Clans Accused

Chapter 2

Emberpaw glares at the Shadowclan cats. "Am I getting bad vibes from them, or is that just my imagination?"

"Why are they staring at us like that? What did we do?" Stormblaze asks.

Goldenlight sees a ShadowClan warrior looking at her. She hissed at him and sneered, "Back off flea-pelt."

Emberpaw flicks her tail. "Hey! Are you gonna like, do something, or are we gonna do this staring contest forever?"

"Why is everyone glaring at us?" Echoheart asks.

Did they see me being a total idiot at the river?  Stormblaze thinks.

Vortexfang mews to Shadowclan. "Greetings, Shadowclan! With all due respect... why are you looking at us like that?"

Skystar leaps onto the tree. "Where's Needlestar?" she mews to Foxcatcher. 

Foxcatcher growls at her, her eyes filled with hatred. "Before this Gathering begins, I have something to announce. Needlestar, our beloved and trusted leader, was murdered!" 

Emberpaw winces. "Yikes, that can't be good. Who did it?"

Stormblaze looks silently at Foxcatcher. "By who?"

Vortexfang looks taken aback. "N-Needlestar murdered?! The leader of Shadowclan? But... who was it?"

Skystar gasps in shock and horror. "Needlestar?!"

"Yes, of course, you'd act like that!" Foxcatcher glares at her.

"Who murdered him?" Voltstrike asks, his eyes two round orbs, looking to Skystar.

"I'm glad you asked that." Foxcatcher turns to Skystar, and snarls, "The answer is right before us. In HopeClan!" 

Skystar gasps in shock and horror. "How dare yo-"

Emberpaw looks confused before doing a giant stage gasp. "No way! Are you accusing us? How dare you big dum dums accuse us! We did nothing!" She hisses

Stormblaze steps in front, glaring at the ShadowClan cats. "How dare you accuse us! You've got serious nerve!"

"HOLD UP HOLD UP." Vortexfang looks at them. "Evidence?"

"What! no!" Oceanicpool exclaims, "We would never do anything like that!"

Goldenlight looks at the Shadowclan warrior that was annoying her earlier, "You dare accuse us of murder! Ill have some of your fur to line my nest!"

The Shadowclan warrior growled, but didn't say anything.

Stormblaze bares his teeth. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Why suggest them?" Rainstar asks quietly, her eyes full of tears.

Furious yowls of  "Murderers!" from Shadowclan shatter the frail peace. In an instant, all of Hopeclan are on their paws, prepared to defend themselves. 

"We found Needlestar's mangled body next to HopeClan's border. Whitepaw and Sharppelt were killed also. It was covered with HopeClan scent!" Foxcatcher growls.

Stormblaze yells back at Shadowclan. "SHUT YOUR TRAPS! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO ACCUSE US WITHOUT PROPER EVIDENCE!"

Vortexfang mews logically. "We want evidence if you're gonna accuse us of murdering clan members. In addition, what are your motives behind going to our borders? And lastly, how far apart were the bodies from each other?"

Skystar closes her eyes, and looks down at Voltstrike with hurt, and... betrayal?

"They were covered with deep gashes, and cuts, and were surrounded with blood!" Foxcatcher snarls.