Warriors AU: Sandstar's Quest

Chapter 31

Author's Note: Remember everyone, there will be no uploads next week! Uploads will continue April 30th!

"Rats! Rats!"

Sandstar struggled awake as the terrified yowl split the silence of the night. Darkness filled the warriors' den, and for a few heartbeats he couldn't work out where the entrance was. Guided by the movement of air against his whiskers, he headed outside, only to blunder over another warrior.

"Fox dung!" the other cat spat; Sandstar identified Cherrytail's scent. "Get out of the way."

He scrambled past Sandstar and out of the cave. Sandstar followed; in the entrance he brushed against another cat's pelt, and Fireheart's scent wreathed around him. The yowling was drawing closer, and now Sandstar could recognize Sharppaw's voice.

It was the night after he had discovered Echosong in the Whispering Cave. Rain had fallen all night, and clouds still covered the sky, blotting out the stars and the thin sliver of moon. Sandstar's paws slipped on the wet rock, and he saw himself plummeting into the gorge below. For a heartbeat his paws froze to the ledge; then as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness he could just make out the trail leading upward, and a cat pelting toward him.

"It's the rats!" Sharppaw gasped. "So many rats! They came over the cliff top..."

Sandstar looked up. Where the trail met the edge of the gorge, a dark mass was flowing down toward him like water. He couldn't make out individual creatures, but a strong reek rolled ahead of them, and he knew Sharppaw was right. The rats were attacking at last.

His belly clenched, but his voice was surprisingly steady when he spoke. "Fireheart, go and make sure that the queens in the nursery know what's happening. Then warn Echosong and Clovertail. Stay down there and help them."

"I'm on my way." He felt Fireheart's tail tip brush his ear, then she was gone.

"Sharppaw." Sandstar rested his tail on the panting dark ginger tabby's shoulder. "Tinypaw will be in your cave. Go and warn him. Then fight where you can do the most good."

"Right." The apprentice squeezed past him and vanished down the trail.

"Cherrytail, are you still there?"

A snarl came out of the darkness just ahead. "I'm over here. What are we waiting for?"

By now the other warriors were emerging from the cave. Sandstar picked up Petalnose's scent and Poppystorm's, and a strong reek of fear from Shortwhisker.

"Let's go," he meowed. "Stay in the open if you can. Don't let them trap you in any caves—your advantage lies in being able to run and jump away from them."

He raced up the trail toward the oncoming mass of rats. Cherrytail bounded beside him, and the others were hard on his paws. Sandstar just had time to think. This is what they were waiting for—a night with no moon! Then the rats were on him.

Tiny claws gripped his pelt and sank into his shoulders as the sleek brown bodies surged around him. Their hot stink filled his throat, choking his breath. He felt teeth stab into the side of his neck and swatted at the rat with one forepaw. It vanished with a thin shriek. Two more instantly took its place, and Sandstar struggled to stay on his paws. If he fell, more rats would be on him and he would have no chance.

Sandstar heard a drawn-out caterwaul from the bottom of the gorge, but he couldn't tell which cat it was. Please, not the nursery! He could make out the glittering eyes of his enemies now, and their sharp white teeth. Peering among them, he looked for the rat leader, but he couldn't spot him. Either he was hidden by the darkness, or he had stayed behind.