The Fatal War
Chapter 7
"Lionblaze!" Jayfeather whispered. Lionblaze woke up.
"It's moonhigh, for StarClan's sake! What do you want?" he growled. Jayfeather ushered him out.
"Follow me." He ordered. He lead Lionblaze through ThunderClan territory, coming to the tunnels where Hollyleaf died.
"When I was treating Icecloud, I gave her a stick from the beech tree to bite down on to make the pain more bearable. She noted afterward the stick had scratches on it. I checked, and it happened to be one of the pieces of MY stick. It had Hollyleaf's scent on it, but it was mixed with WindClan scent. I figured she might have joined WindClan as a rogue, but then Crowfeather might have recognized her, so she killed him, and used the weird phenomenon that wiped WindClan out as a cover story." Lionblaze stared,
"How can you know all this?" Jayfeather bowed his head,
"Just a guess." He admitted.
"What if the stick wasn't yours, and it DID come from the beech, and some WindClan cat with a scent similar to Hollyleaf's trespassed without us knowing?"
"I walk by where that beech tree used to be on my way to get herbs every day. There's NO WindClan scent, and I know Hollyleaf's scent when I smell it." Jayfeather snapped, hopping into the hole. He searched around, feeling. Suddenly he felt Hollyleaf's scent wash over him. He found a tuft of fur with Hollyleaf's scent on it! He showed it to Lionblaze.
"It's black." He confirmed. Lionblaze headed over to the mass of rocks where Hollyleaf was supposedly buried. He sniffed. If Hollyleaf was under there, he'd smell her scent and decay. He didn't smell decay, but smelt her scent overwhelmingly.
"This place is giving me the creeps." Lionblaze announced. He bunched his legs, hopped back up, and tossed a tendril to Jayfeather. He found it, climbed up, and the two headed back to camp. Back in the tunnel, Hollyleaf stared from between the other side of the rock pile. "If only you knew my plan…."
Jayfeather tucked the fur into a crack in the medicine den and got into his nest, tossing and turning, but sleep wouldn't come. What did all this mean?
Next morning, Jayfeather talked to Thornclaw.
"I have reason to suspect that Crowfeather, and possibly Nightcloud and Breezepelt, were murdered by another cat. May I see their bodies?"
"What reason?" Thornclaw challenged.
"Stuff too personal for me to explain."
"Then don't expect to see the bodies anytime soon." Thornclaw snarled. Jayfeather growled.
"What is going on out here?" Firestar came out of his den, glowing authority.
"Somehow Thornclaw doesn't seem to respect his Clan medicine cat." Jayfeather snarled.
"Jayfeather has reason to believe a few of the WindClan cats were murdered, but he won't tell me his reasons."
"Silence!" Firestar demanded. He stared hard at Jayfeather and Thornclaw.
"Thornclaw, you should respect your medicine cat. But Jayfeather, why all the secrecy?"
"Jayfeather seems to think the reasons are private." Thornclaw jeered. Firestar stared at Jayfeather,
"Well Jayfeather, until we know why your accusing all these people, your not permitted to go to the bodies." By now several cats had gathered around to watch. Jayfeather couldn't hold it back any longer,
"Hollyleaf! When I was treating Icecloud, I gave her a stick to bite down on to make the pain of the operation more bearable, and afterwards, she noticed it was scratched. It had Hollyleaf's scent on it when I inspected it, but it was mixed with WindClan. The WindClan scent was strong as well as the scent of blood, and Crowfeather. I figured she could have murdered Crowfeather. She had become deranged, especially after killing Ashfur-" gasps of shock came, but Jayfeather ignored them,
"so he wouldn't tell everyone at the Gathering about Squirrelflight's secret, but then she told it and tried to run away and make a new life through the tunnel network underneath the territories, but the tunnel which happened to be the one Icecloud fell into collapsed, killing her, or so we thought. Lionblaze and I searched the tunnel last night, her scent was overwhelming, along with WindClan scent, but there was no stench of decay, which there would have been if she had been crushed." Everyone stared at Jayfeather, Firestar glared. "You may meet me in my den this instant! Then we'll see about the bodies." Jayfeather padded, his head held high, into Firestar's den. Leafpool stared from across the clearing. He knows! she thought panicked. Squirelflight and Brambleclaw were thinking the same thing.
