Swiftpaw's Chance: Chapter 10
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Later, Dogscar won’t remember anything but the need to get to Snowkit, and flashes of images.
Flash. Snowkit’s eyes widening in terror as he looks up at the hawk.
Flash . Brackenfur, mouth open in a snarl or a scream, leaping through the air in his peripheral vision.
Flash. Nothing but brown feathers and darkness as Dogscar sinks his claws and teeth into the hawk’s body.
Flash . Brightpaw and Cloudtail’s faces, looking up at him exactly the same way Snowkit had as the hawk struggles back into the sky.
Flash. Dogscar hits the ground—he isn’t sure if he let go, or the bird fell, or other warriors dragged it down, but somehow he’s in the dirt and the hawk is thrashing beside him.
And now: Flash. Dogscar stands, chest heaving, over Snowkit. The small tom has three bloody lines on one side of him, a fourth on the other—the hawk had him, just for a second, but it was long enough.
Someone says Cinderpelt’s name. Someone says the word Moonstone . Dogscar’s blood is thrumming in his ears, and distantly, he remembers. Cinderpelt isn’t here, but he is. He knows what to do. He can help Snowkit.
“Bring him to the medicine den. Quickly,” he says, in a voice that doesn’t sound like his own.
He runs ahead to the den, scrapes through Cinderpelt’s stores to find the cobwebs and marigold. By the time Brackenfur lays Snowkit down in a nest, he’s already got a poultice in the making. Dogscar pushes moss toward Brackenfur before anything else.
“Slow the bleeding. I’m almost ready.”
Brackenfur nods with fear in his eyes and starts pressing the moss to Snowkit’s wounds. Dogscar spits out some of the chewed marigold leaves just as Speckletail shoves her way into the nursery.
“My son!” she wails. “Snowkit! Please, please, I can’t lose another kit!”
“I’m doing my best,” Dogscar tells her, as firmly as he can. Everything still sounds muted and distant, and he isn’t sure how he’s speaking so calmly when inside, all he can see is Snowkit’s blood, but it’s happening.
“Cloudtail, Brightpaw,” he says, when he notices their faces behind Speckletail. “Keep everyone out until we’re done. Please.”
Gently, the pair of them guide a hysterical Speckletail out, and Dogscar grabs for some thyme, tossing it carelessly after them. “Have her eat that!” he calls, already turning back to Snowkit and starting to apply some of the poultice.
“Chew up some more marigold for me, quickly,” he tells Brackenfur as he adds the cobwebs.
For a heartbeat, Dogscar is afraid the bleeding won’t stop, that they’ll sit in this den frantically trying to save Snowkit until he dies because they aren’t medicine cats . But then no more blood drips free and Dogscar breathes, takes more of the poultice, keeps going.
By the time it’s over, Dogscar’s paws are sticky with kit blood and chewed leaves, but Snowkit is breathing and alive, and that’s the most he could ask for.
“Speckletail,” he calls, softly, and the old queen barrels in in half a second.
“Snowkit!” she wails, and he presses a paw to her chest to keep her from going to him.
“Gently,” he says, lowering his paw. “You don’t want to reopen his wounds.”
Speckletail slumps a bit and nods. When she moves forward, it’s much slower, and she gently touches her nose to her son’s before dragging most of another nest over to him. She lays down, curled around him but not quite touching.
Brackenfur hovers beside her with a questioning look. At Speckletail’s nod, he sits by Snowkit’s head. Neither of them says anything; they just watch the rise and fall of the small kit’s flanks.
“Dogscar,” Cloudtail says quietly. He’s standing in the entrance to the den. “Is...Is Snowkit...”
“He’s alright. For now. I'm not a medicine cat, but I stopped the bleeding, so hopefully he’ll be okay until Cinderpelt comes back tomorrow.”
Cloudtail’s shoulders slump in relief and he beckons to Dogscar. With a last anxious glance over his shoulder at Snowkit, Dogscar follows him into the sun.
“Snowkit’s okay right now,” he tells the Clan, who are still gathered in loose, worried clumps outside the den.
There’s an audible sigh of relief. Dogscar’s eyes catch on the hawk’s body, behind the crowd, and pushes through to it. There’s blood in the dirt, a small trail leading to the medicine den and spatters of it all around the hawk. Feathers and tufts of fur of all colors drift in a light breeze.
Dogscar narrows his eyes. “Was anyone else hurt by the hawk?” he asks, without turning around.
“Brackenfur had blood on his back,” Goldenflower says.
Dogscar blinks for just a few seconds too long. Of course. He turns around “Anyone else?”
Dustpelt shakes his head. “Sandstorm and I jumped on its back, and we all stayed clear of the talons.”
Dogscar nods and head back into the den.
“Brackenfur,” he says, the second he ducks inside.
At the tone of his voice, the other warrior hunches slightly. From this angle, without all the panic and rush of saving Snowkit, Dogscar can see the dark wet patch in a line down Brackenfur’s back. It’s not as long or deep—the hawk must’ve just clipped him as he was saving Snowkit.
“You should’ve told me,” he hisses, fetching yet more marigold and starting to chew it into a poultice. “What if I hadn’t thought to ask if anyone else was hurt?”
“It’s not that bad,” Brackenfur says, and then hisses a little at the sting as Dogscar applies the marigold. “I would’ve been okay.”
Dogscar just hums judgmentally and Brackenfur hangs his head.
The cobwebs go on, binding the poultice in place and sealing the wound closed, and Dogscar steps back outside again.
“Brackenfur’s okay, too,” he announces. “Mouse-brain thought it was a good idea to try and hide that he got hurt.”
There’s a low chuckle that’s mostly made of relief that ripples through the Clan. Cloudtail taps Dogscar on the shoulder with his tail, leading him to the side, with Brightpaw and Longtail.
“You did really good, with Snowkit,” Longtail says quietly. “Better than any of us could have. If you weren’t here...”
“We would’ve lost him,” Brightpaw finishes.
Cloudtail tips his head. “You sure you’re not a medicine cat? You’re really good at it.”
For the first time, Dogscar falters. He was good. He did save Snowkit—though that thought is huge, and the edges slip away from him. There’s no way he can be responsible for saving cats’ lives. But it wasn’t...it wasn’t awful. And it does, sort of, underneath the residual panic that’s slowly rising now that the immediate threat of death is gone, feel good. To have done that.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says at last. “I’m a warrior. I trained to be a warrior. Maybe if I was like Cinderpelt, and I was still an apprentice, I could do it, but not now .”
“And why not? Littlecloud, of ShadowClan, he was a warrior up until a few moons ago. Nothing wrong with switching duties if you want to,” Longtail tells him.
Dogscar looks away. “I don’t...I don’t want to be a medicine cat.”
“Are you sure?” Brightpaw presses, gently. “You never considered it before, I know, and now that the option is there, and you’re good at it...why not think about it?”
Dogscar just shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t...there’s too much going on right now. I can’t make that decision.”
“You don’t have to. Just think about it, though, at least a little?” Brightpaw asks.
“Yeah,” Dogscar tells her. “Sure.”
“Dogscar!” a smaller voice cries, and he spins to see Sorrelkit racing up to him.
“Hey, Sorrelkit!” he says, with about half as much enthusiasm, but she doesn’t seem to notice. It’s still more excited than he’s been to see her since, well, ever.
“Mama told me you saved Snowkit! From the hawk!” she says, bouncing on her paws. Then she ducks her head. “I didn’t see anything, because I got scared and hid. Rainkit and Sootkit are teasing me, even though they were scared too.”
“What because you were afraid of the hawk?” Dogscar asks. Sorrelkit nods. “Well, here’s a little secret, Sorrelkit. I was scared, too.”
She looks up with gleaming eyes. “ Really ?”
“Absolutely terrified.”
“But...but you’re so brave! You’re only scared of dogs. Really really brave cats aren’t scared of hardly anything!” she says, and Dogscar frowns.
“Who told you that?”
“My brothers. They said that if you’re a warrior, you can’t be afraid of anything, ‘cause you have to protect your Clan.”
Dogscar glances over his shoulder at the others and crouches down to be eye level with Sorrelkit. “Let me tell you something, Sorrelkit. Every cat is scared of something. I bet you that every single cat in ThunderClan was really, really scared of that hawk. Do you think when we face another Clan and get ready to go into battle, that we’re scared?”
“‘Course not. You’re warriors, fighting is what you do.”
“We’re terrified when we go to battle, Sorrelkit. We...I’m scared, a lot, of fighting. I was before, but especially now. But here’s the thing: bravery is about doing things even if you’re afraid of them. Only really stupid cats aren’t afraid of anything at all.”
Sorrelkit looks a bit doubtful.
“Fear is what keeps us alive , Sorrelkit. If you get scared alone in the forest, there might be something nearby that’s going to hurt you. It’s your instincts telling you to get ready, if there’s a fight. So if any cat ever tells you that you’re weak for being afraid, you can tell them exactly what I just told you.”
“Okay,” Sorrelkit whispers.
“You’ll make the best warrior someday, Sorrelkit,” Dogscar tells her. “If that’s what you want to do, I mean.”
She nods furiously. “I do! I wanna be the best warrior!”
“Okay. Then you go on back to your mama and your brothers and you tell them what it means to really be a warrior, since they’ve got it so wrong.”
“Okay!” Sorrelkit turns and happily skips her way back to Willowpelt.
Cloudtail, Brightpaw, and Longtail are all staring at Dogscar when he straightens up and turns around.
“What?” he asks.
“That was...that was really sweet of you, to tell Sorrelkit that,” Brightpaw says. “She looks up to you a lot.”
“Really?” Dogscar glances over his shoulder. Sorrelkit is saying something he can’t hear, and bouncing around a lot. Rainkit and Sootkit both try to butt in, and Willowpelt gently shushes them. Dogscar lets himself smile.
“Really. You think she comes up to everyone like that?” Longtail asks.
Dogscar licks at his chest fur a little, suddenly embarrassed. “She’s such a sweet kit, I just kind of assumed...”
Cloudtail snorts. “Nah. She pretty much thinks you’re the greatest cat ever.”
“Oh.” Dogscar doesn’t exactly know what to say to that, just stares at the ground. “She’s a good kit. She’ll make a really good warrior.”
“Yeah,” Cloudtail agrees. “They all will.”
“Even Snowkit?” Dogscar asks.
“Yes,” Brightpaw says, just a little too loudly. “He’s deaf , not, not stupid or anything. Brackenfur works with him a lot, and I can’t hear as well out of this ear anymore-“ she inclines her head towards her injured side- “so I wanted to know what he was coming up with. He’s worked out some simple signals for Snowkit to communicate, basic things, but it’s a start. He can do it if he has the right teacher.”
Dogscar has the vague sense that he was just scolded. “I didn’t...sorry, I didn’t know Brackenfur had figured anything like that out.”
Brightpaw waves her tail dismissively. “It’s fine, I’m just...no cat thought I could still be a warrior you know? Blind in one eye. So I want Snowkit to have that chance, too, to prove everyone wrong.”
There’s a short moment where no one seems to know what to say, until Longtail says, “Just wait until Cinderpelt comes back and sees what you did, Dogscar.”
He licks at his chest fur again. “It was-“
“If you say ‘nothing,’ I will sit on you.” Cloudtail warns.
“Nothing?” Dogscar says with a little grin, just because he can.
Cloudtail shoves him onto his side and sits on him, and only then seems to realize what he did.
“Wait, wait, I didn’t...I’m sorry,” he starts, moving to stand.
“Wait, hold on,” Dogscar tells him, frowning at nothing while he takes careful stock of himself. It’s just Cloudtail. There’s no danger, and for once it seems like his brain has actually gotten that message. He’s okay.
“I’m okay,” Dogscar says. “I mean, you’re sitting on me, and you’re fat , but it’s fine.”
“I am not fat! It’s the fur, I’m fluffy!” Cloudtail protests, but there’s genuine relief there, as well.
Dogscar swats at him lightly with a paw and flops on the ground. Yeah. They’re okay. And just wait till Cinderpelt gets back to see it.
-0-0-0-
Most cats, when their new leader and medicine cat return the next day at sunhigh, make for Firestar, to congratulate him. Dogscar goes to catch Cinderpelt as she veers sideways to the medicine den.
“Hi, Dogscar. Anything happen while I was gone?” she asks, and he steps in front of her to stop her from walking.
“Actually, yeah. There was, um, a hawk-“
Cinderpelt’s eyes widen. “A hawk ?”
Before Dogscar can respond or even move, she darts around him and into her den. He chases after her, nearly slamming into her back when she skids to a halt in the entrance.
“Snowkit?”
Dogscar’s heart drops out of his chest. “Is he-“
Snowkit is fine. Or, well, as fine as a kit can be with those wounds. Dogscar breathes a little sigh of relief.
“A hawk tried to pick him up, I jumped on it and Brackenfur got him free—Brackenfur got nicked as well, by the way, but I thought he was okay to go back to the warriors den—and some other cats helped kill it,” he explains.
Cinderpelt nods briskly and immediately starts to check the kit over. “No infection—you did really well, Dogscar. His apprentice ceremony was meant to be any day now, but it’ll have to be delayed until he heals.”
“Right,” Dogscar says. “Do you thi-“
From outside the den, the boom of Firestar’s voice cuts him off. “All cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!”
“He’s going to assign a deputy,” Cinderpelt says. “Speckletail, are you coming?”
The spotted queen freezes, looking down at her kit and back out at camp.
“You don’t have to. No cat would blame you for staying here. It was just a question,” Cinderpelt says gently.
Speckletail curls her tail around Snowkit protectively. “I...I’ll stay here with him.”
Cinderpelt nods and goes to join the Clan. Dogscar follows her and makes a beeline for Brightpaw and Cloudtail, sitting down just as the last cats settle in.
“The time has come to appoint a new deputy,” Firestar says. He lifts his chin towards the sky, towards StarClan. “I say these words before StarClan, that our warrior ancestors may hear and approve my choice. Whitestorm will be the new deputy of ThunderClan.”
A pleased murmur ripples through ThunderClan, and the cats closest to Whitestorm nudge him cheerfully in congratulations. The white warrior stands and pads forward to the Highrock.
“Firestar, cats of ThunderClan,” he says, dipping his head to each in turn, “I never expected to be given this honor. I swear I will do all I can to serve you.”
Dogscar breaks into a smile. Beside him, Brightpaw is practically vibrating as she watches her former mentor. As one, ThunderClan lifts their heads in a wild cheer for their new deputy.
“Whitestorm! Whitestorm! Whitestorm!”
When their voices subside, Whitestorm gracefully accepts congratulations from many of the warriors. Brightpaw darts up to talk to him, and Cloudtail and Dogscar hang back. Dogscar likes Whitestorm well enough, but they were definitely never as close as him and Brightpaw.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to pick a deputy who’s way older than you? Whitestorm is a senior warrior,” Dogscar whispers.
Cloudtail shrugs. “Maybe Firestar expects to run through all of his lives really fast.”
Dogscar shoves at him playfully. “Don’t say that!”
In front of them, Firestar jumps down from the Highrock. Dogscar watches his eyes slide to Brightpaw, and then to him. He tries his best not to frown at his leader, but Firestar looks away before he can really think about it, padding over to the elder’s den.
Dogscar nods after him, looking at Cloudtail. “What’s he doing?”
“Talking to the elders?” Cloudtail asks. “Checking in on all his Clanmates now that he’s leader? I dunno.”
But something about the way Firestar had looked at him and Brightpaw made Dogscar think it had something to do with them. Which was probably stupid. Still, it wasn’t like there was any harm in going over and asking , right? Firestar wasn’t Bluestar. He might not like Dogscar, but he wasn’t going to be cruel.
“Hey,” Dogscar says as he pokes his head into the elder’s den.
As every cat’s head swings to look at him, any reassurance he’d managed to give himself on the way over. He is about to just bow out of the conversation immediately when Firestar brightens somewhat.
“Dogscar! Actually, we were just talking about you. And, er, Lostface,” Firestar’s face twists at the name.
It’s been so long since Dogscar’s been around anyone who used Brightpaw’s awful warrior name—most of the Clan seems to be under the unspoken agreement not to—and he corrects his leader automatically.
“She prefers Brightpaw, actually.”
Firestar nodded. “Exactly. No cat should be forced to choose between a cruel warrior name or none at all. Being made to have an apprentice name long after you’ve grown up is...it’s not right.”
Dogscar tilts his head. Firestar’s eyes have gone slightly far away, like he’s thinking of something or someone else, not Brightpaw. “Well,” he says at last, “It’s not like you can change it. Bluestar named her already.”
“But that’s just it!” Firestar says, gesturing towards One-eye. “There’s a ceremony to change a cat’s warrior name, if it no longer fits them. I was asking One-eye about it, actually, so I could change your names back. If you wanted, that is. I know you...embraced yours, more than Lostface. Brightpaw.”
A new name? Dogscar thinks about it. Being Swift again. It would be nice, maybe. But Dogscar isn’t sure he’s ready to lose the reminder of his name—even if Bluestar’s decision was cruel, he can’t argue with all of it. He deserves, at least a bit, to have the reminder of his mistakes.
“What...did you have in mind? If I can ask,” he asks, after a long moment of quiet.
“I was thinking Brightheart, for her bravery, her spirit. And for you, something like Swiftclaw, maybe? But it’s up to you, it’s your name.”
Dogscar gives him a wry smile. “Isn’t it the leaders job to pick the name?”
“Exceptions have been made before. I would gladly let you pick your name, after everything you’ve had to go through to get it.”
He sits for a moment, mulling over the idea. Swiftclaw. It’s a good name. As an apprentice he might have hoped for something like it. But it removes everything about the dog attack, and even if Dogscar thinks the others would probably approve of that, he just...he can’t. He made a mistake and he changed his and Brightpaw’s lives forever, it doesn’t feel right that it should just go away .
“I...I’d like to keep the -scar suffix, actually, if you don’t mind,” he says quietly. “Bluestar was wrong about a lot of things, but I still want that reminder. The dog attack changed everything . I can’t just erase that.”
Firestar dipped his head. “Of course, I understand. I’ll talk to Brightpaw now and you two can get your proper ceremony in a little while. Hold your vigil, the way you were supposed to.”
Dogscar nods gratefully and exits the elder’s den before he can get roped into searching for ticks or something.
Him and Brightpaw. With proper warrior names. He sits at the edge of camp for a moment, just thinking about it.
Brightheart and Swiftscar.
Swiftscar .
He likes it.