Warriors AU: A Dangerous Path

Chapter 7

Sandstorm peered out from behind his rock. Goldenstar had spotted Rippleclaw and had changed direction toward her. As the pale tabby approached, Rippleclaw reared back in surprise and fell, only to struggle back onto her paws and face Goldenstar. The Shadowclan leader padded up to her and meowed something, but Sandstorm was too far away to make out the words.

Flattening his belly to the ground, he crept toward them, using all his hunting skills to stay undetected. Fortunately the wind was blowing toward him, so Goldenstar was unlikely to scent him. Sandstorm was unwilling to meet the Shadowclan leader unless he had to. With any luck, Goldenstar was on his way to visit Leopardfur again and would help Rippleclaw back to the Riverclan camp.

Sandstorm prowled closer, flattening himself against the turf until he reached the shelter of another rock almost on a level with the other two cats. Silverstream had said that Goldenstar had visited Riverclan the day before. Why should he need to return so soon?

"Don't pretend you don't know me." Sandstorm hardly recognized the quavering voice as Rippleclaw's. "I know who you are, right enough. You're Bluefur."

Sandstorm stiffened. Bluefur was the name of the cat who fathered Blackclaw and Stonefur, and took them to Riverclan when Oakstar gave them up. He had been killed in battle just before Sandstorm joined Thunderclan, but he had looked nothing like Goldenstar—a big tom with blue-gray fur.

With infinite caution, Sandstorm raised his head to peer over the rock where he was sheltering. Rippleclaw was crouched on a sparse patch of grass just above an outcrop of stones. She was looking up at Goldenstar, who loomed over her a couple of tail-lengths farther up the slope.

"I haven't seen you for moons," Rippleclaw went on. "Where have you been hiding yourself?"

Goldenstar stared down at her with narrowed eyes. Sandstorm waited for him to tell the elderly she-cat that she had made a mistake. His blood ran cold when Goldenstar just meowed, "Oh... here and there."

What in Starclan's name is he playing at? Sandstorm wondered.

"You might at least have come to see me," Rippleclaw complained. "Don't you want to know how those kits are doing?"

The massive tom's ears pricked up, and his yellow eyes glowed with interest. "What kits?"

"What kits, he says!" Rippleclaw broke into rusty laughter. "As if you didn't know! The two Thunderclan kits that you asked me to take care of."

Sandstorm froze. Rippleclaw had just given away Oakstar's most deeply buried secret

Goldenstar's muscles tensed, and he gazed at Rippleclaw more intently still, his interest clear in every line of his body. He thrust his head forward and meowed something so softly that Sandstorm could not catch it.

"Seasons ago," replied Rippleclaw, sounding puzzled. "Don't tell me you've forgotten. You... No, Bluefur wouldn't need to ask that." She staggered forward a couple of steps to peer more closely at Goldenstar.

"You're not Bluefur!" she exclaimed.

"Never mind that," Goldenstar mewed soothingly. "You can still tell me all about it. What Thunderclan kits? Who was their real mother?"

Sandstorm was close enough to see the dazed look in Rippleclaw's eyes. She put her head on one side, gazing confusedly at the Shadowclan leader. "They were beautiful kits," she meowed vaguely. "And now they're fine warriors."

She broke off as Goldenstar thrust his muzzle into her face. "Tell me whose kits they were, old crow-food," he demanded, losing his patience.

Sandstorm stared in horror as, flustered, Rippleclaw took a step back. Her paws slid from under her. She rolled down the steep slope in a scramble of legs and tail, and landed hard against one of the rocks that poke out of the turf. There she lay, and did not move again.