Poisoned Fangs, Scenes 27-30: A New Turning Point

Summary:
The snow underneath sparrowstar’s crunches as he walked around echoclan. He looked around and saw two cats playing with each other. One of the cats playing looked at him, her brown pelt similar to his spoke up

“Sparrowpaw! What are you doing? Come over here!”

The other grey she cat smiled as they  played. Sparrowstar smiled and the approached them, suddenly he saw his clan being slaughtered by bears. Heatherstar stood in front of him grinning. He winced away from the view, when he opened his eyes again, he saw the starclan cats shaking their heads as his shoulder stings painfully.

He felt a something cold hit face, he shook his pelt out and turned to see where it came from, it was rushtooth who threw a snowball at him. She giggled playfully.

Bumblestrike looked over at rushtooth as the shecat rolled up a snowball. Bumblestrike motioned with his tail to get her attention she looked at him he shook his head and pointed down(put down)

Rushtooth let out a purr filled laugh as the snow clumped in Sparrowstar’s fur. She grinned. “You need to liven up a bit, Sparrowstar! Just because a few bad things happen doesn’t mean you should let it drag you down!”

Sparrowstar flicked his tail, "yeah right, better not jinx it like last time" he spat.

Rushtooth looked at her paws for a moment then bounced over to him, the fluffy snow crunching under her paws. “Our clan depends on you, Sparrowstar. If you act all glum and serious they will too! Don’t you ever want to let loose?”

Bumblestrike walked over to the cats and flicked his tail getting Sparrowstar attention the tom then pointed at himself(me/I) then proceeded to put his paw on the ground (tried) moved his tail to the right(to/Right) took his left paw and out it on top of his left one(stop) and pointed at Rushtooth(the cats name/pronouns)

Sparrowstar glared at Rushtooth, she giggled nervously "I think i should take Blossompaw out training now-" She quickly hopped away. Sparrowstar sighed, then bowed his head to Bumblestrike then headed over to his den.

“Sparrowstar?” A soft voice mewed from behind him. He turned to see Lavenderberry looking at him. “I-I think Rushtooth is right, the clan is very tense and I think that helping cheer them up would be a good idea...”

"and how can i do that?" he spoke, without even facing her

Lavenderberry pawed at the ground nervously. “I-I’m not sure, I just thought that maybe we could come up with some ideas-“

He sighed, they both sat in silence. "So what do you think we should do then? Pretend everything is all cheerful and happy?" He looked at her, "Leaf bare is here and we already lost so many cats last time, we were just recovering under her leadership" He harshly mewed

Lavenderberry flinched at his harsh mew. "I-I just don't think that dwelling on the past will help us in the future. We need to move on."

He sighed once again "Fine," He looked behind her where cats are sharing tonuges as snow falls. "what do you suggest then?" he said, trying to hold back a growl

Lavenderberry cleared her throat, “Maybe we could have the apprentices do a little hunting contest, we need to fill up the fresh kill pile anyway and it could lift their spirits while feeding the clan!”

Sparrowstar laughed at the suggestion, "what type of idea is that? what will happen after this little hunting contest then?"

Lavenderberry’s ears went back. “Well, Sparrowstar, you have a better idea? Maybe round every cat up and question them and never let them do anything that they want? Oh wait! That’s what you normally do everyday!” Lavenderberry’s harsh tone caught him off guard.

Sparrowstar was taken aback by the usually quiet cream she-cat. He sat in silence.

Lavenderberry’s fur bristled along her spine. “What’s wrong Sparrowstar, cat got your tongue? Or are you just scared of me?” Her claws slid out. “You’ve always been scared of me haven’t you? That’s no surprise!” Her teeth were bared. “You’ve always hated me over something I can’t control! I never chose for my sister to be a cruel tyrant! But you just never forget do you?” Tears were slipping down her face. “You never let me be anything other than a reminder of her! That’s all I am to you!”

Sparrowstar turned his gaze away, "I know, I'm a horrible leader aren't I?" His eye softens, "I just can't bear to reminded of her anymore, I trusted her." He clenched his paw. "I'm barely hanging onto my two lives and I'm such a coward."

Lavenderberry looked at him seriously. "You are a coward." She stood up and turned away. "You're a coward because you refuse to change your thoughts about yourself." She walked away toward the medicine den.

Sparrowstar sat in his den, his thoart began to ache, he coughed. Some blood came out. Sparrowstar looked at it, "I'm going to die soon anyways" he muttered

Sparrowstar turned to see a few poppy seeds, tansy and thyme. Lavenderberry had left it for him, as a medicine cat she saw how bad shape he was in.

"I need to appoint a deputy soon" he quickly thought, he slowly walked out of his den and climbed the high rock. "Cats of echoclan" he hoarsely mewed "please gather around for a clan meeting" he held back another cough

The cats looked at him curiously, it was the first time in moons he'd called a clan meeting. Cats muttered all around. "These past days have been harsh to us," he held back another cough, he dug his claws into the rock. "I think it's about I appoint a new deputy" he looked around camp, bumblestrike, Mallowrush, and Rushtooth. he thought, one of them will make a great a deputy

He spotted Lavenderberry looking at him warmly from the medicine den. Sending her approval.

He heistated, "mallowrush" he slowly said, "mallowrush will be the new deputy of Echoclan"

Mallowrush fliched, she looked around seeing as if he was mistaken. "m-me?" she stammered, "Sparrowstar, I'm not sure I will be a useful deputy," She shuffled her paws "Why not you choose some other cat else instead?"

Sparrowstar stood there, he looked at the ginger she-cat, "I need a cat who i can trust, Mallowrush, you're a great cat we need someone as strong as you to take over our clan" Mallowrush shook out her pelt "no! I refuse to become deputy! Why can't you choose other cat? I can barely even walk!" She turned to bumblestrike "why not choose him instead!?"

Bumblestrike turned and looked at the shecat with surprise before gesturing the movements for "why me I can't talk?"

Sparrowstar sighed "I can't believe choosing a deputy would be this hard,"

"I will be deputy! I'm strong and smart!" Sandykit yowled from the nursery. Ripplewish silenced her with his tail

Blossompaw scoffed at the kit with contempt and turned to Bumblestrike, her eyes narrowed with menace and mockery. "You could speak if you wanted to, you're just too much of a little kitten and a coward!" She lashed her tortoiseshell tail and ignored her mentor who looked at her with wide eyes.

Bumblestrike looked surprised at the apprentice before looking at her mentor and gesturing the movements for "control you're apprentice" then looked down at Blossompaw band gesturing "and you should know better then to talk to a warrior that way"

Blossompaw rolled her eyes and dug her claws into the dirt, angry with Rushtooth and Bumblestrike.

"At least I am not having trouble picking a deputy that this clan hasn't had sunce becoming leader." She snickered to herself, glancing up at Sparrowstar as he was petrified to silence.

Sparrowstar growled at the snickering apprentice, he then calmed himself down then said "I've decided," he sighed "Bumblestrike and Mallowrush will both be the deputies of Echoclan"

Beepaw looked happily at their mentor and started cheering. Meanwhile Blossompaw scowled at them and thought, "neither of those cats can be deputy. I don't even know why he's choosing two, let alone those two. They're too soft, I would be the only good deputy."

The clan sat in shook, trying to process what just happened. "two deputies?" Rushtooth gasped "Sparrowstar- Please reconsider this! We can't have two deputies at once!"

Sparrowstar looked at her, "well I am leader, and i have a very good reason for this decision." Mallowrush and bumblestrike, please come into my den in a little bit" He hopped down the highrock as cats began cheering and congratulating the new deputies

Bumblestrike looked just as confused and surprised as the rest of the clans but listened to his leader and followed him into his den

Sparrowstar sat down in his den, Mallowrush and Bumblestrike coming in after him. "I'm sure you two are confused, but let me clear somethings up. I'm sure you both remember Heatherstar, yes?" The two cats nodded, Mallowrush spoke up "what does that have to do with anything though?" Sparrowstar glared at her "I'm not finished" he growled "Because of Heatherstar, I only recieved another life from starclan since she still had 7 lives left at the time," The deputies looked at each other, "so you lied about your nine lives?" Mallowrush said

"yes, and because of that, I will die soon. Heatherstar is alive so even after I die, you won't be able to recieve all of your nine lives either until she's dead"

Bumblestrike looked puzzled before gesturing with his paws "so you think having 2 deputies would mean 2 leaders so we could both get lives?"

Sparrowstar nodded his head, "i think if there could be two leaders, that would mean you both could get half of your lives"

"you two are dismissed" The two deputies walked out of his den. Once they were gone, Sparrowstar let out a violent cough, the herbs Lavenderberry gave him earlier made him slighty better, but his coughing was becoming worse by the minute. He heard a more violet cough than his outside his den. He peaked his head out to see Harveyheart flailing around until he colapsed to the ground.

Lavenderberry rushed over, her eyes panicked. “Harveyheart!” She tried to gather up herbs as quickly as she could and dashed back only to drop them with a cry of grief.

Bumblestrike turned and saw Harveyheart and ran over "no no no" the tom thought "I can't lose you" and rested his head on the old cat.

Harveyheart looked up at the cats surrounding him, he was cats around him griefing and screaming although he can't hear anything. He turned to Rushtooth and Bumblestrike and smiled "W-why so s-sad?" he weakly smiled, then his head fell into the soft snow.