The Rogue Traitor #3 - Two Worlds

Chapter Two

When Birdpaw and Whiskerstar emerged into camp, there were mostly happy mews, and the apprentice was hoping it was also for her and not just the mice. Both warriors quickly placed their mice down at their paws and Birdpaw was quickly surrounded by her parents and Windpaw, Emberpaw hanging back uncomfortably.

"Why did you do that?" whispered Moonflower into her daughter's ear, "Why did you run away? You scared us both almost to death." Her body shook and Birdpaw pressed her head against her mother's, taking a deep breath.

"I am sorry," she whispered, smiling softly, "I didn't mean to scare you. I won't do it again, I promise." A tear slipped down the older she-cat's cheek and the apprentice gently licked it off, smiling, before she slowly pulling away. Stagleap approached her and she rested her head on his shoulder, feeling his tongue gently rasp over her ear.

"I missed you sis," smiled Windpaw as she pulled away from her father, the young tom cuffing his paw over his sister's ear. Birdpaw mock growled and cuffed his ear back, grinning.

"I missed you too," she replied, before turning to look at Emberpaw. The dark ginger uneasily met her gaze and gave her a short nod, but thankfully, Whiskerstar interrupted before it could become too awkward.

"LeafClan," he announced, jumping up onto the High Rock, "as you can see, our missing Clanmates, Flowerstem, Dewpaw and Birdpaw have finally returned to us. They have also brought along four more kits, Sorrelkit, Sparrowkit and Inky and Angel, who are to announce their Clan names." He turned his head to the two older kits huddled at Dewpaw's feet and the rest of the Clan followed his gaze. Inky look over at her sister before taking a step forward, holding her head high. Angel looked over her shoulder at the gathered cats before taking a tiny step forward, still behind her sister.

"We have decided our new names," she mewed in her cute kit voice, "I will be Nightkit, and Angel will be Stormkit." The Clan began to chant the kit's new names and Whiskerstar smiled at them, dipping his head before facing the Clan again.

"I know some of you are probably wondering how we are going to feed all of these hungry mouths" he yowled "but we will manage because we are LeafClan! And we will survive this!" His voice rose into a yowl at the end and the rest of the Clan joined in, though most glared at Whiskerstar distrustingly. Birdpaw didn't really blame them, after everything they had been through they had a right to still not trust him.

"This precious prey will be given to our queens and kits first," he continued once the yowling had settled down, "and any that is left over will be distributed fairly." The crowd of cats around Whiskerstar and Birdpaw parted, creating a path for Silversong, Firekit, Icekit and Mistykit, who walked cautiously up to the prey. Silversong took one of the mice, as did Firekit and Mistykit. Icekit stood behind his brother and quietly followed his back to outside the nursery, but Mistykit stayed in front of Whiskerstar and Birdpaw. She looked down at Sorrelkit and Sparrowkit, who were still huddled next to Dewpaw and beckoned to them to follow her. Sorrelkit walked cautiously up to the grey kit while her brother looked up to Dewpaw, fear glinting in his eyes. The cream tom gently nudged the brown kit forward with his tail and eventually, he walked over to his sister and Mistykit. Nightkit walked forward boldly and took one of the mice to go share with her sister before everybody turned to look at their grey tabby leader.

"Who is going to get the last two mice?" Asked a voice and everybody turned around to see Vineleaf step forward to face Whiskerstar. The grey tabby tom opened his mouth to reply but another voice spoke up from the other side of the crowd.

"I believe the younger warriors should split the mice between themselves," meowed the voice and the crowd parted again to reveal Sparkclaw, who moved to face Vineleaf, "we have been working tirelessly in the last couple of moons."

"So have us senior warriors," argued Vineleaf, butting in before Whiskerstar could.

"But the younger warriors have been put on more jobs than the senior warriors," replied Sparkclaw, "both for tracking our lost Clan members and hunting to provide the lazy senior warriors."

"Sparkclaw-" warned the grey tabby leader, but his words were cut off by hisses from various senior warriors.

"We are not lazy-" hissed Vineleaf, taking a step forward but the ginger tom cut him off.

"The younger warriors deserve the prey," he growled, "not only because we are way better that the senior warriors but we are also mentoring most of the apprentices, which is a job that requires energy, speed and skill, all of which the older warriors don't have."

"Are you calling us slow and stupid?" Growled the musty brown tom, crouching down with his tail swishing.

"I most certainly am," replied Sparkclaw, also crouching down. Whiskerstar set his jaw and began to move towards the two toms, opening his mouth to tell them that they were acting like absolute mouse-brains. But they were too focused on each other to stop and leapt before their leader could do anything.

Vineleaf pushed the younger tom to the ground and swiped his claws across his eyes before the ginger tom kicked him strongly in the stomach. The older tom was pushed back but leapt up quick enough to swipe his claws across Sparkclaw's eyes when the younger tom came at him again. The ginger tom was thrown to the side and retaliated by gouging his claw into the older tom's shoulder.

This whole time, Whiskerstar has tried to get in between the two toms to stop their fighting, but every time he got near, either of the toms would kick out a back leg or try and claw at the leader to keep him away from the fight.

Sparkclaw raced at the older tom again and just nicked his nose before Vineleaf slammed his paw down on the ginger warrior, tearing his ear a little. But the younger tom was not deterred and kicked the older warrior in the stomach again.

Thankfully, just as it looked as though things could get a little ugly, Stagleap and Whiskerstar jumped in and somehow managed to pull the two warriors apart. The deputy held Vineleaf's head down with one of his paws while the leader had a paw on Sparkclaw's neck.

"You two are acting like mouse-brain idiots," scolded Whiskerstar, looking at both of the warriors, "and are acting like kits. Warriors your ages don't fight over fresh-kill. For you foolish behaviour, both of you will be doing all of the apprentice duties for a moon, at least. You will also not be going to any of the Gatherings either." Both warriors still glared at each other furiously but the slightest bit of embarrassment was beginning to show in their eyes. Silence fell over the camp and everyone watched on at the leader and deputy released the two warriors. Vineleaf turned back around to the crowd and vanished between all of the cats, but Sparkclaw turned around to face his leader.

"But what do you think?" He asked defiantly, "Who do you think should be getting the prey? Maplestar always knew what was right, he always made the right decision. You can't even decide who gets two mice, some leader you are."