SLAVES
CHAPTER SEVEN
The vole stopped sniffing at the berries as Sageclaw approached. His shoulders were bunched closely together, brow furrowed in concentration. This was the first vole Sageclaw had seen in days, and he didn't intend to let it slip through his paws. It looked stringy and malnourished, but it made no difference. I have to catch this, the tom thought gravely. I didn't manage to catch three pieces of prey yesterday.
Slowly, he shifted his body weight so that he was facing the prey head-on. The vole sniffed, before turning its back on Sageclaw and facing the berry again, revealing its neck. This was his chance. Sageclaw leapt forward, sinking his teeth into the vole's flesh. Its body went still and lifeless in his jaws. The lack of movement told the tom the hunt was over.
Sageclaw didn't get any satisfaction out of the kill. After all, it wasn't his Clan that he was feeding. Quickly, he dug up a small pile of earth and buried the vole's body, making sure to take a mental note of the hole's position so he could collect it later. The tom glanced back in the direction he'd come from, where he'd caught the other two pieces of prey. It was a wonder he was still managing to meet the hunting targets Shellstorm had set him and Foxflame, even after they'd been lowered. The amount of forest prey amongst the streams of RiverClan's territory was dwindling precariously; it didn't help that he couldn't catch fish, either.
Sageclaw grunted, before scraping the few piles of soil he'd dug up over the vole. He remembered where his patrol had told him to meet them after he'd caught all the necessary prey, upstream from the camp by the WindClan border. They had to take the prey that WindClan had caught for them in ThunderClan's territory. Sageclaw's whiskers twitched a little with anxiety. He'd never been on one of the patrols which collected the prey from WindClan before, but Foxflame had told him that it wasn't fun. Apparently, the encounter nearly always ended with an argument of some kind. Sageclaw didn't blame WindClan for being uptight over how much prey they gave away. It was leafbare, after all. Prey was always scarce.
A cold wind rushed through the trees, making his fur rise. He shivered, before padding away from his kill toward the WindClan border. The tom breathed in, making sure there were no other prey scents in the area as he left. It wouldn't hurt to catch more than was expected from him. Unsurprisingly, however, there wasn't any.
As he walked, Sageclaw started to take his mind off hunting. He thought about how tense things were beginning to get, not just inside the RiverClan camp, but outside as well. More often than not, patrols returned to camp with reports of hostility amongst the other two Clans' patrols, which never went down well with Shellstorm. But Sageclaw had been most taken back at the attitudes between Clanmates within RiverClan. It was almost a common occurrence to see the warriors argue with each other, something which, Sageclaw often noted, wouldn't have happened in ThunderClan. Or at least, he preferred to remember not happening in ThunderClan. Perhaps it had been just the same in his birth Clan, but he had glazed over the memories he would rather forget.
There had been a noticeable, and slightly worrying, change in Foxflame as of late. Somehow, Sageclaw had suspected that leafbare wouldn't agree with the dark ginger she-cat, and he'd been proven correct. She was becoming more frustrated and agitated with her life as a slave by the day, and Sageclaw didn't blame her. But despite how much she annoyed him in return, he still worried about her. He didn't want the she-cat to get herself into trouble. She was his last reminder of home.
Suddenly, the scent of the rest of Sageclaw's patrol hit his nostrils. Quickly, he shook himself, trying to push away the unwanted thoughts as he came closer. The patrol, led by Rowanleap, looked impatient. Beetlenose and his apprentice, Troutpaw, were also there, a small pile of fish at their paws. They'd been hunting, and they seemed just as tired out as he was.
'There you are,' Rowanleap grunted disapprovingly as Sageclaw approached. He glanced downward, and noticed that the slave's paws were empty. 'Don't tell me you didn't catch anything.'
'Of course I did,' Sageclaw replied, his eyes narrowing a little. 'They're buried back where I caught them. We can collect them on the way back.'
Rowanleap looked him up and down disbelievingly, as did Beetlenose. Sageclaw glared back. He wasn't going to let the patrol leader intimidate him. The RiverClan cat was just being unreasonable.
Eventually, Rowanleap snorted. 'Alright, slave,' he muttered, pointedly turning his back on him. 'Let's go and collect this prey.'
Sageclaw gnashed his teeth angrily as he followed the patrol closer to the WindClan border. I'm sick of all this stupid suspicion! he snarled in his mind. I've been here for moons. They should a least trust me a little bit by now.
The thought almost stopped Sageclaw right in his tracks. He had never considered that before. Have I really been here for moons? he thought. He'd arrived in late greenleaf, just before leaf-fall had begun. That meant he'd been imprisoned as a slave inside RiverClan for two moons now. Sageclaw felt a prickle of sadness within him. How much longer would he be a slave for?
A tail brushed against his chest, gesturing for him to halt. He looked up to see that it was Beetlenose's tail. The black tom had gone quite still, as had Troutpaw beside him. Rowanleap had apparently told them to stop. His eyes were fixed on something in the distance. Sageclaw followed his gaze, and instantly, he too stiffened.
It was the WindClan patrol. They were waiting for them at the border. He didn't recognize all of them, but he'd met the leader of the patrol, Morningflight, at Gatherings previously. He hadn't liked her then, be he most certainly didn't the like the way she was looking at them now. Even at a distance, Sageclaw could see the aggression in both her own posture and in the rest of the WindClan patrol.
Rowanleap remained silent for a moment, until finally, his right ear twitched, and they edged forward to approach the border. Sageclaw made sure to trail behind the RiverClan warriors, reluctant to get involved. As they crept closer, the tom started to make out the shapes of fresh-kill in the WindClan cats' jaws. Clearly, they hadn't had much luck out hunting. Their catches looked just as unappetizing as the vole he'd caught earlier.
'Morningflight,' Rowanleap greeted coolly as they reached the patrol.
'Rowanleap,' she nodded in return. There was an unbearable tension in the air, as thick as a cloud of smoke. Sageclaw kneaded the ground nervously. Quickly, he peered through the cats on the opposite of the border, trying to see if either Eaglefang or Palewhisper were present among the WindClan patrol. To his disappointment, they weren't.
Rowanleap seemed eager to dispose of the formalities quickly. 'Let's get straight to business,' he mewed curtly, although Morningflight didn't look too approving. 'How much prey are you offering us?'
For a moment, neither Morningflight nor anyone else on the patrol moved. Sageclaw thought that she might refuse to hand over any prey at all, but then, reluctantly, she signaled with a flick of her tail for her Clanmates to bring the fresh-kill forward. One of the warriors, a brown tom, padded forward and dropped a mouse, shrew, and one measly robin at Rowanleap's paws.
Sageclaw waited for him to put down the rest, but instead, the tom turned around and padded back to his patrol. He assumed that the other WindClan cats would give them some as well, but they all kept still.
Beetlenose stared at the three pieces of prey offered up, as though he couldn't believe what they'd just been given. 'That's it?' he exclaimed. 'Three pieces of prey?'
Morningflight turned to him, her eyes cold. 'That was all we caught,' she snapped.
'What, between a patrol of four cats?' Rowanleap growled. 'You fox-hearted liar!'
Whatever shared politeness the WindClan patrol might've been showing evaporated on the spot. The brown tom who'd given them the prey leapt up in fury, and Morningflight unsheathed her claws. Sageclaw winced. WindClan do have some nerve to give RiverClan so little, he thought, but Rowanleap could've at least been a bit more subtle about it.
'You ungrateful fish-brains!' Morningflight yowled. 'We spend our hunting time catching prey for you, and you don't even show a morsel of gratitude?'
'Why would we when you have such a pathetic amount to show for it?' Beetlenose hissed. 'There's plenty there that you've kept for yourself. Where did you catch that?'
Morningflight's expression turned sour. 'We caught it on our territory,' she said dangerously.
Sageclaw's eyes widened. What does she mean by that? he wondered. She could've meant that they'd caught the prey on the moors, but it sounded like she was saying that ThunderClan's territory belonged solely to them!
Rowanleap sensed the hidden meaning behind Morningflight's words as well. He stepped forward until he was nose to nose with the WindClan she-cat, his sharp fangs bared. 'I don't know what kind of bone you have to pick with RiverClan,' he whispered threateningly, 'but whatever is, you can tell Gorsestar he's making a big mistake. We are not your enemy.'
'Oh, really?' Morningflight retorted. 'Well, you can tell Streamstar that we are perfectly aware of her Clan's intrusions into our territory, and we're not going to take it lightly!'
Now, Rowanleap simply looked outraged. 'What?' he shouted.
'We've picked up your scent,' one of the WindClan warriors snarled, 'every day inside of our border. Often, you leave our territory stinking of prey. Why should we give up our catch when you seem to think it's perfectly fine to steal it?'
Rowanleap looked at Morningflight incredulously. 'We have done no such thing,' he insisted. 'Whoever caught this scent must've had it mistaken with a rogue.'
'WindClan's warriors know what is RiverClan scent and what is not,' Morningflight spat. 'We also seem to know the warrior code a lot better than you do.'
Rowanleap just shook his head. 'RiverClan are not going to stand for these ridiculous accusations,' he hissed, backing away from Morningflight and firmly back onto his own side of the border. 'There is a not a word of truth to any of them.'
Morningflight glared daggers at him. 'Evidence suggests otherwise.'
For a moment, everything went silent. Sageclaw couldn't believe how quickly tensions between the two patrols had escalated, neither had he suspected that things were as bad between the two Clans as they were. One Clan catching prey for another had been an idea that was bound to cause problems, but the level of aggression in the WindClan warriors' voices shocked him.
Eventually, Rowanleap looked away. 'Come,' he snapped to his patrol, turning his back on the WindClan cats. 'We're going back to camp.'
As he passed Sageclaw, his voice became icier. 'And bring the prey, slave!'
Without hesitation, Sageclaw nodded. 'Yes sir,' he meowed quickly. The tom picked up the fresh-kill, before dashing after the patrol heading back into RiverClan's territory. Just before they disappeared through the trees, Sageclaw glanced over his shoulder, back toward the border. The WindClan patrol watched them go, their pelts bristling with hostility.
The rest of the journey back was spent in unnerving silence. The ThunderClan tom could see from Rowanleap's hunched-over shoulders that he was seething with thinly suppressed rage. Beetlenose and Troutpaw looked much the same, and if he could be perfectly honest, Sageclaw didn't blame them. As much as he disliked both RiverClan and WindClan, he knew that Morningflight's claim that cats had been intruding on their territory was purely fabricated. Neither Shellstorm nor Streamstar had ordered any warriors to hunt outside RiverClan's borders. Sageclaw knew that better than anyone; he'd been on almost every one of those hunting patrols. But the WindClan cats had seemed so convinced, and they'd even mentioned that they had evidence! So what sort of evidence could they possibly have?
As soon as they padded into camp, Rowanleap headed straight for Shellstorm. The massive silver tabby was lounging beneath the shade of his leader's den, enjoying the company of his senior warriors. His mate, Reedshade, wasn't there. Sageclaw remembered the last time he'd spoken to Reedshade, when the deputy had ordered him to collect moss for her nest. Shellstorm had seemed surprisingly soft and gentle toward the attractive she-cat. But, it seemed he wasn't going to show that particular attitude to the rest of RiverClan now. As soon as Rowanleap explained to him what happened out on the patrol, the tom's face contorted in anger. The other senior warriors raised their heads, sensing Shellstorm's expression, which in turn caught the attention of the other warriors scattered around the clearing. Shellstorm got to his paws and questioned Rowanleap for a few moments longer, before twisting around and padding toward the entrance to the leader's den.
But before he could enter, one of the other warriors, Lilypelt, called out to him. 'Hey! What's wrong?'
'Yeah, did something happen out on patrol?'
'I bet you WindClan were causing trouble again.'
Shellstorm glanced toward his leader's den again, conflicted over telling his Clanmates the truth before his leader. Sageclaw watched him carefully. It would be disrespectful not to prioritize his leader, he thought. Not that he has respect for anyone but himself.
And Sageclaw was proven right when the deputy stood up to his full height, finally addressing the Clan below him. 'Cats of RiverClan!' he announced. 'WindClan have been making accusations against us!'
Sounds of shock passed over the crowd beneath. 'About what?'
Shellstorm looked sideways at Rowanleap, who nodded, reassuring the deputy that the claims were true. 'Prey-stealing,' Shellstorm hissed. 'They've accused us of prey-stealing.'
The sounds of shock transformed into caterwauls of fury. 'What?' a senior warrior, Dappleheart, shouted. 'How dare they!'
'I know,' Beetlenose growled, disgusted. He reached out and took the WindClan prey from Sageclaw, laying it out so that the whole Clan could see it clearly. 'And not only that, but this was how much prey they gave us in return.'
The yowls of protest continued. Cats began to stand up and unsheathe claws, hurling insults toward the sky. Shellstorm watched over it all. There was a strange, cruel glint in his eyes, a kind of bloodlust that made Sageclaw's pelt stand on end.
'We should attack them right now!'
'Yeah, we should show them that RiverClan aren't to be messed with!'
The glint in Shellstorm's eyes only became more cruel, and Sageclaw's horror increased. They're talking about going into battle with WindClan! he thought. But they haven't even spoken to their leader yet!
'Silence!'
The stern voice echoed through the clearing, making all the cats in RiverClan turn their head toward the call. The yowls of anger stopped, giving way to an awkward quiet. Shellstorm spun around, only to come face to face with Streamstar, emerging from her den. The silver she-cat's blue eyes glimmered in the sun, reflecting into Sageclaw's gaze. She sat down on her haunches, looking over her Clan coldly, daring them to continue their chants. No cat uttered a word.
After the she-cat was satisfied that she'd gained her Clan's attention, she met Shellstorm's piercing gaze. 'Well, Shellstorm?' she asked frostily. 'What was the meaning of all this?'
The deputy continued to glare at his leader. He seemed reluctant to speak, and perhaps a little angry that his rally against WindClan had been halted. Sageclaw was beginning to think he might not even answer her, but then, his ear twitched.
'I was just explaining to the Clan about what took place on Rowanleap's patrol,' he mewed slowly.
'And what was it that took place?'
'It was about the prey collection from WindClan,' Shellstorm muttered. 'You know what they've been like recently, snapping at our patrols, getting worked up about stupid things-'
'Get to the point,' Streamstar mewed impatiently.
Shellstorm paused where he was for a moment, before gesturing for Rowanleap to explain what had happened. The patrol leader stepped forward confidently. 'They said that we were prey-stealers, Streamstar,' he explained. 'They said that they'd caught our scent on WindClan territory, and that we were stealing prey from them.'
Streamstar didn't say anything for a while as she processed the information presented to her. She looked surprised that WindClan had made such a bold accusation, but confused as well, as though she were trying to think of possible a way that they could've, somehow, smelled RiverClan scent on their territory. At least she's taking things into consideration, Sageclaw thought, relieved, unlike her deputy.
'And how much prey did we receive in the end?' she asked, after the pause.
Beetlenose nudged the fresh-kill they'd been given forward. 'This was it,' he meowed.
She frowned at the prey in front of her. 'Only three pieces?'
'Yes!' Troutpaw piped up. 'It's unacceptable.'
'It's more than unacceptable,' one of the warriors called out, 'it's inexcusable!'
At this, all the cats began to yowl and shout again, making sure that their leader heard a piece of their mind. Streamstar allowed them to for a time, taking in some of her Clanmates' opinions, but when the suggestion of attacking came up again, she stood up.
'Enough,' she snapped, her voice taking on a cold tone once more. 'Attacking WindClan is by no means an honorable or wise decision. One sign of hostility does not condone a war... however,' she turned to face Shellstorm, 'these are very serious allegations. I don't see what Gorsestar thinks his Clan would gain from a fight in the middle of leafbare, unless, of course,' she tilted her head to one side, 'the claims they've made have an element of truth.'
Of course, it was worded like a statement, but was in actuality a question. Streamstar was asking her Clan if they had anything to tell her about, any intrusions on other Clans' territory that they thought might've gone unnoticed. Overall, they replied with a resounding shake of the head, denying any possibility that WindClan may have been telling the truth, but Shellstorm, Sageclaw noticed, remained unmoving.
'Good,' Streamstar declared. 'Now, we don't want to provoke WindClan by sending extra patrols along the border, but we must be on our guard nonetheless. From now on, every border patrol must have at least five cats on it, with a limit of one apprentice or slave each.' She nodded at her deputy. 'I'll expect you to organize that.'
Shellstorm nodded back at her in return. The violent glint in his eyes had disappeared. 'Of course, Streamstar.'
Once the announcement was finished, the RiverClan cats began to disperse. Many of them returned to their dens, but a few of them stayed outside, chatting nervously about what had just transpired. Sageclaw was glad that Streamstar had dealt with the situation so efficiently, but he could see that many of the RiverClan warriors weren't happy. They hadn't wanted to be cautious. All they wanted was to attack the nearest WindClan cats they could, their claws itching for a fight.
Sageclaw was just about to retreat to the slaves' den, hoping to find Foxflame there, when a disgruntled voice made him stop. 'And just where do you think you're going?'
The tom sighed. I just want to take a rest, for StarClan's sake! He looked over his shoulder to find Beetlenose padding over to him. Clearly he had been one of the warriors who hadn't liked Streamstar's more peaceful approach to WindClan's hostility.
'I was just going back to my den,' Sageclaw began, when Beetlenose reached him. 'I've finished all my hunting for the da-'
'You most certainly have not,' Beetlenose interrupted. 'You still haven't brought any prey back.'
Sageclaw didn't understand for a second, but then quickly he remembered. In all the excitement of what had happened on patrol, they'd forgotten to collect the prey he'd caught on the way back. He shook his head, annoyed at himself. 'Sorry, Beetlenose,' he muttered. 'I'll go and fetch it now.'
'You should be sorry,' the black tom growled as Sageclaw headed back toward the camp entrance. 'If that prey is gone, you'll be hunting all through the night to make up for what you lost.'
Grumpy flea-brain, Sageclaw thought frustratedly. I would've gone and gotten that prey if Rowanleap hadn't ushered me back to camp so quickly.
It was colder outside the RiverClan camp than it had been only a few moments ago. The wind had picked up, and the branches of the nearby trees swayed and rustled rapidly. Sageclaw made sure to stick to the stream he'd followed when hunting earlier, just to ensure he didn't miss anything. There was no way he was going to spend his time hunting at night. Slowly, he found each of the places where he'd buried his kills and dug them up again, carrying the prey in his jaws until he found the next one. It didn't take him too long to find them all, at least, a lot less time than it had taken him to catch them. Sageclaw briefly wondered whether Foxflame had caught all of her prey, too.
The tom stopped what he was doing as the thought crossed his mind. He hadn't seen the ginger she-cat all morning, not even before he'd left camp. And he hadn't noticed her presence during Streamstar's announcement, either. He knew that hunting was getting very hard, but the day was nearly through. Surely that amount of time was a bit excessive, especially since Foxflame was probably a better hunter than he was?
Worry tugged at him like a nagging gust of wind, but he forced himself to push the uneasy feelings away. 'I don't know why you worry about her so much,' he scolded himself. 'She doesn't need your protection. She's a fully grown she-cat, for StarClan's sake!' He attempted to shove the niggling worry to the very back of his mind, but knew it would be impossible to forget now.
After he'd collected all of his prey (thankfully, none of it had been lost), he started to pad slowly back to camp. He was in no rush, despite how quickly the sun was sinking. It wasn't like there was anything back in camp that he was looking forward to. Perhaps if Foxflame was there, he would've returned to camp faster, but he still didn't know where she was.
'No!' Sageclaw mewed aloud. 'Stop worrying!'
He hastened his pace on the way back, hoping that he might find a distraction to take his mind off Foxflame. But there was none, just the continuous swaying of the trees, and the strong scent of water that tainted the land he would never come to call home. How much easier catching his prey a day would be if he had a thick, dense canopy above him, and a lush tangle of undergrowth beneath his paws.
Sageclaw emerged through the bushes that opened up into the camp entrance. Just before him, there was a slight, well-trodden piece of ground that separated the camp from the streams and meadows. Here, the cat scent was so strong that it was almost overwhelming. He sighed, thinking about the prey in his mouth that he most likely wouldn't be able to eat.
Suddenly, he heard a twig snap.
The tom's ears pricked up. The noise had been far too loud to be any normal piece of prey stepping on a twig. That sound was louder, heavier, and somehow urgent. He looked around curiously, searching for where the noise had come from.
And then it came again. Another twig snapped, louder this time. Coming from his right. Sageclaw turned so that he was facing the right way. This sound was followed by a voice, one of a she-cat that he recognized well.
Foxflame! She was here! Sageclaw felt some of the weight lift from his chest. She was okay. He'd known that his worrying had been unnecessary.
He was just about to pad over to where he'd heard Foxflame's voice arise from, when to his surprise, another voice met his ears. Sageclaw stopped dead in his tracks. This was one was deeper, the voice of a tomcat. One that was unmistakably RiverClan. He couldn't make out to whom the voice belonged; all he knew that was that Foxflame was alone in the forest just outside the camp. With a RiverClan tom.
Sageclaw stepped forward, trying to listen in on the voices without being found out. They were close - he could tell that, but he needed to get closer in order to hear them clearly. He edged nearer into the bushes, and then paused to listen again. Who is with her? A hundred questions rushed through his head like wildfire. Is she in danger?
And then, he started to pick up their conversation.
'-ou sick-minded fox-heart! I'm not doing anything you say!'
'Oh, yes you will, if you know what's good for you.'
'I know perfectly well what's good for myself, and it's certainly not you.'
Sageclaw's eyes widened. What were they talking about? It sounded like Foxflame was being threatened! He resisted the urge to dash forward and intervene, but managed to prevent himself from doing so. Foxflame, ever the independent she-cat, wouldn't appreciate him stepping in to help her just yet, as though she weren't capable of handling herself on her own.
'And besides, you're a RiverClan cat. You destroyed my Clan!'
'That wasn't my decision.'
'But you were part of it! You fought in the battle! I saw you killing my Clanmates.'
'Oh, come now, Foxflame. You know I mean you no harm now.'
At this point, Sageclaw just felt confused. That voice sounded like he was... purring.
'Shut up, you mangy piece of-'
'Come on, Foxflame. Just do what I want you to.'
'Shut up!'
'Foxflame, you know I love you.'
What?!
Sageclaw backed away from the sounds of their voices, his eyes alight with confusion. His blood felt like it had turned to ice. His heart beat furiously against the sides of his chest. That tom just said that he loved her!
In the moments that followed, all logic and reasoning seemed to completely desert Sageclaw. He had no idea what to do, or what to say. He was completely and utterly at a loss. He couldn't go ahead and stop whatever was happening. He didn't even know how to.
Quickly, without further consideration, he turned and dashed away from the bushes where he knew Foxflame, and whoever that tom was, still stood. He ducked through the camp entrance and into the clearing, gasping desperately for breath. Making sure none of the RiverClan warriors were suspicious of him, he rushed across the camp and into the slaves' den, away from the prying eyes of his masters.
What does this mean? he thought. What was happening? Was Foxflame consenting to that?
Should I have left her there?
Instantly, he regretted his decision to leave the scene. Foxflame could have needed his help. She could have been in trouble. But he hadn't been able to act accordingly. He'd lost his head.
Stiffly, he glanced up, looking through the slave den and back out into the camp. He wished that Foxflame would appear through the entrance, reassuring him that she was okay.
Something white dropped down, just in front of his view of the entrance. And then another. And then another. It had started to snow.
Leafbare had finally caught hold of the lake in its frozen grip, and all Sageclaw felt was a terrible sense of dread.
[chapter originally written by Claudaujay]
