Warriors: Escaping Fate

Chapter 10 - The New Spring

"What now?" Redmoon wondered, annoyed. She dropped the cobwebs at her feet and lashed her tail, ready to give the intruder a stern talking to. The last thing she needed was another cat bothering her. Before she could open her mouth, however, her brother's familiar scent filled her nostrils. Her heart sank when she saw him step into the medicine cat den. His tail was dragging along the ground, and he was staring at his paws. The young apprentice looked extremely depressed.

"Did our father really kill Willowbranch?" he asked, his somber amber eyes staring into hers. He seemed so sad, almost as if he was going to burst into tears at any moment.

Redmoon felt sick to her stomach. Could she really tell him the truth? Could she really lie to her brother? What would he think when he found out that she was the one who did it? She clawed at the ground, burying a few missed droplets of blood. "I-I wasn't there," she finally mewed, a shadow falling over her eyes. Suddenly the air around them felt colder.

Cloverpaw looked back at them both with furrowed brows, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. She had no idea how to comfort these two cats. "Hazelpaw, did...didn't you want to show Redmoon your fighting moves?"

Hazelpaw lifted his gaze, his voice filled with forced enthusiasm. "Oh yeah, Ravenstorm finally taught me some new moves. Do you want me to show you them?"

Redmoon cocked her head to the side. In an exaggerated tone of voice, she asked, "Why would you want to show them to me? I'm not a warrior,"

Hazelpaw's eyes widened briefly at Redmoon's strange tone, but he continued, "I just thought that...that you would be interested," he said, his ears flattening against his head. "It might be useful during the next battle."

"Hazelpaw I'm BUSY." Redmoon hissed, her tail lashing back and forth. "We just got attacked, and here you are standing in my way. LEAVE."

"It doesn't have to be today." Hazelpaw looked uneasy, "a long time ago I promised I would show you."

Redmoon glanced over at Cloverpaw, who quickly snapped her head back to her work.

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm a medicine cat now. I didn't change, my role has." Her pelt hot with fury, Redmoon leaned back down to pick up the stick of cobwebs, clenching her jaws so tightly that it snapped.

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light, and a powerful force swept Redmoon off her paws. The walls of the den shrank as they rapidly moved past her vision, fading away to where they can no longer be seen. In their place, trees began to sprout all around her, growing taller and their trunks growing wider. The lifeless trees, once a sign of leaf-bare, sprouted new leaves, twisting, and turning into thorny pine needles.

Even as she watched, warmth flooded her body, and the dreary sky became bright with light. The scene before her flowed and waved as if being reflected underneath the water's surface, with the barely visible ThunderClan camp right underneath. She could breathe perfectly fine, yet it felt strange as if she were breathing underwater. Even her paws no longer felt as if they had a grasp on the densely packed snow-covered camp of ThunderClan. Instead, she could feel the small little wisp of grass stems rubbing against her paw pads, and they felt warmer to the touch than usual. Where were they? Redmoon skewed her eyes, trying desperately to clear her foggy vision, but the flowing landscape was making it too difficult to see. Finally, the scent of pine needles grew stronger, and ShadowClan's musty scent rose to become the strongest of all. Is this StarClan? No, Redmoon realized with a sense of dread. It was ShadowClan, and they were under attack!

Cats she didn't recognize were launching themselves at one another, viciously fighting and ripping at each other's pelts. Redmoon tried to pick out her clanmates, yet they were too blurry to recognize, their scents jumbled together and buried underneath that of the enemy's camp. Suddenly, she spotted a flash of ginger fur in the distance. There was no mistake, it was her father! He looked healthy and strong, and any movement he made was absent from his old injury. He fought against the ShadowClan cats with the heart of a warrior, dodging flying claws with ease and throwing himself fearlessly at his opponents. This must've been his final battle, right before the incident that forced him into retirement forever! Redmoon shut her eyes tightly. She didn't want to see it! She didn't want to see him get hurt! Yet, she couldn't unsee it.