Warriors: Storm Coming - Rising Dawn

Chapter 8

Leafpaw lay in her nest, twitching. Her dreams were the same as always; she was in a forest where the shadow of a big cat and a small cat reflected on the ground. The big cat's strong jaws clamped around the cat's tail. The cat let out a loud yowl of pain that rang through the forest. The cat was yanked by its tail and thrown to the ground. The big cat pinned down the cat. Bending down with a screech of fury, the big cat's teeth sank into the cat's throat. Scarlet blood splattered. Leafpaw felt the hot sticky blood cover her pelt.

Leafpaw opened her eyes wide; she looked to the side, seeing Tansypaw. His pelt was full of fresh scars. 

With a sigh, Leafpaw closed her eyes and pressed against Talonpaw. She closed her eyes, finding herself in darkness. Leafpaw tensed, waiting for the cats to appear. She glanced around and realized she was in a different area; beautiful mountains.

"Meet the cats at the Starlake at dawn, together you will go on," a voice whispered.

Leafpaw shuddered and opened her eyes to see light streaming into the apprentices den. Her jaws gaping in a yawn, she slowly got out of her nest. She looked up and realized it was dawn. She raced out of camp through the dirtplace tunnel, hoping no one would stop her. She ran through the forest. After a while, she reached the Starlake.

She spotted a few cats; a silver tabby she-cat with green eyes, a calico tom with amber eyes, a silver she-cat with blue eyes, a dark gray tabby tom with pale blue eyes, a large light brown tabby tom with blue eyes and a golden tabby she-cat with blue eyes she recognized as the newest medicine cat apprentice, Creekpaw.

"You all had the dream, didn't you?" the silver tabby she-cat with green eyes meowed quietly.

Leafpaw nodded, followed by all the other cats.

"Who are you all?" Creekpaw asked curiously. "I'm Creekpaw,"

"I'm Leafpaw," Leafpaw meowed.

The silver tabby meowed, "I'm Emberpaw,"

"I'm Thistlebreeze," the calico tom meowed.

"My name is Larkpaw," the large light brown tabby tom meowed.

"I'm Ivypaw," the silver she-cat with blue eyes meowed.

"And I'm Perchpaw," the dark brown tabby tom meowed.

"I wonder why we are here," Emberpaw meowed, looking around.

A voice suddenly spoke, "You must go beyond the clans, to bring back the land."

"Beyond the clans?" Thistlebreeze meowed, his eyes wide. "You mean, travel as loners far away?!"

"Well, this must be from StarClan," Ivypaw meowed. "We have to,"

"And you would know all about StarClan, wouldn't you, Ivypaw?" Perchpaw rolled his eyes.

Creekpaw stepped forward. "I do," she meowed. "And Ivypaw's right,"

"Let's leave the clans tomorrow," Leafpaw decided.

Creekpaw nodded. "I'll bring traveling herbs here,"

One by one, they each padded off to their own territory.

. . .

After eating traveling herbs, they all began to speak. "Where do we go first, O' Great Medicine Cat?" Perchpaw meowed to Creekpaw, rolling his eyes.

Ignoring, Creekpaw meowed, "I think we should go past AshClan and StormClan."

"Good idea," Larkpaw meowed.

The journeying cats began to pad off towards the border of AshClan and StormClan's territory. Leafpaw flashed a quick glance back at her territory. Was this the right choice?  she thought.