𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝑨 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒕 𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒄

Chapter 10

It is so hard to leave—until you do so...

━─┉┈┈◈❖◈┈┈┉─━

Maplepaw opened her mouth, exhaled slightly and watched Speckledpatch as she heard a wordless, the wordless melody flow from her mouth. It had taken Speckledpatch nearly the entire moon to teach Maplepaw how to sing her signature song, for Maplepaw's musical skills were probably as deft as MistClan's skill to navigate in sunlight, and how to weave her signature flower crown.

Once the last few notes had floated out of Maplepaw's mouth, Speckledpatch nodded with approval, beaming proudly at Maplepaw. She was sure that Speckledpatchhad forgotten about her one moon exile, she'd be leaving today and didn't wish to disappear without giving a warning to Speckledpatch.

"Speckledpatch...you know...I'm supposed to leave today?" she whispered, her ears flat against her head.

Speckledptach froze, the flowers that she was weaving falling from her paws and landing on the grass.

"What?" she asked, looking at Maplepaw, who nearly wished to bury herself alive after seeing the sorrow and shock that flooded Speckledpatch's eyes.

"Er, yes. I've only stumbled across you because I was exiled from my clan for one moon, remember?" Maplepaw mumbled, looking down at her paws, shame heating her body for not telling Speckled earlier.

"Of course," Speckledpatch sighed, "That was the dream I was receiving. Every night for the past 5 nights, I've always seen a maple leaf come to rest beside me. A gust of wind stirred it up and I began to chase after it. Every time I was about to grab it, the wind whisked it up and away in a another direction again."

[TIMESKIP]

"I'll walk with you for some distance. It's getting dark and I don't want you to injure yourself," Speckledpatch mewed anxiously.

Maplepaw nodded. She could feel guilt, pain and loneliness welling up in her chest. No one had accepted her as much as Speckledpatch did. Now she was going back to hell. She was going to face a clan that would mock her for what she had done to Honeypaw.

Speckledpatch's tail crept around Maplepaw's and she shivered slightly, but accepted the gesture and she sighed and looked at the horizon, the sun nothing more but a miserable glint over the hills in the distance..

"Goodbye Maplepaw," Speckledpatch whispered, touching her nose gently to Maplepaw's, carefully, so as not to dislodge the flower crown.

"Goodbye Speckledpatch...I'll miss you. Thank you for everything you have done for me," Maplepaw whispered, holding her voice together. She would not break down in front of Speckledpatch and risk being mocked for her weakness.

After walking in silence for a while, Speckledpatch stepped away from Maplepaw and dipped her head,

"You must continue your journey alone, Maplepaw. This is the furthest I can travel."

Maplepaw nodded and felt a lump build up in her throat as she faced the sun, glancing at the she-cat one last time, her eyes locking with Speckledpatch's olive green ones and inhaled her scent one last time before she broke into a run, paws barely brushing against the ground. She couldn't let Speckledpatch see her cry, no, she'd never be weak enough to let another cat take control of her emotions.

After running mindlessly for what seemed like hours on end, Maplepaw came to a sudden halt, skidding to a stop as her nose, once again, detected that strange cat-like scent among the Dog-Place.

"What the-" Maplepaw snarled as a figure darted behind her and knocked whatever little breath she had left in her lungs out of her.

[TIMESKIP]

Maplepaw peeled her eyes open and the damp, acrid smell of rotting flesh hit her in full force. As her eyes slowly came into focus, thirteen figures sat before her, judging her, eyes skeptical, glittering ominously.

"Who in the name of StarClan are you?" hissed Maplepaw to no cat in particular.

A black tom with three hairs of white on his chest and malicious amber eyes snickered as he stalked forwards,

"We are the rulers of this place, Cursed Thirteen, you may call us-"

"Why am I here?" Maplepaw's lip curled up in disgust, frustration and fury, not allowing the tom to continue.

The cats snickered amongst each other and when they came to, the black-furred tom smirked,

"We smell it in you, young one. Do you think residing near MistClan was pure coincidence?"

Maplepaw swallowed slightly but retorted with full force,

"Why are you asking me? Shouldn't you know the answer?"

The black tom's ear flicked with what could've been irritation or amusement...or both. A dark long-furred she-cat with dark red and blue streaks in her fur and copper eyes tilted her head to the side, smiled and saccharinely purred,

"Perhaps, introductions should come first, shouldn't they?"

Something in the she-cat made Maplepaw like her instantly, perhaps it was the false sincerity in her voice that remembered her of herself, even though her instincts were still alert, checking for any sense of betrayal that could possibly happen.

"I'm Maplepaw, from MistClan," Maplepaw cautiously mewed, reluctant to give away too much information, in case it was used against her.

"From MistClan we know," another brown she-cat snorted.

"What we want to know is why you're so far away from home. We've encountered each other twice this moon, after all. You smell more of the meadow than MistClan," the dark copper-eyed she-cat purred.

Maplepaw flattened her ears and paused for a couple of seconds before spitting, and unsheathed her claws, dragging them across the rough grey surface of the ground, wincing at the hardness.

"I was exiled, all right? I was exiled because I killed an apprentice in my clan during training and it turned out she was the leader's daughter!"

"Echostar's daughter? What was her name? Speckledpatch?" the black tom tipped his head to the side.

"No, Cinderstar's daughter, Honeypaw," Maplepaw growled instantly, blood roaring through her ears. She'd never even let anyone touch a hair on Speckledpatch.

Easy, my love. Take a deep breath, the wind purred quietly, it was almost as though it stroked her fur and pressed reassuringly against her.

Maplepaw released the breath that built up inside her and reluctantly inhaled before lowering her head slightly.

"Cinderfawn, then. What happened to Sparrowflight? Did he die?" the tom queried.

"Who's Sparrowflight?" Maplepaw asked.

"Well according to you, the deputy before Cinderfawn," the copper-eyed she-cat rolled her eyes.

"You still haven't told me your names," Maplepaw quietly murmured, trying to divert the subject, her head pounding from the sudden complexity of events.

"I'm Ophiuchus," the black tom dipped his head.

"I'm Capricorn," the dark, copper-eyed she-cat tilted her chin upwards before giving a small smile.

"Those are Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Saggitarius," the black tom, Ophiuchus, flicked his tail at each of the cats in turn.

Maplepaw turned each name over in her head and Capricorn must've noticed her amusement and purred,

"We were taught by some loner who understood two-leg language. He said that two-legs used stars in the sky to sort them into categories or something like that. Since we banded together from each of the clans, we decided to leave our past behind and adopted these names, serving as "

Maplepaw rested her head on her paws, the cold sharpness of the ground seeping into her bones. 

"Sleep," Ophiuchus said, or rather, commanded and Maplepaw's eyes obediently closed.