Crowfeather's Trial

“What about Kestrelflight’s vision?” Onestar’s voice came from his den underneath the Tallrock, and a heartbeat later the Clan leader emerged.

Crowfeather felt a heavy, sinking feeling in his belly. He could see that Onestar felt no friendliness toward the ThunderClan cats. The WindClan leader was looking at Bramblestar with an expression as icy as the leaf-bare wind that swept over the moor.

I don’t regret telling Jayfeather the truth… but I don’t think Onestar sees it my way. He’s not going to make this easy for Bramblestar. And Bramblestar hasn’t been a leader for very long. He might not know how to handle this.

Crowfeather stared at the ThunderClan leader. He was facing Onestar with a calm confidence that must surely have impressed the older cat.

Crowfeather took a pace or two closer to the Tallrock as Onestar gave the smallest possible dip of his head toward Bramblestar. “Greetings,” he mewed coldly.

The ThunderClan leader lowered his head respectfully. “Greetings, Onestar,” he began. “I’ve come to discuss what Jayfeather told me about the vision. I understand that you haven’t handled the stoats at your end of the tunnels, as you said you would, and you might need some help.”

Onestar twitched his whiskers irritably and exchanged a glance with Harespring. “I’m not sure where you got that idea,” he responded. “WindClan is doing just fine. We are coping with the threat ourselves.”

Bramblestar blinked in surprise and cast a confused look at Crowfeather. “That’s not what I was told.”

Crowfeather felt like he’d been dipped in freezing-cold water as he looked from Bramblestar to his own leader. He wished he could tell Bramblestar that he shared his surprise. He had known Onestar wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about accepting ThunderClan’s help, but he hadn’t thought he would outright deny that there was a problem.

That means the Clans won’t work together… which means the stoats might never be defeated. And that would leave WindClan vulnerable to whatever was being foretold in Kestrelflight’s vision.

Crowfeather’s neck fur prickled with frustration.

Does Onestar have bees in his brain?

Worse, his Clanmates were about to find out that he had gone behind their leader’s back. If anything could make me more unpopular, it would be that.

“One of your own warriors asked for a meeting with Jayfeather, to tell him—” Bramblestar began, only to have Onestar interrupt him.

“Of course, Bramblestar, you don’t understand this yet,” Onestar meowed, giving Bramblestar the kind of haughty look he might have given to a misbehaving apprentice, “because you’re a very new leader. But you need to learn that ordinary warriors don’t know everything. To get at the truth,” he continued with a pointed look at Crowfeather, “one must ask the Clan leader, and I’m telling you quite clearly that we don’t need help. Firestar would have understood that, but alas… he’s gone.”

Crowfeather winced at the mention of the previous ThunderClan leader. That’s hardly fair to Bramblestar. What cat could compare to Firestar?

Bramblestar’s amber eyes lit with anger, yet his voice was even as he replied. “If there are still stoats in the tunnels, they’ll eventually try to establish territory at our end. The threat must be contained for both our sakes. Arguing about it is just wasting time. There’s no reason our Clans can’t work together.”

Onestar’s mouth twisted in mockery. “You’re a young cat, but you’re already so hard of hearing! So I’ll say it again, as clearly as I can: WindClan deals with WindClan’s own problems. We don’t need ThunderClan’s meddling.”

“Meddling!” Lionblaze broke in, digging his claws into the ground. “I’ve heard you were pleased enough to have us meddle when Mudclaw led his rebellion.”

Bramblestar glared at his warrior. “Be quiet!” he snapped.

Crowfeather suddenly felt some cat’s gaze boring into him. He turned to see Jayfeather sitting at the edge of the group of cats, his blind blue eyes fixed on him. As he met that compelling stare, hardly able to believe that Jayfeather couldn’t see him, the ThunderClan medicine cat rose to his paws, swishing his tail angrily.

“If WindClan wants to deal with WindClan’s problems, fine,” he hissed. “We should leave now. We tried.”

“But it’s not that easy,” Bramblestar responded patiently. “If whatever is in the tunnels is a threat, it’s a threat to both Clans.” Turning to Onestar, he added, “You have the right to make decisions for your Clan, but no right to make decisions that will endanger mine.”