River Of Fire

Before any cat could react, Tawnypelt raced across the camp and came to a halt in front of Yarrowleaf. Her claws were out, with one paw raised to strike. For a heartbeat she froze, as if she had just realized that Yarrowleaf was expecting kits. Then she lowered her paw, but her gaze still glittered angrily. “This is all your fault!” she spat. “You and the other deserters. It’s because of you that ShadowClan fell!”

The other ShadowClan cats in the camp also rose to their paws. Snowbird and Scorchfur bounded across to Yarrowleaf and stood beside her, supporting her. Violetshine remembered that she was their kit. Juniperclaw padded up and touched noses with his littermates, Sleekwhisker and Strikestone. More of the lost Clan gathered around and stood in shocked silence, waiting for what would happen.

“Things were so bad with the rogues,” Yarrowleaf began hastily, as if she was desperate to explain. “Spikefur, who was my mentor, is dead, and I realized that I wanted to come home to ShadowClan to have my kits.”

“But this isn’t ShadowClan anymore.” Leafstar’s voice joined the debate. “It’s SkyClan.”

Every cat turned to see Leafstar standing at the entrance of her den in the hollow cedar tree. Calm and unhurried, she jumped down and padded over to the group of cats surrounding the newcomers.

Before she reached them, Tawnypelt broke away and raced across to confront her. “Don’t let them in!” she meowed. “They’re traitors who attacked and killed their own Clanmates. They’re unforgiveable! They—”

Leafstar raised a paw to silence Tawnypelt. As she joined the group, Yarrowleaf thrust her way through the cats who surrounded her and stood trembling in front of the SkyClan leader.

“Please take us in,” she begged. “We’ve nowhere else to go, and we have kin here.”

“You should have thought of that before you betrayed your Clanmates,” Tawnypelt growled.

“No—stop.” Violetshine hadn’t noticed Rowanclaw approaching, but now he stood beside his mate and curled his tail across her shoulders. “Whatever Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker have done in the past, I forgive them. It will do no good for Clans to hold grudges. That’s a sure way to drag every cat into trouble again. We should—”

Rowanclaw suddenly broke off and gave his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks. He had obviously just realized that he was making a speech like a Clan leader. With a guilty look at Leafstar, he added, “Of course, this is SkyClan now. It’s your decision about whether these cats are welcome or not.”

Leafstar stepped forward and gazed at the two newcomers with narrowed eyes. “Give me one reason why I should trust you,” she meowed, “after everything that’s happened.”

Violetshine could hear several cats murmuring agreement, while beside Yarrowleaf, Snowbird and Scorchfur exchanged anxious looks.

“We’re ready to dedicate ourselves to SkyClan,” Sleekwhisker assured Leafstar, her eyes wide and pleading. “We’ll do whatever we need to prove ourselves.”

Leafstar seemed unimpressed. “It seems you were willing to dedicate yourselves to ShadowClan, not to SkyClan,” she mewed with a sniff. “And I’m not even sure I believe that, if what I understand about you is true. You did leave ShadowClan to join Darktail’s group?”

The two she-cats nodded, looking wretched.

“Are you aware,” Leafstar went on, her tone suddenly as icy as a wind in leaf-bare, “that before Darktail came to the lake, he wormed his way into SkyClan, posing as our friend? And that then he and his rogues attacked us in the dead of night and drove us out of the gorge—out of our home?”

Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf exchanged horrified glances. This was the first they had heard of SkyClan’s story.

“We were left homeless,” Leafstar went on inexorably, “wandering for moon after moon, searching for the other Clans. It’s only recently that we arrived here at the lake and were given this territory. Have you any idea how many cats died because of Darktail’s treachery?”

The two cats shook their head. “No,” Sleekwhisker responded.

“Too many,” Leafstar meowed grimly. “And Darktail is responsible for the deaths of many of your ShadowClan Clanmates, too. I’m not sure I could ever trust a cat who chose to leave a Clan to follow Darktail. Why in the name of StarClan would you do that?”

“I was young and stupid!” Yarrowleaf wailed. “I blamed Rowanstar for things that weren’t his fault. Now I know my life would have been better if I’d been loyal to my Clan.”

“I thought our leader was weak,” Sleekwhisker added simply as Leafstar’s cold gaze turned to her.

Her words brought a gasp of outrage from Tawnypelt and some of the others, but Rowanclaw looked unsurprised, dipping his head in acceptance.

For a few heartbeats, silence fell. Violetshine felt herself holding her breath as she waited for Leafstar’s decision. I don’t know whether I want them to go or stay.