Chapter 15
They followed the rest of the Clan back to the camp. As they came through the gorse tunnel and padded into the clearing, they found some of the other cats emerging from their dens to see what had happen. Mossflower emerged out of the nursery and came to sit in between Runningwind and Scourgeclaw, with Fireheart sitting on Scourgeclaw's other side and Graystripe sitting beside him. They watched Bluestar leap to the top of the high rock to address the clan.
"ShadowClan was present at the gathering, and they have a new leader, Nightpelt." She began to speak. One-eye looked up sharply and gave her a questioning look.
"You mean he hasn't been accepted by StarClan?" One-eye asked curiously. Bluestar looked over at her for a moment, before she continued to speak.
"No, he's going to receive his nine lives from StarClan tomorrow night." She replied. This caused some cats to murmur amongst each other. Scourgeclaw could hear One-eye mutter something about leaders shouldn't address the Clan's without being accepted by StarClan. "I have told the other Clans that WindClan must be returned to their territory." Scourgeclaw was confused by why Bluestar would put all her effort into finding cats that couldn't defend their own territory. He had thought that some of the cats had been right about why WindClan shouldn't be found, but he supposed that since those same cats had a been unable to drive the tyrant out of their own territory and had been too cowardly to fight the cat in the first place, he figured WindClan deserved some respect for fighting for their territory and not simply handing it over to Brokenstar. He glanced around noticing that other cats seemed to agree that the WindClan warriors deserved to return to their territory, much to Scourgeclaw's surprise. Bluestar waited for silence before speaking once more.
"I have been told of a possible alliance between RiverClan and ShadowClan, They weren't too happy about me wanting WindClan to return." She meowed solemnly. The Clan was surprised by this information. Willowpelt asked the question that was on everyone's minds.
"But what would RiverClan want with the uplands? They get fat off the fish in the river." She meowed above the voices of her Clan mates. Dappletail raised her voice above the chatter.
"I heard from a group of RiverClan elders that prey has become hard to find since, twolegs have settled by the river and catch fish and the twoleg kits swim and disrupt the fish." Dappletail rasped with a few other cats agreeing with her. Bluestar seemed to except this answer.
"Yes that would explain why Crookedstar seemed to be so defensive." She meowed softly, looking among her cats. "But, this doesn't change the facts that WindClan must return, the forest will not be balanced if they do not return." Others murmured their agreement. Bluestar then let the cats continue to talk amongst themselves, as she jumped down from the highrock and padded into her den with Tigerclaw following closely behind her. Scourgeclaw felt a pelt brush against his flank. He turned to see that it was Mousefur, who had brushed against him.
"Something wrong?" she asked quietly, Scourgeclaw glanced at her a moment before slowly shaking his head and giving a small yawn.
"No, I'm just tired I'm going to retire." He meowed back. Mousefur nodded and followed him into the warrior's den. Scourgeclaw felt her brush against his fur before falling asleep.
Scourgeclaw awoke and stretched out of his nest and looked around. He quickly noticed that Fireheart and Graystripe weren't in their nests, he also noticed that Mousefur wasn't in her nest either, he figured that they all probably went hunting, he gave himself one more stretch then padded out of the warrior's den. He let the sun warm his black pelt as he sat close to the entrance to the warriors den and began to wash himself, he gave a nod to Goldenclaw, as he passed him, heading into the den. As he finished he noticed Mousefur padding toward him with a squirrel in her jaws, which she placed at his paws.
"Good morning, Scourgeclaw"
"Good morning Mousefur." She nudged the squirrel with her paw.
"Do you want to share this squirrel with me? I was going to share with Runningwind, but he had to go on dawn patrol." Scourgeclaw nodded in agreement and the two lied down beside each other, taking bites from the squirrel. They ate peacefully for a while as other cats got ready for the day. He looked up from the squirrel as he noticed Fireheart and Graystripe coming out of Bluestar's den and heading for Yellowfang's clearing. He licked his lips clean of fresh-kill and excused himself from Mousefur, before padding toward the clearing to greet his brother. As he approached he noticed his brother gulping down, traveling herbs. He blinked slowly in confusion, picking up his pace to reach Fireheart just as he swallowed the last of the herbs.
"Fireheart, Graystripe, Yellowfang." He greeted each with a nod. Fireheart glanced at him with a look of excitement.
"Scourgeclaw, Bluestar is sending, Graystripe and I on a mission to find WindClan." Scourgeclaw blinked at him slowly in shock.
"She's only sending the two of you? She isn't sending anyone else?" He asked quietly. Fireheart shook his head.
"No, she and Tigerclaw agreed that ThunderClan couldn't afford to send the two of us. With the possibility of an alliance between ShadowClan and RiverClan, not to mention it's going to start getting close to leaf-bare." Scourgeclaw hissed under his breath. "I think she would have chosen you to go if you didn't have Falconpaw to train." Fireheart added quickly. 'Mouse-dung I did forget that I'm a mentor now.' He inwardly hissed at himself. He became so distracted by his inner thoughts that he hadn't noticed Mossflower coming to sit beside him. He listened as Fireheart told Mossflower about his and Graystripe's mission. He heard her congratulate him and Graystripe on their first mission and told them to get going with a gentle nudge to their flanks. They finished their goodbyes, before they took off for the gorse tunnel. Mossflower nudged Scourgeclaw to get his attention.
"They'll be fine, you know this as well as I do." She murmured softly. Scourgeclaw nodded and gave a long sigh. 'I suppose I should see this as a test to see how much of a warrior he's become.' He thought to himself. He glanced at Mossflower and noticed right away that she seemed very upset and distracted by something.
"Is there something bothering you?" he asked softly. She sighed before glancing around. The clearing was full of warriors returning from patrol, leaving for patrol and taking out apprentices.
"Let's find a quiet place to talk." She meowed just as softly. He nodded and began to head toward the camp entrance. The apprentice den caught his eye and in the entrance he could see Falconpaw watching him closely. He halted and turned around to face Mossflower.
"Let me speak with Falconpaw for a moment." He meowed. She nodded in understanding, and padded forward to greet Runningwind, who had just returned from his patrol with Whitestorm and Sandpaw. Scourgeclaw padded over to the apprentice den. Falconpaw stood up and padded forward to greet him.
"Morning Scourgeclaw," Falconpaw meowed lowly holding his mentor's cold gaze.
"Morning, Falconpaw," Scourgeclaw meowed, his voice was equally as low, "I want you to assist the elders for now, I'll take you hunting later." Falconpaw nodded and bounded off to the elders den to check on the elders.
He glanced back at Mossflower and saw her greet Runningwind affectionately, and murmur something quietly to the swift tabby before continuing to follow Scourgeclaw through the gorse tunnel. They climbed up to the ravine and began to pad alongside each other. They had put a bit of distance between themselves and the camp, heading toward the owl tree.
Once they had reached the owl tree they settled down underneath it, into the shade. Mossflower sighed once more. Scourgeclaw rolled his eyes before speaking up.
"Okay, what did you want to talk about?" he asked quietly. He wasn't certain where the patrols had been sent for the day so he felt it would be better to keep his voice down in case anyone overheard them.
"I saw Kana, yesterday." Mossflower mewled softly. Scourgeclaw blinked in surprise, but gave her a nod to continue. "I asked her about my littermates and what she told me…" she trailed off. Scourgeclaw gave her a questioning look.
"What about your littermates?" he asked. "What did she say to you?" Mossflower glanced at him for a moment, and then she sighed softly.
"A while ago I heard the elders talking about my father, this ThunderClan warrior named Thrushpelt, they talked about him being a great warrior who was fiercely loyal to Bluestar, and ThunderClan." Mossflower spoke quietly.
"Okay, what about him?" Scourgeclaw asked with a hint of confusion. Mossflower rolled her eyes.
"I wasn't finished you know I was getting to that." Scourgeclaw touched her shoulder with his tail gently to placate her, knowing she could become agitated very quickly.
"Fine, I'm listening. I'm not going to interrupt you until you finish talking." He meowed. Mossflower gave him a nod of understanding before continuing,
"When I spoke to Kana we both talked about how proud she was of us for joining the Clans and how happy she was that I was going to have kits soon." She purred softly at the memory. "I then asked her about my littermates, and whether or not she knew about my littermates and if she knew what happened to them… She told me that Bluestar planned to give them to our father." She finished looking at Scourgeclaw. Scourgeclaw blinked slowly in confusion
"What do you mean? If he's a part of ThunderClan, why would she need to give your littermates to him?" he asked
"That's just it, I don't understand it either. It almost sounds as though…" she trailed off. Scourgeclaw looked curiously at her.
"Sounds as though what?"
"It sounds like she gave them up to be killed." She finished with a soft mewl of distress.
"That doesn't make any sense though, why save you and not them?" he questioned.
"I don't know but it's the only thing that makes the most sense." Mossflower mewled. Scourgeclaw shook his head slowly.
"You should talk to Bluestar, she'll probably tell you." he meowed. This time it was Mossflower's turn to shake her head.
"But what if it's true? What if their death was covered up by the fox story?" she hissed quietly.
"Listen to what you're saying. You're alive and your disappearance was covered up by the fox story. How do we know that your littermates aren't alive?"
"We don't, but I still don't want to ask Bluestar just yet about them."Scourgeclaw sighed and stood up to head back to camp.
"Fine, I suppose you don't have to ask her right away." He meowed softly. "But keep this in mind, the elders said that they never found the kits bodies." Mossflower seemed to be considering what he had said as he started to pad back to camp, but Mossflower's brisk mew stopped him.
"Scourgeclaw, wait there is one more thing that I need to tell you." she mewled as she reached Scourgeclaw's side.
"What is it?"
"Well before I ran into Kana, I was following this unfamiliar cat's scent." Scourgeclaw looked at her in surprise.
"Was it a Clan scent?" she shook her head.
"No it wasn't and I don't think that it was a kittypet either, it carried a faint scent of crowfood."
"Did you tell Bluestar? Or anyone else?" she shook her head.
"No, I didn't want to risk any of them catching Kana, and as you can imagine I wasn't too keen on speaking to Bluestar after our conversation." Scourgeclaw sighed again
"I understand, but where did you catch a whiff of the scent?" he asked curious to find just how far from camp she had traveled to find the scent."
"I was in the pine forest, Kana had climbed up an oak tree near where I caught the scent." She meowed.
"How far into it did you travel?" Mossflower seemed to think a moment.
"Not very far I had crossed the twoleg path and traveled a few foxlength's in when I caught the scent."
"Well it doesn't surprise me that no one's found anything yet, how fresh was this scent?" he asked
"Pretty fresh, however it wasn't strong enough for me to be too concerned about it." Scourgeclaw consider this before responding.
"I'll go check it and see if the cat is still there okay?" she nodded
"Fine, just be careful okay?" scourgeclaw twitched his tail in acknowledgement before changing direction and heading for pine forest.
It was getting close to sunhigh as Scourgeclaw reached the pine forest, and he began to pad through the forest, taking a moment to briefly wonder why it was called the pine forest when there where other kinds of trees besides pine in it, when he caught the scent of a very familiar cat. He growled low in his throat and became a little agitated. 'What is she doing here?' he hissed in his head. Growling softly, he followed the she-cat's scent as it led him in the direction of his camp. He could see the thorny tunnel, which had an oak tree on each side of it, as he approached and with another growl he charged into the tunnel. As he emerged from the other side, he found that the scent had grown stronger and he could smell a hint of fear mixed in the scent. He stopped and listened closely padding quietly into the clearing and looking around. He turned and headed toward the log that kept his dog teeth. He stuck his white paw inside and slipped the teeth onto his claws. Suddenly he saw a flash of ginger disappear under the bush that was surrounded by brambles. He hissed under his breath before padding directly for the bush, when he was a tail-length from the entrance, the cat sprung at him with claws unsheathed he quickly dodged the assault and tripped the cat with his hind leg leaping and pinning the cat with his white paw.
"I'm only going to ask you once, what are you doing here Brick?" he growled quietly.
(I should just leave it here but I won't)
The ginger she cat looked up in both fear and shock.
"Scourge, you're alive? It's really you?" she asked softly, Scourgeclaw sighed in exasperation.
"You didn't answer my question Brick."
"I'm sorry it's just… well I've been looking for you for a while now, it's just a shock to see you now." Scourgeclaw looked at her curiously, taking his paw off her throat.
"Why aren't you with my cats? What has happened?" Brick sighed sadly as she was let up of the ground.
"It's not good Scourge, Dagger has taken over." Scourgeclaw growled in anger scraping his white paw along the ground, causing Brick to flinch.
"How did this happen? And what about Bone?" he growled
"Dagger had some followers of his own and they each got some support from your regulars so they quickly got the advantage over your guard." Brick began softly. Scourgeclaw twitched his tail in agitation. "Things have been rough for your guards since you've gone and we've all split up to search for you." Scourgeclaw snorted
"Why bother the cats have Dagger for a leader now they don't need me, why would they want me back?" Brick shook her head frantically.
"No they do need you, Dagger isn't what they expected." She meowed softly.
"And why is that?" Brick looked down at her paws
"The cats thought that he would be…" she trailed of and didn't meet his gaze. Scourgeclaw looked questioningly at her, while his tail twitched in agitation. He sighed suddenly as he realized why she fell silent.
"You may speak freely Brick, I won't hurt you." he meowed Brick lifted her head to look at his ice blue eyes. When she saw that he was serious she began to speak once more.
"You see during the overthrow, a lot of cats said that you were unfair with the way you ran the group." Scourgeclaw hissed
"Oh and why is that?" Brick twitched with a look of unease on her face. He quickly noticed that she was shivering and fluffing out her coat. He too was felling the cool air and figured it would be better to find someplace warmer to talk. He glanced behind him, his eyes resting on the old stump.
"Come on we'll talk in there," he meowed pointing with his tail toward the opening in the stump. Brick nodded and followed Scourgeclaw to the tree stump with an opening. Once they were inside the tree stump they sat on the sandy ground.
"What did my cats think of me Brick?" he asked again staring intently into her eyes.
"They felt that it was unfair that you didn't let families stay together, they also thought your punishments were harsh and they didn't think that you had done enough to help them get food, but I bet now plenty of cats know that wasn't true." Scourgeclaw narrowed his eyes.
"Now, what has Dagger been doing?" Scourge growled lowly.
"Once Dagger took control, he changed a lot of the rules with the cats." Brick started slowly. Scourgeclaw nodded, letting her know she could continue. "He's forced kits to leave their mothers and fend for themselves at three moons of age. He also makes every cat hunt for him, he doesn't lift a paw." Scourgeclaw blinked slowly, and took in the information that was being told to him. "If you thought that there was barely enough to eat for every cat, there is nothing now. Dagger keeps it all for himself and the rest of us grow hungrier every day, the only cats that are taken care of are his own personal guards. He even punishes kits if they don't bring him any prey, he's horrible and any cat that breathes your name is punished it's worse than it was when that dog was guarding our best food spot." Brick finished shiver with a hunted look in her eye.
"You say my guards are all looking for me? Including Bone?"
"Well Bone, Ice and Snake stayed behind to try and get on Dagger's good side, to hopefully try and make things better and to prepare for your return." Brick meowed gently. "If you do decide to return." Brick watched Scourgeclaw staring curiously at him for a long time. Scourgeclaw watched her before speaking up.
"What do you want Brick? Is there something else on your mind?" Brick blinked slowly and breathed in softly before responding,
"What happened Scourge? Why did you leave us?"
"It wasn't by choice if that's what you think." Brick looked at Scourgeclaw with confusion,
"What do you mean?" Scourgeclaw then began to explain to her all that had occurred the several moons he had been away; from his capture, to joining ThunderClan, to meeting Boulder all the way to finding her in his camp.
"I have another question Scourge, I mean Scourgeclaw, why didn't you come back once you were free of the house?"
"I was curious about these Clan cats and their way of life, I wanted to know more about how they ran things." Brick nodded in understanding.
"So what will you do now?"
(Okay I will end it here, what do you think?
~For those who don't know Brick was one of Scourgeclaw's first followers and was his other right paw, basically she was on the same level as Bone in The Rise of Scourge.~)
