Beast of the Sea - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The warm, salty scent of freshkill wreathed around me as I carried a plump trout towards camp. The fireleaf sun blazed overhead, and I let out a purr, remembering the refreshing swim I had just had with Ripplepaw and Littlepaw.

Ripplepaw had shifted into her semi-aquatic form. She had relished the sensation of being able to swim laps around me and Littlepaw, something that she hadn't been able to do on land since receiving her limp. Watching her translucent webbed paws and glowing blue stripes had been nothing compared to seeing the smile on my littermate's face.

It had been three days since Shadestar and I had returned from StarClan. It would be difficult to ever forget the moment the black tom had returned to his battened form. Almost as soon as his body pulsed with life, his amber eyes had rolled to the back of his head, and he had collapsed to the ground, his first life gone.

' "There's no use remembering something like that," Shadestar had told me when I had, in a rather panicked tone, explained watching him die. "Best to move forward and focus on helping the living."

And so I had.

GladeClan and CaveClan went home, some immensely grateful that OceanClan had fallen, others baring their fangs at ShoreClan for having let a cat so brutal come to power. I didn't even mind the hissed remarks about how we were scarcely better than rogues; the Sea Wolves were 'rogues' and some of them were the best warriors I ever knew.

There had been at least a dozen casualties all around, something I had found shocking. Shadestar had gathered the Sea Wolves and the merger number that remained from ShoreClan, and had given a speech about moving forward.

"If we get stuck in the past," he had meowed firmly, "then we lose sight of the future. The dead want us to move on, and live our own lives, though I know that accepting our friends have moved on will be hard."

Goldspike had hissed once his speech was done. "StarClan really gave a Bottom Feeder nine lives?!"

"StarClan gave Dewstar nine lives," Silvershine had pointed out mildly.

"Well...yes..." Goldspike scowled, irked that some cat was speaking with actual ration. "But him!" She waved her paw at Shadestar. "He's a real piece of mange. He's hardly even a clan cat! He's the kin of that foxdunged cat Night."

"He's also your son," Shadestar meowed calmly, though his eyes were smouldering. "And Goldspike, if you don't change your attitude, I will have to make you leave the clan."

I shook my head, trying to focus instead on the present. I was nearing the barrier to camp, which Puddle and Bubble were actively working on dismembering. That was really what all of us had been doing these past few days, just trying to survive. With so many wounded, the able cats had to work almost constantly, so we hadn't even had time to pick a deputy, let alone get warrior names.

Puddle looked up as he saw me. "Hey, Ferretpaw!"

Bubble whirled around, a bramble in his jaws. My brother dropped it and grinned at me. "Looks like you all got a pretty big haul! Ripplepaw and Littlepaw just got back. I've never seen so much fish! Shadestar's been waiting for all patrols to get back. It seems like he wants to have a pretty important meeting."

"Thanks," I meowed, flicking Bubble's ear with my tail. I glanced back. "Are you two going to join the clan? I bet that's what the meeting is about."

Puddle nodded in ascension, while Bubble added, "yep we're joining. I think a lot of the remaining Sea Wolves are joining. Those who didn't want to have already left."

I was about to turn towards the half-destroyed thorn barrier when Minnow suddenly burst through it. The young she-cat was gasping for air, looking around at all of us with wide eyes.