Mapleshade's Wrath

Chapter 4

Mapleshade slowly opened her eyes to a cold chill that shook every bone in her body. Lifting her head, she no longer felt like she was going to break into another violent fit of coughing. The back of her neck still felt numb. Slowly blinking, she attempted to get her vision to focus and saw Cloudberry's sleeping form in her nest on the far side of the den, huddled up. Mapleshade wondered if the white medicine cat was going to finally let her leave the medicine den. She had been confined for almost an entire moon, because of how deep her wound was. Despite having felt pained when thinking of every member of her kin, she only enjoyed Flowertail's company. Only she seemed to understand what she needed by now. Every time Whistledawn and Stonestripe visited to fuss over her, or Bloomheart, Deerdapple, or Seedpelt attempted to comfort her, she wanted to send them away with a snarl. Perhaps there would also still be enough time before the next Gathering to watch RiverClan's every move.

"Cloudberry?," she groaned, still cold and tired, "Can I finally go?"

Cloudberry glanced over to her, unsteadily stood up, stretched, and yawned. She slowly padded toward Mapleshade, and began to sniff her, and Mapleshade swallowed back annoyance.

"You seem to have won the battle with greencough. I don't smell sickness anymore. And I can barely see the good, strong scab on your neck. I think it's safe for you to move back into the warrior's den."

Mapleshade, stood up, curled her lip and slowly crept through split rock, following the sun's dim light.

Her long, matted fur somehow rippled in the freezing wind as she slowly laid her shaking foreleg onto the cold floor of the camp. The camp felt strangely quiet, like she was alone, and Mapleshade took notice of the leafless pine trees above the camp walls. Every bird in the forest was silent. The fallen leaves now looked frost-encrusted. Could it be leaf-bare already? Her face scars that the speckled golden tabby she-cat, Frecklewish had inflicted on her ached in the cold.

This would have been the kits' first leaf-bare.

She sat down and began licking her neck fur with her rough tongue as she felt her whiskers twitching in the cold, facing away from the clearing.

A rustle sounded from the gorse tunnel, and Mapleshade glanced over her shoulder, while continuing to lick herself.

In the corner of her eye, she saw the dark foreleg of Flowertail appear, before she stuck her head through, a plump squirrel clutched between her jaws. Mapleshade still felt extremely weak, and figured it would be a while before she could join a patrol again. Her mouth watered slightly as Dawnfeather bounded through the gorse tunnel with a pigeon dangling from her mouth.

Mapleshade stood up as her hunger strengthened, as the smells of the medicine den fuelled it. She slowly padded over to the fresh-kill pile in search of something that could give her the strength she needed if she was going to target Appledusk's RiverClan kin. After sniffing around, she chose a large rabbit which she took over to a quiet corner just beside the warrior's den.

As Mapleshade began to tear away, chew up, and swallow chunks of its flesh, she saw Flowertail approach her, carrying a mouse.

"How are you feeling, Mapleshade?," Flowertail inquired as she curled up beside her.

"I don't know. I can't let RiverClan get away with this. And I can't let anything make me any weaker," replied Mapleshade as she bit into the rabbit once more.

"The river's frozen over. We can spy on them later without too much risk," the dark tortoiseshell whispered, "On top of that, I think they'll starve anyway without access to fish, so they'll be too weak to fight us."

Mapleshade purred quietly and curled her lip in triumph, since her sworn enemies were at their most vulnerable. Flowertail swept her tail over Mapleshade, as the primarily ginger tortoiseshell finished eating.