Chapter 4

Seal snaked her foreleg back into the cave and gingerly licked her shoulder, cringing as her rough tongue brushed over the tender flesh. What did Copperstar mean by 'why you were so important to kill'? She didn't think it was because she had blood of all four Clans around the lake. So, then… Was she actually SkyClan? She tried to think back to stories of her grandparents, heading into the darkest corner of the den. Her grandfather, on her dad's side, had been ShadowClan, while Addertalon's mother had been ThunderClan… Sleekotter… Well, her mother was the RiverClan blood, while her father… Was half Wind, half Sky. She remembered it suddenly. He had been the first cat to be killed at a Gathering, beginning the reservation of SkyClan descendants for Gatherings. Sleekotter's mother hadn't cared that any kits would be triple-Clan-cats. Seal laid her head on the ground, paws placed over her head. She heard a cat appear at the cave entrance and the groaning of the twigs as it was removed. How? She didn't know. She knew the time had come.

Copperstar appeared right in front of Seal but she didn't even look up. "Did you finally figure it out? You have blood from every last Clan, including that stupid SkyClan. The Clans have never seen this before. A cat that could claim traits and blood from any Clan they wish." Copperstar was about to shove Seal towards the entrance as she finished her taunting, but was instead met with a flurry of claws. For a moment the leader was shocked and the tip of her ear was shredded off, then she charged at Seal and placed a paw on the younger she-cat's throat. Seal gasped for air as the leader slowly crushed her windpipe. After a moment Copperstar released the pressure and Seal managed to take in a deep breath of air before a heavy paw came crashing down on her head, sending her world quickly spinning away into blackness.

Russet watched the entrance of the cave carefully. After a while, Copperstar's tail emerged from the indent, then the rest of her sturdy figure. He just barely suppressed a gasp when he saw Seal's limp body in her teeth. At first he thought she was already dead. Then he realized that would take away the fun of the death, and he also noted the faint rise and fall of Seal's chest with each breath. She was still alive…

Copperstar cried out, "Behold! Leader of the half-Clan rebellion, finally captured! A cat with blood of every Clan in our clutches!" She let the words hang in the air for a moment before adding, in a lower tone, "Including that pitiful SkyClan."

Gasps of shock echoed around the clearing, including a few from the rebellion cats. But their sounds blended in with the pureblood cats' gasps so it went unnoticed. This proved to be quite a show. Just a short distance in front of Russet a pair of ShadowClan cats talked with one another. One had been his mentor, the other his mother.

"Is it true? She even carries blood of SkyClan?" His former mentor.

"It must be if Copperstar claims it so. She's her aunt, at least, I think that's it…" muttered his mother.

His mentor corrected, "No, she was only the brat's father's half-sister."

"Oh, but still, that means she can run like WindClan."

"And swim like one of those RiverClan fish-faces."

"And she should have the fighting ability of the average ThunderClan cat."

"And she'd be as silent as one of us in the darkness, short of that ridiculous pelt color."

"And then jumping like SkyClan? She's too dangerous to keep alive." Russet's mother glanced back up at Seal. The multi-Clan she-cat had begun to stir, slowly coming back to awareness.

Colors and light once again poured into Seal's vision. She groggily rose to her paws. The clearing was silent, a good thing in Seal's opinion. Her head was throbbing. She could just faintly scent the rebellion cats. She had expected them to come. Her tail flicked over her paws and the tip curled ever so slightly. To the average cat it was just a weird habit, but to Sleet and Blurry it meant she knew they were there.

Seal glanced up at the leaders. Now she knew why the clearing was silent. Copperstar was talking about how she deserved to be killed, for 'befouling the blood of all five Clans and revolting against ancient traditions.'

Seal was tempted to charge up to the leaders and tear Copperstar to pieces, but it wouldn't help. Just make her case even worse. She heard Copperstar finish her little speech and carefully, agonizingly slowly, stalked down the tree to level ground. Seal acted as though she didn't notice, in awe of the Fourtrees. But Copperstar knew it was a trick.

"Die, traitor!" she screeched before jumping straight at Seal's throat. But, suddenly, it wasn't there. Instead she met with Seal on her back, shoving the ThunderClan leader away with all four paws. Seal quickly scrambled back to her paws and yowled, "Attack!"

Half-Clan cats poured into the clearing, fighting former Clanmates and kin. She saw Sleet and Blurry fighting side-by-side against their father and Russet was assisting a dark-furred tabby she-cat against the RiverClan deputy. Several other battles were going on, but she had to have made sure those three were okay. She hadn't wanted her capture to go to waste by Russet being captured by ShadowClan, and if her half-brother and half-sister hadn't been here she didn't think she'd fight properly.

But that was all she bothered checking. Now she charged towards Copperstar who was standing where the deputies usually did. Seal charged at the she-cat, who was busy clawing another half-Clan cat, and latched onto her back, hind claws tearing ruthlessly into her spine. Then Seal tore her fangs into Copperstar's throat, causing the leader to fall limp. Seal got off of the ThunderClan leader and told the half-Clan cat, "Get out of here. Go back to camp and send a second wave. That might end the fighting faster." The cat nodded its head then limped off as fast a possible, diving into the lake and swimming onto the shore, as the log was crowded with pureblooded cats blocking half-Clan escape.

Seal watched her run in the direction of the rebellion camp before a heavy weight slammed her to the ground, sending stars bursting across her vision. She smelled Copperstar and managed to snarl, "I thought I killed you!"

The ThunderClan leader just retorted, "I have one more life, my dear. That was only my eighth!"

Seal couldn't believe she had been so stupid! She had forgotten the fact the leader had another life left. She braced herself for certain death, but, just as suddenly it had appeared, the weight lifted off her back. She lifted her gaze and, just in front of her, was the spirits of Sleekotter and Addertalon. The pair screeched, "You will not kill our daughter!" pounding Copperstar with heavy swipes and sharp bites until the grass beneath the ThunderClan leader was painted bright scarlet with her blood.

Seal dashed to her parents' side, joining their attack on Copperstar. Eventually Sleekotter managed to pin down the ThunderClan leader, but then she disappeared. Addertalon stared in shock, and then, with a glance at Seal, he said, "We've run out of time in the living world!" before he, too, disappeared.

Now it was once again just Seal and Copperstar. Before the golden-rusty she-cat could gain her paws, Seal pinned her in Sleekotter's stead and dug her claws deep into the leader's shoulders. Her mind, for a moment, saw Yarrowstar instead of Copperstar. She growled, "My father said I'd always have the strength to go on. And I do. I'll kill you here and now, before the other Clans, to end this madness!"

Seal lunged forewords and sunk her teeth into Copperstar's throat. But, a moment before fang met flesh, Copperstar shot a paw out and tore open Seal's throat as well. But the she-cat didn't grow rigid as her father had. Her teeth instead clamped down harder as Copperstar's pelt was stained with a mixture of her own blood and Seal's blood. Copperstar died only a few heartbeats before Seal's eyes rolled into the back of her skull and she, herself, slumped to the ground, lifeblood leaking through the deadly wound on her neck.