Adderfern leapt down and bit into the mouse's neck. She picked up the fat grey rodent and stored it in a crack in the rock. She looked over to see if Dustpaw was following. "Dustpaw?" She called when he didn't follow. "Dustpaw." She bounded back to the crack they stored their prey in. "Dustpaw!" She hissed angrily. He anger faded to pride when she saw the falcon he had. "Nice catch." She nodded.
"Shall we bring this back to camp?" He asked waving his tail at the two voles, four mice, pigeon, falcon, and rabbit they caught. "We've been out since dawn and it's almost sunhigh." He said picking up the falcon two mice and rabbit. Adderfern grabbed two mice the pigeon and the voles and started home.
~*~
"How come Dustpaw got to go hunting!" Shrewpaw complained.
"Because he has a fun mentor." Adderfern said flicking her tail across Shrewpaws ears. "Come on Dustpaw. Let's give this to the elders and queens." She padded away to the elders, with four mice dangling by their tails, in her jaws.
"Why thank you!" Weedfoot rumbled. He and Sagefoot bit into a mouse and devoured it quickly.
"Thank you, Dustpaw. And tell Adderfern Ravenpaw caught a falcon on his first try today." Adderfern heard Duskclaw whisper from the next cave. Adderfern turned around to go into the nursery and saw Ravenpaw racing straight towards her.
"Whoa! Slow down Ravenpaw." She purred as he skidded to a halt sending pebbles flying.
"Want to share the falcon I caught with me, Birchpaw, and Mistypaw?" He asked. His eyes were gleaming with pride.
"Yes." Adderfern said padding over to the apprentices. She sat down and took a bite of the falcon. The warm smell made her mouth water. "Thanks for sharing with me but your mentors probably want you now." She said standing up.
The three cats scurried away quickly and left Adderfern by herself. Adderfern sighed and padded over to the Drinking Pool. She bent down to lap up some water. "Stonestar! Velvetstar! Redstar! Pebblestar! I have news!" Featherwhisker bounded out of the medicine cave and was looking around the clearing.
"What's wrong?" Velvetstar asked demandingly. She looked at Featherwhisker. The other medicine cats came out after him. Tawnyspot came out after his mentor and stood next to him.
"We got a sign!" The tabby tom meowed dipping his head when he saw Velvetstar. Pebblestar came through the entrance. His pelt was plastered to his sides with mud and water.
"What's wrong?" He asked the brown leader.
"Starclan gave them a sign. I don't know what it's about but they had one." She said flicking her tail at the six cats standing in front of them.
Snowfrost, the former Riverclan medicine cat, stepped forward. "It's was my dream and then we all saw a sign." She meowed shyly.
"She told us about it. May we tell you and your best Warriors please?" Tawnyspot asked stepping forward to stand by Snowfrost.
"Yes. I shall get Stonestar. Pebblestar check on Redstar and see if he's okay. If so bring him." She meowed flicking her tail to the Leader Cave. She padded out of the camp. Adderfern sat down and watched as the medicine cats filed into their large cave and sat down.
Stonestar came into the camp and flicked Bluestorm with his tail. He said something to her and she followed him over to Adderfern. "You two are coming to hear what the medicine cats have to say. Bluestorm, get Robinflight too." He meowed.
Velvetstar padded into the Medicine Cave and Froststripe, Featherpool, and Quailfeather followed her. Redstar limped past with Pebblestar, they each brought two Warriors. Hazelclaw padded behind them with Gooseclaw and Heathertail. The last warrior came past and scowled at Adderfern. "Thrushstripe." She spat crossly. She looked away.
"Adder-fail." He snapped. He disappeared into the den and Adderfern followed Stonetail, Bluestorm, and Robinflight. They all sat down and directed their attention to the medicine cats.
"Well..." Snowfrost started. "I had a dream. It was four cats standing on a huge rock and cats gathered below like at gatherings. What's weird is we all are one clan now."
"But, just yesterday we saw a rock fall from the roof of the cave," Tawnyspot started.
"We saw sunlight come through and hit it," Featherwhisker continued.
"The rock was shaped like a moon," Russetclaw rasped.
"And then a snake came in and curled around the rock hissing at us and showing its fangs." Ivypaw meowed, finishing the sentence. "When the snake left it left a scale and there was venom on it."
"We think it means there are three other clans in the mountains. Viperclan, Sunclan, Stoneclan, and Moonclan. Us." The oldest medicine cat, the former medicine cat of Windclan said. "And four cats must find them." She looked at Adderfern, Quailfeather, Gooseclaw, and Heathertail. The cats looked at each other awkwardly. "You must journey to find the Clans and convince them to come here so we can make borders and a gathering place." The old shecat continued.
