Эрин Хантер - Shattered Sky

Twigpaw was about to leap back into the fray when she spotted Onestar, who had Darktail pinned to the ground. Onestar’s forepaws pummeled at Darktail’s face, leaving bloody slashes across his cheeks. Darktail barely struggled, gasping for breath.

Onestar must be taking revenge for his lost life, Twigpaw guessed.

But as she watched the two leaders fight, Darktail heaved himself up and tumbled Onestar to the ground. He staggered toward Onestar and murmured something, his mouth close to the WindClan leader’s ear. Onestar’s eyes widened into a horrified stare as he rose to his paws and drew away from the rogue. His message—whatever it was—delivered, Darktail sagged to the ground again. Twigpaw could see that his white fur was smudged with red from injuries on his sides and chest.

She tensed, expecting Onestar to lunge at Darktail and deliver a killing blow. But the WindClan leader backed away. Why doesn’t Onestar finish Darktail off? Twigpaw wondered. That’s the whole point of this battle!

Instead Onestar raised his head to let out a loud yowl. “Cats of WindClan! Retreat! Back to the camp!”

Twigpaw let out a gasp. She couldn’t understand why Onestar would call his cats out of the battle, especially when he had been so adamant that they drive the rogues out at last.

What could Darktail possibly have said to him?

“WindClan! Retreat!” Onestar yowled again.

Twigpaw caught no more than a glimpse of the WindClan cats breaking off their tussles with the rogues before something hard hit her in the back and bowled her over, knocking the breath out of her. Too late she realized that she shouldn’t have been staring at Onestar instead of paying attention to the battle around her.

Summoning every scrap of her strength, Twigpaw twisted around to see Yarrowleaf glaring balefully down at her, the hostile she-cat’s breath riffling Twigpaw’s whiskers while her claws dug into her shoulders. Twigpaw heaved upward and managed to dislodge the ShadowClan cat so that she could rake her hind paws across her belly. But Yarrowleaf still kept a grip on her and bent down, jaws parted to sink her teeth into Twigpaw’s throat.

Twigpaw strained away from her, bracing herself for pain. Then Ivypool appeared once again, fastening her claws into Yarrowleaf’s neck and hauling her bodily away.

After flinging Yarrowleaf to one side, Ivypool crouched to pounce on top of her, but before she could move, Tigerheart appeared, thrusting himself between the two cats and giving Yarrowleaf the chance to scramble away.

Ivypool straightened up, glaring at Tigerheart. “What in StarClan’s name do you think you’re doing?” she snarled. “Yarrowleaf isn’t your Clanmate now. You’re supposed to be on our side!”

Tigerheart cast an anguished glance after the fleeing Yarrowleaf. He opened his jaws to answer, but before he could speak he was interrupted by an angry yowl from Lionblaze. The WindClan cats were streaming away from the ShadowClan camp in the paw steps of their leader, leaving the remaining warriors at a serious disadvantage.

“Stop!” Bramblestar yowled.

“You can’t leave us! We agreed!” Mistystar added.

Rowanstar was tearing up clumps of grass with his claws, his fur bristling with rage. “Traitors!” he screeched after the departing WindClan cats. “Cowards!”

While the leaders were distracted, Twigpaw spotted one of the rogues looming up behind Mistystar. Her belly clenched in anxiety and she let out a screech, but her warning came too late. The hulking tom barreled into Mistystar and knocked her to the ground in a whirl of waving paws. Several RiverClan cats raced up to defend their leader, and more of the rogues piled in, viciously swiping at the RiverClan warriors.

Ivypool and Tigerheart exchanged a swift glance, their argument forgotten for now, and dived back into the battle.

Twigpaw glanced from side to side, anxiously watching her battling Clanmates. Even she, an apprentice fighting in her first battle, could see clearly that the tide had turned. The Clan cats were losing. WindClan had fled, the RiverClan warriors were giving way under the pummeling of the rogues, and like Tigerheart, the ShadowClan cats were hesitant to attack their own former Clanmates.

This is a disaster! she thought despairingly. And we planned it so carefully! How did it all go wrong?

As Twigpaw turned around, wondering what she could do now to help her Clan, she spotted a small black-and-white cat emerging from the shadows underneath a bush. “Violetpaw!” she gasped.

Her sister halted, and the two she-cats stared at each other for a moment. Twigpaw could see that Violetpaw looked thinner and taller than when she had seen her last. Blood trickled from a scratch on one of her ears, but to Twigpaw’s relief she looked mostly unhurt.

“Are you okay?” Twigpaw blurted out after a moment.

Violetpaw’s eyes widened at the question. She didn’t reply, and for a couple of heartbeats neither cat moved. Twigpaw knew that she should spring into attack, but every hair on her pelt shrank from the thought of hurting her sister.

“I miss you,” she whispered.

Violetpaw’s jaws parted as if she was about to speak, but just then a snarl came from behind her.

“What are you waiting for?”

The long-furred gray rogue, Rain, ducked out from beneath the same bush, followed by Needletail, who had grown larger and more formidable since Twigpaw had last seen her. They separated, moving to either side of Twigpaw, their eyes menacing. Twigpaw flinched back, trying to keep all three cats in view.

“She’s the enemy ,” Needletail hissed to Violetpaw.

Twigpaw could hardly believe what she was hearing. Is this the same cat who used to bring Violetpaw to play with me when we were kits?

Rain draped his tail over Violetpaw’s shoulders. “We’re your kin now,” he growled.

Violetpaw gave one desperate glance from Needletail to Rain and back again. Then she gathered herself and sprang at Twigpaw, claws outstretched to slash at her shoulder.

For a heartbeat, Twigpaw could do no more than stare at her, stunned; then she recovered enough to stumble backward, out of range. But before she could take more than a couple of paw steps, one of her hind paws caught in a hole behind her. She fell heavily onto her side, wrenching her leg, and she let out a screech as hot pain clawed through her body. Violetpaw stood over her, staring down with her teeth bared.

Twigpaw knew that she couldn’t fight anymore. This is when I go to hunt with StarClan. Oh, Violetpaw, how did we end up like this? Are you really going to strike the blow that kills me?

Then a yowl rang out from behind her and Lionblaze raced past, flinging himself on Rain and the ShadowClan cats. All three of them flinched backward in the face of his ferocious attack.

Twigpaw stared after her sister’s retreating form. Violetpaw doesn’t care about me anymore, she realized miserably. She thinks I’m her enemy! She attacked me!

All around Twigpaw, the battle was still raging. She could see that the Clan cats were being driven back, but she could hardly bring herself to care. Guilt flooded over her; she knew she ought to be panicking at the defeat of the Clans. But all she could think about was her sister.

The sun was dipping behind the trees at the top of the hollow, the slanting rays filtering into the medicine cats’ den, as Alderheart laid one last piece of cobweb on Birchfall’s shoulder wound. “It will heal well,” he reassured the older warrior. “Do you want a poppy seed for the pain?”