Swiftfire's Promise

Chapter 10

Toadstar

A stiff breeze swept through the forest, ruffling a certain group of cats' fur.

A ginger and white tabby lifted his head to sniff the air, only to immediately wrinkle his nose.

"Why does ShadowClan smell so bad," he muttered, shaking his head.

The tortoiseshell tabby next to him twitched her whiskers in amusement, "Swiftfire, you shouldn't say such things. ShadowClan probably thinks the same way about us," she scolded lightly, though there was humor in her eyes.

The huge, golden tom in front of them nodded, "Sorrelheart's right Swiftfire. All the things you think bad about ShadowClan, they think just the same."

"Like how we think they are rude and evil, they probably think that we are stubborn and arrogant," spoke up a voice behind them.

Swiftfire glanced behind his shoulder, "how would you know Barkfeather," he asked the old medicine cat.

The brown tabby smiled slightly, "you should ask Lionstar up there, moons ago when our leader was younger and foolish, he and the former ShadowClan leader Snakestar argued over the same thing. They had planned a battle but right before it started, Lionstar and Snakestar realized how foolish they both where and called it off."

Barkfeather let out a ruff laugh and Swiftfire could sense his leader smiling, "young and foolish eh Barkfeather?" He said with a mrrow of laughter.

"You're not forgetting the time you ran off to the Moonstone without anybody knowing because you where convinced you had just received an omen from StarClan," Lionstar said, "that was when you where apprenticed to Runninggorse wasn't it?"

Barkfeather twitched his whiskers, "no I haven't forgotten that."

Swiftfire realized how close the two must have when they where younger. He couldn't believe that Lionstar almost started an unnecessary war and that Barkfeather had disobeyed the medicine cat code.

Suddenly, Sorrelheart and Lionstar both froze, "we're here," he meowed.

Sure enough, the marshy scent of ShadowClan hit there noses like a wall and it took all of Swiftfire's strength not to step back at the overwhelming scent.

"Let's find a patrol, there's bound to be one near at this time of day," Sorrelheart meowed, flicking her tail up to the setting sun. Lionstar nodded and lifted his nose, opening his mouth to take in the ShadowClan scent.

Swiftfire watched in horror as his leader took in deep scents of ShadowClan and began to lead the way. The warrior reluctantly followed.

As they came upon the patrol, familiar voices sounded from the border, "do you smell that?"

Lionstar froze, holding his tail up as a signal to stop.

"Yeah, it's ThunderClan!" Squeaked a tinier voice.

"Maybe we're about to be attacked. Oakpaw, do you remember your training?" Came a familiar meow.

Lionstar took this as his time to make them seen, "do not attack, we mean no harm," the golden leader meowed, becoming visible to the ShadowClan patrol.

"Blackpaw?" Swiftfire asked, recognizing the black she-cat. Though she looked much older, and Swiftfire guessed she was a warrior already.

"Swiftfire? What are you doing here?" She meowed, letting her hackles lay flat.

The skinny, dark grey tom beside Blackpaw sprang up, "what do you want ThunderClan," the tom spat out.

"Frailcloud," Blackpaw warned the tom, her tail twitching in annoyance.