Echoes Off The Wall - Warriors.

Chapter Eleven

Skyhawk awoke just as a cool breeze flipped it's way through the den. He blinked, lifting his head with a frown. He looked over towards the place in the medicine cat's den where Toadleap would normally sleep. "Hey, Toadleap?" he called as he pulled himself to his paws, then it hit him like a stone. Toadleap had died multiple dawns ago. While Skyhawk had been out fighting CloudClan, Toadleap had been in here fighting for his life. Skyhawk swallowed as he remembered finding Toadleap in his den, dead. He hadn't even been able to say good-bye ... and Toadleap's last thought of Skyhawk would have been of him betraying him.

Skyhawk sighed, and then shook his head to clear his mind of such oppressing thoughts. The past was the past, and if StarClan had decided that they wanted Toadleap to join their ranks, then so be it. Skyhawk, nor anyone else in the forest, could deny what StarClan wanted. Skyhawk padded over towards the entrance of the den, and while he was there, he couldn't help but to notice bloodstains on the ground just a few feet in front of his paws. The bloodstains belonged toToadleap, and he didn't want a constant reminder of his death every time he left or entered the den; he decided that he would ask a Warrior to clean it up later. He would originally ask an apprentice to do it, but he knew that it would probably disturb them more than it would a warrior, since they were so young. Though he did feel weird calling them young, since he was around the same age as some of the older apprentice's in the Clan.

Skyhawk padded out of the den, and a snowflake fell onto his nose. He sneezed and the snowflake dribbled off just as easily as it had fallen onto him. Then he looked down to see snow. It was the first snowfall of the season! And it was his first leafbare, too, since he had been born in late newleaf this year. He flicked his ears as he looked around camp. He saw Minnowcreek's fresh litter of kits - and most likely her last, since she was planning on retiring to the Elder's den, soon, something that she wouldn't have been able to do before. If Skyhawk could recall correctly, she had two toms and a she-kit. The toms were both a mousy brown with white speckles on their legs. Theo only thing different about them was the fact that the bigger one had amber eyes and the smaller one had green. The amber-eyed kit was Amberkit - how original, Skyhawk had thought dryly, at first - and the green-eyed tom was Grasskit. And the she-kit was just a pure black, and her name was Crowkit. She also had amber eyes, like her brother. Crowkit was the largest out of the litter, too. They were all playing around in the snow while Minnowcreek watched them, amused and smiling. Something that was rare to see planted on a she-cat's face before Loststar.

Skyhawk took a deep breath, then walked over to the fresh-kill pile so that he could get a quick bite to eat. Upon approaching the fresh-kill, he noticed that there was nary anything in there except measly scraps. With a frown, he looked around and saw that hardly anyone else had eaten yet, except for a couple of queens and their kits. Upon noticing this, he grabbed one of the plumpest pieces of fresh-kill he could find - a rather big shrew with one of it's feet sliced clean off. Skyhawk snorted upon seeing that, then grabbed the creature and pelted towards the elder's den. Then he swiftly walked into the den, and was greeted by a sleeping Thornscratch in his face. Foxheart, the only other elder who had been apart of the Clan, had died in his sleep a few moons ago, probably from old age. The whole Clan had grieved, thought they had been grateful that he had died painlessly. Skyhawk silently dropped the shrew in front of the sleeping elder, and as he was about to turn to exit the den, Thornscratch startled awake. "Skyhawk?" he mumbled. "Is that you?"

Skyhawk blinked, turning around. "Yeah, it's me," he meowed, looking down at the elder as Thornscratch tried pulling himself up from the ground. Thornscratch finally heaved a great sigh and gave up, flopping back down onto the moss with a flick of his tail.

"These joints are aching. I'm glad you're a medicine cat now, Skyhawk, even if you are the youngest medicine cat I've ever seen in my life ... and yes, that is saying something. Anywho, do you believe that you could get something for me?" Thornscratch asked, then leaned down towards the shrew and started nibbling at it's side hungrily. Skyhawk dipped his head with a sigh.