Hey everybody. First off i want to thank my fans who have continued to read this story despite the fact that i have not been updating this story very often. I understand that this makes it very difficult to follow a story (trust me i have read plenty of stories that update randomly and with long breaks in between) and i understand that it is frustrating. So i would like to thank everyone who despite these reasons to not read, do read. I really appreciate your dedication.
On the same note, this is not my life. I write fanfiction as a hobby and it is one that i really really enjoy. I enjoy sharing what i write with all of you because i am honored to have my stories read and even more honored to hear what you thought about it. I am a very busy person, i go to school full time, work a part time job and spend 15 hours a week in the pool. Plus the entirety of every Saturday at a swimmeet. Plus my major in college (Wildlife Management) is very time consuming and i am responsible for many projects outside of class.
I would like to make a shout out to the guest who felt the need to write a hateful review about my "inability " to update in a timely fashion. What i have to say to you, dear guest, is that you don't know my life. I appreciate that you take the time to read my stories but i do not appreciate that you feel the need to call me out out untimely updates (which i am well aware of) when you obviously know nothing about me as a person. Its easy to sit behind a computer and call people out and flame them, i don't need to explain myself to you guest, i owe you nothing. (plus there are reasons for what i write, tensions are obviously high between each of the clans and distrust is high, there is no reason why Thunderclan would seek out Windclans help. And i did promise that Shadowclan would be back to cause trouble. And they possibly will if i am able to get the next book written after this one)
To everyone else (Wyldclaw and WarriorCatsRock), thank you very much for reading and reviewing and allowing me to express my creativity. I love writing (as a hobby) and i enjoy sharing my work with you. I love you all, thank you for honoring me with your attention.
PS. I have mentioned another book after this one which i have said before will NOT be a sequel to this story but more of a side story that will take place with new characters and within Shadowclan. Taking place approximately 12-16 moons after this story ends. PLUS i will be writing a one-shot about one of Swiftbreeze and Moonstreams kits taking place at the same time as the next story (12-16 moons later)
Please enjoy this chapter and leave me a review if you would like to, i really would enjoy reading what you thought.
-Tigerflower08
Amberstar bared her teeth at Reedstar, her heart clenching in her chest as she thought about her daughter's limp body beside the bottom of the pile of rocks. She felt a fire in her she hadn't felt for some time as she stared at the tom she had once thought she had known so well. His large body rippled with muscles but his graying muzzle revealed his advanced age. Both leaders were many moons old; so many they had lost count. They had been around for births, deaths, tyrannical rules and times of peace. They had seen more bloodshed then the average cat and had spilled more blood than they would care to admit. The pale tabby and the gray tom began to circle each other; amber eyes met yellow as the leaders sized each other up. Sunningrocks was reeking with the sharp tang of blood, some cats lay in pools of blood either dead or unconscious, and others had run for the safety of their own territories. Those who still had fight in them were rolling around in the blood stained grass, ripping fur and flesh from each other's worn out bodies.
The two leaders began to circle each other, pelts bristling and claws unsheathed.
"Do you know what you have done?" Amberstar snarled as she watched Reedstar carefully. Reedstar shrugged, his yellow eyes glinting as he waited for her response. "She was my daughter, you took her from me."
"If that is true, then now you can understand what I have felt" Reedstar snarled as he lashed out with a forepaw, claws raking across Amberstar's shoulder "The heartache I have known, when you took my daughter from me." Reedstar swung out his other paw, claws unsheathed to tear fur and flesh.
The brown tabby stumbled from the first blow but quickly dodged the second, turning her head quickly and biting down hard on Reedstar's paw, she shoved the tom with her uninjured shoulder and as he staggered she launched herself forward, knocking the gray tom over, pinning him down by the shoulders with her forepaws.
"Mothpetal was killed by a traitor, I exiled him from my camp not soon after that battle" Amberstar reasoned "He was punished for his crimes"
A cruel laugh rumbled in Reedstar's chest and a mad look passed over his eyes as he stared up at the Thunderclan leader "Oh no Amberstar, you see I have spoken with this so called traitor, he lives within my clan now" when Amberstar stiffened, fear showing in her eyes, Reedstar sneered "He told me everything, how you sent him into that battle with the sole goal to take her from me. I know everything!"
"He is a liar and a traitor" Amberstar meowed quietly "I lost much more than you that day."
"Yes, you lost your precious mate. The one you used to replace me." As Reedstar spoke, his voice rose loudly and cracked with pain.
"I lost my best friend" Amberstar snarled "The only tom who ever loved me."
"I loved you" Reedstar snarled, shoving Amberstar off of him with a blow to the head, Amberstar staggered from the hit, shaking the dizziness from her head.
"And you loved me" Reedstar sneered "I was going to give up everything for you. But at the first sign of trouble you abandoned everything we could have had together and ran scared into the forest"
"You would give up nothing for me Reedstar" Amberstar hissed "Your too selfish to understand that what I did, I did out of love." The tabby queen stepped up to the large gray tom, standing nose to nose with him, her amber eyes blazing with fury "I loved you and I loved our daughter."
Something in Reedstar's eyes snapped, quick as a snake he lashed out his fore paw raking his long curved claws across Amberstar's throat. The tabby she-cat stared at him in shock; she stumbled backwards as blood poured out of the wound at her throat, staining the rock below her feet red.
"She was never yours" Reedstar growled "She was mine"
With a push, Reedstar sent the tabby leader crashing over the edge of the boulders, her body falling beside that of her limp daughter.
As the Thunderclan leader fell to the ground Reedstar called his warriors back to him and they crossed the river, taking their wounded and fallen with them, vanishing into the reeds. The Thunderclan warriors limped over to the base of Sunningrocks, gathering around their fallen leader. Amberstar lay still, the blood that had been flowing freely from her neck had stopped and Shimmerlight carefully touched her leader with her nose. Suddenly Amberstar gasped for breath and her eyes cleared, the weak leader struggled to catch her breath and she shakily moved to a sitting position.
"You're alright" Shimmerlight meowed, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Hardly" Amberstar meowed "I have lost a life" she cast a look towards her clanmates "Bluecloud, take everyone back to camp. I would like a moment alone please."
The blue tom nodded, he waved his tail to signal his clanmates, Skyshine and Stoneshine carefully lifted Drizzlelight with their jaws and the group made their way towards camp.
"Swiftbreeze?" Amberstar meowed "Could you stay here please, I would like to speak with you." The young blue tom looked at her with confusion; dried blood crusted above his eyes and caked the fur along his sides.
"There are some things we need to discuss Swiftbreeze" Amberstar began carefully, taking a moment to catch her breath "I know you have been visiting with Riverclan."
"I had nothing to do with this" Swiftbreeze stuttered "I promise, I haven't been spying on the clan."
"No no Swiftbreeze" Amberstar chuckled "I know you would never betray this clan, but I also know that sometimes our hearts may pull us in another direction."
As realization hit him, Swiftbreeze looked down at his paws, his blue eyes sad "I love her, I never had a choice in the matter."
Amberstar nodded her eyes full with understanding "I was like you, young and foolish once. I too fell in love with a cat from another clan. It was a long time ago I had been a warrior for about three moons when we met, he was Reedshore at the time and he was the most handsome tom I had ever seen. His gray pelt shimmered with strength and youth and his yellow eyes glinted with confidence and something others would call arrogance. He had been a warrior for almost 12 moons and was already deputy at this time, and I couldn't stop myself from falling for him."
Amberstar's eye grew cloudy as she spoke and she fought to catch her breath. Swiftbreeze had to move closer to her in order to hear her speak.
"We met in secret for two moons before I dared to admit my feelings for him, and starclan was I shocked when he admitted he had had feelings for me as well. We were young and in love and we didn't care what was going on in our clans, we were blind and we were foolish. A few moons later I was expecting kits and we were both overjoyed, we believed they would be gifts from starclan that we could share forever."
Swiftbreeze sat quietly beside his leader as she shared her deepest secret with him, something she had never told anyone before in order to protect everyone.
"We were so blinded by our love that we couldn't see the trouble brewing in the clans. Trouble had started long before we were born in Shadowclan with their leader Sandstar, certain ideals had started there and had spread through Windclan and then into Riverclan. Sandstar felt betrayed by her mate who had fallen in love with a queen from another clan. She decreed that all half-clan cats were the product of treachery and could not be trusted. She had her mate's kits killed and any others who could not claim pure blood, pressure lead to the same slaughter occurring in Windclan and then eventually Hailstar of Riverclan joined in. I feared for my kits lives if my secret were to ever be revealed. We called those the dark days."
A shiver crawled through Swiftbreeze's pelt at the thought of innocent kits murdered in cold blood because of who their parents were "But Thunderclan would never do that" he protested "Your kits would have been safe here."
Amberstar shook her head sadly "Although we would never like to admit that we would kill a kit in cold blood, they were dark times and cats were scared, kin turned on kin and no one could be trusted. There were those within Thunderclan who believed that Hailstar and Sandstar were right, I couldn't let anyone know of my secret. Icedapple, Icepaw at the time helped me conceal my secret and when the time came she helped me deliver."
A cough suddenly racked through her body and Amberstar struggled to catch her breath "Im fading, I won't last much longer to protect this clan" she huffed "Only Mothpetal survived the kitting and when I took her to her father I told him I was giving her up, in order to protect her and everyone I cared about. He told me that if I went through with it I would lose him forever and I would lose all claim to her. I did what had to be done. I only regret never being able to apologize to her, for having to give her up."
"What about Minkstripe?" Swiftbreeze asked quietly, thinking about Drizzlelight and her doubts about her parents "Did you ever love him?"
A small smile tugged at the corners of Amberstar's mouth "He was my best friend, 10 moons or so younger than me and he had always loved me. I do believe that I grew to care for him; I did love him, in my own way. And he gave me such wonderful kits to cherish."
The pale tabby leader carefully laid her head on her paws, letting out a long sigh, her tired body began to tremble and the light in her eyes began to fade "Swiftbreeze, promise me that when I do finally go, I will be buried here by Sunningrocks, I need to be here where my heart truly lies, halfway between Thunderclan and Riverclan."
Swiftbreeze nodded solemnly, he helped Amberstar shakily stand to her feet, the leader had seemed to age many moons since the morning the fight began. He helped guide the weakened leader back towards camp.
Darkness, all he could see was darkness, the urge to continue on and fight ebbed away from him and a pale glow began to form around the edge of his vison. Suddenly an intense pain began in his chest and he was pulled from the darkness.
"Lionstreak?" a voice called "Open your eyes Lionstreak."
"Ugh, what happened" the golden ginger tom groaned, opening his eyes carefully and then blinking repeatedly as his eyes adjusted to the light of the sun beginning to set. He looked around to see his clanmates had all returned from battle, the scent of blood clinging to their pelts. An air of sorrow hung around them and it wasn't long before Lionstreak could see why. Bodies, laid carefully beside each other at the center of the camp, so the battle had indeed been bloody.
Lionstreak tried to sit up but found he couldn't gather strength in his limbs. Topazmist shook her head, carefully holding him down.
"Don't move Lionstreak" the ginger tabby ordered "You were unconscious, everyone was worried about you but you have a head injury" as the medicine cat spoke she carefully moved the fur on top of his head apart to examine the wound and Lionstreak could feel the stiffness of his fur, resulting from the caked dried blood. He flinched feeling careful licks across his shoulder and carefully glanced to the side, so as not to move his head, to see Petalblossom beside him. The pretty silver tabby had dried blood around a wound over her muzzle and she was holding her right forepaw off the ground delicately but she was otherwise unharmed.
"Are the kits safe?" Lionstreak asked carefully, relief flooding his body when his mate nodded giving him a careful smile.
"Icepaw and Snowpaw took all of the kits to safety" she meowed proudly "It was Icepaw's idea to get them out of camp when Sunvine revealed himself. He was brilliant."
"Who didn't make it through this battle?" Lionstreak asked, his voice barely a whisper at the thought of his fallen clanmates only a few fox lengths away.
"Drizzlelight, Leopardlight and Whitefog didn't make it" Petalblossom whispered "They died protecting the clan."
After Petalblossom spoke, a cry rang out from the top of the highledge and Lionstreak looked up to see Shimmerlight calling a meeting. The fiery ginger she-cat looked regal as she looked down among her clanmates, a raging fire burned in her ice blue eyes and her fur stood on end as she prepared to speak. Amberstar stood beside her deputy, her gray muzzle held high, she stood back a bit and let her successor speak.
"We fought a hard battle today" Shimmerlight began "And we made many sacrifices to protect those that we care about, and we will always remember their sacrifice and mourn their loss. But now is not the time to be caught up in sadness. We must rally together in order to stop Riverclan. They have gone too far, attacking our camp when we are away, targeting helpless kits, they must be stopped. The traitor Sunvine is amongst them and is no doubt sharing our secrets, we must end him. "
The ginger she-cat stepped back to allow Amberstar to speak, the pale tabby limped as she stepped forward "I am proud to call you all my clanmates and to be your leader, but I am not as strong as I once was. I cannot be your leader through this battle, I am not strong enough to do what needs to be done to end this war once and for all. Instead I shall step down as leader, I will remain to help guide Shimmerlight until my last life leaves me and when that happens she will go to highstones to receive her nine lives."
Shimmerlight lashed her tail as she began to speak again "We will not stand for these attacks any longer, we shall bring the fight to them and end this war. But first we must take the time to heal" she looked over each of her clanmates, her icy gaze stopping over Lionstreak for a moment "We must be prepared and we shall train to perfect our skills until the time is right."
Cheers erupted from the warriors of Thunderclan as Shimmerlight made her way down to the forest floor and Amberstar retreated to the darkness of her den within the highledge.
Topazmist and Hazeshadow weaved through their clanmates looking quickly at injuries and separating their clanmates into three groups, those with minimal injuries, moderate injuries and life threatening. Those with life threatening injuries were moved to the medicine den immediately for treatment and those with moderate injuries sat patiently outside the den for their turn. Those with minimal injuries gathered around their fallen clanmates to share a silent vigil. Bluecloud's pale eyes followed his mate's ginger pelt as she moved closer to her fallen clanmate's her eyes settling on the body of her mother. The ginger she-cat looked lost as she stared at the fallen elder who had never openly acknowledged her and confusion was plastered on her face.
Swiftbreeze sat outside the medicine den waiting beside Flowertail, Squirreltail, Skyshine, and Icepaw. Inside the den receiving immediate treatment were Lionstreak, Rowanflight and Willowfall. The blue tom felt his fur prickle anxiously, the words spoken to him in confidence by Amberstar still clouding his mind.
Suddenly movement at the entrance of the den caught Swiftbreeze's attention and he looked up to see Hazeshadow exiting the den, the medicine cat's blue fur tinted with white glowed ominously in the rising moonlight. The young medicine cat met Swiftbreeze's blue eyes with his own before speaking.
"You're not dying are you?"
Swiftbreeze shook his head vigorously, he had a feeling Hazeshadow wanted to speak with him in private.
"Good, come with me" without another word Hazeshadow stalked out the main entrance, Swiftbreeze followed his brother with more caution, still anxious from that day's battle. After walking in silence through the darkening forest for what felt like forever, Hazeshadow finally stopped beside a small marshy area within Thunderclan's territory near the Shadowclan border.
After a few moments of silence, with Hazeshadow carefully removing tall plants with brown seeds on the top from the soil and laying them on the ground in neat rows, he began to cut through the thick stalks with his teeth when Swiftbreeze cleared his throat.
"What are we doing out here?" he asked carefully, uncomfortable with his brother's unusual quietness.
The blue medicine cat stopped working and lifted his head, meeting his brothers blue eyes with his own which were blazing with fury.
"I warned you about this Swiftbreeze" he hissed, frustration and hurt swimming in his eyes "I told you that this would all end in sorrow."
"How is this my fault?" Swiftbreeze replied hotly "How would I be able to prevent Reedstar from attacking and trying to take Sunningrocks, there was no way of knowing."
"That's not what I'm talking about" Hazeshadow snarled "You know that a group came into the camp, don't you? Well who do you think led them there and nearly killed Lionstreak?" When Swiftbreeze didn't answer Hazeshadow slammed his forepaw down on the ground angrily.
"Sunvine" Hazehshadow snarled "Sunvine was in our camp and he almost killed Lionstreak. I knew that we should have told Amberstar when we found out that he was back. We knew that he was dangerous and I let you convince me to keep quiet."
Swiftbreeze opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Hazeshadow raising his voice even louder.
"No Swiftbreeze, you don't get to talk right now" He snarled "This battle may not have been your fault, but the fact that our clan was not prepared for it, which led to countless injuries, is most certainly your fault"
"Amberstar lost a life and Lionstreak may very well lose his" the medicine cat continued "Drizzlelight, Whitefog and Leopardlight died" the blue cat's voice lowered to almost a whisper as he continued speaking "I have to get back to camp with these Horsetail roots. I can't help you any more Swiftbreeze, I can't support what is happening. Because of your carelessness and your decisions our clan has suffered. If anything more happens to our clanmates at the paws of Sunvine, I will hold you personally responsible"
Without another word the young medicine cat vanished into the darkness, back in the direction of camp. Swiftbreeze watched him go, silenced by his brothers harsh words.
Wyldclaw: thank you for your review and i was sad to kill of Drizzlelight but it was necessary for the plot to move forward. I really hope i did her character justice, i really tried to show the pain she felt at her fathers death and how even though she was young when he died she has harbored hate in her heart and was elated at the chance to seek out revenge.
WarriorCatsRock: hello there, i havnt ever seen you review before so welcome and i really appreciate you taking the time to review.
Guest: see the above authors note to read about what i think of your review. Ta Ta dear guest!
Thank you again for the reviews and i hope to see you all again when this chapter is posted.
-Tigerflower08