Broken Reflection

Chapter 6

A shocked hush swept across the clearing. Rainstar was breathing so heavily and angrily that it looked like she had just sprinted to the DawnClan camp and back.

Beechstar's neck fur began to rise as he glared furiously at the DayClan leader, while Eveningstar looked uncomfortable. Orangestar, however, was looking between Beechstar and Rainstar and back again in disbelief, jaw dropped.

Silence hung in the air like a thick fog. Then, gradually, whispers began to fly through the air all across the clearing as Rainstar's words sunk in. The DayClan cats were glaring furiously at the NightClan patrol, but the NightClan cats stared them down, sitting taller. The whole of the DawnClan and DuskClan patrols had widened eyes and were staring at the two Clans in shock.

Orangestar managed to stammer, "Your kits? Y-You have kits?"

"Yes," Rainstar snarled, spit flying. "I had four, but NightClan killed one of them, and now I have three, who—" she laughed hollowing, "—by the way, are apprentices now. Lightningkit would be an apprentice with them, but now thanks to NightClan, she'd dead."

"Wait a moment," Blizzardclaw meowed, facing up to the NightClan cats. His yellow eyes were narrowed in disbelief. "You killed  a kit?"

"So you're saying," Falconflight asked from the roots of the Lightning Tree, voice filled with disgust as he glanced at Mapleleaf beside him, "that we helped you fight a battle that you practically deserved?"

"We fought alongside murderers!" spat Twilightfoot, his black and white fur bristling.

Angry yelling and bitter arguments broke out in the clearing. Hailstorm glanced at Eveningstar in panic. Out of all of DawnClan, only he, Eveningstar, Raypaw, and Twigfoot had known that NightClan didn't murdered Lightningkit.

Eveningstar seemed to understand Hailstorm's urgent glance, because he stood up and hollered, "Silence!"

Orangestar and Beechstar were still glaring at each other mutinously, tails lashing, as if they hadn't heard Eveningstar. Eveningstar opened his mouth to speak, but Orangestar cut him off, seeming to forget he was even there.

"Is it true?" Orangestar spat furiously at the NightClan leader. "We helped you fight off DayClan because you killed Rainstar's  kit?"

"My Clan isn't murderous," Beechstar shot back with his teeth bared.

Eveningstar began, "Now, Orangestar, don't start—"

Orangestar whipped his head around and hissed. "Don't tell me what to do!" he snarled.

Eveningstar flattened his ears in shock and narrowed his eyes.

The clearing broke into wild mutterings again as the NightClan and DuskClan leaders argued. Tension crackled between the Clans like lightning as the accusations flew.

"Quiet!" yowled a voice. It was Lilyfoot, DayClan's medicine cat. "Do you want to upset StarClan?" She was staring at the moon. Clouds were drifting around it, threatening to hide it at any moment. Lilyfoot then turned to the leaders angrily. "You are behaving like kits! All of you! Why don't you talk it out, like proper leaders would?"

"Talk out cold-blooded kit-murder ?" Orangestar spat, not angling his response at Lilyfoot at all, but staring furiously at Beechstar.

"Lilyfoot," Rainstar meowed calmly, though anger was burning in her blue eyes at the interruption. "You should know better than to interrupt a leader's discussion." Rainstar looked pleased to finally have support from Orangestar and DuskClan, to finally have some cat backing up her justification for the battle, and Hailstorm knew she wasn't pleased to have Lilyfoot try and stop it.