Warriors: In The Cold of Night [1]

Prologue

Crowstar had never wanted to become leader. She was merely chosen to become deputy because no other cat was fit for deputy at the time. Their previous leader, Willowstar, had taken Crowstar in when she ran away from her abusive father in RiverClan.

Back then, Crowstar was temporarily blinded by her father. Willowstar found her on a patrol and took her in to get her eyes healed.

Over time, Crowstar's eyes began to heal. Many moons later, she could see again, and if she ever found her father again, she'd do the same thing to him that he did to her.

****

Crowstar was the current leader of ShadowClan. She thought she wasn't fit to lead her Clan. More cats were dying each quarter-moon. Whitecough had started to spread throughout the Clan. Some cases have developed into Greencough.

Crowstar sat in her den, partially shielded from the chilly air of leaf-bare. Even though leaf-bare started a moon ago, it was already hard for ShadowClan. The black and white, spotted she-cat looked around her den. Crowstar began to groom herself until she heard yowls from the other side of the camp.

"Crowstar! There's a fox killing kits!" A gray tom yelled from the mouth of her den. Crowstar immediately sat up and dashed towards the nursery. Acornshade glanced at Crowstar sprinting towards the nursery. Graytail, the cat who told her about the fox, told Acornshade what was happening. The orange tom rushed towards the nursery and Graytail followed.

Crowstar peered into the nursery. Ivymist had two kits in her mouth and the other two by her legs. Morningshine was hissing to the back of the den and kept her kits behind her. There were two dead kits at the back of the nursery and Petalleaf, the Queen nursing the dead kits, was dead alongside them. Petalleaf's last kit, Frostkit, stared at her mother and littermates' dead bodies.

Acornshade dashed into the nursery when he heard about a fox being there. The orange tom stopped walking and saw his mate lying dead on the cold stone floor. "No. . ." Acornshade mewed softly as he padded towards Petalleaf's dead body. Acornshade crouched by the dead, pale gray she-cat, and sobbed over her dead body.

Ivymist had pure pain in her eyes. A red and white tail slipped out of a hole from a tree trunk at the back. A white snout replaced the tail, then peeked in and attempted to drag a kit out of the nursery from the hole. Crowstar hissed, unsheathed her claws, and pounced the snout. Morningshine stopped hissing and stared at the dead kits. Crowstar saw a look on The pretty tortoiseshell's face that meant that she didn't want that to happen to her kits.

The fox snout snarled, dropped the kit, and dashed off. Ivymist looked utterly terrified of what just happened to Petalleaf and her kits. The kits were only 3 moons old. The gray she-cat sat down and curled into her mossy nest. She placed the two she-kits into the curve of her belly to sleep. The other two toms were already there and they were asleep.

Crowstar pelted out of the nursery and to the entrance of the camp. Foxpelt was coincidentally just trotting into the camp while carrying a rabbit. Crowstar stared at Foxpelt like she was the fox that had killed Petalleaf and her kits. Crowstar zoomed over to Foxpelt and snarled at her. Foxpelt looked genuinely confused.

"You know you killed the kits. Acornshade, Graytail, Ivymist, and Morningshine all know," Crowstar snarled. Foxpelt dropped the rabbit and tilted her head. Foxpelt was confused and frustrated at the same time. "What? No I didn't! I was on a hunting patrol with Agileleg!" Foxpelt objected.

"Then where's Agileleg?" Crowstar hissed.

"He's getting the prey that we buried by the Thunderpath." Foxpelt growled.