ONE LIFE
"You only have one chance to live life. Live life as well as you can, because you won't get a second chance."
My life was so long,
Forever and longer....
I saw so much,
Too much to remember....
I never knew enough,
My knowledge ran out....
And my existance ended,
All over too late....
After I lost everything.
Everything gone...
Just one more chance,
Just one more...
To live my life the best I can.
Tell me it's over when I know it's not, that's what you always do to me, no matter how much you and I both already know the truth.
Chapter One
Stars seemed to dim around Mosspelt, making it hard for him to see. His heart was beating so quickly it felt as though his chest was exploding. His path before him was darkened and slimy, while a distant path shone with starlight.
He longed to go towards the starlight, but his paws forced him forward and further along the dark, gloomy, slimy pathway. Mosspelt had never been in this part of StarClan before, but he wasn't even sure if this even was StarClan!
Please let StarClan help me, he thought desperately, craning his head to peer over at the quickly fading starlit path, winding off into the distance.
"Help, StarClan! Help me, please!" He cried, lashing his tail in frustration as he was dragged along the slimy path, his pelt matted and knotted from the drag by the invisible paws.
"You do not deserve out help!" Screeched a nearby fawn brown tom, his partially faded pelt still mildly glowing.
"Blind him!"
"Leave him for the devils!"
"Kill him now!"
The screeches all rushed back to him as he heard them repeated over and over. He had heared them before, before he had died on the moorland...
"Blind him!"
"Leave him for the devils!"
"Kill him now!"
His former Clanmates closed in on him, cutting him off from all of his exits. Mosspelt felt hot blood, his blood, roll down his face and flanks. All he saw was red, as blood was leaking into his eyes. And all he could hear were the betrayal filled voices of his former friends.
"Let me pass! Move out of the way!" Mosspelt shook his head, the blood flying out of his eyes and partially off his face. A stockily built mossy-brown tom stalked forward, his eyes showing nothing but disappointment.
No anger, no hatred, no betrayal. Just disappointment. Mosspelt bowed his head to the tom, terrified for his safety.
"Please, father. I had no means-" The tom raised his tail for silence and Mosspelt obeyed, swaying on his paws.
"You have committed an attempted murder of your own mother." Mosspelt's father's voicd faltered, but he continued.
"You should have already left, for your own safety. I am disappointed in you, son. Very disappointed."
"What do we do with him, Blazestar?" Asked a slimly built gravel coloured she-cat, avoiding Mosspelt's gaze.
"Leave him to run, Cloverspots. But he is no longer welcome here." Blazestar looked down at Mosspelt with a cold gaze and turned to stalk off.
"Father! Please! I did not do it!" Mosspelt shrieked, running up to his father on shaky legs.
"Leave, son. Now, otherwise I will allow my fellows to kill you here and now." Blazestar padded away, leaving Mosspelt and the gravel coloured she-cat face to face.
"Leave!" Screamed an infuriated Russian White tom, his eyes glowing with hatred and betrayal as he sprang forward to assist the gravel coloured she-cat.
"I will," Mosspelt gasped, heading for the only entrance his former Clanmates had left open and free of a blockade.
"I promise I will return, one day, to make sure you all know what really happened in that cave."
He limped out of camp, into the midnight black forest, his white and mossy-brown coat standing out and glowing like the moonlight.
"Mosspelt?" Asked a soft voice and Mosspelt spun around, readying himself to attack his tracker-
"It's me, Robin." An absolutely gorgeous Snowshoe she-cat was revealed as she stepped out of the nearby clumps of bramble thickets, her pelt still miraculously smooth.
"I saw what happened. It's terrible. I can't believe that they trust Maplepaw more than you! It's off the hook, that is." She trailed off, rushing over to support Mosspelt, who leaned on her shoulder.
"Let's go the moorland," she whispered, half leading him, half carrying Mosspelt to the open grasslands of the moor. Mosspelt felt more blood gush out of his wounds, and he was thankful when they settled down at the edge of the trees.
"This is as close as I can be to the open moorland, Robin," he rasped, his breath coming in shallow gasps now as his heart slowed and his lungs began to shut down. His wounds felt on fire and he had a horrendous headache.
"No," Robin said firmly, grasping his shoulders with surprising strength and supported him as they hobbled on to the soft sweetgrass littering the moorland. Mosspelt slipped off her shoulder and sunk down into the soft grasses, sighing as his eyes began to close.
All he heard was Robin begging him to stay awake...
"I see you've walked the dark path. You made a good choice, you did. This is where you belong." Mosspelt opened his eyes and saw a sleek Australian Mist she-cat picking her way cautiously over to him. Mosspelt inhaled a sharp intake of breath, realising who the cat was.
"Maplepaw," he breathed, glaring at her as she halted in from of him, hackles slightly raised. Maplepaw scoffed.
"I am not Maplepaw. I am no longer a pathetic apprentice. I am now a respected dark forest warrior named Maplestripe! I am feared by everyone, and I should be, especially by you." Mosspelt shrugged, feeling relieved that when he moved blood no longer spilled down his sides.
"Since when should I be afraid of someone younger than me and still not ready to become a warrior?" He queried, holding back laughter at Maplestripe twisted her jaw into a forced grin, her eyes glinting with rage.
"I am a more powerful warrior than you can imagine. And," she stopped her mini-speech to lick her claws.
"I am still alive." Mosspelt hissed at the jibe and he moved forward threateningly. Maplestripe merely grinned an actual grin.
"But, just because you are dead, doesn't mean you can't influence others, nor does it mean you can't make a right choice. You wasted your one and only chance at life but you can make up for it with my help, but only mine."
Mosspelt backed away, tail kinked over his back in a common signal used by VineClan; Maplestripe laughed evilly.
"There is no one to aid you here, Mosspaw," she taunted him with his apprentice name.
"No old Clanmate, nor any StarClan cat can save you when you are here." Mosspelt continued to back away, tail still kinked over his back, his heart racing. If he was in StarClan, he would not have dared do it, but now was time for desperate meassures.
"That's what you think," he growled, before yowling, "attack her with all your might!" Maplestripe rolled over instictively, batting her claws at nothing, giving Mosspelt time to run, and he did.
He ran for his life, hearing Maplestripe's furious scream as she realised she had been tricked. He chuckled but continued running when he heard Maplestripe give chase. He saw, at the end of the gloomy stone path he was running along, a hint of starlight, suggesting where he had started was becoming closer.
I'm almost there, he thought, pushing on faster and faster, his legs burning. Maplestripe was closing in, her remarkable speed serving her well. Mosspelt streaked on, now alarmed that Maplestripe's horrible hot breath was on his tail.
"Mosspelt! RUN!" Screamed a voice from ahead; a long furred red tabby she-cat was waiting for him at the StarClan border, her eyes stretched wide in terror.
"Wispleaf!" Mosspelt called to his sister and he sped up, wanting to go with her...
"Ah ha!" Maplestripe shrieked, pouncing on him and pinning him down. "Mosspelt!" Wispleaf screamed, breaking through the border and streaking towards the battle cats.
"Maplepaw!" Wispleaf gasped, skidding to a halt just before she hurtled into Mosspelt, who felt weakened by Maplestripe contantly tearing his belly open.
"MY NAME IS MAPLESTRIPE!" Maplestripe screeched, leaping off Mosspelt and barrelling into Wispleaf, knocking the StarClan warrior over. Blood stained Maplestripe's ginger fur and her teeth were bright red.
"Mosspelt! Get your crazed apprentice off me!" Wispleaf rasped, striking Maplestripe hard in the stomach and sending the alive Dark Forest warrior reeling. Maplestripe crashed into Mosspelt's open paws and Mosspelt pinned her down, raking his claws over her belly.
"Let me go!" Maplestripe yowled, smacking her paws down hard on Mosspelt's head, sending him crashing into the dirt. Wispleaf grabbed him by the scruff, but Maplestripe hauled her off Mosspelt and tossed her into a tree as though Wispleaf was a fly.
CRACK!
On impact with the tree Wispleaf's neck twisted horribly and her head lolled to the side, her eyes still open and glowing with fright. She crumpled to the ground underneath the tree, unmoving.
"No!" Mosspelt breathed, scrambling forward to sniff his sister's limp form. She was most definately dead.
"You murdered your mother!" He shrieked at Maplestripe, who grinned evilly. She tossed her sleek head and blood splattered the ground, Wispleaf's blood.
"Yeah, so?" She laughed, stalking forward, head held high. "I murdered my mother! What's wrong with that? She was already dead anyways. so who cares? What impact does it have on the living?"
Mosspelt clawed Maplestripe's face and hissed, "you depraved brat! When I mentored you, I thought you were loyal." He turned away and added darkly,
"Obviously I was wrong."
Maplestripe leaped in front of him, clearly annoyed but astonished. "You think I am no longer loyal?" She whispered, mortified. Mosspelt sniffed and turned his head away from her.
"Yes. You are a murderer. Not my apprentice." Maplestripe raised her eyebrows at the last statement.
"I don't mind not being your apprentice anymore," she said loftily. "but honestly, you were a terrible mentor. " Mosspelt clucked his tongue in disapproval.
"No, your were just too much of a brat to notice what I was teaching you. That was why I made you have more assessments than your littermates." Maplestripe hissed and struck him with her claws, sending him reeling into a tree, the tree next to where Wispleaf's body was disappearing.
"You are weak and old," Maplestripe snapped, lashing her tail on top of Mosspelt's head, making him dizzy.
"Whether, as I am quite the opposite." Maplestripe showed him her bloodied teeth and blooded pelt, a smirk etched into her once gorgeous features, the ones Mosspelt had once fallen for. Now she looked too evil to be recognised as the joyful, brat of an apprentice Mosspelt had loved before he had met Robin.
"Robin!" He gasped, remembering the Snowshoe she-cat. She was probably still mourning his body, stretched out in the blanket of sweetgrass where Mosspelt had rasped his final words.
"Oh, you remembered." Maplestripe cackled evilly and disappeared into the bushes, the slimy, prickly bushes, leaving Mosspelt, half-unconscious, lying against a tree truck, constantly looking over at the place his sister had been killed.
He moaned as he dared to move, feeling his leg crack. He knew he had broken some sort of bone. He heard a distant hiss and then a thud behind him, and he scrambled quickly to his paws, trying to find the source of the noises.
"Here she is, your beloved Robin. I can't believe you fell for her, I mean, she's as ugly as an old hag." Maplestripe returned to Mosspelt's side, Robin being dragged along behind her; the Snowshoe she-cat seemed terrified, and tried to move closer to Mosspelt, who knocked Maplestripe aside and raced to Robin's side, which was covered in dried blood.
"What did you do to her?" He gasped as he turned back to face Maplestripe, who smiled sweetly at him.
"Oh, just a makeover with my fabulous claws." Maplestripe showed Mosspelt her bloodied claws, and sure enough, Mosspelt recognised Robin's darker coloured blood immediately.
"Do you want one?" Maplestripe asked and Robin seemed petrified. "Say no!" She told Mosspelt her now croaky voice.
"Say no, please!"
Maplestripe laughed; she was already moving towards Mosspelt, her claws gleaming in the dim moonlight. The blood glinted and was a bright shade of red, more frightening than blood in the shade.
Mosspelt backed up protectively in front of his mate, who attempted to slither away, but slipped on her own blood that was constantly pooling at her paws and whimpered in horror.
"Get to StarClan," he ordered Robin. "Now." Robin got to her shaky paws and Maplestripe grinned frighteningly.
"If you get there fast enough, you can be treated," he told Robin hurriedly. "If not..." He grimmaced and that was enough to get Robin running.
Maplestripe shrieked and streaked after Robin, but Mosspelt tackled her. Robin was across the starlit border safely, and her wounds faded away. She looked relieved, but when she saw Mosspelt and Maplestripe locked in ferocious combat, she froze and her eyes glinted in terror.
"Run, Robin! Run!" Mosspelt screamed as he felt his flanks tear as Maplestripe clawed him continuously. Robin cast him one glance of betrayal and dashed away through the starlit hunting grounds, her tail streaming behind her.
Maplestripe suddenly let go and bounded away. Mosspelt followed, determined to smack her...
He blacked out, and the last thing he heard was Maplestripe's victorious screech.
Chapter Two[]
I glanced over at Maplestripe, who seemed to be telling my brother a particularly scary story. The aging ginger she-cat was grinning evilly and I shivered. Blazestar claimed she was safe and that she had saved the Clan from a mass-murderer, but I was still suspicious. I had reasons though. Apparently it had been Maplestripe who had murdered my father, but my brother, Sharppaw, was not convinced.
"Honestly Strikepaw! You'd think that you were a porcupine the way you act around Maplestripe!" Sharppaw exclaimed as we settled down under a maple tree near the edge of camp.
"I swear, if she murdered our father, I'd think our father had been the weakest warrior in the world! Maplestripe's so weak she can barely use her legs anymore!" I nodded stiffly.
"Good, that means she won't be able to kill anyone else." Sharppaw stared at me disbelievingly, before shaking his head as though to rid water from his ears.
"You'll understand she's a good cat at heart," he meowed confidently. "You'll see." I sniffed. Yeah right.
My opinion of Maplestripe still had not changed, even in the moon since Sharppaw and I spoke about her. Me and my other littermate, my sister named Briarpaw, agreed with me. Maplestripe was not a safe cat. Our mother, Ivymist, told us stories of our father, but she left out the bits on who killed him in the stories of his death.
Blazestar though, had not left out any parts of the story, explaining in extreme detail who killed our father and how he died. I dreamed of my father a lot, but his features were always blurred, as though he didn't want to reveal himself to me. I was the only one who dreamed of him; Sharppaw stated dramatically that he dreamed of eating a vole to a bunch of giggling she-cat apprentices, most of which were warriors now, but Briarpaw refused to tell me any of her dreams, saying it was her private life.
Shaking those thoughts from my mind, I got to my paws and headed straight over to where Maplestripe was telling Sharppaw the story. Sharppaw seemed intensly frightened but curious at the same time, occasionly whimpering and fliching at scary parts. When I reached them, Maplestripe seemed to be telling him a particularly scary bit:
"And then I leaped at the futile enemy, oh the look of terror on his face! I slashed his throat viciously and blood poured out all over my paws. I scored my claws down his belly and his intestines spilled out across the ground as he wreathed helplessly on the ground under my paws. I loved the feeling of him dying beneath me, he had caused me such strife!"
I cleared my throat and Maplestripe grinned at me, her eyes glinting in the sunlight with an unreadable emotion. Sharppaw looked up, seemingly terrified by Maplestripe's recount of battle.
"Strikepaw!" He gasped, using my broad shoulders as a standing support. I winced slightly and Sharppaw cast me an apologetic glance before saying kindly to Maplestripe,
"I might go now. I-I might be needed for something, you know?" And without waiting for a reply, he bolted off, leaving me standing in uncomfortable silence with Maplestripe, the Australian Mist still grinning slightly.
"Careful kitty," Maplestripe growled. "Don't wanna go making yourself an enemy. Especially one powerful enough to end your existence."
I glared at her and spat, "I have no enemies." Maplestripe huffed and clambered to her paws. "Not when I'm around, kitty." And she left me standing alone as she moved over to where Sharppaw was importantly sorting herbs. I vaguly caught a glimpse of them leaving camp, but I did not follow.
Sharppaw trusted his mentor, but I knew how to get him on my side. I was so concentrated on going to the entrance of camp that I did not feel the tail of my sister resting on my back.
"Is a warrior going with you?" Briarpaw queried, her soft eyes burning into my blazing ones. "So what if they're not?" I told her earnestly and she cocked her head at me.
"Apprentices aren't allowed to leave camp alone unless given permission from a warrior," Briarpaw recited and I tossed my head.
"That's a stupid law. Anyways, Maplestripe gave me permission," I lied, but Briarpaw seemed to catch on to the lie. She simply stared at me with her narrowed gaze, waiting for me to act. I glared back, my lips curling slightly into a snarl.
I had enough, and turned and bolted out of camp, ignoring my sister's protests. I raised my muzzle to the air and scented Maplestripe's sour scent heading towards DarkClan territory.
TBC