#brokenclaw

[bogcreacher]

Well now we gotta see Brokenclaw

they’re pretty stern

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

Grief of A Killer (short story)

Sparrowfern wasn't expecting to sleep well. He paced the camp a long time after everyone else was in their dens, and only when his paws felt like they were about to fall off did he head to his nest.

He settled his eyes shut, waiting, hoping, for darkness to reach in. He wasn't expecting it to still be there when he opened his eyes, a crimson-red hue on the horizon.

"Hello?" he called, though he felt stupid for doing it. This was a dream, he knew that logically. At the same time, the chill along his spine felt as real as it had when he was running toward the battle that morning.

"That was quite the fight," a voice spoke from somewhere overhead.

Sparrowfern's head snapped to look up. A long-furred, muscular red tom sat perched on a crooked, black branch above him. "You fought well, for a small strip of land. It's too bad somebody had to lose their life for you to keep it."

Sparrowfern swallowed. He could hear the scratching fury, fire rising through this tom's throat that he struggled to keep back. He saw that although the tom sat calmly, his tail twitched and his claws worked in and out of the branch.

Was this Starclan's punishment?

Sparrowfern puffed out his chest. "I fought for my Clan. That is all that can be asked of me."

The tom's eyes narrowed to slits. "I don't care what can be asked of you. You!....you look familiar." The tom's voice lightened, though it didn't make Sparrowfern feel better at all. "Those tabby markings. Brokenclaw had them."

Sparrowfern's ears twitched at the mention of his grandfather, born in the Clan he had just fought against. That was why he had fought so hard against Shadowclan. He couldn't allow anyone to doubt him more than they already did because his father became mates with someone from another Clan.

"Come to think of it, you have the same face too. The same eyes. Will your blood flow the same way? Will you beg me the same way that he did? 'Starclan, please! Stop him! Help!'"

Sparrowfern's legs crumbled beneath him, so unnvered that the only thing he could do was breath rapidly and heavily, and stare. He had never heard his grandfather's voice, slain before Sparrowfern was born, but the mocking cries made his gut twist all the same. Then there was the threat.

"You're Redjay!" he gasped.

Redjay curled a lip. "Tonight, I'm only the father of the warrior that you killed."

Sparrowfern lifted his chin. "It was righteous!" He had to use any loop he could.

Redjay nodded. "True. But I don't care."

"I didn't mean to kill him!" I--" he froze as an awful, sing-song laugh echoed through the clearing.

"Don't be afraid. I'm sure my little Light will love to see you again, to mutilate you like he should have today. Or maybe you'll see Brokenclaw. Tell him I said hi, would you? That is, if you end up there at all. You could always return back to me."

"Please--"

"'Please,'" Redjay mocked back in a perfect copy. "Oh, don't waste your breath. Your fate was sealed the moment you sank your teeth into my son's throat. I won't pay you the same courtesy of such a quick death. I will kill you, and it will hurt more than anything you have ever felt in your entire life--bee stings, dog bites, it's all thorns in the paw compared to what I am going to do to you. And when your Clanmates wake up to the sound of screaming or the scent of blood, they'll find you so mutilated they won't even realize that it's you at first. By that point, you will already be nothing."

==============

@ambitiousauthor

--When you're so intimidating the person just lays there too scared to run.

[coffeenuts]

850_8655 Broken Talon by Wayne Duke 76 https://flic.kr/p/2kDSnVT

[ultimate-007]

Brokenclaw