Bramblestar’s Storm

Suddenly aware of pushing and growls of anger behind him, Bramblestar whipped around to see the WindClan cats jostling his Clanmates. Cherryfall slipped on the wet pebbles and almost lost her balance. Bramblestar felt his neck fur rise and knew that truce or no truce, a fight was about to break out. What is WindClan trying to prove?

“Please, Onestar,” he mewed, struggling to keep his voice steady, “take your warriors on ahead. With the water so high, we don’t want any accidents.”

Onestar dipped his head. “Thank you, Bramblestar.” Waving his tail to his warriors, he added, “Follow me.”

Muttered protests rose from the ThunderClan cats as the WindClan cats trotted along the lakeshore.

“If they want trouble, we can give it to them,” Thornclaw snarled.

“Don’t be a mouse-brain!” Squirrelflight hissed at him. “Strike the first blow, and we’d be the Clan who broke the truce. Beside, respect costs nothing, and we are on their territory.”

While he waited for the WindClan cats to draw ahead, Bramblestar spotted two sets of eyes gleaming from farther up the slope, on the other side of the border. He peered through the half light, but he couldn’t make out who the eyes belonged to.

“Daisy!” he called, turning back to his cats.

The cream-furred she-cat slid between her Clanmates and padded up to him. She didn’t often attend Gatherings, and now she looked startled to be called forward.

“Look up there,” Bramblestar murmured, pointing with his tail to where the eyes still shone. “Do you know who that is?”

Daisy took a breath, tasting the air. “Smoky!” she exclaimed, naming the cat who had been her friend when they both lived at the horseplace. Bramblestar couldn’t count the moons since she had last seen him, but she clearly hadn’t forgotten him. “Hey, Smoky, it’s me!” she yowled, raising her voice.

The eyes vanished abruptly.

Daisy’s tail drooped. “I wonder why he didn’t want to talk to me.”

“I wouldn’t let it worry you,” Bramblestar responded, resting his tail on Daisy’s shoulder. “Seeing a whole crowd of us has probably put him off.”

“I guess so,” Daisy agreed.

Since the WindClan cats had vanished into the twilight, Bramblestar led his cats across the marshy ground until they reached the tree-bridge that joined the lakeshore to the island. The water was so high that waves lapped the bottom of the trunk. Cherryfall trotted across first without even looking down at the lake, and the rest of the patrol streamed after her. Bramblestar kept a close eye on the apprentices, but after Snowpaw’s dunking they all took great care in placing their paws in the center of the tree trunk, even though they were quivering with excitement again.

Bramblestar shouldered his way into the lead as they forced their way through the bushes into the clearing in the middle of the island. The wide-reaching branches of the Great Oak cast slender black shadows across the moonlit ground. The other three Clans had already arrived, circling like fish in the open space.

The WindClan cats huddled together at one side, casting hostile glances at the other Clans as if they didn’t trust any cat to abide by the truce.

“At least it’s not just us that they have problems with,” Brackenfur murmured into Bramblestar’s ear.

“I suppose that’s some comfort,” Bramblestar whispered back.

Glancing around the clearing, he realized that WindClan was not the only Clan looking ill at ease. ShadowClan seemed restless, and divided into little muttering groups rather than standing together. Bramblestar wondered if Blackstar was too old and frail to pull his Clan together after the Great Battle, and whether some cats were already looking forward to a younger, stronger leader.

“What’s going on with RiverClan?” Squirrelflight muttered.

The usually sleek-furred cats looked nervous and ruffled as they clustered around their leader, Mistystar. Some of them were limping, or favoring paws with visibly ripped claws. What in the name of StarClan have they been doing to end up so battered? Bramblestar’s curiosity grew as he realized that it was the strongest warriors who showed most signs of hard, physical effort.

“Something’s wrong, that’s for sure,” he replied.

Mistystar left her Clanmates to thread her way across the clearing and jump into the branches of the Great Oak. Bramblestar realized it was time to begin the Gathering. He thrust a path through the crowd of cats and joined Mistystar in the tree.

Squirrelflight followed him to sit with the other deputies on the roots of the oak, while the medicine cats gathered nearby. Onestar jumped up into the tree beside Bramblestar, but Blackstar remained on the ground. Bramblestar tensed. Was the ShadowClan leader going to do this at every Gathering?