Broken Wings (Closed Plot Patrol)

The member 'Ash' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2

The tom wanted to reply that he was crossing no line but just speaking the truth no one dared to admit. But the annoyed voice of his deputy made him change his mind. The tom turned his face to her, going to step back but suddenly, the ginger she-cat attacked and the chaos started.

Lynxscar hissed furiously at the sudden attack of the warrior (who was aiming to lethal spots) and rolling over his body, he stretched his hind legs to rake the she-cat's underbelly. "You are the ones crossing the line! You better step back befor I make crowfood out of you."
Lynxscar used Belly Rake, dealing 9 damage and coding 10 stamina

Lynxscar
27/40 HP
150/160 SP

Burningsun
51/60 HP
185/200 SP

Before he knew it, Burningsun launched herself at the Shadowclan patrol with her claws outstretched. Soon, the two patrols were all teeth and claws, fighting furiously. He looked around wildly, searching for a specific target. "There," his gaze landed on a bright ginger pelt, littered with scars. He channeled his inner anger, the fire that pumped from his heart and seeped through his veins like blood. His legs carried him swiftly to the Shadowclan cat, and he pummeled into her with all the strength he could muster. "At long last, it's just us Cardinalpaw," he hissed, tail lashing behind him as his eyes glowed with malicious intent. "Time to finish what we started, huh? How about I begin on giving you some new scars? So you think twice about showing your face here!" A dangerous blaze burned in the tom's copper eyes as he held his ex-sister's gaze.


Swallowflight used Run-and-Tackle, dealing 11 (8+3 on a cat not focused on you) and costing 10 stamina.

Swallowflight:
40/40
110/120

Cardinalpaw:
9/20
80/80 

Cardinalpaw took a step back towards her own territory, tail between legs. "O- Oh, sorry, I coulda sworn..." She was cut off by other cats talking and Redwing dragging her behind her. "I'm sorry..." she said quietly. She'd never gotten used to the Shadowclan border... She always was on the Riverclan side before. Then, the fighting started. Lynxscar and Sandblaze were just making things worse. "Wait, wait don't fi -" but it had already begun. She didn't want to fight them! Oh, if only she had payed more attention...

She watched Redwing with worry. Non-skyclanners were not as great at tree fighting. She heard paws thumping a moment before she was hit. She went down hard. She looked back up at the cat who'd tackled her. Swallowflight... of course it was him. He'd hated her for moons. Would he try to kill her? He wouldn't, right? "Let's think about this for a second..." She started, and with a mighty shove, pushed him enough for her to get to get to her paws.

"I don't want to hurt you. We don't have to fight." She wanted to believe in him. Believe that he could change. That they could make peace. That for once, she could solve the problem she'd started.

Cardinalpaw used Front Paw Blow, dealing 4 damage and using 5 stamina!

Swallowflight:
36/40
110/120

Cardinalpaw:
9/20
75/80

One moment the group of ShadowClanners had been on a simple patrol and within mere moments, the clearing had exploded into a battle with a SkyClan patrol. Great StarClan how fast cats had been willing to jump into a battle... though granted, he used to be the same way and enjoyed a good battle every once in a while. "Hey! Stop it before some cat gets hurt!" the tom yowled through the furry of claws and fur, but his words went unheard. Well, he hadn't been expecting a battle, but there was no time like the present, and he wasn't going to stand around doing nothing.

Whipping around, Daisyflame's gaze locked onto a golden tabby and lunging forward, the large tom immersed himself into the fight. Ducking down, the ginger and white tom slid under his opponents belly and kicking his up hind legs, slashed at the SkyClanner's exposed underbelly with paws full of sharp claws before jumping up, his bushy tail lashing back and forth and back arched. He didn't condone brawling, but oh how even just a border skirmish got him all fired up.

Daisyflame used Belly Rake, causing 12 damage and costing 10 stamina.

Daisyflame
HP: 60/60
SP: 50/60

Lightfang
HP: 48/60
SP: 60/60

Lightfang had been so certain one of his brothers would start something that he had forgotten Burningsun’s temper. In fact, he’d entirely failed to notice her disappearance. From nowhere, she descended onto Lynxscar with claws outstretched, and the border dissolved into a battlefield in an instant. Sandblaze, in his element, dragged the ShadowClan deputy up into Highpine’s tangle of branches. Well, he didn’t need to tell Lightfang twice; if everyone else was throwing diplomacy aside, he would follow suit. He searched for an opponent—Cardinalpaw, where was she? Little though he wanted to harm her, he couldn’t help but worry what Swallowflight might do outside the relative peace of Fourtrees.

He caught a flash of a cream-colored pelt before a set of claws dug into his belly and yanked his attention elsewhere. With a low, pained hiss, the pale tabby recoiled. He’d miscounted. The fourth ShadowClanner, a red-and-white tom, chose this moment to make an appearance. Lightfang twisted around to bring the full weight of his forepaws down on the ShadowClan tom’s head, then scrambled back, already bracing himself for another blow. Perhaps he couldn’t take the battle to the trees like Burningsun or Sandblaze, but he did well enough for himself on the ground.

Lightfang used Upright Front Paws on Daisyflame, dealing 13 damage and using 20 stamina.

Lightfang
48/60 HP
180/200 SP (-20)

Daisyflame
47/60 HP (-13)
190/200 SP

"Ack-!" Sandblaze gasped as the albeit stronger she-cat dragged him by his ear. "Hey, hey, hey! You're not gonna fall! Calm down! It's okay!" It soon dawned on him that it didn't really matter what he said: he was up in a tree with a clan deputy, and she was pulling on his ear too hard.

With a sickening tightness and a brief yank, Sandblaze broke away hissing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a trickle of blood drip down his cheek. His right ear was shredded, stained crimson. He hunched over, catching his breath and coming to grips with the perilous situation he found himself it. A flash on cream below, and Swallowflight was attacking Cardinalpaw. No. No no. I have to get down.

With brazen eyes, he hardened his gaze at Redwing. "I need to get down from here and bring my brothers home. Let's finish this quickly."

Sandblaze is stunned.

Redwing halfway registered that her opponent was speaking, saying words, but her heart was pounding too loudly in her ears for her to hear it. She was high up in a tree. This tom had attacked her, had dragged her up here. In her fear-simplified brain, the only way down was to beat the immediate threat standing right in front of her. The SkyClanner wrenched his ear from her teeth, glaring, preparing himself for the next attack. And attack she did- it was the only thing she could do. There was no other option. Don't think about the drop don't think about the drop don't think about the drop don't think. She lunged at the tom again, slashing with all her might, knowing that he was only a few more attacks away from giving in. Yet, frustration built in her, and her shaking voice came out halfway between a scream and a whisper. "You need to get down from here? I need to get down from here! Why, why did you have to do this today? I'm missing my daughter's ceremony!" She'd have to come back in after, covered in bloody scratches, dragging this patrol of kits behind her. This was not what she wanted to do today, fight some young hot-headed lizard-brain, let alone in a tree. She hated heights. She hated heights. Her claws dug into his pelt and slipped right through, leaving bloody marks. She had to get down.

Redwing used Front Paws Strike, dealing 15 damage and costing 25 stamina.

Redwing:
87/100 HP
235/280 SP

Sandblaze:
32/60 HP
190/200 SP

With frustration red hot in his blood, Sandblaze kept his eyes on the ground. Starclan-forsaken Highpine! He got himself into this mess. He always caused the problems. He always started fights. If he wasn't so brash, oh, what his mother was going to think of this mess, and on top of that Cardinalpaw was down below and she wasn't there and everything was falling apart after he tried so hard to keep it together-

With a sudden pounding of his heart, his hackles raised. "Fine!" he yowled, "You want to come down? Let's go down so you can call off your warriors and take my sister home!" Sprinting forward on the branch, he grabbed Redwing by the scruff, hauling her towards the trunk of the tree. He heaved with the effort of striking his claws to bark and began the descent. His head swam and his legs bobbed back and forth. She was too heavy. Oh, no, she was too heavy, oh no she's fighting still, oh STARCLAN-


"NO! FOXDUNG!" Sandblaze yowled as her scruff slipped out from between his teeth. He watched her frame fall like a stone. Her head smacked branches as she fell. He screamed in horror as she fell, limp, on the forest floor. Her fiery pelt went full. 

Sandblaze used Teeth Grip, but...

Fear and anger were both boiling over in her chest as she continued the fight, trying as hard as she could not to think about the drop below. She stopped clawing at him for a moment to breathe, trying to see through the adrenaline, and he took that moment to lunge at her, to grab her scruff in his teeth again, and she let out a hiss as his fangs found the marks they'd made before. Instinctively she jerked away at the pain, trying to free herself, but he'd begun to climb down and that thin mouse-brain obviously couldn't support her weight, she was Firestone's daughter, what was he thinking-

Redwing fell.

Though it only took a few moments, this ordeal, she experienced it as slowly as anything. The slight rip as her scruff slipped free of his jaws. The panic in both their eyes as they realized what had happened. The kit-like, high pitched cry of terror that she couldn't stop. Her unsheathed claws, scrabbling at the bark, trying in vain to find some hold that would stop gravity from taking effect. No use. It was no use. She felt it tugging her down, her claws scored through the thick trunk, and in a moment her tensed-up muscles relaxed against the inevitability and she was already going backwards and down, down, but she wasn't looking down, her eyes were up, her face was up, she was looking at the sky. At the SkyClan tom's horrified face. At the pine needles that rustled and fell from above from the branches she'd already hit. Bludgeoning strikes, one after the other, they never stopped. A blow to her leg. A blow to her back. She barely felt them, all she felt was the fear, the fear of falling. The fear of what was already happening. Was there any way to grab onto something, to stop this from happening? No. Before she could even try to try, she knew. There was no use.

One heartbeat.

Firestone had fallen this way. Fallen among the rocks, plummeting from above, noble sacrifice to save the Clans from a giant monster. She got no such dignity, no certainty in death, no noble sacrifice. She was no savior. A casualty of a mistake. Barely a skirmish. This death would have no rippling impact on the forest, maybe Thornstar would be mad, her mate and daughter would be sad... oh, Rowanpaw. It was her ceremony. She'd missed her daughter's ceremony, her only daughter, what kind of a mother was she anyway. Poppyheart didn't deserve this. Or, well, maybe he did. He'd left her, not on purpose but he'd left, she'd had to bear the grief alone. Now it was her turn to leave. Oh, my love, my only, forgive me. She didn't want this, she didn't want to have to do this, but StarClan gave her no choice. Falling, plummeting, but no rocks, no Sharptooth. Only a russet pelt, tail streaming behind. Only bright and panicked green eyes, staring up at the tom who'd unknowingly brought death and destruction to the forest. Her turn to leave. Her turn to fall. Her turn to die.

Two heartbeats.

Could she do it? Could she relax and just let herself fall? Dignity in death, that would be enough. Like her father. Like Scorchstar. Like every hero in the elders' tales. Would she be in the elders' tales? Caution about climbing trees, about skirmishes. "Don't end up like Redwing." StarClan, she'd never be an elder. She didn't get that privilege. She'd never retire from deputyhood, never have another litter- they'd probably all die anyway- never sleep in the elder's den with her mate. She didn't get that. She never would. StarClan. Dignity. Why couldn't she have dignity? If they could just see her close her eyes, live with the realization of her death, no fear, no struggle. But no. She was a fallible cat. She'd been afraid of falling since she was a kit, terrified of plummeting since she watched her father die. There was no use. The fear remained, her gaze fixed upwards, heart beating a million times a minute as she tried to control it, but no use. At least she wasn't writhing around. She could have that much dignity. Dignity.

Three heartbeats.

She was almost there- couldn't see it, but she could feel it. The ground was almost there. She'd hit enough branches that she thought maybe she'd die before hitting the ground, but no. She didn't get that privilege. She'd meet the ground, maybe even on the SkyClan border, maybe not even get to die on her territory. Just her luck. Her father hadn't died in ShadowClan either. He didn't get to be buried, he was already buried under rocks with the corpse of Sharptooth. Maybe they'd bury her. Would they bury her next to her kits? All her kits who had died? StarClan, what kind of mother was she? Dignity. Some deputy she was. She tried to close her eyes, but the rushing wind forced them open. Pain was a dull throb at her consciousness, not worth noticing. She didn't have to notice it. Tears from the effort, the held-back pain, the knowledge of death. Death. What was death anyway? Would she go to StarClan? She had always been certain of their existence but in this last moment she doubted. No one would know her doubt. Had she told Poppyheart she loved him today? Had she told Rowanpaw she was proud? There was that mouse, she'd never get to eat it. Thornstar would be so disappointed in her failure. But at least now the fighting would stop. Now, there would be an end. No one else would get hurt.

Dignity. She didn't have it.

But at least she'd done something right.

She fell-

one
two
three
f-

she landed.

With a sickening crack, the deputy's body lay on the ground, her legs bent, her neck at an unnatural angle, her forest-green eyes fixed eternally on the sky.


Redwing will never fight ever again.

The tom was so caught up in his own battle that he did not notice Redwing climbing the tree to fight one of the Skyclan warriors. He was ready to aim for the ginger she-cat's neck but the sound of cracking branches and after that, the frightening sound of a body crashing the ground. The brown tom lost his focus to face the scene and his eyes opened widely in horror.

The red-furred she-cat lied numb, her body in a strange angle that could not be achieved by any living creature. The large, scarred warrior left his battle and rushed to the deputy, his brain still trying to figure out what just happened. The image felt unreal... like a nightmare. But it was right in front his eyes and the facts wre undeniable when he finally fixed his eyes on her dead ones.

The deputy was gone...

Redwing... was dead...

How could this happen? Why? She was just named deputy. Of course, she wasn't the youngrst of cats but she was no elder. She was meant to live a long life, even maybe become leader after Thornstar... and all that was stripped from her... by a clan who was again decided to stomp over them, break the rules by attacking them on their territory and murder one of their cats. Lynxscar let out a frustrated hiss as he tried to contain the tears of fury and frustration that wanted to infest his face. "YOU MURDERERS! WHO DID IT?! I WILL SEND YOU WITH ME TO THE DARK FOREST!" He shouted, facing the patrol and not thinking rationaly enough to look up to the one who caused Redwing's death. His desire for blood and revenge was too much to even think on the objective he should be following by now.

Sandblaze was down the tree in a matter of seconds. His mouth fell agape at Redwing's twisted body. I killed her. He began to heave and gasp for breath, stumbling backwards and refusing to look. Desperately, he tried to think of something to say, but his brain and mouth were disconnected. He only vaguely registered Lynxscar's mortified screams above the horrible ringing in his ears. His eyes snapped up. 

"No!" he nearly whispered, "No, you've got the wrong idea! It was an accident, it was... I can..." He caught Cardinalpaw's eyes and the words caught themselves in his throat. They wouldn't care if it was an accident or not. Burningsun, Lightfang, and Swallowflight stood around him. No one was safe. 

"GO! Follow me and don't look back!"

He turned tail and took off like a monster, trusting that his patrol mates were right behind him. They weren't headed for camp. They ran to StarClan-knows-where.

A panicked yowl from above, and then—there was no mistaking the sound of a fall. The rustling of leaves. The cracks and thumps of a body against branches. Lightfang had feared that sound from the moment he’d crossed into the forest. Choking on air, his own battle forgotten, the tall warrior spun to go to his brother’s aid. He was met with the sight of ginger fur. Not cream. Spots where he’d expected to find stripes. It’s not him. He took a long breath. Though Lightfang had only seen it on a cat once before, the vacant look in the ShadowClan deputy’s eyes was unmistakable. Another breath. It barely reached halfway down his throat. …Stars, it’s not him.

The reality was no better. Redwing was dead, and they—SkyClan, Sandblaze—were at fault. Sparrowpaw hadn’t killed a deputy, yet she’d been deemed a threat. Too dangerous to live. How much had the trial really changed Tinystar? Changed SkyClan?

Not enough. Never enough to take a risk like this. Lightfang’s eyes darted back and forth from the scarred ShadowClan tom to Sandblaze. If they fled, there would be nothing to stop Thornstar from finding out…but they couldn’t hold the ShadowClan patrol here forever. What they needed was a plan. They had to run. He took one step back, waiting for Burningsun and Swallowflight to follow. Then, nearly tripping over his own paws, he raced after his brother.

Swallowflight prepare to strike Cardinalpaw again, when a terror-filled yowl pierced the air. He looked up, just long enough to see a ginger cat plummet to the ground, and hit it with a sickening snap. His mouth fell agape as he gazed upon her still form, her body at an unnatural angle from the impact. It didn't take a medicine cat to know that the Shadowclan was dead. He suppressed a gag and tore his eyes away from the gruesome scene, instead looking to his patrol for guidance. The other cats were awestruck as well, but it wasn't long before Sandblaze scrambled down the tree and ordered them to run. Lightfang was hot on his heels, and the cream tabby rushed to join them, not even bothering to give Cardinalpaw a glance back. Their feud wasn't important right now. What were they going to do next, now that his own brother had committed such a crime? What would Tinystar think? What would Skyclan think? Sparrowpaw was executed without even harming a cat. Sandblaze..Sandblaze just dropped the Shadowclan deputy to her death. What were they going to do?..

Burningsun felt a tear in her shoulder. Then a thud and everything stopped. She huffed, heaving herself up not expecting much. Slowly she turned around and stared. No. Her jaw fell slack at the sight. How, no. Her multi-colored gaze jumped from member to member of her patrol. Tinystar hated all of them. They had all spoken out about him. Tinystar had murdered Sparrowpaw for attacking a ShadowClan warrior. Not even killing a Deputy. The Trial hadn't changed Tinystar enough. Finally, she took off with the group. Wherever they were going, she would unleash the plan she had for moons on them. They would be safe.