Omen of the Sun Book Three: Dusk

Chapter Thirteen

Sunpool

The next few days passed without excitement; Briarkit seemed to have forgotten about the incident of the teleporting into the camp. Cinderstorm and Sunpool both were careful to avoid any of Applestar's kits, but they usually heard them squabbling over silly things. They all had strong personalities: Rainkit was the leader, and she was loud and opinionated; Briarkit was Rainkit's best friend and lieutenant, and she had two main personalities: cheerful, and upset, and always had a sense of humor underlying it; Fernkit was spaced out and dreamy and very, very stubborn; and Emberkit was just grumpy and crabby and annoying. Out of all of the kits, Sunpool disliked Emberkit the most, and she had a feeling that Emberkit's sisters did too.

Then came the night of the Gathering. Sunpool was looking forward to it. She had been to a few Gatherings since she had been an apprentice, but none as a warrior. She wondered if Applestar would announce her name that night, or would have announced it last moon.

Who will I sit with? The first time she had gone to a Gathering, she had sat with a scattered group of apprentices and warriors from all four of the Clans, but that had been when so much was different. Fernkit, Rainkit, Briarkit, and Emberkit weren't born yet. Oakpaw and she hadn't been meeting in secret, and hadn't had the fight at the Dark Forest.

And Goldleaf was still alive.

Maybe she would just sit with Cinderstorm, like she did last time. Yes, she could do that. That is, if she was chosen to go.

Soon came the time for Applestar to select the cats who would be going to the Gathering. She climbed up onto the Rock Pile and called, "All cats old enough to climb Sky Tree gather here for a Clan meeting!"

Sunpool and Cinderstorm, who'd been sharing a mouse, padded over, but not as quickly as they might've done before. Applestar eyed them for a second, then turned away. Not as many cats as there were in the Clan came: Rosefoot and Windheart stayed firmly in their dens, and Cloverfur didn't appear, either. Peonystorm and Whiteswirl too weren't there: Sorrelkit had died earlier that morning, and Peonystorm was devastated. Sunpool's heart hurt as she remembered the little kit, who had done nothing to deserve this fate. Why? Why did she have to die?

Applestar was acting like it hadn't happened. Like a cat hadn't died, and everything was going on as it should. Like the whole Clan wasn't torn up by the deaths that kept happening. Sunpool hissed lowly. Did Applestar not feel? Did she truly have no heart?

"The cats going to the Gathering," she started cheerfully. Sunpool hated her. "will be myself, Amberclaw, Shadowfur, Tansypool, Willowfur, Skypelt, Hailheart, Stonewhisker, Cinderstorm, Sunpool, Lightningfeather, Moonpaw, Gingerpaw, and Rosefoot."

What happened to Cloverfur? Sunpool was concered about where the cat was. Not because she was worried about her- Sunpool hated Cloverfur for poisoning Cinderstorm a few moons ago (and Cinderstorm's sister, but she and Frostcloud weren't very good friends.) and would never forgive her. No, Sunpool was worried about the Clan- what would happen if their medicine cat continued to be so far out of it? Sure, she was unreliable, but she was the best medicine cat they had. Oh why, why did Featherpelt have to die?

Beside her, Cinderstorm seethed. "It's like she doesn't even care that Sorrelkit died!" she hissed furiously. "It's preposterous!"

Sunpool nodded, not even asking what preposterous meant, because she knew Cinderstorm, in her annoyance, would over-explain it, and she didn't want to listen. She had a feeling it meant crazy, anyway. "Mhm."

"Do you care?" Cinderstorm demanded, turning to her as the crowd began to disperse.

"Of course I do!" Sunpool retorted, whipping her tail. "It's just that I'm thinking. Thinking about Cloverfur."

Cinderstorm tipped her head; she hated Cloverfur even more than Sunpool did. "Why?"

"What happens if we're left without a medicine cat?" Sunpool asked. "If there's a battle, we won't be able to heal ourselves. If we get sick, we will have nobody to cure us."

"I- I suppose you're right," Cinderstorm meowed. "But would you really trust Cloverfur?"

"No," Sunpool admitted, "but she's our best shot."

-=-=-=-=-

The moon was rising when they finally set out to the Gathering. Sunpool and Cinderstorm ran at the back of the crowd, even behind Moonpaw and Gingerpaw, and discussed their plan in a low voice.

It had to be perfect.

Otherwise, it would fail.

Blehhhgh sorry sorry sorry for the update time! And length! And everything!

Again, I have a LOT of work at the moment; I have a huge Enrichment thing, a bunch of PTP stuff, and a test on Tuesday that I really need to study for, plus I had a test today that I need to study for. So this book is slowly slipping down my list of priorites.

No, I am not abandoning it. I am just informing you that updates will be slower for the next few weeks. I'm sorry, but I have to keep good grades otherwise my mother will... Um. Never mind that. Lol.

Hope you liked the short chapter... It was honestly more of a filler. Thanks for reading.

~Rainfeather