Warriors AU: Moonrise

Chapter 2

Author's Note: Here is a chapter to make up for missing Tuesday!

Crowpaw wrinkled her nose at the foul scent and tried not to hiss in disgust. Shaking her head, she parted Brackenfur's golden-brown tabby fur with one paw and dabbed the wad of bile-soaked moss on the tick clinging to her shoulder.

Brackenfur wriggled as she felt the bile soak through her fur. "That's better!" she meowed. "Has it gone yet?"

Crowpaw opened her mouth and dropped the twig that held the moss. "Give it time."

"There's only one good thing about ticks," Brackenfur mewed. "They hate mouse bile just as much as we do." Springing to her paws, she gave herself a vigorous shake and flicked the tick off her shoulder. "There! Thanks, Crowpaw."

A breeze rustled through the trees that surrounded the medicine cat's den. A few leaves drifted down; there was a chill in the morning air that warned Crowpaw of how few moons there were before leaf-bare. This time there would be more than the cold and shortage of prey to face. Crowpaw closed her eyes and shuddered as she remembered what she had seen the day before on patrol with her father, Sandstar.

The biggest monster the cats had ever seen had been forging a dreadful path through the forest, scoring deep ruts into the earth and tearing up trees by their roots. The huge shiny monster had rolled inexorably through the bracken, roaring and belching smoke while the cats scattered helplessly before it. For the first time, Crowpaw began to understand the danger to the forest, which had been prophesied twice now, once in Squirrelflight's dream that had sent him on the journey with Bramblepaw, and once in Cinderpelt's vision of fire and tiger. The doom that had been foretold was coming upon the forest, and Crowpaw did not know what any cat could do to stop it.

"Are you okay, Crowpaw?" meowed Brackenfur.

Crowpaw blinked. The vision of smoke, splintered trees, and shrieking cats faded away, to be replaced by soft green ferns and the smooth gray rock where Cinderpelt made his den. She was safe, Thunderclan was still here—but for how long? "Yes, I'm fine," she replied. Sandstar had ordered the patrol to keep quiet about what they had seen until he had decided how to break the news to the Clan. "I've got to go and wash this mouse bile off my paws."

"I'll come with you," Brackenfur offered. "Then we could go along the ravine and pick up some fresh-kill."

Crowpaw led the way into the main clearing. Birchpaw and Shrewpaw were scuffling outside the apprentices' den in warm shafts of early morning sunlight, while Dustpelt's three kits watched them with huge admiring eyes. Their mother sat at the entrance to the nursery, washing herself while keeping one eye on her litter. The dawn patrol—Ferncloud, Mousefur, and Spiderpaw—was just pushing its way into the clearing through the gorse tunnel. Ferncloud's eyes narrowed with pleasure as he caught sight of Dustpelt and his kits. Crowpaw gazed at the busy, peaceful camp, and could hardly keep back a wail of despair.

As soon as the apprentices spotted Crowpaw, they stopped their practice fight and stared at her, then started whispering urgently together. Even the cats in the returning patrol gave her an uneasy look as they padded over to the fresh-kill pile. Crowpaw knew that rumors about yesterday's patrol were starting to fly around the camp. At daybreak Sandstar had called his deputy, Silverstream; Crowpaw's mother, Fireheart; and Cinderpelt into a meeting in his den, and every cat had begun to suspect that something unusual had happened the day before.

Before she and Brackenfur could reach the gorse tunnel, Sandstar appeared from his den at the foot of the Highrock. Silverstream and Fireheart followed him out into the clearing with Cinderpelt limping after them. Sandstar leaped to the top of the rock, leaving the other three cats to find comfortable places to sit at its base. In the slanting leaf-fall sun, his pale ginger pelt blazed like warm sand that gave him his name.