The leaving

The accident

The day came and finleap was expecting her kits. Toadstep, spiritbreeze's apprentice was there to help and birth these kits, the rain began to pour more and more the last few sunrises and cats began to catch a sickness, rain clung to their pelts and none of finleap's kits survived except a white she-cat with orange splotches. Goldenslate and finleap were saddened by the loss of the other kits but overjoyed by the surviving one, so they named her snakekit. This small kit had specific interest in ravenfrost and rowanclaw who weren't fond of kits and continually tried to play with them. Finleap was worried snakekit would end up like her father, toadstar, who was abusive, though Goldenslate reassured her snakekit wouldn't since she had great clanmates  to be with. The rouges were still out there but they were left on the low, nobody had really heard from them except the occasional prey stealing. Snakekit would pounce on harveysplash and tease him, in which harveysplash usually spoke up about it and pushed the small kit off. Snakekit learned exceptionally well compared to the other kits, she was kind but also spicy when she needed to be, with a secret side. The older she got, the more independent she became, proving to be a fine cat. The day of her apprentice ceremony she was assigned beewing as her mentor. Snakepaw, as she was now called, was a bright cat with natural leadership. Beewing and her had really connected since she had become an apprentice, nothing more than friends. Only a few sunrises into snakepaw's training, the storm was rising and the cats began to complain. There were sightings of a pack of dogs recently but a stoneclan patrol scared them away. The prey had been short and the breeze grew colder. Beewing and snakepaw had gone out, learning how to hunt in these hard times and where certain prey is. Beewing watched as snakepaw bounded through the air, with a cold breeze against her fur. It made Beewing shiver as the gust of wind hit his thin coat. Snakepaw had climbed up a tree and looked out its highest peak, smiling until a shocked face hit her, "come down here" Beewing chuckled "Beewing!" Snakepaw turned to beewing who looked in confusion "T-there's dogs! Heading toward camp!" Her mew was loud and it blew in the wind. She quickly climbed down and began running, Beewing followed quickly behind. Both of them rushed into camp to see three huge dogs, a black and white one, a grey one and a brown one. Dappleface was faced to face with one while harveysplash, juniperlight and nightcloud were fighting the grey one. A few other cats were fighting off the last dog, protecting the elders or kits or anything else. Snakepaw burst into battle, her pelt bristled and determined. Beewing went to help the elders and kits. Snakepaw leaped onto one of the dogs and hung on for life, whilst biting its neck. It easily flung her off, hitting the ground hard leaving snakepaw knocked out. Jayclaw watched as the dogs destroyed camp, he looked up the ridge to see a white she-cat standing on the ridge, just watching. A breeze hit jayclaw's pelt, rippling his fur. The white she-cat disappeared into the distance and the roar of the clan hit him again. Eventually they scared the dogs off mapleclan territory. Cats began to lick their wounds and some crowded around snakepaw who laid there motionless. Toadstep spoke loud, "I need two strong cats! We have to move her gently or slowly" so Harveysplash and Wolfclaw slowly picked her up and brought her to the medicine cat den. Finleap wouldn't slow down and tried to go with snakepaw, but Goldenslate held her back as he put his face in her scruff attempting to hide the fear.

Snakepaw's vision flashed and she felt cold, everything felt numb. She got the only mew out that she could which was no louder than a whisper "T-tell hollypaw what happened." Then she fell into a deep sleep as toadstep treated her. Toadstep had told Beewing what snakepaw had said, Hollypaw? Who is that? The thought stayed with Beewing all night til the next sunrise, Beewing went along all the borders, checking if there was any sign of "hollypaw" and to his surprise on the outskirts of the border between sunclan and mapleclan, was a blackish grey tom who had broad shoulders, inventive green eyes, massive paws and a sly tail. He was about the size of Beewing as he approached "Uh hello, are you hollypaw?" Beewing hesitated to question, "Yes, why?" The tom looked around him, and then Beewing spoke again  "snakepaw.. she well, there was an accident. She told me to te-" the tom froze "An accident?! Is she okay?" Before Beewing could explain the dark grey tom rushed past him and ran the way of camp. Beewing followed closely behind.