A medium sized cat poked her nose out of the bushes, smelling for danger. After a moment of smelling the various scents drifting in the wind, she crept forward and straightened up. Another cat, this one a tom, crawled out behind her, glancing around for danger.

     "Do you think we're safe, Rosepetal?" He mewed, sitting down besides the larger she-cat and licking his paws. He didn't seem to be bothered by whatever had spooked the she-cat, on the contrary, he was completely at ease.

     "I'm not sure, Shadowheart." Rosepetal mewed, glancing over at her unruffled friend. "I thought I scented something strange... But I can't smell it anymore." She glanced around again, and narrowed her gaze at anything that moved. Something was still off, but she couldn't tell what.

     Shadowheart rolled his eyes, then got to his paws. "Well, can we get going then? Our camp is still quite far, and it's already past sun-high." He glanced upwards at the sun, and then back at Rosepetal. The tip of his tail twitched, but other than that, he was completely still.

     She sighed, and glanced up as well, then down then down the forest path they had been treading. "I suppose getting back to our clan would be a good idea. But we need to keep an eye out, I don't trust this area... We shouldn't have gone so far outside our territory."

     Shadowheart nodded, and turned and started walking. Rosepetal followed him after a moment, and together they traveled through the thick underbrush.

     After a few minutes of silence, the tom spoke again, his mew edged with worry. "I just hope the kits are okay... We've been gone two days, and they've never been without one of us for longer than a quick hunting trip." He glanced at his mate, concern filling his gaze. "What if Caveclan attacks again? They hate Gemclan. And with you being gone..."

     Rosepetal kept her eyes on the underbrush, and when she answered, her mew was calm. "Gemclan has a leader for a reason. They can last a few days without their deputy. As for our kits, I'm sure they're fine. Dawncloud is watching them, remember?"

     "... I know." He admitted, looking away now. "But they're our kits... I don't trust anyone but you with them. And for good reason!" He added, a sharp edge in his words. "Last time we both went on a hunting trip, we came back to Ashkit and Shadekit learning battle moves from Dawncloud's kits. Ashkit even has a nick in her ear to show for it!"

     Rosepetal stayed silent a few minutes, letting Shadowheart cool down on his own. He normally only needed a few minutes, but when it came to their kits, he was such an overprotective father. 'Not that it's a bad thing...' Rosepetal thought to herself with a small smile.

     As they kept walking in silence, Rosepetal tried to remember how they had gotten to this point, the two of them. Shadowheart had been in the clan since birth, but she'd been brought in by Diamondstar, the leader before the current one.

She'd only been a few moons old at the time, a little older than Shadowkit at the time. One of the patrols had found her wandering the forest, hungry and as scrawny as a mouse in leaf-bare. She'd been wandering the forest since her mother had been killed by another Clan's border patrol, and had chased her over the border into Gemclan's territory.

She was placed in a little of kits about her age, one of which was Dawnkit. Her adopted mother was Fernbranch, and was mated to Cloudfur. She grew up as part of that family.

Shadowkit had just barely been born at the time, so she didn't even know he existed until a few moons later.

And then, they grew up. Shadowkit was the star kit at the time, he was the fastest, the smartest, the one that learned the most. Rosekit was always off by herself; she didn't like playing with the other kits. They didn't like her much either, and she was fine with that. Dawnkit, her littermate, was the only one she ever spoke to.

As the moons progressed, this trend continued. Rosekit became Rosepaw, and a mere 2 moons later, Shadowpaw joined her. Shadowpaw was mentored under the current deputy at the time, Riverrock. Rosepaw got stuck with a newer warrior, Leafbranch.

Moons passed, and both cats grew up to be warriors. Soon after, Rosepetal sought out Shadowheart. She'd been watching him interact with her littermate, Dawncloud, for a while now, and she envied the friendship they shared.

So one day, she somehow joined the friend group. She and Shadowheart became friends almost at once, but it took her forever to actually start trusting him. Over the span of a few moons, they became rather close. The rest of the clan was speculating when they would officially announce becoming mates, but Rosepetal still had her doubts.

As a result, it was Shadowheart who made the first move. One moonlit night, the night after a Gathering in fact, he woke her quietly and together they left the camp. When they came back the following morning, something had changed between the two.

A few moons later, Rosepetal was in the nursery with two new kits. Ashkit and Shadekit. One she-cat and a tom. Shadowheart came to visit later that day, he wouldn't let anyone else in until he'd seen his kits with his own eyes.

The very next day, Caveclan attacked. It was early morning, and most of the camp was asleep. But when the guard sounded the alarm, the camp flew into a frenzy of action. The warriors rushed to the front, while elders and queens huddled down in their dens in the hopes that the warriors would be able to keep them safe.

But slowly, the camp began to fall. Warriors were pushed back, apprentices began to fall.

But the final straw was when Rosepetal watched in horror as Shadowheart was dragged to the dirt floor of the camp clearing.

Something snapped within Rosepetal, and after making sure her kits were safe with another queen, she rushed out of the den and attacked, filled with a rage that overpowered any feelings of weakness. She was a beast all on her own, striking down warrior after warrior until she reached her mate's side.

And thus, the tide of the battle turned. The cats of Caveclan chose to turn and flee rather than face the scything claws of Rosepetal. She drove them out, and the rest of the clan was encouraged by this and fought back with new strength.

After the night, things changed within the clan. The deputy died of their wounds that night, and as of a result of how well Rose defended the clan that night, Stonestar named her the new deputy. Soon after that, she returned to her kits and managed to balance both them, Shadowheart, and her new duties.

     "-Look out!" Shadowheart's cry pierced Rosepetal's ear fur as a branch descended toward them from above. He threw himself at her, knocking the both of them out of the way and down a hill. They continued to roll until they hit a large log and stopped dead.

     For a moment, all was silent. Then, Rosepetal struggled to her feet and nudged Shadowheart, who hadn't stirred yet. "Shadowheart?" She mewed, nudging him again with her nose. He didn't move. Cold claws sank into her heart.

     Rosepetal used her muzzle to turn him over, but stopped in shock as she saw the trickle of blood coming from the split skin on his forehead. "No..." She stared in shock, this couldn't be happening. "Wake up, you've got to get up!" She shrieked, her yowl nearly lost in the rising wind.

     With an effort that nearly cost her everything she had, she grabbed him by the scruff and started dragging him back to camp. He seemed smaller like this, something that Rosepetal strived to numb herself to as she continued to camp.

     By the time she arrived back at Gemclan's camp, her jaws had locked from holding onto Shadowheart's scruff so long. She could barely feel her leg, and yet she kept going, putting one paw in front of the other. The shouts of her clanmates surrounded her almost at once, but the words were lost to the haze that surrounded the she-cat's mind.

     "Move aside, let me through!" The gruff tones of Stonestar cut through the haze as he moved closer to Rosepetal. "You can let go now, Rosepetal." He said gently, reaching up his tail tip to rest comfortingly on her shoulder. "He needs to be taken to the medicine cat den, you've done all you can."

     With an effort, she gently laid her mate in the dirt at her paws, where he was grabbed by two others and carried off. Rosepetal watched through hazy eyes as he vanished among the handing vines that sheltered the medicine cat den. She hardly even noticed as Stonestar began to lead her back to his den under Highrock.

     She finally collapsed to her belly as she crossed into the leader's den. Dimly she realized Stonestar was telling the Clan to go about their patrols as normal. Then he came into the den, and sat down in front of her, his calm gaze focused on her.

     "Rosepetal, I know you're upset." He began, his mew quiet. "But whatever happened, it's not your fault. You can't blame yourself for what happened just because you were there as well." He spoke from experience here, she tended to have a habit of thinking everything bad that happened was her fault. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

     Rosepetal glanced up at him from her position on the floor, her gaze unfocused. "It is my fault this time... I wasn't paying attention... Shadowheart pushed me out of the way of the falling branch." She dropped her gaze, staring at the end of her paws now. "We rolled down a hill and hit a large log... He hit it first, and I tumbled into him... He... He wouldn't respond."

     Stonestar let out a sigh, then glanced back at Rosepetal. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't ask that tree branch to fall, did you? No." It hurt him to see his deputy hurting like this, Rosepetal was almost like a second daughter to him. After all, he'd been deputy when she was first brought into the clan.

     The she-cat pushed herself to her feet, seeming to gain new strength from the hatred she felt toward herself. "If I had been paying attention like I should have," she hissed, fury lighting her gaze. "My mate wouldn't be lying unconscious in the medicine cat den right now!"

     "Rosep-" "No!" She cut Stonestar off, glaring at him with her misdirected fury. She wasn't really mad at him, but she couldn't control her anger right now. "I-" she paused, the anger vanishing as quickly as it came. "I've got to go."

     She raced out of the den, ignoring Stonestar's calls to come back. Her feet swiftly led her out of camp, and down a path she knew well. She was going to the one place only she knew of. The one place she'd always gone whenever she needed to be alone, the only place she'd ever felt at peace as a kit.

The Cave of Whispering Stones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haaaiiii
So yeah, I finally finished another oneshot.
Fun fact, I had more drafts than published stories in here once.

Anyways, tell me what you think in the comments below!

Until next time,
~©@$$

Sparkstream
ShadeFinder