Tigerstar's Goals

Chapter 15

Tigerstar brushed his way through the gorse barrier, wincing as a thorn caught on one of his burning wounds. His patrol followed behind him, their heads and tails lowered from exhaustion and their eyes lowered with pain.

Yellowfang hurried out of the medicine cat clearing quickly followed by Cinderpelt. The old medicine cat's half-blind eyes were wide with anguish. "You lost?" She rasped.

Tigerstar scoffed. "Of course not!" He turned to face his battered Clan. "ThunderClan was victorious! The kits now belong to us and Crookedstar is dead; we have won this war! Let us celebrate with a feast!"

There were a few half-hearted cheers and a couple of the cats glanced at each other, a distant look in their eyes. He flicked his tail annoyed. What was wrong with them? They'd just won a war; they should be thrilled.

Yellowfang glanced at Cinderpelt. "This is a victory?" She meowed to herself, looking around at the bloody cats.

In the middle of the clearing, Mousefur gently lay Runningwind's body on the floor to rest and she gingerly tucked his legs beneath his body. She pressed her nose into his flank, her amber eyes narrowed with grief.

Tigerstar had to take a few steps forward to hear her words. "It doesn't feel like a victory without you, brother.."

Fireheart trotted hurriedly out of the warriors' den, heading straight over to Sandstorm and nuzzling her affectively. "Thank StarClan, you're alright," he mumured softly. "I couldn't sleep at all."

Sandstorm stepped back, amusment in her green eyes. "You didn't have to worry about me!" She purred. "Those RiverClan cats never had a chance.." She trailed off, glancing at Ashpaw as he cleaned the blood off his paws.

Greystripe hurried away from the crowd of cats and curled around Stormkit and Featherkit, sheltering them with his long belly fur.

"Tell us about the battle!" Stormkit squeaked, kneading his paws against the grey warrior's fur.

Featherkit nodded eagerly beside her brother. "I bet you were the best fighter!"

Greystripe placed his nose to each of their foreheads in turn before blinking slowly. "Later," he promised. "We're all tired right now."

Bramblekit scampered over from the nursery, nearly tripping over Runningwind's tail on the way. The small tabby tom glanced back at the motionless cat's body and looked back at Tigerstar, question in his eyes. "Why's Runningwind sleeping there?" He meowed in a small voice. "Why didn't he go to his nest?"

Tigerstar sniffed. "He's dead, Bramblekit," he meowed bluntly, ignoring his kit's eyes widen with horror. "We're not going to drag a dead cat into his nest."

Bramblekit stared at him, his mouth gaping open. "He's dead?" He echoed, his mew becoming a wail.

"Stop whining!" Tigerstar snapped, his patience as short as a mouse's tail. "Death is a part of life; all warriors know that!"

Bramblekit whimpered and took a step back, bumping into Goldenflower as she came up behind him. He whipped around and snuggled into her yellow tabby fur, seeking comfort.

Goldenflower shot him with a glare. "Did you have to scare him?" She snapped. "He's going to have nightmares now."

Tigerstar shrugged. "No son of mine should be scared of death. It comes for us all."

Bramblekit let out another whimper and snuggled deeper into his mother's belly fur. Tawnykit was staring wide-eyed at him.

Goldenflower nudged her kits back towards the nursery. "Come on, little ones," she meowed, trying to make her mew sound happy. "Your father's just teasing you."