Warriors: Solemn Wishes (Warrior Cats Fan Story)

Chapter 24

Acorntail tripped over her own paws and rolled for a few times as she entered camp, attracting the confused attention of a few Clanmates around her. Her lungs were utterly thrashed from running across the forests and the steppe at a constant high speed, but her brain would not allow her to slow down; her news was too important to be delivered at a leisurely pace. As Acorntail raised her head and looked around, she saw Metallicstar had noticed her reentry from up on the TallRock. It appeared there had been a meeting, though it had just been dismissed, with the rest of the Clan beginning to disperse into the surrounding camp.

As Acorntail stood up and nonchalantly made a beeline straight for Metallicstar, she saw that her aunt was reciprocating, padding off the TallRock with a straight line towards the small brown warrior. The two met in the middle, but before Acorntail could choke out a word, Metallicstar spoke first.

"You missed the meeting," the tuxedo she-cat growled first.

"Yeah, I know. Listen-"

"ENOUGH LISTENING." The sheer rage and indignation in the leader's voice made Acorntail fall quiet - out of respect or out of fear, she didn't know - and blink with wide eyes towards the she-cat. She didn't know what she was expecting from Metallicstar, but it wasn't this. "I have been so, SO patient with you. And I can't even count how many times you've abused that patience now. Did you know Murmurtooth was in camp when I came back? And he told me you ditched him on hunting patrol?"

"Metallicstar," Acorntail quickly tried to say, "I get it, you're mad at me. You can punish me all you want, as soon as you know that-"

"SHUT UP!" Metallicstar shouted, scaring even the spectating cats around her. The leader's eyes were slits, her bristling fur doubling her size. "I'm talking now. You're not talking.

"You met a RiverClan warrior behind my back and publicly embarrassed WindClan. You went to your first Gathering, and you screamed at RiverClan like you're a leader, also embarrassing WindClan. You abandoned a hunting patrol to deliberately manufacture a lie. You misled not one, but two leaders into a completely unauthorized meeting, once again embarrassing WindClan. Did you know we were attacked by a fox there? At the meeting you led us to?"

Acorntail opened her mouth, then shut it.

Metallicstar's tail waved around in unabated anger. "You don't know. You probably don't even care. Because as long as things work out your way, you think that all your lying is okay."

The squirrel didn't entirely know how to respond to this, mostly because she felt bad it was true. She managed to rip her eyes away from Metallicstar's face, glancing at the Clanmates surrounding her. Most of them were smirking, seemingly rejoicing in finally watching the leader deliver punishment to the warrior that had been so often exempt from it. Her fur raised a little, and she looked back to the leader. All she could ask was, "Does that mean you reached an agreement?" to at least feign obliviousness.

Metallicstar raised her head up. "Yes. But that doesn't matter. Because when you-"

"Why does it not matter? I literally just helped you stop a war. And you're not thanking me?" Acorntail complained.

"THIS." Metallicstar pointed a claw at her accusatorily. "THIS is what I mean. The fact that you only see us as pawns makes you not only a liability, but a danger to everyone around you."

Acorntail bit her tongue. One part of her brain giggled to make a witty remark, but the other part realized just how much danger that would put her in, and beyond that, how cruel it would be. As she forced herself to stare into Metallicstar's eyes, the realization of how truly angry and hurt the she-cat was slowly sunk in, and for the first time, Acorntail felt all the fight drain out of her. She felt like an empty husk, an unoccupied shell, a lonely cavern. She tried to will herself to summon the guts to stand up for herself, but where there normally was a bolstering fire, she found nothing. She lowered her ears as she kept eye contact with Metallicstar.