Warriors: The Prophecy of Frost - Apprentice's Journey

Chapter 16- The Strange Dream

Goldenstar led Frostpaw to the apprentice den. "You will sleep here for now," he mewed. "There should be a spare nest here. Tomorrow I will show you around."

Frostpaw nodded and padded into the den. The DragonClan apprentices were starting to sleep.

Narrowing her eyes to check where was the extra nest, she carefully walked past the sleeping apprentices to the nest.

Frostpaw lay down on her new nest and immediately fell asleep.

~~~~

Frostpaw woke up to see a gray tom. I'm in StarClan!

"Why am I here?" she asked, looking around rapidly.

"My name is Stormcloud," he mewed, "and you are here because I need to pass on a message to you."

Frostpaw pricked her ears.

"This is not the end of your destination," Stormcloud mewed. "Not only do you have to do what you were told by Goldenstar to, but you have to find out the real reason why you are here."

"I thought it was to find DragonClan and ask them for help on something?" she mewed in confusion.

"That was part of it," Stormcloud replied. "The rest is up to you to find."

"But why can't you tell me?" Frostpaw yowled as Stormcloud began to fade, along with the surroundings.

"You know the answer," he mewed quietly as the dream fadded away.

However, Frostpaw didn't wake up. She felt that she was in another dream... or vision was it called?

There was a menacing growl that made her jump and unsheathed her claws.

When Frostpaw somewhat got used to the darkness, she spotted a lot of cats. But those cats weren't from her Clan, or any Clan.

As they moved closer to her, she gasped. They have different eye colours, but their eyes were all filled with hunger. Hunger for battle.

Frostpaw tried to run, but one of them caught her. Thorn sharp claws raked her paws, and it surprisingly hurt as though it was real.

She yowled for help, but all she could hear was a dangerously soft voice. "Don't worry, we will make your death short and painless!"

Before Frostpaw could even try to move, dark fangs were buried in her neck. "Help!" she let out a desperate attempt to call for help.

Her legs collapsed under her and the odd dream disappeared.

~~~~

"Frostpaw!" came a fairly familiar voice. "You are injured!"

"What?" Frostpaw struggled to see where was her injury.

To her horror, she saw long claw marks on her right hindleg.

"I will bring you to Forestbrook," Russetpaw mewed quickly.

After Russetpaw had helped her to the medicine cat den, she went to her mentor to train.

Frostpaw struggled to breathe steadily as Forestbrook, the medicine cat, examined her wounds.

"Quailbreeze, come here," she called to her apprentice.

Quailbreeze ran towards her mentor. "What is wrong?"

"Come see this," Forestbrook rasped. "My eyesight is failing; can you tell me how deep is the wound?"

Quailbreeze stared at Frostpaw's leg injury, and couldn't resist a gasp of shock. "It's quite deep... and it's still bleeding."

"It is?" Frostpaw strained to see.

"Stay still," Quailbreeze mewed. "Frostpaw, how did you get this wound?"

"You should treat her first," Forestbrook sighed. "I am going to get the cobwebs and marigold. Next time, please don't talk so much."

"Sorry," Quailbreeze apologised. "Frostpaw, how did you get this wound?"

"I don't know," Frostpaw's voice trembled. "I had a dream from StarClan first, then there was another dream... there were so many battle-hungry cats, and one clawed my leg... It hurts so much, as if it's real! Then another bit my neck and the dream ended."

"Your neck?" the medicine cat apprentice sounded surprised. "It's not bleeding... at least not now..."

Forestbrook had returned with a bunch of cobwebs and marigold and gave them to her apprentice.

Quailbreeze carefully dripped the marigold juice on Frostpaw's leg wound. It stung, but she was relieved that it didn't hurt for long.

Covering the wound with cobwebs, Quailbreeze went to check her neck.

"There's an open wound here," she mewed. "But luckily it's not deep."

But I remembered that the cat sank its fangs deep, Frostpaw thought in confusion.

She felt Quailbreeze carefully fixing the cobweb into place. "Can I go now?" she mumbled.

"No," Forestbrook mewed before Quailbreeze could speak. "I am going to give you thyme and you are going to stay here for a day. Goldenstar wouldn't mind."

Quailbreeze nodded with a sigh. Frostpaw let herself to be herded to a nest in the medicine cat den.

"If you need poppy seeds to sleep, ask me," Forestbrook mewed. "The thyme will calm you down. Hold on."

As Forestbrook padded off to get some thyme, Frostpaw felt a prickle of unease. Something terrible is coming.