Chapter Seventeen:

Shadowpaw followed his father back home, holding back the things he wanted to scream. I love her! Why can't I stay with her? The tom bit back a thousand sharp words, a thousand insults, a thousand defenses for the love he shared with Whitepaw. It just isn't fair, he thought bitterly.

"I understand how you're feeling." Rushstar meowed as if he could read Shadowpaw's thoughts. "But we had to leave for the good of both our Clans."

"How is leaving the cat I love good for both our Clans?" Shadowpaw growled ignorantly. When his father didn't reply, he went on. "How does this solve anything? I still feel broken and torn without her, Rushstar. You will never understand the way I feel. I love her! I love her more than the feeling of the wind whipping through my fur, more than the sight of the stars in the sky. More than life itself. The thought of you understanding how I feel is laughable."

"Shadowpaw!" Rushstar snarled, and the black SunClan cat shut his jaws. "You'll see her again," the added words were more gentle and relaxed coming out of his father's muzzle. "But for now you must become a warrior for your Clan, not worrying about silly she-cat's like her." His lips drew back and he snarled once more. "HailClan cannot be trusted..."

"She's not like them." Shadowpaw retorted with a lash of his tail. "She's... She's something else. Something better than HailClan." He drew in a shaky breath. "It's like she's from StarClan itself."

Rushstar stopped and rounded on his son, his green eyes infuriated. "HailClan cats are all the same!" he snarled. "They're alike in everything they do!" his gaze flashed with a sudden hurt and betrayal. "You wouldn't know what it's like. You think you love a cat and then they go back and betray you."

"Since when do you know anything about love? All you know is how to hate!" Shadowpaw growled, looking his father directly in the eyes.

Rushstar hissed and unsheathed his claws, his ears flat against his head as he stalked towards his son. "What do you know about love? You're just an apprentice, a burden to SunClan! And that stupid she-cat you call a mate is a burden to her Clan as well!" a fierce fire lit Rushstar's green eyes, and he slashed his sharp claws across Shadowpaw's body from ear to tail, watching as blood welled around the wound and the scream of pain that left his son's lungs music to his ears.

* ( ) *

"K-kits?" Whitepaw stammered, shock flooding throughout her body. Acornpaw's kits? How is that even possible?

Skystorm dipped her head sadly at her, her blue eyes flashing. "I'm sorry, Whitepaw..."

"There has to be an explanation for this!" Whitepaw growled, digging her claws into the ground. "And Acornpaw's kits too! The Clan... My mother... They'll be so angry..." Whitepaw could only imagine the looks on her Clanmates' faces when they heard the news.

Skystorm placed her tail on Whitepaw's shoulders and made the white she-cat look up at her. "Whitepaw," she said calmly, stroking her tail up and down Whitepaw's narrow back. "You cannot let the Clan know they are Acornpaw's. It will only show signs that you killed him."

"But I didn't!" Whitepaw cried. "I didn't kill him!"

"I know. I know." Skystorm soothed her. "But the Clan does not understand as well."

"What if I say they are Shadowpaw's?" Whitepaw asked quietly.

Skystorm's eyes flashed. "I don't know..." she murmured quietly. "You will be shunned, perhaps even exiled for the wrongdoing..."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Whitepaw cried, her ears flat to her head. "If I say they are Acornpaw's, I'm considered a murderer! If I say they're Shadowpaw's, I get exiled! What's the point then?"

"Do you want them, Whitepaw?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you want to keep these kits, allowing them to grow inside of you until they are ready to be born?"

"I... Why are you asking this? It's not like I have a choice!"

"Normally, medicine cats are forbidden to give the herb. But now... It seems StarClan would forgive me." Skystorm sighed. "If you eat the root of a deathberry plant, it will kill the kits you carry..."

"And if I want them? What happens then?"

Skystorm leaned close to Whitepaw so they were muzzle-to-muzzle. "Then you must be willing to face the consequences that will come if any of those kits look like Acornpaw or Shadowpaw."

Whitepaw raised her muzzle defiantly. "Bring it on, then."

* ( ) *

He lay in the medicine den in SunClan camp, his pelt smelling of herbs. Haresong has given him some poppy seeds to dull the hot pain from Rushstar's sharp claws, and no cat had come to visit him.

"My poor kit!"

The cry of his mother, Echosong, sounded in the entrance of the den before he felt her soft pelt brushing past his muzzle as his mother came to sit beside him, inspecting his wound with careful and worried eyes. "Your father is very upset with himself," she meowed, stroking her son's forehead with her tail.

He should be, Shadowpaw thought though held his tongue from speaking, acting as if he were in pain. I could've done worse to him than just scratching his eye and leaving him limping on three paws.

He had never seen a cat so quick to her paws as Echosong had been when he did that. "Are you okay? Do I need to fetch Haresong? She's in the elders den, but if I tell her it's something about you she'll come right away."

"No," Shadowpaw groaned; his chest burned terribly and felt tight whenever he would take a breath, now that he thought about it. "I-I'm okay."

Echosong sat back down, her eyes trained on her son for the longest moment before she broke away, now staring at her paws. "Do you love that HailClan cat, Shadowpaw?"

Shadowpaw gazed at his mother, wide eyed and shocked that she would ask such an on-the-spot question. "Yes, I do love her..."

The black she-cat rose to her paws, took a step forward and touched her nose to Shadowpaw's forehead. "As long as you're happy, I don't care what Clan that cat is from. If you're happy with her, then I'm not one to judge." She began to pad towards the entrance, obviously planning to leave.

"Wait!" Shadowpaw called, and watched as Echosong turned back to him. He didn't even register the words coming out of his mouth as he blurted, "Why does Rushstar hate HailClan so much?"

Echosong's eyes flashed and she was silent for a moment. She took a deep breath, flattened her ears to her head, then replied to his question.

"Silverbird was his mother, and she gave him away to SunClan when he was only a moon old..."