Yellowfang’s Secret

“Ow! Get off!” Clawface looked up sleepily. “Oh, it’s you, Yellowfang. What do you want?”

“Have you seen Brightflower’s kits?” Yellowfang asked. “They’ve gone missing.”

Clawface shook his head. “They’re not here. But maybe they snuck out with the night patrol. They talked about wanting to join it tonight, but I told them they had to wait until they were apprenticed.”

Like they’d listen! Yellowfang thought. “Thanks, Clawface,” she mewed.

The gray tom curled up again as Yellowfang left the den and joined Brightflower, who was pacing back and forth across the clearing. Her expression cleared as Yellowfang told her what Clawface had said.

“That must be where they are!” Brightflower exclaimed. “They should be fine if they’re with their Clanmates.”

As she spoke, the night patrol pushed its way back into the camp: Blackfoot leading Russetfur and Wolfstep. Mintkit and Marigoldkit weren’t with them. Yellowfang and Brightflower bounded over.

“Have you seen my kits?” Brightflower demanded as she halted in front of Blackfoot.

Blackfoot shook his head. “No. Should we have?”

Brightflower let out a wail of terror, and Yellowfang rested her tail-tip on her shoulder. “They’re missing. Clawface thought they might have gone with you,” she explained to Blackfoot.

“We’ll go out at once to look for them,” Russetfur meowed, her voice full of concern.

Wolfstep nodded. “Do you think they tried to follow us, but couldn’t keep up?”

“It’s possible,” Yellowfang admitted.

“We went through the trees as far as the border with the unknown forest,” Russetfur told her, “and then along by the Twolegplace and back here.”

“Great StarClan!” Brightflower exclaimed, flattening her ears in distress. “They could have been stolen by Twolegs!”

“They’re probably just lost,” Yellowfang calmed her. “They’re only half a moon old; they couldn’t have gotten far. I’ll follow the patrol’s route and look for them. And meanwhile,” she added, knowing how important it was to keep Brightflower occupied, “you should give the rest of the camp a really thorough search. Russetfur, perhaps you could help?” She looked meaningfully at the warrior, trying to indicate that Brightflower needed some company.

“Of course,” Russetfur meowed. “Let me know if you want me to search the forest later on.”

Yellowfang hurried out of the camp and picked up the trail of the night patrol. The cloud cover had thickened and the moon was scarcely visible. It was hard going through the trees and undergrowth, and Yellowfang concentrated so as not to lose the scent. Then she heard the bark of a fox from somewhere up ahead, and quickened her pace. I hope it hasn’t found the kits…

Another harsh tang mixed with the traces of the night patrol. Yellowfang’s heart started to pound and she broke into a run, her nostrils flared with the scent of blood. The night patrol had reported no skirmishes on any of the boundaries, yet somewhere a cat was badly hurt. Yellowfang’s fur stood on end as all her instincts pricked with alarm. Something is terribly wrong!

She burst through a line of trees and stumbled to a halt in a small clearing. Panting hard, she gazed around and saw a thin shaft of starlight breaking through the branches. It rested on two tiny heaps of fur, as still as rocks in the cold air. One tortoiseshell, one gray, both ripped apart by the jaws of some cruel creature who couldn’t even be bothered to stay and eat his prey.

Oh, no! StarClan, not even you could be this cruel.

Yellowfang bounded across the clearing to where the little bodies lay, their blood spattering the ferns. She bent over them, desperately checking for signs of life, and opened herself to their pain in the hope that it would prove they were still alive. But she was too distraught to be sure if she could feel the flicker that would tell her there was still hope.

Desperately summoning her medicine cat skills, Yellowfang looked around for anything nearby that she could treat them with or pad their wounds. But the clearing was barren: no sign of a scrap of cobweb or marigold leaf. Clinging to the last traces of hope, Yellowfang curled her body around the kits, licking their still-warm fur.

Come on, little ones! Live!

Crashing paw steps disturbed her, followed by a ghastly wail. Yellowfang looked up to see Brightflower standing on the other side of the clearing, staring in horror. Brokenstar was just behind her.

“What happened?” Brokenstar demanded.

“I found them like this,” Yellowfang replied, her voice shaking. “It must have been a fox!”

Brokenstar sniffed the air. “I don’t smell any fox.”

“It was here!” Yellowfang insisted. “I heard it just before I found them.”

Brightflower padded forward and gazed down at the two tiny shapes. “My babies, my babies!”

Yellowfang stared at Brokenstar. “You need to look for the fox! It could be close by!”