The Surviving Few (Warrior Cats)

Chapter three - decisions

Raindrop exclaimed, "Ryespring—", but Poppypaw interrupted.

"You don't have much of a choice," she mewed. "We have food, you need food." She paused, thinking for a while. Then she continued, "we may be from different Clans, but what good would it do us, say, if we poisoned you? Tricked you into eating crow-food? Do you really think we would do that?"

Her maturity surprised Raindrop. She wanted to apologize on behalf of her brother, but at the same time, knew she could not betray him just like that. She would stand by whatever he decided, whether he agreed or not. She would not be separated from him again, and she absolutely would not lose him, just as she had lost so many others. She had watched her parents die. She had seen them die in the paws of the rogues, unable to do anything at all to help them.

"Raindrop!" her mother had cried. "Help us, Raindrop! I'm sorry I've been a terrible mom, but surely you don't want me dead? Oh, Raindrop, save me!"

Meanwhile, her father had been.. harsher, in his wording. "Raindrop, you get down here right this minute! I raised you better than this! Come—"
He spoke no more. The rogue had killed him. He would never know the reason Raindrop had not saved him or his former mate, her mother. Truth was, they were surrounded by rogues that only Raindrop knew of. Rogues that only Raindrop could see. They had hid in the bushes, dens, anywhere out of sight, doing their best to make her parents' death absolute torture for her.

Raindrop had known they were there, and she had known that she would stand no chance had she tried to attack. They all ran when the lighting struck. But her mother and father were already dead.

Honeydusk and Leafwillow watched Ryespring with curiosity. Poppypaw, who had previously seemed so confident, stood awkwardly by the twoleg fence. Ryespring stood close beside Raindrop still. So close that his pelt brushed hers, sharing the tiny warmth he had left with her, expecting nothing at all in return. He coughed, then, as if clearing his throat.

"That was well spoken," he muttered at last. Leafwillow took this as agreement, and, secretly, Raindrop felt immensely relieved it had come to this.

"Well, come on, then. You two might have all the time in the world, but I don't, and also, the food might be gone before we even get there if we don't hurry."

Raindrop instinctively nodded, as if Leafwillow was Drizzlestar addressing her Clan, giving orders, commanding her warriors.

Leafwillow turned around and gracefully jumped up, landing smoothly on the tall wood fence. Honeydusk and Poppypaw followed closely after. Raindrop let Ryespring go before her. When he had landed on the grass on the other side, she followed finally.

Leafwillow led them through the twolegplace cautiously, but seemed to know where she was headed. They ran from hedge to hedge, shadow to shadow, just as she and Ryespring had done when they ran from the tall twoleg. The rain poured down. The thunderpath beside them and the stone ground they walked on was slowly filling up with water. It felt as if Raindrop was wading through the shallow parts of the river by the RiverClan camp, her sisters close behind her, sunlight shining down on their soaked pelts.

They stopped once they reached a large area of gray stone, filled to the brim with various twoleg things. It smelt as though someone had died there. Raindrop did not see how there could possibly be anything edible in this sea of twoleg waste.

As soon as they had all caught their breath, Leafwillow stood up and disappeared into the maze of thing-pyramids. She appeared again moments later, a small, pink square hanging from her jaws. Under the overwhelming twoleg scent it emitted, Raindrop thought she could scent something similar to forest prey. She preferred fish. Perhaps not too surprising.

Leafwillow dropped the pink thing at Raindrop's paws, nudging it toward her.

"There's more, but taste this first. I don't know how RiverClan cats work. Maybe you only tolerate fish."

Leafwillow said this somewhat sarcastically, though Ryespring seemed to miss her light tone.

"We eat what we get, unlike—"

"Ryespring," Raindrop meowed weakly. "Let it go." She felt as if she had just betrayed her earlier determination, of all things. Ryespring did not finish his sentence. His silence was comforting, in a way; he did not seem angry.

Raindrop caught Honeydusk glancing at her from where she sat beside Poppypaw. Then the medicine cat gazed down at the pink thing. "It's not so bad, if you ignore the twoleg smell," she meowed. Leafwillow grunted, sounding irritated, then disappeared yet again into the maze of twoleg things. Honeydusk, too, rose to her paws. She padded toward Raindrop and, as she reached, pushed the pink square toward her with her light golden paws.

"Please eat. It's the only source of food we have, for now, and I really don't want you to die of starvation." She paused, waiting.

Raindrop bent down and gingerly sniffed the twoleg food. Then she licked it. It tasted heavily of, well, twoleg, but underneath was a flavourful, meaty taste. She ripped off a piece and chewed it slowly, her gaze fixed on the ground beneath her.

"We need to stay together to survive," Honeydusk went on. "And that means we must all live. That much, I think, is obvious."

Raindrop finished about half of the twoleg food, then pushed the rest toward her brother. He looked at her, gaze searching, and she nodded, as if telling him that, yes, it tastes somewhat good and no, it's not poisoned, and no, it won't kill you to at least try it.

Though her belly still growled, greedy now that it had tasted food, she let him finish it.