Broken Honor

Chapter 16

It was like time had frozen. Rushpaw's heart nearly stopped beating. Her chest tightened. Her body tensed up in fear. Her eyes widened in shock. She staggered backwards and stared down at her paws, trying not to lose her balance. Her breathing quickly became shallow and unsteady. She could hardly begin to process what had just been said to her.

No! I didn't hear Viperstar right...! This has gotta be some mistake! There's no way...Birdpaw can't be dead! He just can't!

Rushpaw lifted her head to face the IvyClan leader and deputy, her eyes watery. "B-Birdpaw's...dead..?" she asked, her words coming out as a shaky whisper.

"Yes! He was murdered!" Frostedfang spat, rage clouding his eyes.

All at once, the tears spilled out of Rushpaw's eyes like a waterfall. She broke down and sobbed her heart out, right there in front of Viperstar and Frostedfang. The apprentice felt as if she was seconds away from collapsing.

Right then, the image of Birdpaw's body flashed through her mind. His bloody, tattered corpse, laying sprawled out beside the creek. A huge gash in his side, clawmarks all over his neck and face. His yellow fur matted, no longer the smooth, handsome coat he had worn when he was alive. And his eyes. Rushpaw imagined how his eyes showed the pain he had felt seconds before death. And yet, they were dark and lifeless. It was a horrible, graphic thought, but there was nothing she could from stopping it from going through her head.

"And brutally, too," Frostedfang went on, nearly choking on his own words. "The culprit clearly overdid themselves. They wanted Birdpaw to suffer as much as possible before he died."

Rushpaw cried harder, her vision so blurry she was barely aware of what was going on around her. "No, no no no! Birdpaw's not dead, he just can't be!"

For a few seconds, she was reminded of what Birdpaw had said about the cats Pebblenose killed. A queen who was expecting a second litter of kits and her mate. They too, were murdered brutally, and Pebblenose made no attempt to hide their bodies. Instead, he left them in the center of camp for all to see. 

Could this have been Pebblenose's doing? Would Pebblenose kill his own son?

"Don't stand here and cry like a kit," Viperstar hissed, lowering her head to meet Rushpaw in the eye. "You've no right to be upset over this! He was our Clanmate, not yours, traitor! And besides that, you and him were never friends. Any cat could see him and his sister despised you."

Without stopping to think, Rushpaw let it all out. "We were friends!" she insisted through her tears. "We started meeting up every night in secret, just to share news! Because all we wanted was for everything to be normal and we couldn't bear the thought of IvyClan being broken forever!" Their meetings were meant to forever be kept a secret, but Rushpaw didn't care about letting it slip now. What did it matter, when Birdpaw was dead?

Viperstar blinked in disbelief. "You two...were meeting up?"

"I never expected Birdpaw would betray us like that," Frostedfang remarked irritably. Rushpaw wondered if the only reason the reckless white tom wasn't more angry about this was to not speak ill of the dead. 

Viperstar's gaze met Rushpaw's. "I...don't know what to say..." she trailed off. "I-I suppose...you do have the right to mourn Birdpaw..."

For a moment Rushpaw's mind was drawn away from her friend's death. She was too distracted by Viperstar's odd behavior. She isn't mad that we were meeting up..? Why? the tortoiseshell wondered. And...she's respecting my right to mourn Birdpaw, too...that's not like her at all. 

Suddenly Frostedfang crouched down,  his tail raised. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Rushpaw coldly. "The reason Birdpaw was killed last night was because he was returning from his meeting with you. If he had never met up with you at all, he would be alive right now. He was murdered because of you."