“You disappeared during your hunting patrol yesterday,” Bramblestar growled. “Where did you go?”
Sparkpelt stuck out her chest. “I was hunting,” she told him. “I wanted to check the territory near the border. We hadn’t hunted there for a while.”
Bramblestar held her gaze. “Why didn’t the rest of the patrol go with you?”
“I don’t know,” she told him. “I didn’t ask. I didn’t realize I had to
“But things are different now,” Bramblestar growled. “StarClan is angry. We have to be careful what we do. We must stay with our Clanmates.”
“How will that make StarClan happy?” Sparkpelt’s ears twitched.
“It will make
“Of course I don’t!” Sparkpelt bristled.
“Where did you go?” Bramblestar snarled.
“I was hunting!”
“Then why didn’t you bring any prey back? Did you forget how to catch it?”
“No!” Sparkpelt was angry now. As her hackles lifted, Squirrelflight padded closer. Flamepaw slid quietly from the elders’ roof and watched, his eyes rounding with alarm.
Bristlefrost glanced guiltily at the apprentice. She hadn’t meant to get his mother into trouble. She’d only wanted to help Bramblestar take care of the Clan.
“Where did you go?” Bramblestar demanded again.
Sparkpelt glared at him. “I went to look for Lionblaze, okay? Has StarClan made a rule against caring about our Clanmates now?”
Bristlefrost’s heart quickened with fear. She hadn’t known Sparkpelt had been looking for Lionblaze. If she had, would she have told Bramblestar about his daughter’s disappearance? Had Sparkpelt broken the code? She no longer knew.
She glanced at the ThunderClan leader, seeing that his ears had flattened. “How dare you!” he snarled at Sparkpelt. “I banished Lionblaze. You had no business going after him.”
“I didn’t go after him. The quarter moon was up two days ago, and he’s still not back yet. I went to see if he might be on his way home.”
As Sparkpelt stood her ground, Bramblestar stared at her. Around them, the Clan had fallen silent. They were watching, pelts ruffled with unease.
Squirrelflight padded softly to Bramblestar’s side. “She only went to check on a Clanmate,” she mewed.
He rounded on her. “This has nothing to do with you. Keep your whiskers out of it.”
“She’s my kit!” Squirrelflight snapped.
“She’s a ThunderClan warrior and she broke the rules!” Bramblestar snapped back.
“What rules?” Squirrelflight demanded.
Bramblestar bared his teeth. “She left her patrol without permission and she went to look for a codebreaker I banished!”
Sparkpelt stared at her father, her gaze glittering suddenly with fear as he loomed over Squirrelflight. “I’m sorry,” she blurted. “Okay? It was wrong of me and I won’t do it again.”
Bristlefrost flinched as Bramblestar turned back to his daughter. He looked ready to rake her muzzle with his claws. She held her breath, relief swamping her as the ThunderClan leader’s fur finally began to smooth.
Flamepaw was shivering as he watched his mother. Sparkpelt seemed suddenly small as she blinked at Bramblestar. “Don’t banish me too,” she mewed quietly. “I can’t leave my Clan, and my kits are still only apprentices. They need me.”
Bramblestar stared calmly at Sparkpelt. Bristlefrost pressed back a shudder. Was he enjoying the look of fear on his daughter’s face?
Slowly, Bramblestar turned his head. “Alderheart, are we running low on catmint?” His yowl rang across the clearing.
Alderheart stuck his head out of the medicine den, looking puzzled. “I guess we’re a little low, but we don’t really need any at the moment.”
Bramblestar looked back at Sparkpelt. “But it doesn’t do any harm to make sure we have enough.”
Alderheart frowned. “I’m not sure it will be growing yet. It might be best to wait another moon.”
Bramblestar was still staring at Sparkpelt. “Do you want to wait another moon until your Clan has enough catmint?”
Sparkpelt looked puzzled. “N-no.”
“Then why don’t you go to the abandoned Twoleg nest and check whether the catmint is growing yet?” Bramblestar’s tail swished over the ground.
“If you want me to.” Sparkpelt glanced at her mother uneasily.
