Yellowfang’s Secret полностью

“Raggedpelt! Raggedpelt!” His Clanmates yowled his name to the sky. Yellowfang tried to yowl louder than any of them, shocked and delighted.

Raggedpelt rose to his paws, his expression unreadable as he padded to the Great Rock to take his place. Still yowling his name, her heart bursting with pride, Yellowfang tried to catch Raggedpelt’s eye, but he wasn’t looking at her.

Cedarstar waited for the noise to die down, then continued. “There is one other piece of news to give you. Sagewhisker, this is for you to tell.”

Sagewhisker rose to her paws; Yellowfang felt a pang of nervousness, knowing what the medicine cat was about to say. Gazing out across the Clans, Sagewhisker meowed, “ShadowClan has a new medicine cat. Yellowfang has agreed to become my apprentice.”

A few cats from ShadowClan called Yellowfang’s name, but after the excitement of Raggedpelt’s promotion, the news didn’t cause a big reaction. Yellowfang was relieved not to have too much attention on her. At last she managed to catch Raggedpelt’s eye, and was startled at the sadness in his gaze as he looked at her. One day they would be leader and medicine cat of ShadowClan. Surely that was cause for celebration?

A stab of pain pierced Yellowfang’s heart. Is that my pain, or his? This is my destiny—isn’t it?

The thaw set in; rain fell day after day, filling every hollow and turning the floor of the camp to mud. Hissing with annoyance as she splashed through the waterlogged forest, Yellowfang paused to taste the air. A fresh, green tang led her to a fallen tree trunk, and she crouched down to wriggle her way underneath it.

“Yellowfang!”

Startled, Yellowfang jumped and banged her head on the underside of the trunk. “Mouse dung!” she spat. Scrambling to her paws, she turned to see Raggedpelt standing behind her.

“That hurt!” she complained. “Are you mouse-brained, or what?”

“Sorry.” Raggedpelt blinked at her. “I had to talk to you, away from the camp.” He hesitated, took a breath, and continued, “Yellowfang, are you sure you’ve made the right choice?”

Yellowfang gazed back at him. For once he wasn’t trying to quarrel with her. His voice just sounded sad, full of such deep sorrow that there was no bottom to it.

“I miss you,” he went on. “I’m going to be the leader of ShadowClan, and I wanted to have you as my deputy.”

“I’ll be your medicine cat,” Yellowfang mewed.

“You know I want more than that,” Raggedpelt told her. He took a pace toward her and his scent flooded over her. His whiskers brushed her ear. “I know you are a medicine cat now,” he whispered, “but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”

“My feelings haven’t changed either,” Yellowfang whispered back, her voice quivering. “But this is my destiny! StarClan wants me to be a medicine cat!”

“They can have your skill with herbs.” Raggedpelt’s voice grew stronger. “They can even walk in your dreams. But they can’t have all of you. If we do all the duties expected of us, how can this be wrong? As long as no cat knows, everything can be as it was before. This can be our secret, shared with no one else.”

I wonder what Silverflame would say, Yellowfang thought. But then, she told me to have courage in my own instincts. And my instincts are telling me that this is my destiny too.

Yellowfang leaned closer to Raggedpelt, feeling the warmth of his fur, and crushed down a feeling of guilt. “I can keep a secret,” she murmured.

Yellowfang watched a scarlet leaf spiraling down from a branch above her head. At the last moment she sprang up and clawed it out of the air, pinning it to the ground with a triumphant yowl. More scarlet and golden leaves tumbled from the trees. Happiness bubbled up inside her. Throughout newleaf and greenleaf she and Raggedpelt had kept their promise to each other, and no cat in ShadowClan knew that they had been meeting in the remotest parts of the territory. The only cats who could possibly know were their ancestors in StarClan—and since she had received no signs warning of terrible consequences, Yellowfang had begun to believe that StarClan would allow her to be both Raggedpelt’s mate and a medicine cat.

As she clambered up again Raggedpelt popped out from behind the tree and pounced on her, throwing her to the ground again and landing on top of her among the crackling leaves.

“Stop it, mouse-brain!” she gasped. “I can’t breathe!”

Raggedpelt’s face was close to hers, his amber eyes gleaming. “Admit defeat, then.”

“Okay, okay. Just get off me!”

Raggedpelt rolled over with a purr. “You can’t escape me,” he meowed. “I’ll always be here.”

“I should be looking for herbs,” Yellowfang told him, sitting up and shaking scraps of dried leaf from her pelt. “What’s Sagewhisker going to say if I come back empty-pawed?”