Warriors: Crow's Carrion

Chapter Seven

     "I refuse to believe this has all stemmed from our lack of help during The Burning!" she hissed, grating her claws against the smooth stones beneath her. "This is ridiculous."

     Ospreypaw blinked in surprise. They'd heard about The Burning; many moons before they were born, a band of rogues set fire to NightClan's forest and the Clan almost perished. They never learned why the rogues targeted NightClan, but rumors drifted around about the bloodline of two warriors, Stormrunner and Silvermist, being tied to one of the rogues responsible. It was true that during the fire, Ripplestar didn't help—RushClan was recovering from a series of damaging events and couldn't risk more lives. Afterwards, however, she made sure to offer ample help. Ospreypaw heard that she even offered to teach some of their warriors how to fish in case the fire scared off too much prey.

     Before more could be said, Riverflower rushed out of her den and ushered Mudbreath and Daceclaw back with her.

     "Father, you can't patrol along that border anymore," she hissed to Mudbreath as he leaned on her shoulder. "After all this, we shouldn't even be crossing the river for patrols! They've clearly made a target of you—you'll end up dying at this rate!"

     As the three cats vanished into the medicine den, Ospreypaw sat next to Splashpaw and watched the rest of the Clan fret over the fighting. Their brother shifted closer to them, and they glanced at him to see his ears resting lopsidedly.

     "Why do we keep crossing the river if they just keep attacking us?" he mumbled, seemingly to nobody in particular.

     "The border is on the far bank," Ospreypaw frowned and shook their head. "They can't keep attacking us like this. It's their fault."

     "But do we really need a border over there?" Splashpaw tilted his head, his blue eyes glittering thoughtfully. "The river itself is a pretty clear border. We don't even use the land over there."

     Ospreypaw blinked in astonishment. "Clearly you haven't seen them stirring up the water, trying to scare the fish away!"

     "That just proves that the border on their shore is pointless," Splashpaw said flatly. "Besides, who cares if they splash in the water? There are other parts of the river that they can't reach, and if we stop going over there we'll stop getting hurt."

     "That's what they want!" Ospreypaw hissed. "If we do that, we let them win!"

     "Osprey is right." Their debate caught Darkshadow's attention, and they both fell quiet as he approached with Eveningshell in tow. "If they can't respect the river and how it supports our Clan, then they shouldn't be allowed near it at all."

     Eveningshell leaned forward curiously, glancing between Darkshadow and Ospreypaw. "They've been disturbing the waters? This is news to me."

     Ospreypaw glanced at Darkshadow and saw that he kept his mouth shut tightly. I thought he told her about what we saw yesterday, they thought, feeling confused. Was I supposed to stay quiet? When Darkshadow didn't offer an explanation, Eveningshell sent another glance over her shoulder—toward Ripplestar, who still stood at the top of the Daystones.

     With a sigh, she straightened her posture and said, "I'm sure the skirmishes have been what's stirring up the water. Splashpaw raises a solid point; for now, we should consider abandoning the border at the NightClan shore."

     "What?" Ospreypaw leaned back in astonishment. They opened their mouth to object to Eveningshell further, but before they could, they received a harsh look from Darkshadow that silenced them. Are we seriously letting them have this? they wondered, glancing between the two cats.