River Of Fire

Tree shrugged. “I never thought I’d be saying this, but Twigpaw is making a lot of sense. StarClan does seem to want there to be five Clans, and for all five Clans to work together. And there is tension in the SkyClan camp. Sooner or later it’s going to break out into fighting. Perhaps it would be better if the ShadowClan cats split off again.”

“But how can we make that happen?” Violetshine asked.

“We should at least talk to the ShadowClan cats,” Tree replied. “Surely one of them could make a decent leader.”

For a few moments Violetshine was silent, clearly deep in thought. “Perhaps we could talk to Tawnypelt,” she suggested at last. “She was Rowanstar’s deputy after Tigerheart left, and she truly cared about her Clan. Once I saw her with Rowanclaw at ShadowClan’s old camp, and she seemed so regretful about all they had lost. Maybe she would be willing to try reviving the Clan.”

“Okay,” Twigpaw mewed, feeling a tingle of hope in her pads. Is this plan of mine actually working? “Let’s go and talk to Tawnypelt.”

CHAPTER 11

“We can’t do that!” Violetshine objected. She couldn’t believe that her sister would ignore the way things were done in the Clans. “We have to talk to Leafstar first.”

“But this is ShadowClan’s affair,” Twigpaw pointed out.

“Have you got bees in your brain?” Violetshine demanded. “ShadowClan is part of SkyClan now, and Leafstar is the leader for every cat. And I’m a SkyClan cat,” she added, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not going to mutiny by convincing ShadowClan to rebuild without warning my leader.”

“I suppose so. . . .” Twigpaw sounded hesitant. “The thing is, I don’t think Leafstar is exactly a fan of mine since I left to rejoin ThunderClan.”

Violetshine flicked her ears in annoyance. This isn’t all about you! Aloud she mewed, “Don’t worry. I’ll do all the talking. We’ll get Hawkwing to be there, too. That will make it easier.”

She turned and headed back to the SkyClan camp, with Twigpaw following her and Tree bringing up the rear. It felt weird to Violetshine to be padding along these paths with her sister, who had been her Clanmate not so long ago, and now was an interloper. If Twigpaw wasn’t with me and Tree, any SkyClan cat would be right to attack her.

Grassheart was on guard duty at the camp entrance. “What’s she doing here?” she asked with a glare at Twigpaw.

“She needs to talk to Leafstar,” Violetshine replied. “We all do.”

“She doesn’t want to come back again, does she?” Grassheart called after them as they padded farther into the camp.

Though she was irritated, Violetshine wasn’t surprised her Clanmates would react that way when they saw Twigpaw again. The sooner we get this over with, the better.

She was relieved to see Hawkwing talking to Sparrowpelt in the center of the camp, and bounded over to join him. “I need to talk to you,” she declared.

Sparrowpelt gave her a friendly nod. “I’ll get that hunting patrol together,” he meowed to Hawkwing, whipping around and vanishing into the warriors’ den.

“So what—” Hawkwing began, and broke off. “Hey, Twigpaw!” He pressed his nose into his daughter’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you.”

Twigpaw looked encouraged to see her father, leaning into him with a happy purr. But she straightened up nervously a moment later as Leafstar appeared through the lichen screen at the entrance to her den.

“What’s this?” she asked, leaping down from the roots of the cedar tree and stalking across the camp to Violetshine and the others. “Twigpaw, why are you here?”

Violetshine felt she should be the one to reply. “We need to talk to you and Hawkwing,” she mewed. “Please, Leafstar, will you hear us out?”

Leafstar hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Very well.”

“We’re worried about the prophecy,” Violetshine began. “The way that StarClan says there have to be five Clans, and now there are only three. We think we might have found a way to help.”

The Clan leader’s gaze was fixed on Violetshine, who felt a wave of relief that Leafstar was clearly taking her seriously. But there was a skeptical look in her amber eyes. I mustn’t put a paw wrong if I want to convince her, Violetshine thought.

“Go on,” Leafstar meowed.

Violetshine swallowed. “We want to ask Tawnypelt if she would be leader and rebuild ShadowClan.”

Leafstar’s expression changed; her amber eyes smoldered with anger. “Rebuild ShadowClan?” she hissed.

Violetshine glanced at her father for support; her heart began to pound harder when she saw that he too looked annoyed, his ears laid back and his claws sliding out.