Cry of the River Book 1
The five Warrior Clans are going extinct. Gatherings and Moonpool visits are inacessable, with leaders falling left and right. The lake territories are being wiped out to the brink of extinction by new, large predators that h...
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"How can you say that, Darkflower?" It's pathetic how I'm more willing to fight for Shadowclan than Shadowclan's own deputy is! She nearly had the gall to say it out loud.
If only I was a warrior so my opinion could be valued like one. Her gaze burned into the larger she-cat's.
But saying so will only make it worse. She compelled herself and brought her paws together in a mature manner.
"You're Shadowclan's deputy. You can easily go to Starclan and get nine lives for your clan-"
"WHAT CLAN?" Darkflower yowled, her voice ringing throughout the pine forest. Their lush needles lifted with the breeze, gently brushing together in the silence that followed.
Crescentpaw was pleased to now be the one saying, "Look. If you're Shadowclan's last hope, why would you throw that away?" she kept her voice a lot more level and calm than the deputy's had been. Her gaze was questioning and genuine, while Darkflower's was defensive and ill-tempered. The dark she-cat glared over Plumetail's ears at her.
"Oh. Miss know it all, I see." She cocked her head in a mocking gesture as she sneered. Wow, I don't think many cats would've liked having her as a deputy. How did she even get appointed- did Gravelstar just have no other choices left? It was almost funny. The apprentice had never seen a warrior act so aggressively childish.
"If you'd use your brain to think for a second, you'd realize that Gravelstar took some of his lives with him. He lost five of them fighting against the wolves. But the snake-heart took his other four and fled," she narrowed her eyes at Crescentpaw against the sun. It had reappeared with a vengeance, plunging the clearing into a yellow radiance once again. Plumetail sighed contentedly while Crescentpaw wondered how she could stand the heat.
"What happened to your medicine cat?" She asked, thinking about a smaller tabby tom named Elmshade. She had seen the healer beside the roots of the Great Oak on her last gathering.
"Elmshade was killed a few moons ago, toward the end of leaf-bare." Darkflower lifted her head to further inspect Crescentpaw while she spoke.
"There were no new healer apprentices in Shadowclan before or after then?" Despite the bitter she-cat's previous retorts she wasn't afraid to ask more questions.
"We had one but they were killed as a kit. I'm sure you smelled the burial plots right outside camp when you approached them."
The apprentice shifted her paws, then looked up to meet her gaze. "Yeah. Why is it so close to camp though? That's not custom of Riverclan's burial sites," she pointed out.
"It's not custom of any clan!" Darkflower sounded increasingly impatient. She gnashed her teeth together as she said, "and it's because I'm only one cat, you know! I can't waste strength dragging them farther than that." Her voice grew ragged.
