This Is What We Know ✔️

xiv. no one messes with my brother

WARNING
this chapter includes descriptions of gore & violence

chapter fourteen;
no one messes with my brother

h e r o n p a w

The river wasn't calm when Heronpaw clambered down the redwood tree, missing every other step. It was roaring, pulsing in the apprentice's ears. How long had he been gone? How long had he sat in a hole with a cat made of flesh and bones and poison, watching his past become his present and his present become further and further away?

His fur had grown long, and flatly he noted to himself he'd have to groom the matted fur from his pelt. Maybe his litter would help with that. No, no. They'd never forgive him for being gone so long. The soothsayer had whispered it as he stumbled from the hole- why would two sisters ever love a brother that left them alone?

By the time he got to the river, however, the rush of water wasn't the only thing waiting to greet him.

"It's been a while, Finchpaw, where have you been?"

Heronpaw flinched but felt desensitized to his remark. Larkpaw. Grousepaw. Ploverpaw. Where were they? He needed them. He needed to explain that he never meant to leave for so long.

Sabledusk sneered, drawing his muzzle up in fury at the tom's will to ignore him. "You mousebrained she-cat! Don't ignore me, I'm your mentor!"

Heronpaw stumbled towards a drifting scent- Larkpaw, Grousepaw. They were nearby. Were they looking for him by the place he was seen last? Would they be happy to see he was alive?

"Alive?" The soothsayer's voice crooned from inside his head, dropping to a whisper suddenly. "Barely."

Heronpaw brought a paw to his head to knock the sound out of him, but before he could, he felt claws tear into his pelt. He opened his eyes, wide, taking in the sight of Sabledusk on top of him, anger glistening.

Where is your pride for me? Heronpaw wanted to beg for an answer, recalling the soothsayer's vision of the past, how sweet he had been as a mentor. Did he really hate his apprentice so much? Before Heronpaw could succumb to the white noise above his head and pain stinging his pelt, Sabledusk was thrown off him and attacked by a scrap of fur.

"No one messes with my brother!" Larkpaw cried out, tumbling with Sabledusk, sinking her claws into his pelt.

"Heronpaw! Are you okay?" Grousepaw demanded, standing over him, licking his wounds to seal them his face in comfort. "We've missed you so much," she whispered, pressing her head to his. Heronpaw felt warm suddenly, spreading through his belly was a wildfire of love. His sister... his sister loved him still.

Larkpaw...

Heronpaw tilted his head up to catch a glance of the speedy molly standing over the tom cat, whose tail was torn apart and bleeding profusely. He wanted to beg her to stop, that it wouldn't change anything, but before he could, Larkpaw lunged and sent her claws into the tom cat's eyes, making the warrior shriek in agony.

"I'd go for the eyes."

The whisper of her voice in his head was comforting after moons of the soothsayer's, and yet Heronpaw couldn't bare to be happy. Larkpaw continued ripping and slicing, gouging the tom's eyes and tearing his throat from his neck with some sort of resentful glee.

When the tom was dead, and what a slow, agonizing death it was, Larkpaw stood over the body and stared right at Heronpaw. "No one," she repeated, panting, "messes with my brother."

Grousepaw set her head on top of Heronpaw's, closing her eyes. "No one," she agreed, only turning her head when the scent of Ploverpaw stung their noses.

Ploverpaw...

"Blame it on me," Heronpaw said suddenly, his first words to Larkpaw since he left. "Please, if it ever comes out, I have the reasons to make it warranted."

Larkpaw agreed. Ploverpaw arrived. Yarrowstar watched from the bushes as the apprentices pushed the warrior into the river, a rabbit between his teeth. Him and Sabledusk had been hunting together. They were trying to reconcile the pain Yarrowstar left him with.

Sabledusk floated down the river, and out of sight.

Larkpaw, Grousepaw, and Heronpaw took it to their graves.