Book 2: City of Ice and Fire (a warriors cats and shadowhunters crossover)

Chapter 17: How to Conquer Fear (Malec)

These things Goldenclaw did not have an answer for.

"Hahaha got you!" Violetpaw yowls triumphantly as she knocks his hind legs out from under him with one solid swipe. Goldenclaw lands on his stomach with an oomf. The golden tabby warrior hadn't realized he lost focus of the match, to trained on his own thoughts.

"Aww." Sandkit groans. "I wanted him to win!"

"Me too!" Cloudkit squeaks. The little white fluff ball leaps on top of Goldenclaw, nipping at his neck fur with small teeth. The feeling was only a tiny bit painful, and was ticklish. "Why. Didn't. You. Win?" He says between nips.

"Well I'm glad Violetpaw won." Tumblekit says loyally.

Violetpaw blinks happily at the young tom kit. The two were surprisingly close despite their age difference, and Goldenclaw wonders if they could be mates someday. Then again, he wasn't the best judge of mates so far, what with liking his apparent sister and all.

And then there's Arrowheart who I thought would be with Dawnpaw....and now she's a Medicine cat. I wonder who my parabatai will end up with now. He tries to think of a good she-cat for his brother to be mates with....and ends up coming up surprisingly blank. Well, blank might not exactly be the right word here. One cat does pop into Goldenclaw's mind, oddly enough though he isn't sure why.

Patchfur.

Arrowheart and Patchfur had been spending a lot of time together in the past few moons. Goldenclaw had thought his parabatai's obsession over the former MagicClan tom was a bit strange, though he wasn't about to question it right to the tall black tom's face. He trusted Arrowheart to make the right decisions.

Just as he trusts me to keep an eye on Vultureclaw while he's gone. Still, Patchfur also took a liking to Arrowheart too, the closeness of the pair was something Goldenclaw was unsure as to whether or not he would ever understand. And who knew how much closer the two toms might be getting now that they were on a mission together. A flash of jealously worms it's way into his gut that the golden tabby Shadowhunter steadily refuses to acknowledge.

Goldenclaw ignores the little kitten on his back momentarily to rise onto his paws, shaking sand off his pelt as he goes, the grit falling to the ground in tiny clumps of white yellow filaments. Cloudkit lets out a squeal as the warrior's body gets up from the ground. White paws clutch fiercely to fluffy golden fur, trying his best to hang on tight to his spot atop the warrior's back. Golden eyes regard Violetpaw with mild happiness.

"Good job. Though I won't be taking it so easy on you next time." He tells her.

"Thanks! And I don't think you were this time." She sasses back, her multicolored tail twirling behind her like a party streamer shot out of a confetti cannon.

Goldenclaw rolls his eyes at that, but doesn't deign her sass with a response. "As for you," He swivels his head back to look at Cloudkit. "I guess I'll just have to give you a badger ride to make up for it."

"Yay! Badger ride! Badger ride!" Cloudkit cheers.

"No fair! We want badger rides too." Tumblekit protests. The brown furred tom kit presses his head into Goldenclaw's leg, a gesture of wanting to get on. Sandkit quickly joins her brother in pressing against the warrior.

"Okay okay." He concedes. "Climb on." Goldenclaw stoops down so Sandkit and Tumblekit can scramble onto his back with squeals of delight.

The three kits are still young enough that Goldenclaw can bear all of their weight at once. In a few moons the three kittens would be much too big for him to keep this up, so Goldenclaw played with Tumblekit, Sandkit and Cloudkit whatever chance he got.