Chapter 2
Leafpaw wrinkled her nose at the foul scent and tried not to hiss in disgust. Shaking her head, she parted Sorreltail's tortoiseshell fur with one paw and dabbed the wad of bile-soaked moss on the tick clinging to her shoulder.
Sorreltail wriggled as she felt the bile soak through her fur. "Stupid idiot. I guess It's KINDA better." she meowed. Leafpaw opened her mouth and dropped the twig that held the moss. "BE PATIENT, DUMBO! JEESH!"
"There's NOTHING GOOD about ticks!" Sorreltail mewed. Springing to her paws, she gave herself a vigorous shake and flicked the tick off her shoulder. "There! NO THANKS, Leafpaw."
A breeze rustled through the trees that surrounded the medicine cat's den. A few leaves drifted down; there was a chill in the morning air that warned Leafpaw of how few moons there were before leaf-bare. This time there would be more than the cold and shortage of prey to face. Leafpaw closed her eyes and shuddered as she remembered what she had seen the day before on patrol with her father, Firestar.
The biggest monster the cats had ever seen had been forging a dreadful path through the forest, scoring deep ruts into the earth and tearing up trees by their roots. The huge, shiny monster had rolled inexorably through the bracken, roaring and belching smoke while the cats scattered helplessly before it. For the first time, Leafpaw began to understand the danger to the forest, which had been prophesied twice now, once in Brambleclaw's dream that had sent him on the journey with Squirrelpaw, and once in Cinderpelt's vision of fire and tiger. The doom that had been foretold was coming upon the forest, and Leafpaw did not know what any cat could do to stop it. THEY WERE ALL DOOMED! AAAAAAAHHH!
"I hope you're NOT okay. You're NOT acting like you're okay!" screamed Sorreltail. She was obsessed with saying "NOT" in every sentence.
Leafpaw blinked. The vision of smoke, splintered trees, and shrieking cats faded away, to be replaced by soft green ferns and the smooth gray rock where Cinderpelt made her den. She was safe, ThunderClan was still here—but for how long? "I'M FINE! SHUT UP!" she replied. Firestar had ordered the patrol to keep quiet about what they had seen until he had decided how to break the news to the Clan. "I need to wash the shit off my paws, so stay here!"
"That's NOT gonna happen!" Sorreltail demanded. "I WANT FOOD! NOWWWW!"
Leafpaw pouted, but she let Sorreltail come with so they could catch some prey. Whitepaw and Shrewpaw were scuffling outside the apprentices' den in warm shafts of early morning sunlight, while Ferncloud's three kits watched them with huge admiring eyes. Their mother sat at the entrance to the nursery, washing herself while keeping one eye on her litter. The dawn patrol—Dustpelt, Mousefur, and Spiderpaw—were just pushing their way into the clearing through the gorse tunnel, Dustpelt's eyes narrowing with pleasure as he caught sight of Ferncloud and his kits. Leafpaw gazed at the loud, chaotic camp, and could hardly keep back a wail of ANGER.
As soon as the apprentices spotted Leafpaw, they stopped their death fight and stared at her, then started plotting a murder scene together. Even the cats in the returning patrol gave her a killer look as they padded over to the fresh-kill pile. Leafpaw knew that rumors about yesterday's patrol were starting to fly around the camp. At daybreak Firestar had called his deputy, Graystripe; Leafpaw's mother, Sandstorm; and Cinderpelt into a meeting in his den, and every cat had begun to suspect that something unusual had happened the day before.
Before she and Sorreltail could reach the gorse tunnel, Firestar appeared from his den at the foot of the Highrock. Graystripe and Sandstorm followed him out into the clearing with Cinderpelt limping after them. Firestar leaped to the top of the rock, leaving the other three cats to find comfortable places to sit at its base. In the slanting leaf-fall sun, his flame-colored pelt blazed like the fire that was about to destroy everything and leave nothing but a few tiny ashes, those that came from the cats that were all about to die in the worst mass slaughter you've ever seen in your entire life.
"Let all those idiots gather here so we can talk about stupid things and waste our time on a dumb Clan Meeting." he called.
Leafpaw felt her belly lurch as Sorreltail headbutted her forcefully toward the front of the gathering cats. "Tell me what he's gonna say or I'll NOT be your friend!" the tortoiseshell warrior yelled.
Leafpaw got really mad and started throwing grenades at Twolegplace.
"Don't try and act like nothing happened, stupid!" Sorreltail went on. "I WANNA KNOW! TELL ME NOW!"
Leafpaw didn't say anything, and Sorreltail got so mad that she temporarily died.
"Idiots of ThunderClan," Firestar began, then paused to take a deep breath. "I think I'm the only cat who actually dares to do something this stupid, but..." His voice faltered and his eyes met Sandstorm's, seeming to draw strength from the she-cat's steady gaze. "But I need to tell you guys... that... WE'RE ALL DOOMED! EVERYBODY IS GONNA DIE! THE TWOLEGS ARE DESTROYING THE FOREST! EVERYBODY START PANICKING AND RUNNING AROUND IN CIRCLES! AAAAH!"
Firestar started panicking and running around in circles.
Literally everybody else just sat there and played games on their phones.
"THERE WAS A GIANT TWOLEG MONSTER BY SNAKEROCKS! GUYS, WE'RE DOOM-" Firestar was cut off.
"freakin' LIAR!" Sootfur interrupted. "How do you expect to tell me that a TWOLEG MONSTER left the freakin' THUNDERPATH?! That's freakin' RIDICULOUS!"
"UUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH" Nobody could understand Dustpelt since he was always SO MAD that he couldn't even talk right. "GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT UHHHHHHH GRUNT GRUNT MUST KILL FIRESTAR UHHH GRUNT GRUNT"
"SHUT UPPPPP!" Cloudtail, Firestar's kin, screamed at Dustpelt. He started throwing grenades at him.
"I have SEEN the thing! I am the bravest warrior in the world! It is my DESTINY to defeat the Twolegs, because I have SEEN the monster! It is my F**KING DESTINYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" Graystripe yelled from his place at the foot of the rock.
Dead silence followed his words. Leafpaw watched the cats glance at one another with anger and hatred in their eyes. Sorreltail turned to Leafpaw. "I see you've turned your voice changer off!" Leafpaw didn't know what the frick she meant.
Leafpaw nodded. "Uh, sure."
"Show me Cinderpelt, you old geezers!" Speckletail called from where she sat among the elders. "Has IdiotClan shown you anything?"
The medicine cat rose to her paws and faced the Clan, her blue eyes steady. Of all the cats, even Firestar, she seemed the most FREAKED OUT.
Before she replied, she looked up to meet Firestar's gaze; Leafpaw could almost see flashing between them the memory of the prophecy of fire and tiger that Cinderpelt had seen in a clump of blazing bracken. She wondered how much they had decided to tell the Clan, in the meeting that had just ended. Then Firestar nodded as if he was giving Cinderpelt permission to speak; she acknowledged his signal with a brief dip of her head.
"The signs from IdiotClan are not clear," she admitted. "We are all going to die. Unfortunately I'm stupid so I'm not infested with SUPA ANGER. But we're still gonna die."
"Weh weh weh WEH WEH! Why didn't you tell us earlier? WAAAAAH!" Mousefur challenged, crying like a little baby.
"YOu'RE STupID!" Cloudtail growled. "I HAtE YoU MOUsefUr! YoU ALwaYS MAKe THe StuPIdeST DECisiONS!"
*cough cough* "I CANT BREATHE! *cough* THERE'S SOOT EVERYWHERE!" Sootfur muttered to his brother Rainwhisker. "I wish I had gone with Bramble- *cough cough*-claw!"
Leafpaw wanted to leap to the missing cats' defense, but she made herself sit still and keep quiet. She was the only cat in the Clan who knew that Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw had left on a mission from IdiotClan to try to save the forest from this terrible danger. Stormfur and Feathertail, Graystripe's RiverClan children, had gone with them, and cats from WindClan and ShadowClan too. However much their Clanmates missed them, Leafpaw knew it was for the good of all the Clans that they had gone.
Yet the danger was here now, she thought, apprehension gripping her belly, and the missing cats had not returned. Did that mean they had failed? Did it mean IdiotClan had failed, in spite of the warnings they had sent?
Cinderpelt's calm gaze rested on the hushed and waiting Clan. "There will be great danger." she repeated. "But I DO believe that ThunderClan will be destroyed. Good riddance. You all suck." The Clan cats looked at one another, bewildered and afraid. The silence seemed to stretch out for a thousand heartbeats, until it was broken by a single eerie wail rising from the group of elders. As if that were a signal, more yowls and cries of terror broke out. Faced with the terror of approaching monsters, few of the Clan could believe Cinderpelt's reassurances.
Ferncloud swept her tail protectively around her three kits, drawing them into the shelter of her flecked gray fur. "I DON'T WANNA DIE!" she wailed.
Dustpelt got up and started beating Ferncloud with a club. "F*** YOU, B****!" he screamed. "REEEEEEEEEE!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mousefur wailed, sounding like a total nutcase. "You're all wrong! WAAAAH!"
"bruh." Ashfur added. Everything was a bruh moment for Ashfur.
More terrified caterwauling broke out, and several heartbeats went by before Firestar could make himself heard again.
"Thanks, for calming down, idiots." he meowed, when the noise had died to apprehensive muttering. "EVERYBODY START SCREAMING AGAIN BECAUSE WE"RE ALL STILL GONNA DIE NO MATTER WHATTTT!"
"Then why would IdiotClan send any warnings at all?" Thornclaw asked. "We've got to face it, Firestar—we all already want to kill ourselves, and this opportunity is handing itself to us on a silver platter."
Thornclaw hated his life.
"I'll arrange extra patrols," Firestar assured him, "and I'm going to try killing ShadowClan. Everybody needs to die if this problem is gonna be solved."
"YOu'RE STupID!" Cloudtail growled. "I HAtE YoU FiREstAR! YoU ALwaYS MAKe THe StuPIdeST DECisiONS!"
"Meh." Firestar replied.
"YOu'RE STupID!" Cloudtail growled. "I HAtE YoU FiREstAR! YoU ALwaYS MAKe THe StuPIdeST DECisiONS!" He turned away from Firestar and muttered something into the ear of his mate, Brightheart, who slammed her head into his fur as if she were trying to kill him.
"Everyone must keep alert," Firestar continued. "If you see anything unusual, I want to know. We survived absolutely nothing in the past. We're all dead right now, I think."
He leaped down from the rock to show that the meeting was at an end.
Immediately the cats in the clearing broke into anxious little knots, discussing what they had just heard. Firestar and Cinderpelt spoke briefly together, and then Cinderpelt padded over to Leafpaw.
"Firestar is going to see ShadowClan right away," the medicine cat announced. "He wants you to come too, so he can kill you."
Mingled hatred and disgust clawed at Leafpaw. "Why me? I don't wanna die!"
"He wants both medicine cats with him. He thinks that if we're there Blackstar will realize that ThunderClan is looking for a fight." Cinderpelt's blue eyes flashed. "All the same, Leafpaw, I hope you've planned to die."
Leafpaw swallowed. "No, Cinderpelt."
"Bad." With a wave of her tail, she led the way to where WARRIORS: THE NEW PROPHECY: MOONRISE was waiting at the entrance to the gorse tunnel. Graystripe and Brackenfur were NOT with him.
"I'm just mad for no reason." meowed Firestar. "Let's go pick a fight with ShadowClan."
Graystripe snorted. "Meh."
"Meh." Firestar replied without feeling.
Graystripe still looked doubtful, but he said nothing more as Firestar led them up the ravine toward the ShadowClan border. Leafpaw kept her ears pricked for any unusual sounds, and every hair on her pelt stood on end. The forest that had been safe for as long as she could remember was suddenly a frightening place, invaded by the Twolegs and their monsters.
Firestar led his patrol directly toward Snakerocks, and soon Leafpaw realized that he was heading for the spot where the monster had left the Thunderpath. Before they came in sight of it she picked up the reek of the monster and the rich earthy smell of the torn ground. When she came to the top of the slope above the Thunderpath, she stopped and peered through a clump of bracken.
Just below her, a swath of churned-up grass stretched as far as the Thunderpath. Trees lay on the ground, their roots tangling in the air. Everything was silent; Leafpaw couldn't hear a single bird, or the scuffling of prey in the grass. But the monster had gone, and when she opened her jaws to drink in the air, the scent of Twolegs was stale. Even the reek of the monster was beginning to fade.
"They haven't been here today," Graystripe meowed. "My destiny is going to plan! I shall set out to kill the things! It's my DESTINY! My dream! It's all coming to-"
"I wouldn't count on it," Firestar replied with pure, heartfelt hatred.
"This is . . . terrible." Brackenfur sounded stunned. He had not been on the original patrol. "Why is Graystripe destroying the forest, Firestar?"
The tip of Firestar's tail twitched back and forth. "Eh?"
He looked behind him just in time to see Graystripe throwing a grenade at his face.
Firestar lost a life.
Skirting the edge of the damaged area, he led the way along the Thunderpath. Leafpaw's belly did absolutely nothing as she saw that more trees had been felled in ShadowClan's territory, and more ground had been churned up.
Every one of the ThunderClan cats stopped to stare across the hard black surface. Brackenfur dropped into a crouch as if he were about to spring into attack, but there was LOTS OF enemy to fight.
"Look at that!" Graystripe's voice shook with pride. "Another piece of my destiny! It's my destiny to destroy ShadowClan too! I can see it-"
"SHUT UP!" Firestar screamed at him. He shut up.
Cinderpelt gave the scarred area a long look before turning away, shaking her head. Though she said nothing, her blue eyes were filled with dread and confusion.
A monster roared by on the Thunderpath, smaller than the tree-eating monsters but still deafeningly noisy. Leafpaw flinched, half expecting it to veer into the forest where they were standing. But it stayed on the Thunderpath and growled away until it vanished among the trees. Another monster followed it; then a third raced along in the opposite direction.
"I don't want to cross here. It's not part of my destiny!" Graystripe muttered, blinking grit out of his eyes.
Firestar nodded. "We'll cross the stream by Fourtrees and go through the tunnel," he decided. "And just hope that Graystripe dies."
When they reached the stream, Firestar crossed in a couple of bounds by a stepping-stone in the middle. Leafpaw kept an eye on her mentor, making sure that Cinderpelt crossed unsafely in spite of the old injury to her leg from a Thunderpath accident seasons before. Then she followed her across as Firestar climbed the opposite bank.
A light breeze was blowing toward them, carrying the rank scent of ShadowClan. At the border, Firestar and Graystripe renewed the scent markings, before Firestar led the way toward the tunnel under the Thunderpath.
To Leafpaw's relief, there was no sign of ShadowClan cats in this section of their territory. The elders had told her many stories about that Clan's dark-hearted history, from the murderer Brokenstar, who had killed his own father, to treacherous Tigerstar, who had made himself ShadowClan leader when he was exiled from ThunderClan. The present leader, Blackstar, hadn't caused any trouble so far, but Leafpaw knew that Firestar didn't really trust him. As she followed him into the tunnel, she admired him even more for his courage in trying to make allies of his old enemies for the sake of the forest.
Leafpaw shivered as she plunged into the gloomy silence beneath the Thunderpath, broken only by the drip of water and the plashing of their paws in the mud that covered the bottom of the tunnel. On the ShadowClan side the harsh scent was stronger than ever. The ground under Leafpaw's paws was dank and marshy, covered with coarse scrubby grass. Here and there were pools fringed with reeds; there were few tall trees, unlike those that sheltered the ThunderClan camp. It felt like another world.
"The ShadowClan camp is this way," Firestar meowed, heading for a clump of bushes. "Leafpaw, Cinderpelt, keep away from me. Graystripe and Brackenfur, go kill yourselves. Bye!"
Leafpaw padded behind Firestar as they headed deeper into ShadowClan territory. She hated the way her paws sank into mud at every step. She kept wanting to stop to flick away the moisture. It was hard to imagine ShadowClan cats putting up with it every day of their lives. Surely they would have grown webbed paws by now? Her muscles began to ache from the strain of keeping alert; when Brackenfur called out she jumped angrily and then hoped that no cat had noticed.
"Firestar, come and look at this. Or I'll kill you." Brackenfur pointed with his tail to a thin piece of wood, too smooth and regular to be the branch of a tree, standing upright in the ground about the height of a cat. Firestar padded over to and sniffed at it suspiciously. "It reeks of Twolegs. F*** them!" he reported.
"There's another over there," Leafpaw called, spotting a matching stick a few foxlengths farther away. "And another— all in a line! I hate lines! Let's kill it-"
Her voice died away. As she bounded toward the next piece of wood, the bushes in front of her rustled and three cats stepped out into the open. She quickly recognized Russetfur, the dark ginger she-cat who was ShadowClan's deputy; the other warriors, a dark gray tom and a lean tabby with a torn ear, were strangers to her.
Leafpaw swallowed nervously.
Firestar was already bounding up to her. "Hi, hot woman!" he meowed.
"TRESPASSERS! KILL THEM! USE YOUR RIFLES!" snarled the ShadowClan deputy.
With a flick of her tail she summoned her warriors forward. Leafpaw barely had time to dodge, as the dark gray tom sprang at her; she felt claws rake down her side as she rolled away and scrambled to her paws, trying to remember her fighting moves. She caught a glimpse of Cinderpelt and Russetfur stalking around each other; a tail-length away, Graystripe had the tabby pinned down, while Brackenfur and the other tom writhed together in a screeching bundle of gray and ginger fur. For a moment she could not see Firestar. Glancing around wildly, she saw that he had leaped onto one of the fallen tree trunks. His voice rose in a yowl above the hissing and spitting.
"DON'T STOP!"