Omen of the Sun Book Three: Dusk

Chapter Forty-Three

Rainpaw

Rainpaw had been asleep. That lasted not very long, as she was awoken almost as soon as she had closed her eyes (or so it felt, anyway) but she leaped up as soon as she heard Wasp. "Sunpool! Sunpool!"

Rainpaw made her way out into the clearing, where Wasp, Bone, and Enamel were all standing, panting. Sunpool came out from her den, along with every cat in the camp. Soon, a small circle had formed around the three cats.

"What's wrong, Wasp?" Sunpool demanded.

"We were just at the CloudClan border," Wasp panted. "A-and there was a group of cats. CloudClan. The one in the lead was a silver tabby. They were looking for someone, and then they pulled a body out of the bushes and said that you killed the cat! And then the silver tabby said they were going to attack us at dusk."

"I didn't kill anyone," Sunpool murmured. Then, louder, she said, "But that was Applestar. She... she's the cat I warned you all about. She's going to attack us."

Instantly, a loud murmuring broke out in the Clan, tainted with the sound of worried shouts. Sunpool made a hushing gesture. "If she's going to attack at dusk, that's only a little bit from now. We can't take all of CloudClan on our own; we're going to need some help."

"Maybe ours?"

Rainpaw whipped around. Who's that? A silvery-gray she-cat was standing at the entrance. A Clan's worth of cats was standing behind her.

"Minnowflight!" Cheetahstar said, rushing forward. Jayflight followed suit. "Are you-"

"Here to help? Yep," Minnowflight meowed. She puffed out her chest. "Eventually, we realized that we were going against the Warrior Code by leaving you alone. We were supposed to follow you, and we didn't. We're sorry, Cheetahstar, Jayflight." She caught sight of Mistpaw, trying to break through the crowd. "And Mistpaw."

"Well, I assume you heard everything," Sunpool said.

Minnowflight nodded.

"And you're going to help us?"

Minnowflight nodded again.

"Then come on. Come in, get acquainted." Sunpool glanced at the sky. "Dusk will be soon. Everybody, meet for a group meeting in a few moments. I want to go over our battle plan."

Rainpaw slipped into the crowd of rogues and CloudClan cats as they moved forward to meet the FlowerClan cats. She introduced herself a few times, barely paying attention, because how many of them would actually survive this battle? How many of them would return? How many would she see again? Emberpaw's death had made her reconsider life and love and trust. Anyone could leave her at any time and that thought terrified her.

Finally, Sunpool stopped every cat. "Alright. Here's the battle plan. I want the groups to split and form two patrols. One patrol will guard the borders, and the other will guard the camp. There will also be cats who'll go and run messages and support the patrols if they need help. It's a simple battle plan, but it's effective. Applestar's cats will most likely go for the throat and try to kill. Maybe not all of them, but some of hem definitely will. Make sure you can defend your throats. Try to be honorable, but if they go for a killing blow, then..." Sunpool swallowed nervously. "I hate to say kill, but... well, cats are going to die tonight. And as much as I hope to dear StarClan it's none of you, I know that a few cats here may die. And I'm so sorry for that."

"We are loyal to you!" Enamel shouted, and the rest of the cats took up the chant. Rainpaw followed suit, determined to do her very hardest to fight. Whiteswirl, and Emberpaw, both cats who shouldn't have died- she owed them tonight. To avenge them. This may be her only chance, and she needed to know that she did some good for them. Rainpaw's heart hardened. Revenge. It was coming.

"Alright. Everyone split into the groups. I'll do my group, and Minnowflight, Jayflight, and Cheetahstar, you can do FlowerClan." Sunpool cast a glance up at the rapidly darkening sky. "Quickly now, dusk will be any moment now."

She leaped into the crowd and herded her group over to the side. Cheetahstar, Minnowflight, and Jayflight began working on their portion. Rainpaw turned and headed into the crowd.

She slipped through and found her sisters, who were towards the back. She stood next to them, with Briarpaw in the middle. "This is it," Fernpaw murmured.

"We... we can avenge Emberpaw tonight. We can make sure she didn't die in vain," Rainpaw replied quietly.

"We will," Briarpaw said firmly. "Our mother... Applestar. She's not our mother anymore. Applestar won't know what hurt her." Her voice wavered only a small bit, and Rainpaw was suddenly struck by how alone they really had been for a while. Now that they had Goldleaf back, it wasn't all that bad, but there had been points when they had been fatherless.

Rainpaw never wanted to feel that way again.

Sunpool said, "Okay. Lightningfeather, and Cinderstorm, go over there. You'll be the border patrol. Goldleaf, you go over here-" she gestured with her tail to two points on either side of her, "and you'll be the camp defense. Enamel and Fern, you two go on the camp defense. Wasp, Eagle, border. Mistpaw, camp. Bone, camp. And me, Storm, Rainpaw, Fernpaw, and Briarpaw will be runners. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but FlowerClan will help make up for it. And anyway, CloudClan is something we can take."

Cheetahstar padded over. Sunpool turned to him and said, "Are you ready?"

"Yes, we are." Cheetahstar waved the two groups over, and they padded over. Sunpool directed them to their respective groups. They still didn't look all that impressive, but Rainpaw forced herself to hope. We will survive this.

Briarpaw glanced up at the sky, and sucked in a breath. "Guys. It's dusk... They'll be coming any moment now."

"We're ready-" Rainpaw started to say, but she was cut off by a series of loud, cracking sounds.

She jerked her gaze up to the sky, where it seemed that they had come from. The sky... what was wrong with the sky? It was dark, but it was exploding with bursts of colors. Reds and blues and greens lit up Silverpelt like multicolored, exploding stars. Rainpaw watched, transfixed, as the sky cracked and popped and whizzed. Every few heartbeats, the current colors would fade and be replaced by an even more magnificent show.

"It's an omen!" Jayflight cried. "StarClan is saying-"

But he was cut off by a chorus of faint yowls from the distance.

"They're coming!" Sunpool meowed. "Patrols, assemble! Lead out!"

As the border patrol began to make their way out, Sunpool directed the cats selected to stay and protect the camp.

"They'll be heading directly for the medicine den, so I want Fern and Enamel and Goldleaf to guard that. Be careful. Bone, you go and get herbs ready." She faced the foul of cats. "It is our time."

eYYYY IT'S MEEEEE

THE BATTLE (part one) IS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!

I'M SUPER EXCITED! THIS BOOK IS SO CLOSE!

ALSO I MIGHT BE GETTING TROYE SIVAN TICKETS (yASSS) and #TenSleepsTillBlueNeighbourhood !1!1!1

And yes I accidentally published half of this chapter yesterday oops oops

~✨🐱✨ Rainfeather ✨🐱✨