#wolfdrop

She was an old cat with matted white fur and piercing bronze eyes. Her gaze was ever-flitting, changing from spot to spot. It seemed as though she would jump up and attack anyone who got close.

The other cats walked around her as if she was nothing new. Apparently, she was a regular visitor for this sect of the Wanderers.

He wasn’t a member of this particular group; as a Journeyer, it was his job to visit every section of the Wanderers and find his place.

“Hello, Wolf.”

Wolf turned, before gasping. “Trailblazer Maya!”

The tortoiseshell molly smiled, her pink eyes shimmering. He made sure to bow out of respect.

She held up a paw. “No need, Wolf. While you are still a Journeyer, you are a member of this sect.”

He paused, before asking. “May I speak freely for a moment?”

“Of course.” she smiled. “What is it?”

He took a look at the old visitor again.

“I don’t trust her. Something feels off about her.”

Maya sighed. “I understand your wariness, but Clearstripe has been a welcome guest for many moons now. She has never done anything to warrant suspicion.”

Wolf could feel the way she was looking at him. It was just like how cats spoke about his mother.

“I’m not being paranoid for the sake of it.” he meowed. “I’m not my mother.”

Her eyes widened in surprised. “I did not intend on implying that, Wolf. Forgive me.”

He sighed. “No. I know what you’re thinking. Everyone else does as well.”

“Foxtail Barley is a respectable member of our community.” she said. “Don’t let the rumors of others dissuade you.”

He wanted to laugh, but he knew that was disrespectful. Rumors? They were all true!

“I understand, Trailblazer Maya.” he simply replied.

“It’s a shame.” she sighed. “I wish you could stay here permanently. Think about asking your mother if you could join us, ok?”

With that, she turned and left.

He looked over at Clearstripe. He was going to have to investigate her on his own, it seemed. Then, he considered Maya’s words for a moment.

Ma’ wouldn’t take kindly to me leaving, he thought to himself. His place was always going to be by her side… he had no other options.

His thoughts lingered on his mother.

—

Two kits sat together beneath the stars. One, a tom with dark fur that blended in. The other, a young molly with a pelt that reflected the stars. For a while, neither spoke a word.

“I can’t do it.” the molly suddenly said.

The tom turned to her with alarm in his blue eyes

“I can’t stay here anymore.” she said, “Ma’… I can’t live like her. I can’t be alone anymore.”

He looked surprised. “But you have me.”

“Just you.” she repeated. “But I can’t live with just my littermate for the rest of my life. I want to make friends, Wolf. I want to live my own life.”

“Shiny, please don’t leave.” he pleaded. “Is this about Pa’? Ma’ already told us he was a good for nothing—!”

“Stop it! Ma’ thinks that about everyone!” Shiny yelled.

He paused.

“I want to make my own ideas about cats. Not just what Ma’ wants me to think.”

“But you’ll have to leave.” he cried.

She looked at her brother and wanted to tell him everything would be fine. But she couldn’t.

“Come with me.” she finally asked.

“I can’t.”

“I know.”

She turned and left, her small paws thudding against the ground. She followed that path burned into her brain from all those moons again. The path her father took to visit them.

The path to the Clans.

—

The Gathering felt especially hostile this moon, without Darkstar with them. Starleaf was acting leader in his place, and she looked like a mess. She had ordered Mudfoot, Rosepaw, and Jaggedpaw to stay back at camp— if they came with, it would have caused a disaster. Leopardcloud and Lionmane refused to leave Mudfoot’s side, and Nightflower looked too shaken over everything to attend. Everyone else was far too worried about Swampclan or injured— leaving Shimmersky, Gingerclaw, Pebblefur, and Dawntreader the only warriors attending.

“This feels like a bad idea, coming with only six cats.” Dawntreader looked nervous as she paced.

“Well, you could go back and make it five, if you aren’t warrior enough!” Pebblefur snapped.

Gingerclaw stepped between his sister and Dawntreader. “Let’s not fight. We’re going to have enough problems with antagonism when we enter Four Corners.”

Pebblefur hissed, but backed down. She stalked into the old barn ahead of the others, but just behind Starleaf. Pebblefur wasn’t foolish enough to enter first.

Shimmersky was merely lost in her thoughts. She was lucky not to have been majorly injured in the battle with Swampclan she and Tigerpelt had gotten into— Tigerpelt was not so lucky.

Starleaf jumped up the rotten wooden stairs to the loft, where she took Darkstar’s place with the leaders. The other leaders reacted surprised, and begun to talk amongst themselves.

Shimmersky tuned out all of the discussion to focus on what the leaders were talking about.

“Where’s Darkstar?” Finchstar’s eyes narrowed.

“Resting. He’s been ill, so I finally convinced him to stay back.” Starleaf replied calmly.

Badgerstar grumbled “Hopefully he will be back to join us next moon.”

“He certainly didn’t look good these past few moons.”

The other leaders turned to look at Redstar.

Redstar chuckled. “To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran away to some Twolegs for help.”

Starleaf’s face hid her shock. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a leader. He wouldn’t leave for the Twolegs.”

“When we were kits, I remember him being brought to camp with his kittypet mother.” Redstar said, a pensive look on his face. “Perhaps he’s gone to see her old home?”

“This conversation is over.” Starleaf snapped. “Let’s start the Gathering.”

Shimmersky narrowed her eyes. Redstar knew too much. How could that even be possible? For now, she held her judgement. She needed to watch his mannerisms as the Gathering continued.

Grangeclan and Treeclan went, but nothing particularly caught Shimmersky’s eye. Redstar was fairly unassuming. Even when he gave his own clan’s announcements— so-and-so was expecting kits, so-and-so chased off a fox, nothing truly revealing. Though, she suspected that the “fox” they encountered was rather a very orange clanmate of hers.

Then, it was Starleaf’s turn.

“We have had a good moon. With the last of our apprentices becoming warriors last moon and new kits in the clan, things have been well.”

She turned to leave, but Redstar placed out a paw to stop her.

“Anything else to announce?” he said, eyes staring directly into Starleaf’s

“I— no, that’s it.” she said, regaining her composure.

“No new cats? Not even a few new apprentices?” he continued.

She looked surprised, the emotions flooding her face for the first time that night.

“What in the world are you talking about, Redstar?” Badgerstar looked incredibly annoyed.

Finchstar also seemed confused. This was bad.

Shimmersky knew what his play was. He was trying to force Starleaf to admit that Rosepaw and Jaggedpaw ran away to join the clan. She wasn’t about to let him get away with that.

She grabbed a stone from the ground discreetly. Then, she made a big show of tumbling to the ground. She used that as a screen— distracting from her flinging the stone into the leader’s loft.

Her aim rang true. The stone barreled into Redstar’s flank, causing him to yelp in pain and bring his paw down to his side. Starleaf slipped away with that opening.

“We have nothing more to announce.” she stated.

With that, the Gathering began.

Shimmersky sighed. “That was close…”

“It was that one!”

Suddenly, sharp teeth dug into her scruff. She squawked as she was dragged away from the others.

The cat threw her down in front of the other deputies.

Bergamotfur got in her face. “What was that?! A Gathering is a place of no fighting! You’re disrespecting everything when you throw a stone at a leader!”

Dovelight and Bonestripe also had angry looks on their faces. It looked like she wasn’t going to get off easy. She needed to come up with a good excuse.

“Sorry… I slipped on some loose stones! I didn’t mean to hit the leader, and I would never in my life throw a rock at one! I’m just so clumsy!” she stuck out her tongue, praying they bought it.

“I doubt that.” Bergamotfur said.

“I can corroborate it.” a voice sounded from behind her. Gingerclaw!

“Can you?” Bergamotfur narrowed his eyes.

Gingerclaw pulled something out of his long mane of fur. It was a stone. “Yep. I got hit with one of the rocks when she fell. She really is just that clumsy.”

Bonestripe sighed. “If that is the case, then this isn’t our problem anymore, Bergamotfur. Her deputy will take care of it.”

Bergamotfur’s eyes showed that he wanted to retort, but instead, he turned away.

“Out of my sight.” he said.

Gingerclaw and Shimmersky walked away from the deputies. Once they were out of eyesight, she pressed herself into his side.

“You’re the best mate ever, Ginger.” she purred. “Thank you.”

“I couldn’t leave you to get in trouble, Shimmer.” he rested his head on hers. “But why did you do that?”

She stopped, then looked at him with a serious expression. “Redstar was going to make Starleaf admit to stealing the flowers.”

The flowers. It was the keyword they were using for Rosepaw and Jaggedpaw for now. It was imperative that no one could know, and that meant it was obscured even in private conversations. Eavesdroppers were always a danger.

Gingerclaw looked surprised. “There’s no way he could know for sure. I’m sure he was just testing to figure out if it was us.”

She shook her head. “It can’t be that. He knew about Darkstar’s condition too. It’s not a coincidence.”

Someone must be feeding him information, she realized.

“Ginger… anyone in the clan could be feeding him information.” she emphasized. “But…”

“You have someone in mind, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“I think it’s Jaggedpaw.”

—

“So… there’s a spy among us?” Mudfoot said, her voice low.

Shimmersky nodded. “Yes. It could be anyone.”

Tigerpelt pulled himself up. “But then, why are you telling us?”

Shimmersky sighed. “I won’t be able to figure this out alone. I think you two are the least likely to be the spy. I figured the benefit of telling you would outweigh the negatives. Will you help me?”

“Of course!” Tigerpelt grinned. “We’ll definitely help you catch them.”

“After what Redstar did to me…” Mudfoot brought her paw up to touch the covered side of her face where her eye used to be. “I’d do anything to get him back. Let’s do this.”

Shimmersky nodded. “Alright… I have a plan.”

Nightstar’s clan