Thundering Darkness

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

"Let's do this."

Pebblepaw glanced between the cats that sat before her. Their eyes were all gleaming with desperation. She knew it was time, and felt it deep in her bones that they would need to make their first move soon. There were almost two dozen cats which lay sitting in a semi circle around her, Mack, Thornpaw, Batpaw, and Min.

Two dozen was certainly a lot of cats, as Mack had helpfully pointed out while they had been preparing for the meeting. Two dozen, that was probably almost as many as ThunderClan. Thornpaw had then calmly butted in, and pointed out to Mack that most of the cats were kittypets, loners, and rogues with little to no experience in clan battles. Min had shared a glance with Pebblepaw, silently acknowledging their shared plan. Pebblepaw dipped her head. The time for silence is at an end. Before she had had any more time to discuss her plan with the other cats, the massive meeting had commenced. A quarter moon, and we'll see payoff! Or we'll all be in StarClan...

"So what are we gonna do? I say we fight it out. Let's kill 'em all!" Pebblepaw sighed inwardly as a young silver furred she-cat pipped up.

They had forgotten about these cats. The young group of cats from all the clans, except ThunderClan, that included Carptuft and a few other of his rambunctious friends. While they had initially seemed like the tide-changing ally, the reckless gang of young warriors was proving to be less and less reliable. They were all naive, and really just wanted to fight ThunderClan, while not thinking of the consequences for their actions. Killing is exactly what we don't want. I don't want anycat, not even a mangy ThunderClan warrior to have to die if it can be avoided.

Spike looked at the she-cat solemnly. "No," the young tom mewed. "We aren't out for blood."

He glanced at Boulderpaw, and lightly touched the ThunderClan tom's shoulder. Boulderpaw was sitting hunched at the back of the crowd, his eyes round and petrified. Mossypaws hadn't come, and instead had, very wisely Pebblepaw now realised, decided to stay in ThunderClan and heal anycat who needed help. Boulderpaw's fresh scars on his right shoulder gleamed in the early sunlight, and his eyes were pained and desperate.

"Well we can't just sit here all day like bumps on a log," an old loner by the name of Bark grumbled. "Honest, when we got out of that hostage den, I thought this was actually going places. Now we just sit an' do nothing about out problems."

"That changes today." Pebblepaw spoke, surprised by the solemnity in her own voice.

The crowd didn't seem to be listening, and instead the cats' voices erupted into noises of confusion and concern. Pebblepaw lashed her tail across the grass, thinking fast. These cats needed some sort of direction. They needed a plan.

"How bad are things in RiverClan?" Pebblepaw lifted up her voice above the roar of the crowd.

She looked around, trying to see Carptuft in the crowd. He was a RiverClan cat, and she guessed that he would be head of paws to come to the meeting. Although, to her disappointment, it was the silver she-cat who spoke again.

"Bad. Last time I heard from my buddy Carptuft, they were practically huddled in their camp like scared rabbits. ThunderClan is encircling them from all sides. I've heard they're starving to death in their own camp!"

Pebblepaw exchanged an alarmed glance with Min, Thornpaw, and Batpaw. While they were all here, their clanmates were suffering. Pebblepaw had known it was bad, after all that's what they were all fighting for, but she had hoped that it wasn't that bad.

Pebblepaw blinked. "We'll talk to the other clans, and see if they can help us out," she mewed. "WindClan hopefully will still remember that we helped save their kits. Maybe ShadowClan will help too."