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 extinction by new, large predators that have migrated into their...
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Crescentpaw pushed herself hard on the way there. It had stopped raining around sunhigh, but every single sedge, bush and blade of grass along her path was laden with water. The apprentice was soaked by the time she caught sight of Racoonstripe's hunting patrol.
"It's gonna be rabbit tonight!" The striped tom announced. He was dragging a young rabbit back toward two cats sitting beside a wide river channel. The tom's neck was bent as Crescentpaw crossed the sloping hilltop she was on, nearly slipping and losing her footing on the wet grass.
"You were lucky to find that all the way out here, so close to that Twoleg bridge." Tinypaw meowed, her words hard to catch from afar.
"Yeah, but that's just what a skilled Riverclan tom can do." Raccoonstripe sounded boastful as he gripped the rabbits scruff.
"I caught a fish too!" Cheetah reached out a paw and touched a small scaly carp that laid beside her, one that she had hauled out before Crescentpaw got there.
"I'll catch something any minute now," Tinypaw said determinedly, but Crescentpaw almost couldn't hear it. Their voices were wavering and distorted on the breeze.
She was padding down the steep slope towards the three cats when a gust of wind nearly blew her off her paws.
Starclan, please don't let me fall in front of them! They were bound to turn their heads and notice her at any moment.
Crescentpaw hissed when she eventually did slip in some mud, sliding closer to the dirt-path conjoining with the twoleg bridge beyond. She picked herself up, noticing that the other cats had seen her.
A shoulder-deep brook chattered close to their paws. Water churned across stones farther upstream, throwing a thin spray of droplets into the air.
Embarassed, Crescentpaw padded through the last stretch of sedge-grass before she reached them. Her pelt was tufted with streaked mud when she made it to the hunting patrol. A few pink flowers and grass stalks clung to her flanks.
"Hey Crescentpaw!" Cheetah trilled with welcome.
"You look awful," Racoonstripe laughed as his gaze flitted over her.
Out of breath, she murmured "-needa talk to Tinypaw and Cheetah." Then she lifted her head and stared pointedly at Racoonstripe.
"Alone."
"Wait, I want to hear." The striped tom said immediately.
"Then you're nosy," Tinypaw complained, rolling her eyes. Her sister began picking the debris from her fur.
"But I want to hear as well, if it's interesting." He insisted again.
"If it's about your journey yesterday. If- as long as it's not about boring she-cat stuff like decorating shells and the cutest toms and-"
