separated

Chapter 3

The stars glittered in the night sky as the moon hovered above the earth still providing enough light for the cats below it as Mambatail sat huddled in the crowd of snakeclan cats who sat in hawkclan territory after the deputy Vipervenom had explained everything to hawkclan's leader Palestar. Palestar simply nodded, her gaze unreadable as she turned to think while her deputy dustcloud scowled at the thought of it all.

"Let me get this straight, your clan couldn't protect themselves from a little longerclan scandal so now you want to eat our prey just because you couldn't defend yourselves from your own allies!? Why would you even live with such creatures in the first place?"
Dustcloud spat, her tai lashing before Palestar stopped her from saying anything else.

"Dustcloud snakeclan has been allies with us for moons and has helped us during times of trouble such as finding us the territory we have today and so it is only fair that we allow them to stay in ours. I apologize Vipervenom, Dustcloud was previously a rogue whom we allowed to join us. You will get to know her and see her calm nature over time but for now she'll keep an eye on you" Palestar said calmly with a soft tone of voice.

"Thank you Palestar we appreciate your kindness and Dustcloud it wasn't just a scandal from lonerclan it was a war that caught us off guard whilst our strongest warriors were away. We have lost many cats due to it and don't even have enough cats to call ourselves a clan anymore" Vipervenom added, her words didn't seem to affect Dustcloud though as she only gave her a forceful nod before turning to Palestar who began to speak.

"Darkclan I have decided that snakeclan- this group of cats who were previously known as snakeclan will be joining us as a part of Hawkclan and are now hawkclan warriors until proven otherwise, you may keep your eyes on some of them but violence will not be tolerated. Snakeclan you may make yourselves at home though you will need to make your own nests and hunt for your own prey until I allow you to eat from our fresh kill pile. Meeting dismissed" Palestar yowled.

Mambatail dropped his gaze from the featherrock and lowered his head to face Rowankit and Aspenkit who sat beside him, Aspenkit mostly tucked beneath his tail.

There was an awkward silence between the three cats before Rowankit broke it by asking in a low toned voice. "Where is Blackkit and Heathertail? You said you went to go and get them" That question struck Mambatail as he lifted his gaze to look around hawkclan territory before spotting what he presumed to be the nursery and saw quite a lot of kits poking their heads out to see what was going on and peering at the unfamiliar snakeclan cats who were mostly just awkwardly staring at eachother whilst processing what just happened.

"Go play with the other kits" Mambatail said stiffly as Aspenkit tilted his head before scooting closer to Mambatail's side before muttering. "B-but we don't know them.."

"Well you two will need to make friends in order to adjust to this new place" Mambatail replied, using his tail to slightly batt Aspenkit away from him.

"We don't want friends, we want to.." Rowankit went silent not finding the words to speak.

"Go to some of the queens I'm sure they will introduce you to some of their kits and help you make-"

"Mambatail?" A familiar voice came from behind the tom as he turned to see Vipervenom staring at him with a gaze full of disbelief.

"I heard what you three were saying and I don't think it's a good idea to push your kits away from you with what just happened.. I overheard what happened between you and Heathertail and understand that you need some time alone but don't just push away your kits like that, you know they might help you get through it all." Vipervemon advised making the two kits quite confused as to what happened to their mother and sibling since they both assumed they were dead.