Hmm… mysteries… mysteries….
"Why did you attack our camp?" Icestar spat. She winced as the wound across her muzzle stretched, and a drop of blood fell to the dust by her paws. By her side, Thrushwing was panting, keeping the weight off her hind leg that had been wounded.
"We don't have to answer to you!" hissed one of the ShadowClan warriors, a silver she-cat. Her eyes were narrowed, but showed her fear. She and her clanmates were covered in gashes, and none had the strength remaining to get to their feet and walk away, so Icestar felt safe allowing them to huddle together in the center of the camp, with the ThunderClan warriors standing in a circle surrounding them.
"You don't have a choice," Icestar growled menacingly. "Either you tell us your reasons without a fuss, or we'll force the answers form you." She raised a claw and drew it across the dirt in front of her, leaving long furrows in the earth. The silver ShadowClan queen swallowed nervously.
Toadstar was skulking behind the warriors, one eye squeezed shut by a slash that still dripped blood. His tail was sweeping back and forth in agitation, and as the silver she-cat glanced around anxiously, he seemed to become fed up with the delay and stepped forward.
"ThunderClan is weak," he drawled in his disgustingly oily voice. Icestar shuddered, thinking, not for the first time, of the unbelievable resemblance the ShadowClan leader held to his namesake. "And your territory is rich with prey. ShadowClan deserves its fair share."
Disgusted, Icestar took a step back, her tail lashing, her whiskers curled. "StarClan divided the territories equally in the beginning! ShadowClan has its fair share. Besides, your warriors don't how to hunt in the dense undergrowth of our territory."
Toadstar shrugged, his grey pelt looking dull and unkempt. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
Icestar watched the ShadowClan warriors fidget as their leader glanced nonchalantly around the ThunderClan camp. She couldn't believe that these warriors would follow the orders of such a slimy character as Toadstar. Just because his name ended with 'star' didn't mean he was above reproach. Did they really just put their faith in this creature and blindly do what they were told?
"You do realize you've put your clanmates in an extremely dangerous situation?" Icestar pointed out, cocking her head.
Toadstar curled his lip. "How's that?"
"Well, it would be remarkably easy to kill you all."
Silence permeated the clearing for a long moment. Thrushwing had turned to stare at Icestar in confusion, probably wondering if she were being serious. Toadstar's yellow eyes flickered to his warriors, who were suddenly looking like a family of panicked field mice, their paws itching to make a run for it. Icestar met the gaze of Redpaw across the circle, who was looking smug and obviously suppressing a grin. Eagleclaw was stone-faced but tense, her ears pricked towards Icestar.
"You wouldn't do that," Toadstar whined, wrinkling his nose. "That would be cruel."
Icestar shivered as she stepped forward a few paces, until she was standing nose to nose with a dark brown tabby cat, who was too small to be a full warrior.
"What's your name, little one?" she asked, bending to meet his gaze.
"Raggedpaw!" the apprentice spat, his yellow eyes ablaze. "And I'm not small!" A tiny paw lashed out, nearly catching Icestar across the nose, but she jerked back just in time.
"Great StarClan, you've got a little fighter here!" she crowed, smiling. Then suddenly her expression grew blank, and she leaned forward to whisper loudly in Raggedpaw's ear, noticing the way her trembled, despite his brave words.
"Do you want to be a warrior, Raggedpaw?" she hissed, keeping her eyes locked on Toadstar. His expression hadn't changed, but she could see the way his muscles were bunched, as if he was ready to leap to the apprentice's defense.
"Of course! I'm going to be leader of ShadowClan one day," growled the tiny tabby tom, his tail whisking back and forth. Icestar grinned, exposing glistening fangs, stained with ShadowClan blood.
"Really?" her voice was eerily smooth, and she felt a prickle of satisfaction as Toadstar's lip twitched, his teeth gritted. "What if something happened to you before that?"
In a flash, Icestar dipped close to the apprentice, driving her nose toward his scruff and parting her jaws as though going in for the finishing blow. Raggedpaw stiffened and parted his jaws in a soundless cry. The silver she-cat shrieked and made a move to come to his defense, but Redpaw was already there restraining her. Icestar ignored her, keeping her eyes on Toadstar. Instead of jumping to knock her off, he squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, cringing as though he couldn't watch. Icestar sighed and paused, rolling her eyes, and then gave Raggedpaw a gentle lick between the ears.
She could hear a breath of relief rattle from his chest, and a gasp from the silver she-cat. Toadstar remained turned away, his flanks heaving.
"I don't doubt that you'll make a powerful leader," Icestar meowed, backing away. She smiled at Raggedpaw. "I look forward to it." Then she turned her back on the ShadowClan warriors and padded a few steps away. "Let them go home," she ordered Thrushwing, flicking her tail towards the entrance. "And make sure they don't stray."
The tortoiseshell she-cat nodded, her eyes wide in shock, and turned to lead the ShadowClan warriors out of the camp. As soon as they were gone, Icestar let out a deep breath and sagged to the floor.
"What was that all about?" came a frustrated growl from behind her. Icestar glanced over her shoulder at Stonepelt, who was standing with a perturbed expression on his face. "Maybe you could've gone without the theatrics and just let them go."
"I had to teach him a lesson," she said with a sigh, turning away and resting her head in her paws. She felt the ground beside her vibrate as Stonepelt padded forward and dipped his head to speak eye to eye.
"Who? Raggedpaw? Right, I'm sure he'll remember never to attack ThunderClan when he's leader. What was the point of that?" Stonepelt's dark blue gaze was hard.
Icestar sighed, sending a puff of dust into the air that swirled around Stonepelt's paws. "Not Raggedpaw," she muttered, "though that would be nice. I meant Toadstar."
She rolled over and rubbed her spine into the dirt, trying to itch away the prickle underneath her skin at Stonepelt's annoying presence.
"I don't want him making anymore foolish decisions that might put his clanmates in danger," she growled. "What reason did he have to attack our camp with a patrol of so few warriors? A whim isn't enough when you have the lives of warriors, and an apprentice, in your paws."
Stonepelt flopped down beside her, shaking his head. "I don't remember you being so tenderhearted."
"It comes with age," she replied blithely, glancing up at the clouds. "And experience."
"Right. Because you've gained the wisdom of so many years," Stonepelt teased. It seemed his bad mood had passed quickly, as was usually the case with the naturally cheerful tom.
"Have you assessed the damage?" Icestar meowed, rolling over to face him. His immense size dwarfed her slender form as they lay side by side in the middle of the camp.
"Not too bad," he said with a shrug. Then he narrowed his eyes and peered closely at her face. "In fact, that scratch looks to be about the worst I've seen. You should go to the medicine den right now. I'll come too." He stood, shaking dust from his striped pelt.
"Oh," Icestar mewed, blinking. "I forgot." The wound hadn't hurt until he'd mentioned it, but now that she remembered, she felt the pulsing ache of the scratched across the bridge of her nose, inflicted by Addercoil's swift claws.
"What about Thrushwing's leg?" she asked as the two warriors made their way towards the fern clearing.
"Well, she went to escort the ShadowClan warriors without complaint, so I'd guess it's not too bad. No one else had anything more than scratches. Except for the ShadowClan cats, of course. I doubt they'll be attacking anyone for a few moons at least." He grinned and lashed his tail.
Ashfoot and Redpaw were already in the medicine clearing, being treated by Shortwhisker. Ashfoot had a few scratches on his shoulders and Redpaw a bite mark on her foreleg, but they were both smiling as they chatted to one another over Shortwhisker's head.
"Icestar!" Redpaw cried upon seeing the white she-cat. Ashfoot turned and meowed a greeting to them both.
"Is Sparrowtail here?" Icestar questioned, taking a look around the clearing.
"No, she's in the nursery," Shortwhisker meowed through a mouthful of herbs. Immediately, Ashfoot straightened, his eyes flashing wide.
"Is something wrong?" he gasped, turning and straining towards the exit.
"Stay still," Shortwhisker snapped. "Everything's fine. If you want to know, ask Icestar. She'll be the best one to explain."
Icestar had frozen at the mention of the nursery, and as soon as Shortwhisker mentioned her name, she turned and bolted out of the medicine clearing. Stonepelt barked her name and shot after her.
"What's wrong?" he yowled, but she ignored him, streaking across the camp and darting into the nursery. It took a few seconds before her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, but as soon as she could see clearly, she relaxed, the fur of her ruff settling once more. Stonepelt came sliding in behind her, eyes wide.
"What the…?" he breathed. Icestar padded forward with a smile on her face.
Instead of three kits surrounding Robinwing's flanks, there were now five, two just slightly smaller than the others. Sparrowtail was sitting beside the ginger tabby queen and they were murmuring quietly to each other. At Icestar's entrance, the she-cats looked up in alarm, and then relaxed as they realized who the newcomers were.
"Finally, Icestar! I need to have a word with you," growled Robinwing, but her tone of voice was cheerful instead of accusing. Icestar could feel Sparrowtail's sharp gaze on her as she padded towards the queen, but ignored it.
"Where id those…" Stonepelt breathed, eyeing the extra kits curiously.
Icestar took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, getting a handle on her senses and reviewing her story. Then she opened her eyes and crouched close to Robinwing to explain. "Eagleclaw and I were hunting by the Twolegplace," she meowed. "We saw a Twoleg come out of one of its nests, and it was carrying a sack. The scent was strange, so we waited to make sure it wasn't a threat. The Twoleg walked a little ways into the forest, and then laid the sack down and opened it. Inside were these two kits. They were weak and stank of the Thunderpath, so Eagleclaw and I assumed they were either rogue kits or abandoned kittypets. The Twoleg left them there. We waited for ages, but he never came back. So we took the kits."
Her words were followed by silence as Robinwing and Stonepelt stared at the kits with pity in their eyes. But Icestar and Sparrowtail were staring at each other. Icestar's gaze was empty while Sparrowtail's was speculative. Finally, she blinked once and nodded briefly. Icestar allowed a brief smile of gratitude to flash across her muzzle. Sparrowtail may not like it, but these kits were part of ThunderClan now.
"Will you care for them?" Icestar meowed, looking now at Robinwing. The ginger queen looked thoughtful as she watched the two tiny kits paddling their paws desperately in an attempt to squeeze past their bigger denmates. "I know it's a big responsibility," Icestar conceded, her voice hopeful, "but you're the only queen who can care for them, and I couldn't just leave them there to starve – or be killed by some heartless rogue."
Another long pause made Icestar worry that her old friend might refuse, but then Robinwing spoke up in a small voice, "I can't… not, can I? I mean, I'll have to ask Ashfoot, of course, but…" A tentative smile broke across her face. "I'll do my best." She raised her head and asked, "Do they have names?"
Icestar smiled, feeling a rush of warmth spread through her veins. "Yes," she whispered, her whisker quivering. "Yes, they do." She bent towards the small kits, giving each one a gentle lick between the ears. "This one is Rosekit," she meowed, nosing the brown tabby she-kit, who whimpered at her touch. "And this is Tawnykit."
Robinwing let out a deep purr, followed by Stonepelt, who gave each one of the kits a tender lick as well.
"Rosekit and Tawnykit," Sparrowtail murmured. Her gaze was fixed on the kits as she meowed solemnly, "welcome to ThunderClan."