If Tigerclaw won in the Forest of Secrets

Chapter 37

Firestar led ShadowClan, with the ThunderClan stragglers, to fourtrees. The morning sun shone onto Firestar's pelt, making it look like it's fire. Firestar looked at his cats. Wetfoot stood proudly, like all of LionClan. Russetfur, Firestar's deputy, despite what she went through, still wanted to fight. Rowanpaw was keeping pace with his mentor, Nightwhisper, who was now a very confident warrior. Many more ShadowClan cats were ready to fight for the clans.

Firestar looked at his ThunderClan allys. Whitestorm, the coolhead warrior and Firestar's closest ThunderClan ally, had fire in his eyes. Brackenfur, Firestar's unofficial apprentice, was encouraging Fernpaw to not attack her clan, but to attack Tigerstar's RiverClan followers. Sandstorm, Firestar's first critic, flexed her claws as she walked. Speckletail and Goldenflower, queens who wanted revenge on a death of a kit.

Firestar was ready to face his longest enemy. As they got to fourtrees, WindClan and Leopardfur's stragglers were in sight. "Are you ready, Firestar?" Tallstar asked. Firestar nodded, very determined. "Are you ready to get your clan back?" Firestar asked Leopardfur. Leopardfur sneered, "I am very ready. I will not let my warriors get away with this."

Firestar looked at her cats. Graystripe was quickly spotted with his kits, who were now apprentices. Mistyfoot and Stonefur were ready to fight. Firestar sighed and said a silent prayer to StarClan before leading into fourtrees. Tigerstar was waiting with both clans under him.

"So," the dark tabby said, "are you ready to join me?" Firestar hissed, "You really think I would join you? A kit murderer. A power hungry cat who killed his leader. No. I am not joining you."

"Neither am I." Tallstar hissed. Leopardfur agreed. Tigerstar twitched his nose as he said, "you will regret that. TigerClan, attack." Firestar signaled his tail. His cats sprang forward, as did WindClan and Leopardfur's cats. Firestar threw himself at Tigerstar. Tigerstar clawed at the ginger tom. This was it. Firestar thought. This was the final battle.

Firestar and Tigerstar clawed at each other furiously, each getting hard blows on the other. In the corner of his eye, Firestar saw Jaggedtooth fighting Nightwhisper. Rowanpaw came to Nightwhisper's aid. Mistyfoot was clawing at Mousefur as Stonefur bit Longtail. Whitestorm was fighting with a RiverClan tom. Fernpaw was fighting a black RiverClan apprentice. Firestar couldn't see Brackenfur, but hoped he was ok.

Firestar continued fighting Tigerstar in fury. Tigerstar hit Firestar's leg, knocking him over. Tigerstar then pinned him to Greatrock. "You took away Bluestar," Firestar told the tabby, "you took away my clan, and now you are going to take my life. All that for power and hatred for me. Go ahead. I have nothing to lose."

Tigerstar was shocked for a second. This was all the time Firestar needed to tackle Tigerstar. Their fighting continued, ferocious as ever. Firestar was right on one thing, he had nothing to lose. His clan has a strong cat in Russetfur. He never took a mate or no kin of his own.

They fought all the way to sunhigh with no sign of stopping. Thick clouds covered the sky, darkening the sky. Thunder and lightning crackled in the air as rain poured down. Firestar and Tigerstar were battered, but continued the fight. As the darkened to night, Tigerstar had Firestar pinned. "Are you ready to join StarClan, Firestar?" Tigerstar said. Firestar struggled under the tabby's weight.

Barking could be heard between thunder rolling. Firestar closed his eye as Tigerstar raised his paw to deal a death blow. Suddenly, Firestar heard a cat hiss, "Dogs!" Firestar opened his eyes as lightning struck the night sky. Several large black and brown dogs ran into the clearing. Cats scattered or climbed a tree as the dogs bit at them. One of them lunged at Tigerstar. Firestar took this opportunity to run for a tree.

Firestar grabbed onto a tree and climbed for his life. A dog tried to get to him, but Firestar got up in time. The rain slowly stopped as Firestar heard Tigerstar hissing and fighting the dogs. The sound of the ThunderClan leader stopping then hissing again showed that Tigerstar was losing lives. After what felt like moons, Tigerstar stopped. The ThunderClan leader was dead. The dogs howled as twolegs on small monster drove into the clearing. They put something around the dogs and dragged them away.

The clouds parted to show the full moon. Tigerstar's body laid still, broken and bloody. Firestar felt a taing of pity for the leader. Tigerstar would have been a great leader if pride hadn't gotten to him. Every cat was quiet as Firestar, Tallstar, and Leopardfur jumped onto Greatrock. Longtail stared at Tigerstar's body in shock before looking up at the leaders.

The long tailed tabby tom tried to go to Greatrock, but lightning struck the ground in front of it. "It's a sign from StarClan." Cinderpelt, who was treating cats of their injuries, "Longtail was judged. He can not be leader."

"Then who will?" a cat called. White smoke came out from where the lightning struck. Cinderpelt was shaking violently, then stopped. "StarClan gave me a vision." the she-cat said, "Whitestorm will be the new leader of ThunderClan."