Fierce bristled. “We don’t all dream of being a warrior. We’re healers, not fighters, and we managed to live in peace before you arrived. Not every argument needs to be settled with claws.” She picked up her hunk of meat and headed away. Cobweb, Ant, Mittens, and Rascal avoided his gaze as they followed with their catch.
We managed to live in peace before you arrived. Tigerheart flexed his claws angrily. You didn’t have to deal with Fog before I arrived. How could Fierce be so shortsighted? Didn’t she realize that the more she appeased Fog, the bolder Fog would become?
“I want to be a warrior.” Blaze’s mew took Tigerheart by surprise.
He blinked at the young tom, who was puffing out his chest. “I’m glad it’s not just me.”
Dovewing leaned closer to Tigerheart as they lay beside their nest, their bellies full of grouse, while the kits chased one another around the legs of the wooden ledge. “Did something happen while you were out?”
“Only what I told you.” Tigerheart had recounted their encounter with Fog’s gang. He still hadn’t told her about the worry nagging deep in his belly. City cats had no code at all. From what he’d seen, they were hardly better than rogues. He didn’t want his kits to grow up thinking the way they did.
Outside the gathering-place den, the sky darkened as night drew in. The clear stretches of wall shimmered in the orange light from the Twoleg dens.
“Tigerheart.” Shadowkit clawed his way onto his father’s back. “Can you give me a bodger ride?”
“Me too!” Pouncekit jumped up beside her brother.
Lightkit scrambled on. “And me.”
Tigerheart winced at the prick of their tiny claws. “It’s not a bodger ride,” he corrected. “It’s a badger ride.” He pushed himself to his paws, lurching a little to make them squeal, and began to stomp across the shiny floor.
“What is a badger?” Lightkit asked.
“I told you.” Tigerheart paused to let them settle, then staggered forward suddenly. The kits squealed again and clung on harder. “A badger is a big black-and-white creature that lives near the forest. It has a huge muzzle and beady eyes, and it eats kits if it catches them.”
“Why didn’t a badger eat you?” Pouncekit demanded.
“I never got caught,” Tigerheart told him.
“Did a badger ever chase you?” Pouncekit pressed.
“I fought one once,” Tigerheart told her.
“You fought one?” Shadowkit’s gasp ruffled his ear fur.
“I was with two Clanmates,” Tigerheart meowed. “Three warriors against one badger, and it still nearly won.”
“How did you beat it?” Lightkit mewed breathlessly.
Tigerheart turned sharply. The kits squeaked and scrabbled deeper into his fur. “I had to use all my best warrior moves,” he told them. “And I had my Clanmates by my side. When it saw the three of us lined up in front of its muzzle, it wailed in terror and ran away.”
“You scared a badger away!” Lightkit tugged at his pelt.
“You’re the best warrior ever,” Pouncekit squeaked.
Shadowkit slid off his back and hurried back to Dovewing. “Will we have to fight badgers one day?” he asked her.
She nuzzled his ear affectionately. “Perhaps,” she mewed. “But so long as you have Clanmates fighting at your side, you’ll be safe.”
Tigerheart tipped Lightkit and Pouncekit onto the floor with a shrug.
Pouncekit tried to cling on. “Don’t stop!”
“It’s getting late,” he meowed firmly. “You should go to sleep.”
“But I want to hear more about badgers!” Lightkit protested.
Dovewing got to her paws and nudged the brown tabby kit toward the nest. “If you go to sleep, we’ll tell you about hawks tomorrow.”
“What’s a hawk?” Lightkit stopped at the edge of the nest as Shadowkit and Pouncekit scrambled in.
“It’s a bird with a huge, sharp beak made of claws,” Dovewing mewed.
Lightkit leaped down beside her littermates. “It sounds scary.”
“It is.” Dovewing nuzzled them down into the soft folds of the furless pelts, then padded back to Tigerheart. She settled beside him as he lay down on his belly and began to wash his paws. “It’s so nice being together without the Clans judging us,” she mewed absently.
Tigerheart stopped washing. Why had she said that? Did she prefer it here?
She nudged his shoulder with her nose. “It is, isn’t it?”
He met her green gaze and tried to read it. Was she about to tell him that she’d changed her mind? Did she want to stay in the city? “I guess,” he murmured.
“Sneaking around never felt right.” She turned her gaze toward the guardian cats who were moving around the shadowy den. Spire padded between the nests of the two new sick cats. Fierce washed her chest. Ant and Cobweb were still gnawing on the meaty bone they’d stolen, while Rascal and Mittens picked fish bones from their teeth. Blaze was already sleeping in his nest, tired out from the day’s adventure.
Tigerheart looked at Dovewing. Was she wondering what it would be like to live here forever? “When we go home,” he meowed pointedly, “we won’t have to sneak around. We can be honest. We just need to decide which Clan we want to raise our kits in.”
“I guess it will have to be ShadowClan,” Dovewing sighed. “I can’t ask you to give up your chance to be the leader of your Clan.”
“I might not have a chance anymore.” For the first time, Tigerheart wondered with a sickening jolt if he’d been replaced as ShadowClan’s deputy. He had, after all, deserted them.
Dovewing sniffed. “Who else could lead ShadowClan? You said that your Clanmates were begging you to lead them before you left. Of course you have a chance.”
Tigerheart eyed her nervously. She was still gazing across the den. Was she testing him? Was he meant to say that he would give it up?
She turned and caught his eye. “I know how important it is to you. I want you to be happy.”
“So you’ll join ShadowClan?” Hope flickered in his chest.
“I guess.” She didn’t sound convinced. “If there’s still a ShadowClan to join.”
He tensed. It’s dark in the forest. He remembered Shadowkit’s words and shivered. Stop it! He was seeing prophecies everywhere. Even in the words of a kit.
Dovewing went on. “But we don’t have to worry about that now. We can worry about it when the kits are old enough to travel.”
When will that be? He didn’t dare ask, but he felt they should leave soon. She was so wrapped up in her love for their kits, perhaps going home wasn’t important to her anymore. Perhaps their safety was the only thing she cared about. He glanced toward the nest, where the kits had settled into silence. They must be asleep already. Perhaps she was right. His heart ached with love for Dovewing, Lightkit, Pouncekit, and Shadowkit. He should put their interests first. But wasn’t getting them back to the Clan so that they could grow up surrounded by warriors just as important as keeping them safe? If they didn’t become warriors, what would they become?
Dovewing’s breath deepened beside him, and he realized she had dozed off. He pressed closer against her. It would all be okay. He had Dovewing and his kits, and one day he’d have his Clan again.
He looked up at a clear stretch of wall, hoping to spy starlight piercing the harsh Twoleg light. A shadow moved beyond the stone. Tigerheart stiffened. A face was peering into the den. He recognized the wide ears and pointed muzzle. Fog. She was spying on the guardian cats. Fear quivered in his belly. Was she planning her next move? Did she have an eye on the cozy den the guardian cats had made for themselves beneath the gathering place?