Ahem. Yes. Rather late. Forgive me 0.o
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A shriek rent the air as Icestar came into view of the two queens resting peacefully in the bed of ferns. The first was a long-furred pale gray she-cat, whose pelt had exploded to twice her normal size. Her eyes were wide with fear as Icestar released another furious snarl, hopefully too quiet to be heard by the warriors chasing Eagleclaw.
"Get out!" shrieked the gray queen, hissing and spitting violently. "Get away from my kits!" Three kits were huddled behind her, almost big enough to be apprentices. Icestar frowned, hesitating, and then her eyes rested on the second queen and her litter. The she-cat was pale ginger and looked sickly, her pelt dull and her eyes lacking a healthy sheen. Maybe she had just recovered from an illness, or maybe she was just old, but either way, she didn't look like much of a fighter. Her kits, however, were perfect. There were two, and their eyes weren't even open. Icestar smothered a purr.
A sudden flash of heat made her look away. She blinked in confusion as pain seared across her cheek, and then snarled as she felt blood drip from her wound onto the ferns.
"Stand back if you want to stay alive!" Icestar snarled, turning to snap at the gray queen. She growled back, swiping a bloodied paw in the air, close to Icestar's nose. Trembling, the white she-cat darted forward and grasped the gray queen's forepaw between her teeth, biting down with bone-snapping force. The queen shrieked again and yanked away, stumbling as she tried to put weight on her paw.
"Why?" whimpered the ginger she-cat, standing over her kits with a desperate expression. Her legs were quaking, as though she barely had the strength to stand. "Why would you do this? Are you a rogue? Why would you come here?"
Icestar backed away from the wounded gray queen, a mournful expression suddenly overcoming her look of fury.
"For the same reason that you would do anything to protect them," she mewed sadly, indicating the two mewling kits. "I would also give my life to save those I love, even if it means something different to me."
Without another word, Icestar darted forward and snatched the first kit from beneath the ginger queen's paws. The queen hissed bravely and lashed out with her claws, but even that movement was too much, and she toppled to the ferns, panting heavily.
"StarClan save me!" she howled. "StarClan save my kits!" Her whiskers trembled.
"There's no use," meowed Icestar sorrowfully, pausing to gaze into the queen's agonized face as she came forward to take the second kit. "StarClan has no ears for us anymore." She bent forward to briefly lick the queen between the ears before backing away. "I promise I won't hurt them." Then she whirled, gathered both tiny kits into her jaws, and raced from the den. It was still silent, with no cats anywhere to be seen. It was truly miraculous that the camp was so empty. Maybe they were fighting a battle elsewhere.
A keening cry rose from behind her, making Icestar's paws prickle. Ignoring the hideous sound, she carried the kits out of the camp, making her way hastily towards the Thunderpath. There was no time to wait for Eagleclaw here. She gazed up and down the stretch of hot, dark stone before bounding across into the relative safety of the ThunderClan forest. Here it was remarkably quiet. So far from the ShadowClan camp, she could no longer hear the wailing of the distraught queens.
Icestar ran a little farther into the familiar woods, until she could no longer feel or scent the Thunderpath nearby. She found a hollow between the roots of an oak tree, and gently placed the kits onto a bed of leaves to get a better look at them. They were the perfect age, almost too good to be true. Their eyes hadn't even opened yet, so they would have absolutely no memory of their birth clan save for some scents that would quickly fade into oblivion.
The first was a brown tabby she-kit with a pure white tail. She looked strong and healthy, with wide paws and a perfect pink nose. The second was a golden tom, who had dark speckles that would probably become spots as he grew. Icestar felt a rush of warmth toward the tiny bundles of fur, and felt her lips curling into a smile.
"Poor little ones," she mewed to herself. "Poor sweet little ones. You have a new mother now, and a new Clan. But it will be your Clan, I promise. And your Clan will love you like our own." Her chest felt like it was being squeezed, like a giant paw had grasped her heart and was pounding it ferociously. Is this what it feels like to love something like your own? Icestar mused. Not like a leader loves her Clan. This is different. This is… painful. She remembered her nine lives ceremony in the green fields of StarClan, and the life that had instilled in her a mother's love for her kits. I guess I truly understand that now, she thought to herself. How strange.
Resolving to care for these kits as if they were hers, Icestar grasped them both in her jaws once more and began to make her way carefully back to the camp, pausing frequently to let both the kits and her heavy paws rest. She wondered where Eagleclaw was, and what had happened to the ShadowClan warriors. She wondered if they had returned to camp by now and realized that Eagleclaw had merely been a diversion to cover up a much greater crime. She wondered if the queens had recognized her face, as dirty as it was.
Before reaching camp, Icestar remembered to bathe in the stream. It was still full from the melting snow of leafbare, but the level was low enough so that she wasn't swept off her feet as she waded into the center of the frigid waters. It was uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as the stench of the Thunderpath clinging to her fur. Even after combing through her pelt a hundred times, she still felt dirty. The white was showing through again, but patches of dark gray still stood out here and there. Frustrated but satisfied, and beginning to shiver from the cold, Icestar dashed out of the water and shook vigorously. A plaintive mew caught her attention, and she hurried to where the two kits lay, protected by the shade of a fern.
"You're probably hungry, aren't you, kits?" she whispered, shaking her head. "Wait just a little longer. Your new mother will care for you."
She picked them up and again and walked on.
At the top of the ravine, Icestar paused for the last time to ponder her explanation to the Clan. I was wandering past the Twolegplace in search of some prey, she thought to herself, when I heard the kits mewling. They were near a Twoleg nest, but smelled of the Thunderpath (as the kits did, after being carried against her stinking fur for so long), so I figured they were rogue kits. I couldn't resist taking them back to camp. Otherwise, they would have starved. It would easily convince the warriors. Things like that did happen, occasionally. Sometimes rogue queens would abandon unwanted kits near the Twolegplace in the hopes that a kindhearted Twoleg would take them in and feed them.
Just as Icestar was about to step over the edge of the ravine, a rustle caught her attention. She froze, the kits swinging from her jaws, their tiny paws paddling uselessly in the air.
"Wait, Addercoil. Don't you smell that? The camp is close by."
The meow was unmistakable. Toadstar.
"Icestar? Are you there?"
Icestar jumped, her eyes flashing wide in surprise. She twisted as fast as her paws would allow, glaring at the newcomer. It was Eagleclaw, slithering out of the brambles beside her. Her fur shone in the dusky sunlight, recently washed clean by the stream.
"Oh, wow! Hey, they're cute!" whispered the tabby she-cat, scooting forward to gaze curiously at the kits. Icestar was staring at her in shock, her heart racing. "Did you smell the ShadowClan chatterboxes over there?" Eagleclaw hissed, waving towards the shrubs with a tail. "They've been creeping around there for ages, probably waiting for the opportune moment to attack." Eagleclaw flashed a wicked grin. "Should we surprise them?"
Icestar's eyes instantly narrowed. She was carrying two kits in her jaws, and she wasn't going to drop them somewhere to go fight a foolish battle against a full patrol of ShadowClan warriors. Spitting around the kits' fur, she swept past Eagleclaw and made her way swiftly down the rock face of the ravine. The ShadowClan warriors couldn't see her here, but if they came any closer, herself, Eagleclaw, and the stolen kits would be visible. The white she-cat leaped the last few steps towards the ThunderClan camp and dove through the bramble tunnel, just as the sound of the ShadowClan warriors emerging from the ferns sounded behind them.
"Why didn't you attack?" Eagleclaw hissed as Icestar pushed her way frantically through the shadows.
Icestar didn't answer until she had burst into the camp and dropped the kits gently on the dusty earth. Then she whipped around and snapped her jaws shut a whisker-length from Eagleclaw's cheek. The golden she-cat froze, gasping sharply.
"Fool!" Icestar growled coldly, her eyes blazing. "There are five ShadowClan cats out there! Do you really think we could beat them all, while protecting these kits?" She swept her tail around the kits and bared her teeth at Eagleclaw, snarling. "I would never let anything happen to these two. That would be far too dangerous!"
Eagleclaw stared at her, her nose wrinkled and her whisker curled. Finally, she dropped to her haunches and cocked her head, the tip of her tail twitching. Sun glinted off her brilliant stripes.
"Don't you think that's just a little bit creepy?" She extended her neck to take another sniff of the kits, but Icestar moved her shoulder in front of them and snarled again. "I mean, they're ShadowClan kits, after all."
With lightning speed, Icestar's claws whipped out, striking Eagleclaw across the nose. Blood spattered her white fur and fell to the dust.
"Ouch!" Eagleclaw yelped, jerking back. "What was that for? How dare you attack me?"
"These are ThunderClan kits," said Icestar in a low, menacing voice. The snarl had disappeared from her face, replaced by an expression of icy calm. Her eyes were bright and sharp, her jaws closed.
Trembling, Eagleclaw took a step back, leaning away from Icestar as though she were a frightening monster. "I don't understand you."
"How could you?" Icestar murmured, her voice quiet. She straightened from her crouch and shook her pelt, lifting her eyes to the sky. "How could you?"
"Is that Icestar and Eagleclaw? Hey, they're back!" came a cheerful voice. Icestar dropped her gaze and met the confused eyes of Robinwing, emerging from the medicine den. She had cobwebs wrapped around her hind paw, and was limping.
"Are those kits?" she questioned, but any further questioning was caught off as a loud yowl sounded from outside the bramble wall.
"What was that?" Robinwing hissed, spinning to face the bramble tunnel.
"ShadowClan," Icestar explained coolly. She shrugged and bent to pick up the kits. Before grasping them in her jaws, her gaze slid sideways to Robinwing again. "You'd better get into the nursery, Robinwing," she meowed calmly. "And take these two with you."
"What!?" Robinwing snorted, her eyes widening. "Why? What's going on?"
"There isn't really any time to explain," Eagleclaw butted in, shoving her nose against Robinwing's flank. "Go!" Icestar picked up the kits and raced to the nursery at Robinwing's side. She dropped them at the den's mouth and turned to the ginger queen. "Where is everybody?" she growled, her tail lashing.
Robinwing stammered, "They just got back from patrol. Why is ShadowClan here? And where did these kits-"
Icestar didn't wait to hear the rest of her questions. She dashed towards the warriors' den just as the first ShadowClan warrior burst through the brambles. Eagleclaw was already there, ramming her shoulder hard against the warrior's side. The silver she-cat hissed and turned to face her opponent.
"Stonepelt! Ashfoot!" Icestar cried, diving into the den. Some muffled meows were the only reply. "WAKE UP!" She shrieked, her voice practically making the ground tremble.
"StarClan!" Stonepelt yelped, shooting out of his nest. "What's going on?"
"ShadowClan is attacking!" Icestar yowled, making her way through the den, prodding warriors' awake. "Get your lazy butts to the camp entrance, now!"
With her warriors awake and streaming out of their dens to repel the attacking ShadowClan cats, Icestar allowed herself a moment to breath and go over her options. The kits are safe, she thought to herself, pausing in the mouth of the warriors' den, half-watching as Stonepelt shook himself awake and leapt towards a small ShadowClan warrior. They're in the nursery, so no cat will recognize them. We're unprepared, but they're outnumbered. I don't know why they're here, but it doesn't matter. We'll make them explain.
Blinking away some of the stress that was fogging up her brain, Icestar stretched and surveyed the camp once more. Only five ShadowClan warriors had arrived, which was curious. If they had really wanted to decimate the ThunderClan camp, they should have brought more warriors. They didn't know that their kits had been stolen, and they didn't know that ThunderClan was the culprit, so this couldn't be a rescue mission. What do they want? Icestar growled to herself.
Shaking off these perplexing questions, Icestar bounded forward to engage the enemy, a chill running down her spine.