Warriors AU: Skyclan's Destiny

Chapter 23

"What do you mean, the Twolegs took Tracy?" Haze spat, scraping his claws on the hard stone of the Twoleg alley.

Winter's ears were laid flat to her head with horror and distress. "She couldn't run fast enough. They just grabbed her!" he wailed.

"I'm sorry!" Cory panted, bounding up with Cinder to join Stumpy and Winter. "There wasn't anything we could do to stop them."

Cinder's neck fur was bristling and she drew her lips back in a snarl. "This means war!" she declared.

Stumpy nodded. "It's mouse-brained to think that we can live alongside Twolegs. They're our enemies!"

Haze narrowed his eyes. "It's not the Twolegs," he growled. "This is all Swift's fault."

"What do you mean?" Cory meowed.

Haze told them about the time he had come upon Shelly and Bear torturing the rabbit in the Twoleg garden. A shudder ran through him as he remembered his dream, his paws clogged with blood and fur. "The Twolegs won't let cats attack their rabbits. I think Swift arranged this so the Twolegs would drive us out."

"But aren't we going to fight for our home?" Cinder hissed, her claws rasping against the smooth gray stones that lined the alley.

"Of course we are," Haze retorted. "But not against the Twolegs. Swift and her cats are the ones we have to fight."

"I'll rip their fur off," Cinder snarled. "I'll—hey!" she mewed, breaking off. "Where's Harper? Did the Twolegs take her as well?"

"Harper's fine," Haze growled. "She got away." Before his friends could ask any more questions, he went on, "So how can we attack Swift and her cats? Any ideas?"

The others looked at one another.

"It would be easier if we knew where they sleep," Cory commented.

"But we don't," Stumpy meowed.

Haze realized how clever Swift had been. She had taken over the hunting grounds that Haze and his friends had thought of as their own, but she had given nothing away. The crow-food eating mangebag has always stayed one step ahead. "Then find them!" he snapped.

"Do you want to wait until Harper comes back?" Stumpy asked.

"No!" Haze wasn't sure that she was coming back. "We don't need her."

His friends exchanged uneasy looks before heading off in different directions.

"No, I'll go that way," Haze ordered Winter, shouldering the white tom away from the direction Harper had taken. "You climb the wall and search behind the Twoleg nests."

"Okay." Winter was obviously surprised, but he leaped the wall without arguing and disappeared down the other side.

Shame flooded over Haze as he retraced his steps toward the place where he had confronted Harper. He couldn't tell the others that his daughter had betrayed them all. She must have told Red where we slept, and helped Swift plan the Twoleg raid.

Reaching the shed where he had confronted Harper and Red, he picked up his daughter's scent and followed it around the next corner. Her scent mingled closely with Red's, he noticed with disgust. Scrambling over a low, sloping roof, Haze dropped down into the next alley. He had barely begun following the scent trail again when he heard paw steps thundering up behind him.

Haze froze, then spun around to see Cory bounding along the alley.

"I can't let you go off on your own," the black tom panted as he halted in front of Haze. "It's madness!"