bloodied rose || warrior cats

chapter 5

broken stems

~~~

THE AIMLESS CHATTER CAME TO a close when a new scent flooded into the Gathering island heavily. ShadeClan had arrived.

Ivystar was in the lead as usual, her patrol fanning out behind her and spreading out to find any remaining open seats. However, what was unusual was the way the leader walked; despite the fact that she held her chin up high, the limp in each step was unmistakable.

"What happened?" Rosefrost whispered lowly, horrified. "Did she get injured? How-"

"Ivystar." LightningClan's leader Brightstar was on her paws with wide eyes; clearly, she was working through the same questions Rosefrost was. "Are you alright?"

Ivystar ruffled her fur in the tough, stoic way she always held herself. "I'm fine." She jumped at a branch in the leader's tree, but barely made it due to her injured paw. Yet she still didn't address it and simply flicked her tail. "Let the Gathering begin."

"You can't possibly expect us to just move on." Flightstar, leader of CloudClan, twitched his pelt. "How'd you get hurt?"

Ivystar's eyes flashed with annoyance. "That is ShadeClan's business, and ShadeClan's business only," she meowed shortly.

"If the injury came from a force outside the Clans," Reedstar of LakeClan meowed, his eyes dark, "it affects all of us."

ShadeClan's leader ruffled her pelt, but gave in. "There was a rogue attack."

As soon as she spoke those words, a collective gasp rang among the cats, and Rosefrost was instantly swept back to this afternoon, with Tigerblaze and Calypso and Fog. The sound of Fog's neck breaking, the way the light dimmed in his eyes. Half of her wanted to see Tigerblaze's reaction, but the other half that wished never to look his way again won out.

Flightstar yowled for everyone's attention, putting a stop to the murmurs. "How bad?"

"Nothing we couldn't handle," Ivystar replied curtly. "No deaths, two casualties. It simply caught us off guard, we'd never seen them before." Her nose wrinkled. "They approached us out of nowhere, demanding prey and a place to hunt."

Duskstar's face was full of worry when he spoke. "They're usually by our borders," he meowed. "If they've already approached you..." He trailed off, the rest of his sentence obvious: I wonder what they've done to us.

Brightstar cleared her throat, breaking the pregnant silence as she stepped forward to run through her report. The rest of the leaders followed in suit, each doing so rapidly with a unifying eagerness to return to camp and check up on the status there. By the time Reedstar finished with his report, everyone was antsy and jumped to their paws almost immediately, ready to head out.

Deputies started calling for their Clans, cats said goodbyes to their friends, and leaders gathered in a huddle to exchange some quick, brief words. But through all that chaos, a voice managed to rise above the rest.

"Wait!"

Duskstar jerked his head away from the leaders' huddle, looking thoroughly vexed that someone was trying to hold everything up. However, that annoyance quickly melted when he realized the cat who'd spoken was Tigerblaze, his own son.

Tigerblaze didn't wait for permission. Having gotten the entire island's attention, he sauntered up to the front and leaped onto a tall boulder, lashing his tail. Rosefrost watched this in complete bewilderment, and when she gave Dovepetal a questioning look, the calico could only shrug in reply.

"I'm sure most of you know me," the ginger tabby tom started out, "but for those who don't, I am Tigerblaze of BreezeClan. And I come here tonight to tell everyone that there's been treason committed in my Clan."