The Beauty and the Warrior

The West Wing

"Hold still!" Leafpool hissed.

"It hurts!" Crowfeather growled.

"Well if you stopped moving it wouldn't hurt so much!" Leafpool snapped.

"Well if you hadn't run away none of this would have happened!"

"Well I wouldn't have run away if you hadn't yelled at me!" Leafpool felt her nose scrunch up. "Besides, you didn't have to save me."

"Well Sandstorm would've been devastated if I hadn't." He muttered under his breath.

"Why?" Leafpool cocked her head.

"Nothing you need to worry about!" Crow snapped.

Meanwhile with Pinestar, Tigerclaw, Darkstripe, and Fireheart:

Fireheart was looking around, trying to find the path to the castle, but could barely see anything. But then he saw the tree that had fallen, but it was now back up and standing normally.

"That's the tree! Lightning struck it, but now it's upright! By some magic... or other..." He said.

Pinestar rolled his eyes at the tom that had jumped out of the cart. He turned to his son, whispering;

"Alright, get the rope and we'll tie him to a tree and leave him here." He jumped down.

Fear pulsed through Tigerclaw, and he jumped out of the cart and stepped between his father and Fireheart.

"No, Father you can't do this!" Tiger hissed.

"Do what?" Fireheart raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"He wants to leave you for the wolves." Darkstripe growled.

"Tigerclaw it's for your own good!" Pinestar growled. "If you want to marry Leafpool you must-"

"NO!" Tigerclaw snapped. "I don't want to be with Leafpool I want to be with Darkstripe!" Then the realization of what he'd said hit him like how the lightning had hit the tree. And he immediately shut his mouth in horror as his father's eyes narrowed into blood red slits.

"You WHAT?!" Pinestar exclaimed, his ears flattened and his eyes burned with boiling hot rage.

His head slowly turned to glare at the black tom behind him, Darkstripe's breath hitched as Pinestar leaped at him, claws extended.

Tigerclaw's claws slid out and he jumped onto his father's back, clawing at his shoulders to hold him back.

Soon the two brown toms were fighting, scuffling across the leafy forest floor, hissing and spitting at each other, clawing at one another's throats, as Fireheart and Darkstripe watched in horror.

But to Tigerclaw's terrible luck, Pinestar managed to push him against a tree, and Tigerclaw could feel his lungs giving in and he blacked out.

Pinestar then managed to tie both Darkstripe and Fireheart to the tree, as much as the two struggled, they couldn't beat the battle experienced tom.

Pinestar picked up his knocked out son by the scruff of his neck, and pulled him into the cart, leaving both Darkstripe and Fireheart to be eaten by wolves.

Hours went by, and Darkstripe and Fireheart soon could barely feel their tail tips. But then Brightheart padded into the clearing looking for catmint, but when she saw the two freezing toms she immediately united them and brought them both back to her camp, her mate Cloudtail, and Cloudtail's mother Princess had been waiting.

"Look who I found." Brightheart laid the toms down on a cloth sheet as Cloudtail's eyes widened.

"Is that..." He whispered.

"Yes." Brightheart meowed, shuffling through her herbs.

Soon the three cats nursed their newfound guests back to health, Fireheart blinked his eyes open as a drink was held to his lips.

"Drink, brother." Princess murmured, and Fireheart obeyed, shocked to see his sister.

"Where... how...?" He coughed and Princess shushed him.

"It doesn't matter, just drink."

Soon Darkstripe awoke and the three cats explained how Brightheart had found them tied to a tree in the woods.

"Gah!" Fireheart growled. "That was Pinestar's doing! He left us to the wolves!"

"And all because he wanted his son to marry Leafpool..." Darkstripe meowed sadly.

"Well let's take you back." Brightheart meowed as she stood up.

Later with Pinestar and Tigerclaw:

Tigerclaw opened his eyes as he recalled what had gone on previously, and he jumped up as his father pulled the horse pulling the cart to a stop.

"WHERE AM I?! WHERE'S DARKSTRIPE?!" Tigerclaw panicked.

"I left him and Fireheart to the wolves." Pinestar smirked. "But don't worry, now nothing will stop me from making sure you marry Leafpool."

"You monster!" Tigerclaw growled.

"Oh no, Tigerclaw, I'm much, much worse than that!" Pinestar drew his tongue along his fangs, grinning devilishly at his son.

Tigerclaw jumps down from the cart and races inside the bar to tell everyone what had happened.

But when he ran through the doors, he skidded to a stop when he saw Darkstripe and Fireheart by some of the authorities.

"Darkstripe?" Tigerclaw breathed as confusion and relief welled up in his chest.

Darkstripe immediately turned and grinned at him, but then one of the villagers interrupted the two lovers' reunion.

"Pinestar, is it true you tried to kill Darkstripe and Fireheart?"

Tigerclaw then turned and saw his father standing in the doorway, a mixture of confusion and fear at the sight of his victims alive.

"Fireheart! Darkstripe! Why we've been spending the past five days trying to find you!" Pinestar meowed, gripping his son's shoulder as his claws sank into Tiger's flesh. "Haven't we son?"

"N-"

"Haven't we?" Pinestar hissed threateningly.

Tigerclaw felt fear draining his throat of words. What would his father do to them? Tiger felt the need to say yes, so that his father would stop trying to hurt him, but as he glanced at Darkstripe, he thought about how his father would most likely send him and Fireheart to a mad house, where there were countless psychopaths, just waiting to find another cat to drive mad.

That idea alone made Tigerclaw glare at his father and pull away.

"Yes." He hissed. "Yes he did!"

Gasps filled the room, and Pinestar glared knives at his son. "You've gone mad!" He growled.

"If anyone is mad it's you!" Tigerclaw hissed.

"Oh Tigerclaw, it's one thing to tell me you're gay, it's another to accuse me of attempted murder." Pinestar said.

More gasps echoed the previous ones, and Tigerclaw could feel the disgusted looks being thrown at him. He flattened his ears and looked down, trying to convince himself he was in some kind of horrible nightmare.

"Lock all three of them up!" Pinestar meowed, and the authorities began dragging the three toms to a cart used for prisoners to be taken away.

1660 words!