Warriors: Storm Clouds

Chapter Twelve

Thankfully, the silence between the cats was broken quickly by a silvery gray she-cat.

     "I suppose you'll need somewhere to stay then?" She asked kindly, her icy blue eyes sparkling. It took Brookpaw a moment, but she eventually realized her eyes were awfully similar to Slywhisker's. Maybe she's his sister.

     "Only if you have room," Applefall replied.

     The silver she-cat swished her tail as if to say don't worry about it. "Of course we have room, and we can't have you staying out in the snow. Follow me."

     She lead them to a den a little farther away from the others. It looked a little beat up, to be honest, but it would do, Brookpaw supposed.

     "This is one of dens we recovered from the last flood," the she-cat meowed. "We'll bring you something to make a few nests with, but to be honest, we are a bit short on supplies at the moment."

     "Aspenglow might be able to spare a few things," said Applefall, "we collected a lot during this green-leaf."

     So she's the medicine cat? Silvershine? And Applefall is offering her herbs just after our leader lost one of his lives due to this clan?

     Silvershine smiled grimly. "So did we. But we've had so many border fights lately, I've used up a lot of my supply. And it looks as if Aspenglow already wasted some of her herbs on us." She gestured back at Willowlight's body. "I smelled burdock on her. It would be rude to ask for more."

     "Maybe," Brookpaw meowed, "But it might save the lives of some of your clanmates."

     Silvershine's icy blue eyes fell on her. "Perhaps..." she trailed off. "I'll tell Larchpaw to see to your bedding. I would tell you to make yourselves comfortable, but that hardly seems to be the right thing to say when you're staying in an enemy clan's camp after we've apparently attacked you." She sighed. "Sometimes I could just claw my brother."

     Silvershine seemed to realize she'd spoken that last thought aloud. "Nevermind, nevermind. I hope my clanmates have the sense to treat you well." The silver-gray cat dashed off, once again leaving the Thunderclan cats alone.

     Rabbitflight swished his tail. "I don't like this. Why do we have to stay so long?"

     "Because Hawkstar has to chew Crowstar out some more," Berrypaw hissed. "How stupid are you?"

     "Be quiet, you two," Applefall meowed. "This is no time to get in a quarrel."

     Both Rabbitflight and Berrypaw shot her looks, but said nothing. Brookpaw sighed. This is going to be a long night.

     Despite Silvershine's warning that the RiverClan cats may be hostile, Brookpaw strode back into the main clearing. To her surprise, very few of the cats seemed to notice her. Surely I just don't blend in? She thought. Looking around, she inspected the cats.

     A small group surrounded Willowlight's body. None seemed very keen to hold vigil for her. I suppose burying her will be a bit hard, considering that the ground's nearly frozen now. Near what she assumed was the nursery, a young brown apprentice was playing with three kits. Crowstar's kits.

     "Who's that?" A silver and white tom mewed, looking up at the apprentice.

     "One of the ThunderClan cats who is staying with us for a little bit," the apprentice meowed softly.

     The other two, a gray tabby tom and a white she-kit, sat up to look at Brookpaw.

     "Hi!" The she-kit meowed excitedly.