𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗦ᶠᵃⁿᶠⁱᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ 一 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔷𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔱 [𝟑]

❆☾𑁍𓆱ᥴhᥲρtᥱr 𝟸𝟾𓆱𑁍☽❆

The Ancient Stone shows the past!

This thought alone kept replaying in Larkwing's head, like a leaf caught in a whirlpool. Her paws thundered across the forest floor and she ran as if there was no tomorrow. If she was lucky, she would find at least one of her patrolmates by the tree trunk where they were sleeping.

The forest thinned out, but Larkwing didn't even think about stopping. Every heartbeat she lost was one more heartbeat in which the memory of what she had experienced disappeared. Because by now it seemed like nothing more than a dream to her. The image of the MoonClan camp was slowly but surely being torn apart like a cloud cover.

She would probably have kept on racing like that forever if it hadn't been for a shadow that was moving between the trees.

With whirling paws, Larkwing came to a stop. Her heart almost seemed to want to leap out of her chest as she gasped, trying to steady her breathing.

"Larkwing!" The shadow turned out to be Crowshadow, who came towards her, visibly distraught and with her ears flattened. "Perfect, you're just the cat for the job."

Larkwing tilted her head helplessly. "What are you crowing about?" She simply couldn't resist the pun and purred.

However, Crowshadow didn't feel like purring. Fluffing up her fur, she pointed her muzzle upwards. "I was just here hunting nearby when I spotted three kits," she explained. "They seemed too young for me to let them roam on their own, so I wanted to go and ask them what they were doing there. Unfortunately, they must have been so scared at the sight of me that they went up that tree."

Blinking, Larkwing put her head back. It was true, there were three tufts of fur hanging high up in the treetop. "And now they're stuck there," she concluded.

As if they had heard her, the kits began to mew heartbreakingly. Crowshadow looked anxiously at Larkwing. "I think I'm too heavy to climb up there." Her voice was low and sounded almost ashamed.

"A save-three-kits-from-a-tree rescue mission wasn't on my agenda today, but well." Rolling her eyes, Larkwing padded towards the tree in question. It was really high. Her chest tightened at the thought of having to climb it.

She unsheathed her claws, leapt up the trunk and heaved herself onto the first branch she could find. The quicker she got these kits out of the tree, the better.

Fortunately, the bark of the tree was sufficiently soft for her to find enough support. Nevertheless, it was an extremely difficult endeavour to climb up, as many branches had broken off and only thin, light brown splinters of wood were still sticking out of the trunk.

Soon after, Larkwing's claws ached with the strain. Awkwardly, she clutched the tree with all four legs as she gathered strength for the further ascent. By now, she could no longer really be said to be afraid of heights. Nevertheless, she still had a great deal of respect for climbing trees and tried to avoid it as often as possible.