Goldwind entered the leader's den, fur prickling nervously. We were all wrong. He fooled us all, she thought, her ears flat. Eclipsestar was right: it was someone who wasn't at the gathering.
She stalked closer to Mahoganyshade. I don't want to break the warrior code and kill him. But if he lives-and as leader of SnowClan!-who knows what he'll do?
But when she reached him, Mahoganyshade jerked up. His green gaze rested softly on her. "Why aren't you in your nest, Goldwind?" he asked gently, but Goldwind could hear the unspoken threat in his words.
"I-I know what you did!" she stammered.
Instantly, Mahoganyshade's pelt began to lift to twice its size as he rose to his paws, and he glowered at her.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Mahoganyshade meowed smoothly, lifting a paw warningly. Goldwind stared in fear at his unsheathed claws, glinting in the moonlight, and she forced herself not to turn tail and flee.
She dug her own claws into the earth, standing her ground, and hissed, "Yes I do! I know that StarClan refused you nine lives and a leader's name because you killed Leafwhisker, not because of SnowClan!"
Without warning, Mahoganyshade darted out her paw and slashed it across Goldwind's throat.
The she-cat struggled feebly for a few moments, managing to rake her claws down his foreleg, before she choked out one last gasp and fell limp beneath his paws.
"I said," Mahoganyshade snarled softly, "you don't know what you're talking about."
YOU ARE READING
Dawning Snow: Book 1 by _Cloversplash_
FanfictionIt is the middle of leafbare, and though there is still no snow to be seen, the river is frozen solid: forcing the RiverClan cats to hunt in the woodland stretch of their territory for the first time. Cloverpaw, a RiverClan apprentice, has always im...
