Warriors: Bumblestripe's Insanity

Chapter Thirty: Plans

It was no surprise to anyone that I appointed Blossomfall as the deputy. I didn't really care anymore, but I remembered that I was going to make Seedkit and Lilykit apprentices early. I assigned Lilykit to Foxleap and Seedkit to Cherrystripe, rushing through the words I had to recite so that I could return to my den and hide in the back corner for the rest of the day. I waited for Blossomfall to kill me; I had no doubts that she would try.

Nobody guarded my den anymore. Blossomfall wasn't selecting anyone, even though I was sure she knew she was supposed to, giving me all the more reason to be suspicious. It didn't matter though, because I wanted her to kill me. I was done with living my life in fear and misery.

I had started a border dispute with WindClan the day after I selected Blossomfall as my deputy just so that I could have one more battle before I was sent to the Dark Forest. ThunderClan didn't win the battle, which even I knew had been completely pointless and unnecessary. I lost two lives in that fight, and knew that now I was prepared for whatever method Blossomfall would choose to kill me. Death wasn't that painful anyways. Life was the true agony, a horrible mixture of despair, grief, heartbreak, misery, and sorrow. I couldn't bear it anymore; I had just experienced too much hurt. A cat can only suffer so long before their will crumbles and they lose the motivation to pursue their dumb hopes and impossible dreams. We all will reach the same conclusion that I have come to now: life isn't worth living and death is much kinder than life. At one point, it's time to just give up and wait for death to come to you. If you're a more popular cat than I am, well, if you don't eat anything or you don't drink any water, eventually you will die of starvation or thirst, and then you can live a happy life in the sunny fields of StarClan with its infinite prey and constant peace. If Blossomfall didn't kill me, I was considering using that plan. But I was certain that she would kill me, as certain as I was that the sun would rise the next morning so that another stupid day could begin and the torture of the previous day could repeat itself. She was as fox-hearted as I was. There was no doubt in my mind that she would find some way to murder me.

And so, I was simply waiting for my inevitable death. I was done running from it. Let it come to me now. After all, I deserved it.

Blossomfall POV

I snuck out of camp at sundown, two days after I had been appointed as deputy. Bumblestar knew I wanted to kill him, at least I thought he did before he picked me. Maybe he was as much of a fool as the other cats. Or did he have other reasons to appoint me? Perhaps he wanted to catch me in the act. That is why I was going to be sure that there was no evidence that I did it.

I traveled by the lakeshore to cross through WindClan territory and then padded into horseplace, feeling slightly nervous. I squeezed through a hole in the walls of a barn and found two cats, a tom and a she-cat, talking quietly to each other. The she-cat looked small and frail, but the tom was muscular and had a scarred face, a sign of past battles. The tom's black pelt would blend in perfectly with the shadows.

The tom leapt to his feet and unsheathed his claws. "What are you doing in here?"

I dipped my head. "I need a cat to do me a favor. I can pay you in...well, what do you need?"

"Need?" He thought for a moment. "Stream here has whitecough. Do you have herbs?"

I nodded. "I can give you catmint and tansy. What's your name?"

"Night," he replied. "But that's not important. Could we hurry up and do whatever favor you need? Stream might get worse the longer we're gone."

Night and I set off at a brisk pace. Night seemed tense, and I assumed that he was worried that WindClan warriors might catch us. "Don't worry, Clan cats don't really patrol that much at night."

Night said nothing. We crossed into ThunderClan territory shortly after moonhigh, and the tom relaxed underneath the trees. "I'm sorry. I just don't like open spaces."

Neither did I, or any other ThunderClan cat. Perhaps he'd make a good ThunderClan warrior, considering he seemed to enjoy being in the forest and he looked pretty muscular

I led the rogue to the camp, to the thorn tunnel that led into the stone hollow. I pointed with a forepaw to the leaders den. "A very evil murderer sleeps in there. While he's asleep, I need you to sneak in there right now and kill him. He may have more than one life. Kill him until he dies permanently."

Night looked curious. "More than one life?"

"Clan leaders have nine lives," I explained.

He looked confused, but didn't ask any other questions. He hesitantly padded into camp. Cloudtail, who I had purposely chosen to guard camp, had fallen asleep on duty. I watched as he vanished into Bumblestar's den.

I decided to act like I had gone hunting because I woke up early. When the camp was in chaos when I returned, I would remind myself to act confused. Once I "learned" that Bumblestar had died, I would act like I was shocked and I would try to show some grief or sorrow.

I was always planning to kill Bumblestar, or any leader, if I ever became deputy. The fact that he was my brother didn't change that. Only a weak cat lets their family stop them from accomplishing their goals. Once I was leader, I would rebuild the Clan that Bumblestar was destroying. Unlike him, I actually intended to make life better for ThunderClan. I would possibly recruit those rogues, Stream and Night. I could name the tom Nightstripe, to remind myself of my brother, and Stream could be Streamheart. Something told me that those two would be willing to join. I didn't think Streamheart had much potential, but Nightstripe could be a great fighter, a warrior as good as Lionblaze perhaps. Lionblaze was strong and skilled, and I saw the same traits in Nightstripe.

With me as the leader, every cat around the lake would fear ThunderClan, and nobody would be able to defeat us in battle. During my reign, I would make us strong again.

Only Bumblestar stood in my way.

A/N: Will Night succeed? Find out in the epilogue, the dramatic conclusion to WBI! :D