Outcast

No cat listened to him except for Brook, standing at his shoulder and begging her Tribemates to come back. Then she glanced over her shoulder and her neck fur bristled as she saw a fresh wave of intruders hurtling up the slope.

“Stormfur! It’s no use!” Brook wailed. “We can’t fight them all.”

“You go.” Stormfur’s voice was a hoarse growl; he touched his mate’s shoulder with his tail tip.

“Not without you.” Brook’s eyes were wide with fear, but she dug her claws into the thin soil.

Stormfur let out a hiss of frustration. “Go!” He gave Brook a hefty shove with one shoulder. “Go on—I’m coming.”

Letting out one last snarl at the invaders, who were now barely a tail-length away, he raced upstream behind Brook.

The attackers didn’t bother to chase them. They just stood watching, their eyes gleaming with triumph, until the last Tribe cat had disappeared.

Jaypaw staggered, and when his vision cleared he found himself in the Tribe’s cave again. His pelt was still sticky with blood, but the noise of the battle had faded away. Silver light trembled on the cave walls as the moon shone through the falling water. The rushing of the river was the only sound.

Stoneteller was sitting on his rock, his fur ruffled and one ear dark with crusted blood. The rest of the Tribe was huddled around him. Jaypaw couldn’t see one of them who didn’t bear wounds from the battle. In the center of the cave several limp bodies were lying; Stormfur was stooping over one of them, and Jaypaw recognized the dark gray tom whose death he had witnessed.

“Jag,” Stormfur murmured. “You were a good friend. May you walk the mountains forever with the Tribe of Endless Hunting.” He bent his head and touched his nose to the matted gray fur. Quietly Brook padded up beside him.

“Come and rest,” she mewed.

But before the gray warrior could move, Stoneteller’s voice rang out from the other end of the cave. “Stormfur!”

The gray tom looked up.

“Stormfur, what have you to say?”

Stormfur’s eyes clouded. “What do you want me to say?

The Tribe fought as well as it could have done. I couldn’t hope to stand beside braver warriors. We must make another plan, so that—”

“No.” Stoneteller’s voice was cold. “No more plans. Not from you. We took your advice, and we were defeated. Many good cats are dead.” His tail flicked once toward the bodies lying on the cave floor.

“I told you what would happen.” Rain was crouched at the foot of Stoneteller’s rock. “But would any cat listen?”

“I’m sorry—” Stormfur tried again.

“There is no place here for the ways of the Clans,” Stoneteller interrupted. “There is no place for Clan cats in the mountains. You will bring only more death and bad luck if you stay here. You must go and never return.”

“What?” Stormfur stared at him in disbelief. “You’re blaming me for this, when I—”

“Enough!” Stoneteller snarled. “Go now.”

Brook stepped forward. “Stoneteller, this isn’t right.

Stormfur did his best to help us. He took the same risks as every cat. He could be lying there now, with Jag and the others.”

“If we hadn’t listened to him, those cats would still be alive.” Stoneteller’s gaze was colder than ice.

“He’s right, Brook.” Talon, standing beside Stoneteller’s boulder, flicked his ears uneasily. “Clan ways aren’t for us.”

Brook’s eyes widened; Jaypaw could feel the distress flooding through her as if it was his own. “But, Talon, you’re my brother.” Her voice quivered. “Can’t you understand?”

Talon scraped at the cave floor with his forepaws. “It’s what’s best for the Tribe.”

“Night?” Brook turned to appeal to the black she-cat.

“We’ve been friends since before we were to-bes. We’ve hunted together. We fought together. Can’t you see that the Tribe needs Stormfur?”

Night’s green eyes narrowed. “I can see that you need Stormfur.”

Brook’s ears flattened and her jaws parted in the beginning of a snarl. “Are you saying I’m no longer loyal to my Tribe?”

Night turned her head away without answering.

“Enough of this,” Stoneteller meowed. “Stormfur, you are no longer welcome among the Tribe. You must leave at once.”

Brook’s tail fluffed up. “If he goes, I go!” she hissed.

“Brook, be careful,” Stormfur murmured.

The gentle prey-hunter’s eyes were blazing. “Do you think I could stay here, after this?”

“Stormfur is right when he says you should think about what you say.” Stoneteller rose to his paws, towering over the other cats from the top of his boulder. “Do you truly want to abandon your fate to this cat and his Clan? Can you trust him?”

“With my life,” Brook mewed.

Stoneteller’s contempt was obvious in the flick of his tail.

“You have no more sense than a kit, after what this Clan cat has done to our Tribe.”

Stormfur arched his back and hissed. “You seem to have forgotten that my sister died for the Tribe. If it weren’t for Clan cats, every last one of you would have been eaten by Sharptooth.”

Jaypaw noticed that some of the Tribe cats—Talon included—looked uneasy, but none of them spoke.