Yellowfang’s Secret

Chapter 39

“Yellowfang, wake up!”

Something was prodding Yellowfang in her flank. She opened her eyes to see Brightflower standing beside her nest. Her fur was fluffed up and her eyes wide with anxiety.

“What’s the matter?” Yellowfang leaped to her paws. “Is it the kits?”

Brightflower nodded. “They’re not in the nursery. They were with me when I went to sleep, but now they’re gone!”

“We’ll find them,” Yellowfang mewed reassuringly.

She looked for Runningnose to ask him for help in the search, but he was deeply asleep after the long journey from the Moonstone, and she decided not to disturb him unless she had to. Stifling a trickle of fear, Yellowfang led the way out into the clearing. The night was dark, the moon showing fitfully in a sky ribbed with cloud. “Let’s try the apprentices’ den first,” she suggested.

But when she and Brightflower peered into the den they saw only the four remaining cats in training, curled up and snuffling gently in their sleep.

“The warriors’ den?” Brightflower guessed.

When she poked her head through the branches, Yellowfang saw nothing but dark lumps of slumbering fur. Thrusting herself completely inside, she roused Clawface, who was nearest, with a sharp tug on his tail.

“Ow! Get off!” Clawface looked up sleepily. “Oh, it’s you, Yellowfang. What do you want?”

“Have you seen Brightflower’s kits?” Yellowfang asked. “They’ve gone missing.”

Clawface shook his head. “They’re not here. But maybe they snuck out with the night patrol. They talked about wanting to join it tonight, but I told them they had to wait until they were apprenticed.”

Like they’d listen! Yellowfang thought. “Thanks, Clawface,” she mewed.

The gray tom curled up again as Yellowfang left the den and joined Brightflower, who was pacing back and forth across the clearing. Her expression cleared as Yellowfang told her what Clawface had said.

“That must be where they are!” Brightflower exclaimed. “They should be fine if they’re with their Clanmates.”

As she spoke, the night patrol pushed its way back into the camp: Blackfoot leading Russetfur and Wolfstep. Mintkit and Marigoldkit weren’t with them. Yellowfang and Brightflower bounded over.

“Have you seen my kits?” Brightflower demanded as she halted in front of Blackfoot.

Blackfoot shook his head. “No. Should we have?”

Brightflower let out a wail of terror, and Yellowfang rested her tail-tip on her shoulder. “They’re missing. Clawface thought they might have gone with you,” she explained to Blackfoot.

“We’ll go out at once to look for them,” Russetfur meowed, her voice full of concern.

Wolfstep nodded. “Do you think they tried to follow us, but couldn’t keep up?”

“It’s possible,” Yellowfang admitted.

“We went through the trees as far as the border with the unknown forest,” Russetfur told her, “and then along by the Twolegplace and back here.”

“Great StarClan!” Brightflower exclaimed, flattening her ears in distress. “They could have been stolen by Twolegs!”

“They’re probably just lost,” Yellowfang calmed her. “They’re only half a moon old; they couldn’t have gotten far. I’ll follow the patrol’s route and look for them. And meanwhile,” she added, knowing how important it was to keep Brightflower occupied, “you should give the rest of the camp a really thorough search. Russetfur, perhaps you could help?” She looked meaningfully at the warrior, trying to indicate that Brightflower needed some company.

“Of course,” Russetfur meowed. “Let me know if you want me to search the forest later on.”

Yellowfang hurried out of the camp and picked up the trail of the night patrol. The cloud cover had thickened and the moon was scarcely visible. It was hard going through the trees and undergrowth, and Yellowfang concentrated so as not to lose the scent. Then she heard the bark of a fox from somewhere up ahead, and quickened her pace. I hope it hasn’t found the kits…

Another harsh tang mixed with the traces of the night patrol. Yellowfang’s heart started to pound and she broke into a run, her nostrils flared with the scent of blood. The night patrol had reported no skirmishes on any of the boundaries, yet somewhere a cat was badly hurt. Yellowfang’s fur stood on end as all her instincts pricked with alarm. Something is terribly wrong!

She burst through a line of trees and stumbled to a halt in a small clearing. Panting hard, she gazed around and saw a thin shaft of starlight breaking through the branches. It rested on two tiny heaps of fur, as still as rocks in the cold air. One tortoiseshell, one gray, both ripped apart by the jaws of some cruel creature who couldn’t even be bothered to stay and eat his prey.

Oh, no! StarClan, not even you could be this cruel.

Yellowfang bounded across the clearing to where the little bodies lay, their blood spattering the ferns. She bent over them, desperately checking for signs of life, and opened herself to their pain in the hope that it would prove they were still alive. But she was too distraught to be sure if she could feel the flicker that would tell her there was still hope.

Desperately summoning her medicine cat skills, Yellowfang looked around for anything nearby that she could treat them with or pad their wounds. But the clearing was barren: no sign of a scrap of cobweb or marigold leaf. Clinging to the last traces of hope, Yellowfang curled her body around the kits, licking their still-warm fur.

Come on, little ones! Live!

Crashing paw steps disturbed her, followed by a ghastly wail. Yellowfang looked up to see Brightflower standing on the other side of the clearing, staring in horror. Brokenstar was just behind her.

“What happened?” Brokenstar demanded.

“I found them like this,” Yellowfang replied, her voice shaking. “It must have been a fox!”

Brokenstar sniffed the air. “I don’t smell any fox.”

“It was here!” Yellowfang insisted. “I heard it just before I found them.”

Brightflower padded forward and gazed down at the two tiny shapes. “My babies, my babies!”

Yellowfang stared at Brokenstar. “You need to look for the fox! It could be close by!”

“Yellowfang, I can only pick up your scent,” Brokenstar mewed quietly. “Come back to the camp with me.”

“What about the fox?”

“There is no fox here,” Brokenstar growled. “Come.”

Dazed, Yellowfang rose to her paws. Her fur was sticky with blood and her mouth was full of the taste of death. “I’ll carry one of the kits,” she mewed.

“No,” Brokenstar ordered. “I’ll send warriors to bring them. Brightflower, you wait here.”

Brightflower took Yellowfang’s place and folded her body around her kits. She didn’t look up at Yellowfang or Brokenstar as they left the clearing.

Brokenstar padded beside Yellowfang as they returned to camp. The moon was setting by the time they reached the clearing. The sky was gray with cloud and there was a tang of rain in the air. All the cats were out of their dens, busily searching for the kits. Boulder was the first to notice Yellowfang, and halted, staring at her. Gradually the other cats realized that she had returned and stopped what they were doing, until Yellowfang felt as if the gaze of every cat in the Clan was fixed on her. She could read shock in their eyes, and a flicker of unease joined the grief she felt for Mintkit and Marigoldkit.

“Russetfur. Frogtail.” Brokenstar’s voice cut into the silence, and he beckoned with his tail. “Follow our scent trail, and bring Brightflower and the kits back to the camp.”

He waited until the two warriors had left, then crossed to the foot of the Clanrock, jerking his head for Yellowfang to follow him. “Come closer,” he ordered the Clan, as if he was too distressed to leap onto the rock and summon them formally.

As the Clan gathered, silent and apprehensive, Runningnose bounded across to Yellowfang from the medicine cats’ den. “Are you hurt?” he gasped. “All this blood…”

“It’s not my blood,” Yellowfang choked out, as if telling him would make the terrible truth more real. “It’s… the kits’.”

A stunned murmur rose from the Clan, and Brackenfoot stepped forward, his eyes huge with fear. “Tell me what happened.”

“I found them in a clearing—” Yellowfang began.

Brokenstar cut her off with a lash of his tail. “Yellowfang went to look for the kits after Brightflower told her they were missing,” he announced. “When I found her, she was with the kits, but they were both dead. Yellowfang claimed they had been attacked by a fox.”

“A fox!” Newtspeck exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear. “On our territory? It could kill us all!”

“We have to send out a patrol to track it,” Blackfoot meowed.

More fearful cries came from the Clan, but Brokenstar silenced them with a flick of his tail. “I found no trace of fox anywhere near the kits.”

“Then how did they die?” Stumpytail asked.

“Yes, how?” Deerfoot echoed. “We have to know!”

Brokenstar took a step away from Yellowfang. “Only one cat knows the truth,” he meowed softly.

Brackenfoot stared at Yellowfang in horror. “Did you kill them?” he whispered.

“Of course not!” Yellowfang shrieked. In her worst nightmares she had never imagined that her own father could accuse her of something so terrible. “They were dead when I found them!”

“We have no reason to believe that Yellowfang killed them,” Brokenstar put in. “Why would she?”

“She’s been under a lot of strain recently, with all the battles,” Wolfstep pointed out.

“She said she didn’t want to treat my scratch because it was a waste of herbs!” Dawnpaw added with an indignant flourish of her tail.

“Yes, she hasn’t been herself lately,” Tangleburr meowed. “I asked her about a pain in my belly, and she practically bit my ear off.”

“But then gave you a juniper berry to take the pain away,” Runningnose reminded her, but no cat seemed to be listening.

“She acts like the whole Clan is a nuisance,” Cinderfur sniffed.

Newtspeck stepped forward with a furious hiss. “Are you seriously suggesting that Yellowfang would kill our own kits so she wouldn’t have to treat their injuries later on?”

There was a deafening silence as Yellowfang waited for her Clanmates to realize that Newtspeck was speaking sense. It was broken by a wail from Brightflower, who had just entered the camp. Russetfur and Frogtail followed, each carrying a pitiful broken scrap of fur.

Brightflower plunged at Yellowfang with a snarl. “Did you kill my kits?”

Yellowfang was frozen to the spot with horror. Before she could react, Runningnose leaped in front of her. “Don’t be ridiculous, Brightflower!” he yowled.

Brokenstar held up his tail for silence. “We will never know what happened tonight,” he meowed, his voice cracking with sorrow. “All we know is that two young kits, two promising warriors, are dead, and that Yellowfang was with them. Yellowfang, as our medicine cat, there must have been something you could have done.”

“I tried, but—” Yellowfang began to protest.

Brokenstar ignored her. “Russetfur,” he continued, “is there any evidence that she treated their wounds?”

Reluctantly Russetfur shook her head. “No, Brokenstar.”

“They were dead when I found them!” Yellowfang exclaimed. Her head was whirling. She couldn’t believe that this was happening to her, that any cat would take these crazy accusations seriously.

“Frogtail, were their bodies cold?” Brokenstar went on.

Frogtail ducked his head. “Well… no.”

Yowls of shock and hatred rose from the Clan. Rowanberry and Nutwhisker both pushed through the crowd to stand beside Yellowfang, along with Runningnose and Newtspeck, but their protests went unheard. Yellowfang knew that there was too much suspicion, too much grief over these latest deaths to expect a rational response from her Clanmates.

Brokenstar turned to face her. “Yellowfang, you cannot stay here. For your own safety, you must leave.”

“You mean, j-join the elders?” Yellowfang stammered. I could be at peace there, and still help my Clanmates if they came to me.

“No.” Brokenstar curled his lip, showing a hint of sharp yellow teeth. “I cannot protect you within this territory after what has happened. Your Clanmates are too angry over these deaths. You have to understand that I don’t want to do this, but I have no choice. I must banish you from ShadowClan.”

At his words everything became clear to Yellowfang, clear as spring water gurgling from a rock. She had threatened to speak with StarClan about what Brokenstar was doing, get him stripped of his leadership and his nine lives. And this was his way of making sure that never happened. She had made herself a problem—and he was solving it.

Yellowfang took a deep breath. Brokenstar had scared this Clan into silence for too long. Fury overwhelmed her fear. If she held her tongue any longer she betrayed all her Clanmates, including the memory of the dead kits. “This is exactly what you wanted!” she hissed. “You couldn’t have known that those kits would die, but this is your perfect opportunity to get rid of me! I am the ShadowClan medicine cat! This is where I belong!”

Blackfoot stepped forward, his voice weighty and regretful. “Not anymore, Yellowfang. Come, I’ll escort you to the border.”

He reached out his tail to rest it on her shoulder, but Yellowfang batted it away. “Get off me!” she snapped. “I’ll find my own way!”

Still dazed, she stumbled toward the entrance; her Clanmates parted to let her go.

“I’m so sorry!” Runningnose gasped, bounding alongside her. “I’ll prove it was a fox! You’ll be back soon! Come to the next half-moon Gathering!”

Yellowfang stopped at the entrance and looked at him. “Runningnose,” she meowed, “you have been a dear and loyal friend, but I cannot stay here. Not as long as Brokenstar rules. This is not the ShadowClan I pledged to serve.” Glancing at the cats clustered around the Clanrock, she added, “They are lucky to have you. May StarClan light your path, always.”

“But, Yellowfang—” Runningnose wailed.

Yellowfang couldn’t listen to him anymore. Turning, she plunged through the brambles and staggered out of the camp.