Warriors: The Chosen Warrior: Final Darkness (Book 6)

Chapter 15

Leafsong rarely glanced away from the moon as she anxiously waited for the Clan to get ready to leave for the island. It was already high enough in the sky where she could easily see it between the trees that surrounded the hollow. Sometimes she thought she started seeing it turn red, but after blinking and refocusing her eyes, it turned out to still be white. Darkflight sat beside her and continually ran his tail along her flank.

She had told Jayfeather and Leafpool the morning after she visited the Dark Forest about what she had learned from Nightblaze. They both shared her concern greatly, but still said they had yet to receive more word from StarClan in any form about the situation. The medicine cats had tried to go to the other Clans to talk to their medicine cats about it, but they reported that they were denied an escort to both the ShadowClan and WindClan camps when they reached the borders, leaving RiverClan out of the question, as well.

ShadowClan's reasoning for turning back the medicine cats was more clear, as Blackstar most likely didn't want to see a ThunderClan cat even at the Gathering after ThunderClan's unwanted help. WindClan's logic was more mysterious. At first Leafsong thought it would be because Onestar still believed wholeheartedly that ThunderClan was harboring Swiftclaw, but Jayfeather relayed that the warriors he had encountered seemed much too snappy and insistent that he not come to their camp to be wary about their former Clanmate's return.

"In fact," he explained sagely, "they seemed like they forgot all about the Swiftclaw situation, focused on something else."

That made Leafsong briefly wonder if RiverClan had actually attacked WindClan's camp like Onestar was paranoid about, but her irritation of not knowing if the other medicine cats had had any visions of their own about the red moon consumed that thought.

Leafpool and Jayfeather had promised they would speak to their fellow medicine cats at the Gathering. Leafsong only prayed that it wouldn't be too late.

If only we had learned of all this sooner, she thought distressfully.

"Hi, Leafsong, Darkflight."

She tore her focus from the rising moon and saw Whitesnake standing in front of her. Behind him several tail-lengths sat Shiningice as she spoke with Stone and Swiftclaw.

"Hey, Whitesnake," Darkflight greeted back. Leafsong gazed at the gray tom, but her gaze wasn't entirely focused on him.

Some heartbeats passed before Whitesnake cleared his throat. "I've been meaning to tell you something." He looked between the two cats, but it was clear that he was speaking more directly at Leafsong than Darkflight.

The pale-ginger she-cat blinked distractedly. "What is it?"

He took a breath. "Shiningice and I have decided to leave the Clans and go with Swiftclaw and Stone."

That got her full attention on him. "What? Now?" She had been meaning to talk to him about that since Swiftclaw told her they were thinking about leaving, but there was never a good time with everything that had been happening. Besides, she felt like she had barely hung out with Whitesnake since he returned from his journey as he was seemingly always with his parents. Which was understandable, of course, but Leafsong felt like they had drifted apart since he left.

Whitesnake laughed lightly. "No, not right now. Who would start a trip in the middle of the night? We're planning on leaving two sunrises from tomorrow."

The she-cat struggled to find something to say; she didn't know how she felt about Whitesnake leaving ThunderClan forever, let alone the Clans. I'd probably never see him again.

"Does Firestar know?" Darkflight asked for her.

The gray-and-white warrior nodded. "We've been talking to him, yeah. He's really understanding, knowing that Shiningice and I want to live a life with our parents. But he also knows that Swiftclaw and Stone don't want to stay in ThunderClan."