Chapter 20

Coalpaw walked into the nursery. She was the only one there. Her and Riverkit that is. The others were out in the clearing. She suspected Emberheart at least was keeping an eye out for Bluepaw.

Coalpaw sat down next to Riverkit. Instantly he straightened up and got his intense stare on.

"Hi Riverkit," Coalpaw sighed. "It sucks, you know that. Not being able to do anything. Bluepaw's wandering around and Emberheart doesn't want us to leave and warn anyone. And we can't go fight Dark Forest either. I think at least Oceanpaw and I should be able to go. Our brothers are fighting after all. And I hope . . . I don't want. . ."

Coalpaw's eyes watered up and she bowed her head. Then, to her surprise, someone spoke.

"I'm sorry."

Coalpaw lifted her head.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Riverkit said.

At least, she thought that was what he said. He wasn't so much speaking as moving his mouth into the right shapes and breathing out, so it was pretty unintelligible. Still, Coalpaw got the gist.

"How are you talking? You can't hear!" Coalpaw burst out in amazement.

"I," Riverkit frowned and his eyes narrowed in concentration. Talking was obviously difficult. "I saw your mouth move. You talk . . . slowly. And I . . . started to learn."

Coalpaw frowned and thought about it. Was that possible? It would explain why he was always staring at her when she talked, and normal cats learned how to talk by listening, maybe he did learn by looking.

Coalpaw smiled. "Well that's brilliant!" she exclaimed. "Oh I can hardly wait for your dad to get back. You'll talk for him right?"

Riverkit was still for a moment, taking in what she'd said, then he slowly nodded.

"Woo!" Coalpaw cheered.

"Can we stop now?" Riverkit asked. "I'm tired." Trying to talk was exhausting.

Coalpaw nodded. "Of course. Sorry."

She turned around and walked out of nursery, feeling considerably better than when she'd first come in.

Stormstar didn't make it back to Mapleshade as fast as he'd liked. It wasn't because of Glitch, the fight with her had been short. She'd come to her senses fairly early on and gone running back to Dark Forest, but there were plenty of other Dark Forest cats around. Who was fighting where seemed to be changing all the time and with about five kits to watch made him go slower in general.

Then Lightningstar appeared in the fight, nearly head butting Stormstar as she screeched to a stop.

"Stormstar!" she exclaimed. She looked behind him. "I didn't know you led kit clan."

Stormstar gave her an unimpressed look before saying anything.

"Lightningstar, have you found any of the leaders?"

Lightningstar shook her head to Stormstar's dismay. "Not yet. You?"

Stormstar nodded and managed to smile. "Breezepelt is dead. Mapleshade might be too, the other leaders had shown up when I left."

Lightningstar raised an eyebrow and Stormstar felt momentary dread as he realized what he'd just said.

"And why did you leave Mapleshade?"

"Because it was before I'd found the kits. If they died again . . ."

He flicked his gaze to Windkit. Lightningstar followed it and her gaze softened. Then her eyes widened.

"You're right," she said. "Rainfall and Wingshadow." She started to back away. "I left them fighting Death Trap. I have to get back to them."

Stormstar nodded. "Go on. We'll take care of Mapleshade."

Lightningstar flashed him a brief grateful smile, then took off running away.

Stormstar meanwhile, headed in the other direction with the kits. It didn't take nearly as long this time. They soon reached a clearing, near the crossing section between Starclan and Dark Forest. Four of the old leaders were there, as was Mapleshade, in the middle of them. She looked around nervously, already bleeding rather heavily, but none of the leaders seemed to be in a hurry to attack her, and they all had wounds too. Mistystar took a hesitant step forward only for Mapleshade to lash out. Mistystar quickly moved back. Blackstar tried to come in too for an attack, but Mapleshade kicked out and this time didn't miss. Blackstar hissed as blood started coming from his nose.

"Let's get her!" one of the kits cried. Mosskit, Stormstar was pretty sure she was called.

Mapleshade turned around and saw them. She whirled back around and made a dash for Dark Forest. One of the leaders, Ashstar if Stormstar recalled correctly, slammed into her. It wasn't an exact hit, but enough for Mapleshade to stagger. As she attempted to right herself Firestar lunged on her. He bit into her neck and the already weakened Mapleshade stumbled and fell over.

Stormstar and the kits stood in silence for a moment.

"On second thought," Stormstar said, "It looks like our work is done."

(Pretty sure Riverkit couldn't have learned to talk that way, but let's ignore that for all intents and purposes. Or say it was Starclan.)