Chapter 4
The Alliance
Summerpaw, a white and orange spotted apprentice, followed close behind her mentor, Bramblefur. He stopped and turned to look at the apprentice, "What's wrong Summerpaw?"
"Nothing," she smiled, trying to put on a brave face.
Bramblefur chuckled and licked her cheek, "You know, you're a horrible liar. Now tell me, what's wrong? Is it what happened with the badger earlier? Don't worry, it happens to all apprentices."
Summerpaw laughed hesitantly and nodded. 'Yeah, that's it. Not because StarClan had stared at me like I was crazy.'
Bramblefur could see that he hadn't calmed her, so he tried another approach. "Tomorrow's your warrior ceremony, aren't you excited? It couldn't come at a better time; we will need all the warriors we can get if we are to win this thing."
"Yeah, the sooner I become a warrior the better," she mewed, looking into his eyes, willing him to see her hidden meaning. He turned away, ignoring her. She sighed and kept walking, after a few paces she froze and whipped her head around, listening intently for any sound.
"I thought I heard laughter," she muttered, eyes searching the forest around her.
Bramblefur snorted and padded toward Windclan's camp, "I've never had an apprentice with an imagination quite like yours."
As promised Summerpaw, now Summerbreeze, and two other apprentices had their warrior ceremonies, but before they could sit their vigil, Willowstar had an announcement. "Last night, Ripplestar and her deputy requested a meeting with me and against my better judgment, I agreed."
The clan began to whisper amongst themselves, annoyed Willowstar flicked her tail and the deputy called for silence.
"As I was saying," Willowstar continued, "Ripplestar and I have agreed to act as one clan, RiverClan and WindClan together. We must, of course, keep this a secret from both ThunderClan and ShadowClan until the next full moon."
"But Willowsta-" someone started to argue, but Willowstar stopped them with a glare.
"I am no fool. I know RiverClan will use us to help them conquer ThunderClan and ShadowClan before turning on us; we will just have to beat them to it. Now, Ripplestar has decided to bring her clan over tomorrow night so we can get used to their scent, this we will use against them when we attack at the gathering after next." Willowstar leapt from the Tall Stone and padded off into the forest.
'Attack,' thought Summerbreeze, 'at a Gathering?' She began to hyperventilate, 'that would break all the rules in the warrior code.' With her tail dragging on the ground, Summerbreeze joined the other apprentices as they sat their vigil. 'I don't want to fight; I'm not even good at hunting! And there's going to be a war.' She shuddered, the sound of laughter catching her attention. 'Not the laughter again!' She covered her ears with her paws.
Summerbreeze looked up at the sky, the way StarClan had looked at her the night of the Gathering flooding back to her. 'They looked at me like I was stupid, like I was dirty. Is it because of the kits?' She flicked her tail across her belly, 'I know I broke the warrior code, but I'm a warrior now, so it's not really breaking it. That's it! I can use the kits to get out of fighting, they can't ask me to fight while I'm carrying kits.' Her eyes lit up hopefully, 'but…then they'd ask who the father is and he wouldn't like that. No,' she realized with a sigh, 'I have to keep it a secret, just a little longer.'