Yellowfang’s Secret

Yellowfang sighed. The journey would be even longer if they couldn’t go through WindClan. But she made no protest, just led the way farther up the Thunderpath until the moorland fell away behind them. They crossed beside a small cluster of Twoleg dens; Yellowfang worked her claws impatiently into the grass as she waited for a chance to race over the hard black surface between the snarling monsters. Their route took them across frostbitten fields where the grass was hard and cold under their paws. A bitter, icy wind blew into their faces. Brokentail plodded with his head down, the freezing gusts plastering his fur to his sides.

Darkness had fallen by the time they reached Mothermouth. Yellowfang led Brokentail down the long tunnel and into the cave, where dazzling light was already pouring from the Moonstone. As she waved her tail to beckon Brokentail closer, and showed him where to lie with his nose against the stone, she winced at the memory of her previous dream.

Please, StarClan, spare me from that.

But no shrieking, bloodstained kits met Yellowfang’s gaze as she woke within her dream. Instead she was standing on a bleak and windy stretch of marsh that might have been somewhere within ShadowClan territory. Looking around for Brokentail, Yellowfang saw that the quiet, grief-stricken cat of their journey had vanished. Now the tabby tom stood strong and erect, his kinked tail held high like a signal. His eyes shone and he quivered with excitement.

“Where are they?” he demanded. “My StarClan ancestors?”

Yellowfang glimpsed movement in the distance, and pointed with her tail to where a line of cats was advancing steadily over the marshes. A frosty glimmer came from their pelts, and the light of stars was in their eyes. Cedarstar was in the lead, with his deputy, Stonetooth, padding at his shoulder. Sagewhisker and Lizardfang were there too, and other cats Yellowfang didn’t know, though she recognized some of them as cats who had given lives to Raggedstar when he became Clan leader.

At first Yellowfang could only count eight cats, until she noticed that one of them was a tiny kit, skipping through the long grass in Cedarstar’s paw steps.

“My daughter… oh, my daughter,” she whispered.

She felt a moment’s surprise to see that Raggedstar was not among the nine. Surely he would want to give a life to his son? Then she told herself that Raggedstar’s spirit must still be traveling to StarClan. He will watch over Brokentail as he leads his Clan.

Cedarstar was the first of the nine cats to step forward. He bowed his head to Brokentail and meowed, “I give you a life to live by the warrior code. Remember it well, Brokentail, and let it be your guide. Wiser cats than you or I have lost their way without it.”

Yellowfang detected a veiled warning in his words, though Brokentail showed no loss of confidence as he touched noses with Cedarstar to receive the life. Yellowfang knew what agony the leader had to endure with each new life, but Brokentail gave little hint of the pain beyond a flaring of his nostrils and a twitch of his eyes.

Cedarstar stepped back into the circle of nine cats that had formed around Brokentail, and Stonetooth took his place. “I give you a life for duty,” he meowed. “Remember what you owe to your Clan as well as what your Clan owes to you.” He touched noses with Brokentail, who flexed his claws briefly and then was still.

The next StarClan warrior to step forward was Dawnstar, the former ShadowClan leader who had given a life to Raggedstar. “I give you a life for honor,” she told Brokentail. “Honor is expected from all cats, but most of all, from a Clan leader. Use the honor of leadership carefully.”

For the first time Brokentail showed emotion as he received his third life. His eyes closed as if he was in pain, and his claws dug hard into the earth. As the StarClan she-cat withdrew, Brokentail opened his eyes again and fixed her with a challenging gaze as if he blamed her for the torture of receiving her life, but Dawnstar did not react as she took her place once more in the circle.

The fourth cat stepped forward; Yellowfang didn’t know his name. He was a skinny gray tom, and he studied Brokentail carefully before he spoke. “I give you a life for truth. Without it, kin is set against kin, Clan against Clan. Hold fast to truth in all your dealings and let it guide your words.” The skinny tom hesitated before darting his head forward like a striking snake and touching Brokentail’s nose to give him his life.

As Yellowfang looked on from outside the circle of cats, she began to feel uneasy. All the lives Brokentail had received so far seemed to come with a warning, almost a threat, and she sensed a reluctance among the StarClan cats that was unlike anything she had experienced when she had accompanied Raggedstar to his ceremony.