Shade

[Star (Noblelion)]

Icefang pulled the last cobweb off slowly and sniffed the wound anxiously. She sighed with relief as she realized there was no infection. She began to put the new cobwebs on, making sure evey wound was covered. Satisfied, she stepped back and looked at Murderweapon, frowning slightly as she noticed the pain in her eyes. She padded back over to the medicine cat den, grabbed a couple of poppy seeds, and came back to Murderweapon.

"These poppy seeds should help you sleep and get rid of whatever pain you're feeling. If you want, I could wake you up when they go to bury Gingerspark," Icefang meowed gently.

[Blair ;;]

YOU DID THIS TO US.

Murderweapon tried desperately to ignore Icefang as the cat replaced her cobwebs. She didn't really move until she was brought back poppy seeds. Easily, the larger warrior picked one gently up in her mouth and nodded briefly to the cat, trying not to be a huge annoyance as she walked into the warriors den into the back of it. She swallowed down the poppy seed for pain. Usually, she would ignore them. Now though, it didn't matter. She wished that she had given her them anyways. It was nice of the warrior. She wondered where she had felt so compelled to help her from. Murderweapon began to collapse into the moss nest. She had never felt such a strong pain in the pit of her stomach. She barely even wanted to bury the warrior. She sighed deeply as she did so. She closed her eyes, allowing sleep to take over her.

Murderweapon dreamed the sweet nothingness of a warrior's mind. There was a huge grass filled plain with no trees at all. You could smell the mice that were hiding, just waiting to be eaten. At the very end, there were a few cats. They sparkled like the sunset that happened to be behind them. The closer Murderweapon walked, the harder they were to see. It was almost like a haze. Murderweapon began to run towards them, trying to see who they were and why they were there. She wanted to know. She desperately wanted to know.

Then when she was at front of them, they seemed like they had disappeared fully, but there was a thick layer of haze. As it began to disintegrate, she could tell who it was. tIt was Westfall, her mother, her father, and Gingerspark. Slowly, they looked like they were absolutely fine. They were staring at Murderweapon blankly. Murderweapon began to try and speak to them, to see what they were doing. But one by one, they began to fall to their knees, and down their spine there was a large cut that seeped blood out of it. She looked around. Everything else looked like it had a thick layer of blood on it. Murderweapon took a few steps back, her legs feeling like jelly. Her own legs had blood all over them, and she could tell that the blood was not her own. It was Westfall's, her mother's, her father's, and Gingerspark's own. She writhed with pain as she felt the pain that they had went through.

"MURDERER." A tiny voice said as the four bodies moaned and groaned, falling and rolling around in the grass. Slowly, they began to stop moving. They were dead. Murderweapon took a step towards Gingerspark, pawing her. "No. No! I can't! I didn't kill you, Gingerspark! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! Westfall. . I didn't. . I wish I had never. . No!" The four cats were fading as she stared at everything else. The trees and the grass were dead. She saw a tiny mouse on the ground, its throat ripped out.

She woke with a start, rolling out of the moss bedding onto the ground. She shook herself, her body covered with a thick layer of sweat. I did that to them. It's all my fault.

[Star (Noblelion)]

"Murderweapon, is everything all right? Did you have a bad dream?" Icefang meowed as she came in to check on the injured warrior.

Ever since Murderweapon had fallen asleep, Icefang had been checking on her every few minutes to make sure she was still alive. She had let Gingerspark die, she would not let Murderweapon die too. She laid down beside her Clanmate and hummed a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her and her sister when they had had a bad dream. Her eyes closed softly both from exhaustion and from the memory of her sister. She had not slept since early that morning, and she would not allow herself to do so until she was positive that Murderweapon would be okay.

[Blair ;;]

EMPTINESS. I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD FEEL THIS BLAND.

Murderweapon automatically twitched with pain. Slowly, she looked up at Icefang, her eyes dull with light hatred for the dream she had just had and for how much this cat actually cared. Honestly, she wished that she didn't care. She wished that this cat could just.. Oh, I don't know, go care about someone else for a change. But that wasn't going to happen. It was going to continue to sit there and mourn over the loss they had just had. Maybe they just didn't want a strong warrior to die. Whatever the cause, she wished she would just stop caring. She sat up, careful not to rip the cobwebs that had just been put on her.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Is Gingerspark ready to be buried?" She said it with a meaningless voice, trying not to show how much she cared about the warrior. She began to groom her side with how awkward the room was becoming, a tense feeling in the air.

[Star (Noblelion)]

Icefang opened her eyes and staggered to her feet, nodding at Murderweapon's question. She stretched, trying to wake up. She shook herself and then began to groom for the funeral. Her pelt shined like then sun hitting snow when she finished. She padded over to Murderweapon and sniffed the wounds, smiling slightly as she noticed they were healing nicely.

"C'mon, let's go honor our Clanmate," Icefang meowed softly, her eyes portraying the fatigue and grief she was trying to hide.

She noticed a piece of moss still stuck on Murderweapon's tail before flicking it off with her tail tip, giving a sad smile as she remembered Amber doing the same to her.

[Blair ;;]

YOU CAN BE AN ANIMAL LIKE ME.

Murderweapon was staring at Icefang as they began to walk out of the little den. She wanted to honor her clanmate.. And so did Icefang. It didn't matter, though. She was just a body, no soul any longer, nothing like how Gingerspark was before. Gingerspark wasn't going to be watching over them as they buried her, wishing the clan the best. She would just be dead, no soul, no nothing. She gulped as she walked. Stupid cats thinking that StarClan could save all of them. It was stupid, really. She gingerly grabbed the small cats' scruff of its neck and heaved softly, motioning with her tail to get Icefang on the other side.

Slowly she began to carry Gingerspark. I'm sorry. Even if she didn't know who she was talking to, it was much better to say she was sorry rather than just carry a dead body out. No one else was following them and wishing Gingerspark peace. It didn't matter. She was just another clanmate dead to them. But to Murderweapon, she was so, so much more.

They were almost there, the cold air before the night was coming hitting Murderweapon's face without a warning. Murderweapon trudged on, not caring about it. All she cared about was getting Gingerspark to the burial place.

[Star (Noblelion)]

Icefang slightly under Gingerspark's weight as the days activities slowly caught up with her. She glanced up at the stars, trying to see the shapes that she and Amber would once make when they were kits. She so badly wanted to see StarClan, yet all she could see were lions, bears, and an assortment of other creatures. She looked over at Murderweapon, wondering what she saw in the stars.

They soon reached their destination and gently set Gingerspark on the ground. Icefang plopped down to rest for a second, tired and exhausted. She groomed her chest fur then shook herself slightly as she walked a few paces away from the others and started to dig.

[Blair ;;]

SO WHY DO I FEEL LIKE IT'S ALL JUST A SHOW?

Murderweapon began to dig beside Icefang, her eyes tired and annoyed with the death of a clan mate. Whatever had taken her - let it be StarClan or other wise - should be ashamed for taking a cat so early in life. Gingerspark was a great cat, and Murderweapon had to honor the fact that she was a great cat. The fact that anyone else could think differently was preposterous. Her tail flicked as the hole that Gingerspark was to be placed in was large enough for standard, as she lifted the tiny cat up and into the hole, as she sat there around the hole with Icefang. She didn't want to bury her clan mate. Not yet. She stared at Gingerspark's dead body.

If you blame me for this.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. There was nothing inside me that made me want to kill you. Murderweapon thought, then glanced at Icefang, who looked done with her wishes. Murderweapon flicked her tail and began to bury her loved one into the dirt.

Once Murderweapon was all done, the ground was very mushy and easy to fall into. She hoped that everyone would realize that this was a gravesite and not to surpass it. It would be wondrous if all cats of all clans could gather around and come to the realization that, hey, a great cat of honor has just passed. But no matter how honorable, has that ever happened? No. Because the clans were divided. Murderweapon refused to believe otherwise.

[Star (Noblelion)]

Icefang watched sadly as her Clanmate was buried beneath the earth, never to see the light of day again. Icefang looked around before finding a small rock at the edge of the clearing. She slowly rolled it over until it sat where Gingerspark's head would be.

"This way, everyone will know that a great warrior rests here," Icefang meowed solemnly, looking at Murderweapon before bowing her head in respect to Gingerspark.

[Blair ;;]

NOW WITHOUT YOU HERE, I'M THE LOSER OF THE YEAR.

Murderweapon watched as her fellow clan mate as she would like to think of it grabbed a rock that would easily be rolled ontop of the cat's grave. It was almost like a tombstone to allow her to know that hey, someone is here that is beyond your control. You can not save this cat. She is unable to be saved. She is dead now. It allowed any passing warriors to know that there was a dead warrior that happened to rest here that deserved respect and a kind heart. And that's all that it needed to have. Murderweapon didn't smile. She put a paw lightly on the small rock. It would wither away with time.

Just like Gingerspark's body. It would wither away just like everything else in this world withered away. The soul of her, even if it would happen to go to StarClan, would no longer be there within a few decades or a century or something. Everything fades, in the underworld or the overworld. It didn't matter what anyone else thought. Everything faded with time.

And that was what Gingerspark had done, faded away with the hatred of time. The life that she had to live was over, and Murderweapon wished her own life was over. Unlike a book you just threw out and burned, you can't go out and buy a new one to start off where you left off again. That wasn't how life worked, rhetorically life being the book. And life would never, ever work like that. And the fact that anyone could think that it did was very humerous to the large HopeClan warrior.

Heh. What idiocy.