flamestar's rise

Chapter 10: Flamestar

As flameburst approached camp he braced himself and put on as best a grieving face as he could and as he came up to the entrance he heard murkcloud before he saw him "flameburst what- what happened?!" He slowly lifted his head and met his ex mentors gaze "rookstar she.... She's dead" he rasped "we were ambushed by rogues after confronting them about being on our territory" murkcloud bristled "and you just left rookstar there with them?!" Flameburst shook his head solemnly "she told me to run, that fireclan needed a leader and she had already lost two lives i.... I had to listen to her and came back... If we both had died where would our clan be?" Murkcloud didn't look too pleased about that but accepted it anyways "i need to gather the clan and tell them, please make sure none of the rogues followed me back." He padded away and over to the big rock at the back of the clearing, clambering up he took a moment to take in the camp from above and let out a breath 'wow....' he shook his head and called out "fireclan! Gather before me and hear what i have to say!" He quietly hissed as his wounds stung 'a necessary pain for my goal.'  he watched as sleepy shapes emerged from tunnels, rentail let out a horrified gasp as he set his eye upon his friend alerting the others that something was wrong, he heard murkcloud hiss momentarily before stopping and a moment later snakepelt entered camp carrying a hare, his eyes glinted as he met flamebursts gaze and gave a slight, almost non-existent nod, he put on a confused expression as he dropped the hare "what's going on?, why are you up on the big rock?" As more of the clan emerged, more horrified and confused gasps and murmurs broke the still night air, after seeing that most if not all the clan had gather he spoke up "to answer.... To answer snakepelts question...." He paused for dramatic effect and pretended to take a moment "rookstar and i were ambushed by rogues after we confronted them about being on flameclan territory.... Rookstar lost two lives during the fight and ordered me to run, to... To lead the clan in her absence and keep the clan safe and alive.... She told me to leave and said she was going to make sure the rogues didn't go any further.... I don't know if.... If she died quick or slowly but she died defending her clan as she did in life.... She died to protect us, i will never be the leader she was but.... I hope to live up to her image. We will take a patrol of our strongest fighters at first light to retrieve rookstar... And snowbur will accompany me as i will depart to the crystal hollow from there to go recieve my nine lives.  It must be done as soon as possible but for now.... Now we mourn our beloved leader" he feigned his voice breaking, he had to be believable, at least in the eyes of the clan he had to "now i will have my wounds tended to and if someone could join murkcloud at the camp entrance i would appreciate it." He took a moment to look up at the stars 'see father, I'm doing it and no one will stop me, i WILL be leader, they will respect me and you will regret every second you chose to antagonize and belittle me.'

He turned and clambered down from the big rock, his wounds aching, snowbur met him at the bottom and he followed her to her den, passing rentail along the way, his friend glanced at him, his expression strained with worry and sorrow but they did not speak. He was still bitter over rentail butting into his problems before.  After snowbur patched up his wounds he dragged himself to rookstars.... No HIS den and settled into the nest, he narrowed his eyes in thought. He was leader or on his way to and closest he's ever been to being leader, now he needed a deputy. He had promised the position to snakepelt and he would have to make good on that promise. But what should he say, he's never been especially close to snakepelt but he had to make the clan believe he was choosing snakepelt for the good of the clan..... But how.... He closed his eyes. 'We'll think about that later'  right now he just wanted to sleep, he felt like he'd fallen off a cliff. He was aware of a presence outside the den and recognized rentails scent, he couldn't be bothered to speak to him at the moment, maybe later but he didn't want to even think. Eventually rentails scent faded and flameburst found himself drifting into a restless sleep.

He woke with the light of dawn, stretching he climbed out if the nest and out of the den, pausing he saw few cats out aside from dawnwhisp, murkcloud, snakepelt and snowbur. Flameburst winced, terribly aware of how small his clan had grown, just him, snakepelt, murkcloud, snowbur, dawnwhisp, rentail, spottedmoon, hailpaw, sheeppaw, rabbitpaw, blizzardpaw and frostpaw. He would have to make sheeppaw and rabbitpaw warriors soon, they were old enough by now and had had enough training he presumed, why make them wait longer than they had to? Flameburst nodded to himself 'yes, I'll assess them after my leadership ceremony and give them their full names'  he beckoned murkcloud, snakepelt, dawnwhisp and snowbur, he had suspected that the lack of unfamiliar scents would rouse suspicion from his clan so he had snakepelt disguise his scent and lure any rogues he could find to where flameburst had killed rookstar. He hoped it had been successful, he would find out soon., they set out after snowbur made sure hailpaw was prepared and the treck across the moor was long, cold, wet and silent. He could practically feel the tension in the air and after a while the tang of blood hit his nose and he wrinkled it, not long after that they rounded some bushes and finally reached rookstar, as flameburst quietly observed snowbur while she whispered words to send her friend off he mused 'snakepelt did a fine job, i can barely smell my own scent and from the looks of it she had a life left after i left her, snakepelt probably had an easy enough time finishing her off' he glanced at said tom who was staring at his old leader with an unreadable gaze, flameburst flicked his tail as snowbur stood and padded over "we'll be off now" he stated somberly "take care and i pray those rogues aren't hanging around" he then left with his healer and they began the long trip to the crystal hollow, disappearing from the rest of the patrols view. As he padded along he lifted his head and let the wind sift through his fur, then it stopped.... This was his destiny.... He would be flamestar.... And he would rise into a great leadership. He stopped on a hill and looked back over his home.... HIS territory and recalled what he had thought all those moons ago when he was first made an apprentice 'im gonna rule over ALL of this someday and I'll be so powerful that no one will ever die under my rule' .... It's mine now. My territory. My clan. And no one will EVER take it away from me.