Warriors AU: Sandstar's Quest

Chapter 6

Wind swept across the moorland, shredding the mist, and Sandstar saw the fleeing cats clearly for the first time. They were following a river, the familiar tang of water in the air told him this was the forest river he knew, though here, beyond Windclan territory, it flowed more swiftly through the kills.

"Wait!" Sandstar called them. "Cats of Skyclan, wait for me! I've come to help you."

He raced across the springy turf, but the Skyclan cats sped away from him as if they had not heard his cries.

Suddenly a kit tumbled into the river, its mother letting out a yowl of dismay as the current swept it away. Then a young apprentice, straying away from the main group, was picked off by a fox. Sandstar heard its squeals of terror cut off abruptly as the fox bounded away, outpacing a couple of warriors who tried to chase it. An elder lagged farther and farther behind; he kept limping after his Clan, though his paws left smears of blood on the grass. Another staggered to a halt, then fell on one side and didn't get up again.

At the head of the journeying Clan Sandstar spotted the light brown tabby cat. Thin, hungry-looking warriors clustered around him. Even though Sandstar still couldn't catch up to them, their voices came clearly to him.

"Where are we going?" one of them meowed. "We can't live here... there's no prey, and nowhere to camp."

"I don't know where we're going," the light brown tabby cat replied. "We just have to keep on until we find somewhere."

"But how long?" one of the other warriors asked. No cat replied.

Sandstar saw a small, light brown tabby tom shouldering his way through the warriors until he reached the light brown tabby cat. "Let me speak to Starclan," he begged. "They might know of a place for us."

The cat rounded on him. "No, Fawnstep!" he spat. "Our warrior ancestors have failed us. As far as we're concerned, Starclan no longer exists."

He must be the Clan leader! There was authority in his voice, and the small tabby—Skyclan's medicine cat, Sandstar guessed—bowed his head, and didn't try to argue.

Sandstar called out to the Skyclan cats again and made one last effort to catch up to them, but he was falling farther and farther behind. Mist swirled around him again, cutting him off from the fleeing Clan. At last his paws wouldn't carry him any longer. He sank down, and opened his eyes to find himself in his own den.

Gradually he became aware of another cat sitting in the shadows. "Fireheart?" he murmured, longing for the warmth and comfort of his mate's presence.

The cat turned toward him, and the light from the den entrance fell onto a soft tortoiseshell pelt.

"Spottedleaf!"

The former Thunderclan medicine cat rose and came toward him, gently touching his nose to his. Sandstar drank in his familiar sweet scent. He couldn't think of him as one of the warrior ancestors who had betrayed him; no matter what the rest of Starclan might do, he would always trust Spottedleaf.

Gazing at the shape of his head and his slender, graceful body, he found himself thinking of the light brown tabby cat, the Skyclan leader he had seen in his dreams.

"Have you come to tell me about Skyclan?" he asked.

"Yes," Spottedleaf replied gravely. "When I lived in Thunderclan, I never knew there had once been five Clans living in the forest. I learned their story after I joined Starclan."

"I don't understand." Sandstar scratched restlessly at a piece of moss. "How could Starclan allow a whole Clan to leave the forest?"

Spottedleaf crouched beside him. He could feel the vibrations of his soothing purr. "I know it is hard for you," he mewed. "But Starclan do not control everything in the forest. We could not banish the dog pack that threatened you, or drive out Scourge and Bloodclan."