The Exile of Shrikerush Pt.2
“Harestaaarrrr!”
“Finish your shrew first, Grousekit. If you’re going to be big and strong you have to eat lots.”
The brown and white little tom polished the rest of his meat from the bones, then turned to smile at his foster father.
“Very good. Now, where was I?”
The two apprentices agreed that Dogpaw would run and go fetch the medicine cat, Woolycloud, and his apprentice Nightpaw, while Skipperpaw would stay with the queen to comfort her and her kits. She told him that her name was Breamfur, that she was from RiverClan, and she’d come to give birth here because the kits’ father was WindClan. You know that cats can have mates across the Clans now, because the Warrior Code has to be adapted so that cats don’t mate with their own kin, but it wasn’t always so. Having mates from across the Clans was very, very forbidden back then.
But by the time Skipperpaw came back with the two medicine cats, there was nothing either Woolycloud or Nightpaw could have done for Breamfur. She and the kits were gone, and Woolycloud said from looking at her and her wet body and broken leg, “she must have fallen off the gorge into the river, and given birth down here. Dogpaw, you have very swift instincts to come fetch me when you did, and Skipperpaw, you’re very compassionate for staying with her. both of you will make fine warriors with good heads on your shoulders.”
Then one of the kits took a big gasp and mewed! The party took her and started back to camp.. and you see, during the walk back, Dogpaw had realized something very important. There was no reason at all to dislike and be mean to Skipperpaw, because he was compassionate and brave enough to stay with a dying cat, and maybe it’s two of those things that make a warrior noble. He’s no less of a tom or a warrior cat than Dogpaw himself! He’s his brother, too, and they should stop fighting.
When the party brought the little black kit back to camp, one of the queens, Horsestep, who had lost her kits, offered to take care of her. She was named Flykit-
“Like how you adopted me, Harestar?”
“Exactly.”
The Clan was a little wary of foundlings back then, because each Clan kept to themselves and especially because this kit’s mother was RiverClan, so they curled their lips at Flykit, but one tom called Shrikerush purred and smiled kindly at the strange kit and praised Skipperpaw and Dogpaw for bringing Flykit back to the Clan.
Now, Shrikerush was WindClan’s deputy back then, and he was it’s pride and joy. The almost all white tom was WindClan’s finest Tunneler, and when he fought no cat but Buckstar himself could rival him.. not to mention he was very stern and usually only praised his own apprentice Loppaw, who was a great hunter and already following in his pawsteps as a dedicated Tunneler.. so them getting praised by him was a high honour.
The two toms went to sleep that night, exhausted, but happy at having been praised by Shrikerush and having agreed that they were brothers, and they would never fight again.
“Is that the end of the story?” Grousekit looks at him with sleepy drooped eyes. The leader gives his little head a brief lick to smooth out the kit’s tangled fur, before laying his own head down on his nest of feathers. He only decided to end it here for the night because, as he recalled it, the tale isn’t going to get much better from then on and out of him and Grousekit, he wanted at least one of them to have a nice dream.
“No, it’s not, but you’re already almost snoring, aren’t you Grousekit? I will tell you the rest tomorrow.”
