Bushtail's Banishment

Prologue

 Blizzardflight glared at Icestar. "ThunderClan is so soft now," he snarled.

"Then you can leave," Icestar hissed.

"I'd be happy to leave," Blizzardflight growled. "It's no use wasting my life here." 

Icestar was so pathetic. He had made the warriors hunt for the other Clans in the harsh leaf-bare. Any warrior who didn't obey was severely punished.

"From now on if my warriors find you on our territory, they have my permission to kill you," Icestar told him.

"Kill me?" Blizzardflight asked scornfully. "I have a band of rogues with me. Your stupid warriors will rather be the ones to be killed."

Icestar glared at him. "You look like and act like a rogue already."

"Fine. No point arguing and wasting my time here," Blizzardflight growled. "I'll leave." He gathered his group of rogues and headed out of the camp. "I can easily attack another time."

As they walked, a pregnant she-cat, Cliff, was lagging behind them. Blizzardflight ran over to her. "Are you--" Cliff collapsed on to the ground.

"She's going to have kits!" he yowled. 

All of the cats gathered around Cliff. It's not safe to give birth on ThunderClan territory. What if they find us?  

Their healer, Marigold, shooed the gathered cats away. "Give her some space." she meowed, glaring at the cats gathered around Cliff. 

Blizzardflight decided to go for a walk. As he walked through the forest, he thought about his mew group. These kits are the first litter born in my group! But will I be able to support them all?

When he returned, two kits were nestled at her belly. One was a dark brown tom with green eyes and the other was a pale tabby she-cat. "What are their names?" Blizzardflight asked.

"The brown tom is called Bush and the pale she-cat is called Petal," Cliff said sleepily.

He walked away. He soon found a comfy bush to sleep in. As soon as he went to sleep he found himself in a rotten forest. 

A black tom padded out from the trees. "Blizzardflight," he acknowledged him. 

"Why am I here?" he asked.  

"No time for explanations, there will be a cat who will betray you and after that nothing will ever be the same again," the black tom told him.

But who? "What do you mean?" Blizzardflight asked. Instead the tom started to fade away. Blizzardflight woke up in his nest. What did the black tom mean? All his rogues were loyal. They wouldn't betray him. Anyway since he wasn't a warrior he should change his name.

He stood in the middle of their temporary camp. "Let all cats gather around me!" he yowled. All the rogues started to gather around him. "You all know that I'm not a warrior now," he announced. "So I'll change my name to Blizzard."

Four moons later.

Blizzard padded over to where Cliff was sitting. Her kits were somewhere in the bushes exploring new territory with one of the rogues watching over them. "How are the kits going?" he asked Cliff. 

"They're okay," she said.

He walked over to where the kits were playing together. "Hello kits," he mewed.

Bush glared at him. Huh? Why is he glaring at me? Or am I imagining it? he thought. Maybe he had disturbed him. Or could he be the one to betray him? Don't be silly, he's only a kit. But kits grow up.

He padded to the fresh-kill pile. As he picked a mouse from it, he felt Bush's gaze boring into his back. Stop looking at me! he thought. If Bush is the one to betray me why don't I send him out of the group? he wondered. No that would be cruel, he's only four moons old.

But still when he was older he would have to send him away. 

A hunting patrol walked in. All they had was a mouse. Blizzard frowned. "Is that all?" he asked.

Stream nodded. "We only found that," he apologized.

Blizzard thought about Bush. The group needs all the hunters it can get. Maybe Bush just didn't like him for some reason. He was probably being paranoid and the black tom looked crazy. Bush would grow up to be a fine hunter like his father. He looked at the prey pile. It was really small and it was already midday.

Petal bounded over to the pile. "Is that all?" she complained. "The whole camp is gonna be fighting over tit bits soon."

Thistle followed her. "We must destroy this hungry-making disease!" he declared.

Blizzard called to them. "Kits! Go to the nursery!"

Thistle bounded to the nursery grumbling. Blizzard rolled his eyes. "No one can stop the starvation anyway," he told his son. 

He imagined Icestar back in the ThunderClan camp hoping the starvation had reached them. He probably was. But from his cowardice, he was probably dead. If I ever meet you again Icestar, I will kill you with my own claws!