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An unnerving din fills the Dark Forest for lack of insects chirping, birdsong, or mice scurrying beneath shrubbery. Darkness is a permanent fixture here as the name implies. No moon, no stars, just an endless emptiness. Starvation, grief, and fighting –it’s far from the glittery fields of StarClan.
The trees go on forever, some leafless, their bark infected by mutated fungus, mold clinging to their armor. The ground is marshy and scored by rot. You can never get used to the stench of death and blood joined by the pungent scent of damp earth. Maggots, ants, and worms are everywhere. It’s a feast for them. The rivers are murky and more like mud than water.
Mapleshade has been here for many moons. She has almost forgotten about the blue sky, autumn leaves, and the mouth-watering taste of fresh-kill. She is a being that is driven solely by grief and anger. Sorrow clutches her heart.
Her neck wound drags her down (injuries never healed here), the blood endlessly trickling down her fur coat. Mapleshade treads side to side the very limits of Dark Forest, wishing that StarClan could let her into their world. A swirly mist separates her from the other world –and her kits. Tears gleam in her eyes.
They shouldn’t be dead. They should’ve lived full lives, happy and old. Mapleshade would never forgive Appledusk, Darkstar, Owlstar, Ravenwing, anybody who stood in her way and had a paw in her kits death. If she hadn’t been banished everything would’ve been different.
Feeling a stuck-up gaze burn into her fur, Mapleshade spins on her heels, fur bristling and hackles raised. “What do you want?”
No cat has friends here. It’s laughable to think so. Each cat is to be cursed, to sulk for all eternity here with their death wounds in a hopeless afterlife.
“Looking for a way out?” Tigerstar’s deep rumble isn’t jovial or joking. His golden eyes shine curiously.
“Aren’t we all?” Bladed sarcasm tints the she-cat’s voice. “The Dark Forest is no paradise.”
Tigerstar’s tail twitched. “I’m also looking for a way out. I must finish what I started-”
“And kill Firestar?” Mapleshade snorted, her lips curled into a smile. “For such a strong cat, you sure fumbled the moss ball on that. Firestar was a starry-eyed kittypet and you lost!”
The striped tom’s eyes narrowed venomously. Mapleshade’s the only cat brave enough to insult Tigerstar without fear of losing ear or whisker, because even he’s afraid of her tenacity.
“I won’t lose this time, she-cat.”
Mapleshade rolled her eyes and started walking. “It looks like your overconfidence will kill you twice. You greatly underestimated a tiny twolegplace rogue, and lost all nine lives at once. Pathetic.”
Tigerstar hissed, his pelt prickling in irritation. “It’s unwise to deny help when given.”
The tortoiseshell cat quickly turns to hiss back, “Only a fool accepts help without knowing the cost!”
The ex-leader’s stubbornness is his greatest strength –and his greatest flaw. It’s what Tigerstar leans on to win a battle if his claws can’t. “You were driven mad by suffering. You want to settle the score. So do I. Why should we be fated to live in a place like this when StarClan are the ones who did this to us? We were loyal and strong warriors, doing what we thought was best for the Clans, only to be killed and called traitors.”
“Don’t lump me together with you,” Mapleshade’s tail lashed angrily. “I don’t care what happens to the Clans. I only want to return the pain they gave me.”
“You can’t leave the Dark Forest. Not alone. None of us can. If those bee-brained cats knew one thing it was that there’s strength in numbers.”
Her anger stifles briefly. Immense sorrow hits her like lashing river waves; the same that threatened to drag her down and drown her. That was the day she really died, not when a ThunderClan apprentice clawed her throat. “I lost everything. My lover is a fox-hearted traitor and my kits are gone.”
For a moment, Tigerstar contemplates the dark sky. “StarClan are the evil ones. They play with our lives like leaves to the wind. They give us gifts only to take it away, to make us the ones to suffer the pain when things go wrong.”
He’s right, Mapleshade thought. StarClan makes mistakes but never pays for them. And the Clans just blindly follow along. Mouse-brained cats!
Mapleshade eyes Tigerstar warily. “You have your goals and I have mine. I’ll offer my claws to this battle, but if you betray me, you’ll be ant food.”
Tigerstar nodded.
They split up to search for weaknesses in the Dark Forest. Things work differently here in the non-living land of spirits.
The two return to a glade marked by sharp stones jutting out from the marshy earth to discuss their patrols. Before Mapleshade could speak, a cat came bounding through. It’s Darkstripe, Tigerstar’s most loyal follower.
Mapleshade’s lips curled in disdain –and Tigerstar’s mirrored it. If any cat belonged to the Dark Forest it’s Darkstripe. He’s a bumbling fool, a terrible fighter, and a coward. For being one of Tigerstar’s apprentices, you’d think he’d be a lot like him or at least emulate a fraction of Tigerstar’s ability. Darkstripe is cruel but lacks any of Tigerstar’s intimidating solemnness. Tigerstar is quick-witted and Darkstripe isn’t. And all he does is endlessly brag about Tigerstar’s importance. “In the whole forest, the only cat worth following is Tigerstar!”
Worst of all, Mapleshade raged. He tried to kill a kit with deathberries!
The tabby tom gave Mapleshade a look and she kept her jaw firmly clamped shut, clawing the earth to dampen her rage.
“Tigerstar! I followed your scent here! What’re you doing?”
“Nothing you can help with,” he meowed.
Mapleshade almost felt bad. Almost. The fleck of sympathy was gone in a heartbeat.
“What?” Darkstripe’s lanky form crumpled up and his voice fractures with hurt. “But you need me. Right? You’re looking for a way out of the Dark Forest. I patrolled too! And guess what I found out? There are medicine cats here. And they know how to leave!”
For once, Darkstripe wasn’t incompetent.
A strange team, the three of them. The tension is thicker than Dark Forest mud. One slight problem and they’d be at each other’s throats. But their desperation and anger at their enemies is stronger. Ignoring an opportunity to leave this hell would be mouse-brained. And the less time Mapleshade was forced to listen to Darkstripe’s gushing about Tigerstar, the better. Could the medicine cats create a cure for that? Or maybe stuffing moss in the ears could work.
They traveled through a patch of gnarled shrubs and brambles to find another clearing that looked like Four Trees. Dim smudges streak across the she-cat’s vision –it’s the fading spirits of ancients, when the Dark Forest appeared. These cats are mere ominously looming shadows. They’ve lost their names and any detail in their eyes or fur.
Several surround Tigerstar, Mapleshade, and Darkstripe. “Why have you come?” Their voices boom as one, louder than thunder.
“You know magic like those of StarClan. We want to be alive again.”
Eerie laughter ripples through the gathering. “A foolish mission. Living is more than simply breathing, Dark Forest warriors. And what makes you think we have such powers? We are the voices of old. Whispers fainter than wind.”
Tigerstar’s gaze gleams angrily. “If StarClan can give a cat nine lives then the Dark Forest should have similar powers.”
The blurry figures glance at each other. Eyes turn back to the three again, flashing brighter than fish scales. “A ritual will give you what you seek. Sharp jagged stones, a nimble branch, and wings of a beetle. And finally, blood from you.”
Mapleshade, Darkstripe and Tigerstar gather the items requested. The jagged stones are placed in a circle, the pointed ends facing each other. The stick is buried at the center standing up, and the beetle wings are scattered inside the circle.
“Sacrifice blood from a paw to the branch. If your will is strong enough you shall come back to life.”
Tigerstar steps up first. Darkstripe watches on in stunned awe while Mapleshade narrows her eyes, carefully observing what the ex-ShadowClan leader does.
A small yellow flame appears atop the branch. It moves to Tigerstar’s voice, burning bright like his convictions. “I failed to kill Scourge and Firestar. I can’t rest until my enemy is gone and I can be leader of the Clans. StarClan chose me as leader for ShadowClan; they knew I was the only cat for the job, that I could save them.”
One of the ancient medicine cats nodded, gauging the strength of the fire.
Darkstripe followed. He winced when drawing blood. His fire is the weakest of all. “StarClan chose Tigerstar and the Clans betrayed him! Anyone who betrays Tigerstar betrays me! I’ll lend my life to Tigerstar –no matter how many times it takes until he’s leader again.” The fire burst and burned stronger than before.
Now for Mapleshade. She stares at her bloody paw and then up at her fire. Half mesmerized, half angry. “I lost my mate, my kits, and the Clans betrayed me. The Warrior Code failed. I want to see the clans sink into darkness!” The tortoiseshell cat’s fire almost turned the branch to ash.
The ancient medicine cats turn their heads and nod at a passage that winds through the trees. This one mirrored the ancients’ bodies, see-through and floaty. The path looked like it couldn’t hold one mouse, but when the three lightly jabbed a paw upon it, it held.
Anticipation is like electricity through Mapleshade’s pelt. She’ll be alive again. She’d use every ounce of her renewed strength to get revenge. Tigerstar wants to save the Clans but she wants to destroy it. They may have teamed up to leave the Dark Forest, but once they came back to life, Mapleshade would cut down any foe that stood in her way. She vowed to see darkness swallow the Clans completely, like fresh-kill staring into the dark jaws of a snake.