Shattered Sky

With a sigh, Needletail rose to her paws and headed farther into the trees. Violetpaw followed her, ears pricked for the sound of prey, parting her jaws to taste the air. A few heartbeats later, Needletail halted and angled her ears toward a spot where the ground fell away into a small hollow; at the bottom, ferns grew around a pool. Violetpaw saw the ferns twitching slightly, just before she picked up the scent of vole.

Needletail dropped into the hunter’s crouch and crept silently forward, her paws seeming to float over the ground, her sleek, silver-gray pelt no more than a drifting shadow. When she reached the top of the hollow, she launched herself into an enormous pounce. As she dived into the ferns, Violetpaw heard a thin shriek of terror, abruptly cut off. Needletail emerged with the limp body of the vole in her jaws.

“Great catch!” Violetpaw mewed admiringly.

“It’ll do,” Needletail mumbled around her prey.

As she and Needletail headed back to where they had left the rest of their prey hidden under pine needles, Violetpaw was glad that Needletail had agreed to keep hunting. She knew the truth was that Needletail was too scared of the rogue leader to do anything else.

I’m scared of him too, Violetpaw thought, even though he’s only been nice to me since I backed up his story about how Rain died.

She couldn’t ignore how Darktail looked coldly at Needletail every time the young she-cat crossed his path, and how, in spite of her usual impudence, Needletail hadn’t twitched a whisker against his orders since Rain’s death.

Violetpaw stifled a sigh. Things had changed in camp after that day. Darktail seemed more suspicious and unfriendly toward every cat. Her paws tingled with apprehension every time he turned that brooding, cold look on Needletail.

It’s obvious: because Needletail was so close to Rain, Darktail thinks that she might—or will—betray him just as Rain did. What if Needletail is the next cat he strikes down?

Violetpaw wished that she could help her friend, but she had no idea what to do, except to try to keep Darktail happy with them both. Her fur prickled at the sense of trouble approaching, like a storm cloud swelling on the horizon, ready to release something terrible on the Kin.

She and Needletail were padding alongside a small stream, on their way to their prey cache, when Violetpaw spotted movement among the vegetation that overhung the water. The scent of frog flowed into her jaws. Almost without thinking, she flashed a paw down into the clump of plants and drew it up again with the frog wriggling on her claws. Swiftly she killed it with a bite to its neck.

“Good job,” Needletail commented. “And now we really do have to take our prey back to camp. We’ll need to make two trips as it is.”

Violetpaw’s heart grew a little lighter as she followed Needletail through the trees, all the prey she could carry dangling from her jaws. I’d never tell Needletail this, she thought, but I always thought that Rain was a little bit… scary. And Darktail only killed him because he had to. And at least it happened before Rain could get Needletail into serious trouble. She hoped that she could help Needletail keep her head down until Darktail wasn’t suspicious of her anymore. Then we’ll both be safe, and everything might be okay.

When they reached the ShadowClan camp, more cats were approaching from the opposite direction. Roach and Thistle were escorting three cats Violetpaw had never seen before. All three were plump, with glossy pelts, and they were eyeing their surroundings nervously as they entered the camp.

Violetpaw exchanged a shocked glance with Needletail. “Those are kittypets!” she exclaimed.

“Do Roach and Thistle have bees in their brain, bringing them here?” Needletail muttered.

Padding across the camp to drop her prey on the fresh-kill pile, Violetpaw saw Darktail emerge from his den, and she braced herself for an explosion of anger. She was grateful that neither she nor Needletail would be the ones in trouble this time.

But to Violetpaw’s astonishment, Darktail bounded across the camp and dipped his head to the kittypets. “Greetings,” he meowed. “Welcome to our camp.”

What? Darktail actually wants kittypets here?

Violetpaw could see that the ShadowClan warriors weren’t as pleased as Darktail to see the newcomers. They crowded around with expressions of shock and annoyance.