Among the Blaze

*A moment in time has the capablilty to change everything. A moment can cascade, rippling as it toils forward into the future. A moment is just a moment, but a moment can be filled with mistakes. Some mistakes can be temerpary, but others can last a life time. In the heat of the moment, we never know. This is my tale, a story of a mistake that forever changed the very foundation of the forest it roamed.*

### Prolouge- Flinching in the Rain

I was an accident. A mistake that was created by two young cats who knew nothing about their actions. Both were rather careless, and rather reckless. Niether of them knew that their one attempt at finding pleasure would result in their lives changing so desperately.

One was a young female deputy. She was regarded as the strong, valiant, warrior. Despite her name being Rainstar, she was nothingless than a tidal wave of destruction. She was a lithe, and rather seductive she-cat. She was a grey and white, with bright emerald eyes.

The second was a newly made warrior, known as Flinchfoot. He was the best fighter in the apprentice den at the time, and was rather firece. Much like his kin, he had a bright orange pelt. Unlike his son, he had pale blue eyes.

The two cats, though formerly warrior and apprentice, were madly in love. This love was not forbidden, but this love was destructive. Rainstar, who at the time was Rainstone, was the deputy to Sandstar. Sandstar only had one life left, which forbade Rainstone from having kits. Let’s just say Rainstone did not get the memo.

It was described to me by my aunt Stormgrass as the clearest night in Branchclan’s history. The stars of our ancestors shined upon the grassy clearing. My mother and my father supposedly laid up the aforemenetioned clearing, curling up with each other. This was when my father, still young and afraid, actually began to question his mentor.

”Rainstone, are you sure we are making the right call? Are we ready for kits with all of your other responsibilities?“

She purred, brushing his face with her tail; “Relax dear. Of course we are ready!”

”But what if Sandstar passes?” Flinchfoot asked questioningly.

”Sandstar still has plenty of time to live,” Rainstone attempted to reassure him.

”Fifteen moons is a long time... But, I trust your instincts,” Flinchfoot said.

My father was wrong to trust my mother’s instincts. They did as they itended to do, but it was still a mistake. Exactly nine moons later, Sandstar was murdered by a fox.

### Chapter One- A Blaze in the Storm

The sun shone brightly in the sky of a peaceful greeneleaf. The grass swayed gently, and the stream that went through camp glistened with new life.

A wail of muffled pain errupted from a hollow tree on the edge of Branchclan territory. Just a few days after Sandstar had died, my mother gave birth to me. And after I came out of her womb, we had no interaction until I was an apprentice. She handed me off to my aunt Stormgrass without a word spoken to me.

I spent the first few moons of my life in naive bliss. My father, Flinchfoot, had devoted himself to raising his kit. He was not all that good at it, but he at least knew how to take responsibility for his actions. He pretended that my mother was *truly* Stormgrass, while my real mother sat in the leader’s den and planned things all day.

Stormgrass taught me many things. She began to teach me the apprentice basics at a young age, and I never understood why. I found later from her husband Pumpkin that it was because she was afraid we would have to run away from the clan, because the clan could never know the truth of who my mother was. If Rainstar’s affair was found out, she would surely be impeached. Besides, since the clan did not know about Flinchfoot and Rainstar dating, they were lead to believe that Flinchfoot was the *real* couple. That’s why everyone went alojg with Stormgrass being my mother.

That time, however, did come. In the middle of a great and all consuming storm no less. Rainstar’s deputy, Mossmouse, had uncovered the truth of our family’s lies, and forced her to expose them. Then, she was given a choice; she could either resign and be exiled with her family, or stay their leader and exile her own mate, sister, and kit. Rainstair was leader of Branchclan for another six years.

Flinchfoot, however, did try to protest this exile. However, he was weak, and lacked the mental strength it took to stand up to my vile mother. He was murdered right then and there for even daring to speak out. Stormgrass and I were forced to flee.

Whlie we ran away from the territory, the storm rages on. It seemed to be a rather randomly moving tempest, without any sign of direction. We had noticed a funnel forming in the sky above us, but thought nothing of it. That same night, Stormgrass tucked me into a tree and wished me a good night.

The next morning, I woke up to ruins. The forest around me had been destroyed. It was a happy mistake that I survived that night. Upon investigating more, I found my aunt Stormgrass dead, crushed underneath the wieght of a fallen oak. By the time this happened, I was only four moons old.

### Chapter 2- Home?

The next afternoon, after the storm, had been a long one of deep thought. I was truly alone now. It was weird to think that yesterday I was in the kits den, playing moss ball without a care in the world with my best friend Jaykit. Today, however, I was considered an outcast to the clan I once held so dear to my heart.

With my mother being a strict leader and my father and aunt both being deceased, I had nowhere to truly go. I did remember Stormgrass once mentioning a Pumpkin, so I decided to go find him. She had told me stories about how he was the fiercest kittypet, and how he had even fought alongside the clans in their times of need. I sought out to find him.

My mission did not take as long as I initially thought It would be. It took me a while to get there however, since I was still a small and trembling kit. I was lucky to meet a kind elder in my travels, who had provided me with some additional food and encouragement. He even took me all the way to the edge of the two-leg town.

I was reinvigorated with a new sense of hope. Joy tingled in my paws. Finally, I would not be alone! The moment Pumpkin meet me, everything would change!

I found his fence, the one Stormgrass had always described as a bright red. A large, fat, orange tom was laying across it lazily. When approached him, he barely even acknowledged me- his eyes just shifted downward to face the furball that was myself.

”Hello, are you Pumpkin? I’m Blazekit!” I squeaked in my young, joyous voice.

”Yes, I am Pumpkin. How do you know me you meddling clan kit?” The old tom asked, trying to shoo me away from the fence where he laid.

“I knew your mate, Stormgrass! I am her sister’s kit!”

Suddenly, the tom’s demeanor changed, as if I had said a secret code-word. He pushed himself to his paws, his eyes and attention now fully on me. He scanned me with his old and dull blue eyes. He then smiled.

”Where is my sweet Stormgrass?”

”Stormgrass is dead, sir,”

He turned away from me on the fence, turning his back to me. He stood with a cold, rigid posture, signaling with his tail for me to shoo. I still stood there, and refused to leave.

”You have no place here Blazekit. Get out of my sight!” The tom snarled.

I did as told, not wanting to get hurt. I ventured to the end of the town, finding no aid along the way. I soon found another forest, and had soon wondered into a second clan’s territory.

I was soon found by not a hunting patrol, but the clan’s leader. She took me in, and treated me like a king for the three days I spent in that clan. When the full moon came, she used me, a small kit as a sign of peace with another clan. *She used me so it would not have to be one of her own Clan’s kits. I hate Medaowstar for that.*

### Chapter Three- LilacClan

Home. What a vague concept home was to me. Both places I considered home cast me away as if I was nothing. I was just a pawn to everyone. That changed in LilacClan, a newly formed clan in this forest. It turned out all of them were former BranchClan cats, cats who had gotten exiled wrongly even before myself. Both Sandstar and Rainstar seemed like very corrupt leaders.

I took a liking to Cynthia, the leader if the clan. She was the only member of LilacClan who didnt have a suffix, because she felt Cynthiastar was too long. I admired her a lot, only to find out later she was exiled for being one of Stormgrass’s real kits. This was done as a forced way to keep the illusion that Flinchfoot and Stormgrass were really a couple. Rainstar asked Sandstar to exile Cynthia for treasonous activity...

When I became an apprentice, Cynthia took me as her own apprentice, she was impressed by me, I could tell. She challenged me every time we trained. She taught me how to use my emotions to drive myself. She taught me the value of loyalty to a clan. I still believe in loyaly to this day.

During my time in LilacClan, I didn’t make many friends. I was often chastised and disliked by the others, due to Cynthia treating me different. It got worse when she got squished by a fallen tree the day before my warrior ceremony was to be held.

However, she informed me what she had intended to name me. *Blazetail*

This name choice was, when I hunted or fought, my tail was an important part of how I fought. I used my tail for balance, which is a bit odd. I was also one of the best leaders on patrols (even as an apprentice), as my inventive nature allowed for me to make new signals to communicate silently.

Unfortunately, that resourcefulness of mine was never considered. The new leader Fallenstar (originally Fallenspur) named me hastily. He gave me the suffix fur, making my name essentially stoo for my orange pelt. That should have only been one sign for me that I would forever be an outcast here.

After Cynthia’s death, nothing was the same. The clan practically abandoned me, despite being cats just like me. We were all without a home, and soon enough, I was truly homeless. I had wandered off during a border patrol, and I met someone... someone who would change my life forever.

### Chapter 4- Weed

That’s what the clans had dubbed this she-cat. Weed, a large, muscular she-cat. She had a broad and rugged body that would make any cat think she was a tom. Her fur was the color of dust, and her eyes were the color of mud. She was a scar-ridden she-cat, and seemed to take pride in her many scars. I would not have been concerned if I had not seen the shadows that seemed to penatrate most of her body.

She sat in a hollowed out birch tree. It seemed almost as if the tree grew around her rather than before her. The trees branches were twisted and decaying. It seemed fitting for such a hideous looking she-cat

*Work in Progress*