Thursday, March 4, 2021

shattered sky: part four

Twigpaw wanders, completely lost. The twolegs had taken her and for a while she was sick. As soon as she was able, she ran away. But she doesn't know where she is. Exhausted and hungry, she falls asleep. While she sleeps she dreams of a cat who tells her they are running out of time, and she must follow the blood trail in the sky. Hopeful that it is a vision and not a dream, she wakes up and follows the trail in the sky. It leads to a cliff and she despairs - until she sees cats in the distance. She rushes to them, asking if they are SkyClan, telling them she is from ThunderClan and she is there to find them. She sees the cat that looks like herself and Violetpaw. He is Hawkwing, the SkyClan deputy, and she finds out he is her father. She tells the cats about Darktail worrying that they won't come, but they resolve to come and help the clans. It takes her days and some guesswork, but she is able to lead them to the lake.

Violetpaw puts the poppy seeds into the prey, then gives it to Darktail and his favorite followers. She worries Sleekwhisker saw what she did, but she is committed and has no choice but to hope the plan works. That night she goes to check on Darktail, to make sure he is asleep, but Sleekwhisker is waiting in ambush for her. Darktail arrives and tells her Sleekwhisker saw what she did and Puddleshine told him it was poppy seeds and that they make cats sleep. Violetpaw denies doing anything but Darktail is determined to punish her. He gets Needletail and starts to drown her, forcing Violetpaw to confess to giving them the poppy seeds so she could break out the prisoners. Darktail tells Needletail she can prove her loyalty by killing Violetpaw. Needletail agrees, but instead she attacks the rouges and yells at Violetpaw to run away. Violetpaw flees, with Raven in pursuit, knowing she has left her best friend to die.

Alderheart waits at the ShadowClan/RiverClan border with the warriors from the three clans. They are waiting to go and free the prisoners. They hear fighting break out in the rogue camp and realize something must have gone wrong. Bramblestar gives the order to attack and the cats invade. Alderheart gets there and realizes the prisoners and some of the rogue ShadowClan cats are fighting the rogues. With reinforcements from the three clans the rogues are quickly overrun so Darktail calls a retreat. Alderheart treats the wounded while worrying about Violetpaw and Needletail. The prisoners tell him that both cats were in trouble with Darktail and he dragged them off, but they don't know what happened after that. Most of the ShadowClan warriors return to Rowanstar, and Zelda and Loki ask to stay until Darktail is defeated. While the RiverClan territory is won, everyone returns to the ThunderClan territory because that is where the medicine cats are and the RiverClan territory is a wreck and needs to be cleaned up and rebuilt. When they get back to the ThunderClan camp Alderheart realizes Twigpaw has returned - with SkyClan. Alderheart has to break the news to Twigpaw that he doesn't know what has happened to Violetpaw. While everyone is happy SkyClan has been found the question becomes what to do with these extra cats since all of the lake territory has been claimed. Jayfeather says the medicine cats need to commune with StarClan, so they all go to the moonpool. They meet with StarClan who, tells them all the clans must be united, not just four of them.

Twigpaw is resting with Hawkwing when Violetpaw comes into camp. The sisters make up and Violetpaw gets to meet her father. Hawkwing wants his daughters to join SkyClan. Alderheart overhears him and tells him that his daughters already have loyalty to other clans. Alderheart takes Violetpaw away to care for her wounds an Twigpaw is left with the realization that she doesn't know what she wants. The four leaders announce their resolution to unite and defeat Darktail for good and Alderheart tells them they need WindClan.

I wonder what Twigpaw and Violetpaw will choose? Twigpaw might wish to stay with ThunderClan, but I could see Violetpaw leaving ShadowClan. She never really felt welcomed there and she did betray Rowanstar for Needletail in the end. And she is so desperate for kin, I could see her choosing her father over everyone else. 

I'm a little confused with how the story will progress. This is the problem with accidentally reading ahead. In Tawnypelt's story she talks about Rowanstar living in SkyClan in exile and giving up his nine lives to be a regular warrior. I always assumed that Rowanstar found SkyClan and lived with them. But SkyClan is here now. Maybe it wasn't that SkyClan was in exile, but that Rowanstar was in exile. But somehow Dovewing has to go away with Tigerheart and have kits. If they defeat Darktail in this book I'm not sure how the story will progress.

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