by Erin Hunter
As Leafstar pressed forward, Waspwhisker and Sparrowpelt appeared; they broke down the nests underneath their paws as they drove two of Dodge’s cats in front of them until their opponents turned tail and fled. Leafstar felt a swift claw-stab of satisfaction that her warriors were working so well together.
“I’m with you, Leafstar,” Rockshade panted from behind her. “What—?”
He broke off with a shriek as the cat leaped out and fastened his claws in his rump. Leafstar spun around and flung herself on the enemy cat, raking her claws down his side. The cat let Rockshade go as he turned to face Leafstar, but before the black tom could scramble to his paws a cream-colored she-cat hurled herself on him. Her lips were drawn back in a snarl as she buried her teeth in Rockshade’s neck. The young black warrior let out a shriek of pain.
Chasing the first cat off with a pawful of claws slashed across his ears, Leafstar turned to battle the cream-colored she-cat. She flung her away from Rockshade and tried to pin her down, but the she-cat wriggled out from under her, slippery as a fish.
“Mange-pelt!” she snarled, baring her teeth at Leafstar.
Leafstar sprang at her, but the she-cat darted to one side, cuffing Leafstar over her head as she did so. Leafstar managed to trip her, and rolled over with her in the ruins of a nest; the she-cat’s hind paws pummeled at her belly. A half-admiring thought slid through Leafstar’s mind: She’s a vicious fighter, just as skilled as a warrior.
Then Rockshade threw himself against the she-cat’s shoulder, knocking her off balance and giving Leafstar the chance to scramble to her paws. She and Rockshade faced the enemy cat side by side. Undaunted, she let out a hiss and leaped right over their heads, to sprint off among the nests.
Leafstar bunched her muscles to spring after her. But before she could move, a nest nearby exploded into fragments and a dark brown tabby tom stalked out. His tail lashed and his fur was bristling as he let out a roar of rage. At the same moment Stick appeared from a gap between two nests and faced him.
“Coward!” the tabby tom spat. “You came skulking into my camp like rats—”
“At least I came myself,” Stick retorted, stalking stiff-legged up to his enemy. “Not like you, Dodge, getting Twolegs to do my dirty work.”
So that’s Dodge, Leafstar thought.
Dodge and Stick leaped at each other, meeting in midair and crashing to the ground in a flailing knot of fur. They almost squashed Egg, who was wrestling with a black-and-white she-cat; he rolled out of the way and leaped up onto one of the sturdier dens. Shrewtooth jumped up beside him and the two warriors balanced there precariously for a couple of heartbeats. Then Shrewtooth spotted a ginger tom sneaking up on Cherrytail, who had emerged from a nearby den and had paused to lick a wound on her side. The young warrior let out a screech; then he and Egg jumped down on top of the ginger tom.
We work together, Leafstar thought, a tiny trickle of warmth penetrating the haze of battle.
Shrieks and growls rose around her; the cat scent was shot through with the reek of blood. Stick and Dodge were still locked together in a vicious, clawing bundle. Dragging her gaze away from them, Leafstar spotted Sharpclaw battling two toms at once, easily holding them off with SkyClan battle moves. Then a gap opened up between two dens, and Leafstar gasped in horror as she spotted the cream-colored she-cat grappling with Billystorm. She had him pinned down; as Leafstar watched she clawed out a pawful of his belly fur.
Leafstar sprang forward to help her Clanmate, but before she reached him a shriek went up from the nursery den. “Please don’t hurt my kits!”
Leafstar spun around to see Coal and Shorty stalking toward the nest. The tortoiseshell-and-white queen was backing away to stand over her kits. Her hackles were raised and her eyes wide with fear. She stretched out one forepaw, its claws extended, as her gaze flickered from one attacker to the other.
Rushing over to the den, Leafstar thrust herself between the queen and the Twolegplace cats. “No!” she yowled. “You can’t attack these kits. This is not their battle.”
Shorty and Coal exchanged a baffled look. Then their eyes narrowed suspiciously as they stared at Leafstar. “Are you betraying us?” Coal growled.
Desperation surged through Leafstar. I can’t fight Coal and Shorty! But I have to protect these kits!
Suddenly Rockshade appeared at her side. His black pelt was ruffled, and blood trickled from a scratch on his forehead, but his eyes were clear and filled with courage.
“We have to get these kits to safety,” Leafstar told him.
“No!” the tortoiseshell queen exclaimed. “You’re not going to touch my kits!”
Leafstar turned to her, making her voice quiet and soothing. “You have to trust us. If they stay here, they’ll be hurt—maybe killed.”
The young queen’s eyes stretched wide with amazement. “But you’re on the other side!”
Rockshade stepped forward. “Kits take no sides,” he meowed. “They are the responsibility of all of us.”
Leafstar felt a stab of pride in her young Clanmate. Flashing him a grateful look, she stepped into the den and dipped her head to the kits’ mother before picking up a tiny black kit by its scruff; it let out a shrill squeak and waved its paws in the air. Rockshade followed her and picked up another kit, and their mother took the third. Coal and Shorty stepped aside as they left the den.
“This is not what we asked you to do!” Coal hissed as Leafstar passed him.
“We’re not here to take orders from you,” Leafstar replied, making her words sound clear through the mouthful of fur. She felt confidence grow inside her as she led the way to the ditch, weaving a path through knots of fighting cats with Rockshade and the tortoiseshell queen just behind her.
This is how Clan cats fight. We do not try to kill, and we do not make enemies of the weak or the young.
The ditch gaped ahead of her; beyond it, the woods were quiet. Leafstar was about to jump over when she spotted the cream-colored she-cat break free from Billystorm and streak toward her. Billystorm raced behind, his ginger-and-white fur dabbled with blood.
The SkyClan leader had no time to protect herself or the kit she carried. The cream-colored she-cat pounced on her and sank her teeth deep into Leafstar’s neck.
A shriek of horror from Billystorm echoed around Leafstar. Then pain engulfed her, and the whole world went black.
CHAPTER 35
Leafstar sensed silver light all around her, encouraging her to open her eyes. She found herself sitting on the edge of the woods, bathed in the warm rays of the rising sun. Battle still raged in Dodge’s camp, and on the far side of the ditch, cats were gathering around a hunched shape lying on the ground—something Leafstar couldn’t see clearly. Billystorm and Cherrytail were there with Rockshade, and as she watched, Sharpclaw came racing up.
She tried to hear what they were saying, but their voices were oddly muted, and however much she strained her ears she couldn’t make out the words. For some reason they seemed to be very distressed. Billystorm was crouched on the ground, his head flung back and his jaws parted in a soundless wail.
Then the crowd shifted and Leafstar gasped in horror as she saw her own body stretched lifeless in the mud at the edge of the ditch. The cream-colored she-cat was standing triumphantly over her.
No!
Leafstar jumped as she felt a tail stroke her flank. She turned her head to see a tortoiseshell she-cat sitting beside her, a look of compassion in her beautiful green eyes.
“Spottedleaf?” she rasped.
“Don’t be afraid, dear one,” Spottedleaf reassured her. “You are losing a life. You will return to them soon.”
Leafstar became aware of another cat sitting on her other side, and glanced across to see the gray-and-white pelt of Cloudstar. The former SkyClan leader licked the top of her head as if she were a troubled kit.
“We are here,” he murmured. “We will keep you safe.”
“Did I do the wrong thing by bringing my Clanmates here?�
� Leafstar asked. “This isn’t their battle!”
“But you have skills that you can give these cats to live in peace from now on,” Spottedleaf told her.
“And you and Sharpclaw have fought together as a leader and deputy should,” Cloudstar added, wisdom shining from his pale eyes. “Don’t keep doubting him, Leafstar. He is as loyal to you and to SkyClan as you could wish.”
Leafstar longed to accept their reassurances, but the anxieties of the last moon had sunk into her too deeply, like leaves trapped in the ice of leaf-bare. “It’s been so hard!” she whispered. “I don’t know what our destiny is!”
Cloudstar bent his head toward her. “Your destiny is what you make it, Leafstar.”
Spottedleaf’s sweet scent wreathed around her, stronger than the smell of blood and fury. “I gave you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry,” she murmured. “Use it now, Leafstar.”
Her voice faded as she spoke, and the shapes of the two StarClan cats dissolved into the surrounding woodland until they became no more than a frosty glimmer, and then were gone.
Leafstar’s eyes blinked open and she saw the anxious faces of her Clanmates staring down at her.
“Oh, thank StarClan!” Rockshade’s voice rose to a squeak.
“We hoped you were just losing a life,” Cherrytail meowed. “It was scary, though!”
Leafstar stretched her limbs and managed to sit up. “Is the kit okay?” she croaked.
“Yes,” the tortoiseshell queen replied. “My kits are all safe on the other side of the ditch.”
Leafstar nodded thankfully, then looked around until her gaze met Billystorm’s. The SkyClan warrior’s eyes were full of love and pain; after a couple of heartbeats he turned his head away, his claws kneading the ground.
We will talk later, Leafstar promised him silently.
She became aware of the screeches of battle still coming from the other side of the ditch. Leafstar struggled to her paws. “We must help them,” she wheezed.
Sharpclaw padded up and offered his shoulder for her to lean on. “Wait until your strength comes back,” he meowed.
Before Leafstar could reply, there was a rustle from the trees on the other side of the ditch. Red and Harley appeared from behind a scrubby patch of bramble. Red halted, staring in horror at the battle and the wrecked camp.
“What’s going on?” she gasped.
Leafstar turned to look across the ditch, trying to imagine how Red would see the scene. The camp was in ruins, the flimsy sides of the dens squashed or torn, and smeared with blood. In the midst of the debris, Stick and Dodge still wrestled, with growls of hatred and claws clotted with each other’s blood. It was obvious that the two toms were determined to kill each other.
With barely a glance at the Clan cats, Red leaped across the ditch and raced up to her father, with Harley hard on her paws. Beckoning her Clanmates with a wave of her tail, Leafstar staggered after them.
“What are you doing?” Red shrieked, standing over her father.
Without relaxing his grip on Dodge, Stick looked up; it took him a moment to focus on his daughter. “Freeing you!” he snarled.
“But I’m not a prisoner!”
All around them the other cats stopped fighting, as if they recognized that this was the heart of the battle. Stick and Dodge broke apart; Stick rose to his paws and faced his daughter, while Dodge sat up and started to lick his wounds, glaring resentfully at the cats who had attacked his camp.
“What’s your problem?” Red challenged her father.
“These cats have done nothing but steal since they arrived,” Stick spat back at her. “This was our home first! They have taken our prey, our dens, and now you!”
Red opened her jaws to reply, but Harley padded up close to her side before she could speak.
“No cat stole Red,” the gray-black tom growled. “Do you think so little of her? She came of her own accord.”
“No,” Red meowed, turning her head to gaze at Harley. “I came because of you—because I love you. No cat can make me leave.”
Anger turned Stick’s eyes into black pools. “This isn’t love! You tricked her!” he roared as he sprang at Harley with claws outstretched.
Swift as a snake, Red threw herself in Stick’s way. His claws plunged deep into her throat; at once he tried to throw his weight back, but it was too late. Red crumpled to the ground at his paws, blood welling from the wound he had opened up.
Stick stared down in disbelief, at the blood on his own claws and the gashes in his daughter’s throat. “No … no…” he whispered.
For a heartbeat horror froze Leafstar’s paws to the ground. Then she rushed forward to crouch beside Red. “Quick, bring cobwebs!” she ordered.
The words were scarcely out of her mouth before Cherrytail raced up to her with a pawful of cobwebs, which Leafstar slapped onto Red’s wound. Shrewtooth arrived a moment later, holding out strands of sticky goosegrass from the ditch.
“Here, try this,” he suggested.
Leafstar took the stems, trying to bind them across the pad of cobweb. But Red’s blood kept gushing out. Her fur turned as scarlet as the sunrise behind them, as if her life were bleeding into the sky.
“Red—stay with me.” Harley crouched beside her, opposite Leafstar, covering her ears with frantic licks. “Remember the kits we were going to have … tough little ginger she-cats, just like you? Remember how we planned our life?”
“That would never have happened,” Stick snarled.
Dodge sprang to his paws. “Touch one hair on Harley’s pelt and you’ll answer to me.”
Stick spun around to glare at him. “Then I’ll kill you first.”
As he crouched to spring, Sharpclaw flung himself at Stick’s flank, overbalancing him and standing over him as he scrabbled in the mud. “Enough!” the SkyClan deputy hissed. “Too much blood has been shed already! You asked for our help to drive these cats out, not to kill them.”
Stick stumbled to his paws, narrowing his eyes at the ginger tom. “Anything less is a sign of weakness,” he spat.
Leafstar rose from Red’s side and padded forward to stand beside her deputy. “Then you have learned nothing from the warrior code,” she mewed. Looking around, she saw that all of Dodge’s cats had been overpowered by her warriors. “This battle is over,” she continued. “Dodge, leave these cats alone or we will come back and fight you again. Stick, defend your hunting places—learn from SkyClan and protect your prey as well as your dens. Use those parts of the warrior code that will help you to live without shedding more blood.”
Stick said nothing, breathing hard and fixing Leafstar with a mutinous glare. But behind him Leafstar could see Shorty and Cora exchanging glances and nodding. They have learned something, and they will use that to make their life better.
“What?” Dodge stalked up, a truculent look in his eyes. “You’re not going to get away with this!” he growled at Stick.
Leafstar turned, gesturing with her tail toward Red’s body. The dying she-cat had her glazed eyes fixed on Harley; after a couple more heartbeats she gave a faint quiver and lay still, her paws and tail limp. Harley let out a groan from deep in his throat and buried his face in her fur.
“Do you think Stick can possibly suffer more than this?” Leafstar asked Dodge softly. “There is room here for all of you, if you divide it fairly. Carry on fighting to the death, and you’ll only lose what you love most.”
With the tip of her tail Leafstar signaled to her Clanmates, gathering them around her. All of them bore the marks of the battle, but she saw with a vast rush of relief that they were all there, all standing on their paws.
Sharpclaw padded up close to her side. She exchanged a long look with him, and he nodded solemnly.
“Come. It’s time for us to return home,” she meowed. With a last glance at Dodge and Stick, she led her Clanmates out of the battered camp, across the ditch, and into the woods.
While they were still among the trees, Cora raced
to catch up to them.
“Thank you,” the black she-cat panted, running alongside Leafstar. “For everything.”
Leafstar nodded. “It was our destiny.”
A pang of regret shook her as Cora turned back to return to the Twolegplace. If things had been different, we could have been friends. But Cora’s paws lay on another path, she knew, helping her friends to rebuild their lives after the devastation of the battle. That is her destiny. And this is ours.
The SkyClan cats traveled slowly that day. Every cat was injured: Cherrytail was the worst, with scratches on both flanks and a wound to her neck which kept oozing blood. Shrewtooth was limping from where he had pulled out a claw, but he held his head proudly. Egg had a shredded ear, and patches of Sparrowpelt’s fur had been wrenched out.
Leafstar made camp early, under the roots of a tree; with Sharpclaw and Waspwhisker, who had the least injuries, she hunted for the rest of the Clan, and found cobwebs to put on Cherrytail’s neck wound.
“We’ll soon have you home to Echosong,” she promised.
The tortoiseshell she-cat flicked her tail. “Don’t worry about me, Leafstar. I’ll be okay.”
The next day dawned fine, with a warm, sleepy breeze brushing the grass and ruffling the cats’ fur. Leafstar glanced around approvingly as they set out again. Well-fed and rested, her Clanmates were already starting to recover. Her paws were tugging her home, but she set an easy pace, mindful of their wounds.
In the heat of sunhigh they rested beside the river where marigold grew thickly at the water’s edge. Leafstar chewed up leaves to make a poultice for Cherrytail, while the rest of her Clanmates treated one another’s scrapes and bruises. Egg caught another fish for them to share, and started to teach Rockshade how to do it; a close friendship seemed to be springing up between the two young cats.
SkyClan will be stronger for all we have been through together, Leafstar thought with satisfaction.
On the final day of their journey, Leafstar realized that Sharpclaw had fallen into step beside her. She had been waiting for this moment, and was mildly surprised that it had taken him so long. Is he going to make one final challenge to my leadership?