Warriors AU: Skyclan's Destiny

Chapter 1

Floodwater thundered down the gorge, chasing a wall of uprooted trees and bushes as if they were the slenderest twigs. Poppystar stood at the entrance to her den and watched in horror as the current foamed and swirled among the rocks, mounting higher and higher. Rain lashed the surface from bulging black clouds overhead.

Water gurgled into Echosong's den; though the Skyclan leader strained her eyes through the stormy darkness, she couldn't see what had happened to the medicine cat. A cat's shriek cut through the tumult of the water and Poppystar spotted the Clan's two elders struggling frantically as they were swept out of their den. The two old cats flailed on the surface for a heartbeat and then vanished.

Sharpclaw and Clovertail, heading down the trail with fresh-kill in their jaws, halted in astonishment when they saw the flood. They spun around and fled up the cliff, but the water surged after them and carried them yowling along the gorge. Poppystar lost sight of them as a huge tree, its roots high in the air like claws, rolled between her and the drowning warriors.

Great Starclan, help us! Poppystar prayed. Save my Clan!

Already the floodwater was lapping at the entrance to the nursery. A kit poked its nose out and vanished back inside with a frightened wail. Poppystar bunched her muscles, ready to leap across the rocks and help, but before she could move, a wave higher than the rest licked around her and caught her up, tossing her into the river alongside the splintered trees.

Poppystar fought and writhed against the smothering water, gasping for breath. She coughed as something brittle jabbed inside her open mouth. She opened her eyes and spat out a frond of dried bracken. Her nest was scattered around her den and there were deep claw marks in the floor where she had struggled with the invisible wave. Flicking off a shred of moss that was clinging to one ear, she sat up, panting.

Thank Starclan, it was only a dream!

The Skyclan leader stayed where she was until her heartbeat slowed and she had stopped trembling. The flood had been so real, washing away her Clanmates in front of her eyes...

Sunlight was slanting through the entrance to her den; with a long sigh of relief, Poppystar tottered to her paws and padded onto the ledge outside. Down below, the river wound peacefully between the steep cliffs that enclosed the gorge. As sunhigh approached, light gleamed on the surface of the water and soaked into Poppystar's ginger and white fur; she relaxed her shoulders, enjoying the warmth and the sensation of the gentle breeze that ruffled her pelt.

"It was only a dream," she repeated to herself, pricking her ears at the twittering of birds in the trees at the top of the gorge. "Newleaf is here, and Skyclan has survived."

A warm glow of satisfaction flooded through her as she recalled that only a few short moons ago she had been nothing more than Poppy. She had been a loner, responsible for no cat but herself. Then Sandstar had appeared: a leader of a Clan from a distant forest, with an amazing story of a lost Clan who had once lived here in the gorge. Sandstar had gathered loners and kittypets to revive Skyclan; most astonishing of all, Poppy had been chosen to lead them.

"I'll never forget the night when the spirits of my ancestors gave me nine lives and made me Poppystar," she murmured. "My whole world changed. I wonder if you still think about us, Sandstar," she added. "I hope you know that I've kept the promises I made to you and my Clanmates."

Shrill meows from below brought the she-cat back to the present. The Clan was beginning to gather beside the Rockpile, where the underground river flowed into the sunlight for the first time. Shrewtooth, Tinycloud, and Sharpclaw were crouched down, eating, not far from the fresh-kill pile. Shrewtooth gulped her mouse down quickly, casting suspicious glances at the two younger warriors. Poppystar remembered how a border patrol had caught the black she-cat spying on the Clan two moons ago, terrified and half-starving. They had persuaded her to move into the warriors' den, but she was still finding it hard to fit into Clan life.