Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 35

Swanflight was supposed to be taking care of the elders that day with Hawkstar. She was surprised to see that he wasn't awake yet but she didn't mind. Thankfully, Bumbleflight offered to help her. The two of them got to work in the elder's den, clearing out the old bedding to put in the fresh. They hadn't gotten very far before Hawkstar arrived and took over for Bumbleflight. Swanflight already inside the den building fresh nests for each of the

elders. The white she-cat was surprised to see him but barely paused in her work, only

giving him a nod in greeting. The elders, however, were not so silent.

"Is that why you became leader? So you could sleep your days away while the

young cats did all the hard work?" Breezefoot harrumphed.

"Breezefoot!" Daisyheart hissed in rebuke, jabbing a paw into her mate's side.

"No, Daisyheart. Let him speak. I'm always interested in what my Clan thinks and feels," Hawkstar objected. His gaze swept over every cat present. "I overslept this morning. I did the sunset patrol last night and volunteered to care for you all so I could stay in camp today. Unfortunately, I was more tired than even I realized. But I'm here now and ready to work."

"I can remember the three leaders that came before you, Hawkstar. Not one of

them has done more for our Clan," Doeheart meowed.

"Any cat that doesn't see that is a mouse-brain," Beetleflight declared, old eyes turning briefly to Breezefoot in not-so-silent challenge.

Breezefoot growled and sharply turned his face away from his denmate.

"You're not that late, Hawkstar. You're just in time to help me build the rest of these nests," Swanflight meowed with a sweep of her tail towards the piles of fresh bedding at her side.

They didn't leave until their work was done and even Breezefoot was satisfied.

They had just left the elder's den when Duskflower entered camp, alone. The tortoiseshell she-cat ran straight for Hawkstar. Something was seriously wrong!

"We ran into the OakClan border patrol. Thornfang was leading it," Duskflower meowed. "Not sure what happened but Thornfang snapped and attacked Bramblestripe.

The rest of his patrol had to haul him off."

"What? Why Bramblestripe specifically?" Hawkstar asked.

Duskflower shook her head, green eyes dark. "I don't know, Hawkstar. We split up to mark the border and suddenly we heard a commotion. When we rushed to see what was going on, Thornfang had Bramblestripe pinned and was shredding him to pieces."

"Where are they now?" Honeypool asked, back from her foray outside camp.

"Fernshade and Thistletail are helping Bramblestripe back to camp but he's pretty torn up."

Honeypool flicked her tail, as if debating whether to rush out of camp to find them.

"Bramblestripe is a strong, young cat. I'm sure he'll be fine," Hawkstar reassured the two she-cats, though he felt more like he was trying to convinced himself.

It was a bit of a wait, the morning almost gone by the time the rest of the beleaguered dawn patrol made it back to camp. Honeypool was there at once to help the battered tom to come to her den. He hobbled along beside her. At least he had made it back to camp. That was a good sign.

"Is anyone else hurt?" Hawkstar looked carefully at the rest of the patrol. They looked ruffled but unharmed. They each shook their heads, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "We'll get to the bottom of this. It's not acceptable that one of our warriors was singled out like this."