Shattered Sky

Zelda gave an excited little bounce. “Oh, I love feasts! When I lived with my housefolk, they had feasts sometimes, with scraps of all different kinds of food. They played a game with me: they’d put my feast into the garbage can, and I had to hunt for it. It was fun!”

Violetpaw glimpsed a flash of anger in Darktail’s eyes, as if he would have liked to claw the flighty little kittypet’s ear off. “Be quiet now,” he ordered through gritted teeth. “It’s time to claim our new territory.”

With a gesture of his tail, Darktail beckoned the three kittypets a few paw steps away from Violetpaw. Sleekwhisker padded up with the two ShadowClan elders, then stepped back with a nod to Darktail.

“Right,” Darktail meowed. “This is the plan. You three kittypets will be going in first, along with the elders.”

“Is that a good idea?” Violetpaw asked without thinking. Her belly cramped with fear as Darktail turned a menacing gaze on her, and she realized she shouldn’t have questioned her leader. “I—I mean,” she stammered, “the kittypets don’t have any battle experience, and the elders are… well, elder.”

Darktail paused before replying. Violetpaw noticed the three kittypets exchanging glances of alarm, while the two elders were listening with grim expressions.

“It’s an honor to be the first cats to attack in a battle,” Darktail assured them at last.

Violetpaw thought that was a bit strange. Even if that’s true, wouldn’t you choose your strongest warriors to honor? She was sure that Oakfur and Ratscar hadn’t fought in a battle for ShadowClan since they’d retired to the elders’ den. And when inexperienced apprentices went into battle, they fought beside their mentors. But she didn’t dare say anything more to Darktail. After all, it’s different with the Kin.

“You, Violetpaw, will have the greatest honor of all,” Darktail continued smoothly. “You will fight at my side.”

Even weirder, Violetpaw thought. Why does he want me at his side?

But she had no time to work out what Darktail intended. The bushes at the other side of the Thunderpath rustled, and a group of RiverClan cats stepped out into the open.

By this time the dawn light had strengthened, and a glow in the sky over WindClan territory showed where the sun would rise. There was enough light for Violetpaw to see that the RiverClan leader, Mistystar, was in the lead, her gray-blue fur gleaming except for the dark gash along her side where she had been wounded in the previous battle.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “My dawn patrol reported a large group of cats along our border. What are you doing here?” When Darktail didn’t reply at once, she lashed her tail and added, “RiverClan wants nothing to do with you mange-ridden rogues! Be gone!”

In spite of Mistystar’s challenging tone, Violetpaw could see confusion in her blue eyes. It made her realize how strange Darktail’s behavior was, that it was quite outside a Clan leader’s experience.

Still Darktail didn’t attempt to answer Mistystar’s questions. Instead he let out a deep-throated caterwaul. “Kin! Attack!”

At once Zelda, Max and Loki sprang forward, with the two elders lumbering after them. Violetpaw could tell that the kittypets didn’t have much of an idea what they were supposed to do in a fight. Zelda opened her jaws wide, but what came out was more like a squeak than a challenging roar.

Violetpaw wanted to follow her friends and help them, but as she bunched her muscles to hurl herself forward, Darktail blocked her path with his tail.

“Not yet,” he mewed.

On the opposite side of the Thunderpath, the RiverClan warriors stared in amazement, exchanging confused glances as if they didn’t know what to do about an attack from confused kittypets.

“Time to show what you’re made of, my Kin!” Darktail raised his voice again in a yowl. “Time to tell these Clan cats they can’t mess with us! The winner of this battle takes the territory!”

Spurred on by his leader’s orders, Scorchfur was the first of the Kin to race forward, taking a swipe at Beetlewhisker’s nose. Blood sprayed out into the air, and Beetlewhisker let out a screech.

As if at a signal, the RiverClan cats seemed to realize that the attack wasn’t absurd after all.

They know it’s really happening, Violetpaw thought. They can see they’re in danger of losing their camp.

Darktail had explained the day before that the RiverClan cats would be at a serious disadvantage: their numbers were about equal since more rogues had come to join the Kin, but RiverClan had taken more serious injuries in the previous battle. Their leader, Mistystar herself, still wasn’t fully recovered.