Chapter 20

I was out of breath by the time I was back in Windclan territory. As I pushed my way through the camp, I realized Heatherstar and Rainstar were in the middle of a meeting. Rainstar stopped speaking when he saw my expression. "What's wrong?" he asked right away, breaking off whatever he had been saying previously.

"Thunderclan invaders! They're hunting in our land!" Angry meows rose from all of the cats in the clearing. Heatherstar yowled for silence.

Rainstar issued orders. "Smallflower, take Wetfoot, Silverheart, Rosedrop, Oakstorm, and Webpelt. Is that enough to match all of Thunderclan's warriors, Silverheart?" I nodded. "Then leave right away. I'll lead a second patrol and come back you up."

We rushed out of the camp I unsheathed my claws as we neared the border. We swam through the stream, the water not slowing us down at all. "Silverheart! Lead us to them!" I ran ahead of Smallflower, taking the lead. I swerved past the training hollow, and let loose a battle cry as we ran straight into the enemy warriors.

I jumped onto Skyleaf, and ran my claws down her flank. She hissed at me, and tried to throw me off. I dug my claws deeper into her fur. She yowled and flung a swipe at me, but I ducked. She rolled, still trying to get me off her back, and I lost my grip. I fell to the ground, landing on my belly. I hissed at her, but before either of us could move, Wetfoot came up from behind and bit her back leg. She spun around and clawed him.

I could see Wetfoot didn't need help from me, so I looked to see if anyone else did. I spotted Webpelt wrestling with Goldfur. He looked to be managing all right, but then I noticed a shadow come up behind him. I ran and pounced on the cat. Then I recognized the scent. Lillypaw! She looked at me in rage, but recognition took over. She looked as uncertain as I felt. While we were just standing there, Rosedrop bit her tail. Lillypaw hissed and turned to defend herself.

I glanced around again. The clearing was full of cats. Oakstorm was fighting Browntail, the oldest Thunderclan warrior, and clearly had the upper hand. Shortpaw was there too, running to Lillypaw's aide but Skyleaf hissed something to her apprentice. Shortpaw changed course and ran off in the direction of Thunderclan territory. Getting reinforcements, I'd guess.

Rainstar's battle cry echoed through the air. He streamed down the hill with Splashspot, Shinewhisker, Reedpelt, Rockshade, Willowshadow and Frostwhisker. They all paired up with a clanmates, and it was two Riverclan warriors against one Thunderclan cat. I joined up with Rockshade and together we fought Hazelpelt, whom I remembered was talking to Smallflower at the last Gathering.

I bit her scruff and pulled hard. She reared up her paws to claw me, but Rockshade swiped his claws at her ears. She was obviously overwhelmed. I swiped at her again, but let go of her scruff. Rockshade clawed her too. Another battle cry rose up through the air. I looked up to see Honeystar emerging over the top of the hill. Behind her was her deputy Redclaw, Smokefur, Tawnyear, Birdsong, Stonefang, and Grassfern.

Rainstar left Oakstorm with Browntail and hurled himself at the Thunderclan leader. She hissed a challenge at him, and the two cats wrestled in a knot of screeching and ripping fur. Smallflower and Redclaw were squaring up to each other. The Thunderclan warriors that just arrived rushed to help their clanmates. Smokefur jumped on me, and I fell to the ground. He ran his claws down my stomach, and I yowled out in pain. Smokefur grinned maliciously and bit my ear.

Rainstar let out a satisfactory yowl, having pinned down Honeystar. She was bleeding heavily but she spat defiantly at him before raising her voice to say, "Thunderclan retreat!" Smokefur rake his claws down my shoulder one last time before running off into the forest.

"And don't come back!" Smallflower called after them. Rainstar gathered us together and we headed for Windclan land.

The river water we had to cross felt good on my pelt; it washed the blood away and cleaned my wounds. Oakstorm caught up with me. "You ok?" he asked.

"Yes. The look on their faces when Rainstar appeared was priceless!" We purred, and he gave my ear a lick. When we returned Leopardshadow, Watersong and Shadepaw were waiting for us the herbs already out. Rapidly they checked wounds. I saw Rainstar lying on the ground, not moving. I left my place in line to look at him.

I was horrified at the sight of him! He was drenched in blood. His eyes were haft closed, and he seemed to fight for every breath. "Watersong!" I yelled. She looked up from Frostwhisker and gasped. She bounded over, cobwebs and marigold in her jaws. Watersong started chewing up the leaves into a pulp, so I groomed his fur, washing it of all the dried blood. When his pelt was clean, she applied the pulp onto his wounds. I watched, but something inside told me told me he would lose this life.

I sat beside him, on guard, for the rest of the day. After everyone else had their wounds seen too, Shadepaw came up and tended to me. "Call me if he needs anything." She said over her shoulder as she left. The eerie feeling I had intensified, and I watch somberly as he took a last gulp of air.

"Shadepaw." I called. She bounded out, took one look at her leader and ran back into her den. Leopardshadow reappeared with her. The two cats worked on Rainstar, putting on fresh herbs and cleaning his pelt. At this point the whole of Riverclan was out, watching their leader as Starclan prepared him for his new life. Oakstorm had pushed his way through the crowd of cats to sit with me, pressing close in an effort to comfort me. I pushed my muzzle into his fur.

I had a closer relationship with Rainstar than most of my clanmates; We had the shared secret of the prophecy, which had ultimately formed the trust and bond between us. Beside our medicine cats, I was the only cat that knew he had three-no,two- lives left. Rainstar was a noble leader, brave and strong. How would we cope without him?

He let out a cough, and I recalled how much it had hurt when I was sent back after dying. But surely Rainstar was used to this, since he had done it a lot already? Thinking back to my memory of the fox, I figured it wasn't something you ever got used to. He opened his eyes, and sighed. Everyone started asking him if he was ok, did he have any pain, do he need anything, excreta. I drowned them out.

Smallflower came up to speak with him. "Do you still want to leave for home right?"

He nodded, but Shadepaw said, "Nonsense. You don't have enough strength to eat a fish. The clan can wait. You know Heatherstar is very kind." Another nod. I could see he was relieved, even though I know he would never admit it. "And I will leave on my journey the same day the clan returns home. Actually I was thinking about that earlier."

He simply said, "Ok." Then he settled his head on his paws and closed his eyes.

Leopardshadow called to the rest of us, "Leave him be please, he is tired and needs some rest if he is going to be strong." The clan drew away quietly, some off to hunt, other going to their dens for some well-deserved rest. I padded up to Smallflower.

"Can I have a word with you?" I asked her.

"Yes, of course. What is concerning you?" Smallflower meowed.

"I think we should send regular patrols into our land to make sure Thunderclan stays out. They might try hunting in our territory again."

She nodded, her gaze growing thoughtful. "Good thinking Silverheart. I'll have Splashspot take a patrol out." She nodded to me, and went to find him.

I retired to my nest, and slid into an easy sleep. I woke to find myself in Starclan. Ferntail was waiting for me on the other side of the stream. I crossed it and touched noses with my sister. "I just wanted to reassure you that Shadepaw will be just fine. Mosskit will watch over her, to make sure she is safe." I nodded. Ferntail gave my cheek a lick and slowly Starclan's territory faded away and I was dreaming normal dreams that any one of my clanmates could have.

A paw prodded me awake the next morning. I sighed and open my eyes, seeing Oakstorm standing over me. Automatically a smile spread over my face. He mirrored it and reach down to give me a lick. His eyes, though happy, had a serious glint in them. I wanted to press my cheek against his but instead I pulled myself out of my nest.

"Ready to talk?" He asked.

I let out a yawn and nodded. Together we padded out of camp and walked slowly over the territory till we found a dig in the ground surrounded by gorse bushes. No one would interrupt us here.

"Go ahead." he nodded to me.

I took a few steps and sat down, turning my face so I could look at him in the eye. "How could you do that to me? Do you know how much you hurt me? I felt trapped. Cause I loved you but it was that love that hurt me and I didn't see a way out." Just thinking of the pain killed me.

"Oh Silverheart. You know I love you. I always have. All the words I said, that day of our fight, those were all lies. I do trust you, I have always cared, I will always be there for you."

"You say that but how can I trust you? Why did you lie? Don't you want to be with me? What have I done wrong?" Suddenly, all these uncertainties rushed at me, and I was not sure what to do. I knew he loved me, that I loved him, but was being with him the right thing to do, after he had hurt me? What was I going to do if it wasn't and I would have to live without his love?

"Nothing, you did absolutely nothing wrong. This was all my fault, my mistake. Of course I want to be with you. I need to be. It was like I couldn't breathe without you." Oakstorm looked into my eyes and I have never seen him so sad and distraught.

"Then why?" That was all I had really wanted to know, the question that I had kept asking. He, for some reason, had not answered it. Why was he avoiding it?

He stood up and ran the few steps to close the distance between us. He covered my face with licks, and while I delighted in this, I was going to stand firm. He was going to answer my question. Then I saw it in his eyes; he needed to be close to me. He was in pain now, reliving these memories and needed comfort.

Oakstorm pressed closer to me and murmured in my ear, "I did it because I needed you to be able to train without any interference from me. I didn't want to be the one that brought you down, to be the reason you couldn't get your warrior name. I felt I was too distracting, keeping your focus too much. Though now I realize your pain was probably worse for your training. I just didn't know what to do to make it better."