Post by obnixious on Jun 4, 2020 18:46:02 GMT -8
019 - Disaster Strikes
Warning! Explicit descriptions of violence and death! There will be a brief recap at the very bottom if you wish to skip the gore! The recape also includes things not explicitly stated in the scenes, so even if you read the post, please read the recap as well!
It’s dark. Claw flattens her ears, and approaches cautiously. She’s been coming to this strange place in her dreams for a while now, but it still gives her the creeps. She spots Calendulaclaw, and she perks up immediately.
Claw bounds over, but what she hears makes her freeze.
”Cottonspore is weak, Mary. He’s not ready; we should strike when Annie’s kits are out of the Nursery! At least we know Annie won’t betray the plan.” Calendulaclaw hisses, and Claw flattens herself to the ground and approaches slowly. She doesn’t know where the strange dark cat that’s been helping her train is, but he’s drifting out of her thoughts completely as she listens in on the two mollies.
”You know well that we can’t do that, Carrie! There's no time; Cypressstar knows.” The other molly - Mary, apparently - laughs. Her face is bright, and Calendulaclaw looks like she was just slapped. Mary sneers, and answers her unasked question. ”I’ve been visiting him long before you found this place. He knows that something’s going to happen, though the buffoon seems to think it’ll be an attack from the outside! That’s why I sent the rats, and that fox! I sent them to solidify his beliefs; to make sure he didn’t suspect you. You have to strike soon, before-”
Claw closes her eyes, and she feels deep in her bones that she won’t be opening them in her nest again. She can feel Mary and Calendulaclaw looking at her, and she mentally apologizes to Fang for being so reckless. Slowly she raises her paw, and looks down at the dark stick that she accidentally stepped on when she was trying to get closer.
”Ah, Claw. What a pleasure to see you.” Calendulaclaw cooly mews, and Claw suddenly understands why Shadowpaw was telling her the older molly makes her uncomfortable. She hesitantly smiles, and sits up.
”Ah, hello, Calendulaclaw! It’s, uh, a nice night, isn’t it?” Claw mentally winces at her own words, and the look in Calendulaclaw’s eyes somehow turns colder. The ginger tabby turns back to the scottish fold, and Mary gives a cruel smirk and nods.
The next thing Claw registers is pain. She stumbles back, ears flattened against her skull as she looks up at Calendulaclaw in horror. She can feel something hot and wet on her chest fur, and she shakily looks down. It’s so dark, but despite that she can still make out the oddly pretty shade of red that’s staining the white fur.
She opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out but a warbling gargle, and she stumbles back a few more steps. Everything is getting fuzzy, and she can barely focus on either molly anymore. Claw turns, not really sure where she’s going to go, but the sudden motion makes her head spin, and after a few seconds of just wobbling there, she collapses, and everything goes black.
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Pepperpaw yawns, and leans more against the body beside him. After a few moments of nuzzling against the cold fur, he stops, and frowns.
Blinking open his eyes, Pepperpaw waits for his eyes to adjust to look at the body of his sibling. It’s Newleaf, and it had been a particularly warm night, so why are they so cold? He raises a paw, and nudges Claw softly. ”Hey, Claw, come on. It’s time to wake up.”
There’s no response, and the rest of his siblings seem to be waking up as well. Shadowpaw and Fang’s heads poke up from behind Energypaw’s back, and Pollen shifts against Pepperpaw’s back with a tired hum.
Frowning, Pepperpaw nudges her a little bit harder. ”Claw, this isn’t funny. I know you’re a light sleeper.” There’s still no response, and Pollen seems more awake now. She gets to her paws, and Pepperpaw doesn’t even complain when she steps on him to get closer to Claw.
”Claw, are you alright?” She asks, her voice soft, before she begins running her paws and muzzle against her, presumably attempting to warm her up. Pepperpaw can feel his breathing begin to quicken, but he doesn’t move. Fang also hurries to get closer, and Energypaw whines in annoyance when he steps on his tail.
There’s an odd red liquid coming from her neck, and Pepperpaw moves forward on nothing but instinct to touch his paw to it. His movement drawns everyone else’s attention, and Pollen chokes in horror when it coats his white paw. He pulls it back, slowly, and just blinks down at it.
It takes a good minute, and then there's nothing but noise.
He hears Energypaw leap out of the metal mouse, yelling at the top of his lungs for Weasel. Pollen shoves him aside, and frantically presses her paws to the liquid, as if trying to stop it from flowing. He can hear Shadowpaw wailing, and Fang also leaves the metal mouse, but Pepperpaw can hear him pacing angrily just outside of it, and he can also hear when he half jumps back up, his front paws settling on the metal for a moment before he goes back to pacing.
He can hear their parent’s voices, but he can’t make sense of what anyone is saying. He lets his dad drag him out of the metal mouse, all his paws and his tail soaked in the red liquid now. Through the mist in his mind, one word seems to stand out.
”-blood-”
Ah, that makes sense. Slowly he looks down, focusing on the red liquid - the blood that’s all over his paws. His breathing quickens again, and he begins looking around frantically, seeing but not really making sense of what’s going on. Energypaw and Shadowpaw are on either side of Mist, and all three of them are crying so hard that their own paws are damp with it. Fang is snarling, and he looks like he’s yelling at Pollen and Weasel, but Pepperpaw can’t seem to hear him.
Stumbling back a few steps, he hears someone call out for him, but he doesn’t stay long enough to find out who. He runs out of the camp, his eyes wide and ears flattened as he lets his paws simply carry him. He doesn’t know where he’s going, and he doesn’t know why, but he can’t focus enough to even think about stopping.
Hours later Fang comes to find him, and he curls around his brother as he finally breaks down. They sit there for a long time, sobbing into each other’s fur, but Pepperpaw doesn’t know how long. All he knows is when they get back to the camp, Claw is nowhere to be seen, and there's a fresh patch of recently dug up dirt at the edge of the camp where he ran out earlier.
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Fang narrows his eyes, watching Calendulaclaw closely. She practically glides through the water of the swamp, and Fang can’t help but think it’s almost too graceful. He knows very well how many strange plants are in the water; he watched Energypaw fail to learn how to swim here after getting snagged on one, after all.
Calendulaclaw seems completely unaffected by any of the plants, even with how much bigger she is than Energypaw of himself. He slowly slips into the water, shuddering at the slimy feel of the plants under his paws before he kicks off to the deeper section. They’ve been here for the last few days as he gets a hang on how to swim, and he’s been nervous around her since day one.
They started training here the day after Claw was found dead, and she’s made sure to get him out of the camp every day since. Part of him wants to think she’s being a good mentor, and trying to get his mind off such a traumatic event, but she seems so unaffected. Everyone was outraged at how she could die of a neck wound in the metal mouse surrounded by all her siblings, but Calendulaclaw seemed completely unaffected by it. Which makes a bit of sense, since she didn’t know Claw very well, but she’s seemed almost annoyed with how much it gets brought up. Which, again, makes some sense, but it’s still getting on his nerves.
Lst in his thoughts, Fang kicks a little too fast, and on his next kick, his head goes under the water.
He flails his limbs blindly, scratching at his one back leg to try and get the offending plant off of him. It takes a few moments of pure panic, but eventually he gets it off, and gulps for air the moment his head breaks the surface. Fang whips his head around, trying to find Calendulaclaw, and freezes when he spots her.
She’s on the edge of the swamp, completely out of the water. Her golden yellow eyes are narrowed, and she doesn’t even twitch when they make eye contact. Slowly, he swims his way to the other side of the swamp, checking back over his shoulder at her every few seconds, and making sure to keep his movements slow and controlled so another plant doesn’t wrap itself around him.
The second his paws are all back on land, he bolts. Fang takes off back to camp, and he’s both glad and scared to not hear Calendulaclaw behind him. He doesn’t know what just happened, but he does know that the look in her eyes terrified him to the bone. She looked almost disappointed, as if she didn’t want him to make it. After all, why else would she have left the water when he was drowning?
He lets these thoughts fill his mind, and avoids her for the rest of the day. He presses close to his siblings at every chance he gets, and he doesn’t miss the strange looks that his mentor shoots him for the rest of the day.
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Auletris frowns softly, standing next to the broken metal tracks. Synrinxecho is at the edge of the camp, laying down next to the still fresh looking grave. His front paws are on the loose soil, and she can tell from here that he’s still crying. She glances over to Weasel, and with a brief touch of their foreheads, the little Tamer turns and heads back to her Juggler.
Sighing, the tall siamese then makes her way over to her brother. Syrinxecho is a large cat, almost larger than Skullbash, but like this he looks so small. It makes her think of when they were just kits, and that thought just makes her more sad.
Syrinxecho has always been so bright, so loving. He’s her antithesis, and seeing him like this makes her unnaturally uncomfortable. She hasn’t seen him without a smile on his muzzle since before they joined KeyClan, and even before then he was always telling jokes and making others happy.
She sits down next to him, and he doesn’t even flinch. They sit there in silence, staring at the grave, and Auletris can’t even find the words to begin comforting him.
Auletris has no idea how hard it must be, for him to lose his Juggler like this. He was so excited when Cypressstar named him as Claw’s mentor, and she was happy for him. He seemed a lot closer with Claw than she ever was with Wishflower, and looking at him now, she wonders if maybe they were even closer than a mentor and apprentice normally was. They used to playfight, and play pranks on some of the grumpier members on occasion. Hell, she’d almost go so far as to say Syrinxecho saw her as a little sister, or maybe even a daughter.
Slowly, Auletris lowers herself down to lay next to him, her chin resting up on his shoulder. He shifts the slightest, just to make it more comfortable, but otherwise doesn’t move.
Auletris can’t find the words to say, but she knows deep down that there really aren’t any. There’s nothing she can say here to make him feel better, and she doesn’t even think she’d want to. He’s mourning, and her trying to tell him to get over it would do more harm than good. So, she simply lays there, soaking in his warmth and politely ignoring when he begins shaking with silent sobs.
He’ll get over it, eventually, but he has to do it on her own terms. And she’ll be here for him when he’s ready.
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From here, writing is actually this moon!!
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It’s quiet, and the lithe ginger tabby slowly stalks her way through the camp. Her paws make squishing noises as she walks, but it's easy to ignore. The moon slips out from between two clouds, and she pauses for a moment to look up at it. If anyone else were awake and outside they’d notice the path of red pawprints leading from the body slowly oozing it’s life away to her paws, but as it is there’s no one to see, and so she doesn’t think about it.
Nimbly she jumps up, balancing carefully on the edge of the little metal perch on the Ringmaster’s den, and she raps her claws against it gently. There’s noise from inside, and soon enough the little metal slider goes up.
”What is-” Cypressstar begins to ask, but then cuts off with a gurgle. He stares at her with his one working eye, and in an attempt to get away, he steps back and slips back down into his little den.
He yowls, the sound echoing through the camp despite the gurgling, and she grins. Finally, it begins.
A second after she hears his body smash against the ground, she herself is being ripped down from the perch. She hisses, and turns angrily to slash at the offending cat’s face.
Swiftwind reels back, releasing her tail from between his teeth, but she doesn’t give him any time to breath. She slashes again, a claw catching on his eyelid, and she continues with the swing without batting an eye. Blood sprays into the air and there’s flesh hanging from her claw, but she doesn’t pay it any mind. Raising her head, she gives a yowl of her own.
Tonight, KeyClan falls.
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Poisonfang awakes to multiple screeches, and squints into the darkness. They’re sleeping in a seperate room from the other Acrobats, because they got kicked earlier thanks to someone else’s stupid dream. Their ears perk up at another yowl, this one sounding more in pain.
Racing out of the building, they freeze for a moment at the sight. There’s cats running this way and that, and Poisonfang takes a moment to take in whatever they can. Pollen and Wishflower are leading Swiftwind to the metal snake, his face covered in blood. They spot Weasel’s head poking out from under the metal snake, and heading to Cypressstar’s den where Skullbash and DIamondstorm have just disappeared into.
There’s another pained yowl, and Poisonfang turns in the direction of the sound, eyes narrowing. They watch Cottonspore get his mouth around Turtledove’s back leg, and they can hear the crunching of the bone from here.
With a snarl, they launch forward, colliding with Cottonspore’s flank and digging their claws in immediately. He gives a pained yowl, but they ignore it and curl their claws in even more. It’s been so long since they were in a fight, and despite the exciting rush of adrenaline, they definitely didn’t miss this.
Cottonspore shakes, trying to knock them off, but Poisonfang simply lets themself swing with his momentum, and uses it to swing up higher on his body, and lunges forward to sink their teeth into the back of his neck. Cottonspore being shaking more violently, and they can feel his flesh give in and begin to rip between their teeth.
Suddenly the world is spinning, and Poisonfang lets him go with a pained gasp. Cottonspore managed to throw himself onto his back, effectively crushing Poisonfang under his weight. They can distantly hear Turtledove yell in the background, but that’s all the warning they get before there’s teeth and claws at their throat.
Poisonfang feebly tries to fight back, scratching mercilessly at his stomach, but Cottonspore bites harder, and Poisonfang feels the strength draining from their limbs. They slowly go limp, and they can feel their eyes begin to roll to the back of their head. They can feel the blood shooting from their neck, as well as the blood from Cottonspore’s stomach. Distantly they think they hear him run off, and Turtledove’s cries getting closer, but before they can confirm either of those things, they shut their eyes and everything is quiet.
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There’s yelling outside, and Killfang glances over to watch how Toothpaste frantically begins corralling her kittens. She watches carefully how she gets Colgate under her, and how Toothbrush and Toast scurry over as well. Mouthwash is blindly making her way over, and little Spearmint seems to be frozen in fear.
After a split second of contemplation, Killfang decides that yes, she does want to be part of his battle. She lunges forward, and the first thing that reaches her ears is the soft crunching of a little kitten's bones. She places a paw on his back, and pulls her head back, easily snapping his neck for good measure.
Killfang looks up at Toothpaste's sharp inhale, and then lunges for Mouthwash without any of her previous hesitation.
Suddenly there’s a weight on her side, and she snarls and twists to try and bite at whoever thought they could jump in and interrupt.
She spots ginger fur, and snarls as she recognizes the bulky form of Flareblitz. He snarls right back, and Killfang tries to twist around more to snap at him. She notices Mewlin and Grasswhistle jump in as well, but they seem more focused on helping Toothpaste and her kits out, so she doesn't pay them any mind.
She gives a triumphant yowl when her claws finally hit flesh, and she manages to dig her front claws into Flarebitz’s soft belly and pulls. She gets herself closer to him with the movement, but it also works for tearing through the soft flesh. He howls in pain, and the second he lets go of her, she twists around enough to get a better grip and rip even harder at his belly.
She can faintly hear Mewlin scream outside, and then the world goes dark
Oh, no, the sliding metal door has fallen. There’s a faint splash of blood that sprays against her face, and in the dark she sinks her teeth into Flareblitz’s neck and lets his life drain away.
Lionkit and Lilykit make soft noises from a corner of the den, and she makes her way over to them carefully. ”Hush, my little darlings. No one can harm you.” She softly tells them, and lays down on the bloody floor to curl around them. Eventually someone will have to come and get them, and it’s only going to go one of two ways.
Either Calendulaclaw is going to win, and kill the opposition and get those still alive to follow under her. Or Calendulaclaw is defeated, and at the end of the day, Killfang is either going to be killed or kicked out for going along with her sister's plans.
Mulling over the options, Killfang finds she doesn’t mind either. She hates her sister, and it would be nice to know that she could be defeated, but at the same time. At the same time if she’s kicked out or killed, there’s the question of her kits. She gently places her tail over them, and thinks. She didn’t want them; they most certainly weren’t a blessing or anything along those lines. But at the same time, they are her children. They are Calendulaclaw’s kin, so if she was kicked out or killed, what would become of them? Would they be killed or kicked out with her? Or would they keep her children alive and in the Clan, raising them on stories of how evil their mother and aunt are?
Either way, she decides it doesn’t really matter. Even if they stay here, she’s confident that they’ll know Calendulaclaw regardless. After all, if she could get that innocent Juggler to train with the Freakshow, then she could easily get Lionkit and Lilykit to train with her there as well.
She sighs softly, and then simply lets her eyes slip shut. She’ll deal with it when the morning comes.
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Snarling to himself, Cottonspore stalks into the Musician’s den. He can hear someone running after him, but at this point he doesn’t care. He’s still bleeding from his stomach, and his fur is sticking to his spine. It started raining when he started walking away from Poisonfang, and so he had made a beeline to the building to get out of it.
He now stands at the entrance to their den, and glares down Ancientpower. Puffball is cowering behind his mate, and Cottonspore doesn’t pay him any mind. He knows, deep down, that if what Calendulaclaw says comes to pass, that there’s no chance either of them will be sticking around much longer anyways.
He approaches them, and doesn’t bother to look back when he hears paws scrambling just outside. Mentally he notes that it’s Steelwing, Bracketpaw, and Rustpaw, but he otherwise doesn’t acknowledge them. He crouches low, and then launches forward, claws unsheathed as he reaches for Ancientpower.
The old Musician easily jumps out of the way, and Cottonspore snarls in anger as he crashes face first into the wall. He stumbles back to his feet, slipping slightly on the blood that’s still slowly pouring from his stomach. His vision is blurry, and while he thought it was from the rain in his eyes, a little voice at the back of his mind tells him it’s him getting dizzy from all the blood loss.
There’s a shape barreling towards him, and he lashes out without really thinking about it. The form stops and collapses, and he takes a moment to look at all the new blood mixing with his on the floor. He assumes it was one of the Jugglers, since he’s pretty sure neither of the Musicians or Steelwing would’ve gone down that easily.
There’s a pained cry in the distance, and Cottonspore snarls. He moves to take a step forward, but then lists to the side. He slams against the wall, and there’s a very concerning noise coming from up above all of a sudden.
Cottonspore doesn’t even get enough time to look up, before suddenly the roof is falling down on him. He yowls, the pain of his stomach becoming a lot more pronounced as he’s squished onto the floor There’s others that get caught under the falling debris, he can tell that much, but he can’t pick out who. The pain spikes to an unbearable level, and then suddenly, everything simply stops.
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Jinglebee snarls, a fierce rage building in her chest like never before.
She had woken up to sounds of pain and anger, and she’s had to watch as her family has been torn apart before her very eyes. Right outside of the building had been Lilyfrost, blood pooling around her almost comically. From her were a path of bloody footprints, and she had been horrified to learn from Skullbash and Diamondstorm that Cypressstar had lost a life, and was probably going to be losing at least one more before the end of the night.
But now she’s here, back arched as she awkwardly circles Calendulaclaw at the top of the metal tracks.It’s pouring rain, and distant flashes of lightning, and loud roars of thunder all around. The metal is slick with rain, and the metal scraps innocently sitting underneath look scarier than they ever have. Calendulaclaw is snarling and trying to swipe at her, her ginger fur stained a dark crimson.
The worst part of it, Jinglebee decides, is that Calendulaclaw is trying to fucking monologue at her.
”-esn’t have to be like this! You’re better than them, you’re better than him! This Clan is being led to RUINS with Cypressstar at the helm! Join me, and we can lead KeyClan to greatness! The Cirque are the real evil ones, you’ve been led astray!”
Absolutely disgusting, Jinglebee thinks. With a snarl, and lunges forward, and Calendulaclaw steps back instinctively. Jinglebee lashes out, her claws catching Calendulaclaw on the cheek, and the skin rips open and blood sprays across the metal.
Calendulaclaw snarls, and then suddenly she’s out of sight. There’s a loud howl, and Jinglebee carefully leans forward with wide eyes. She looks down at the ground, distantly thinking it’s a god thing it was raining. Calendulaclaw is struggling to get to her feet on the slippery metal, and Auletris and Ironhead are slowly approaching, their growls audible even from so high up.
One wrong step, and suddenly Calendulaclaw trips forward, and Jinglebee recoils in horror. She struggles not to puke, and slowly picks her way back down the tracks. Jinglebee doesn’t spare a look back for the older molly, if only because she doesn’t think she could stomach it. If she closes her eyes too hard, she can still picture the pinkish material on the end of the piece of metal, and the way the red so freely gushed out and over Calendulaclaw’s already damp, ginger fur.
She stumbles a little, and distantly makes note of how Babypuff was yelling at her, before she simply slipped out of consciousness. Yes, this is a perfect place for a nap.
Recap;;
Scene 1: Claw is in The Freak Show. She is killed by Calendulaclaw for hearing her and Mary talk about their plans.
Scene 2: Pepperpaw and the rest of his siblings waking up to find Claw dead.
Scene 3: Fang learning to swim. He almost drowns, and Calendulaclaw does nothing to help him. He flees back to camp once he's back on shore
Scene 4: Syrinxecho and Auletris at Claw's grave, mourning the Juggler.
Scene 5: Calendulaclaw kills Cypressstar. She also ends up blinding Swiftwind Not pictured: Calendulaclaw killed Lilyfrost before the scene started. It is vaguely mentioned, but I don't call Lilyfrost by her name here.
Scene 6: Poisonfang joins the battle, seeing Cottonspore break Turtlepaw's back leg. They fight him off, but end up getting killed. They do injure him in the process, however.
Scene 7: Killfang in the nursery kills Spearmint, and then tries to kill Mouthwash. Flareblitz then jumps in to fight her off, and she ends up killing him as well. Not pictured since it's from Killfang's perspective: Mewlin slips and twists her paw, and when the metal door slides shut, it cuts off half of Grasswhistle's tail.
Scene 8: Cottonspore enters the Musicians den, and tries to attack Ancientpower. He ends up hitting the wall, and then Bracketpaw comes rushing over to defend the musicians, but Cottonspore kills him. The roof then ends up caving in, and Cottonspore is crushed under it, and dies. Not pictured but vaguely mentioned: Ancientpower and Steelwing also get crushed. Ancientpower's his are broken, and one of Steelwing's back legs.
Warning! Explicit descriptions of violence and death! There will be a brief recap at the very bottom if you wish to skip the gore! The recape also includes things not explicitly stated in the scenes, so even if you read the post, please read the recap as well!
It’s dark. Claw flattens her ears, and approaches cautiously. She’s been coming to this strange place in her dreams for a while now, but it still gives her the creeps. She spots Calendulaclaw, and she perks up immediately.
Claw bounds over, but what she hears makes her freeze.
”Cottonspore is weak, Mary. He’s not ready; we should strike when Annie’s kits are out of the Nursery! At least we know Annie won’t betray the plan.” Calendulaclaw hisses, and Claw flattens herself to the ground and approaches slowly. She doesn’t know where the strange dark cat that’s been helping her train is, but he’s drifting out of her thoughts completely as she listens in on the two mollies.
”You know well that we can’t do that, Carrie! There's no time; Cypressstar knows.” The other molly - Mary, apparently - laughs. Her face is bright, and Calendulaclaw looks like she was just slapped. Mary sneers, and answers her unasked question. ”I’ve been visiting him long before you found this place. He knows that something’s going to happen, though the buffoon seems to think it’ll be an attack from the outside! That’s why I sent the rats, and that fox! I sent them to solidify his beliefs; to make sure he didn’t suspect you. You have to strike soon, before-”
Claw closes her eyes, and she feels deep in her bones that she won’t be opening them in her nest again. She can feel Mary and Calendulaclaw looking at her, and she mentally apologizes to Fang for being so reckless. Slowly she raises her paw, and looks down at the dark stick that she accidentally stepped on when she was trying to get closer.
”Ah, Claw. What a pleasure to see you.” Calendulaclaw cooly mews, and Claw suddenly understands why Shadowpaw was telling her the older molly makes her uncomfortable. She hesitantly smiles, and sits up.
”Ah, hello, Calendulaclaw! It’s, uh, a nice night, isn’t it?” Claw mentally winces at her own words, and the look in Calendulaclaw’s eyes somehow turns colder. The ginger tabby turns back to the scottish fold, and Mary gives a cruel smirk and nods.
The next thing Claw registers is pain. She stumbles back, ears flattened against her skull as she looks up at Calendulaclaw in horror. She can feel something hot and wet on her chest fur, and she shakily looks down. It’s so dark, but despite that she can still make out the oddly pretty shade of red that’s staining the white fur.
She opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out but a warbling gargle, and she stumbles back a few more steps. Everything is getting fuzzy, and she can barely focus on either molly anymore. Claw turns, not really sure where she’s going to go, but the sudden motion makes her head spin, and after a few seconds of just wobbling there, she collapses, and everything goes black.
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Pepperpaw yawns, and leans more against the body beside him. After a few moments of nuzzling against the cold fur, he stops, and frowns.
Blinking open his eyes, Pepperpaw waits for his eyes to adjust to look at the body of his sibling. It’s Newleaf, and it had been a particularly warm night, so why are they so cold? He raises a paw, and nudges Claw softly. ”Hey, Claw, come on. It’s time to wake up.”
There’s no response, and the rest of his siblings seem to be waking up as well. Shadowpaw and Fang’s heads poke up from behind Energypaw’s back, and Pollen shifts against Pepperpaw’s back with a tired hum.
Frowning, Pepperpaw nudges her a little bit harder. ”Claw, this isn’t funny. I know you’re a light sleeper.” There’s still no response, and Pollen seems more awake now. She gets to her paws, and Pepperpaw doesn’t even complain when she steps on him to get closer to Claw.
”Claw, are you alright?” She asks, her voice soft, before she begins running her paws and muzzle against her, presumably attempting to warm her up. Pepperpaw can feel his breathing begin to quicken, but he doesn’t move. Fang also hurries to get closer, and Energypaw whines in annoyance when he steps on his tail.
There’s an odd red liquid coming from her neck, and Pepperpaw moves forward on nothing but instinct to touch his paw to it. His movement drawns everyone else’s attention, and Pollen chokes in horror when it coats his white paw. He pulls it back, slowly, and just blinks down at it.
It takes a good minute, and then there's nothing but noise.
He hears Energypaw leap out of the metal mouse, yelling at the top of his lungs for Weasel. Pollen shoves him aside, and frantically presses her paws to the liquid, as if trying to stop it from flowing. He can hear Shadowpaw wailing, and Fang also leaves the metal mouse, but Pepperpaw can hear him pacing angrily just outside of it, and he can also hear when he half jumps back up, his front paws settling on the metal for a moment before he goes back to pacing.
He can hear their parent’s voices, but he can’t make sense of what anyone is saying. He lets his dad drag him out of the metal mouse, all his paws and his tail soaked in the red liquid now. Through the mist in his mind, one word seems to stand out.
”-blood-”
Ah, that makes sense. Slowly he looks down, focusing on the red liquid - the blood that’s all over his paws. His breathing quickens again, and he begins looking around frantically, seeing but not really making sense of what’s going on. Energypaw and Shadowpaw are on either side of Mist, and all three of them are crying so hard that their own paws are damp with it. Fang is snarling, and he looks like he’s yelling at Pollen and Weasel, but Pepperpaw can’t seem to hear him.
Stumbling back a few steps, he hears someone call out for him, but he doesn’t stay long enough to find out who. He runs out of the camp, his eyes wide and ears flattened as he lets his paws simply carry him. He doesn’t know where he’s going, and he doesn’t know why, but he can’t focus enough to even think about stopping.
Hours later Fang comes to find him, and he curls around his brother as he finally breaks down. They sit there for a long time, sobbing into each other’s fur, but Pepperpaw doesn’t know how long. All he knows is when they get back to the camp, Claw is nowhere to be seen, and there's a fresh patch of recently dug up dirt at the edge of the camp where he ran out earlier.
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Fang narrows his eyes, watching Calendulaclaw closely. She practically glides through the water of the swamp, and Fang can’t help but think it’s almost too graceful. He knows very well how many strange plants are in the water; he watched Energypaw fail to learn how to swim here after getting snagged on one, after all.
Calendulaclaw seems completely unaffected by any of the plants, even with how much bigger she is than Energypaw of himself. He slowly slips into the water, shuddering at the slimy feel of the plants under his paws before he kicks off to the deeper section. They’ve been here for the last few days as he gets a hang on how to swim, and he’s been nervous around her since day one.
They started training here the day after Claw was found dead, and she’s made sure to get him out of the camp every day since. Part of him wants to think she’s being a good mentor, and trying to get his mind off such a traumatic event, but she seems so unaffected. Everyone was outraged at how she could die of a neck wound in the metal mouse surrounded by all her siblings, but Calendulaclaw seemed completely unaffected by it. Which makes a bit of sense, since she didn’t know Claw very well, but she’s seemed almost annoyed with how much it gets brought up. Which, again, makes some sense, but it’s still getting on his nerves.
Lst in his thoughts, Fang kicks a little too fast, and on his next kick, his head goes under the water.
He flails his limbs blindly, scratching at his one back leg to try and get the offending plant off of him. It takes a few moments of pure panic, but eventually he gets it off, and gulps for air the moment his head breaks the surface. Fang whips his head around, trying to find Calendulaclaw, and freezes when he spots her.
She’s on the edge of the swamp, completely out of the water. Her golden yellow eyes are narrowed, and she doesn’t even twitch when they make eye contact. Slowly, he swims his way to the other side of the swamp, checking back over his shoulder at her every few seconds, and making sure to keep his movements slow and controlled so another plant doesn’t wrap itself around him.
The second his paws are all back on land, he bolts. Fang takes off back to camp, and he’s both glad and scared to not hear Calendulaclaw behind him. He doesn’t know what just happened, but he does know that the look in her eyes terrified him to the bone. She looked almost disappointed, as if she didn’t want him to make it. After all, why else would she have left the water when he was drowning?
He lets these thoughts fill his mind, and avoids her for the rest of the day. He presses close to his siblings at every chance he gets, and he doesn’t miss the strange looks that his mentor shoots him for the rest of the day.
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Auletris frowns softly, standing next to the broken metal tracks. Synrinxecho is at the edge of the camp, laying down next to the still fresh looking grave. His front paws are on the loose soil, and she can tell from here that he’s still crying. She glances over to Weasel, and with a brief touch of their foreheads, the little Tamer turns and heads back to her Juggler.
Sighing, the tall siamese then makes her way over to her brother. Syrinxecho is a large cat, almost larger than Skullbash, but like this he looks so small. It makes her think of when they were just kits, and that thought just makes her more sad.
Syrinxecho has always been so bright, so loving. He’s her antithesis, and seeing him like this makes her unnaturally uncomfortable. She hasn’t seen him without a smile on his muzzle since before they joined KeyClan, and even before then he was always telling jokes and making others happy.
She sits down next to him, and he doesn’t even flinch. They sit there in silence, staring at the grave, and Auletris can’t even find the words to begin comforting him.
Auletris has no idea how hard it must be, for him to lose his Juggler like this. He was so excited when Cypressstar named him as Claw’s mentor, and she was happy for him. He seemed a lot closer with Claw than she ever was with Wishflower, and looking at him now, she wonders if maybe they were even closer than a mentor and apprentice normally was. They used to playfight, and play pranks on some of the grumpier members on occasion. Hell, she’d almost go so far as to say Syrinxecho saw her as a little sister, or maybe even a daughter.
Slowly, Auletris lowers herself down to lay next to him, her chin resting up on his shoulder. He shifts the slightest, just to make it more comfortable, but otherwise doesn’t move.
Auletris can’t find the words to say, but she knows deep down that there really aren’t any. There’s nothing she can say here to make him feel better, and she doesn’t even think she’d want to. He’s mourning, and her trying to tell him to get over it would do more harm than good. So, she simply lays there, soaking in his warmth and politely ignoring when he begins shaking with silent sobs.
He’ll get over it, eventually, but he has to do it on her own terms. And she’ll be here for him when he’s ready.
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From here, writing is actually this moon!!
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It’s quiet, and the lithe ginger tabby slowly stalks her way through the camp. Her paws make squishing noises as she walks, but it's easy to ignore. The moon slips out from between two clouds, and she pauses for a moment to look up at it. If anyone else were awake and outside they’d notice the path of red pawprints leading from the body slowly oozing it’s life away to her paws, but as it is there’s no one to see, and so she doesn’t think about it.
Nimbly she jumps up, balancing carefully on the edge of the little metal perch on the Ringmaster’s den, and she raps her claws against it gently. There’s noise from inside, and soon enough the little metal slider goes up.
”What is-” Cypressstar begins to ask, but then cuts off with a gurgle. He stares at her with his one working eye, and in an attempt to get away, he steps back and slips back down into his little den.
He yowls, the sound echoing through the camp despite the gurgling, and she grins. Finally, it begins.
A second after she hears his body smash against the ground, she herself is being ripped down from the perch. She hisses, and turns angrily to slash at the offending cat’s face.
Swiftwind reels back, releasing her tail from between his teeth, but she doesn’t give him any time to breath. She slashes again, a claw catching on his eyelid, and she continues with the swing without batting an eye. Blood sprays into the air and there’s flesh hanging from her claw, but she doesn’t pay it any mind. Raising her head, she gives a yowl of her own.
Tonight, KeyClan falls.
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Poisonfang awakes to multiple screeches, and squints into the darkness. They’re sleeping in a seperate room from the other Acrobats, because they got kicked earlier thanks to someone else’s stupid dream. Their ears perk up at another yowl, this one sounding more in pain.
Racing out of the building, they freeze for a moment at the sight. There’s cats running this way and that, and Poisonfang takes a moment to take in whatever they can. Pollen and Wishflower are leading Swiftwind to the metal snake, his face covered in blood. They spot Weasel’s head poking out from under the metal snake, and heading to Cypressstar’s den where Skullbash and DIamondstorm have just disappeared into.
There’s another pained yowl, and Poisonfang turns in the direction of the sound, eyes narrowing. They watch Cottonspore get his mouth around Turtledove’s back leg, and they can hear the crunching of the bone from here.
With a snarl, they launch forward, colliding with Cottonspore’s flank and digging their claws in immediately. He gives a pained yowl, but they ignore it and curl their claws in even more. It’s been so long since they were in a fight, and despite the exciting rush of adrenaline, they definitely didn’t miss this.
Cottonspore shakes, trying to knock them off, but Poisonfang simply lets themself swing with his momentum, and uses it to swing up higher on his body, and lunges forward to sink their teeth into the back of his neck. Cottonspore being shaking more violently, and they can feel his flesh give in and begin to rip between their teeth.
Suddenly the world is spinning, and Poisonfang lets him go with a pained gasp. Cottonspore managed to throw himself onto his back, effectively crushing Poisonfang under his weight. They can distantly hear Turtledove yell in the background, but that’s all the warning they get before there’s teeth and claws at their throat.
Poisonfang feebly tries to fight back, scratching mercilessly at his stomach, but Cottonspore bites harder, and Poisonfang feels the strength draining from their limbs. They slowly go limp, and they can feel their eyes begin to roll to the back of their head. They can feel the blood shooting from their neck, as well as the blood from Cottonspore’s stomach. Distantly they think they hear him run off, and Turtledove’s cries getting closer, but before they can confirm either of those things, they shut their eyes and everything is quiet.
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There’s yelling outside, and Killfang glances over to watch how Toothpaste frantically begins corralling her kittens. She watches carefully how she gets Colgate under her, and how Toothbrush and Toast scurry over as well. Mouthwash is blindly making her way over, and little Spearmint seems to be frozen in fear.
After a split second of contemplation, Killfang decides that yes, she does want to be part of his battle. She lunges forward, and the first thing that reaches her ears is the soft crunching of a little kitten's bones. She places a paw on his back, and pulls her head back, easily snapping his neck for good measure.
Killfang looks up at Toothpaste's sharp inhale, and then lunges for Mouthwash without any of her previous hesitation.
Suddenly there’s a weight on her side, and she snarls and twists to try and bite at whoever thought they could jump in and interrupt.
She spots ginger fur, and snarls as she recognizes the bulky form of Flareblitz. He snarls right back, and Killfang tries to twist around more to snap at him. She notices Mewlin and Grasswhistle jump in as well, but they seem more focused on helping Toothpaste and her kits out, so she doesn't pay them any mind.
She gives a triumphant yowl when her claws finally hit flesh, and she manages to dig her front claws into Flarebitz’s soft belly and pulls. She gets herself closer to him with the movement, but it also works for tearing through the soft flesh. He howls in pain, and the second he lets go of her, she twists around enough to get a better grip and rip even harder at his belly.
She can faintly hear Mewlin scream outside, and then the world goes dark
Oh, no, the sliding metal door has fallen. There’s a faint splash of blood that sprays against her face, and in the dark she sinks her teeth into Flareblitz’s neck and lets his life drain away.
Lionkit and Lilykit make soft noises from a corner of the den, and she makes her way over to them carefully. ”Hush, my little darlings. No one can harm you.” She softly tells them, and lays down on the bloody floor to curl around them. Eventually someone will have to come and get them, and it’s only going to go one of two ways.
Either Calendulaclaw is going to win, and kill the opposition and get those still alive to follow under her. Or Calendulaclaw is defeated, and at the end of the day, Killfang is either going to be killed or kicked out for going along with her sister's plans.
Mulling over the options, Killfang finds she doesn’t mind either. She hates her sister, and it would be nice to know that she could be defeated, but at the same time. At the same time if she’s kicked out or killed, there’s the question of her kits. She gently places her tail over them, and thinks. She didn’t want them; they most certainly weren’t a blessing or anything along those lines. But at the same time, they are her children. They are Calendulaclaw’s kin, so if she was kicked out or killed, what would become of them? Would they be killed or kicked out with her? Or would they keep her children alive and in the Clan, raising them on stories of how evil their mother and aunt are?
Either way, she decides it doesn’t really matter. Even if they stay here, she’s confident that they’ll know Calendulaclaw regardless. After all, if she could get that innocent Juggler to train with the Freakshow, then she could easily get Lionkit and Lilykit to train with her there as well.
She sighs softly, and then simply lets her eyes slip shut. She’ll deal with it when the morning comes.
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Snarling to himself, Cottonspore stalks into the Musician’s den. He can hear someone running after him, but at this point he doesn’t care. He’s still bleeding from his stomach, and his fur is sticking to his spine. It started raining when he started walking away from Poisonfang, and so he had made a beeline to the building to get out of it.
He now stands at the entrance to their den, and glares down Ancientpower. Puffball is cowering behind his mate, and Cottonspore doesn’t pay him any mind. He knows, deep down, that if what Calendulaclaw says comes to pass, that there’s no chance either of them will be sticking around much longer anyways.
He approaches them, and doesn’t bother to look back when he hears paws scrambling just outside. Mentally he notes that it’s Steelwing, Bracketpaw, and Rustpaw, but he otherwise doesn’t acknowledge them. He crouches low, and then launches forward, claws unsheathed as he reaches for Ancientpower.
The old Musician easily jumps out of the way, and Cottonspore snarls in anger as he crashes face first into the wall. He stumbles back to his feet, slipping slightly on the blood that’s still slowly pouring from his stomach. His vision is blurry, and while he thought it was from the rain in his eyes, a little voice at the back of his mind tells him it’s him getting dizzy from all the blood loss.
There’s a shape barreling towards him, and he lashes out without really thinking about it. The form stops and collapses, and he takes a moment to look at all the new blood mixing with his on the floor. He assumes it was one of the Jugglers, since he’s pretty sure neither of the Musicians or Steelwing would’ve gone down that easily.
There’s a pained cry in the distance, and Cottonspore snarls. He moves to take a step forward, but then lists to the side. He slams against the wall, and there’s a very concerning noise coming from up above all of a sudden.
Cottonspore doesn’t even get enough time to look up, before suddenly the roof is falling down on him. He yowls, the pain of his stomach becoming a lot more pronounced as he’s squished onto the floor There’s others that get caught under the falling debris, he can tell that much, but he can’t pick out who. The pain spikes to an unbearable level, and then suddenly, everything simply stops.
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Jinglebee snarls, a fierce rage building in her chest like never before.
She had woken up to sounds of pain and anger, and she’s had to watch as her family has been torn apart before her very eyes. Right outside of the building had been Lilyfrost, blood pooling around her almost comically. From her were a path of bloody footprints, and she had been horrified to learn from Skullbash and Diamondstorm that Cypressstar had lost a life, and was probably going to be losing at least one more before the end of the night.
But now she’s here, back arched as she awkwardly circles Calendulaclaw at the top of the metal tracks.It’s pouring rain, and distant flashes of lightning, and loud roars of thunder all around. The metal is slick with rain, and the metal scraps innocently sitting underneath look scarier than they ever have. Calendulaclaw is snarling and trying to swipe at her, her ginger fur stained a dark crimson.
The worst part of it, Jinglebee decides, is that Calendulaclaw is trying to fucking monologue at her.
”-esn’t have to be like this! You’re better than them, you’re better than him! This Clan is being led to RUINS with Cypressstar at the helm! Join me, and we can lead KeyClan to greatness! The Cirque are the real evil ones, you’ve been led astray!”
Absolutely disgusting, Jinglebee thinks. With a snarl, and lunges forward, and Calendulaclaw steps back instinctively. Jinglebee lashes out, her claws catching Calendulaclaw on the cheek, and the skin rips open and blood sprays across the metal.
Calendulaclaw snarls, and then suddenly she’s out of sight. There’s a loud howl, and Jinglebee carefully leans forward with wide eyes. She looks down at the ground, distantly thinking it’s a god thing it was raining. Calendulaclaw is struggling to get to her feet on the slippery metal, and Auletris and Ironhead are slowly approaching, their growls audible even from so high up.
One wrong step, and suddenly Calendulaclaw trips forward, and Jinglebee recoils in horror. She struggles not to puke, and slowly picks her way back down the tracks. Jinglebee doesn’t spare a look back for the older molly, if only because she doesn’t think she could stomach it. If she closes her eyes too hard, she can still picture the pinkish material on the end of the piece of metal, and the way the red so freely gushed out and over Calendulaclaw’s already damp, ginger fur.
She stumbles a little, and distantly makes note of how Babypuff was yelling at her, before she simply slipped out of consciousness. Yes, this is a perfect place for a nap.
Recap;;
Scene 1: Claw is in The Freak Show. She is killed by Calendulaclaw for hearing her and Mary talk about their plans.
Scene 2: Pepperpaw and the rest of his siblings waking up to find Claw dead.
Scene 3: Fang learning to swim. He almost drowns, and Calendulaclaw does nothing to help him. He flees back to camp once he's back on shore
Scene 4: Syrinxecho and Auletris at Claw's grave, mourning the Juggler.
Scene 5: Calendulaclaw kills Cypressstar. She also ends up blinding Swiftwind Not pictured: Calendulaclaw killed Lilyfrost before the scene started. It is vaguely mentioned, but I don't call Lilyfrost by her name here.
Scene 6: Poisonfang joins the battle, seeing Cottonspore break Turtlepaw's back leg. They fight him off, but end up getting killed. They do injure him in the process, however.
Scene 7: Killfang in the nursery kills Spearmint, and then tries to kill Mouthwash. Flareblitz then jumps in to fight her off, and she ends up killing him as well. Not pictured since it's from Killfang's perspective: Mewlin slips and twists her paw, and when the metal door slides shut, it cuts off half of Grasswhistle's tail.
Scene 8: Cottonspore enters the Musicians den, and tries to attack Ancientpower. He ends up hitting the wall, and then Bracketpaw comes rushing over to defend the musicians, but Cottonspore kills him. The roof then ends up caving in, and Cottonspore is crushed under it, and dies. Not pictured but vaguely mentioned: Ancientpower and Steelwing also get crushed. Ancientpower's his are broken, and one of Steelwing's back legs.