Yellowfang’s Secret полностью

Yellowfang crouched, trembling in darkness and silence. She forced her eyes open, expecting to find herself back in the cavern of the Moonstone. Instead she was curled up in a starlit glade. A soft breeze whispered in the grass, and the air was filled with the scent of fresh green growth. Silverflame was licking her fur, as if Yellowfang were a kit once more, with her pelt ruffled from playing with her littermates.

For a couple of heartbeats Yellowfang surrendered herself to Silverflame’s gentle care. Then she whispered, “The kits! They were fighting! Why?”

Silverflame looked at her with eyes full of grief. “Terrible times are coming,” she mewed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Yellowfang asked, springing to her paws. “Just tell me how I can change things!”

Silverflame shook her head. “You can’t. The tide has turned already.”

“But there must be something I can do!” Yellowfang protested.

“Knowing something is going to happen does not give us the power to change it,” Silverflame mewed, so softly that Yellowfang could only just hear her. “Now, lie down and rest while you can. Your Clan needs you more than ever.”

In spite of her desperate anxiety, Yellowfang let the she-cat’s steady lapping soothe her, and closed her eyes. After a little while, two tiny tongues joined in with Silverflame’s, and Yellowfang smelled the heartbreaking scent of her daughters.

I must be strong for my Clan, she told herself. But StarClan, why do you make it so hard?

A moment later Yellowfang felt a cat nudging her in the side. She opened her eyes to meet the curious gaze of Featherwhisker. The moonlight was gone, and dawn light trickled in through the gap in the roof of the cave.

“Are you okay?” the ThunderClan medicine cat inquired. “What did you see?”

The ghastly vision of battling kits flooded back into Yellowfang’s memory. Ignoring Featherwhisker’s question, she yelped, “I have to get back to the camp!”

Leaving the other medicine cats behind, Yellowfang raced up the tunnel and hurled herself down the steep slope outside, her paws skidding and sliding on the pebbles. She ran all the way back to the ShadowClan camp and arrived, panting, at cold, crisp sunhigh.

Bursting through the brambles, she headed toward Raggedstar’s den. He has to know what I saw!

But before Yellowfang could reach the Clan leader’s den, he rushed out to meet her. “I must talk to you,” he meowed urgently.

Raggedstar spun her around and thrust her back through the tunnel and into the trees, away from the camp. When they were beyond the hearing of their Clanmates, he halted and faced her.

“I had a dream,” he told her, his voice shaking. “Kits fighting! Killing one another, way beyond their strength! The ground ran with blood, and I could do nothing to stop them. Yellowfang, what does it mean?”

Sheer horror choked Yellowfang’s words before she could speak. “I had the same dream,” she managed to whisper at last.

Raggedstar stared at her in dismay. “Great StarClan, why would we both have this vision? I would never send kits into battle! It’s against the warrior code!”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Yellowfang assured him.

Just then, the sounds of battling cats drifted through the trees. A screech split the cold, bright air, followed by Brokentail’s voice, loud and hectoring.

“No, Deerfoot, not like that! I’ve seen rabbits that could fight harder than you! And don’t snigger, Tangleburr. You’re just as feeble. Let me see that move again, and put some strength into it this time!”

Yellowfang met Raggedstar’s gaze. The Clan leader opened his jaws to speak, only to break off when they heard another vicious growl from Brokentail.

“You’re soft, all of you! Will you stop in the middle of a battle to lick your wounds? If you get hurt, you’ll learn more quickly how to avoid getting hit.”

“I’ve made a terrible mistake, haven’t I?” Raggedstar murmured. “Our son wants to do nothing but lead ShadowClan into battle. I should never have made him deputy! What can we do to stop him?”

A flash of rage pulsed through Yellowfang. “He’s our son now, is he?” she snarled. “I have never been allowed to be his mother! You said you would only keep my secret if I never called him my son. What can I possibly do to change him? Brokentail is your problem, Raggedstar.”

“But—” The Clan leader tried to interrupt.

Yellowfang ignored him. “You have told me too many times that I am nothing more than a medicine cat. I heal my Clan, that’s all. You are responsible for what your warriors do.”

Raggedstar blinked, shocked to silence.

Yellowfang glared at him for a heartbeat, then spun around and stormed off. How dare he expect me to have any influence over Brokentail now? There was never anything I could do.