What an *ODD* meeting ((Brushfire))

[brushfire]

Brushfire's eyes returned to the greenest of green as she felt herself being dragged back into the real world with Maliceheart and her kits and Echosong and Horsestar and Shadowpaw and Twilightclaw. She blinked as Malliceheart asked her what was wrong. She shook her head, smoke still filling her lungs.

"I..." she began, gasping for air, her tail once again curling under her, ears layed back, as she lashed alook behind her, making her as small as he was. But then she shook herself off and her fur fluffed out agan, and her massive tail stretched itself all the way out, like the sideways trunk of a tree, and she looked like she did when she first came this day. "I'm fine," she grumbled, before looking forward, flashing him another of her darkly sarcastic smiles, "We gonna get that to camp or what, Short Straw?"

[malice]

Maliceheart watched as Brushfire curled up, making her look almost as small as any of the other cats in the Clan. That's sealed the deal, something was definitely wrong, it wasn't just the shock from the dogs or anything like that! When she said she was fine, the black tom frowned, watching her reassure herself and returning back to her normal state.

"We gonna get that to camp or what, Short Straw?"

"...Not until you tell me what was wrong," he meowed, a determined tone in his voice. He stood up straight and tall, all though he was nothing in size compared to the lynx-cat, "...I'm serious. I'm not going to let you go anywhere until you tell me what happened...!"

He wasn't about to let her leave without telling him, and he wasn't going to let her go, even if it meant putting up a fight. He knew that in physical strength he was no match for the she-cat, but he had fairly good speed. He didn't plan on hurting her if she did choose to fight, but he still wasn't letting her go anywhere, not until she told him what was wrong.

[brushfire]

Brushfire blinked, her smile faded. The fur along her spine currested to spikes and her ears flashed Latin signals. Her claws flexed as she tryed to remember ore clearely, then she froze. Her eyes widened as she stared into Maliceheart's reddish amber eyes...

It was midnight. The sky was on fire. The flames reached into the sky, pushing forth massive fists of smoke, swallowing everything in their path. Even the moon. The ground had turned to swamp. Burned ashen ground that had been drenched by the rains that preceded the fire. If only it had rained today. Brushfire choked back the smoke that burned her throat so badly it hurt breathe. Mud clung to her paws, causing her to stumble every few feet, but she forced herself to move on.
It was the end of the world. Of her world. She had started this. She and Twilightclaw. Now she hated the whole plan, the one her mother had led her and Twilightclaw to promise to do, to fulfill her revenge on Leafstar. But she hated it now. And now...
And now she could hear the screams of ShadowClan and MistClan, mixed with gunshots and the unrelenting roar of flames. She could hear the twolegs shouting orders of murder.
"Burn down those leaves. Let the rebbles and their cats pay for turning against us, and the cats for killing our dogs! Burn it all!"
So that was what Hawkfeather meant when she said she lured the puppies away and 'played' with them...
And one by one, twolegs had lit the great caves of shadowy leaves of the dens of the Plain Cats' plantations ablaze, with their own kerosene-laden bed sheets and curtains. One by one, Brsuhfire watched the camps of her neighber Clans, her friends and enemies who did not seem all evil to her any more, surrender to the flames. And in the worst of circumstances, many of those friends and enemies surrendered as well, eaten alive in the flames in the very place they were born.
And that's why she was running into the smoke, toward the fire---right into the mouth of the beast.
She had to get to Greenbreir before the twolegs. And she didn't have much time. The twolegs were methodical, working their way down the Places of Clans starting from the Forest, burning the Clans one by one. They had already burnt the Forest and Lake; the Tribe of Rushing Water would be next, then the rest of the Plains and the Mountains, then the Valley. "General Sherman" and his "army" had started burning champaign hundreds of miles before they reached the Plains. They had burned the Lake, especially, to the ground, and continued marching east, burning everything in their path. When they reached the outskirts of the Plains the LeafClan leaves were still waving confederatly; the second wind they needed.
It was the smell that told Brushfire that she was too late.
Lemons.
The tart smell of lemons mixed with ash.
They were burning the lemon trees.
Brushfire loved lemons. So when her mate Goosewhisker and her older kits had visited to twolegplace far southwest, a week's journey, they had found some lemon trees and gathered seeds, enough seeds to fill up four bee hive baskets made by Scorchfire. Everycat said they would not grow, that cold nights and winters would kill them.
But Brushfire did not listen. She planted those seeds along in the warmer ShadowClan camp, and with permission from the new leader, she visited them every winter and covered them with huge leaves and piled their roots with dirt to keep the moisture out. And those trees grew. They grew so well over the years, Goosewhisker and her kits had brought her even more.
They grew so well that other she-cats in differant Clans had started to pass the news on and it spread amoung the Places of Clans to she-cats everywhere, and some even asked their mates for some, and some even got seeds, but none could figure out how to keep them alive. Nothing had been able to kill those trees. Until today.

Brushfire shook her head wildly. She wasn't sure if he had recieved it. It was a trick Moondiamond had taught her, that if one looked into another's eyes while remembering the scene correctly the other cat would see it through one's eyes. But perhaps she might have done it wrong. She cast a shadowed glance at Maliceheart to see...

[malice]

Maliceheart watched as Brushfire stared him in the eyes, and could see her dream reflected through the almost-glowing green. He was amazed how much he could tell by simply looking int another cat's eyes. There was destruction, and death, and fire, so much fire! Clans around her were being wiped out, everything and everyone was crying.

"Was that... your old Clan...?" he asked as Brushfire shook her head. He felt sorry that he ever asked about it, but he had to know or he would never be able to get it out of his head... although now, he wished that he never knew.

"I'm sorry... that I brought up painful memories..." the black tom mumbled... it was the only thing that he could say, nothing else would come out of his mouth, "It's a horrible thing... to loose everything like that... I'm sorry it happened to you, you're Clan didn't deserve it..."

[brushfire]

"I started it. I started the fire. On perpose..."

Her voice was cold. Very cold. It was safter than the normal lightning of her voice. No. It was a low, rumbling thunder than threatened very dark skies but no rain.

"When I heard the twolegs were destroying eachother and one group was burning that one's territory down, which was where out territory was, and my mother's plan to get revenge of Leafstar wasto burn the whole Clan down... But I never thought the twolegs would reach as far as us, and I only wnted LeafClan to burn..."

She explained it, and her eyes got greener with the silent, seething rage. Soon her eyes were greener than the greenest of eyes. After a few heartbeats, she repeated, "Are we going to get that to camp or not, Short Straw?"

[malice]

Maliceheart listened to Brushfire explain what had happened, a little surprised... okay a lot! She had planned to burn down a whole Clan. He looked down, trying to think about everything. He nodded when she asked if they were getting back to camp, trying to process everything she had said.

"...When I was younger, my mother separated us so that she could teach us to kill each other..." he finally muttered, starting to walk beside the lynx-cat, "Your intent was aimed at another Clan, my family aims their malicious intents toward each other... My mother killed my father, and her leader, I heard it all from my brother... If I had returned to my Clan, I could have stopped her..."

"It wasn't your fault that things didn't go according to plan..." he meowed, "You only wanted revenge for a wrong done to your family, my family is known for killing because of the mear pleasure of it... It wasn't your fault that things got out of hand... You aren't a bad cat because of it..."

[brushfire]

Brushfire sighed.
"It was acually the same with my paents. My mother complained every night on how her father and brother betrayed her, and her mentor, my father, drove her against them, and she killed them. She had to kill her father nine times."
Her head was hung low as she continued.
"Once she did, Pythonfang acted like she had gone crazy on her own, and he killed Kiche, the lynx, my grandmother, and blamed that on her, too. The Clan outcast my mother, when she was just carrying me and my brother. We were born a couple weeks later. Twilightclaw was stolen from us by Pythonfang, and we were both taught to hate the other parent, but not eachother. Hewas acually driven to think h has to ptotect me, that everycat is trying to hurt me. In the end, we were both supporting Moondiamond, my mother, because we both saw the greedy look in Pythonfang's eyes."

She looked foward, but avoided Maliceheart's gaze, and continued.

"Soon after Twilightclaw was returned to us," Brushfire replied, her voice still a low, threatening thunder instead of the usual lightning, "Leafflower, the medicine cat, had accedentally started a fire and burnt the whole of ThunderClan down, killing Pythonfang. Only Leafflower survived. So she made her own clan, far from the Lake. Moondiamond saw her chance to get revenge on Leafflower, then Leafstar, for killing all her targets. She would never get to taste their blood, she told us. So she sent me down there. I met a young tom called Goosepaw, and Mondiamond told me if I could become Goosepaw's mate, then they would expect no danger of me. So I did. Goosepaw became Goosewhisker and we had kits. All was going well. Then came the real plan. I killed Goosewhisker off first, because Moondiamond had told me he would be a witness ... When I started the fire."

She flinched. It hurt to continue further, but she could tell Maliceheart was questioning.
"And then... Here... Here we are... I kept me and Goosewhisker's kits... They'rein the Nursery..."

[malice]

Maliceheart listened to Brushfire explain her history better. It was nice to be able to relate to someone... He saw that she avoided his gaze, but he didn't mind. He knew that it must have made her upset, to recall the stories, to have to ponder them. He hadn't met Twilightclaw, but they were in the same Clan, so it wouldn't take long before the two would meet.

Brushfire's story was full of revenge, was full of one wrong being committed because of another. It was a chain, every link added only supported the next link. The black tom wondered how much she loved her old mate, how much it must have hurt her to kill him. So, she, her brother, and her kits were the only survivors of a great disaster.

"I'm sorry..." was the only thing he could say. He had never actually seen her kits, he avoided the dens he didn't have to go in, so he had never been in the nursery, "I'm sure that they'll become great warriors! I don't have an apprentice, so maybe I'll mentor one of them..."

[brushfire]

She shook her head. "You shouldn't be sorry for me, Short Straw. I'm a lynx, I can handle anything... It's I who sorrows for you. Cats never let anything go, and I can see why. If one cat can make another distrust, the cat will never trust anycat ever again, until somecat else with a pure heart can get to them to trust again. I'm afraid that's not what I've done today."

She finally met Maliceheart's gaze and mewed, "To be honest, not even lynxes can get over distrust." Her eyes narrowed a bit as she flashed more Latin symbols. "My brother will only trust me, for example. He tears his enemies apart in the most brutel way, that's how our parents taught us."

She got to her paws and started a few steps before stopping just beside Maliceheart.

"Oh, and, Short Straw..." She began, then shot him a strange glance.

"Promise me that if you do get one of them to mentor, you'll make them to the best warrior you can," The shock and loudness of lightning striking the ground was back to her voice, the same sound as a puma's roar, with the backdrop of the thunder she had a few heartbeats ago.

"Promise you will, Maliceheart."

[malice]

Maliceheart listened as Brushfire explained about distrust. She was right... That was how cats and lynxs alike were. Once they were betrayed, they almost never trusted again. Short Straw! He heard her call him that nickname again, and his fur bristled.

"Promise me that if you do get one of them to mentor, you'll make them to the best warrior you can,"

He blinked and looked up at her, a little confused for a second. After processing the question, he nodded,

"I promise," he meowed in a determined show, "I'll make my apprentice into the best warrior they can be! They'll surpass everyone in strength and in tactics! I promise!"

[brushfire]

Brushfire purred that purr of hers that sounded like a hushed lion's warning growl, and simply cracked with the lightning "Thanks, Mally."

She continued to skip forward now, a new spring in her overly sarcastic and springy was of walking, "So!" she called behind her, "Come on Short Mally, let's get that chicken to camp for real."

[malice]

Maliceheart smiled as Brushfire meowed about getting the chicken to camp for real. He nodded, running ahead of her,

"I'll beat you there!" he yelled back, being less stuck-up for once in his life.