Darksong's secret.

Prologue

A black tom padded through the rocky forest, flanked by a light brown she cat with a white belly and flecks. His heart began to race as the river came into sight. Along the bank, a line of cats stared straight at them. They looked like shadows underneath the black sky

"Don't show your fear scent, Darkpaw" his mentor whispered into his ear. He nodded, concentrating on the cats ahead. His clanmates paused at the other side of the bank, a large grey tom in the middle of their patrol faced a sandy grey tom who was standing on the other side. Their eyes locked for a moment, and without a word the Riverclan leader yowled "Riverclan, attack!" And at once all of his warriors leaped into the river.

A huge light brown tabby tom lunged forward towards Darkpaw. He did the first move that came to mind and hopped to the side, dodging his blow. The RiverClan warrior skidded to a halt. His blue eyes blazed with anger as he bowled into Darkpaw. Before he had a chance to get up, the warrior was already on top of him, pinning him down with his huge paw. "Don't think you'll win that easily!" He hissed furiously, raking his claws down his pelt. The black apprentice yelped and slid out of his opponent's grip before jumping and landing on his shoulders. He staggered from the gash on his side but managed to keep his grip as the Tom reared. A brown pelt flashed in the corner of his eye and landed a blow on the muzzle of the riverclan warrior.

"Under!" She instructed to him, and instantly he slid under his belly, churning his paws at it.

"Up!" She yowled back to Darkpaw, and he rolled out from under his belly just in time as he stumbled and fell over. He scrambled up to his paws and fled into the cluster of fighting cats. Claws and teeth flashed under the light of the moon. His mentor disappeared into the crowd as Darkpaw looked for any of his clanmates to help. His sister, Nightpaw, was fighting with another apprentice while Sandpaw was attacking a warrior with his mentor beside him. He could feel a gash on his shoulder oozing with blood, but he couldn't let his guard down now. Suddenly, a shriek came from the river, and Darkpaw noticed a white she cat staring into the river. The clearing turned to an eerie silence, the only noise being the flow of the icy river and the crickets in the grass. Darkpaw edged forward until he got a glimpse of what everyone was staring at. In the stream, white paws were flailing in the strong current. Then he recognised them with a jolt. Fawnstep! He weaved his way around all of the cats and pelted downstream.
"Fawnstep!" He yowled, but the splashing noise had stopped as she disappeared behind rocks jutting out into the river. Shellstar bounded bounded towards him, eventually catching up.
"Where is she?" He asked, skidding to a halt beside him and staring into the water.
"I don't know!" He said, desperately leaping onto the rocks. Below him, a brown speckled pelt bobbed up and down in the black water below.
"Fawnstep? Fawnstep! Can you hear me?" He yowled frantically, but there was no response. Shellstar crouched at the side of the rocks and unhooked the soaking heap of fur.
"I'm sorry, Darkpaw" He murmured, dragging the limp body back up to their clanmates. Darkpaw felt dizzy, like his paws were swaying beneath him. He shook his head and followed more slowly after the grey Tom. When he reached the cluster of cats, both Sandpaw and Nightpaw shuffled over to him.
"Is she dead?" Sandpaw whispered.
Shellstar's eyes were blazing as he faced the RiverClan leader.
"This battle was uncalled for! We did nothing to you!" Shellstar spat.
"I- I didn't mean to kill her" the white riverclan warrior whispered. She didn't look much older than an apprentice. But what did it matter if she was sorry or not? The riverclan leader didn't look very sorry, he just met Shellstar's challenging gaze.
"RiverClan, retreat!" He ordered, sliding back into the water, followed by his clanmates.
"Cowards!" The Stormclan leader yowled.
"I'm so sorry, Darkpaw" Nightpaw meowed, watching as some of their clan picked up the body and dragged it back in the direction of camp.

"Everyone back to camp" Shellstar ordered, leading the way back through the rocky undergrowth. Darkpaw stayed towards the back of his clanmates, he didn't want to talk to anyone, just wanted to curl up in his nest and forget about today.

But before he even had a chance, shellstar bounded onto a rock in the center of the clearing. Their camp was made up of tall, rocky walls surrounding it with bushes around the edges. On the far end of camp, the gnarled roots of a tree made a small hole for the leaders den.

"Tonight, we won a battle to keep the clearing by the river. But not without loss" His amber eyes flicked to his Clanmates' body. "I want you all to go to the medicine den to check your wounds and we will hold vigil for Fawnstep after" He concluded, settling at the base of the rock. He noticed Whitepaw trot over to him, but he shook his head and sent him away with a flick of his tail.

"You've got a pretty bad wound on your shoulder" Sandpaw commented, appearing beside him as they slid into the opening of the rocks which formed the medicine den. His wound stung like crazy as Thistledawn smeared some chewed up herbs onto his shoulder. 

"You will be fine now, just don't open it back up in training" She warned before moving on to Sandpaw.