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clangenrising · 14 days

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Month 15 - Newleaf

Battle with Razor Pt. 9

Poppyblaze jumped from the stars and fell slowly, gracefully, down to the Parallel, and alighted above Darkmoon’s fresh grave. She squinted, sniffed around, and frowned.

“Where did you go…?” she hummed to the night air.

Starting out, she padded deeper into EarthClan’s forest, senses open to any traces of lingering spirits. Usually, Chestnutsprout tended the spirits of EarthClan, but Darkmoon had yet to appear in StarClan’s forest and, when Poppyblaze stopped to think about it, she hadn’t seen Chestnutsprout around either. Something wasn’t right.

She wandered closer to the battlefield, listening to the rustling leaves and letting intuition guide her. If I were a lost spirit, where would I go? she thought. Often, spirits lingered around the place where they died, drawn to it even if their bodies were moved afterwards. Perhaps Darkmoon, the proud and determined deputy, was refusing to leave. Chestnutsprout had been even younger than she was when he died and had retained a very youthful personality. Poppyblaze could see him struggling to assert himself over a stubborn soul.

The battlefield was empty now, blood soaked but empty. Luckily, mortal blood had no scent in the Parallel so, when Poppyblaze opened her mouth to scent, all she picked up on was the sharp smell of a soul.

She padded towards it, sing-songing, “Hello?” A small voice squeaked frightfully from the bushes and she cocked her head towards it.

A spectral squirrel poked its head out of the greenery and said in chitteri, “Oh, it’s you.”

“Evening, Climber,” purred Poppyblaze, flopping down on her side to appear less threatening.

The squirrel, Climber, twitched his glittering tail in annoyance and looked back into the undergrowth to say, “It’s alright, little one, this one’s harmless.”

“A-are you sure?” said a faint little voice.

“Harmless as a leaf,” Poppyblaze said in chitteri, “I guide the cat spirits, I don’t hunt.”

“She’s in more danger of talking your ear off or smirking so hard she passes out,” grumbled Climber, clicking his teeth. A tiny little squirrel spirit emerged from the foliage, eyes wide, tail trembling. The poor thing couldn’t have been more than a few months old. Poppyblaze smiled but that didn’t seem to help at all.

“Do you need something,” asked Climber, squinting at her, “or are you terrifying my charge because you’re bored?”

“Right, sorry,” chittered Poppyblaze. “I’m looking for a charge of mine who seems to have gone missing. You seen him?”

“No,” Climber frowned. “I don’t loiter around in the Parallel like you hunters do.”

“I don’t loiter,” laughed Poppyblaze, rolling onto her back. “I lounge.”

Climber rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m quite busy so-”

“Did you hear that?” squealed the soul next to him, twisting around to look off into the trees. Poppyblaze perked her own ears and rolled back onto her belly to sit up, alert. Climber scrambled a few tail-lengths up the nearby tree trunk and scowled into the darkness, starry tail gleaming.

“There’s definitely something,” he squawked, “It’s here, in the Parallel with us. I don’t like it.” He scrambled down and circled his charge protectively before scooping them up in his teeth and darting up a tiny, starry trail into the sky.

Poppyblaze stood up and perked her ears but whatever was approaching had gone very quiet except for its wet, ragged breath. The fur on the back of her neck prickled nervously and she edged backward, away from the trees, just in case.

A moment later, a dark shape loomed out of the trees, treading straight through the foliage as if it weren’t there, something which any dead cat could do but which few did because the sensation was akin to walking through mud that could touch your insides as well as your outsides. The cat was a large and thickly furred blue tabby with ghostly pale eyes and an enormous, bloody gash in his throat that oozed thick, black blood and bile. Every so often a fat drop splattered onto the ground as he lumbered in her direction.

“How,” the tom rasped and then coughed, black liquid seeping out from between the teeth on his lower jaw, “do I go back?”

Poppyblaze narrowed her eyes and lunged at him with claws drawn. The spirit laughed, a mean, wet sound that sent blood pattering onto the ground, and surged forward to try and catch her in his teeth. His movements were sluggish and she easily danced around behind him to tear her claws through his form. Unlike flesh, a soul was easy to tear and she dragged her claws from his shoulder to his tail. The wound bled dark fog into the air.

“There you go,” she smirked. “I think it’s time you dispersed.”

“I killed the last two spirits,” hacked the tom as he turned to her, “but I’ll spare you if you tell me,” another wet cough, this one shaking loose some bile from the hole in his throat, “how to get back. If she did it, so can I.”

Poppyblaze’s smile died immediately. “Sorry. Cats like you don’t get to go back.”

“I’m not supposed to survive a wound like this either, right?” he chuckled darkly. Poppyblaze glanced over at the wound and realized in horror that it had already started stitching itself back together. That definitely wasn’t normal.

“Well aren’t you a special boy,” she said, backing up a few steps. “What’s your name?”

He trudged after her, laughing to himself. “This doesn’t have to get nasty, sweetheart. Just tell me what I want to know.”

“Not my area of expertise,” she shrugged. “I deal with the cats who stay dead.” Crouching down, she waggled her hips to get ready for a sprint.

“Then I guess I’ll have to kill you and see who comes looking,” snarled the spirit.

Poppyblaze wasn’t going to let that happen. She sprang towards him and he reared up, teeth ready, but she flicked her tail and a barrier of starlight appeared before his face. He slammed into it just before she leapt off of it and onto another, higher platform.

“Good luck with that!” she cried as she hurried upwards, making sure to dismiss the lower barriers before he could follow. The tom roared furiously and prowled beneath her, pale eyes burning with rage. She slipped into the Clouds, leaving the Parallel behind, and paused to catch her breath.

This was not good.

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