Sunpool

Applestar's smile disappeared, and Sunpool knew she was going to lunge.

She whirled to the side, unsheathed her claws and hopped forward. Not enough to land on her back, but to put her right next to her. Claws moving with a ferocity she didn't know she possessed, she reared onto her hind paws and peppered blow upon blow onto Applestar's earline.

Applestar didn't even blink. She rolled forward and tore the cobweb off of Sunpool's stomach, sliding her claws into the wound. Sunpool screeched and jerked back, and they grappled with each other for a few moments.

Then they sprang apart. Sunpool's stomach was sending painful shivers down her spine, and Applestar was breathing heavier than usual. There had only been a very small amount of the fight, but Sunpool already knew that she wasn't going to be able to win unless something changed.

So she did the only thing she could think of: stall.

"So, Applestar," she said loudly. Over compensating for her fear. "This is it, is it?"

"Yes, that's the general idea of a last fight," Applestar replied. Her claws flexed into the ground, and her eyes gleamed. 

Sunpool's mind was working overdrive to try and formulate a plan. She'd have to attack quickly, get out of range before Applestar could attack back. "True."

Applestar rolled her eyes and said, "Quit stalling, Sunpool." She darted forward, and suddenly, a splitting pain cracked Sunpool's head. The pain came with words.

Onelifeonelifeonelifeonelifeonelife

Sunpool screeched and rolled to the side, and Applestar's outstretched claws caught her ears instead of her eyes, nicking the side. Sunpool's head was pounding, but the pain was receeding quickly with every heartbeat. The words 'one life' were still playing over and over, though.

Sunpool shook her head and rolled back at Applestar, her smaller size allowing her to slip under Applestar's belly. She sliced at Applestar's belly, but Applestar, who knew the trick well, did something Sunpool had never seen: she grasped her paws around Sunpool's belly and rolled so that Sunpool was on the top. 

Sunpool's blood boiled, and she slipped off before Applestar could attack her. She bit down on Applestar's leg, hard, until she felt her teeth hit something hard that she assumed was bone. Blood was in her mouth, making her gag, but she removed her jaws from Applestar's leg and spat it out. When almost all of the metallic taste was gone, she was able to focus slightly better.

One life, Sunpool, one life

The voice in Sunpool's head was back, and the sound of it sounded so familiar to her that she knew she had heard it before... but when...?

And then the memory came back to her. Moons ago, she'd been fighting Applestar, and a voice had come into her head and helped her to fight. This had to be the same voice. So she had to listen to it.

One life? What did that mean? Sunpool circled around Applestar, thinking. It had come into her mind when big things happened in the fight. When she was going to attack Applestar, or when she was attacking Applestar, or when Applestar was attacking her. One life. One life. One life.

Leaders had nine lives. Applestar was a leader. Unless....

One life! It clicked into place. Applestar only had one life. How could that be?

But she knew she couldn't dwell on it. She just had to kill Applestar, and now that she didn't have to do it nine times over, it was going to be a lot easier.

With renewed vigor at the idea that Applestar, for some reason, didn't have nine lives, she hurled herself at her, and claws flashed. Sunpool felt her claw tear and let out a hiss of pain, but with the remaining ones was able to land blows hard on Applestar's face. Near her eyes. On her ears. Near her neck. Applestar roared and swiped Sunpool's paws out from underneath her. Sunpool toppled down to the ground, her chin banging onto the ground, and her teeth clenching down hard. Her eyes swam, but she forced herself to leap to her paws. Applestar, who obviously wasn't prepared for Sunpool to make a fast recovery, was easily knocked down when Sunpool lunged at her. They rolled, Sunpool slashing with her claws mercilessly at Applestar's neck. Applestar was yowling, and her claws were clinging to Sunpool's fur as she tried to push her off. Round and round they went, until Sunpool was dizzy. 

By the time Applestar finally managed to fling her off, they both had more and more cuts, and Applestar was favoring one paw. Her eye was also swelling up, and she was missing a corner of her ear. Sunpool was faring better, but only slightly. Her stomach was shooting pangs of pain through her body, and her claw ached where it had torn. They were both breathing heavily, but Sunpool realized that she was breathing easier than Applestar.

Applestar opened her mouth. "I don't even understand why you even came."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Applestar was looking at Sunpool with ice in her eyes, spitting the words. Sunpool blinked, and replied, "Came where? To CloudClan?"

"Yes." Applestar flicked her tail, and winced for a heartbeat. Then, her face went back to the calm mask it had been a moment before. "We were all perfectly happy without you."

Even though she knew the words were designed to get inside her head, they poked at Sunpool. Had everyone been happy? She'd never really considered what life had been like in the Clan before she'd come. She'd also never considered how different things would have been if she had never come. She had just inserted herself into the Clan's life without a second thought to how she was disrupting people's lives. Would everyone had been happier if she had never come?

But before she could follow that thought much deeper, she called it off. She knew what had happened if she hadn't come: Applestar would have ended up mates with Goldleaf, and nobody would have ever learned the truth about her: that she trained in the Dark Forest, and that she wanted to take over the Clans. She probably would have, too. 

Sunpool knew that she had stopped Applestar from staying mates with Goldleaf, knew she had to stop her from taking over the Clans. And that was exactly what those words meant to do: make it so that she forgot this, and make it so that Applestar would be able to kill her.

And she couldn't let that happen.

So Sunpool smiled and said, "Not all of you. And I know the majority of the Clan would have been a lot less happy if I hadn't came. Because if I hadn't came, then this wouldn't have been happening right now. You'd be leader of CloudClan, and nobody would be opposing you. Maybe that's why I came: because StarClan knew that I had to stop you. That's why there's a prophecy."

"If you remember correctly, though, Sunpool, the pool of sun? It dies." Applestar was smiling now, an evil smile, a smile saying, I win. "So Sunpool, what are you going to do now? With your magical belief in StarClan putting you on this earth in this place for a very reason?"

"I'm going to do what StarClan told me I could: I'm going to change the prophecy. Will power, Applestar, is a great thing." Sunpool smiled at her. 

Applestar just laughed. "We'll see, Sunpool." And she hurled herself at her, and Sunpool felt the air change.

She couldn't describe what it felt like. It almost felt like a hardening of something inside her for what felt like a lifetime, but she knew had to be really only a moment. Everything was slipping away, and she could only see herself and Applestar. And she knew what was going to happen.

In one smooth moment, she leaped, meeting Applestar in the middle of her strike, and finding her way beneath her claws. Her jaws clamped around Applestar's neck, and she bit down, blood exploding in her mouth.

She released Applestar, who fell to the ground, twitching. The life was draining out of her eyes as she looked up at Sunpool, and spat, "You should have never came."

And then the blood soaked into the ground, her eyes dulled, and a cheer rose from the surrounding cats.

-=-

I FEEL LIKE THAT WAS A LAMEISH ENDING OH WELL

you know what

I just rewrote it

because I love you guys too much to give you a sucky kind of ending

ONLY THE EPILOGUE TO GO YIPEE

I LOVE YOU GUYS AND THIS CHAPTER WAS LIKE FOUR HUNDRED WORDS LONGER THAN USUAL GO ME BE PROUD

-RAINFEATHER :)