Oakheart's Promise - A Warriors AU

Chapter 28

"Mapleshade!" Oakheart snarled as he blinked his eyes open. The dark, gloomy forest around him seemed more lifeless than ever. The murky water of the river oozed through cracks in the ground. Far above, the sky was black and foggy. The trees were too tall to see the tops of them. Twigs littered the ground, snapped and battered from countless moons of training.

Oakheart growled once again, "I know you're there! I must speak to you!"

"What do you need?" Mapleshade asked mockingly from the shadows. She stepped closer to Oakheart. Her ominous presence made him shiver.

"Hailstar made Crookedjaw the deputy!" The reddish tom told her. "You said that I was meant to be deputy! What's my destiny now?"

Mapleshade corrected, "I said you could be deputy if you proved yourself. You didn't do anything to save your father."

"Crookedjaw didn't either!" Oakheart retorted, fury shining in his amber eyes. "Do you really want the best for me?"

Sighing, Mapleshade answered, "I want what's best for your Clan. You're the one who failed to show you were worthy to lead them."

The reddish-brown tom's eyes narrowed. "This place," he lifted a paw, gesturing to the slow-moving water and the trees that would have reached up to silverpelt if they were in the forest. "The darkness, the water, the trees." He locked eyes with Mapleshade, glaring at the she-cat. "This isn't StarClan, is it?"

When Mapleshade only sat still, Oakheart continued, "You've been lying to me this entire time. Was I ever really meant to lead RiverClan, or is that just another one of your tricks?"

Suddenly, Mapleshade began cackling. The sound rose above the bushes around them and past the trees. It rang through the entire forest that surrounded her and Oakheart. "Really? You think so?" Mapleshade laughed, her tone filled with sarcasm. "This is the Dark Forest! I earned my place here."

She earned her place here? "Were you shunned away from StarClan?" Oakheart asked in horror. "What did you do?"

"Well," Mapleshade began to explain, "when I was alive, I lived in ThunderClan. I had kits with a cat from RiverClan and was exiled for it. I crossed the river, but all three of my kits drowned. I found my mate, Appledusk, in RiverClan, but he didn't care about what had happened to our kits. In fact, he was already expecting kits with another she-cat."

Oakheart listened to Mapleshade's story, trying to piece everything together. "What happened next?"

An eerie grin grew on Mapleshade's face. "I killed all of the cats who wronged me. Appledusk was the final one. I had tried to attack his mate, Reedshine, but I killed him instead."

"Why are you telling me this?" Oakheart asked, fearful of what the answer would be."

"Because Reedshine went on to have his kits. One of the kits was Willownose, the mother of Shellheart."

Eyes widening, Oakheart stepped back. He insisted, "I don't need to know this. Tell me about my destiny."

"I was just getting to that part," Mapleshade growled. "I've wanted to get revenge on your family, and I've finally done it. You can't be leader! A leader known as Oakstar banished me from ThunderClan, and you would be just as awful of a leader as he was."

Oakheart yelled, "If I was going to be a bad leader, why did you train me to lead? Why did you make me promise that I would be leader?"

"I made you promise that you would sacrifice the ones you love for the Clan." Mapleshade smiled. "It has been done."

The reddish tom froze. He dug his claws into the blackened ground. Images of the cats he had lost flashed in his mind. His voice filled with disbelief, he asked, "Rainflower, Shellheart, Graypool—did they all die for my promise?"

"Yes," Mapleshade breathed, "and it's all because of your selfishness."

"No!" Oakheart cried. He leaped, unsheathing his claws. But before he could reach Mapleshade, he felt the ground crumble beneath him. As he dropped lower and lower, he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in his nest in the warriors' den.