Diverging Paths (Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 5

"Jumbledpaw! Stoppedflow!" Doublepelt eagerly greeted his brother and his apprentice. "How was the hunting party?"

"We ran into a fox and sixteen cats died," Stoppedflow spoke in a monotone voice. "Just kidding. Nothing happened except catching prey. You know, the usual."

"I do wish Moorpaw could've come," Jumbledpaw thought aloud. "Bounceback is so controlling sometimes."

"He's not controlling. He's just really into that she-cat," Doublepelt remarked. "Highwings, that new warrior. He's been into her since she was an apprentice."

Stoppedflow turned to Doublepelt and wrinkled his muzzle, widened his eyes and dropped his jaw a bit in what seemed like disgusted shock. Doublepelt quickly amended himself with, "Well, her later moons of apprenticeship. I think only the last moon. Certainly not when she was only six or seven moons old." Stoppedflow still seemed a bit disgusted, but less so.

"So," Stoppedflow murmured, changing the subject, "have you heard of what happened between WindClan and RiverClan?"

"No. What?" Stoppedflow may have been talking to Doublepelt, but he now had Jumbledpaw's attention too.

"A ThunderClan buddy I know from Gatherings told me when our patrols met," Stoppedflow mewed. "He said there was some kind of skirmish where, instead of escorting rogues to an unbordered edge of their territory, RiverClan cats were escorting them to WindClan's. A fight broke out where the WindClan cats accused the RiverClan cats of directing rogues to them. The RiverClan cats said they were just following orders to escort the rogues out. They all got into a fight. Quite bloody, from what I heard."

"Sheesh. I'm glad we're in ShadowClan," Doublepelt commented, his whiskers twitching in nervousness. "What happened to the rogues?"

"Apparently they ran off while the patrols were fighting, but my ThunderClan bud didn't know what really happened," his brother replied.

"Wow. You're like a forbidden source of information," Doublepelt laughed, only half genuinely.

"Well, both of our patrols seemed okay with us talking," Stoppedflow responded nonchalantly with a shrug. "I don't know about you, but it's kind of weird the warrior code wouldn't let us chat in a friendly way."

"What were you all talking about?" Moorpaw inquired as she approached with Sprintpaw by her side.

"WindClan and RiverClan throwing claws at each other, nothing new," Stoppedflow told them. "I'm sure we'll hear all about it at the next Gathering, though. Battlestar wouldn't be quiet about it, that's for sure."

"What happened?" Sprintpaw asked in concern.

"RiverClan was caught delivering rogues onto WindClan grounds. They said it wasn't their intention. Blah, blah, blah, messy fight," Stoppedflow huffed.

"Aww. That sounds awful," Sprintpaw murmured. "I wish there was something we could do."

"There's nothing we can do. We're in ShadowClan," Doublepelt pointed out, as though it wasn't already obvious for her.

"I know that. It just...makes me sad," Sprintpaw said dejectedly.

"Well...what if we can do something about it?" Moorpaw challenged them, standing up with a bristling pelt and drawing everybody's attention. "What if I wanted to?"

"How would you do that? Don't do anything crazy now, you're just an apprentice," Doublepelt tried calming her down. "You're not thinking straight."

"Since when is caring about other cats not thinking straight?" Moorpaw hissed. "We need to help them!"

"That's a nice youngster spirit, Moorpaw," Bounceback told her, coming up from behind to join his brothers, "but I'm afraid it won't work here. WindClan and RiverClan's business is entirely their own."