Warriors: Ashfur's Insanity

Chapter 64

Ashstar padded through the undergrowth. Willowshine, Littlecloud, Rust, Flower, and Tigerheart were in his group. Rust said that he had dreams of a tiger on a large rock, and Mothstripe insisted on bringing Tigerheart. They finally came out of the undergrowth and reached the clearing where the moor was underpaw, and where the moor stretched out. The mountain trail was visible just ahead. 

"What happens if StarClan doesn't except Rust as ShadowClan's leader?"  Flower asked.

"Then Tigerheart might try it," Littlecloud meowed.

Ashstar couldn't think about another Tigerstar leading ShadowClan. The last Tigerstar had done evil things, and what would Tigerheart do?

The moon was starting to come up, and shadows stretched across the ground and reached toward the cats as they padded towards the mountain trail. The moon's silvery light made all the cats' pets turn gray, and their eyes shone brightly. 

A sharp yowl caught in Ashstar's ears. He thought nothing of it at first; he thought he'd just imagined it, but the rest of his patrol stopped dead in their tracks and looked around warily.

"What was that?" Willowshine asked, her eyes narrowed. 

"Could WindClan or ThunderClan be getting attacked?" Tigerheart asked sharply.

"Calm down, it was probably the rogues getting attacked by a fox maybe," Ashstar pointed out, hoping he was right.

"But the yowl would've been closer. That yowl sounded distant, like far off," Littlecloud pointed out.

Ashstar bristled, and with terror he realized that Littlecloud could be right. But what cats lived far off? He thought about the rogues in the lake territory. Not them, they'd be blocked by the mountains. He then thought about the tribe in the mountains. Could they be in trouble?

"Well, lets continue," Ashstar meowed. He padded up the mountain trail and felt rocks dig into his paws. He winced as he stepped on a sharp stone. The waterfall could be heard up ahead.

Stoneteller gasped in horror as he saw a large black tom with amber eyes. A russet colored she-cat slinked through the entrance, her amber eyes glowing with delight. The rest of Stoneteller's cats were sleeping, and Stoneteller was afraid of these cats finding them. Who were they? Ashstar had warned of rogues forcing them to leave their territory, and now Stoneteller got an idea of who these cats might be. More cats were behind them. 

In a nest next to Stoneteller's, a white tom lay asleep. 

"Ice, wake up, rogues!" Stoneteller hissed quietly.

Ice jerked awake. "Rogues?" He gasped. His eyes widened with horror. "Where?"

"They're coming in the entrance! Ashstar warned us about them!" He meowed.

Ice unsheathed his claws. "Then we have to fight with all our might and beat them!"

"The tribes weren't meant for killing other cats, we just have to give them a few scratches and show them who's boss!" Stoneteller growled. He rose to his paws and unsheathed his claws. 

"What about the rest of our tribe? The prey-hunters aren't meant for fighting!" Ice pointed out. "We could outnumber the rogues with our cats, but half of them don't fight!" He growled.

A hiss erupted from the entrance of the cave, and Stoneteller turned his head to see claws flash in the moonlight, then they cut into the shadows and a screech echoed in the cave. 

"Ant!" A cat screeched out. Stoneteller gasped in horror as he realized that they had attacked Ant. He shot from the den without giving warning to Ice and leaped on the huge black tom.  He felt himself land of the sleek-furred body, and sunk his claws into his shoulders. He wanted to sink his fangs into the tom's neck, but the tribe cats weren't allowed to kill others.