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warriorsredux · 7 years

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Chapter Twenty

Raventhroat never said exactly what was bothering him, and it eventually slipped completely from Fireheart’s mind.

Time passed quickly and quietly after that day. Whether it had been a moon or half-moon since Greystripe’s reunion with his friends, Fireheart didn’t keep track. What mattered to him was that the snow was melting inch by inch and the prey was gradually becoming easier to find. He felt a jolt of excitement when he returned to camp one night and saw a tiny pile of birds and squirrels waiting to be dug into. Like usual, of course, he had to make sure the elders and queens had eaten first, but that hardly meant anything when he was rolled over onto his back in the warrior’s den with a full stomach.

Thanks to Greystripe announcing his decision to stop feeding RiverClan without giving the real reason why, the task now fell to rotated assignments. Swiftpaw was the only one to volunteer, which quickly halted when he was taken aside and given a speech about how RiverClan was full of prey-thieves who weren’t worth the mud between his toes. Fireheart wished Swiftpaw would argue against Lizardtail, but the lanky little tom latched onto his mentor’s words with religious enthusiasm. Soon enough, he was complaining to his sister whenever Bluestar sent him out to the Sunning-rocks. Cinderpaw complained that she wasn’t allowed to help him and meet real live RiverClan cats.

Greystripe kept his promise and avoided the border whenever he could. Fireheart and Raventhroat were asked to keep an eye out for Silverstream if they ever wandered near RiverClan territory. Raventhroat politely refused. To Fireheart’s immense relief, Greystripe accepted this. Fireheart took up his request and looked for her whenever he felt the need. It was quite a while before he saw any RiverClan cat again.

The meeting took place on a night where Fireheart had been tracking down a vole all the way from the nearly empty creek by the hollow where apprentices trained. He wasn’t as hungry as usual, but winter was not over and he knew better than to let anything get away from him. The vole was aware that something was after it, but being chased from its hole and into foreign land had frightened it into stupidity. It kept scrabbling at tree roots and snuffling under bushes. Fireheart kept his head low and his stomach quiet.

The vole was finally worn out when it hit the tree-line, just tail-lengths away from a safe hole that Fireheart had lost many targets to. Unaware, it sat where it was, shivering violently. Fireheart wasted no time and pounced. He felt its back break under his paws. It had no time to even squeak before he bit down on it and ended its life.

“Nice catch.”

Fireheart jumped and whipped around, the vole between his teeth. A group of RiverClan cats was nearby. One, who Fireheart recognized as Nightclaw, was marking the trees while chatting away with Silverstream. The other two were the sibling pair of grey cats. The brother, Stonefur, was the one who had spoken.

“I’m not too near the border this time, am I?” Fireheart said, as friendly as he could. He set down his vole.

Stonefur gave a relaxing purr. “You’re fine, don’t worry.”

Fireheart opened his mouth to respond and caught a rather potent smell. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as he sniffed the air. It was powerful and oddly nostalgic, but he couldn’t place it. He looked questioningly at Stonefur.

“Ah, you can tell already.” Stonefur glanced at Silverstream. “She’s expecting. We told her to stay in camp and relax, but she insisted on leaving for a walk, so we decided to accompany her and mark the borders while we were out.” He suddenly looked grim and his voice lowered. “You know how it is. You’ve got to let queens do what’ll keep them out of luthnai.”

“What’s that?” Fireheart said.

“It’s when a queen breaks into a panic and runs from camp, possibly even from the territory,” Stonefur said. “I don’t know the specific reasons why, but sometimes she’ll abandon or kill her own kits.”

Fireheart grimaced.

“Fireheart, hey.” Silverstream had finally noticed the pair talking and had started over to them.

“Don’t mention any of that to her,” Stonefur whispered. “She’s stressed as it is.”

Fireheart nodded and greeted Silverstream with a tail-wave as she approached. Her belly was a little rounder than before and the fur on her underside seemed a little thinner. Her eyes were wide with a glint of fear in them, her short tail sticking straight out.

“How’ve you been?” she said unsteadily.

“Well enough, for winter.” Fireheart’s eyes darted to Stonefur. “Greystripe, uh, sends his regards. He’s been ill lately. Hasn’t been able to catch much for you all.”

“Actually, good timing on bringing that up,” said Mistfoot, close by. She apparently did not feel the need to walk over to speak to Fireheart. “Crookedstar’s been meaning to send a message along to Bluestar. We aren’t taking your prey anymore.”

“Really?” Fireheart said, not sure whether to be relieved or worried. “So your prey’s healthy again?”

“Healthy enough.” Mistfoot tilted her head, her expression giving away nothing. “But I’m pretty sure Crookedstar’s just embarrassed about the last Gathering.”

“Right.” Fireheart sighed. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t think Bluestar would make it a big thing like she did.”

“Ain’t your fault, lad,” said Nightclaw. He turned to mark at the next tree. “But you should have seen Leopardfur’s face when she heard about it.”

“Oh, yeah, she was furious.” Mistfoot’s whiskers twitched. “I think she actually went pure white for a moment. She wanted to come over and fight all of you herself, or something like that. She ranted to you for a good long while, didn’t she, Silverstream?”

“Yeah,” said Silverstream. She was barely breathing and staring at something to Fireheart’s left.

Mistfoot noticed this and carefully walked up to nudge Silverstream’s side with her head. “How about we go back to camp and get something to eat now? Are you hungry?”

“Sure,” said Silverstream. She slowly looked at Fireheart again. “Um. Tell- tell Greystripe I said hi. And-“ She glanced between the siblings. “And thank him for taking care of us.”

“Of course,” said Fireheart.

“It was nice to see you again, kittypet,” said Mistfoot. “Sometime we’ll have to meet and share more stories.”

“That’d be nice.” Fireheart copied Silverstream, something clunking away in his mind. It suddenly occurred to him what had been bugging him every time he met Stonefur and Mistfoot.

“You know,” he said slowly. “You look an awful lot like Bluestar, except for the white.”

Stonefur looked amused. “Yes, we’ve heard. Oakclaw told us that all the time when we were kits.”

“Almost the exact same wording too,” Mistfoot said. She deepened her voice. “‘Just like Bluefur, you know, except she hasn’t any white on her’.”

“Oh,” said Fireheart. “Sorry.”

“You apologize for the funniest things,” Nightclaw said. He ceased marking and joined his Clanmates. “We’ve all heard that speech at one point or another. Didn’t earn Oakclaw any allies with that comment.”

“Especially not after that scandal,” Mistfoot said. “Do they teach you about that over in ThunderClan?”

“No,” Fireheart said. “What happened?”

“Well, we don’t really know the details ourselves,” Stonefur said, with a warning look at his sister. “We just know that Oakclaw and Bluestar were… they just got a bit too close for our Clans’ comforts.”

This piqued Fireheart’s interest. Raventhroat had mentioned something similar. “How close?”

“Close enough that Oakclaw was immediately discarded as a potential deputy before Crookedstar took up that spot,” Mistfoot said. “Honestly, we only know our side of it. You should ask Bluestar yourself. The Clan likes keeping it very hush-hush. You know how it is.”

“Right,” said Fireheart, and thought, They have to mean an affair of some kind, right? Otherwise it wouldn’t be such a public secret.

“We better go,” said Stonefur to his Clanmates. To Fireheart, he added, “It was good to see you again. We forgot to thank you as well for helping out during the early winter.”

“Huh- oh, right.” Fireheart blinked. “Well, Greystripe needed someone to keep him out of trouble. And, y’know, besides, Clans should look out for each other, right?”

“Tell that to Bluestar,” Mistfoot said. She turned and walked off, her brother following her with a nod to Fireheart, and Nightclaw close behind. Silverstream was the only one who remained.

“Please-“ She turned back worriedly to her Clanmates, and then to Fireheart. “Please tell Greystripe to meet me here during the next Gathering. We need to figure out what to do about this.”

“I will,” Fireheart said. “I hope you can absorb them before it’s too late.”

“I’m trying,” Silverstream hissed. Her eyes now reflected panic. “But I don’t know how. And Mistfoot’s been trying to help me, but we can’t figure it out.”

“Silverstream!” Nightclaw called. “Come on, lass.”

“You’ll tell him, right?” Silverstream looked at Fireheart. He noticed wafts of fur resting on the top of her body, and patches of what had stayed connected were clumped and dirty.

“Of course,” Fireheart said. “I will. I’ll see you later.”

“Thanks.” Silverstream turned and looked back a final time. “You and your other friend were right. I’m sorry I let it get this far.”

Fireheart said nothing. He didn’t know what he could say that would be comforting. He just waved his tail again as the patrol trotted back for home.

Let’s just hope Bluestar will be understanding about this, he thought.

*Literally translated as “mad queen”. Cats speaking English would call it the reverse - “queen-madness”.

#warrior cats #warriors redux #redux #wr #chapter #chapter 20 #arc2

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