Warriors: Fire and Ice - Book Two (Completed)

Chapter Twenty Five

"I'll find them," Fireheart promised. He turned to look for Graystripe among the cats that were still at camp. Waterlily peered out from the medicine den and listened to the gossip around the camp. Who was he trying to find?

Sandstorm emerged from the den from slumber and blinked at Fireheart. "What's wrong?" She mewed.

"Brindleface's kits are missing."

"Cloudkit too?" Sandstorm bristled her neck fur.

"Yes, him too." Fireheart paused for a moment. "I was going to ask Graystripe to come with me to find them, but he isn't here. He must be out hunting or something."

Sandstorm puffed out her chest. "I'll come with you."

Fireheart blinked. "Thanks."

Waterlily blinked with confusion. What happened to the kits? She quickly turned to see if Brokentail was still lying there. To her surprise, he was still there. She looked over at the nursery in confusion. If Brokentail was still in ThunderClan camp, who was stealing kits?

Waterlily then turned her head back to the clan. The whole clan was now running frantic on who stole the kits. Yellowfang sprang to her feet and softly sighed in relief when she saw Brokentail still lying there, sleeping. She padded over to Waterlily. "Since you're up and around, do you know what all this is about?"

Waterlily shook her head. "I'm just as confused as you are. I did, however, see Fireheart and Sandstorm leave to find out who took the kits."

Yellowfang laid back her ears. "At least it's not Brokentail." She softly murmured half to herself.

Waterlily agreed silently, and just stared into the abyss, not knowing what to do. Yellowfang quickly raced over to Fireheart and Graystripe just as they were leaving the camp entrance. "I'll go with you." She rasped, as she caught up with them. Waterlily was quite taken by the sudden energy that Yellowfang had. She flicked her tail in annoyance, realizing that she was left alone at camp to do the herbs by herself. If there was a battle, she needed all the help she could get. 

It seemed like a long time had passed when Fireheart, Sandstorm and Yellowfang padded back into camp with kits in their mouths. Fireheart carried Cloudkit, white Sandstorm and Yellowfang carried the other two. They dropped the three frozen kits in front of Bluestar. Waterlily padded a few tail-lengths closer to the clearing and sat next to Half-tail who was sitting awkwardly on his haunches and turned to Waterlily as she sat down, wrapping her tail over her front paws. 

"Some pretty juicy stuff is happening." He whispered, amusingly to Waterlily.

Waterlily purred, amused as well and nodded, not taking her eyes off of the kits and Bluestar.

Bluestar padded to them in the middle of the clearing; she was furious. She glared at the three kits. "What did you think you were doing out there? You know it's against the warrior code for kits to hunt!"

Brindleface's two kits shrank under their leader's angry gaze, but Cloudkit looked back at her with round blue eyes. He dropped his vole and mewed. "The Clan needed fresh-kill, so we decided to catch some."

"And who told you, you could?" Her eyes narrowed.

"I did." Cloudkit announced. He stood tall, showing how prideful he was of his catch.

"You could have frozen to death out there!"

Cloudkit was startled by the anger in her voice and dropped into a crouch. "We did it for the Clan," he mewed defensively.

"Your intention," Bluestar meowed slowly. "was good. But it was a foolish thing to do."

Cloudkit piped up again and Waterlily could see Fireheart disgust in the kit. 

"I caught something, though."

"I can see that," replied Bluestar coldly. She gazed at all three kits. "I shall leave it to your mother to decide what to do with you. But I don't want to find you doing anything like this again. Do you understand?"

All three kits nodded, with their heads low to the ground. Cloudkit didn't seem sorry for what he did, but he did agree that he understood with the other two kits. Fireheart then softened and whispered to Cloudkit. Waterlily couldn't hear what he had said, but she guessed that he told him he could put the vole in the fresh-kill pile. Cloudkit bounded over to the fresh-kill pile and dropped the vole with much pride. He muffled out a tiny purr of satisfaction then bounded back to the nursery to Brindleface. 

Waterlily rolled her eyes all what had gone on. She was convinced an attack was going to happen, but it turned out the kits wanted to hunt. So now, she has all the comfrey leaves chewed up for a pointless reason. She padded back into the medicine den and tucked away her neat piles into the herb store. 

Yellowfang padded into the den and looked at Brokentail for a short moment, then settled into the moss nest that Waterlily generally sleeps in. Waterlily didn't argue with the old medicine she-cat. She was too tired to do anything about it now, so she settled near the entrance wall of the medicine den and closed her eyes to sleep. A scent was drawn to her as soon as her eyes closed. It was Fireheart's scent. She opened her eyes and saw Fireheart padding across the clearing and into the warriors' den to sleep. Waterlily laid her head back down and closed her eyes to sleep once more.

She opened her eyes to complete darkness again and tried to see, but everything was dark or blurry. She could smell the sweet scents of Spottedleaf, but another scent was there two. It was Fireheart's. She padded a few tail-lengths closer to the smells and pricked her ears. 

"Fireheart." Mewed the soft voice from Spottedleaf. "I have something very important to share with you." Waterlily kept silent and listened to see if Fireheart would answer. Fireheart stayed silent so Spottedleaf went on, "A battle is coming, Fireheart. Beware a warrior you cannot trust."

Waterlily jolted awake and looked around her. She was back in the medicine den, with only Yellowfang and Brokentail there. Spottedleaf was nowhere to be seen. Fireheart's scent was gone too. She twitched her nose, then looked up at the sky of silverpelt. It twinkled from the moonlight and Waterlily's heart began to race. The warrior that can't be trusted must be Tigerclaw. It had to be. There was no other warrior that would betray ThunderClan!