Diverging Paths (Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 38

The tom frowned. "I'll be blunt. That's quite an...interesting...status report."

The moon shone weakly upon the shrubs, bushes, and tiny trees surrounding the farm. The trees themselves, though small, provided enough cover to mask Metro in shadow, hiding everything but his faint silhouette from his Clanborn informants, who stood a ways away, their fur lit by the dim, struggling light from the moon and the stars.

These informants, Murmurbreeze, Rushpaws, Lithetiger, and Sharpfang, stood with flicking tails as they had finished up their regular report of the goings-on between the Clans. Lithetiger and Sharpfang in particular were quivering a bit more than usual. Which was to be expected; they were newer recruits.

When none of the other four spoke, Metro went on with, "Well, at least this means the Clans will pay less attention to our shenanigans. Like they haven't already been trying to ignore us," he chuckled. Clearing his throat, he continued more seriously, "And how has ShadowClan reacted?"

Murmurbreeze, Lithetiger, and Sharpfang looked to Rushpaws - the only WindClan cat in the mix, as the other three were RiverClan. Of course they assume I know everything about the ShadowClan drama just because I'm WindClan. Rushpaws inhaled, and sighed, "I don't know. All I heard from my Clanmates was that Scatterstar was pretty horrified. But otherwise, ShadowClan's been pretty reclusive. We don't know much."

Metro hummed thoughtfully, and for a while there was silence. This silence drew on as the Clan cats expected that he was just planning out what to say next, but he remained quiet.

Eventually the silence was broken by Sharpfang, who shyly proposed, "So, I guess WindClan won't be the only Clan you guys take over."

This drew a response from Metro. He locked eyes with Sharpfang, and inquired with genuine confusion, "Huh?"

"I mean...with what's going on in ShadowClan...you guys would want the opportunity, right? I mean, to get even more land? You could overthrow Scatterstar easily," Sharpfang continued.

All the other informants blinked at him, then turned their gazes back to Metro for his reply.

Metro merely sighed with what sounded like exhaustion at this proposal. "No. Window With Light has been very clear. This isn't about the conquering. It's about a new home."

"But...Wouldn't you guys...Wouldn't you want more land?" Sharpfang pressed. "I mean, especially since WindClan's land is still recovering from those wildfires moons ago."

"We're aware of that. But Window With Light was clear from the beginning. She wants to separate her group from Wheel's group peacefully. That's all," Metro snapped. "We're only taking WindClan out of necessity. Any more would just be greedy."

"And what about Wheel?" Sharpfang questioned. "Wouldn't he want ShadowClan?"

"Weren't you listening?" Murmurbreeze groaned, drawing all looks to him as he responded instead of Metro. "They've told us this from the get-go. Wheel stays at the barn. Window With Light stays at WindClan. That's been the idea from the start."

"I thought this was about taking over the forest or something," Sharpfang mused, turning his frowning eyes up to Metro instead of Murmurbreeze.

"I don't know where you got that idea from, but we have our own motives," Metro grunted. "We're here out of necessity, not out of greed."

Sharpfang opened his mouth to inquire more, but another cat spoke first. "But...wait," Lithetiger spoke up, now drawing Metro's attention to him. "What'll happen to ForwardClan then? How're you guys gonna keep the Clan together if you're in two different camps?"