mintberry

~~~

HOW COULD HAREPAW think that Cherrylight and Whiteberry are dead? All he had to do was take their pulse and find out. But maybe he didn't want to; admitting death was a very difficult thing to do. Hope, even the tiniest slim, was always better.

But once Mintberry caught sight of the WindClan deputy and medicine cat's bodies, that hope was squashed. Their bodies were torn, limbs bent in awkward positions, blood coated thickly onto their pelts. She didn't even need to check their pulse; even if they had been alive at first, they surely would've bled out by now. Still, she leaned forward and pressed her nose to their pelts for formality.

There were a lot of cats watching her. The entirety of WindClan, in fact, and Dapplestar and the RiverClan patrol they'd brought along. But everyone already seemed to know the verdict, and when Mintberry straightened she met Harepaw's eyes and shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she meowed. She thought that, after these moons in RiverClan, she might've learned to act a little more sympathetic, but her tone was as indifferent as always. 

Old habits are hard to shake.

The cats of WindClan instantly fell apart.

As Harepaw's mouth opened and closed, staring blankly at his mentor's mutated form, loud yowls broke out through camp. Senior warriors were shouting about who they should choose as leader, who killed Cherrylight and Whiteberry (though everyone had a good idea), and what their next step should be. Everyone's voices were overlapping, and Mintberry's ears folded to the back of her head as the volume.

"Cats of WindClan!" Dapplestar's voice broke through the chaos. "If I may-"

"Why would we listen to you?" Rabbitfoot, a senior WindClan warrior, lashed his tail. He seemed wildly frustrated. "You've only just been made a warrior - StarClan knows how RiverClan allowed you to become leader."

Dapplestar froze, her face turning coldly annoyed. "My age should hardly matter," she hissed through gritted teeth. "I became RiverClan's leader because Rainstar chose me. I-"

"And you're Poolmist's niece, aren't you?" Rabbitfoot twitched his tail-tip. "Are you really going to tell me that that has nothing to do with it?"

The silver bengal lifted her chin. "I am only trying to help WindClan. It is not me who killed Cherrylight and Whiteberry. I'm only trying-"

"This is a Clan matter, honestly," Rabbitfoot growled, clawing at the ground. "For the past few moons, it's like RiverClan and WindClan have become one Clan. The war's over, for StarClan's sake! And not only that, but it was never an equal collaboration. You're the one that always bossed everyone around."

Dapplestar hissed lowly. "I detest that-"

"Swiftstar never had an equal say with you and Rainstar," Rabbitfoot continued, his pelt beginning to bristle. "But why? We're cats. We can fight. ShadowClan's gone now, and we're the ones that kicked them out-"

"And you were the ones who lost your own land to ShadowClan," Dapplestar interrupted vehemently. "I was the one that told Swiftstar to attack ShadowClan's camp and what day to do it. I was the one who allowed you this victory. But if you don't want my help then fine, so be it."

She glared at Rabbitfoot, but he didn't flinch, matching her harsh gaze evenly. 

Dapplestar twitched her pelt, calling her RiverClan patrol to her. Everything suddenly felt very hostile now between cats who've been allies for moons; it seems that many RiverClan cats share Rabbitfoot's point of view.

"Good luck," the silver bengal spat Rabbitfoot's way, before leading her patrol back towards RiverClan's territory.

Everyone was uncharacteristically silent. They all seemed to be seething silently with anger, Dapplestar the most. Lengthening her strides, Mintberry moved to the front of the patrol, side-by-side with the RiverClan leader.

"Hey," she mewed quietly, bumping shoulders gently with Dapplestar. "You okay?"

Dapplestar answered her after a pause. "Just annoyed," the silver bengal muttered lowly. "What, does Rabbitfoot think that he should just march up to the Moonstone now and collect his nine lives? Acting all high and mighty like that - even if Snakestar wasn't up there, StarClan would still be unresponsive."

Mintberry's tail-tip twitched. "Really? So, does that mean you don't...?"

Her question was left unfinished, but Dapplestar understood it, and met the gray tabby's gaze. She hesitated for a split second before replying. "Yes. I only have one life."

"Oh." Mintberry's eyes turned to her paws, processing this information slowly. "That must mean Snakestar only has one life, too."

"Yes. He would be so easy to get rid of. He's starving up there in the Highstones. If only these WindClan cats would-" Dapplestar broke herself off, shaking her head in frustration. "I didn't know these cats were so... ungrateful."

"I think they're just tense. They've had a few big shocks last night, after all," Mintberry offered quietly. "They need to find someone to lead, and a medicine cat, and-"

"What they need is to get it together," Dapplestar snapped. "Don't they see that who leads right now doesn't matter? Nothing will be able to return to normal with Snakestar around. Until he's gone, I could lead. We could merge our Clans."

Mintberry's face twisted with confusion as she scrambled for something to say. "I think that's exactly what they don't want," she mewed at last.

"Oh, it would only be temporary." Dapplestar waved off her concerns. "We can get them all situated and back into their own Clan again once we've dealt with ShadowClan."

The gray tabby frowned as her ears caught onto that last word. "Dealt with ShadowClan? Don't you mean Snakestar?"

Dapplestar shook her head. "Mintberry, come on."

"Come on what?" the former medicine cat asked, suddenly feeling vulnerable and defensive. 

Dapplestar hummed, tipping her head as though trying to find a good way to say this. Finally, she spoke slowly, "You saw Cherrylight and Whiteberry's wounds. There's no way one cat could've done that to them, even a heartless cat like Snakestar."

Mintberry twitched her pelt. "Dapplestar, it's not like that. I don't believe-"

"I'm only looking at what's in front of me," the RiverClan leader mewed softly. "If their only ambusher was Snakestar, Cherrylight would've been able to fight him, and she and Whiteberry could've gotten out alive."

Mintberry thought of her old Clanmates. She might not have particularly liked any of them, but they were all only doing what they thought was right. She thought of poor Tigerstrike, exiled by Ivorystar for speaking up against training kits. He was probably dead now, an elder like him would never be able to survive leafbare. Maybe Snakestar issued similar threats.

Even so, she didn't believe that any of them could be cruel enough to mutilate Cherrylight and Whiteberry's bodies in such a way. Attacking two cats was completely different from fighting a war. Certainly ShadowClan knew that.

"Viperfoot wouldn't do that," she meowed at last, as evenly as she could. That, at the very least, she could lean on.

Dapplestar sighed heavily. "Maybe, but the majority of ShadowClan did. Face it, Mintberry, they're all hopeless. They're all violent and vicious now, and if there's any hope of peace in this forest again, they need to be gone."

"Gone?" the gray tabby repeated that word hollowly. "You don't mean-?"

"The Mothermouth is a sacred place to the Clans," Dapplestar replied. "ShadowClan's cutting off our access to it. If they continue to live up there, they'll raise their kits to hate us, and the Highstones will be completely dangerous."

"Yeah, but..." Mintberry trailed off. "Doesn't killing an entire Clan seem a little... harsh?"

"They're more than welcome to leave. It's only if they resist that we'll have trouble," the silver bengal mewed. "Mintberry, you're RiverClan now. You don't need to feel like you have to protect ShadowClan, okay?"

"Well, yes, I know-"

"This is for the safety of our Clan's future," Dapplestar murmured. "Don't you want that? For Darkkit?"

Mintberry sighed to herself, then nodded after a brief pause. "Yeah, I do."

"Good." Dapplestar gave her a smile. "Come on, then. Darkkit's waiting for us."