For
Crowfeather's Girl
- I Am Happy -
Whitethroat stared in shock as he approached the tabby warrior, lying ominously still. "Aren't you Runningwind?" he whispered, mostly to himself. "The ThunderClan warrior? What's wrong with you?"
He crept forward and leaned over the torn, bloody body. "He's dead," he murmured, his eyes flying wide. He looked up and saw three shapes approaching - the blazing orange shape of Fireheart, small brown Mousefur, and large, noble Whitestorm. He stared at them, still in shock over seeing the horribly torn body. "He's dead!" he began to wail.
He wasn't sure if he wailed it to himself, to StarClan, or to the ThunderClan warriors pelting toward him.
Fireheart let out a furious hiss and sprang at him. Whitethroat was too shocked to do more than hiss and shrink away from him.
What's wrong with him? he thought, terrified. Then he realized: He thinks I killed Runningwind!
Fireheart lashed out and knocked Whitethroat to the ground. Winded and unable to form words, the black-and-white ShadowClan warrior lay still, trying to convey surrender and that he did nothing wrong. But his fear of the large orange warrior overcame him as Fireheart hesitated, and Whitethroat slid from underneath him and made a dash toward the Thunderpath and the stone tunnel beneath it.
He bolted for the tunnel when it was in sight, but when he looked over his shoulder, all he saw was Fireheart's enraged face, baring his teeth. Whitethroat panicked.
He dashed out onto the hard surface of the Thunderpath.
Whitethroat saw the monster coming, but couldn't move. Panic had frozen his limbs, made the blood pumping from his heart sluggish. Blaring lights blinded him for a moment, and when he opened his eyes, for a split second the monster was right in front of him - then it was gone.
Agony seared through him when he tried to move.
I'm broken, he thought, and tears formed in his eyes. I'm broken.
He could feel the blood soaking his fur as, out of the corner of his blurry eye, he saw Fireheart approach him cautiously and peer at him. "Why did you attack our patrol?" he whispered, and Whitethroat fully intended to answer, but when he open his jaws, blood and not words trickled out.
He let out a gurgling mew, trying to form words and tell Fireheart the truth. I didn't, Fireheart! I saw it, I promise...it was Tigerclaw...
At that moment, he looked past Fireheart's shoulder and paused, his eyes widening and glittering with fear. Tigerclaw stood at the edge of the Thunderpath, eyes gleaming. It was the last sight of Whitethroat's waking vision.
He heard a familiar voice...humming.
It was Silverbird...his mate.
"Silverbird!" he cried out joyously, then tears flooded his cheeks as he gazed at the beautiful, green-eyed silver tabby. "But...I can't move. Please come to me."
"Mousebrain," purred Silverbird. "Of course you can move! Come run with me!"
Uncertainly, Whitethroat heaved himself to his paws and dashed to wind around his beautiful mate. "So does this mean I'm with you in StarClan?"
"Of course."
"Then I am happy," Whitethroat declared, and he licked the top of Silverbird's head with love.
