Warriors; Roar of the River

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

From his perch on a small rock by the river, Shadefall could see a single star overhead. He narrowed his eyes. StarClan must be angry with those who don’t trust them, he thought. He lowered his eyes to the slim form across the river, staring at him forlornly. “Splashpelt,” he mewed. “What’s wrong?”

Her eyes were watery, and she glanced down at her paws. “My father was just pronounced dead,” she hissed, her voice wavering. “And you ask me what’s wrong? Can’t you see? This can’t be right.”

“StarClan told me its right. I believe my mother like you would believe yours,” Shadefall mewed. “Our future is brighter together, and we will be together, I promise.”

“Please, stay safe, if you won’t listen to me,” she spat. She whirled around and hurried back to camp. Shadefall didn’t waste his breath calling after her.

“What is going on with her? I lost my father ages ago,” he muttered to himself. “The fate of her own Clan partly relies on me, and she treats me like this.”

He picked himself up and leapt across the river. He let out a gasp as he missed the other bank completely and landed in the roaring water below. Forcing himself to the surface, he realized that the water chilled him to the bone and hurriedly clambered onto the bank. Shaking out his pelt, he realized that some cat was watching him. He heard a faint laugh and saw Minnowstar sitting farther down the bank.

“My Clan does not partly rely on you, Shadefall. Although StarClan spoke to you, I would have found out eventually that I had the potential to rule the Clans.”

“That’s not what this is about. I didn’t tell you so that you could rule over all the cats in the forest, I told you so that your Clan could stay alive.” Shadefall let out an angry huff. “Don’t abuse such power, Minnowstar.”

The large tabby let out a hearty laugh. “Abuse such power? Shadefall, the only reason you’re here is because you told me what I need to tell the Clans so that they believe us. And now that you have, you could get lost, for all I care. The only reason I’m doing this is so that my Clan thrives under my power. I’ll have them do whatever I tell them to. And the only reasons that you are doing this is because you wanted to stay safe and love Splashpelt in peace. Well, StarClan may have confronted you, but I hardly need you anymore.”

“Don’t tell me you’re only doing this so that you can have cats do what you want. What would you even need, anyway?”

“I believe they’ll do whatever I ask because of the way they treated RiverClan in Greenleaf,” Minnowstar meowed. “They deserve to hunt for my Clan now, after they left us to starve.”

Shadefall stared in surprise. “Minnowstar, I’m not going to let you use cats like slaves. That isn’t fair, even if you want them to suffer. The whole reason of uniting the Clans under no laws is to make them one powerful Clan, ready to face anything.”

“Since when do you get to decide?” Minnowstar spat. “Look, Shadefall, I have a job for you. In order to make the Clans strong, we need as many warriors as we can get. So why don’t you talk to a few cats in the camp and see what you can come up with to recruit more warriors?”