(Warrior Cats)SmokeTrail's fire

Chapter 28- Mission Accomplished.

"Oh starclan.." I murmured.
"Someone go after Waterpaw!"Softstar demanded immideately. Goldeneyes rushed off in the direction the apprentice had gone.

Ash looked undeniably guilty. I knew she wasn't used to this. She's killed before but now her job just got a lot harder. I stole a glance at her and she frowned. Her and Applepaw separated and ash padded up to me. "Can I please talk to you?" She asked, shifting her paws nervously "alone..?" She added. She was blushing uncontrollably, Amber eyes angled away to avoid meeting anyone else's.

I nodded and lead her out of the camp, stopping nearby a clearing in the grassy fields. I turned and sat down to face her, curling my tail neatly over my paws. "This isn't about the mission is it?" I guessed.

She nodded shyly. "It's about Applepaw...I'm so sorry I shouldn't have been so close with her, I dont know what to do now, this hasn't ever happened before! "She cried helplessly.
P
"Ashpaw- I mean..sorry..ash. I don't know what to tell you. You just have to stick to the plan. I'm sorry that you have to-"

"I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE HER!"She erupted. I took a few steps back, taken by surprise. She pinned her ears to her skull "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to yell at you, I just...I....I just don't want to leave her....I really do feel for her...don't mind me..." She quieted down into a depressed calmness and turned her back to me.

"I'll talk to your father. If you're lucky, he might let you stay." I meowed. That was all I said before I headed back to camp. Faithkit would be hysterical if I didn't return to feed her. She was pretty anxious without me around.

I couldn't really blame her. A lot of cats held grudges against our little family. Softstar was not himself. After accidentally murdering those cats...something just wasn't right about the way he was acting. I couldn't tell who else had noticed, but I knew his mate definitely had.

Rose had never received a true warrior name because of Softstsr's sudden change in personality, but she didn't seem like she minded much. Not only that but her son Rain was now rainpaw and got along well with the others. Her daughter petal was now petalkit, and got along with faith, but not orchid's kits.

I decided to go talk to Rose first to see if she knew what was going on. When I arrived, the clan was deserted, all but a crowd near the nursery and maybe some cats in their dens. I was alarmed as I should be and rushed over, loving my way through the crowd, heart pounding as I prayed to starclan that faithkit was okay.

She was. But the cat I'd expected to see along with rise..wasn't. She was laying on her side, blank empty eyes narrowed softly and staring into nothing. It hit me with a pang of guilt that the lovely ex-kittypet was dead.

Softstar was with rose, buried into her fur like a kit. He looked broken. Rose looked up at me and flicked her tail to the back of the den. There, goldeneyes was watching with faithkit huddled at the large warrior's paws.

"What happened?" I asked finally, breaking the silence.

" She ate something poisoned. We also lost a lot of her kits but two still remain with Dreamheart to make sure they're alright." Rose meowed. After a brief moment of silence she added "But I have news that will help brighten everyone's spirits again. "

The clan was suddenly at attention, curious to what the queen had to say.

"I'm expecting Softstar's kits..." she sounded a little nervous and uncertain when she said it, but after a brief pause, the clan began to cheer and congratulated the queen. She sat up when Softstar began to cover her with affectionate licks and I could tell by the size of her small swollen belly, that she was a little farther a long than she was comfortable with telling.

Once the crowed dispersed, I approached the pair. "Congratulations. " I purred, earning a gentle smile from Rose, and a cough from Softstar. I paused to look at him. Now up close, I noticed that I was beginning to be able to see his ribs. I looked back to Rose and she sighed, clearly sharing my concern.

"Thanks, I'm happy to be expecting again. I forgot how good it felt to know I was going to bring new lives into the world..." the queen purred dreamily. It took me until that moment to realize that the tom laying with his head on his mate's belly was fast asleep.

Rose giggled quietly "he's such a kit sometimes himself...But I can see that you've noticed that he's changing. Yes been eating less and he seems to be getting sick...Not only that, I'm afraid my kits might die and make him worse...He still has plenty lives left but I fear he won't change his ways afterwards..."

I stole another glance at the tom, comfey in the comfort of his mate's fur with their tails interlocked lying over his flank as he purred in his sleep. I left them be and joined my own family, watching two warriors taking the dead queens body from the den, who's kits were asleep soundly, seeming to be unaware that their mother was dead.

I realized with a jolt something terrible. I jumped to my paws a poked my head into the apprentices den, glad to see them all soundly asleep, including Ash who upon closer inspection, wasn't asleep at all. I caught her eye and she nodded, without waking the sleeping bundle of Golden fur that she was affectionately laying with.

Mint had agreed to to let Ash stay, he was glad to hear that she completed the mission anyway and killed the three young triplets in their sleep. The clan was devastated, but they had no parents to accuse someone of their deaths.

I knew there were rumours flying around about who did it just by how paranoid Ash was. I realized with dread that the gathering would be soon.