Warriors: Fire and Ice - Book Two (Completed)

Chapter Twenty Three

Waterlily padded to the edge of the river and searched around to see if a RiverClan border patrol was coming. To her luck, she saw a few warriors coming her way. They didn't seem like they were in a good mood, but she didn't blame them. The Gathering did not go well!

"What do you want?" Hissed a dark brown tom.

Waterlily dipped her head to the old warrior. "Forgive me for being so close to your borders, Loudbelly, but I am in need of some comfrey."

Loudbelly narrowed his eyes. "What for?" He asked, twitching his tail, urgently.

Waterlily flinched at his question. Why does he care? Does he suspect that ThunderClan is getting ready for a fight? "We just have some injuries that need healing is all." She lied.

A gray tom with battle-scarred ears padded forward and narrowed his eyes at Waterlily as well, but softened them once he realized that she was a medicine cat. "You said you needed some comfrey?" He mewed, taking another step forward past Loudbelly.

"Yes, please." She purred. "Thank you, Stonefur." She added, as Stonefur picked up some comfrey leaves and leaped onto the other side of the river. 

"Go before anyone else sees you. With all the alliance conspiracies going around, sharing some comfrey may not be the best idea. But I know it's needed in every Clan no matter what." He mewed in Waterlily's ear.

Waterlily dipped her head in thanks, then bounded off back towards ThunderClan with the comfrey leaves in her jaws. She made sure to cover up the scent of RiverClan and padded into ThunderClan camp. She padded into camp and could feel the emptiness. Everyone was gone either on border patrol, hunting, or getting the rogue cat, Brokenstar.  

Fireheart, Sandpaw, Dustpaw, and Graystripe raced back into camp with Brokenstar submissively obeying their angry words at him. Fireheart raced to the medicine den. Waterlily was chewing up the comfrey into smaller pieces and she looked up as Fireheart stood in the front of the cave entrance. "Yellowfang is here, right?" He panted.

Waterlily nodded and flicked her tail at Yellowfang. Yellowfang looked up and raced to the entrance. "Did you get him?" She asked, clearly worried.

"Yes." Fireheart leaned closer to Yellowfang and whispered lightly in her ear. "Is this his last life? Why don't you finish him off?" he urged.

Yellowfang widened her eyes. "No, this is not his last life." She paused for a few moments, "Even if it was, I couldn't kill him." She confessed a little louder than she had probably intended. Waterlily pretended that she wasn't listening and took her time ripping apart the comfrey leaves.

"Why not? StarClan would honor you for it." Fireheart could not believe her words. The name Brokenstar had always made this old she-cat bristle with rage. 

Yellowfang dragged her gaze from Brokenstar and looked at Fireheart. Her eyes clouded with pain and grief as she murmured, "He is my son."

Waterlily gasped lightly and looked up at Yellowfang with widened eyes. How could Yellowfang have had a son. Was she not always a medicine cat?

"But medicine cats are forbidden to have kits!" Fireheart did not want to believe her.

"I know." She dipped her head low, and laying back on her haunches. "I didn't expect to have kits, but then I fell in love with Raggedstar." She paused again, and looked up at Fireheart, still with grief in her eyes. "There were three kits in my litter." Yellowfang went on. "But only Brokenstar survived. I gave him to a ShadowClan queen to bring up as her own. I thought that losing two of my kits was punishment from StarClan for breaking the warrior code. But I was wrong. My punishment wasn't that two of my kits died. It was that this one survived!" Yellowfang looked in disgust at Brokenstar's bleeding body. "And now I cannot kill him. I must accept my fate, as StarClan wishes it."

Waterlily looked down at her paws. It had explained so much on Yellowfang's personality. No wonder why she was always grumpy, impatient and seemed like a rain cloud constantly storming over the medicine den. She felt bad for Yellowfang and couldn't imagine how she was feeling. She knew for sure now that she was not having any kits ever. She didn't want that same kind of punishment from StarClan.

"Does he know?" Mewed Fireheart.

"No." Yellowfang looked down at her paws.

"I can't see!" Fireheart turned to the voice behind him. It was Brokenstar wailing. Waterlily followed Fireheart's gaze and saw Brokenstar laying down helplessly and blinking, not knowing where he was. His eyes were scratched so hard that he was blind! Fireheart cautiously approached him. Brokenstar lay still. He poked him with a forepaw and Brokenstar moaned again. "Don't kill me!" he whined. Fireheart backed away, feeling a shudder of revulsion at the warrior's fear.

Waterlily watched in horror when Fireheart walked over there. He was brave to go beside him. Who knows what he would have done to him. Brokenstar has more than one life. Fireheart only has one. Yellowfang padded over to him and pitied him. She put her tail on his flank and looked at him like she lost her son. "Follow me." She whispered softly in his ear. Brokenstar surprisingly obeyed and let his mother guide him to the medicine den. 

Waterlily tensed. She was bringing him here in the den! Were they to take care of him? Why would they want to take care of a cat that was fighting their clan to kill them? Yellowfang neared Waterlily and seemed to have known what she was thinking. "We are to care for him until his scratches are healed. That is it." She lightly growled in Waterlily's ear.

Waterlily longed to flinch, but kept her gaze with Yellowfang. She was relieved when Yellowfang passed her. She turned her head and watched Yellowfang guide Brokenstar to the back of the medicine den. She let him settle near the small pond at the end of the cave. Waterlily softly sighed then padded over to him. "Are you feeling a lot of pain?" She reluctantly mewed.

Brokenstar let out a mrrow of laughter and hissed. "Of course I do! I'm still a regular cat!"

Waterlily wrinkled her nose, then padded to the herb store. She grabbed some poppy seeds and the chewed up comfrey to apply on his scratches. She dropped some poppy seeds in front of Brokenstar and touched her tail to his mouth. Brokenstar flinched at her touch, but then let her guide him by following her tail to the poppy seeds. He lapped them up and laid there helplessly. 

Yellowfang padded over and began licking his scratches, cleaning them. Waterlily couldn't help but notice how silly it looked. Brokenstar didn't know Yellowfang was his mother, yet she clearly still cared for him by how she lapped up his fur like a mother does for their tiny kits.