The Secret Clan - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was a chilly night. Cats from both groups were huddled against each other for warmth. Tuifeather didn’t yet believe the rogues were friendly. There was something about Dark’s flicking tail, something about the gleam in Night’s eye. Though she kept up her best face and didn’t let her doubts slip.

Dark was recounting an encounter with a stoat.

“It really was a dumb thing,” he purred. “You see White, over there?” Fallenstar, Duskflower and Tuifeather all turned their heads to spot the rogue named White.

“White came from an area with scores of stoats – so many that they nearly outnumbered the two-legs. So he knew how to deal with these animals. He just ducked, weaved, slashed a few times and it was over.” Dark purred before tucking into a sparrow. Fallenstar flexed his claws and let out a rumbling purr. “Will you not consider staying with us for longer? There is so much we could learn from each other.” He drawled. Tuifeather’s eyes widened.

“But I’m sure you’d want to be getting on your way?” she stammered. These cats live outside the warrior code. Why is Fallenstar so comfortable around them?

Fallenstar shot her a look with the beginnings of a snarl of contempt. “We share a common goal, why not stay with us? Join our Clan!” he yowled in a booming voice. All cats rogue and Clan froze. Suddenly a wall slammed down between the separate groups. Tuifeather couldn’t believe her leader. This was a possibly hostile group of cats! They had different beliefs and backgrounds – surely they wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice everything for the Clan? Tuifeather remembered Fallenstar many moons ago, back when she was an apprentice under Mintfur. He was the wisest tom in the area, and he certainly wouldn’t invite, let alone talk to a rogue. He had been confident and witty. Now he was discombobulating and unsure.

Night blinked furiously and stared at his paws. Dark didn’t know where to look. Night then nodded and looked up with narrowed eyes. “That is an extremely… generous offer, Fallenstar.” He stood, and a second later so did the rest of the rogues, apart from Dark. “But I’m afraid we must decline. Thank you for your hospitality.” The cats began to pick their way through the crowd of Clan cats, who were gossiping in hushed voices. Fallenstar looked extremely distressed. Dark shuffled his paws. The two exchanged some awkward glances. What’s going on there? Tuifeather pondered. Then the rogue tortoiseshell turned to his band. “I think we should stay. Until dawn, at least. There have been reports of a stray dog pack.” Night looked at Dark suspiciously.

“For safety, Night.” He mewed. Night shrugged and signalled with a dejected tail for his cats to settle. Seizing the moment of uneasy murmuring and distraction, Tuifeather slid across to a contented Fallenstar. “Fallenstar, why are you so attached to these cats? They’re shifty and no more trustworthy than vermin.” She said harshly. The only way she could get through to Fallenstar was to be extremely blunt. The pale tortoiseshell stared at her with wide eyes, and then gestured for her to follow him. Tuifeather felt the sounds of collective mewing trail away until it was replaced by the sound of night birds and insects. A great moon stared down at the prowling cats. At one point Tuifeather lost sight of her leader, his multicoloured pelt blending in to the surroundings. The only telltale was a glint of moonlight in his eyes. Tuifeather crouched and sat to listen.

Dewfrost sat with Sea. Though thoroughly spooked by the rogue’s ways, Sea was kind and intelligent.

“We’re lucky we didn’t have to leave,” Sea meowed awkwardly. Dewfrost noticed with a pang that she didn’t use phrases like ‘Thank StarClan’. Dewfrost swallowed her negativities and hunched her shoulders. It was a cold winter night, the cat of wind yowling miserably.

“You’ve told me about your ways,” she mewed to change the subject. “Tell me about your fellow cats.” Sea put on an amused face. Before she could begin, Dewfrost interrupted. “Who’s that big tom?” she gestured to the tom who had ignored her on the journey today, who was sitting with some other rogues.

“That’s Cedar,” Sea answered. “He wants to be leader. But everyone agrees he’s too brutish, too positively mean.” Dewfrost could understand that even from the briefest of times she had encountered him.

“The she-cat with him is Grass,” Dewfrost looked at the muscular tabby. “I know,” Sea purred. “It’s hard to believe she’s a she. But in her defence, she’s the toughest cat ever. She’s one of the few who can fight. Some of us joke that she has claws for whiskers,” Sea mewed awkwardly. Dewfrost didn’t mind the inside joke. She inched closer to Sea, her eyes, an invitation to carry on.

“Grass and Cedar are mates. The two small cats beside Grass are hers. The brown tabby is Twig. The light grey with dark bits is Pebble. Both toms are about seven moons old.” Dewfrost felt herself relax at the common term of ‘moon’.

“In my Clan they’d be called apprentices, and would be trained for hunting and fighting.” Dewfrost blinked. Sea nodded, evidently uninterested. “Pebble has been chosen to be taught to fight, because he’s the larger of the toms.”

“What will happen to Twig?” Dewfrost felt herself grope for the name of the lean tabby.

“Twig will hunt, like the majority of our group, and like me.” Sea retorted, mildly offended. Dewfrost quickly decided better of asking who would teach them. Sea seemed touchy on the subject, and she could easily tell that they were a vulnerable, though intimidating, group of rogues.

“Well, you already know Night and Dark.” Sea continued.

“A bit mysterious, aren’t they?” Dewfrost ventured. Sea purred with laughter. “Not really. They’re good-natured, and cunning. Night makes the Clan laugh, and Dark makes you feel safe, understood.” While Sea was animatedly retelling a time that Dark had thought that she was a rabbit, Dewfrost let her gaze sweep the crowds. She came to rest on the leader, Night. His pelt was slightly messy, but had an air of aloofness and mystery to it. His eyes were meltingly warm amber. He was nodding at Dark. The tortoiseshell was looking distressed and torn. Dewfrost briefly thought about why he was upset, before returning her gaze to Night. He jerked her head back to see Night staring straight back at her, his eyes carrying the same depth of a sun at dawn, beaming brilliantly against a sooty sky. Her mind blank, Dewfrost couldn’t help but stare back. She only barely noticed Sea stop talking and become silent. Night abruptly looked away, blinking furiously. Dark looked amused and twitched an ear in Dewfrost’s direction. Dewfrost swung her head around to see Sea staring knowingly at her.

“You’re mooning over Night, aren’t you?” Before Dewfrost could hastily and unbelievably deny it, Sea continued.

“You’re not the first,” she mewed, picking out a scrap of greenery from between her claws. “Everybody falls for either Night or Dark. I mean, who can blame them? They’re both handsome and powerful; all a she-cat could want.” Sea sighed wistfully. Dewfrost disagreed intensely. “What about kindness,” the Clan cat began. “humour, skill, the ability to love and care for kits, to care for you!” Dewfrost was not aware of how desperate her rant sounded. Sea didn’t reply, just kept picking around her claws, her tail tip twitching in aggravation.

“My mate died,” Sea mewed, not raising her head from her cleaning. Dewfrost stifled a gasp. “So did my kit. It was from bad prey.” Sea stared at Dewfrost with a mixture of grief, anger and longing. It was all mixed in a blue-grey storm in her eyes.

“Both of them were handsome, powerful, kind, funny, skilled, and loving and caring to everyone. You can never find more than one of them in this world, and mine has gone.”

“I am certain,” Fallenstar said definitively. Tuifeather stared at her leader. She now understood why Fallenstar was so determined to keep the rogues with them, but the reason frightened her. There were still many questions left unanswered.

“Let me explain, please!” Fallenstar cried, seeing Tuifeather’s disillusioned look. Tuifeather fluffed out her fur in order to protect her from the poignant cold of the night. Fallenstar looked so heartbroken that the medicine cat had no choice but to agree.

“Back when your father was still leader,” Fallenstar began. Tuifeather noticed with a stab that he didn’t use her father’s name, Crowstar. Tuifeather subtly agreed. Crowstar had been evil, not a father but a shadow in her life. She had proved herself many times over to have gained her own name in MeadowClan, so she held no shame in being called his daughter. His actions obviously did not get passed into his two virtuous daughters, herself and Starlingflight. Fallenstar continued, his voice becoming thick and tearful with nostalgia. “I wasn’t deputy then. Not yet. One day, patrolling by myself, I found a rogue on our territory. She was weak, frail and starving; a whisker-length from StarClan, or wherever she was supposed to go. It wasn’t right… I made a temporary nest for her on the edge of the territory. I made her promise to leave once she was fit and healthy but, things changed.” Fallenstar closed his eyes, sifting through his memories. He shrugged, smiling. “I fell in love with her. Eventually, I saw her belly swollen with a kit. I was so happy… it seemed like my Clan didn’t matter anymore. And when the kit was born, it was a beautiful tom. She said it looked like me but it had her eyes.” Tuifeather looked at Fallenstar’s sparkling grey eyes, which were usually so sad and dull. The mother must’ve had amber eyes, because the kit he was speaking of had them, too.

“But my Clan began to notice how much time I spent outside the camp. They demanded to know what I was doing, but I couldn’t give up my mate or kit. I told her to run,” Fallenstar ducked his head and choked back a strangled sob. Tuifeather’s eyes widened to see how much pain his memories hurt the aged leader.

“She tried to run, but our kit slowed her down. I was confined to camp; I couldn’t help them, run away with them… the warriors guessed that I had a mate, so they hunted her down. They killed her.” Fallenstar was lying slumped on the ground in defeat, reliving the memories. Tuifeather was in awe of how much grief her strong, wise leader had gone through.

“The kit got away,” Fallenstar nodded, blinking, trying to come back to the present time. “And was adopted by a group of rogues. This kit is now Dark, leader of the rogues we are travelling with.” He concluded.

“Does he know?” she whispered. Fallenstar nodded slowly, as if each movement was torture. Tuifeather bowed her head, digesting the information, and without another word, she padded over silently and curled up next to her hurt leader. Time, Tuifeather thought grimly, does not heal wounds this grievous.

Hailcloud felt very anxious around the rogue cats. In her vision, all the rogues were distorted to having huge claws and pointed fangs and scars like chasms along their fur. The cream-coloured she-cat snuggled closer to those closest to her, Riverfur and Raintail. The young ginger she-cat spun around. “I thought you were a rogue cat trying to creep up on me,” she purred awkwardly. “My neck fur won’t lie flat around them – how do we know they won’t turn on us?” Raintail whispered anxiously. Hailcloud nodded, glancing around to see two rogue cats sleeping within three tail-lengths of the gossiping warriors.

“I do wish Tuifeather or Duskflower knock some sense into Fallenstar,” Hailcloud muttered mutinously. “I hope he really doesn’t expect for them to join our Clan. We’d have to train them. On the bright side, we’d gain ten more apprentices!” The two she-cats twitched whiskers and muffled purrs as they spotted Tuifeather lead Fallenstar back into the temporary camp clearing. Hailcloud’s humour faded as she saw Fallenstar’s tail dragging behind in the dust. Raintail scuffed her paws in the dust, all traces of light-heartedness drained. “I wonder what happened,” Raintail murmured.

Dark, the joint leader of the rogues stood, eyes blazing with a fierce amber care. Night, the other leader, was shooting the two tortoiseshell toms suspicious glances.

Raintail cocked her ear to the hushed conversation. “I think… I think Dark is asking Fallenstar if he’s okay. Fallenstar is saying he is… oh!” Raintail strained to hear. “It’s too quiet, I can’t hear.” She said dejectedly. Hailcloud sighed and looked, puzzled, at the two leaders. What’s going on there? Duskflower whispered something in Fallenstar’s ear and the old leader flicked his tail in response. Night shrugged himself off and leaned forward slightly. “I would like to introduce my deputy.” On cue, a tom picked his way through the crowd of cats. He had closely shaved white fur, small green eyes, and various sized black spots around his rump. His tail was all black. Fallenstar dipped his head kindly to the new tom. The white and black tom settled himself a position beside Night.

“This is Black. He will take over either mine or Dark’s position if one of us is killed.” Night mewed. Black puffed out his chest with pride. Hailcloud felt a need to be closer to the new cats, and listen to their discussions. She and Raintail leaned forward in anticipation. Riverfur groaned in his sleep and kicked out softly at Hailcloud. “Stop mooning over the rogues,” he grumbled light-heartedly. Hailcloud could see out of the corner of her eye Raintail tickling Riverfur with a strand of gorse, but she was too focused on the congregation of leaders and important cats at the front. As absent-minded chat began to rumble around the manuka-bush sheltered clearing, Hailcloud let her gaze travel around the other cats. She suspected most of these ferocious-looking cats weren’t as bad as she thought. There was a tabby she-cat who was playing with two similar looking small toms; Hailcloud guessed they were her kits. There was a handsome white tom with an odd tuft of her on his back. He was subtly play-fighting with another rogue with a blue-grey pelt; one Hailcloud had noticed when they first encountered. The mournful look she had worn had been completely replaced by one of cheekiness and energy. The white tom swiped while looking in the other direction and the blue she-cat trapped his paw under hers. Hailcloud nodded thoughtfully. Just as she was examining a grey cat chatting to Hailcloud’s sister, Dewfrost, a sharp yowl of shock echoed around the clearing. Hailcloud spun around, long, silky hair flying. Duskflower was standing at the corner of the clearing where the leaders were talking. She was bristling and Hailcloud guessed that if she was closer she would be able to see the whites of her eyes. The grey deputy was staring with a mixture of accusation and joy at Black, the rogue deputy. The whole clearing went deathly silent apart from belated gasp Tweetpaw, being herded in by his scolding mother, Tansypetal.

“You,” Duskflower pointed a claw at Black. “You’re back!” she squealed. Tuifeather rose to her feet and tried to beckon Duskflower back. “Duskflower,” the black and white medicine cat warned quietly.

“No, no!” Duskflower denied Tuifeather and turned back to staring in complete awe at Black. “It’s Blacktail!” Hailcloud felt her blood turn to ice at the mention of Duskflower’s lost, presumed dead mate.

“Blacktail has returned!”