Crowfeather's Trial

“Great StarClan!” Crowfeather wished they weren’t having this confrontation at a Gathering. If we were anywhere else, I could claw that smug look off his silly face! But I’d start a war if I did that here. “You dense furball! How many more times do I have to say this?” he meowed, twitching his whiskers irritably. “We were not spying on ThunderClan! We were looking for Nightcloud.”

Berrynose shrugged, disbelief evident in every hair on his pelt. “WindClan promises don’t mean much to me.” Mutterings of suspicion came from many of the other cats around, while yet others remained silent, merely looking bewildered.

Jayfeather, the blind ThunderClan medicine cat, was one of those who looked unconvinced by Crowfeather’s claim. Crowfeather wondered whether he really believed they had been spying, or whether it was all part of his usual hostility toward his father and his half brother in another Clan. As Crowfeather understood it, Jayfeather could even be hostile to the cats he liked, so it was hard to tease out what he was actually feeling.

Where does he get that from?

Now Jayfeather spoke up. “Spying or not, why did Nightcloud and Breezepelt go into the tunnels in the first place?”

“I can answer that,” Onestar replied, to Crowfeather’s relief.

Glancing across the clearing, he could see Leafpool standing beside Jayfeather, and for a moment Crowfeather’s gaze locked with hers. It was clear from the look in her eyes that she too was concerned about the rising tension between their two Clans.

Even though it’s been moons and moons since we were together, I can still tell what Leafpool is thinking.

“It was because of the stoats,” Onestar continued. “And because Kestrelflight had a vision. Kestrelflight, tell them about it.”

The gaze of every cat turned toward the young WindClan medicine cat. Kestrelflight rose to his paws, looking slightly nervous at the prospect of addressing the whole Gathering. “I saw…,” he began. His voice croaked as if he had a piece of fresh-kill lodged in his throat, and he cleared it before he continued. “I saw a great wave of water,” he mewed. “It swept out of the tunnels and drowned WindClan’s territory. Clearly it was a warning.”

For a moment an uneasy silence fell on all the Clans, the cats exchanging dismayed glances. From the surprise apparent in their eyes, Crowfeather could tell that Kestrelflight hadn’t even shared his vision with the other medicine cats. Perhaps that’s good, he considered. Onestar is so suspicious of the other Clans and their motives right now.

Then Bramblestar rose to his paws and padded along his branch until he was visible to every cat in the clearing. His amber gaze was fixed on Onestar. “Does WindClan intend to share any information with ThunderClan?” he demanded. “This vision wasn’t just a warning for you. It affects ThunderClan, too, because some of the tunnels lead into our territory. Why wasn’t I told about this?”

Onestar drew his lips back in the beginning of a snarl. “It was a WindClan vision to warn WindClan,” he snapped. “Does ThunderClan need to stick its nose into everything?”

“I’m not trying to meddle,” Bramblestar responded, obviously struggling hard to hold on to his patience. “But we need to work together to take care of the threat before any more cats get hurt. It seems to me that the vision referred to the stoats that killed Nightcloud,” he added. “Is that what you believe?”

Onestar responded with no more than an annoyed lash of his tail, but Kestrelflight spoke up, with a respectful dip of his head to the ThunderClan leader. “Yes, that’s what we think.”

“And you needn’t worry, Bramblestar,” Onestar meowed, contempt in his voice. “WindClan is putting together a plan to drive the stoats out.”

“I am worried,” Bramblestar retorted. “We’d noticed that prey had been getting scarce around the tunnel entrances, but we knew nothing about the stoats until Berrynose’s patrol rescued your cats from them. Sharing information would have been friendly, don’t you think?” When Onestar didn’t reply to his provocation, he went on, “I believe ThunderClan and WindClan should work together. Two Clans are stronger than one.”

Crowfeather remembered his thoughts about the vision… how he, too, had wondered whether it implied that the Clans should be working together. It felt strange to agree with the ThunderClan leader over his own, but he couldn’t help it. He spotted Leafpool nodding in agreement, but a moment later Lionblaze rose to his paws. “How can we work with WindClan when I was nearly killed in the Dark Forest by a WindClan cat?” he demanded.