Missing Leaves- A Warriors Fanfiction

Chapter 24

Sparrowcall stared at her niece, tail flicking slowly. Despite her emotional numbness, she could still tell she had mixed feelings about what Juniperbush may or may not have done. The leaders had gone to discuss what to do with them while leaving the others to continue guarding them.

"Are you going to stop staring at me?" The blue and white she-cat turned to stare flatly at her aunt. She was the only one to be speaking, as her fellow conspirators were sulking more than she was.

Sparrowcall blinked slowly at her, "why did you leave with Rowansand? You should have known very well that she was going to strike out on her own and leave you here."

Juniperbush snorted, starting to say something. At the last second she glanced over at Driftpaw with a bit of guilt, then shook her head. "I wanted to get away as much as she did. I don't like the memories there. I might not show a lot of compassion, but..." she sighed, "all I can see is flickers of our family that are no longer with us. I can't deal with that long term. I can't help that the influence from Rippleshade, Rowansand, and Dewcloud was there."

The brown tabby nodded, in other words, she doesn't like where the Clans' path led her. That's what she was really saying, even if she won't admit it in those words. She winced internally, reminded of the fact she didn't like being there much anymore either. Everything simply reminded her of Cricketchirp. It would be awhile before she could stay there without being emotionally pained.

"How wonderful to see you get yourself beat up," Vixennose commented cheerfully to Distantwings as he padded up, "Cloudyhollow tells me he had fun with it." He cast a dark look at Darkswipe, then didn't acknowledge the WindClan tom anymore. The yellow and spotted tom flicked his tail stub, cold amusement prickling in his gaze.

Distantwings scoffed, glaring at Vixennose. Before she could speak, Skyfoot cuffed her over the ears, "don't you even dare. Let him continue. He has much more to say."

The ThunderClan medicine cat flicked a paw at Distantwings, "guess what? I get to take Mosspaw, Mosspurr, as my apprentice." He flashed her a grin, "and if you're surprised as to why I'm speaking so much, it's a wonder what a long time around good influences can do. Oh yeah, the leaders have decided that you four," he waved his tail at Darkswipe, Hawkglare, Falconcreek, and Distantwings, "are going to get kicked out of the loners territory as well as Clan territory, and if you're seen, they will gladly attack you." Sparrowcall chuckled at Distantwings' furious glare as she listened to the words.

Juniperbush looked at him in confusion, "what about me? I figured I would have also been exiled, for obvious reasons." She flicked her tail meaningfully at the angry cats beside her.

"The loners find you much more tolerable than the others," Vixennose tilted his head at her, "and Cinder says you are more than welcome to stay. You can't come back to Clan territory though."

"That's fine by me," the blue and white she-cat shrugged, "when do these guys leave?"

A calico tom trotted up, presumably Cinder, answered the question, "they leave as soon as we get some more backup, since the Clan cats will be leaving at dawn." He flicked his tail. He nodded to the leaders as they padded up, "thanks for getting rid of these nuisances."

Shellstar purred, "anytime. I try to include those that aren't in the Clans when I can if they need help."

The dark orange tom that had let them in trotted up to Cinder, greeting him warmly, "and now we can finally not be bothered by them." He wound his tail around his mate's, and they both turned to gaze at the Clan leaders gratefully again, "thank you again. If you need anything, just let us know. It's the least we can do to pay back your help." Nettle's eyes were bright. Darkswipe stared bitterly at them, probably lamenting the loss of his own mate to exile. Not that they had been doing well before he had left. Sparrowcall had heard that Jaggedblaze was avoiding Darkswipe more in the time leading up to all this.