The Forgotten Warrior

“Ridiculous, am I?” Onestar hissed. “Then why have my warriors seen a ThunderClan cat scouting our territory?”

“Yes!” Crowfeather yowled from the clearing. He sprang to his paws with his gray-black fur bristling. “I’ve seen it!”

“So have I!” Whitetail agreed.

Ivypool realized that Lionblaze was stiffening beside her, clearly indignant about the false accusation. She was just relieved that this didn’t seem to have anything to do with her and Birchfall.

“Can you identify this trespasser?” Firestar inquired icily. He waved his tail toward the ThunderClan cats in the clearing. “Is that cat here tonight?”

“No,” Onestar replied. “My warriors never got a good look at the intruder, and the scent wasn’t clear.”

“Oh, really?” Firestar’s green eyes narrowed. “So you have no evidence that this was a ThunderClan cat? It could easily have been a passing loner—unless it was a bit of mist or a skinny dog.”

“Well, you would say that, Firestar,” Onestar blustered.

“Yes,” Firestar agreed. “I would always defend my Clan against an unfounded accusation. Onestar, I think you’d better give us your Clan news and sit down, before you fall any further into the hole you’ve dug for yourself.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the cats in the clearing—and not only from ThunderClan, Ivypool realized. The WindClan cats were mostly looking embarrassed, except for a few like Crowfeather and Breezepelt, who were still furious.

“WindClan has two new apprentices,” Onestar announced abruptly. “Crouchpaw and Larkpaw.” He sat down.

This time only WindClan called out the names of the two new apprentices. Ivypool felt sorry for the young cats. Their special moment has been spoiled because their leader is such a mouse-brain!

Firestar also sat down, waving his tail for Blackstar to speak.

“ShadowClan warriors fought a battle with the two kittypets at the Twoleg nest.” The big white cat lashed his tail with satisfaction. “We won’t be having any more trouble from them for a while.”

There was a yowl of agreement from ShadowClan; Ivypool spotted Tawnypelt and Toadfoot with satisfied expressions on their faces, although Toadfoot’s eye was swollen from a nasty scratch, which suggested the kittypets had put up a decent fight.

“Also,” the ShadowClan leader went on, “we have three new warriors: Pinenose, Ferretclaw, and Starlingwing. ShadowClan is strong.”

Blackfoot sat down as the cats in the clearing yowled approval of the new warriors. Ivypool couldn’t bring herself to join in. Strong? That sounded like a threat. Does that mean they’ll be causing more trouble?

As the Clan leaders came down from the Great Oak, the Clans at last began to mingle and share tongues before they left the island. Ivypool saw Tigerheart staring at her and Dovewing, and immediately looked away. Dovewing seemed to be ignoring the ShadowClan cat, too.

A heartbeat later, Ivypool noticed that Tigerheart had left his Clanmates and was heading toward Dovewing. Ivypool turned to warn her sister, but at that moment Hollowflight thrust himself between them.

“Hi, Ivypool,” he meowed.

“Hi. Congratulations on becoming a warrior,” Ivypool offered, trying to peer around the RiverClan cat to see what had happened to Dovewing.

“Thanks.” Hollowflight puffed out his chest proudly. “Hey, wasn’t that great climbing last night?”

Oh, sure—you were scared out of your fur! Ivypool thought. “We can’t talk about it here,” she whispered.

Hollowflight didn’t take the hint. “It’s really weird, being in the Dark Forest,” he went on, though at least he had the sense to keep his voice to a low murmur. “I mean, half of those cats are dead!”

“Yeah, weird,” Ivypool agreed, still trying to watch for Dovewing and Tigerheart.

To her relief, she heard the voice of Reedwhisker, the RiverClan deputy. “Hey, Hollowflight! It’s time to go!”

“See you tomorrow night,” Hollowflight purred as he turned and pushed his way through the crowds of cats toward his Clanmate.

As soon as he had gone, Ivypool whirled around, looking for her sister. But there was no sign of Dovewing or Tigerheart. Have they gone off together somewhere?

Then she spotted Dovewing heading out of the clearing behind a group of ThunderClan cats. Ivypool hurried after her, creeping under the bushes and running down the shore to catch up to her as Dovewing waited to cross the tree-bridge.

“What did Tigerheart want?” she asked in a low voice.

Dovewing looked stressed, working her claws into the sandy ground. “It’s nothing,” she snapped. “He’s just trying to stir up trouble over Flametail.”