The Darkest Hour (Warriors 2)

As Firestar led his cats into the clearing beneath the great oaks, the bushes on the opposite side parted and Tigerstar stepped out to face him. Blackfoot, Darkstripe, and Leopardstar flanked him like vengeful shadows. The massive tabby’s eyes gleamed as he spotted Firestar, and the young ThunderClan leader realized that this war was personal for him too. Tigerstar wanted nothing more than to sink his claws and teeth into Firestar’s pelt and rip him to pieces.

Instead of making Firestar afraid, the knowledge exhilarated him. Let him try! he thought.

“Greetings, Tigerstar,” he meowed coolly. “You came, then. Not still looking for those prisoners you lost from RiverClan territory?”

Tigerstar let out a snarl. “You’ll regret that day’s work, Firestar.”

“Try and make me,” Firestar retorted.

The TigerClan leader did not reply, but waited as more of his followers appeared through the bushes. They were a formidable group, Firestar realized, though some of them bore wounds and claw marks from the raid on WindClan the previous day. His heart began to thump painfully as he realized that the battle he had feared for so long might be unleashed any moment.

Tigerstar took a pace forward, his head raised challengingly. “Have you thought about my offer? I’m giving you the choice: Join with me now and accept my leadership, or be destroyed.”

Firestar exchanged a single glance with Tallstar. There was no need for words. They had already decided what their response must be.

Firestar spoke for them both. “We reject your offer. The forest was never meant to be ruled by one Clan, especially not one led by a dishonorable murderer.”

“But it will be.” Tigerstar’s voice was soft; he didn’t even try to defend himself against Firestar’s accusation. “With you or without you, Firestar, it will be. By sunset today, the time of four Clans will be over.”

“The answer is still no,” Firestar meowed. “ThunderClan will never submit.”

“Nor will WindClan,” added Tallstar.

“Then your courage is matched only by your stupidity,” growled Tigerstar.

He paused, his gaze raking the warriors of WindClan and ThunderClan. Firestar heard snarls from the TigerClan warriors behind their leader and forced himself not to flinch away from their glittering eyes and bristling fur. For a few heartbeats not a cat moved, and Firestar braced himself for Tigerstar’s order to attack.

Then he heard a choking sound behind him, and a single word gasped out: “Tawnypaw!”

Bramblepaw was standing rigid at Firestar’s shoulder, staring into the ranks of their enemies. Following his gaze, Firestar spotted the young she-cat standing close beside Oakfur, a ShadowClan warrior.

“What is she doing there?” That was Brackenfur, thrusting himself forward to stand at Firestar’s other side. “Tigerstar did steal her!”

“Steal her?” There was a purr in Tigerstar’s voice. “Not at all. Tawnypaw came to us willingly.”

Firestar didn’t know whether to believe him or not. Tawnypaw was looking down at the ground as if she didn’t w ant to meet the eyes of her brother and her former mentor. He had to admit that she didn’t look like a prisoner; instead she just looked uncomfortable at being the center of attention.

“Tawnypaw!” Bramblepaw called. “What are you doing? You’re a ThunderClan cat—come back to us!”

Firestar winced at the pain in the young cat’s voice. He remembered the agony of losing Graystripe when his friend chose to leave and join RiverClan.

Tawnypaw said nothing.

“No, Bramblepaw,” Tigerstar meowed. “You come to us. Your sister made the right choice. TigerClan will rule over the whole forest, and you can share our power.”

Firestar saw Bramblepaw’s muscles tense. At last, after all the doubts and suspicions Firestar had felt about him, the young cat was faced with a simple choice. Would he follow his father or stay loyal to his Clan?

“What do you say?” Tigerstar prompted. “ThunderClan is finished. There is nothing there for you.”

“Join you?” Bramblepaw growled. He paused, swallowing as he fought to control his anger. When he spoke again his words rang out clearly so that every cat in the clearing could hear him.

“Join you?” he repeated. “After everything you’ve done? I’d rather die!”

A murmur of approval broke out among the ThunderClan cats.

Tigerstar’s amber eyes smoldered with rage. “Are you sure?” he hissed. “I won’t make the offer twice. Join me now, or you will die.”

“Then at least I’ll go to StarClan as a loyal ThunderClan cat,” Bramblepaw retorted, his head high.

Firestar felt pride thrilling through him from nose to tail-tip. There could be no greater challenge to Tigerstar’s power than for his own son to reject him in favor of the Clan his father despised.

“Fool!” Tigerstar spat. “Stay, then, and die with these other fools.”

Firestar braced himself as he waited for his enemy to launch the attack, convinced that battle was upon them. Instead, to his surprise, Blackfoot raised his tail in a signal.

The bushes on the opposite slope rustled, and Firestar’s eyes widened in shock as more cats emerged into the clearing. He had never seen any of them before. They were skinny, their fur ragged, but he sensed strength in their wiry limbs. The stench of crowfood and the Thunderpath rolled off them. These were no forest cats.

The warriors of ThunderClan and WindClan stared in disbelief as more and more of the strangers padded into the clearing. They fanned out into a semicircle around TigerClan, row after row of them, more cats than Firestar could remember seeing all together in the forest, even at a Gathering.

“Well?” Tigerstar demanded silkily. “Are you still sure that you want to stand and fight?”

CHAPTER 22

Dismay kept Firestar’s paws rooted to the ground as he watched the newcomers approach. He noticed that some of them were wearing collars.

“Collars?” Ashpaw spat behind him, echoing his thought s. The apprentice’s voice was sharp with disgust. “Look at them—they’re kittypets! We won’t have any trouble beating them.”

“Keep quiet,” his mentor, Dustpelt, warned quietly, “until we have the full measure of our enemy. We don’t know anything about these cats yet.”

Firestar remained silent until all the strange cats had moved into the clearing and gathered around TigerClan. A huge black-and-white tom stepped out of their ranks and went to stand beside Tigerstar. Firestar presumed this was the leader of the new comers. He was almost as big as Tigerstar himself, and he was muscular and battle-scarred. Even though they wore collars, Firestar knew these cats were far from being pampered kittypets.

Behind the black-and-white warrior appeared a much smaller black cat, who stalked light-footed through the grass to stand on Tigerstar’s other side. Firestar could not imagine who he was; he looked more like a medicine cat than a warrior.

Firestar could feel every hair in his pelt tingling, and the air tasted thick, as if a storm were about to break. “So, Tigerstar,” he meowed, forcing his voice to remain steady. “Do you want to tell us who your new friends are?”

“This is BloodClan,” Tigerstar announced. “They come from Twolegplace. I have brought them to the forest to persuade you foolish cats to join with me. I knew you wouldn’t have the sense to agree on your own.”

A hiss of outrage rippled through ThunderClan and WindClan. Firestar heard Thornclaw whisper, “Remember those rogues we scented the day I was made a warrior? I bet they came from BloodClan.”