Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

20🌙

"It's a long story, so if you're hungry then grab some prey." Alpinefog mewed forlornly.

"Don't feed kittypets. Prey is scarce enough as it is!" Quietdew snapped, looking over at her son Emberfawn with a heavily suggestive tone. She's trying to become a Riverclan apprentice, so clearly she isn't a kittypet anymore! Crescentpaw made sure that she visibly rolled her eyes at the commanding she-cat's mouse-dung choice of words.

The young warrior however ignored her, doing so anyways. He got up to get a piece of prey for them and dropped it near Cheetah's paws. Nervously, Cheetah's huge yellow eyes rounded as she looked at the fish and then back over at him. "Thank you! I have never tried fish before! It looks kind of slimy, but cool!" She meowed loudly, while Quietdew bitterly narrowed her eyes.

Alpinefog clawed tufts of moss out from his coat while waiting for them all to settle. Clearing his throat, he began.

"The night that you left," Crescentpaw immediately opened her jaws to argue, then decided she definitely needed to hear at least the next part before interrupting. "-Smallsparrow was killed by the jaws of a wolf. We once again had no body to mourn or bury. They ate him here in camp." The other warriors were silent, not an ear twitching or a tail swishing.

"The killings kept happening, and that's why you don't see several warriors here among us today." He paused, and the cats around them looked on with disturbed expressions. Rowanpaw's muzzle crinkled with unpleasant memories. Her intelligent eyes glowed as she looked up at her mentor.

"Chaosclaw, our last senior warrior. Tidepaw, his apprentice. And Aquasplash, your mentor."

Crescentpaw flinched. Not Aquasplash! Her mentor had been closer to a friend than a teacher. And that many cats was a huge blow to the clan. Her eyes burned with remorse as she stared at the scarred clan members. Emberfawn's ears were shredded. One was nearly completely ripped in two. Alpinefog's muzzle was slashed deep by wolf teeth. And Rowanpaw had a scab healing on her side, as well as missing fur all over her previously-uniform tail.

Quietdew stepped closer, and Crescentpaw had to lean away as she saw it. The she-cat's eye was grotesque. The wound was seemingly healing, but it was half raw with dried blood and torn-apart flesh. She hadn't noticed it initially since it was beneath Quietdew's left eyelid, where a patch of dark grey fur blended in with most of the wound.

"I got this just last night. You're lucky ya'll weren't here before that."

The dark tabby she-cat thought about how they'd shared that teeny mouse and slept beneath a rooted cavity in a too-small nest they that they had built together. And that whole time her clan had been hunted. From the moment we left, Riverclan has been in even greater danger.

"But that's the only cats we've lost in battle, right? This can't be what's left of the clan," Tinypaw meowed loudly from the edge of the crowd, where she was now ripping into the remains of the fish Cheetah had shyly nibbled at.

Crescentpaw knew what she meant. Had their other clanmates left to be kittypets like Goldenheart?

"Ah, no. Raccoonstripe is resting off a sprained paw in the warriors den. He's exhausted after yesterday's patrols. And Houndspots is out hunting with Lagoonstripe," Alpinefog explained. "They'll be back soon."

Crescentpaw still frowned. That wasn't very many cats left in Riverclan, though. And no queens, kits or elders had been named in the past paw-full of moons. "I'm sure Houndspots will be happy to see his apprentice again, once you explain to us what it is you were supposedly doing in Twolegplace." The clouds were thick and knotted together behind Alpinefog's blocky head.