Hello all! Hopefully my faithful readers haven't deserted me completely and sorry for taking so long. But here is Chapter 3.
The Outcasts
Chapter 3: The Aftermath before the Gathering
By the time Brambleclaw and Hollyleaf got back from their walk, it was moonhigh and Squirrelflight was worried out of her fur.
"You're okay!" She purred when her mate and daughter pushed through the tunnel entrance.
"Of course they are!" Sandstorm assured her daughter.
"I felt like something bad was going to happen." She murmured into Brambleclaw's fur.
"Nothing yet, but the night's not over." He reminded the she-cat softly.
"We'll tell them tomorrow. Maybe Hollyleaf can work something out with Breezepelt and we can meet by the WindClan border?" The ginger she-cat suggested.
"You know about that?" The black she-cat had overheard her parents and cringed internally.
"No. I figured since Breezepelt is Crowfeather's kit you'd know something about him. What don't I know?" Squirrelflight demanded.
"I've known him since we were kits, actually. I snuck out from camp and got lost. He did the same thing, he told me, but then the fox came and we hid. When it found us we ended up killing it. We've been meeting at the border to keep up ever since."
"Two kits took on a fox?" Brambleclaw meowed in shock.
"And won?" Squirrelflight was stunned at this.
"Yes, we did." Hollyleaf rolled her eyes.
"I thought Lionblaze was the invincible one." Brambleclaw meowed incredulously.
"You know about the prophecy?!" Jayfeather had stopped to see what his parents and sister were talking about.
"Of course we do, Mousebrain. Who do you think Firestar told besides Sandstorm when you three were born?"
"But you're not our mother… we're not ThunderClan!" Lionblaze muttered in confusion.
"We still raised you." Squirrelflight murmured.
"You lied to us!" The golden tabby spat. Jayfeather rolled his eyes and motioned toward Firestar's den.
"We should take this talk to a safer place." He advised.
The other four cats agreed and Brambleclaw led the way to the ginger leader's den. "Firestar?" He yowled in. The ginger tom responded immediately.
"Come in, Brambleclaw." The five cats entered the den to find their leader settled in his nest beside a drowsy Sandstorm.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"We have something you need to hear, Father." Squirrelflight began hesitantly.
"Where is Leafpool?" Hollyleaf wondered.
"I'll get her. She should be here for this." Jayfeather meowed, dipping his head before disappearing from the den.
"What's going on?" Firestar demanded in a hard voice, staring his daughter down.
"Did someone get hurt? Why do we need Leafpool?" Sandstorm asked. The urgency in her daughter's voice had shocked her awake and she was now sitting up and waiting for Leafpool and Jayfeather with the others. Only the occasional twitch of her tail gave away her anxiety. Jayfeather returned with Leafpool on his heels. Squirrelflight broke down at the sight of her sister's panicked face.
"I'm so sorry, Leafpool … he just wouldn't move and they were trapped and I didn't know what else to do so now he knows and they know but no one else does… yet." Squirrelflight burst into tears and flopped down on the cold stone floor. Brambleclaw sighed and wrapped his tail around his mate's shoulders, lying beside her and murmuring in her ears.
"I failed, Leafpool, I panicked and it just slipped out before I could stop myself."
The ThunderClan medicine cat gulped and padded over to her sister.
"You did the best you could, Squirrelflight. It would have come out someday. It's not your fault, sister."
"I should have knocked him aside or something!" She whimpered.
"You still saved them Squirrelflight. You rescued them from Ashfur, from death. I'll never be able to repay you for what you did. Thank you for saving my kits."
"What?!" Firestar and Sandstorm had been growing confused with each word that poured from their daughter's mouth, and were horrified when they heard what she said last.
"Y-you had that WindClan tom's kits?" Sandstorm whispered in shock.
"How could you?!" Firestar snarled, unsheathing and sheathing his claws in anger.
Brambleclaw growled sharply when he heard the click of claws hitting stone.
"I didn't know until moons after we returned to fight the badgers. It's not like I could just tell everyone and be exiled! If I had an apprentice maybe but I didn't. I wanted my kits to be raised in a Clan that cared about them, not as rogues! I asked Squirrelflight to raise them to keep them safe. Brambleclaw figured it out on his own and confronted her about it. I made them both swear that they wouldn't say a word!" That made Squirrelflight cry harder and Brambleclaw sighed. The things he'd do for his mate.
"You lied to us!" Firestar snarled. "We're your parents. I'm your leader!"
"I think that's the point, Firestar." Sandstorm murmured grimly. "She couldn't tell because you would have to exile her no matter how much you didn't want to. Whether they're Leafpool's kits or Squirrelflight's kits doesn't matter right now. What happened during the fire?"
"Jayfeather, Lionblaze and I almost got roasted alive because Ashfur went insane and said that it was the only way Squirrelflight would feel his pain." Hollyleaf groused.
"Then what happened?"
"Squirrelflight told the truth and we were let go while he was in shock."
"There's something you're not telling me, Hollyleaf… It's okay, you won't be judged." Her grandmother assured her.
"I… I tried to kill him tonight because he said he would tell everyone at the Gathering." She mumbled embarrassedly.
"What?!" Firestar snarled.
"Hush!" Sandstorm snapped. "What happened? What made you stop?"
"Stupid Breezepelt pounced on me." She grumbled. "If you ask me he should have let me kill the idiot… the first thing he said was WindClan! Never mind the fact that some cat saved his sorry pelt, that cat was WindClan." She rolled her eyes.
"What connection do you have to Breezepelt of WindClan?!" Lionblaze snarled.
"We took on a fox when we were kits and have been talking ever since. He's probably more of my best friend than you, Lionblaze. You were so busy prancing around with your precious Heathertail that time stopped, didn't it?" She sneered.
"You fox-dung hypocrite!" Lionblaze snarled, unsheathing his claws. "You told me it was against the code to meet Heathertail but you were chatting with Breezepelt and that's okay?!"
"There's a difference, Lionblaze. I knew you wouldn't be able to break it off without it getting messy… that's why I tried to warn you. You just decided not to listen."
"I loved her!" Lionblaze snarled.
"She was using you!" the black she-cat snapped.
"I know that now." He growled lowly, bowing his head. "What does that have to do with Breezepelt?"
"He's our half-brother but even before we found out, I knew that I didn't love him like you and Heathertail. It felt way too weird."
"You say we…" Brambleclaw noticed.
"He figured it out before the fire. It was just a possibility, but how many black cats do you know?"
"So you knew you were Crowfeather and Leafpool's kit?"
"No. I assumed he mated with a rogue and that's why everyone hates him. Then I was on patrol one day and I heard Nightcloud badgering him about getting over some ThunderClan cat and I figured out that it was Leafpool. When Squirrelflight told the truth, I knew I was right."
"So now what?" Lionblaze wondered. "Do we keep it from the Clan? What about Ashfur?"
"If we do tell the Clan, Leafpool will be forced to exile. I don't want that, but it's either she leaves or some cat kills her. I definitely don't want any cat laying their filthy claws on my daughter! Furthermore, if she leaves, I'd have to kick you all out as well. ThunderClan would have no deputy, four less warriors, and no medicine cat. That can't happen."
"What if Ashfur tells everyone at the Gathering?"
"I can't stop that. If he asks to speak I'll have to let him to avoid suspicion beforehand. Until he does, no one says a word about it. Anywhere. Hollyleaf, you can tell Breezepelt tomorrow at the Gathering to be prepared for Ashfur. This will hurt Crowfeather and his family as much as it will affect us. They need to know."
"I will, Firestar."
"Thank you, Father." Leafpool murmured.
"Until Ashfur says something, this never happened."
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