus if it was spread by air, we’d all be dead.”

Terran ducks his head. “Guess so.” He lifts his head again, “I wonder how the Vipers planned it.”

“What makes you think it’s the Vipers?” I tilt my head up at him.

“Who else could it be?” He eyes darken, “I hate to think that they’re getting the upper paw, but if we don’t find out how they did it and who did it, we’re going to lose very fast.”

I sigh. It had to be the Blood Army, I am positive, but somehow, I didn’t want to reveal this to Terran.

It just doesn’t seem right.

“Cats of the Coalition,” Amberstar’s call saves me from having to admit what I knew about Hawkstar’s death and the blood flowers. “Please gather around.”

We drift closer along with the rest of the Clan cats. Amberstar looks especially somber, standing solo on the rock that usually was for two leaders. “Today, I must announce that Hawkstar has died, from what seems to be poisoning from a mixture. We do not know who did it, but know this: if you are our there with blood on your paws, we will find you.”

There’s a white tom standing below Amberstar, I realize, and Amberstar flicks her tail at him. “Whitepelt, as deputy of DuskClan and one of the two deputies of the Coalition, do you accept the role as leader?”

“I do.”

“Then I name you Whitestar and you will be my comrade in leadership as we lead the Coalition out of this darkness.” The white tom leaps up onto the rock beside Amberstar.

“We don’t have nine lives for our leaders here,” Nightshadow tells us, “in other Clans, it used to be a tradition that the leaders would get nine lives, and that ancestors from StarClan would grant them those nine lives. But we don’t have a StarClan receiving place, and so it is hard for us to receive nine lives as leaders, so we just don’t.”

“I can’t imagine a cat having nine lives,” I reflect uneasily, “that’d be too weird.”

Karina had her forehead all scrunched up; it was sort of an adorable look for the fierce she-cat. “So if Amberstar had nine lives and I stabbed her with my claws, she’d die and come back?”

Nightshadow nods, not even questioning the first part of her question. “She certainly would, and I think it would be safe to say that you’d be dead too.”

Karina rolls her eyes, “Oh come on, I could totally take on the Coalition by myself.”

Terran snorts. Karina’s eyes shoot towards her brother and Terran puts on his signature smirk. I smother a giggle as Karina raises an eyebrow.

“Are you implying that I can’t beat them?”

The white tom practically singsongs, “No, my dear, I’m stating it.”

Karina bowls her brother over playfully, nearly taking me along with him. I duck and usher Emerald and Jewel over to Applepaw to keep them safe for the time being.

While the siblings scuffle, I turn to Nightshadow and nod my head to Shadeflower. My eyes ask him a silent question: will she be all right?

He gives me a terse jerk of his head and I loosen my shoulders. “Okay, we need to focus here,” I drag Karina off Terran, “we’re supposed to figure out why anyone would try to poison Hawkstar and how they did it.”

Applepaw waves her tail in an almost tentative sort of way. I’m not used to the bubbly apprentice being so shell-shocked and quiet.

“I think Hawkstar was out most of the day and when he came back, he immediately headed for his den but he didn’t take more than five steps when he collapsed.”

It took awhile for me to find an appropriate response to that, but Feathershine beat me to it. “How do you poison someone when they’re aware of your presence?”

I hear a tiny whimper and glance down to see my sisters pressing against each other. My mouth sours and dries. “Applepaw, can you take my sisters to their den and put them to their nest? Someone will catch you up on what we’re saying later.”

The apprentice nods hurriedly and guides my sisters away. The last glimpse I see of them is Jewel’s quiet blue eyes staring back at me.

I have a sudden vision of the camp, soaked and covered in blood. Bodies, I think sickly, are everywhere, and when I focus on one side of the camp, I see a pale white body near a black one.

My breath catches in my throat. That’s Terran and me. Karina’s is not far behind and Feathershine and Nightshadow are just to the left. At first I think that all of the camp had been slaughtered, but tiny movement catches my eye.

It’s my sisters, their paws pushing against my lifeless body, their cries lighting up the night sky.

My sisters, lost in the mess of death, have no where to go, no one to save them.

“Bryce, snap out of it,” Terran nudges me with one shoulder. His sky-blue eyes are concerned. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” I shake out my head, “I’m going to tend to my sisters.”

Terran’s tail lingers on my shoulder for a moment longer but I pad away, leaving my friends behind to talk about Hawkstar’s death.

I walk into my den and spot Emerald and Jewel, still up. Applepaw looks exhausted but she is trying to soothe my sisters.

“Thanks, Applepaw,” I tell her, “I’ll take care of them now.”

Applepaw dips her head and scoots outside, leaving me alone with my sisters. My heart aches at the thought of Ruby. Who knows what the Vipers had done to her?

Emerald is looking sleepy but Jewel scrambles out of the nest and burrows her head into my pelt. “Bryce?” she murmurs, “Why did someone kill Hawkstar?”

I know what she’s remembering. She’s remembering out parents deaths, how one had been covered in blood, while the other had first contracted a disease but in the end was also murdered.

“I don’t know, Jewel,” I tell her, “I really don’t. I mean it’s a war between the Vipers and the Coalition…but I don’t think this is the Vipers’ doing.”

Jewel glances up at me and I instantly regret trying to explain all this to her. She’s only six moons old.

“Do you think we can find Mommy and Daddy up there?” Jewel is staring out the entrance up at the night sky.

I hadn’t realized how fast the sun had set. I give a tiny shrug and scoot closer with Jewel in tow. We stare out and I exhale softly. The stars…they looked so peaceful. I could see why the Coalition worshiped them so much.

“I think I see them.”

Jewel’s voice startles me. I had been so lost in thought, I hadn’t noticed my sister intently staring up at the sky. She’s like a little spitting image of me, I think sadly.

“Where?”

Jewel points up with her paw, and I follow the invisible line, knowing I would see different stars than she did. But yet two stood out to me, glowing brighter than ever before, as if beckoning to Jewel and I.

“Aura and Smokey,” I whisper.

Jewel drops her paw and nestles her head back down. “Are they watching us, Bryce?”

“Of course they are, Jewel.”

“I’m glad,” my sister closes her eyes.

“So am I.”

In moments, she’s fast asleep and I carry her over to Emerald, who is already dozing. I curl beside them, wishing this moment could last forever.

The End.