Another chapter for you guys! I hope you enjoyed!
~Bramblestar~
Spiderleg and I ran through the forest. There was no real reason for me to rush. The rogues seemed to be insistent, but there was no evidence that what they had to say was important. However, I had a gut feeling that it was. In the past, most rogues stayed as far away from the border as possible, except for the few who thought they could get away with stealing prey. The massive increase of rogue activity outside our borders and the arrival of these rogues meant something big was happening, and I needed to know what it was.
Spiderleg led me towards the border not far from the Horseplace, and flicked his tail in the direction of the rogue cats. "The big tabby seems to be the leader of their group," he said in a whisper. "The small tom acts like an apprentice, and the black she-cat… well, I don't know what she does."
I nodded. "Where's the rest of the patrol?" I asked, only seeing Thornclaw watching the rogues.
"They're hidden nearby," he replied. "Ivypool is hiding over there in the grass, and Berrynose hidden behind that clump of ferns." He pointed indicated the hiding spots of the other warriors with his tail."
"Bring them here," I ordered him. "Squirrelflight's group will support us in case there's trouble, but if we have more warriors at the border, the less likely they are to try something."
I waited until Spiderleg had collected Ivypool and Berrynose before I stepped out of the undergrowth. I walked forward slowly, examining the newcomers with a careful eye. The tabby Spiderleg pointed out as the leader had a pelt that rippled with hardened muscles, and his broad shoulders were on par with mine. As I approached he locked his gaze with mine. He didn't have the wild, malicious glint in eyes that most rogues had, but his amber eyes showed that he was far from weak.
The young grey tom had an innocent smile on his face, and he didn't look any older than eight or nine moons. However, his eyes were cold and calculating as he surveyed my group. I could feel him size each of us up, which was unusual considering his apparent age.
The black she-cat looked my group with a calm expression I often saw on Leafblossom's face. Her green eyes sparkled with curiosity, but lacked the hardness of her companions. The soft breeze brought the scent of herbs to my scent glands. I guessed that she was the rogue equivalent of a medicine cat,
They certainly made an interesting group, but I got the impression that this wasn't an elaborate ambush. The tabby was intimidating, but the she-cat and young tom didn't look like they could be much of a threat. Not to mention there was no nearby cover for any cats to stake out an ambush. No rogue with any brains would try to attack me with such a meager group, especially when I had four warriors by my side. However, as they say, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
I stopped next to Thornclaw. The rogues were only a few lox lengths away; they had slowly advanced towards the boarder as I approached. "I am Bramblestar," I announced. "What business do you have with me?" I kept my as cordial as possible without sounding too curious.
The tabby took a deep breath in, and released it. "My name is Jake," he responded. "And these are my friends, Marco and Cassie." He flicked his tail to the apprentice and she-cat respectively, and they gave a polite nod to me as they were introduced. "I'm sure you've seen the traffic going on near your borders?"
"Traffic?" I echoed.
"I mean the number of rogues that have passing by your territory," Jake amended.
"Yes, we've noticed," I replied. "But we do not interfere with whatever rogues do outside of our territory."
"Well, you'll probably need to rethink your strategy," Jake said.
"And why is that?" I asked suspiciously.
The tabby took another deep breath. "This is going to sound totally crazy," he began. "But what I'm about to say is the truth. The rogues you've noticed are trying to destroy your clan, as well as the other clans around the lake."
"Destroy the clans?" I heard Ivypool echo in alarm.
"You're crazy!" Thornclaw growled. "It'll take more than a mangy band of rogues to chase us away from our territory!"
I flicked my tail to silence my warriors. "Do you have any proof?" I asked.
Jake met my eyes with hardened look. "The proof we have is the proof is the scent trail you must have noticed," he replied. "These rogues have been patrolling around clan territory for a good long while. And I'm not just talking about your clan. We've been investigating. All of the clans around this lake are in danger."
"Who gave you the right to interfere with clan affairs?" Berrynose hissed.
"I'm inclined to agree with Berrynose," I said as I narrowed my eyes. "What does it matter to you what happens in and around our territory?"
Jake opened his mouth, but Marco cut him off. "Depends," he replied. "Do you want the short version, or the long version? Just a hint, the long version will have us here till sundown."
"Show respect around Bramblestar you kit!" Thornclaw hissed. Marco stuck out his tongue in response, and his she-cat companion—Cassie—swatted his ear.
"I'll give you the short version," said Jake. I noticed that he didn't bat an eye at his companions' immaturity. "A being by the name of Ellimist sent us here to ensure your clan's survival. Are you familiar with that name?"
I shook my head. "What is this Ellimist?" I asked. "A rogue, a loner—"
"He's not a normal cat like you and I," Cassie interrupted. "He's a different kind of being. The closest example I can think to compare him to would be a member of StarClan."
My eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know about StarClan?" I asked.
"Ellimist sent us here with a guide to teach us about you clan cats and stuff," Marco responded. "I'm glad you guys have StarClan giving the same cryptic babble Ellimist gives us sometimes. It makes explaining our mission a whole lot easier. Well, it'd be even easier if you knew Ellimist directly—"
"Marco…" Jake growled.
"Shutting up."
I looked at the group with new eyes. Their story sounded strange, ridiculous even. But I couldn't deny that they were speaking quite openly to me and each other, and only loners who met us before—like Ravenpaw or Smoky—or members of the SkyClan could have told them about Star Clan. And the information they had on the rogues didn't contradict anything that Brakenfur and others reported to me.
"You can't expect us to believe that," said Spiderleg. "Dead rogues aren't a part of StarClan!"
"I never said Ellimist was a part of StarClan," Cassie corrected him.
"You compared this cat to StarClan," Spiderleg growled. "That's an insult to our warrior ancestors!"
"I think the big warrior throwing a hissy fit is enough of insult," Marco said mockingly. "Don't you know it's impolite to growl at la—she-cats?"
Spiderleg growled, and probably would have pounced on the apprentice if Thornclaw had not stepped in front of him and shook his head.
"Marco, cut it out," Jake growled at his companion.
"Sorry," Marco apologized. "It was too tempting."
The informality of this group was perplexing. They looked and smelled like rogues, but they more closely resembled kittypets in their actions and words. "This Ellimist, what kind of cat is he or she?" I asked Jake.
Jake pawed the side of his head. "Ellimist is kind of hard to describe," he replied. "We like to think of him as a grandfatherly type." He must have seen my puzzled expression because he immediately followed with, "He's old, like, been around for generations old. He knows a lot, but he doesn't really tell us more than he think we need to know, which turns out to be next to nothing. We know he tries to get us to do what's right, but we disagree at times and arrive at a compromise. He always seems to get what he wants anyway, but at least we go through life with a clear conscious." He gave me a tired look. "From what I've heard, your connection to StarClan is much less chaotic than our work with Ellimist."
"So it seems," I said in muted agreement as I processed what Jake said. From what I could tell, this Ellimist acted more like The Rock than StarClan. And since they hadn't mentioned him, I could assume that they didn't know about him. This meant that despite knowing far more about us than the average rogue, they still didn't know everything about our clan. "I feel like you're not lying, but I'm still not convinced. You're story sounds—"
"Bogus? Phony? Dubious? Unbelievable? Suspicious? Crazy? Cracked?" Marco interjected.
I didn't understand half of his words, but I got the general idea. "Yes."
"Crazy as it sounds, it is true," said Jake.
Memories of Sol flashed in my mind as I narrowed my eyes. "I don't suppose you want to enter our camp so you can 'help' us with our problem?"
"Not really," said Cassie. "We're busy keeping an eye on things here."
"Right now we just want to warn you of what's coming and present ourselves as your allies before everything becomes chaotic," Jake added.
"You three, allies to the ThunderClan?" Thornclaw snorted. "You must be joking."
"There are six of us actually," Jake replied. "Seven if you include our guide, who's infiltrating the rogues as we speak."
"Infiltrating, sure," Thornclaw huffed.
I took a few seconds to gather my thoughts before addressing Jake again. "I appreciate your concern," I said as I drew myself up. "But the ThunderClan does not need help to defend its borders. We can handle a few rogues."
"And I doubt a couple of you mangy furballs would make a difference anyway," Berrynose grunted.
"Oh, so if about a dozen rogues suddenly decided to stampede across our border, you'd be fine?" Marco asked.
"We've fought of worse," I replied honestly.
"How about twenty?"
I narrowed my eyes. "We can deal with as many as we need to."
"Oh, I see," Marco said with a contemplative nod. "Then if all twenty-seven of them attacked at once, you'd be fine."
My eyes widened in alarm.
"Twenty-seven?" Ivypool echoed.
"And how would you know how many rogues there are?" Spiderleg growled.
"As I said before, we've been investigating what's been going on outside of the borders of the four clans," Jake replied. "So far we've managed to identify twenty-seven unique scent trails. Of course, some of them could have been double counted. But there were probably many more that faded away before we could find them."
My head reeled with the startling news. "Are you saying that there are twenty-seven rogues are camped nearby, planning to invade the ThunderClan?" I asked.
"I wish," Jake said with a shake of his head.
"You wish?" Ivypool echoed.
"As in I wish that was all there was to it," Jake amended. "The reality is much worse. As far as we can tell, these are just the scouts. The expected size of the group that's coming is actually three or four times larger. And remember, they aren't planning on only taking over the ThunderClan. If they have their way, all four clans will be destroyed."
I felt all of my limbs freeze. These rogues had come to the same deduction of my scouts. But if this was true, then there was no way the ThunderClan survive. But I can't trust the words of random rogues, I mentally scolded myself. I need to take time to think about this, discuss it with a council, and determine the best course of action, whether this information is true or not.
As expected, the warriors did not take this news as well as I did.
"Impossible!" Berrynose yowled.
"Liars!" Thornclaw hissed.
"No rogues could ever defeat the ThunderClan," Ivypool spat.
"Enough!" I yowled. My cry rang through the air, halting my warriors' words in their tracks. I focused my attention on Jake. "I will consider your warning. You may return back to your camp." I turned around and signaled my warriors to fall in step behind me.
"Before you go, we do have some more information for you," Cassie offered.
I looked over my shoulder. "What kind of information?" I asked.
"We have some names."
"I doubt we would know the names of rogues," Spiderleg scoffed.
Cassie ignored him as her eyes remained focused on mine. I nodded slowly.
"Does 'Sol' mean anything to you?"
The rogues jumped back as my warriors whipped around and barred their teeth. I couldn't stop myself from spinning around, but I managed to keep my tone level as I asked, "How do you know about Sol?"
"Our guide, the one we said was spying on the rogues," said Jake. "Sol was one of the names he mentioned. Apparently, this 'Sol' is deeply involved in what's coming to the clans."
"There's no way that fleabag would dare come back here," hissed Berrynose. "We made sure to scare him off for good."
"Trust me, most of the time when you believe your worst enemy crawled under a garbage heap to die, they usually find themselves an army of minions and take their time plotting revenge," said Marco.
"How do we know you're not working with Sol, trying to destroy us from the inside?" Thornclaw asked suspiciously.
"Because we're just delivering our message and moving on with our messed up lives instead of being all buddy-buddy with you, duh," Marco shot back.
"If it helps, we'll keep our distance," added Cassie.
I decided to speak up before any of my warriors could side-track the conversation. "You said Sol was one of the names your spy mentioned," I said, regaining the attention of the rogues. "What other names did he say?"
Jake and Marco looked at Cassie, who nodded before replying. "He mentioned one other important name," she said slowly. "It was a clan name, or rather, the name of a clan."
Two names immediately popped into my head. My belly felt a twinge of fear as I suspected the answer. "Go on," I prodded, praying to StarClan that I was wrong.
"Have you ever heard of the BloodClan?"
Dun Dun Dun.
Things just got real.
