Chapter Five

" What? " Talonpaw couldn't keep the bitter disappointment and anger out of her meow.

"I'm sorry Talonpaw." Stormtail glared at Larksong. "I wanted you to be made a warrior with them, but other cats thought it would be wrong to make Thrushpaw and Snowpaw wait."

Larksong glared straight back. "It would! They've been training for eight moons! They are more than ready to be made warriors! They should have been two moons ago! If Pinestar hadn't-" She snapped her mouth shut suddenly and looked at her paws.

Talonpaw narrowed her eyes. It was true, she and her den mates had gone through an abnormally long apprenticeship. But she hadn't thought it was because of any cat but themselves. She was curious as to what Pinestar had had to do with it, but she knew it would be pointless to ask, from the look on Larksong's face.

"What about me?" Talonpaw spat. "Don't you think it's wrong for me to sit back and watch my denmates made warriors before me? Don't you think that will hurt me?"

She turned her back on the two warriors and curled up in her nest. She looked back only when she heard them leaving the den. Stormtail's fur was bristling and he brushed past the tortoiseshell she-cat angrily.

How could Thrushpaw and Snowpaw agree to being made warriors without her? How could her own brother betray her like that? Hadn't they stood up for her at all? Hadn't they argued that they should wait for her? All her feelings for Thrushpaw vanished. He was worth nothing to her now, he didn't care about her. Talonpaw felt a lump in her throat, and was left feeling as hollow as an old beech husk.