For most of the walk, the cats on the patrol said nothing. Lionsinge and Saffronsmolder led the group a few paces ahead. Ambereyes and Sagepool were on each side of Moss, and Twistertail brought up the rear shortly behind them.
The cats were walking by the neighborhood For a while Twistertail listened to the quiet conversations ahead of her. The three cats sounded sorrowful that Moss was being exiled. Even Ambereyes. As the cats stepped onto WoodClan territory, the warriors were on high alert. Tensions were high with the new FlowerClan. As she walked, Twistertail's mind was in two places.
On one paw, she had never actually caught up with Chickadeechirp after the bitter she-cat was sent on the mission to exchange herbs with MistClan. That was a few days ago, and Twistertail had gotten caught up in Pumpkin's treachery and Moss's trial.
She also remembered back when Chickadeechirp was first an apprentice. The poor 'paw slept with her mother for the first two nights. The other warriors didn't mind until the third night, when Finchflame made Chickadeepaw sleep in the apprentices' den with her brother. Twistertail found herself smiling. Then her smile vanished like a swallow had swooped down from a tree and stolen it.
On those two nights, Twistertail saw a young Magpiekit tucked into the fur of her side. A patched she-kit who was coddled by her mother. Twistertail was able to let go, and Chickadeechirp eventually spent all her time training. Sharing her mother's slender build and long legs, she was the best runner in RedClan. Magpiepelt, however, was not given as many chances.
On the other paw, Twistertail kept sniffing the air. She could smell strange smells from the neighborhood and the familiar pelts of her Clanmates, but also the musk of FlowerClan. Despite the name, they didn't smell great. Perhaps it was a Valley Cat instinct to dislike the smell of other Clans and become accustomed to that of your own. Anyways, tensions had been rising lately between FlowerClan and RedClan.
That night when just the leaders of the Clans met, Twistertail immediately was against the three TreeClans joining together. That would be more than sixty cats together! In which camp? It just wouldn't work. But for a brief moment, it was suggested by some WoodClan cat that WoodClan and ForestClan would be together as one. In fact, it wasn't that much of a stretch. There were only three TreeClans because of the forest being too large for one group of cats to patrol.
In fact, it was the union between GroveClan and ForestClan that had brought the tensions. GroveClan was a small group with a small territory. Generations ago, it was brought into existence by the distinction of a grove of birch trees that grew there and nowhere else in the Valley. Ever since, the band of Valley Cats there were proud to be a part of the unique GroveClan who were very connected to the nature on the forest floor around them.
No, it wasn't GroveClan's size that intimidated FlowerClan. In fact, it was Tawnystar's campaign of emotional blackmail against the leaders of WoodClan a few moons ago. It was a terrible situation when the former WoodClan leader Sequoiastep, senior warrior Lemonspice, and senior healer Nettlesting all contracted a terrible disease Pumpkin once called rabies.
Around a moon after getting the disease, which was first spread to them from a stray dog while they were meeting in the neighborhood, the two warriors were sent to the healers. There, Nettlesting came in contact with one of the cat's saliva. She met with healers from other Clans before falling ill herself. But it wasn't like the outbreak in the StoneClans the year prior. No other cat got the disease except those three.
They had been kept together in a makeshift den in WoodClan when all three wandered off one night and were caught by a GroveClan dawn patrol. Realizing what disease they had, called Bloodfever in the Valley, Tawnystar ordered them all to be put to death. He did this by tricking them into eating a poisonous herb that they believed would be the cure.
YOU ARE READING
Valley Cats: Of Sky and Stone 3- Golden Fire
Fanfic(Book Three in "Of Sky and Stone") Everyone knew of a mother and kit who were slain one night on an uncertain border, but not many knew of the lone survivor. Bumblebounce feels like he doesn't really belong anywhere, but he has bigger things to wor...
