Tear the Trees Apart: Maple's Vengeance

Chapter 7: The Moonstone

The sun dragged slowly across the sky. Maple's belly was still full from the mole; besides, she was too tense to eat. Her claws were blunt after her long day of walking, so she sharpened them on a stone. A hawk swooped overhead and Maple imagined it feasting on Frost's body after she had finished with that unworthy deputy. Frost would bleed a river of blood, every drop spilled for Birch...

At last the sky faded and the shadows between the rocks grew thicker. Maple fluffed up her fur against the chill and crouched on top of a boulder, watching for any sign of movement at the foot of the hill. Suddenly a darker shadow flitted across the grass. Frost was here! Maple unsheathed her claws and let them scratch against the stone. She stayed very still, hardly breathing, as Frost climbed the slope toward her. Maple tensed her hindquarters, ready to leap down onto the RiverColony cat, but then she paused. Two more shapes appeared out of the darkness: Glide and Trout. The three began speaking in low, soft tones. Maple bit her tongue to keep herself from yelling at the druids to leave. If she attacked Frost out here, she would be seen by the druids. And where was the satisfaction in a simple ambush? As she listened, she heard Frost tell the druids to wait outside. Maple felt a smile creep onto her face. She should follow Frost down to the Moonstone and tackle her there, at the source of her precious Warrior's Code.

Glide and Trout sat down, silently watching over the landscape they'd just traversed. Turning away from them, Maple pictured the long, stifling tunnel from her visit as an apprentice. Her pelt pricked at the thought of entering that darkness again, but then the wails of Birch being pushed into the river echoed in her ears and she slid soundlessly off the boulder just a heartbeat before Frost padded past. Maple could hear the deputy breathing heavily after the climb. Maple waited until Frost vanished into the gaping maw of Mothermouth before slipping out and trotting after the dark gray cat.

The hole swallowed her up at once, thick black shadows pressing around her until there was no glimpse of moonlight when she looked back at the entrance. Maple padded over the stone floor, trying to keep her steps as light as possible. But Frost must have heard something because she stopped, invisible in the dark ahead of Maple, and called out. "Who's there? Glide? I told you I want to be alone."

Maple froze, convinced that her heart was thudding loud enough for the deputy to hear. But after a moment Frost carried on, her paw steps the softest whisper in the silence. Faint gray light appeared ahead, silhouetting the deputy's ears. The Moonstone! Maple realized she had dropped into the hunting crouch and was stalking forward one step at a time, her tail flattened behind her. She reached the opening to the cave and almost gasped out loud at the sight of the Moonstone glittering in the silver light. Frost knelt in front of it, her head bowed.

With a hiss, Maple sprang forward, claws extended. She landed on Frost's back, sending her rolling onto the smooth cold stone. Maple caught a glimpse of Frost's eyes, bright in the reflected moonlight.

"Maple!" Frost choked. "What are you doing here?"

Maple let her claws sink into the fur around Frost's throat. "Avenging the death of Birch," she snarled. "If I could kill you three times over, I would!" She knew she had nothing to say to the deputy. Nothing would bring back her love. But Frost simply did not deserve to live when Birch was dead. She bit down on Frost's neck and the black cat went limp beneath her.

There was the sound of paw steps approaching down the tunnel. Maple let Frost fall to the floor and slipped behind the crystal.

"Great StarColony!" she heard Glide hiss. "Frost! What happened?"

There was a grunt from Glide's companion—peeking around the edge of the Moonstone, Maple saw Trout gently touch Frost's body. Trout looked back at Glide and shook her head slowly.

"The wrath of StarColony, I suppose," meowed Trout coldly. "Come on, help me get her back to the surface."

Maple listened to the sound of them dragging Frost up the tunnel. She waited until the rays of the moon had slid past the hole in the roof and the cave was plunged into darkness. Maple's heart pounded, but she reminded herself that she had nothing to be afraid of. The only dangerous thing in the shadows was her. She wondered if the druids would return to investigate, but they did not come back to the cave. Maple figured they had returned to their Colony to deliver the terrible news.

When the tiny patch of sky above the hole turned white with dawn, Maple stretched her cold, stiff legs and padded back up the tunnel. Outside Mothermouth stood a heap of small stones that had not been there before. A tuft of black fur poked through a gap in the pile. Maple sniffed and recognized Frost's scent. Rather than carry her all the way back to the forest, her druids had decided to bury her here, marking her final nest with a careful mountain of rocks.

Maple curled her lip. What memorial was there to Birch? There was none! She struck out at the pile of stones, knocking them to the ground. Her claws caught on the rocks and her pads stung but she kept flailing until the heap was destroyed and Frost's body was exposed to the gray dawn. Maple looked up and caught sight of a vulture circling overhead. Here's your next piece of fresh-kill, she thought with satisfaction.

The vulture swept down closer, and Maple bounded away from the scattered stones. She bounded down the hillside without looking back. She had avenged Birch!

She reached a hedge at the edge of a stretch of thick soft grass and crawled under the branches. Suddenly she was too tired to walk another step. Ignoring the rumbling in her belly, she closed her eyes.

An image drifted into her mind of a pale brown cat sitting among ferns, looking out at a churning black river as it swept Maple away. Freckle! She had stolen Maple's kits. Freckle had taken away Maple's only living connection to her beloved Birch!

Freckle needed to pay, just as Frost had.

Maple stood up, shaking on exhausted paws. This would be harder to achieve because Freckle only left ThunderColony to go to Gatherings, when she would be surrounded by her Colonymates. And even inside the border she was rarely alone. Maple needed to find a way to attack her within the territory, the safest place for a warrior to be. Thinking hard, she started to pad along the bottom of the hedge. A tendril of ivy caught at her foot and almost tripped her. Hissing, Maple snatched her paw away. The ivy lay on the ground, quivering like a glossy green snake.

Snakerocks! Maple pictured the nest of adders that had been blocked in with stones. Perhaps there was something deadly inside ThunderColony's borders after all!