Chapter Twenty-Five

Echoshine stumbled as she tripped over a small root poking out of the ground.

She kept going, racing through the woods with her Clanmates, silent as a soft spring breeze. They had to keep going, before the rogues guessed that something was up.

Echoshine flicked her tail and halted abruptly. The rest of her Clanmates stopped with her.

"This is it," she mewed in a whisper. "The camp is near."

The cats around shifted in anticipation.

"What if it's a trap?" Shortwhisker muttered.

"Oh, for StarClan's sake, Shortwhisker! For the fourth time, you can trust Dusk!" Echoshine hissed between clenched teeth.

Since Echoshine had told ThunderClan about what she had seen in the rogues' camp, Shortwhisker had been persistently suggesting that Dusk was a traitor, and was planning an ambush with the rogues, luring them away from camp so that they could attack ThunderClan's elders and kits, which were mostly unguarded.

"Just because you've got feelings for a cat doesn't make them automatically perfect!" Shortwhisker snapped.

Echoshine felt her pelt tingle. "I do not have special feelings!"

"Sure, sure."

Echoshine ignored him, and instead stalked forward, toward the rogues' camp.

Echoshine's pelt bristled as she saw Owlfang and Lizardclaw sitting side-by-side near Dusk. The grey-and-black tom sat a pace away from the traitors, keeping a watchful eye on them as they chatted.

They must be guarding him, Echoshine thought, disgusted.

She stopped, keeping cover behind the spicebush plant she had hidden behind the first time she had been there. Sticking to the plan, her Clanmates fanned out until they were surrounding the rogues.

"ThunderClan, attack!"

The ThunderClan warriors poured into the clearing, surrounding the startled rogues. The half-asleep cats scrambled to their feet, yowling shrilly.

Echoshine snickered, then turned to face a giant tom with a stumpy tail. She rolled out of the way of a heavy blow, sending him tumbling past her. Leaping to her feet, the tabby she-cat sprang on top of the rogue, raking thorn-sharp claws down his back.

The tom hissed and twisted around in her grasp, slipping free and slashing her ear. Echoshine winced, but remembered her battle training as an apprentice, falling back to once again use the tom's momentum against him. As the rogue stumbled, she slid underneath his legs, toppling him to the musty ground. The tom growled and tried to twist out of her grasp again, but she was expecting the move, and shifted her weight to stop him from being able to roll.

Echoshine lifted a paw, but before she could strike a silvery she-cat crashed down on top of her, knocking the warrior to her side.

Echoshine lay still, remembering the first time she had beaten Briarsong.

When the she-cat let out a hiss of satisfaction and stepped off of Echoshine, Echoshine threw herself up at the silver rogue, slashing her claws down the rogue's side, then biting down on her tail, sending the she-cat barreling into the bushes.

Echoshine leaped at a small grey tom with a ginger forepaw, easily sending him running off.

Suddenly, she felt small claws clinging to her fur like burrs. She looked down, and there was Snakeroot. She shook the small kit off, picked him up by his scruff, and ran to the forest, dropping him down on the ground. "Battles are not for kits," she growled, "go."

The kit looked up at her with wide eyes, then ran off into the woods.

Echoshine watched him go. He'll come back when the battle's over, she thought.

Then she turned tail and sprang back into battle.

"Echoshine!"

She looked around and saw her brother fending off two white rogues, and ran over to help. The she-cat twisted around to face her, and she and Echoshine clawed fiercely at each other.

Echoshine slashed her claws across the she-cat's ear and sent her howling away, helping Ashpool ward off the tom.

Ashpool flicked his tail across her back. "Thanks."

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