(Chapter 49 peoplez! XD Here ya go! Enjoy and review 3)
Cinderheart glanced up as Bramblestar called for a clan meeting. She had watched earlier as He and Lionblaze walked through the clans and conversing with the members, and now he was calling a meeting? Just what did he want? She waddled out of the nursery and lied down in front of it. Squirrelflight simply walked out if the den with her kits trailing behind her like little ducklings and sat in the back of the formed crowd. Cinderheart sneered at them as they passed. She missed going up and sitting inform of the Highledge, waiting for Bramblestar to say his piece. Now she was stuck at the nursery.
Ears flickering in agitation, she listened.
"Clan, the foreign are here and the foxes have been driven away. Leafpool survived the assault and Thornclaw hasn't been sent on our borders since his exile, as is our victory with Riverclan!" the cat cheered, and Leafpool padded back to sit right by her sister. "There is however, another problem that is a thorn in our side, which I know we all agree with." The cats murmured. Bramblestar narrowed his amber eyes.
"Cinderheart, Squirrelflight, come forward."
Cinderheart was shocked, as well as Squirrelflight, but not overly so. The two queens walked up to the front of the clan circle, curious eyes of their clan mates set on them. Squirrelflight watched Cinderheart come over and sit down with a smirk that burned the other's blood.
Bramblestar flicked his ear. "These two have been constantly bickering and disrupting the clan and the little peace that's been established." Murmurs of agreement roused in the crowd, making Cinderheart growl in uncomforted. Squirrelflight just watched them with blank, if amused, eyes. Bramblestar's voice rung out and quieted the chattering. "So, with some talk with my deputy and input from the cats around, it has been decided that these two will be," He looked down at them with an amused purr, "demoted."
"What?!" The two yowled.
The others whispered and nodded their heads. "You two will be assigned your own mentors until you calm your squabbling and settle you difference." Bramblestar raised his tail when Squirrelflight opened them to object. "I know all that has transpired, you are still hostile after the attempt on Leafpool's life, but this cannot go on any longer. The clan cannot deal with your rivalries at the moment." Cinderheart glanced around at the clan. Some looked apologetic, others looked satisfied, and only a couple looked apologetic.
"Now I will assign you your mentors." Bramblestar glanced around the crowd. "Icecloud, Mousewhisker, step forward."
The two padded towards the Highledge and stared up at the leader. Cinderheart narrowed her eyes as she realized Mousewhisker was avoiding her eyes with a slightly puzzled look on his face. "You knew about this?!" she hissed.
Mousewhisker sighed and dropped his head. "The whole clan did apparently."
'Lionblaze said not to tell anyone! Why announce it to the clans?' Mousewhisker thought.
"Icecloud, Mousewhisker, you have been given a task in hopes to help prove your way back to the clans." Bramblestar meowed seriously. "Since all efforts before have failed to stop the two, including separating them, we have chosen you for the job."
Both cats looked on, though Raven called out from the crowd. "We need traitors to break apart a couple of angry queens? They won't be able to do it!" Cats started murmuring again, some arguing and some in agreement.
"Well what else can we do? They are causing enough trouble as it is!" Toadstep hissed.
"Why do we have to do this to them though? There was nothing done when it was Leafpool who was in the wrong." Whitewing called out.
"That's because no cat was fighting! These two are mental, they have to be taught a lesson!" Ravenheart shot back.
The murmurs grew to yowls as they argued and reasoned amongst each other. Bramblestar yowled for them to be silenced. "It has already been decided, all that we have asked you about these two have been summed up to this."
"Why Mousewhisker? He's Cinderheart's mate!" Cloudtail hissed. "He'll protect her before anyone else!"
Dustpelt nodded his head. "He won't be fair."
"Which is why he won't be mentoring Cinderheart, Icecloud will." Bramblestar told them. "Mousewhisker will mentor Squirrelflight." He looked down at the four cats, and then set his eyes on the two followers. "Again, this is a task to prove to the clan that you can be trusted with such a task and your loyalty to your clan," his eyes briefly flicked to Mousewhisker, "and through you the others that had taken the same path as you. Then maybe, if you have upheld your own, you can have your warrior duties. Know that this does not mean that we will simply trust you as though nothing has happened, but it will make us feel more, safe, with the idea."
"So when you assign them this task, it reflects on them, but us as well?" Foxleap asked, if a bit hopeful.
"Yes. I and Lionblaze only thought it fair that all of you can get a chance instead of just these two. We've also talked and greed that three months of warrior duties is too long a punishment, but only because the foreign clan cats will be here so."
"Then we can help out right?" Brackenfur called, tail waving.
Squirrelflight scoffed and glared at him. "We only need one mentor, not a dozen!"
"You can lend a paw or two at the time, but this is solely Icecloud's and Mousewhisker's mission." Lionblaze mewed.
"And just how will we completing this affect the others as well?" Mousewhisker questioned with narrowed eyes.
Bramblestar simply purred softly and looked around at all of them. "It's because a rift has torn our clan. Traitors and untrustworthiness has claimed us all, and Thornclaw the problem of it. In a way, this will heal us. We are all one large family; whatever reflects on one of us reflects on us all."
All of them blinked up at him with realization and nodded their heads. Even Whitethunder narrowed his eyes in approval. Sandstorm purred loudly as she gazed up at Bramblestar. 'Oh Firestar, your apprentice is truly a leader.'
"Now this is your mission, so do it well. You are responsible for their actions so make sure they act accordingly."
"So I won't be Squirrelpaw anymore?" Squirrelflight asked.
"No," he answered, "but you will be slightly treated like it, since you clearly act the way you do."
"What about my kits?" Cinderheart lashed her tail as she glared up at him. Bramblestar pawed at the top of Highledge.
"You are still a queen; you won't really have to do anything strenuous. You will have to listen to your mentor though."
"I suggest she start exercising. Staying laid up in the den will weigh on her joints. Just walking a around the camp for a bit is fine." Jayfeather called out.
Cinderheart only huffed and looked away. At least her mentor was a fellow follower. 'They will probably try to pry some more information out of me. Well I won't tell them a soul! I owe that much to Thornclaw.'
"With all that said, the meeting is over." Bramblestar jumped from the Highledge and the cats dispersed. Icecloud trotted over to Cinderheart with a cheerful expression.
"Hi Cinderheart!"
She flinched as the queen hissed at her and waddled into the den. Icecloud sighed and followed her in. Squirrelflight soon followed along with Mousewhisker. For the rest of the day the clan was busy with hunting and patrolling. It was peaceful, a relief to them all. Then the next morning, Squirrelflight and Cinderheart woke the clan with another yowling match.
