Chapter 22-

Aloestar's eyes flash with something, worry but... relief? Sagepaw waits, holding his breath, before letting it out slowly and Aloestar opens her mouth to speak.

"Is that what he told you?" the she-cat says, almost breathlessly, "Is that why he took you?" Sagepaw nods hesitantly.

"Yeah, I think so... but..." the tom trails off, "I want an explanation. From you." Aloestar has clearly expected this, as she sits, sighing.

"I joined the group because I was starving. Our old group was, but their pride was too strong. Snapstar let me in, defending me when the others said I wasn't welcome if I couldn't hunt. I was only Aloe back then, but then I was Aloefog.

"I liked Snapstar first. He was charming and...kind... but then I had a she-kit. Maplekit. She was tiny and precious. She got lost, or I thought so. Voidflicker came to me though, said he saw orange fur in Snapstar's claws," Aloestar sucks in a breath, which seems almost painful for her, "We found the body. Clawed and tattered. Snapstar was the first to blame rogues."

She isn't lying. Sagepaw can feel the pain in the atmosphere, Aloestar's eyes fogging with sadness.

"You already know the rest of the story, I'm guessing. Snapstar was mad I went to Voidflicker. He was mad I had she-kits. He killed them. I tried to fight, but Voidflicker fought harder. But his eye... Snapstar did that. And you three..." Aloestar's face pulls into a fake half-smile, "I fought harder. I did. I had to. Not again. I couldn't do that again. I couldn't grieve another loss. So I kept you. And look at you now... I didn't want you to know your father... or leader... was a monster."

Sagepaw blinks back tears. "Why did you leave Windclan?" he near whispers, eyes glimmering with the liquid. His lean form is one of the only things from Voidflicker, a strange thing in Thunderclan. But not too strange. Not strange enough to question. But now it is. When it's too late.

"To escape, to start over. When I was pregnant with you three. Snapstar followed, and didn't let Voidflicker come. He wanted 'his kits.' I was so scared for you all."

Sagepaw sags, relief and confusion mixed together. Confusion about what, he doesn't know. He's just confused, even if all of his questions have been answered. Sagepaw doesn't speak, instead he just watches as Aloestar blinks slowly before turning away back into the Sandy Hollow.

Where Smoothpaw glares at him from the sand.

                                                                   ~~~

Darkness wraps the camp in peaceful silence. Well, almost. Sagepaw's ears are forced to remain pricked as Yewpaw blabbers.

"Our assessment was today! Me and Fallowpaw will be warriors tomorrow, and we'll be out of the den! Isn't it amazing?" The tom grins in the dark, looking to Smoothpaw for approval. She nods stiffly, offering a closed-lip smile.

"Cool. Good job."

Yewpaw deflates in disappointment, but only for a moment, before he springs up again. "Yeah, I bet I'll be Yewdeath, or Yewclaw!" Smoothpaw rolls her eyes with a tiny smirk.

"Yewdeath is stupid."

"Is not!"

"I bet you'll be Yewberry," Fallowpaw's quiet, almost weak-sounding voice pipes up. Sagepaw realizes the she-cat never really speaks, not at all. Except to Yewpaw.

"That's a cool name," Yewpaw curls his tail fondly, smiling at the thought, "but too weak for me! I'll be Yewbite, or Yewsnap. Something like that." Fallowpaw rolls her eyes, twisting away to face the wall. Her jaws part in a yawn, and she curls around herself. Sagepaw wants to do the same.

"Well I want to be Smoothstep," Smoothpaw says, prodding Yewpaw to attention. The tom pricks his ears slightly, looking utterly drained again.

Sagepaw has been trying to find a way to talk to his sister all night, no, all day. Now is his chance!

"Yeah that's a cool name-" the tom starts, but Smoothpaw shoots him a sharp glance.

"'Cause I'm so balanced," Smoothpaw interrupts, still glaring. Then she tears her gaze off Yewpaw and Sagepaw. She turns towards the wall, like Fallowpaw had, yawning too. "Goodnight, Fallowpaw. Goodnight, Yewpaw." Sagepaw only rolls his eyes. He can't deal with this, not right now.

The two cats murmur their 'goodnight's and turn to yawn and shut their eyes. Sagepaw curls tightly around his small, lean, body, which he has since come to question. The tom closes his eyes, images of battle and a small, reddish-orange, kit, dead at Snapstar's paws, playing under his eyelids. No, Sagepaw won't sleep. Not soon.

The tom waits for the sleepy huffs of his den mates before tearing himself from the nest with a flick of his tail. He feels almost sick, nauseated. The screenshots of life behind his eyes, the awful images, make him want to vomit. Who'd kill a kit? Not the rogues Snapstar had claimed, clearly.

Sagepaw walks into the darkness, cautious of his paw steps. Somewhere, in the dark behind his eyelids, Voidflicker lives. Watching...ready to pounce at him. But no, no one is here. Just a dark, sad, and empty camp. That's almost worse for Sagepaw.

The orange and white tom swirls his paw in the dirt, watching the white be dyed a dirty brown. His claws come out, digging into the soil, drawing a picture.

A little kit, tiny, oblivious, smiling, as two cats, one strong and muscled and one with an eye missing, fighting above her. She keeps smiling. Sagepaw smears the picture, sending it away in the night breeze. Maplekit didn't deserve this, or the two after her. In fact, Sagepaw doesn't deserve this either.

None of them do.

But how can Sagepaw change that? His claws all come unsheathed, digging into the dirt. Anger bubbles over, spilling onto the soil below. No, he can fix this.

Before the tom knows, his paws are moving, racing out of camp. Forward, Forward, into the trees. Undergrowth, newly sprouted moss, flies by as he runs, eyes narrowed and paws fueled by anger, pure rage. This had started with someone, someone. Sagepaw knows it isn't fair, it really isn't, but he doesn't care. How could he stand by, not fight?

Sagepaw pauses at the border, eyes narrowed against the breeze, which is turning to a harsh wind. It whips the apprentice's fur around, like he's a puppet on a string. Is he? It feels like it.

Now he stands, staring into the blanket of darkness surrounding the moor. The border is freshly marked, a warning tainting the scent of the wet-markings. Sagepaw remember passing it for the first time, four moons ago, but now it feels like a normal occurrence.

The anger squirms again, inside of the tom's stomach. That scent is technically apart of him, deep down, in his blood. Sagepaw's claws escape from their sheathes again, flexing in and out. Blood. In his blood. How much will be spilled tonight?

Voidflicker always patrols at night. Sagepaw knows this. He's seen him before. Hopefully no cat comes with him. Sagepaw will die before Voidflicker lives past tonight.

The tom sits impatiently, adrenaline pumping through his blood. His eyes dart around, searching for anything. But there is no black outline, no one green eye. Only barren and charred trees and little sprouts of undergrowth.

Sagepaw fidgets with his paws, mind racing. No, it isn't fair. He might have hurt Tansypaw, might have hurt him badly, but that doesn't make him a murderer. This will. Forever, it will. So he can't do this. He can't kill an innocent cat. Well, mostly innocent. The cat that deserves to die is Snapstar, not Voidflicker.

It takes everything inside Sagepaw to turn away from the border and slowly take one, two, three, steps away. His head fights to look back, but if he does, his whole body will want to return, to wait for the tom. But he can't do that. So instead, his head stays trained forward.

"Long time, no see."

No it doesn't. His head swings around to look back, look into a single green eye. It flashes with anger, blinking once. "Looking for me?"

Voidflicker steps forward, his jaw set in anger. Sagepaw knows what will happen next. Teeth in his scruff, his legs dragged along moor, trapped in another den, with more guards and less freedom. Maybe he'll be deemed as a runaway, his family distraught... No. That won't happen this time.

Sagepaw will finish what he came to do.

The tom doesn't bother answering. It doesn't matter. Sagepaw's adrenaline and anger floods his mind, taking over.

The toms darts forward.

Sagepaw feels teeth snapping for his scruff, which was to be expected. He ducks, head coming up quickly to collide with Voidflicker's. The black tom stumbles back.

Sagepaw darts forward once more, teeth connecting with Voidflicker's shoulders. Easily, the black tom kicks Sagepaw off, sending him sprawling in the soil. Voidflicker steps forward quickly, but Sagepaw is smaller, quicker. He tears himself from the ground. His teeth bare, grinding against each other.

Sagepaw can't be just here, waiting for another attack, living in fear. No. He won't run again. Ever again. Not from his own father, not from his own blood. He is stronger than Voidflicker in every way. He will protect himself, unlike Voidflicker did for him.

Sagepaw shoots forward, watching Voidflicker's eye widen. His claws come up, slamming down, and then sinking into skin and fur. Voidflicker looks surprised, or terrified, or both, as Sagepaw unhooks his claws from his throat. Red pours, streams, from the cut.

And it is over.

Voidflicker's life fades as he coughs, gasping for air. But the hole lets it all out. The blood stains the soil, stains Sagepaw's paws. But he doesn't care. Doesn't even feel sad. Or surprised. This was how this night was supposed to end.

So now Sagepaw sits, with blood on his paws, staring at the lifeless body of Voidflicker. Trying to feel guilty. But he can't. He just can't. Sagepaw almost laughs.

Now is he a murderer?