Author's Note: Yay! You get to find out what happens after that cliffhanger! :) Please review & enjoy!
Chapter 14 | Yellowtail's Choice
Yellowtail knew that the choice was impossible, that she should say something, but she was frozen. Behind her, Swiftbreeze quietly padded….
No! That wasn't Swiftbreeze. Yellowtail turned, but the FrostClan warriors had pinned Swiftbreeze too. Her eyes flickered fearfully.
Snowstar paced around the clearing. "Claystar and I have joined to form IceClan. We're more powerful than anything you've ever seen before." Her head turned abruptly toward Yellowtail. "It's your territory or your comrades, Yellowtail! Pick or the full might of IceClan will destroy you and your short-lived Clan."
Yellowtail knew in her heart what the right decision was: to pick the territory. If she didn't, WaterClan would never have a chance to rebuild. But her best friends' lives were at stake, and Yellowtail couldn't abandon them. She couldn't choose. It was impossible. She forced her brain to search for a loophole, a way to trick Snowstar, but she couldn't. Snowstar's ice-blue eyes bore into her, telling Yellowtail Make your choice. It doesn't matter to me what you do.
"Stop!" Yellowtail cried.
Snowstar looked at her maliciously. "Stop what?"
"Let my friends go!"
"Ah, so you concede your territory to me?" Snowstar looked pleased, in a sick, evil-genius sort of way.
"No! I refuse to choose!"
Somehow, Snowstar looked even more pleased. "IceClan awaits your surrender," she hissed. Then she turned to her warriors. "Kill them!"
"NO!" Yellowtail screamed desperately, and dove towards Swiftbreeze's attackers. Taken by surprise, they loosened their grip, but still held Swiftbreeze. She tried to wriggle out but couldn't. Yellowtail battered the five warriors' heads, but they wouldn't break free. Then the battle turned vicious. Suddenly, Yellowtail was aware of hot blood dripping down her face and excruciating pain in her ears. She gasped and fought more intensely.
Then all of a sudden, she was injured. Yellowtail crumpled in pain, looking down at her sliced belly. Swiftbreeze screamed and tried to rear. A warrior forced her down.
"Back!" called Snowstar. The battle ceased. For the first time, Yellowtail caught a glimpse of Lightningclaw. He was bleeding heavily from a gash in his leg, and his back was covered in scratches.
Snowstar mock-saluted Yellowtail. "Until the battle, Yellowtail," she hissed. Then FrostClan was gone.
The clearing was silent. Yellowtail looked over the injuries. Lightningclaw looked as if he were on the brink of unconsciousness. Swiftbreeze was the least injured of the three, and she could see that her Clanmates were in no state to walk back to camp. "You guys stay here," she gasped, still in pain. Though she was the least injured and could walk, or limp, she was still injured quite badly. "I'll pick some herbs for you." She disappeared into the woods.
Groaning, Yellowtail resisted fainting and managed to pull herself over to where Lightningclaw lay. Yellowtail rolled onto her back, careful not to get dirt into her stomach wound. "So there's going to be a battle with this 'IceClan' soon," she commented.
"Yes. I hope our injuries heal by then."
"We'll have to defend camp… I can't believe that we're facing war with two Clans." Yellowtail sighed. "Two lions and a wolf against who knows how many vicious warriors… I would say it's impossible."
Lightningclaw struggled to sit up. "Nothing's impossible! We'll just have to trap and trick them instead of usual battle."
Plans formed in Yellowtail's mind. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that."
Lightningclaw collapsed back down and smiled weakly. "What if we trapped them in the Cold Cave and they all drank from the Sky River?"
"The battle would be over before it began," Yellowtail whispered amusedly. They both sank down, groaning.
Swiftbreeze returned, limping, carrying a bundle of leaves, moss, and cobwebs. Her own wounds were untreated. "Lightningclaw, roll over. I need to treat your leg." That injury was by far the worst, even worse than Yellowtail's stomach wound. It was a huge gash, showing scenes that were extremely gruesome. Swiftbreeze worked quickly, squeezing marigold into the wound. Lightningclaw winced at the sting but didn't have enough energy to cry out. Soon the wound was bound with cobweb. Red was already beginning to show through.
Swiftbreeze move on to Yellowtail, binding her wound with cobweb and moss. Once everyone had stopped dripping blood she sighed, "It's too dangerous here. We all need to rest and stay still for a while, but camp's too far from here."
Yellowtail lifted her head. "What about the Howl Time place? IceClan had better not invade there; SnowClan will destroy them if they do."
"That sounds good," rasped Lightningclaw. "There's a lot of prey there… and a stream."
"Do you guys feel good enough to move?" Swiftbreeze asked anxiously.
"No," Lightningclaw replied. "But I'll move anyways."
"Me too," Yellowtail said. "I'd like to be out of danger for once."
The three staggered to their feet painfully. Yellowtail felt as if she didn't have enough energy to even drink water, but they managed to stagger out of the clearing before collapsing.
"Come on!" Swiftbreeze encouraged. "It's right there, only a few more steps…."
Yellowtail started dripping blood again, but she staggered to her feet, head spinning. Then she looked back at Lightningclaw. He was teetering dangerously.
Yellowtail supported him with a weak shoulder, which he took gratefully. WaterClan struggled on to the Howl Time place, and then Lightningclaw collapsed unconscious. His leg and scratches started dripping red through the cobweb.
Yellowtail was aware of Swiftbreeze trying to stop their bleeding, but she succumbed to the looming darkness and fell unconscious.
Swiftbreeze's legs and side felt as if they were on fire, and she was exhausted, but her Clanmates needed her. She stopped bleeding and prevented infection, all fading into a blur. She staggered on weak legs to a soft patch of ground and collapsed. Soon she was unconscious.
Swiftbreeze opened her eyes to a pain-free body. She looked around; sure enough, she was in MoonClan with Silverflame, Robin, and Quailfur standing over her, worried.
"You were the only one who was uninjured enough for us to reach," Quailfur whispered. "When you wake up, tell Lightningclaw that 'Soon, he will have cubs'. I can't talk any more, dear. Get your rest."
The dream ended there.
The three slept through the rest of the day and the night. A little bit past dawn, Yellowtail awoke, feeling as if her limbs and stomach were on fire. She felt a little bit better than the previous day, however, so she located an old mouse to hunt. It appeared to not notice her, and she caught it by sitting on it. The meat was tough and stringy, but it sent a small bit of energy through her painful body.
By sunhigh, Swiftbreeze and Lightningclaw were awake as well. Swiftbreeze gave Lightningclaw the message, commenting that he wouldn't have cubs if he didn't survive.
"Me, have cubs?" joked Lightningclaw. "As far as I know, males don't have cubs. I don't even have a mate, and there's nobody in this Clan…"
"That's true," Yellowtail croaked, finally catching a vole after multiple attempts. The three shared the vole in silence.
"It's almost full moon," Lightningclaw rasped. "In a quarter-moon, we'll be attending a Howl Time whether we like it or not."
The next sunrise passed, and then the one after that. The lions both felt much better, but their wounds still hurt and had ugly scabs plastered over them. They'd stopped feeling dizzy from blood loss, but they were still weak. It was four sunrises until the Howl Time, so Swiftbreeze was trying to heal them as fast as she could to present a strong front to the other Clans.
Lightningclaw's scratches and bites had healed quickly as they were shallow. However, his gashed leg still bled occasionally, and he had to limp when he moved. He tried not to move, however, because his muscles kept flexing, preventing blood from clotting. Swiftbreeze didn't know any herbs that would heal a wound faster, so all she could do was to apply marigold and horsetail to prevent infection.
However, after two more sunrises, even the beginning of a scab hadn't started to form. Swiftbreeze began to get worried and suspicious. She quickly scooped up some of Lightningclaw's blood on a leaf and held it over a fast-flowing part of the stream. It was thin and much lighter than her own blood.
Swiftbreeze told Lightningclaw, "Lightningclaw, for some reason your blood is too thin to form a clot so you'll just keep bleeding forever if you keep moving."
"How am I supposed to heal then?"
"I don't… I don't know," Swiftbreeze admitted.
That night, Swiftbreeze and Yellowtail journeyed together to the Sky River in the Cold Cave. Swiftbreeze prayed for a dream from MoonClan that would show her how to save Lightningclaw. But when she opened her eyes, she found herself in a dark, stinky forest. Swiftbreeze knew at once that this was the Dark Forest. She shrank back against a rotted tree, her black pelt blending in. Why am I here? I need MoonClan! But MoonClan never came. Swiftbreeze stayed against the tree for hours. It must be near sunrise by now! Exhausted by fear, Swiftbreeze fell asleep in her dream.
She found herself in MoonClan. Robin told her, "The Dark Forest is growing strong. We tried to find you for this dream, but the Dark Forest took you instead!"
"What's going to happen?" Swiftbreeze asked fearfully.
Robin hissed ferociously and snapped at the air. Swiftbreeze shrank back. "They will invade!" Robin growled, her eyes wild. "And you will die!"
Oakfur pushed his way between mother and daughter. "Don't scare her, Robin," he reprimanded firmly. He turned to Swiftbreeze. "Yes, you will die in the invasion but that's not an issue for now. Give Lightningclaw parsley to thicken his blood."
The dream ended there with Swiftbreeze's heart pounding in her chest. I'm going to die. Somehow the knowledge didn't affect her much. Everyone would die sooner or later, and she'd done her duty to her Clan. Or had she?
Lightningclaw was going to mate and have cubs, and she needed to care for them. She could hear her pounding heartbeat. There isn't any sense going against my destiny, she thought. But as Yellowtail woke and stretched, she hesitated from telling her about her imminent death. There wasn't any point in scaring Yellowtail when the invasion might happen in twenty seasons.
The lions journeyed back to the Howl Time place. Swiftbreeze remembered Oakfur's herb and plucked some parsley on the way.
Swiftbreeze smelled it before she got there. The unmistakable, metallic, slightly salty smell of blood. She raced ahead into the Howl Time clearing-
Lightningclaw lay unconscious in a pool of blood, his wound gushing blood. Swiftbreeze let out a scream that sounded slightly alien. As she worked quickly to bind the wound with cobweb, she demanded furiously, "Who did this?! I'll kill them!" It was one thing to wound a leader in battle, but during a full moon truce, in a place of peace, cutting open a healing wound, and letting the blood gush out was more than dishonorable and cowardly.
It meant war.
Yellowtail sniffed around for clues, just as furiously indignant as Swiftbreeze. The attackers had covered their tracks well, but Yellowtail was a better hunter than any wolf in the Clans. Soon, she'd found a scent trail.
Yellowtail stiffened and let out a low growl. Swiftbreeze finished soaking up blood with moss and tossing the soiled moss away. She raced over. "What did you find? Who did this?" she demanded.
Yellowtail looked up, her amber eyes blazing, her golden tail lashing, her brown fur prickling.
"IceClan."
A/N: Ooh! I don't want to give anything away, but... war! Yellowtail really means that, by the way. Please review and thanks for reading! We're really anxious for feedback... ;)