Skyclan’s Destiny

Chapter 34

A paw prodding in her side woke Leafstar; she opened her eyes on glaring orange light that cast thick shadows across her sleeping Clanmates. For a few heartbeats she wasn’t sure where she was. Then Cora’s face came into focus as the black she-cat bent over her.

“Wake up!” she hissed. “Stick says it’s time.”

Memory flooded back into Leafstar, of the long journey to the Twolegplace and Stick’s promise to show them Dodge’s camp. She stumbled to her paws, realizing that she had been sleeping with her back pressed against Billystorm. Her movement woke him, and their eyes met for a moment in embarrassment.

Then Billystorm leaped up. “I’m ready,” he announced.

Urgency swept through Leafstar, overpowering her doubts and pumping energy into her paws. She woke her other Clanmates and led them to where Stick was waiting with Shorty and Cora.

“Let’s go,” Stick meowed.

Whipping around, he led the way across the waste ground and down another alley. Leafstar and the other SkyClan cats bounded after him, along alleys and tiny paths that led through piles of split wood and past sleeping monsters, with scarcely a glance to make sure that they wouldn’t wake. They passed so close to Twoleg nests that Leafstar’s fur brushed against the rough red stone.

Eventually Stick led them up onto the top of a small wooden nest. As Leafstar leaped up, she saw him crouching at the far side of the roof, staring down at what lay beyond. She padded across the roof and crouched down beside him. The orange light showed her a pile of square Twoleg things, tumbled together on the bank of the shallow stream that they had crossed on their way into the Twolegplace. Its banks were muddy, with only a sluggish trickle of water at the bottom.

“Those boxes are where Dodge lives,” Stick told her.

As Leafstar looked more closely, she could make out the shadows of cats slinking between the boxes, and caught the occasional gleam from their eyes. Then a sturdy-looking cat emerged into the open and called out, looking back over his shoulder.

A cheerful chirrup answered him, and a slender she-cat pushed her way out of the nearest box to join him. Although the harsh light drained all the color from their pelts, Leafstar guessed that they were Stick’s daughter, Red, and her mate, Harley; she could feel Stick stiffening, and heard a faint snarl coming from the depths of his throat.

It was clear that Red wasn’t a prisoner in Dodge’s camp; she looked relaxed and happy to be there. With their tails twined together, the two cats strolled across the ditch and vanished into the woods.

Stick had sunk his claws so deeply into the wooden roof that he had to yank them out before he could sit up. His gaze swept over the cats who were crowding up behind him. “We’ll attack now,” he growled.

“Wait.” Shorty stepped forward, his ears flicking anxiously. “What about Coal, Snowy, and Percy?”

“Go fetch them,” Stick directed. “If we wait until tomorrow night, Dodge will know there are strangers here, and he might be on his guard.”

Waspwhisker leaned over to murmur into Leafstar’s ear. “He wants to attack while his daughter is out of the camp.”

Leafstar nodded. She could understand why Stick had made his decision, but she was reluctant to go into battle unprepared. They didn’t know anything about the layout of the camp beyond what they could see from the roof of the little den, nor how many cats were inside the boxes.

“Don’t worry,” Stick mewed, as if he could read her mind. “We’ll outnumber them.”

His eyes burned with a cold fire; Leafstar shivered, reminding herself that these cats did not live by the warrior code. They’ll kill, if that’s the only way to win.

“I want to take a closer look at the camp,” Sharpclaw announced, beckoning Egg and Sparrowpelt with his tail. “We can’t go into battle blind,” he added as Stick seemed about to object, “and there’ll be plenty of time before Shorty and the others get here.”

Stick nodded; Leafstar felt her fur start to bristle at the way he was taking charge, just as he had done when Sharpclaw took the patrol into the Twolegplace.

“Good idea, Sharpclaw,” she meowed. Just so he’s sure who is Clan leader here.

Sharpclaw flicked his ears in acknowledgment; he and the two cats he had chosen slunk down the side of the nest and melted into the shadows.

“Don’t worry, Stick.” Cherrytail’s voice was warm with pride in her Clanmates. “They won’t get spotted.”

While they waited for the others to join them, Leafstar scanned the camp below, but there was little movement to suggest how many cats might be there, or what they were doing. Behind her she could hear Shrewtooth’s teeth chattering, but when she turned to give him a word of encouragement, she saw grim resolution in his eyes.

“Don’t underestimate Shrewtooth’s courage,” Billystorm whispered to her. “I’ve seen him chase off a fox on border patrol, when the rest of us were stuck in brambles.”

“Really?” Leafstar’s pads tingled. Shrewtooth had a bad start, but I think he may turn out to be one of our best warriors.

Scrabbling sounds on the wall of the nest announced the return of Sharpclaw with Egg and Sparrowpelt. “There are cats in almost all of the dens,” he reported to Leafstar, “but it’s impossible to tell how many. We—”

“I told you, they won’t outnumber us,” Stick interrupted. “Not when the others get here.”

Leafstar exchanged a concerned glance with Sharpclaw. Nothing was going to stop Stick from attacking. He was telling them what he wanted to hear.

“We need to attack from three sides,” Sharpclaw went on. “From both ends of the ditch, and from this point here.”

Stick and Cora were listening closely to what the deputy said. With a shock like a gust of icy leaf-bare wind, Leafstar realized that she had given them exactly what they wanted: the expertise of highly skilled warriors in a battle that might be nothing more than personal revenge.

With a flick of her tail she beckoned her Clanmates closer. “Remember, we fight according to the code!” she whispered. “No cat is to be killed for the sake of victory, and we fight as one, or not at all.”

Stick’s ears pricked up as she spoke, and he swung around to face her. “What is the point of fighting if you don’t mean it? We fight to win!”

Leafstar did not respond, just let her gaze travel over her warriors to make sure they were certain whose orders they were following. To her relief, Stick fell silent and listened to Sharpclaw describing the terrain along the line of the ditch. Before he had finished, Shorty returned with Snowy, Coal, and Percy.

“Right,” Stick growled. “The time has come for Dodge to leave this place. He has stolen too much from us!” Without hesitating, he launched himself off the top of the nest and raced across the open ground toward the boxes. Leafstar raised her tail to stop the others following him like a swarm of bees.

“Waspwhisker, Cherrytail, and Egg, you attack from that end of the ditch,” she mewed rapidly, waving her tail. “Billystorm, Sparrowpelt, and Shrewtooth, from the other end. Wait for my signal.”

The Clan cats moved briskly off. Before he climbed down from the roof, Billystorm glanced back. “Be careful,” he told Leafstar.

Leafstar replied with a nod.

Rockshade and Sharpclaw remained with her on the roof, along with the Twolegplace cats. Snowy was crouched on the edge, staring down at the boxes.

“I—I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered, looking up at Leafstar. Her voice was hoarse. “I saw what they did to Percy…”

Leafstar touched her shoulder with the tip of her tail. “Okay, go back to your den.”

But as the white she-cat rose to her paws and turned to go, Coal stepped forward to block her way. “We’re in this together,” he snarled.

“Not with reluctance, and not with fear.” Leafstar took a pace forward and faced Coal, her head raised challengingly. “Let her go.”

Coal hesitated for a couple of heartbeats, then stepped aside, his fur bristling and his tail-tip twitching. Snowy flashed a grateful glance at Leafstar, then vanished over the other side of the roof.

Staring down again at the camp, Leafstar spotted Stick poised on the edge of the jumble of boxes. His tail flicked impatiently as he glanced back over his shoulders at the others, beckoning them to join him.

“Line up,” Leafstar hissed. “Do not lose sight of the cat beside you.”

Her mind felt like leaves falling, whirled by the wind. This is my first battle against other cats as leader, and I’ve had no chance to plan the fight. I’m going in blind…

“Sharpclaw, I need you with me,” she meowed to her deputy. “You’re the only cat who has any idea of the layout.”

Sharpclaw nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll be on your tail,” he promised. “If we—”

“Go!” Coal yowled.

Furious that the black tom had given the signal before she was ready, Leafstar had no choice but to obey. The Twolegplace cats were already leaping down from the roof. Leafstar waved her tail to gather her Clanmates, and they streamed over the side of the nest. The SkyClan cats handled the drop best, landing neatly and pelting toward Dodge’s camp without breaking stride. Leafstar spotted Cora stumble, but the black she-cat recovered herself quickly. Shorty had fallen awkwardly on his side; Leafstar paused to drag him to his feet and shoved him ahead of her as they raced on.

As she drew closer to the camp, Leafstar waited for the sensation of cats running alongside her: StarClan cats sharing her battle, just as Firestar had told her they accompanied him when he fought against BloodClan. But there was no starry glimmer, no insubstantial brushing of pelts against hers, no scent of the icy stretches of the night sky. Just real, live cats, smelling of fear and fury.

A cold stone seemed to settle in the pit of Leafstar’s belly. Have our ancestors deserted us because this is not our battle?

Yowls erupted from the other side of the camp, and a small flame of confidence rekindled inside Leafstar. The cats sent down to the ditch must have arrived.

Then a ginger-and-white tom hurtled out of the camp, heading straight for the attackers. Stick leaped on top of him, knocked him over, and held him down, gazing around him with the flame of battle in his eyes. “Cora!” he yowled.

When the black she-cat bounded up to him he left the tom to her and ran on, screeching, “I want Dodge!”

No, Leafstar thought, you want your daughter.

Shorty had joined Cora to wrestle with the ginger-and-white tom. Leafstar pelted past them and plunged into the tangle of nests. The strong scent of cats caught her by the throat; the flimsy walls closed in on her, dark and stifling.

Suddenly one of the nests was ripped open and a huge tom with ragged gray fur leaped out, his teeth bared. Leafstar stumbled onto her flank; before she could regain her paws Sharpclaw charged between her and her attacker, driving the gray tom back in a whirl of teeth and claws. They vanished into the darkness of the den, the walls heaving with the force of their fight.

One flap of the Twoleg-stuff collapsed on top of Leafstar; tearing with teeth and claws, fighting back panic, she managed to struggle free of it. As she shook the last scraps off her pelt, she found herself staring into a den where three kits mewled and scuffled in a nest of grass and leaves. Their mother, a young tortoiseshell-and-white queen, arched her back and hissed at Leafstar, her claws extended.

Turning away—she had no quarrel with kits—Leafstar spotted another den with eyes gleaming from its depths; ahead of it yet another den collapsed, revealing Cherrytail and a silver-and-black she-cat rolling on top of the battered walls in a screeching tangle of legs and tails. Just beyond them, Egg leaped onto the back of a tabby tom, clawing him around the ears.

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.