Warriors: Crazystar's Greatest Challenge(Sequel to Crazystar's Battle)

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

                The warriors of StarClan appeared around her. Liontail was among them this time, and he spoke. “You may have lost your eighth life to that traitor, but you’ve led your Clan well. Use your last life to fight your worst enemy, one who is more dangerous than him or any other cat in StarClan, the Place of No Stars, or around the lake,” her former deputy meowed.

                “We’re outnumbered,” Crazystar noted. “Killing Splashheart won’t end it.”

                “StarClan will come to your assistance, just as we did the last time,” Liontail responded. “We must send you back now. Whitefur will be killed, but he will take one of your most loyal warriors with him.”

                “What? Who is it?” she demanded.

                But the starry cats were already fading…

                Crazystar opened her eyes to see Stonestream looking down at her worriedly. She lifted her head, waiting for her strength to return as it always did. “What happened to Whitefur?” she asked.

                Stonestream glanced to his right and Crazystar followed his gaze. An unmoving tom with white fur stained red on the bottom of his neck laid on the grass. “Did you kill him?” she whispered.

                Her deputy shook his head. “No, Redwhisker did,” he replied.

                Crazystar blinked in surprise. Redwhisker is his sister!

                “Where’s Redwhisker?” the ThunderClan asked.

                Stonestream scanned the stone hollow and finally pointed with his tail to the tall stone cliff to their left. A flame-colored cat, too small to be Flamestripe or Flamefoot, was holding on to a red-furred she-cat who’d fallen over the edge. A white-furred tom clung to her forepaw and his weight kept Tawnystar from pulling her up. “WHAT?” Crazystar screeched.

                She climbed to her paws and pushed her way through the battle, shoving a light brown tom who tried to stop her down to the ground. All of a sudden, Tawnystar either intentionally released her grip or accidentally dropped them because Whitefur and Redwhisker both began to plummet towards the ground. Before Crazystar could reach them, they hit the ground.

                Her vision went red with rage. So many of my warriors, either traitors or dead. She turned and sliced her claws across a Dark Forest warrior’s throat. At that moment, the ThunderClan leader was unstoppable. She killed one with a swift strike before spinning around to dispatch the one sneaking up behind her. She was about to pounce onto another’s back and sink her teeth into his neck, but she stopped at Stonestream’s voice. “Crazystar!” the dark gray tom called. “Don’t worry about them! Take care of Splashheart!”

                The Dark Forest had more warriors than ThunderClan, even with three of their warriors just killed and certainly others from earlier in the battle.

                All of a sudden, a shaft of light came from the sky. The warriors of StarClan descended, Liontail leading them. “Stonestream is right,” the deputy growled. “Your fight is meant to be with Splashheart.”

                Crazystar turned and searched for the evil tom. She saw gray-and-white fur near the elders den and guessed that Splashheart was over there.

                It was him, because those sinister amber eyes couldn’t belong to anyone else. Splashheart was glaring at Hawkwhisker, who refused to flinch away from his menacing gaze. “I thought I ordered you to go with Breezepelt to RiverClan!” the gray-and-white tom snarled.

                “I came to defend my Clan,” Hawkwhisker stated boldly.  “You should’ve known from the beginning. I’m a loyal warrior of ThunderClan, and even if I wasn’t, I’d never side with you! If you thought training me was a good idea…”

                Splashheart grabbed him by the neck and tossed him to ground. But Hawkwhisker’s eyes still showed no fear. “Kill me. Prove to everyone that you are the evil tyrant I always knew you were,” the dark brown tom hissed.

                Crazystar rushed forward, but before she could knock Splashheart off of Hawkwhisker, he’d delivered the death blow. Her green eyes narrowed and she leapt, crashing into the evil tom. Splashheart easily threw her off and casually rose to his paws. “Hi, Crazykit. Still as much of a weakling as ever, I see,” he meowed. “Tricks won’t work this time. Sure you don’t want to run back to the nursery while you still have a chance?”

                The ThunderClan leader unsheathed her claws. “You’ll have to kill me more than once,” she lied.

                “Easy enough,” Splashheart responded.

                “I will defeat you,” Crazystar stated with false confidence. “Are YOU sure that you don’t want to tell your ‘warriors’ to retreat?”

                “You pretend to be unafraid, Crazystar, but I know better than that. You fear me. Memories of me haunt you in your sleep and this moment here where you die and I take over the Clans is what you’ve been dreading since my death. But guess what? I don’t fear you!” he growled ferociously, charging towards her.

                Crazystar tensed her muscles and prepared for the vicious fight that would follow.

                I have to win. If I don’t, the Clans will be lost forever…