"You're done helping Rocktooth," Silverstripe meows.
"Really?" Fallenpaw feels her heart soar. Finally, she'd be able to catch up on what she missed.
"Yes, you're falling behind. I need to catch you up on everything," Silverstripe meows. "That and we're running low on healthy warriors. Now, let's go. We have border patrol on the RowanClan-BirchClan border."
Fallenpaw nods and scrambles to follow her mentor. Silverstripe pads over to Nightfall and Cindercloud. The four start walking towards the border. Fallenpaw was bouncing the whole way there. She was so glad to be finally out of camp.
The forest looked less snowy than WillowClan's meadow. At least, there was less snow on BirchClan's side. The thin birch trees and the canopy blocked a bit of the snow. Fallenpaw wonders if BirchClan has a similar problem to WillowClan due to their sparse trees.
"Fallenpaw, keep up," Silverstripe meows.
Fallenpaw hurries to catch up. The river was coming into sight. It was frozen over. Cindercloud tests the ice with her paw before crossing. Silverstripe, Fallenpaw and Nightfall follow closely behind. Now they were along the RowanClan border. Fallenpaw noticed how tense the warriors looked. The silence was unbearable, so Fallenpaw decided to make some small talk.
"Nightfall, how're Strikeclaw's kits?" Fallenpaw asks softly.
Nightfall's blue eyes light up at the mention of his kits. "They're doing great. They're already strong."
Fallenpaw purrs. She's never seen Nightfall so expressive before. He was usually a pretty quiet warrior. "What're their names?"
"The she-kit is Hawkkit, after Strikeclaw's mother, and the toms are Leafkit and Gullkit," he replies.
"Those are such cute names," Fallenpaw meows. "I can't wait to see them wandering around camp."
"Hush," Silverstripe meows suddenly. The whole patrol pauses. Silverstripe was sniffing the air, her green eyes narrowed. Fallenpaw sniffs too. A horrible, rotting smell filled her nostrils. She'd never smelled that before.
"There," Cindercloud motions to something not far away.
The patrol goes over to it. Fallenpaw wrinkles her nose as the smell gets stronger. The small mound was a scrawny rabbit. It was half-eaten and left to rot in the snow. The blood had soaked into the pure white of the landscape. Fallenpaw frowns.
"RowanClan scent is all over this," Silverstripe hisses. Fallenpaw sniffs the rotting rabbit once more and finds that her mentor was right. RowanClan scent.
"I can't believe this," Cindercloud growls. "We're starving enough as it is! RowanClan must be taking all the good prey and leaving it to rot like this."
"Let's go tell Whitestar about this. She'll know what to do," Nightfall suggests.
Silverstripe nods and the patrol starts back towards camp. Fallenpaw trudges behind, the rotting smell still lingering in her nose. A horrible smell. She looks back up and freezes. She spotted something not far away: two brown pelts.
"What is that?" Fallenpaw asks.
The rest of the patrol looks where she was and Silverstripe yowls in anger. She starts barreling towards what Fallenpaw now realized was two cats. The two cats start running away, chased by Silverstripe towards the border. It must have been terrifying for those two cats for Silverstripe to start running at them like that. It was easy to lose Silverstripe in the snow with her white fur.
Silverstripe returned quickly, her green eyes still reflecting anger. "Pesky RowanClan apprentices... good for nothing..."
Fallenpaw's mentor continues grumbling the whole way back to camp. Fallenpaw couldn't help the anxiety that grew in her stomach. This couldn't be good, could it?
YOU ARE READING
Distant Sun - Clouds
FantasyBook 1 Fallenpaw has a secret. She hasn't told anyone about it, not even her best friend. If her Clanmates knew, she would be scorned and hated. It's her fault the medicine cat apprentice vanished, after all. As the signs start pointing towards some...
