The Fire Within

Chapter 16

WolfClaw watched with a smile as Patchkit jumped near Flamepaw. Flamepaw laughed and jumped back at her. Patchkit giggled and hurried away, Flamepaw on her heals.

"They look happy." StoneHeart commented. RockFur nodded, "They remind me of us." WindFern purred. Nine eyes looked to WolfClaw. She laughed.

"Oh, we weren't like that."

"Exactly! We were worse!" WindFern laughed again.

Ashstar paded up. "Would any of you like to come on patrol?" WolfClaw glanced out to what Ashstar had so far. Just DuskStorm and RussetClove. "I'll come." WolfClaw spoke up. RockFur nodded too. Ashstar smiled and walked to ForestTail.

Great.

WolfClaw and RockFur were greeted by RussetClove. They were joined by Ashstar and ForestTail, who glared at WolfClaw and RockFur. RockFur seemed to just brush it off, suprising WolfClaw. He was one to ignore a threat. Maybe he was used to ForestTail.

"OK, lets go to MistClan first, then round to Darkclan." Ashstar said and they started out. RockFur stayed beside WolfClaw.

"Do you know ForestTail keeps glaring at you?" DuskStorm whispered to WolfClaw. She sighed.

"Yea, I don't think he's friendly with outsiders." DuskStorm looked at her in surprise.

"But you're a Fireclan cat now!" DuskStorm pointed out.

"He doesn't care, and doesn't trust us." RockFur replied. Duskstorm glanced back at ForestTail. His glare wasn't on them anymore, but he looked grumpy. WolfClaw wondered when she could ever earn his respect. Maybe she could do something to impress him.

She shook her fur. She didn't need need one cat's respect. She had earned the respect of the other cats. So Foresttail's didn't matter. He was gonna be grumpy and on edge, then so be it.

A bush rustled as RockFur jumped into it. The patrol jumped back in surprise. WolfClaw looked into it with concern. What was he doing? Hopefully he hadn't crossed the border. The were very close to it.

A hiss came from through the bushes. Without thinking, WolfClaw hurried through the bush. RockFur was pined down by another cat.

"Let him go." WolfClaw growled. The cat looked up in surprise. There were four other cats too.

SwampPath, StormShadow, BrightFlower, and DeadBark. All cats were surprised too, but not at WolfClaw. They were all staring at the cat that had RockFur at his claws.

"Whats going on!" Ashstar growled. Her neck bristled when she saw what was going on. She looked at the cat and seemed to recognize him.

"HailStorm-" Suddenly, the cat leaped off of RockFur and onto AshStar.

For a moment, time seemed to stop. It was quiet. No one moved.

But after that moment, it broke. WolfClaw launched herself onto the HailStorm. She tried to claw at him, but he snaked away and disappeared. She tried to find him, but he had disappeared like smoke. In the crowd.

What?

Another cat appeared, jumping at her. She dogged it and pounded her paw to it's head. It wailed and fell on it's back. She swong her head around and dashed to a rock. When she looked out, she couldn't believe it. All of Mistclan was here. Fireclan too. They were fighting bravely, but they didn't know why. She needed to stop them, and fast.

She spotted DeadBark fighting StoneHeart and raced through the fighting to them. DeadBark hissed at StoneHeart and swiped his claws down StoneHeart's face. Though he dogged, his cheek started dripping as he backed up. WolfClaw jumped into the middle just as StoneHeart was going to attack again.

"Stop. Both of you." DeadBark and StoneHeart looked confused at her.

"StoneHeart, how did all of Fireclan get here?"

"We heard a yowl, then we all ran here. When we got here, mistclan was just arriving in full force." He coughed. DeadBark shook his head and went into a battle stance. WolfClaw twisted to face him, determination plastered on her face. "No, we aren't suppose to be fighting. We need to stop the fighting." DeadBark nodded, as if to understand. But his eyes kept turning to sluts. He shook his head wildly.

WolfClaw looked closer. His eyes were darker then usual... now that she thought about it, so was StoneHeart's. She looked around. Other cats seemed off too. Their eyes were slated and darker. She suddenly scented another cat. A shiny black and white cat smiled at her.

She grinned and turned to the two other cats. "Stop all cats fighting. Make sure their eyes turn normal. Something is making them fight." They didn't understand what she know, but she know they would listen. Both cats had normal eyes now, and StoneHeart shown with pride.

"See ya later!" He and DeadBark raced off together, stopping two cats and talking to them. WolfClaw ran to the closest to her: Owlsong. Her formal mentor was cuffing an apprentice. She jumped between them and started talking to them with a gentle voice. But she had only said Owlsong's name when a starclan scent merged with her's. Owlsong's eyes turned normal. She looked at the small apprentice and started helping him up.

WolfClaw jumped to the next cats. Then the next. She was just at AmberTree when a cry froze the battle. Ambertree's eyes looked normal, but WolfClaw hadn't tried anything with her yet. Confused, she looked to the area the cry was called.

Her heart stopped as Ashstar fell. She stared with cold eyes as she looked out at nothing, her breath stopping. Every cat was shocked. WolfClaw know she was dead.

But that didn't stop her from growing angry.

A tom swung his head up and laughed. His eyes were wild, like a dog's. He smirked at the other cats, who were frozen.

"You never saw it coming." He hissed, "A blow of a hummingbird... Yes. This is just wonderful." He laughed again, jumping near Ashstar's body. "By now, my cats will be killing off the Cloudclan flys!"

"Are you crazy!" WolfClaw hissed. The tom swung his head to meet her eyes, and she finally reorganized him.

Hailstorm.

"Why WolfClaw... Sweet little WolfClaw. You will be the first to see how crazy I am." He lowered his body, the smirked.

"IN STARCLAN!!" he leaped at her, claws out.