The Blazing Star by Erin Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

Tom.”
    â€œHow?” Clear Sky asked, surprised.
    â€œClear Sky, you’ve taken in the kittypet who stole Turtle Tail’s kits,” Gray Wing told him. “You do remember Turtle Tail, don’t you?”
    Guilt stabbed into Clear Sky. “Those were Turtle Tail’s kits? I didn’t know!” I should have tried to stop him from taking them, he thought.
    As quickly as it came, the guilt disappeared, replaced by fury. How dare Gray Wing humiliate me like this in front of Tom and One Eye! I’ve worked so hard to keep the new rules we agreed with the spirit-cats.
    â€œI thought all the old grudges had been put behind us after the battle,” he meowed stiffly. “Isn’t that what every cat agreed? Gray Wing, I would have thought that you of all cats would be fair and open-minded about these things. After all,” he continued, letting anger guide his words, “you’ve relied on Thunder to lead your group now that you’re no longer up to the task. Thunder would have been within his rights to drive you out and leave you to fend for yourself—a broken cat. You should count yourself lucky!”
    â€œThat’s not how we do things!” Thunder protested.
    Gray Wing stayed silent. Clear Sky knew that he had touched a nerve, and he could see the hurt in his brother’s eyes. Instantly he regretted losing his temper. Pacing forward, he touched noses with his brother. “Not that it would ever come to that,” he purred. “I would always give you a home.”
    â€œYes!” Acorn Fur gave an excited little bounce. “Come and live with us, Gray Wing!”
    Clear Sky spotted Thunder cringing at the young she-cat’s eager words. That wasn’t what we needed to hear right now, he thought. “That’s enough,” he told Acorn Fur sternly. “Gray Wing has a perfectly good home of his own.”
    As silence fell, Clear Sky realized that Tom and the big tabby were still facing each other, glaring aggressively, their neck fur standing on end.
    â€œCalm yourself, Mouse Ear,” Thunder hissed at the tabby as he stepped between the two of them.
    The tabby obediently backed off, and Thunder turned to Tom. “I think we’ve met before,” he mewed.
    Clear Sky spotted a flash of anger in Tom’s eyes, before it turned to amusement. “I believe we have,” he agreed. “In fact, I believe you stole my kits from me. How are they? I hope they don’t wake up in the night crying for their dead mother?”
    â€œThat’s enough,” Clear Sky snapped at Tom, shocked by the kittypet’s cruel words. He turned to the other cats and added with a glance at Mouse Ear, “We’re all bringing new cats into our groups. Let’s just accept this is the way things have to be for now. Thunder, Tom may have been a kittypet, but you should trust that your father knows a good fighter when he meets one.”
    â€œFighter?” Thunder’s tone was sharp. “What do you need a fighter for?”
    â€œIt would be a foolish cat who wasn’t prepared to defend himself,” Clear Sky replied. “Dogs, badgers, rogue cats, Twolegs . . . Who knows where the next danger will come from? And there is always a next danger,” he continued, pleased to see that Thunder couldn’t hold his gaze. “Isn’t that why the spirit-cats came back, to advise us on how to survive ? You train your cats in fighting techniques, right?”
    Thunder’s gaze was fixed on his paws. “We train cats in hunting techniques. We don’t need anything else.”
    Gray Wing padded closer to his young kin, standing beside him. “Any cat has the instincts to use claws in a fight,” he told his brother. “But hunting . . . Now, that takes patience and learning. Thunder is doing the right thing.”
    He turned, and with Thunder at his side headed toward the moors. After one last