Crow's Thunder

Chapter One: Brewing Storm

The badger attack was over. WindClan had come and saved Thunderclan, but Sootfur and Cinderpelt had died serving their Clan before the rescue made it. But new life also fulled the Clan, in form of Sorreltail's four kits. As Leafpool looked around the destroyed camp and she felt torn in two, her duty to serve the Clan and her love for Crowfeather battled within her.

The she-cat turned toward the dark grey tom that she loved, who was still crouching beside the nursery as if the battle was not over. Before the light tabby she-cat could speak a word to him, another cat yowled out.

"Look. It's Crowfeather!" Whitetail of WindClan exclaimed. "What's he doing here?"

Onestar stalked over to the grey-black warrior. "Crowfeather, you came back . . . but not to your own Clan," the leader spoke with an edge clear in his voice.

Crowfeather looked at the WindClan with a steady gaze. "Leafpool and I came back, but I won't be returning to WindClan." He glanced over to Thunderclan's leader, who was padding up to join the group. "I wish to join Thunderclan, if they'd have me that is."

Everyone in hearing distance was shocked, even Leafpool. Would Crowfeather really join Thunderclan just for her? Leafpool thought.

"It does not matter to me, you became no longer part of WindClan the moment you ran away," Onestar spat at the tom. He turned to Firestar and meowed, "He is your problem now." Facing his Clan, the WindClan leader called out, "WindClan, time to go back home."

WindClan started to file out before Firestar could thank Onestar and his Clan properly; Ashfoot however lingered behind to speak with her son.

"Are you sure about this, Crowfeather?" WindClan's deputy asked, love and concern for her son clear in her eyes.

"Yes, I love Leafpool and I cannot bare to from her again," the grey-black warrior told his mother and former deputy. "Goodbye, mother."

"If that is how you feel, I will stand by your wishes," Ashfoot meowed. She pressed her nose to Crowfeather's head. "Goodbye, my son. Never forget that I will always love you no matter what. May StarClan always be with you too." She pulled away and left with the rest of her Clan.

Firestar now took this time to step forward, toward Crowfeather. "You said you wanted to join Thunderclan?" he inquired.

"Yes; as I have said before, I love Leafpool and I wish not to part from her side," the former WindClan tom meowed.

"Leafpool? What do you feel about this?" Firestar asked, turning to look at his daughter.

"I..." Leafpool almost speechless, her father was asking her how she felt instead of deciding for her. "I love Crowfeather, but I do have my duty to my Clan now that Cinderpelt is dead," she said, trying to think about her words before she spoke them. "I will train a new medicine cat, but I step down from my role as Thunderclan's medicine cat."

Whispers finally broke out from within Thunderclan, but Firestar silenced them with a flick of his tail. "So be it. Crowfeather will become a warrior of Thunderclan, along with Leafpool. But to be freed from her ties as a medicine cat, she must first train a new medicine cat for Thunderclan."

Objections broke out from the cats once again, Firestar tired to silence them with a flick of his tail again and failed.

"This is not what I expected to find," a familiar voice meowed, finally silencing the Clan. "What has happened?"

The Clan turned around to stare at the two cats that had just entered camp without anyone noticing. The first was a powerful warrior with a thick gray pelt and second was a brown tabby she-cat, they were none other than Stormfur and Brook.