Rise

Chapter 16

"Who is the father?" Limestar screeched as she pinned Maple down.
Her mate, Sand, was licking the kit, looking bewildered and clearly embarrassed.
The queen breathed heavily under her leader's heavy body weight.
"I don't know!" Maple hissed.
Limestar sneered at her. "Stupid red! Who is the father?" She repeated.
Novapaw stared, horror stricken, at the scene in front of her. If the kit had silver blood it meant that Sand wasn't his father.
Reds were forbidden from mating with silvers. It could be punishable by death.
Wolfheart whispered, "poor Maple. She probably won't last another day here."
Novapaw nodded in agreement. She saw Frost watching across the clearing, anger flashed in his eyes.
She assumed he was mad at Limestar for jumping in Maple, but with a pang realized he was looking at her and Wolfheart.
'He's not jealous, is he?'
She didn't even notice as Thunderpaw approached. "Can you believe this? Limestar is close to killing her!"
He gasped.
Novapaw looked at her brother. "She's probably just in shock."
Her eyes trailed back to the cats. Maple was still under Limestar's claws, but the leader's gaze had lost some of its anger.
Crowfur was talking to the large she cat, and obviously was calming her down.
"I do not have to tell you who the father is. It is a choice a queen has the right to make." She meowed with no shame.
The deputy was entering the camp and when he saw the commotion he raced over.
"Whats going on?" He urged.
"Maple's kit is silver." Limestar hissed to him. "She won't say who the father is."
Stormstripe's eyes flared with fury. "Either you tell us who the father is and you will both be banished, or you will be killed."
Novapaw's eyes grew wide with shock. He couldn't!
She was expecting someone to interfere, but her stomach dropped when no one did.
Sand was angry, too. His mate had a kit with someone who was not him.
Maple's eyes flashed with fear and she looked around at the crowd circled around them. She clearly expected some support, but even the reds showed none.
"Well?" Stormstripe growled, kneading the ground with his claws.
Limestar didn't loosen her grip at all.
"I will never share who the father is." Maple growled with bared teeth.
"Very well." Limestar breathed. "Your punishment will be death. Flamestripe will carry out your execution."
The new warrior had been watching close by. When he heard his names being called he puffed out his chest and lifted his chin proudly.
He had always been disrespectful to reds, and Novapaw wasn't surprised that he was excited to carry out his first execution.
The only ever execution that happened in Novapaw's life was of a silver who fell in love with a cat from another tribe.
Limestar let go of Maple, and let Flamestripe take her.
The she cat did not some seem afraid, just hurt, that she would lose her kit.
"Is there anything you would like to say before I kill you?" Flamestripe hissed.
"I love you Snow." She cried to her only kit.
The kit clearly had no idea what was going on, he just looked at his mother and meowed. "What's happening?"
Sand licked he frightened tom, and Novapaw felt relief that the kind fighter would most likely love the kit as his own.
She closed her eyes, but knew what was happening.
Maple screeched in pain and the smell of smoke wafted up the apprentice's nose.
Wolfpaw prodded her in the side. "It's over." He murmured and licked her on the cheek.
Thunderpaw did the same, and it comforted Novapaw.
Maple's scorched body laid in the middle of the clearing, and some heads lowered in grief.
There was no way that Limestar would treat reds fairly after this.
'We are going to go back to the ways of Silverstar.'