Blackfoot's Reckoning/Chapter 6

==Chapter description==
:As Blackfoot's previous memory fades, he notes that ShadowClan did in fact need the territory for their own survival. However, as he says this he feels the guilt of his actions and wonders if ShadowClan was right to drive out WindClan and if StarClan thinks of him in the wrong. Gray Wing sympathizes with him, saying that it can be hard to relieve the past. When the gray tom asks if he wanted this life, Blackfoot manages to rasp out a yes. Gray Wing gives him a life for unity, and Blackfoot feels another spike of pain. As he opens his eyes, he sees Rosetail, who has a cold expression on her face. Blackfoot had killed her when he was carrying out a 'mission'. Not blaming her for her attitude, Blackfoot allows the past to take him back.
:In his memories, Blackfoot organizes his patrol to be ready to raid ThunderClan's nursery. The ShadowClan warriors beside him, Ratscar, Stumpytail, and Clawface show their eagerness. To his other warriors, Blackfoot instructs them to enter the enemy's camp via the gorse tunnel. The deputy notes it to be a little after sunhigh and that few cats were in ThunderClan's camp, with some accompaning Bluestar to the Moonstone, and others on their own patrols. Blackfoot reasons they would meet little force in the raid as only queens and elders would remain in the camp. Lizardstripe asks if Yellowfang was with ThunderClan, to which Blackfoot doubts. The tom recalls how she had been ShadowClan's medicine cat previously but after Brokenstar found her with dead kits she was exiled.
:Blackfoot decides it was time to carry out the plan, and with four warriors, makes a hole in the bracken. He hears two queens and a younger cat, followed by a round of laughter. Blackfoot feels guilt but nevertheless gives the command to charge. The ShadowClan cats leap out of the bracken, and Lionheart, a formidable warrior, yowls to defend the camp. The patrol spreads out, drawing the cats away from Blackfoot, who hurries towards the nursery entrance. The kits squealed in fright as he poked his head into the den. A commotion behind him signals the arrival of Bluestar, Tigerclaw, and a couple apprentices. Dismayed, Blackfoot realizes that they were outnumbered and notes he would have to hurry. He reaches for the kits when a cat slams into him. The attack startles him and he quickly retaliates and names his attacker as Rosetail. She attempts to fend him off, but Blackfoot reasons her age and retirement to the elders' den had made her weaker. He engages her a final time, reasoning that he was doing it for ShadowClan. Blackfoot kills her and drags her body away from the nursery entrance so he can continue with his task. He manages to grab two young kits, but as he reaches for the third he is attacked again. His attacker this time is Yellowfang who insults him as he tries to call her a murderer for killing kits. She gains the upperhand as he hears Lizardstripe yowl out. Using it as a distraction, Blackfoot slashes at the former medicine cat before he notices that his patrol had retreated. The deputy feels sick with dread as he knows they had failed, and Rosetail's death remains at the edges of his thoughts.
:The memory fades away as Blackfoot feels nothing but shame, thinking that he was also to blame for the terror Brokenstar inflicted on all the Clans. Rosetail pads toward him slowly, emotionlessly saying that she gave him a life for compassion, and he feels the emotions of the cats of ShadowClan flashing by and then disappearing as quickly as it had come. The sensation gives way, and tiredness overcomes him. 
==Characters==
===Major===
===Minor===
===Mentioned===
==Important events==
===Deaths===
*Rosetail is killed.
===Other===
*Blackfoot recieves his fourth life from Gray Wing for Unity, and his fifth life from Rosetail for compassion.
==Trivia==
*This chapter aligns with chapter seventeen of Into the Wild and and part two of The Prophecies Begin (volume 1).
==Notes and references==
Category:Novellas
Category:Blackfoot's Reckoning
Category:Chapter subpages