Legacy: Timeless (Book 2)

Chapter 44: Together

Chapter 44: Together

Heavy gray clouds hung in the sky and cast dull, scattered light over the snow-laden forest. Scorch and Boulderpaw sat amid the snow and gray at the base of the beach tree where they would soon meet with the ThunderClan cats. The spring that had once bubbled up from the forest floor and run in a tiny stream was now dried up and its shallow ditch lay like an embossed snake along the forest floor.

"They should be here," Boulderpaw growled, pausing his pacing to taste the air.

Scorch watched him through eyes narrowed in rest. "They'll be here soon," she mewed. The day had arrived for when they would meet Moonpaw again and all the cats that the Thunderclan apprentice had been able to gather together.

The air was free from danger and Scorch was optimistic at heart about the coming meeting. Boulderpaw, she could sense, was less confident. He had trodden a path through the snow and his fur was prickled up along his spine as his gaze flashed hesitatingly from one side to the other.

"Why don't you sit down?" Scorch suggested. "You don't want to be ragged looking when you meet your Clan-mates again."

Boulderpaw just shook his head and kept on pacing more hastily. Scorch shrugged and settled down again. In the days following the new leadership of the Clans things had gone smoothly in the pine forest camp. That is, until Scorch had asked for an answer about them helping ThunderClan and WindClan.

A long and fierce debate had ensued between the new leaders- an argument in which Scorch had been excluded from. But through Willowwater's willing cooperation- for which Scorch was most grateful- she had been able to make most of her points known. Mainly, that none of the Clans would be safe until Pinefur was gone.

The decision had been that ShadowClan and RiverClan would help. But it would be left up to the individual cats if they wanted to fight or not. No cat would be forced into the fight and that had been Sunstar's final compromise.

Scorch shifted her paws in the snow uneasily. The rogues that Sunstar had brought into the Clans had seemed willing, and so had Raven and Hawk from NightClan. But most of the Clan cats had seemed unsure. I just have to hope when the time comes that they join in. They had also agreed to send the two new deputies to meet with Flightfrost and a ThunderClan cat on the half-moon. And since the moon was only waxing into a full moon at this time, they'd have time before the half-moon to organize the ThunderClan cats.

"Do you think Moonpaw will really come?" Boulderpaw sounded worried.

"She's your sister," Scorch pointed out. "But, yes, I think we can trust her to come."

Boulderpaw paused and looked at her with wide blue eyes. "What if she brings Pinefur and she tells him everything?" his voice was thin with horror.

Scorch rolled her eyes. "I've only met Moonpaw a few times and I know that if there's one cat she wouldn't betray us to, it's Pinefur."

"But what if she told one of Pinefur's spies? And then Pinefur had Moonpaw..." Boulderpaw trailed off. And Scorch gave him a scathing glance.

"If you could quit worrying and pay attention you would be able to smell Moonpaw's scent. And the lack of Pinefur's scent," Scorch mewed, getting to her paws and turning to look in the direction of ThunderClan territory.

Through the screen of brown trunks and branches she could perceive the movement of pelts slipping silently through the forest like fish through a stream. Five cats come to a halt in front of them and Scorch greeted them with a polite nod of her head.

They didn't respond and Boulderpaw moved to her side as an intense staring contest ensued. Scorch- who was probably the only one there not interested in competing- took the opportunity to scan the present cats. Moonpaw, of course, was there in the middle. But Scorch didn't recognize any of the other cats and didn't see Skypool. However, a skinny tortoiseshell she-cat caught her attention since she carried a common scent with Moonpaw and Boulderpaw.