Warriors of FoxClan

Ch. 7

Fawnpaw dreamed again but it was slightly different. She woke up in her dream thinking she was awake. "Shadowpaw? Frostfoot? Pinetail?" Fawnpaw called cautiously out into the chilly gloom. Of course there was no reply but the low whistle of wind in the trees.
Suddenly, a puff of dark smoke struck the ground like lightning, and what it left behind was another of those shadow cats with blazing white eyes. It smiled at her with wicked white fangs as long as a mouse tail. Fawnpaw did not trust this cat.
"Greetings, do not be afraid." The shadow purred in a silky voice. Fawnpaw blinked and it crossed the clearing.
"How did you move so fast!" Fawnpaw asked astonished that something so big could move with such speed.
Smiling, the shadow cat purred, "You can learn, but you must be loyal to me." It hissed that last part. Fawnpaw wanted to be able to move that fast, but she could also sense a dark evil competing from this cat. She will not trust the shadow with glowing eyes and fangs.
"And if I don't?" Fawnpaw asked boldly and shuffled a step back warily. The shadow looked surprised, but only for a flicker of an instant. Then it's dark face twisted into a ferocious scowl.
"You will regret this!" The cat hissed, it's eyes becoming a slight red glow. Bright light for claws were this cat's weapon. Fawnpaw could barely move as it leapt at her. One of the claws tore her ear, sending a flash of pure pain that woke her up from the nightmare.

Fawnpaw woke up in her den with her clanmates. Everyone else was asleep, looking calm and peaceful. Who was that cat? Fawnpaw worried. Then she noticed that her ear was tingling from some sort of pain. She remembered the shadow cat kept at her and clawed her ear.
"But that was just a dream...I shouldn't feel pain in the waking world!" Fawnpaw worried outloud.
The sun was almost up and the clan was starting to wake up. Fawnpaw quickly cleaned her ear before stepping outside into the freezing morning. Redstar was pacing outside his den with a scowl on his face. Even Amberclaw looked frightened. Fawnpaw went to Frostfoot to see if she could go hunting.
"Yes but bring Shadowpaw and Creampaw with you. And do not go anywhere near the boarders!" Frostfoot approved. Fawnpaw quickly gathered her friends and soon they were racing out and away from camp. Fawnpaw could see the crunchy silver frost clinging to the undergrowth.
"Ok, let's slow down and start looking." Creampaw panted. Fawnpaw and Shadowpaw slowed down to a walk next to Creampaw. Shadowpaw froze, then suddenly ran around a bolder and came back with a shrew.
"Good catch!" Creampaw commented. Fawnpaw nodded in agreement. The trio carried on after Shadowpaw hid his shrew under some brambles. "I wonder what that new clan is like?" Creampaw murmured. Fawnpaw pricked her ears, why did Creampaw want to know about the other clan? They were a threat! Fawnpaw opened her mouth to speak but Shadowpaw spoke up before her.
"Yeah, what did they say they called themselves? Stromclan? We should check it out!" Shadowpaw reasoned. Fawnpaw had an uneasy feeling in her gut.
"But Frostfoot-" she began before being cut off.
"Your right! We should spy on them, look for weakness! We would be protecting our clan." Creampaw smiled. Fawnpaw hung her head, she didn't like where this was going.
"But Frostfoot said to not go anywhere near the boarders," she spoke up. They either didn't hear her or didn't care. With a silent agreement both Shadowpaw and Creampaw dashed off to the Stromclan boarder. Flattening her ears she knew she couldn't leave her friends to the savage Stromclan.

Fawnpaw quickly followed Shadowpaw and Creampaw, sending a quick prayer to StarClan. She followed their sent until she came to the forbidden StormClan boarder. She looked around, for what she wasn't sure. Fawnpaw couldn't risk a StormClan patrol seeing her, nor an OakClan warrior seeing her so close to the boarder.
With a final quick breath, Fawnpaw hopped over the boarder. It was harder to pick out her clanmates' sents on this side, what with so many unfamiliar sights and smells. Shivering in fear, she walked towards the heart of the rival clan's territory. She made it to a small clearing in the dense forest, only three rabbit hops across, and the sent trail ended there.
Looking around frantically, Fawnpaw hissed Shadowpaw's and Creampaw's name. She nearly jumped out of her pale yellow fur when she heard a familiar hiss from above. Looking up into the branches of a willow, she could barely see Creampaw's pale fur in the top most branches. The apprentice flicked his tail in a signal for her to climb the willow, and quickly. Without hesitation, Fawnpaw climbed the tree.
No sooner had she settled on a branch a little below Creampaw did a patrol cross into the clearing.
"Where'd it go?" asked a dark tabby. A skinny white cat sniffed around the clearing.
"Maybe it doubled back?" suggested a silver tabby with a torn ear. The white cat looked around confused.
"Maybe," spat the dark tabby," or maybe not. At least we got one of the intruders." he finished with a growl. Shadowpaw! The other intruder was Shadowpaw! Fawnpaw was about to tackle the big tabby tom, but Creampaw twitched his tail in front if her face to warn her.
"Whatever, let's head back to camp. It's almost sunset and if we don't hurry, Hawkstar won't be happy," the silver tabby flicked an ear," come on Snowpaw." Then the three walked out of the clearing.
"We need to rescue Shadowpaw." Creampaw hissed from his hinging spot. Fawnpaw glared at him, if they didn't run off into hostile territory they wouldn't be in this mess, but she nodded in agreement.
Fawnpaw and Creampaw quickly climbed down to tree to follow Shadowpaw's captors. The StormClan warriors seemed over confident as they seemed to step on every branch or crunchy leaf in the forest. The two apprentices followed as quietly as possible, but Creampaw was a clumsy cat and tripped over three branches. On the third time he yelped. Fawnpaw whipped around to glare at him.
They finally cleared the forest and found a deep stream. Creampaw flicked his tail to point out the patrol crossing over a fallen pine tree. Sticking to the undergrowth and tall grass, the duo reached the tree fairly quickly. On the other side of the stream, Fawnpaw could just barely see a thicket of gorse.
"That must be their camp," she hissed to Creampaw.
"Then that's where we'll find Shadowpaw!" Creampaw mewed, then winced at his mistake for speaking to loudly. Fawnpaw gently swatted his ear. Then looking around, the apprentices started to cross the stream.
The bark on the pine was slippery and smooth. Fawnpaw felt exposed on the tree in enemy territory. She paused at every bounce and at one point Creampaw hissed at her to hurry up.
After what seemed like ages, the two set paw back on land. The smell of the StormClan cats was even stronger now. Creampaw wrinkled his nose at the unfamiliar stench. There was little to no cover on this side of the stream so the two had to stick to the shadows and reeds. Fawnpaw flinched at every other sound, worried about being seen. They finally made it to the gorse bush. "Now we just need to figure out where Shadowpaw is in the camp." Fawnpaw whispered.
"Let's wait till night, then we can sneak Shadowpaw outta here." Creampaw hissed back. So the two OakClan apprentices sat in the shadows of the Stromclan's camp and waited for nightfall.
Fawnpaw rested her head on her paws, watching the sun make slow progress across the sky. They had arrived that the StormClan camp just after sunhigh. It felt like ants were crawling through her pelt, she was so worried about being discovered by the enemy clan. Creampaw looked just as uneasy.
After what seemed like forever, the sun finally touched the western horizon. Now they just had to wait for the StormClan warriors to go to sleep so they could rescue Shafowpaw. The sky was slowly turning from dark purple to black, it was cloudy so there was little light. Then they herd a yowl.
Fear made both apprentices jump to their paws, have they been discovered? But luckily, no, they had not been sented, yet. It was just the leader of StormClan calling a meeting.
"All cats of StormClan gather for a meeting!" a deep voice called. There was the shuffle of paws and murmurs as cats found places to sit. The leader continued, "Thornstripe's patrol found this trespasser from that OakClan warned ring around our territory!" The leader spat the name 'OakClan' as if it was a rotten piece of prey. The warriors yowled their anger. Fawnpaw hoped they wouldn't shred Shadowpaw's pelt. "Now," the leader continued dramaticly, "what should we do with this foolish spy?"
"We should throw him into the river!" some cat yowled, many other unfortunately agreed with him. Creampaw shot Fawnpaw a worried glance.
"Hawkstar!" another voice challenged, "why not use the runt to out advantage? He must know the enemy's territory well and all their secrets, and" here the cat paused for effect," their weaknesses." This got the clan interested. But one voice rose above the others.
"Never! I'll never tell you flea-bitten rats anything!" spat a familiar voice. Shadowpaw! He was alive, hopefully unharmed. Fawnpaw thought, feeling a flutter of hope. The StormClan cats growled at Shadowpaw.
"Fine, if the little runt won't tell us anything, we can still use him to gain more territory." the same voice rasped. Fawnpaw could hear the persuasion in his voice.
"You make sense as always Moonclaw. We will keep the runt until we sort out a deal with the OakClan cats," Hawkstar said.
"Icepaw! Keep an eye on the OakClan spy," Hawkstar commanded then finished the meeting. Fawnpaw could hear cats walking to their dens or talking amongst each other. It was a long time before the StormClan camp was silent with a snore here and there. Flicking her ears towards the camp, Fawnpaw signaled it was time to get Shadowpaw back.
Stalking through the shadows around the camp, Fawnpaw praised StarClan for the fact that it was a cloudy moonless night. The two apprentices made it to the camp's main entrance, where a tall white cat stood guard. Creampaw twitched his whiskers and the two moved back away from the entrance. Fawnpaw found a break in the barrier. The two slipped through and into the warriors' den.
Fear and panic swept through Fawnpaw as she stepped lightly around the enemy's paws and tails. Fawnpaw cleared the den and slipped into a dark corner. Creampaw quickly followed. In the center of the camp was Shadowpaw and that skinny white cat from the patrol. That must be Icepaw, Fawnpaw thought to herself. She was glad to see that Shadowpaw appeared uninjured. "Ok, here's what we do. You tackle that Icepaw there and make sure he can't sound an alarm. I'll get Shadowpaw outta here, then you knock Icepaw out and follow me." Fawnpaw whispered quietly into Creampaw's ear. Creampaw nodded, a look of determination on his face.
"On the count of three. One, two...three!" The two apprentices launched themselves into the clearing, Icepaw's back was turned so he didn't know what hit him. Creampaw tackled him and held the white cat's muzzle in the dirt. Shadowpaw jumped to his paws, eyes shining gratefully.
Then, Icepaw threw Creampaw off of him.
"I can help you escape." Icepaw hissed just before Shadowpaw and Creampaw pinned him to the ground.
"Why would you want to do that?" Fawnpaw snarled.
"I hate Hawkstar, he's a bully to us. I want to join OakClan." Icepaw growled back. The three OakClan apprentices shared shocked and confused looks. "Let me come with you, please." Icepaw begged. Fawnpaw wasn't sure they should trust this cat, but then she saw the pleading look laced with fear in his eyes.
"Ok," she bowed her head,"you can come with us."