What happens when a Starclan prophecy turns out wrong?
The five Warrior Clans are going extinct. Gatherings and Moonpool visits are inacessable, with leaders falling left and right. The lake territories are being wiped out to the brink of extinctio...
The warrior's thick grey-and-white fur was unkempt and clumpy. Moss from his nest was still stuck in his fur. Crescentpaw strolled up with the two other she-cats behind her, while Alpinefog's pale green eyes stretched wide.
"Oh, great Starclan! I can't believe it." He blinked rapidly. The fiery incandescent sun burning behind them reflected in his lime-green gaze.
"Tinypaw and Crescentpaw-... Well uh, this is a problem." Alpinefog kept looking uncertain about seeing them back, which caused her hackles to rise. A cool breeze stirred through Riverclan's forest, cool and refreshing against the swell of sunset heat. Crescentpaw's whiskers were pulled against her face.
Tinypaw's fur flushed, and she immediately took a step back with an I Knew It expression on her face. But her kin blocked her with a sheathed paw extended, asking, "Wait. What do you mean?" There's no way that Alpinefog had noticed their missing claws that quickly. In fact, their paws looked normal as far as outside appearance. (You can't see a cat's claws if they're sheathed, whether they have any or not.)
"It's not your decision to make about Cheetah."
Alpinefog fog looked confused, then bent around them to look at the kittypet, who was shyly standing back at the sight of such a big warrior.
"No, I-. Whoever she is, we can deal with that later. The problem is that you two ran off to be kittypets!" Alpinefog sounded cross like he had never been with them before. His muzzle twisted into a condescending, distasteful frown.
"WHAT!?" Crescentpaw yowled, looking him up and down with revulsion.
"Who told you that?" She demanded, and even before he said it she was hearing the answer in her own head.
"Rowanpaw," he stated smoothly, but didn't lose the stern glint in his now-slitted eyes. "We needed you two so badly over this past half-moon. And you were off begging after Twolegs, being Kittypets!" He didn't stand up from where he sat beside the fronds. However, Alpinefog swiveled his head to look over at her littermate with just as much contempt.
"We were not!" Tinypaw sputtered, her small muzzle pulled back in a defensive snarl. She defended herself against her mentor's accusations. Crescentpaw curled her own muzzle against her chest, arching her neck defiantly and doing the same.
"Well- if you weren't then your sister has some explaining to do. Either way, get inside camp. I told Rowanpaw to eat before we go out to train. It's Emberfawn's turn to take watch anyway." He expertly scanned the forest, inhaling with a glance over the higher-growing foliage. Then, figuring the camp could remain unguarded for a moment, Alpinefog followed the young she-cats in to better hear the drama that was about to unfold.
Their lifted tails dragged against the entryway's broken-apart woven willow branches, while the cool drooping evergreen vines scraped their ear-tips. Some of the trendils were torn off and trampled into pieces beneath the cat's paws. When Crescentpaw was out of the entry tunnel and partway to the center of camp, she halted with dismay.
The thick swathes of reed and clumps of fern that had lined Riverclan's walls were compressed into old mud or shredded apart. They no longer waved and swished around the perimeter of camp, providing a comforting privacy screen from the rest of the oak-and-willow tree forest. Instead, she could see past the thin stick barrier and into the sunlit-wild growing grasses of their territory beyond. Most of dens too looked ravished and sagging. The elder's den was completely caved in on itself, with sticks and debree sitting inside of it.
"How did the camp get like this?" Crescentpaw turned around before reaching the fresh-kill pile surrounded by cats, but they had already seen and heard her. She watched them pad up with mixed signals. Their shadows stretched far in the evening light, as Cheetah and Tinypaw bunched up behind her.
"The wolves," Alpinefog muttered darkly, flipping his thick foggy-grey tail to the side. "And a lack of warriors available to fix it."
That's not good. How many more were lost since we got captured?
"Where is Smallstar?" Tinypaw asked as Emberfawn, a young red tomcat, sniffed at Cheetah's tail-tip.
"Dead." Rowanpaw didn't care to elaborate, as she padded around the surrounding cats and up to her mentor's shoulder.
Crescentpaw gasped, her jaw falling slack with shock. Did he lose all his nine lives at once? Or had he never officially become leader? She wanted to react to both her sister's appearance and the clan deputy's death, but just then another cat cut in.
"She smells like kittypet!" Emberfawn exclaimed, though he sounded more surprised than scornful. He turned to Crescentpaw and flattened his dark brown ears. His green eyes were accusatory.
"So it's true... you two did run away to become kittypets!" Tinypaw reeled back behind her, bewildered.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" She asked, hissing at the tom. Exasperated, Crescentpaw turned on Quietdew, a grey-and-white warrior who was sizing up Cheetah with squared shoulders.
"Leave her alone!" Stepping closer, the apprentice snapped her teeth agressively close to Quietdew's ear. The older she-cat backed off, and Crescentpaw felt no sympathy for startling her. Try it again and she'll get more than just a warning! With dual-colored eyes smoldering she stayed planted beside Cheetah.
She tried to sink her claws into the earth to calm herself, but no claws slid out. Oops. Better not do that again. Some cat might notice. She glanced around at the others cautiously.
"First of all, how did Smallsparrow die? Did he ever become Smallstar?" Crescentpaw interrogated. "If he didn't, WHO is the new clan deputy- or leader, because we need to tell them what happened first." She swiveled her head towards each cat in turn.
"If we don't then every cat will keep arguing!"
She felt something like surprise when she realized all of them were looking at her. As the temperature dropped into a more comfortable range the crickets began their melodious chirping. The breeze tugged on their whiskers in the blue pre-evening. Any second now the first raindrops would begin to fall. And the sun, dipping just behind the treetops, said its farewell for the day.
________________ Cheetah
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