Warrior Cats: Cleardawn's Silence #Wattys2016 [Book ONE]

Chapter 22

I situated myself in front of camp, angling my ears towards the wilderness, my eyes alert and my muscles tense and ready to pounce.

I felt a nudge on my shoulder, and I turned my broad head towards the bright gaze of Sunpetal. She looked concerned.

I'm guessing she knew the rule about not talking, and if you spoke a word it would be called as disrespectful, because she was pointing her paw towards the exit of camp.

I looked closely outside, and I noticed the others surrounding me started to stalk forward, their ears perked and whiskers quivering.

I watched them part their jaws and taste the air, and soon realized that they had tracked a scent that was unfamiliar and not recognizable within FlameClan.

I approached the very tip of the exit, the bright green bushes hovering just a whisker in front of me, and soon I passed it in one swift movement.

Stormstrike signaled for us to stay close, and I didn't overrule his leader-like commands. I instead followed them exactly, herding myself closer to my companions.

I could feel the soft fur of Vipertooth bristling against mine, and I glanced at the broad-shouldered tom and noticed he was stiff with fear.

I sniffed the air, taking a waft of breath in with me, and soon attracted what they had all been fantasizing about, however this was no imaginary thing.

Every one of us scented it, and it was quite strong. It was reeking of dung and crowfood, making our noses wrinkle in disgust, reminding me of the smell of death.

Soon I suddenly wondered on what had happened to Redeye's body, and if Flamestar or Jumpingjay had sent some elders to carry his body back to camp, but by now I'm pretty sure we'd all be notified if that had happened, because we saw no coming or going elders emerging from the depths of the forest or camp.

I noticed that Featherflight's ears perked, and we all followed at what she was looking at.

A clump of ferns was rustling wildly, and we all tensed, expecting something to pop out of it and attack us. However, it was only just a squirrel.

Applefall, being the cheerful and risk-taking cat, pounced on it and killed it with a swift blow to the neck, accidently stepping on a crippled leaf that crunched under his paw, making us all stare at him frustratedly.

He gazed at us apologetically. "Sorry... But I didn't really make much noise! More prey the better, am I right?"

I scoffed with amusement, followed along by soft chuckles from Deerpath and Reedwater.

Applefall dug a small hole in the ground and buried his catch for later.

We took off once again, tracking down the scents that were mixing together, and suddenly, something familiar wafted around my nose.

Missing Foot! What is he doing back here?

I started to panic, knowing the last time I had encountered him, as well as the first, things went bad. Really, really bad.

I didn't dare announce anything about the rogue, fearing that I would be accused for buddying up with him to take down the fierce and bold Redeye, so I remained silent.

Soon we came to a clump of ferns bristling through the harsh winds of the night and creeped into it for hiding.

It was crowded considering how many new warriors were made, but we didn't seem to notice. We were just focused on any movement.

After a few moments have passed, we seemed to have given up. "There's nothing here." Deerpath meowed, groaning angrily to herself. "Maybe we were just imagining it."

I shook my head. "If we imagined it then how come all of us scented something?" I implied. Deerpath snorted, knowing I was right.

A couple of more seconds passed before all of us got antsy. Reedwater and Duststorm started shuffling their paws and whispering things to each other, Featherflight and Stormstrike started to get to their paws, and everyone else, including me, started to talk quietly about a plan.

"Alright, so we sh-" Applefall was cut off by a loud rustling from the bush opposite of us. We all stiffened, swiftly unclasping our small huddle and making a slight hole through the thin branches to see.

A white cat was blurred through the leaves,
But you could get glimpses of a creamy and glossy pelt with brown dapples.

I didn't recognize this cat, but then I noticed a dirtied pink collar, and instantly knew it was a kittypet.

I started to pad out, Stormstrike and Sparrowdusk trying to stop me, but I did anyway, knowing it would be no harm.

My instincts rose, and I started hissing at the cat.

The white dappled cat, startled, jumped in fright.

I stopped, examining this large white furball.

It had incredible dark blue eyes, glimmering in a silver shade from the moon.

My examination was interrupted by a flash of dark fur bathing my vision as someone hurled themselves at the creature, spitting and hissing in fury.

Confusion washed over me as I didn't recognize this well-built tom, and everything moved in slow motion, my mind pausing at how many series of events were being thrown my way.

He was clawing tufts of fur from the screeching cat, and soon I came back to my senses and pounced in the blur of fur and claws.

I separated the two, the tom thrashing in fury and anger, trying to reach the other cat who was shaking violently.

I shoved him to the ground, baring my teeth in his face, which soon made him stop and flatten his ears in defeat.

I felt my heart racing as everything seemed to all come down to me, the large and broad tom struggling underneath me, and a stunned, frozen and unknown cat who was trembling wildly.

I placed my unsheathed claws on his chest, and I guess he noted that I wouldn't hesitate to hurt him, so he calmed down and stopped wriggling.

"Who are you both?" I sneered, my voice hinting insecurity, but I tried to hide it as well as possible.

The white cat didn't speak, however the gray tom made a faithful decision to do so.

"I'm Dying Soul." The dark tom explained, glaring angrily at the trembling ball of fur.

I tensed, Dying Soul! I recognized the name almost instantaneously.

As I was frozen, my mind blank and my eyes glittering with fear at the realization, my paws still managed to have a strong hold on the tom and the rest of my Clanmates crawled out of hiding, shuffling over to the white cat.

"What's your name?" "Who are you?" "Why are you on FlameClan territory?" I heard the bickering of my companions pressuring the cat, but it only seemed to make the cat flatten in fear.

"Er... My name is Sydney... I-I'm a kittypet and I'm here because... Err..." She trailed off, looking mischievous about something.

A few moments passed and she still didn't finish.

I was staring at her, and I could feel my eyes widen in disbelief.

Sydney is... Alive?

(Hey Batcats!
*applause* Oh, thank you thank you! I know I did my duty to update!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chappie.
I sure did :3
Isn't it weird that Sydney isn't dead...? And how she knows what kittypet is?
And Cleardawn's dream was wrong?
Tell me your theories in the comments!
Thanks for reading, commenting, sharing and voting for this story!
Thanks to you I'm almost at 700 votes and I have 7k reads!
YAY!
Love you guys and all your support!
Peace ✌🏽️~Cleo)