Warriors Super Edition: Yellowfang’s Secret (60 page)

“ThunderClan are not desperate!” the tom hissed.

“Prove it, then!” Yellowfang challenged him. “Act like a warrior and finish me off. You’ll be doing me a favor.”

The apprentice stared at her. She saw his muscles relax as a spark of curiosity woke in his eyes. “You seem in an awful hurry to die,” he meowed.

“Yeah? Well, that’s my business, mouse-fodder,” Yellowfang snapped. “What’s your problem, kitty? Are you trying to
talk
me to death?”

But her hunger and exhaustion were sapping her strength with every heartbeat. She knew she could do no more; she was at this cat’s mercy.
Has it really come to this, StarClan? Is this the end I deserve?

“Wait here,” the young cat ordered at last.

“Are you kidding, kitty? I’m going nowhere,” Yellowfang grunted, limping toward a patch of soft heather. She flopped down and began licking her leg wound.

The flame-colored tom turned, then glanced back at her over his shoulder with a hiss of exasperation before heading for the trees. Yellowfang watched him go. She still felt numb with shock, well past caring what would happen to her.
Will ThunderClan keep me a prisoner, or send me back to ShadowClan?
she wondered. She knew she didn’t have the strength to get off ThunderClan territory before she was found by the ginger tom or some other patrol. Did this mean that she was giving up without a fight?

And yet there was something about that bold little apprentice, some spark that reminded her of herself when she was young. “Not that I’d let him know it, arrogant mouse-brain,” she muttered.

She would wait for him to come back.
I have no Clan now, no destiny, no place to be, and no duties to tend to. Let the future bring what it will
.

Yellowfang sighed, but a quiet determination began to grow inside her. Somehow, she felt less bleak, less hopeless. This wasn’t her home, but the heavy-branched trees and whispering ferns promised more peace than she had known for a while. She didn’t know any ThunderClan cats well—she didn’t know
any
cats well, apart from Runningnose, perhaps—but Brokenstar had denounced them for being too full of pity and soft on their enemies. So perhaps they would view her with kindness, a refugee from the troubled Clan across the border. Besides, whatever they did to her could not be worse than what her own son had done.

My son!
Yellowfang drew a long, quivering breath. She could not leave the forest. Even if she had to seek shelter in a hostile Clan, there was still work for her to do, questions that only she could answer. Vengeance that she had to seek on behalf of Marigoldkit and Mintkit, Cloudpelt and the banished elders, all the cats whom Brokenstar had destroyed with his ambition. Alone, hungry, crushed by betrayal, Yellowfang made the most solemn vow of her life.

I know my path will cross with Brokenstar’s again. And one day I will do something to stop this tide of fire and blood that he has unleashed on the forest
.