Nightbriar's Breaking Point

This was it. She has finally had enough.

A black tabby she-cat with stunning purple eyes prowled close to the ground. The full moon showed high in the sky, outlining the world with its faint light. The clan was off at The Gathering, which Nightbriar was never allowed to attend.

Anger bubbled in her chest. The clan all treated her like some sort of monster. They blamed her for the crimes her mother committed, despite Nightbriar never even interacting with her.  That was all about to end tonight.

She crept through the pine forest, keeping low in case there were any stragglers from The Gathering. Her breath showed in the cold air. Leaf-bare was slowly coming to an end. She made sure to avoid patches of snow that still laid on the ground.

During conversations Nightbriar had overheard around camp, she knew of the sightings of Hemlockstar in the nearby Twolegplace. That was her destination. She would confront her mother, and find out why she had left her daughter to suffer in the shadow of all the evil deeds she'd committed.

The journey to the city was easy. There were no cats around. There wasn't even any prey-scent nor monsters on the Thunderpath. It was almost as if StarClan was clearing the way for her.

As Nightbriar leaped over the fence bordering the city, she instantly spotted a mean-looking tabby digging through a round log filled with Twoleg waste.

"Excuse me!" She called.

The tabby instantly fluffed out her fur, hissing, "This food is mine!"

"Don't worry. I'm not here to steal your food. I just have a question for you." Nightbriar forced her voice to sound soft and sincere.

"What is it then? I don't have all night!" The stranger's green eyes sparked with annoyance.

"Have you heard of a cat named Hemlockstar?"

The tabby's eyes widened in shock. "You mean Hemlock? She lives in the alleyway a little farther down the road. Be careful, she's very dangerous." The tabby shuddered. 

Nightbriar briskly nodded. "Thank you." She turned and started making her way down the road as the other she-cat had directed. The strong scent of cats filled her senses. There must be a group nearby.

She turned a corner, following where the scent trail started getting stronger. She glanced up, I'm awe of what she saw. In front of her lay rows of boxes and the strong scent of rotting food. Nightbriar curled her nose in disgust.

"Who are you?" A voice grumbled in the darkness.

Nightbriar stood up straight and puffed out her chest.

"I'm looking for Hemlock."

"And what makes you think Hemlock wants to see you?" Two pale blue eyes glared at her from the darkness.

"She is my mother. I came to speak to her." Nightbriar had to spit the word 'mother' out.

Out of the shadows, a gray-and-black tabby she-cat appeared. Her gaze was cold.

"Well, here I am."

Nightbriar narrowed her eyes. "You're Hemlockstar?" 

The black tabby nodded. "And you must be Nightkit." 

"It's Nightbriar now!" She spat, her ears flattening to her head. "You'd know that had you not murdered my father and been exiled before I'd even been weaned!"

Hemlock sat down and started grooming herself, licking a paw and passing it over her ear. "I suppose the clan told you what I'd done?" 

"They didn't just tell me. I've lived a life of pure isolation, hatred, and distrust because of you!" Nightbriar hissed furiously. "Because of you, I was treated as some monster! I was never allowed a nest inside the dens with my clanmates. I always ate alone! I had to train myself to hunt and fight because no cat wanted to mentor me." As memories flooded her mind, pain split her heart in two. She looked away from her mother, blinking away the tears that formed in her eyes. "I was only given a warrior name so the other clans wouldn't question why I was still an apprentice." 

Hemlock just stared at her expressionless. "Cry me a river, kit. If you came here expecting me to give a rat's ass, you were wrong." 

Those words seemed to stab Nightbriar right in the chest. 

"But... you're my mother. You're supposed to care. What mother doesn't care about her kits!?" Nightbriar stared at her mother in complete shock and astonishment. 

"Perhaps a mother who wasn't the mother to her kit, and never cared about them, to begin with," Hemlock grunted.

Nightbriar felt as if the ground was cracking beneath her. She willed her legs to bear her weight. "What are you implying?" She whispered. 

"I'm not your mother, Nightbriar. I never cared about you. I posed as your birth-giver because your father cheated on me with some weakling from SkyClan!" Hemlock ended her words with a snarl composed of pure hatred. 

Nightbriar stood still as stone, shock rendering her speechless. The tears she'd blinked away were back in the form of a waterfall, begging to be released and blurring her vision.

Hemlock took Nightbriar's silence as an opportunity to continue. "I found out Crowstripe was cheating on me two moons before your birth. It started with simply smelling SkyClan scent on his pelt. But one night I followed him out of camp and caught both of them." Anger flashed in Hemlock's blue eyes. "I made him promise to never see her again, which he did. He was a lying coward. It was by complete coincidence that I checked up on him while that pretty SkyClan she-cat was in labor." 

Hemlock paused, unsheathing her claws and stabbing them into the rocky ground. She drew her claws across the concrete, creating a painful hissing sound that caused Nightbriar to wince.

"It was the coldest night of leaf-bare. Heatherfrost, that stupid little weakling, decided it would be best to crawl to ShadowClan when she started going into labor outside of her camp. It was obvious something had gone wrong. Your father eventually scented me and begged me to fetch a medicine cat.

I refused. After all, he cheated on me with that sorry excuse of a cat. I forced him to watch her slowly die. He deserved that pain after all the pain he caused me!" 

The more Hemlock spoke, the more pure, uncontrollable rage consumed Nightbriar.

"You let MY MOTHER DIE!?" She spat.

Hemlock showed no remorse. "Your mother and one of the tiny newborn kittens she had given birth to. I let your father take you back to camp because you resembled him enough to pass off as my and his daughter." 

"My father followed all your demands. Why did you kill him too?" Nightbriar's voice cracked.

"He tried sneaking you to SkyClan. That coward." 

At this point, all of Nightbriar's emotions were becoming too much to bear. She began to see red.

"You are a monster!" she screeched, leaping at Hemlock. The black tabby was caught off-guard and fell heavily into a large hard box filled with Twoleg rubbish, hitting her head. Hemlock quickly got to her paws stumblingly. However, she was too slow for Nightbriar, who pinned her down, moving faster than a fox.

As she stood over the cat she had believed to be her mother, Nightbriar felt nothing but pity. This cat was going to die, and nobody would even mourn her. By now, Hemlock's head was bleeding heavily, and her eyes were clouded and confused. 

"I hope you rot in the deepest, darkest pits of the Dark Forest for all you've done," Nightbriar spat. She took a deep breath and clamped her jaws around Hemlock's throat, slowly adding more force, wanting Hemlock to suffer.

Hemlock started to struggle, but the wound on her head was disorienting her. As Nightbriar began to taste blood, Hemlock let out a gargling noise. After several more moments, Nightbriar snapped her neck and she fell still.

Nightbriar rose, glaring down at the body of her mortal enemy. She spat blood out of her mouth.

"Goodbye Hemlock. May you rest in peace," she sneered. The pretty black she-cat glanced around, her lavender eyes cautious. She bent down, grabbed Hemlock's scruff, and dragged the stiff body to the edge of a nearby Thunderpath. After checking that the coast was clear, Nightbriar dragged the still-warm body into the middle of the rancid-smelling Twoleg path, before running off. 

Monster food is what you deserve to become. A cat as evil as you doesn't deserve a proper burial.

A roar sounded in the distance. Nightbriar crouched close to the ground, anticipation bubbling in her belly. A giant monster barrelled past, its eyes shining as bright as two suns. She flinched and heard a loud crunch and splat before the monster disappeared into the distance. Her lavender eyes shined with satisfaction as she looked up and saw the corpse, which was now no more than a giant red puddle. 

"Finally. Half of my revenge has been achieved." She spoke aloud. "But I still have more grudges to settle and more blood to spill." She whipped around and made her way back towards ShadowClan, adrenaline pulsing through her veins, causing her heart to pound loudly in her ears. By now, the clan would be back in their nests, sleeping soundly. They would have no idea she was coming.

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The ShadowClan camp was still and quiet. All Nightbriar could hear was the pounding of her heart. She had no clue what had caused her mind to become set on this decision, but at this point, she didn't care. All she knew was the fact that her clan had betrayed her. They played her out as being a monster her entire life. It was time for the humiliation to end.

Nightbriar had a plan in place. As the sun slowly began to rise, to laid in her nest outside of the Warriors den, pretending to sleep. As the day began and her clanmates went on about their daily lives, she pretended nothing had changed. She took the harassment and belittlement from her peers.

By nightfall, she set her plan in motion. She snuck into the medicine den, moving slowly. The medicine cat was snoring lightly and didn't twitch a whisker when Nightbriar collected their entire collection of death berries.

Careful to not get the juices on her fur, Nightbriar went for the fresh-kill pile which was stocked for the first time in moons. She took the best pieces of prey and smeared berry juice all over the fur and feathers, and for good measure, sprinkled a few whole berries into the bellies of the prey.

By dawn, everything was set in place. Nightbriar glanced around her camp one last time before running off to lie in wait.

Before the first patrols, the clan gathered to feast on their stocked fresh-kill. To Nightbriar's satisfaction, the medicine cat was the first to finish their meal, and they went back to their den as soon as they finished.

It didn't take long for cats all over the clearing to start convulsing. A brown tom ran into the medicine den despite his own heaving, and weakly yowled that the medicine cat was dead.

Without a medicine cat, the clan dropped like flies. Still weak from the famish of leaf-bare, the clan wasn't able to fight off the poison. 

By nightfall, the camp was littered with vomit and bodies. Nightbriar scavenged, looking for any survivors. The ShadowClan camp reeked of death. She silently thanked StarClan that there were no kits or young apprentices. They didn't cause her any harm. 

As she looked through every den and corner, she didn't find a single survivor. Not even the leader, who had just received nine lives, won the battle against the death berries. 

Feeling satisfied, Nightbriar left her home for the last time and headed for the city.