Warriors: Solemn Wishes (Warrior Cats Fan Story)

Chapter 22

Metallicstar raised an eyebrow. "And you came to me to resolve it?"

"Just because they think I'm crazy doesn't mean it didn't happen!" Dustface hollered, gesturing wildly with his paws at his irked patrolmates. They sat there, watching with judgmental raised eyebrows as their Clanmate threw a fit.

"Oh, give it up, Dustface," Reedwhistle mewed tiredly. "Nobody's gonna believe you anyway. Chasing a badger into the water and drowning it? What next, did you strangle a fox?"

"Strawberrypaw saw it happen!" Dustface hissed, turning on Reedwhistle and gesturing to the nervous apprentice.

"Strawberrypaw is your apprentice, of course she'd side with you!" the other patrolmate, Throughsight, groaned. "Can we just let this go?"

"Enough!" Metallicstar hollered, drawing the gaze of all four. "What do you even want out of this, Dustface? Assuming you are telling the truth?"

Dustface turned back to his leader with a dip of the head. "I just want-"

"Yo, METALLICSTAR! Big news!" A new voice entered, cutting in front of Dustface. Acorntail rolled up in front of the leader, her tail waving around.

"I'm busy right now, Acorntail," Metallicstar seethed.

Dustface glared at the squirrel with red-hot fury. "I have a point to prove here. Quit meddling, rodent."

"You can wish death on my bloodline later. The leader of ThunderClan has requested to see you, Metallicstar," Acorntail panted, seeming to have been running a lot.

Metallicstar turned towards her niece entirely now, her eyes sparked with interest. The group of cats around Metallicstar, originally arguing over whether or not it was plausible that Dustface had heroically drowned a badger, now had also become intrigued by the little warrior's claim.

"Mazestar...?" Metallicstar meowed carefully, squinting at Acorntail. "Why...?"

"She wants to- Hold on," the squirrel wheezed, sitting down to catch her breath. A few moments were spent in awkward silence while Acorntail's lungs caught up with her. "Okay, okay. Whoo, you always think you're made of steel until you have to run cross-country through a whole forest and moor."

"Get to the point."

"Right, right. Well, she wants to talk about the territory dispute now. In private, at the Moonpool. Just you and her. She's open to negotiation," Acorntail chuckled with a lazy thumbs-up.

Metallicstar blinked rapidly, feeling like this offer had just hit her over the head. The other warriors stared at Metallicstar, as though just as confused as her, and wanting to see her response to model themselves after it. "Well, this is rather unprecedented. Why would she be willing to talk about it out of the blue? Mazestar has never been interested in diplomacy."

"Look, I'm only the messenger, not the damn mastermind," Acorntail puffed, slouching on the ground. "Don't ask me all the questions."

The WindClan leader raised an eyebrow, not entirely unconvinced her niece wasn't pulling some antics as usual. "What were the circumstances that made you become a messenger, anyway? ThunderClan respects you even less than the average WindClan warrior."

"Was on a hunting patrol; split up from the others; went to the border; bunch'a ThunderClan warriors were there and told me to get the offer over to you." Seeing Metallicstar open her mouth, she quickly continued, "If you try asking me why they didn't just go straight to you, I will literally go and set the Moonpool on fire and watch it burn. I am not in their brains. I have the exact same questions." Acorntail rubbed her forehead with a front paw as she laid on the ground, better recovering her breath.