Chapter Eleven

Silver Fighter

Burying Wren was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Harder than learning about my parents' deaths, harder then fighting to leave the monster graveyard, harder than leaving Bear with the twolegs.

We lay side by side for a long time after burying her. I was the first to force myself to my feet. I left Fox where he was, sitting in front of the mound of dirt that covered my sister, and forced myself to go hunting. When I returned with a small mouse, he hadn't moved. I dropped the mouse in front of him and told him to eat it. Later, he went out hunting and brought a mouse back for me.

We hung around the area for a couple days, until we came to an unspoken agreement to move on. So we walked.

We walked away from the fields that were going to be our home. We walked away from the twolegplace where Fox's mother had made her terrible prediction. We walked away from Wren.

We walked away side by side. Brothers, just like Wren would have wanted.

(***)

The cat who attacked us regretted it.

I had so much pent-up anger, I just let it loose. The cat ran off pretty quickly after that. I stood in the alley and watched him run, so tense that I almost spun around and attacked Fox when he meowed.

"Oh, Shatter... now he'll come back with all his friends."

"Good. Let them come." I glanced over at him. "I can handle it."

He rolled his eyes. "Until you run out of energy."

"Doesn't happen."

It was about a moon after Wren's death. We hadn't forgotten her, we would never forget her. But we had other things to worry about. I kept remembering that kittypet who had warned me about an evil clan... she was right, it seemed. As Fox and I moved through the twolegplace, we were constantly attacked or threatened by other cats.

I was enjoying it, though. The fighting helped me to keep my mind off of Wren. But Fox was right, I was running out of steam. It was hard to find food in the twolegplace, so I'd had very little chance to recover from each fight.

At least, until then, the cats had only been attacking alone or in small groups. I felt like we hadn't yet reached the clan of cats that the kittypet had warned me about. But we were getting close.

It wasn't until the next day that we got 'too close'.

(***)

"What now, Shatter?" Fox hissed in my ear.

We were surrounded. I was pretty sure we could fight our way out, but Fox didn't seem to like that idea much. It was the most cats I'd ever had against me at once. At least seven, and I wouldn't have been surprised if there were more lurking in the shadows.

"Well, we could always kill them all?"

"I don't think so."

I flicked my tail, "Why not?"

"Why do you think?" Fox meowed. "I'm going to talk to that big one," he added. "I think he's the leader." he stepped forward before I could protest. "Is there a problem?"

The huge black and white cat, who was bigger than me, I'll admit, snarled. "You're in BloodClan territory."

"We're just traveling through," Fox meowed. "We'll gladly go around your clan's land if you'd show us to the border."

The cat shook his head. "Scourge wants to see you himself. He's heard tales of 'a silver spotted cat with unnatural strength'." he glanced over at me.

"It's all natural," I meowed. "I'm just a better fighter then all the cats who tried to attack us... and bigger, might I add."

"Shatter," Fox meowed under his breath. He turned back to the huge cat. "Shatter was just defending himself against the cats who attacked us," he meowed. "We didn't mean to seem like we were attacking your clan."

"Scourge wants to see you," the cat repeated. "And you'll come with us. Scourge gets what he wants."

(***)

I wasn't happy trailing after the huge cat. I wanted to leap up and attack him, but Fox's presence at my side stopped me. The cat, along with his six friends, led us through the twolegplace until we reached an alley that was filled with cats. A lot of them I recognized as cats I'd fought off.

"Can't you ever make friends?" Fox muttered.

I purred, dispite our predicament. "Making friends isn't what I do."

"Bone?"

The loud meow drew my attention away from Fox. I looked around for the cat who had meowed.

"Is this the silver fighter?"

This time a saw the cat as he spoke, and I almost yowled in shock. The cat was so tiny! A little black kitten. The huge cat in front of me nodded.

"This is him, Scourge." he stepped out of the way so that the little black cat could see me.

I glanced at the huge cat. "Really? Why don't you just step on him and take over?" the alley was suddenly filled with snarling cats.

The little cat approached me. "My clan didn't like that comment."

"Right..." I looked at Fox. He was also shocked about the clan's leader, he was just better at hiding it than I was.

"I've heard stories about you," the little cat meowed. "The silver fighter. At first I was going to sent Bone to dispose of you, but then I realized – you could be useful to me. So I'm going to give you a choice. Will you join BloodClan?"

I glanced at Fox to see his bright green eyes staring back at me.