Warrior Cats: The Thistle and the Feather

Chapter 8

   Thistlestorm sat uncomfortably next to his sister, Featherwing. Newly made warriors, they must sit vigil to watch over the camp. He looked up, only moonhigh. He hissed under his breath, this was boring!

   "Be quiet, Thistlestorm. We're protecting our camp, that's all that matters," Featherwing whispered.

   A sound comes from the brush, it has both the warriors' attention. Three pairs of eyes stare back at them, a whisper, "We come from far away land, may we talk to you?"

   Thistlestorm looks at Featherwing, she just shrugs, "Come out," Thistlestorm says hoarsely.

   Three cats come out of the bushes, one of them is a brown tabby tom with gray eyes. Next to him is a tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes, and the smallest of the three is a gray tabby she-cat with sightless blue eyes.

   "I'm Shadow," The brown tabby announces, his eyes glittering with moonlight, "These are my sisters, Dawn, and Hawk."

   In the order he directs his tail, the tortoiseshell is Dawn, and the blind one is Hawk.

   Hawk hisses, "You don't have to stare!"

   Featherwing looks down at her paws, "Sorry!"

   Thistlestorm curls his lip, "Be quiet! We're on our vigil!"

   Cocking her head, Dawn asks, "What's a... vigil?"

   The tom snarls, "Don't you know what a vigil is? Where do you come from anyway?"

   Shadow shuffles his paws, "We come from a place filled with bad memories. Our parents went to StarClan quite some seasons ago."

   Thistlestorm immediately remembered the dream he had earlier. Shadow... has he been reincarnated?! "Prove to us we can trust you. There is an evil Shadow lurking the Dark Forest, do you know of him?"

   Shadow flinched, "I do. I was named after him, my mother said I resembled the honest courage that he used to have."

   Featherwing stared at her brother awkwardly, "Where are you getting all these questions?"

   "A dream that I had earlier," He murmured then turned back to the three, "What are your parents' names?"

   "Crag is our father, Echodusk is our mother," Dawn replied solemnly.

   "Was," Hawk corrected.

   Thistlestorm's eyes widened, "I saw them in my dream! They said something about-" The warrior is cut off abruptly by a sudden shaking in the ground, he couldn't keep his paws steady!

   He hissed, "What is this!" The cats in camp started yowling in terror.

   "An earthquake," Hawk replied calmly, "Take shelter." Then the siblings ran off.

   "Take shelter!" Yowled Thistlestorm.

   Cats were running around, frightened by the sudden movement of the ground. Featherwing looked around franticly, "In the leader's den!" 

   Too panicked to question orders, everyone ran inside, desperate for shelter. Thistlestorm was seemingly the only cat outside the den. He was checking all the dens to make sure every cat was safe. Alas, he entered the elder's den, Darkclaw was still in there! Snoring as loud as a badger roared. A tree near the den creaked, it was going to fall! Thistlestorm raced inside.

   "Darkclaw! Darkclaw, get up! There's a great shaking!" He yowled.

   The snoring stopped, "Wha?"

   "Get up! Come on!" He urged.

   "Why? You need to do my ticks first," she murmured.

   The tree was even closer to fall, "You're going to die if you don't move!"

   It snapped. Quick to react, Thistlestorm grabbed her scruff and tried to run out, but she hissed, "I can get out on my own!" 

   Thistlestorm yowled as the den crushed into splinters, nothing but a tree on top of it.

   *()*()*()*()*()*

   The shaking stopped. Rain poured down from the darkened sky, and gradually the warriors came out to help move the fallen tree. It took almost the whole night, until they uncovered the still body of their only elder.

   "She's dead," Thistlestorm choked, "I was too late!"

   Featherwing brushed up against him, "There's nothing you could have done."

   "Instead of just coaxing her to get up, I should've just grabbed her and left as soon as I could," He buried his head in his paws, "She's dead. And it's because of me."

   Nettlestar settled his tail on Thistlestorm's shoulder, "You did everything you could, I'm sure Darkclaw is happy that you tried to move past her grumpiness."

   A yowl. Thistlestorm snapped around, Pikepaw was on the ground, bleeding. "What is going on!?"

   Pikepaw yowled again as a black silhouette flashed by, deepening his cut. Gorsestorm and Flowerpaw ran over, trying to help her brother. 

   "Psst!" Gray eyes glowed in the bushes, "Come here!"

   Thistlestorm flicked his tail to Featherwing, they both ran over and hid in the bushes with the three siblings.

   "There's something odd going on!" Thistlestorm whispered.

   Shadow narrowed his eyes, "It's nothing odd. It's a powerful force of darkness, it's everything compared to the dark forest. Their leader... is BigTooth. A large, powerful cat with a horrendous overbite!"

   Hawk hissed, "That's not what it is!"

   Dawn snapped at both of them, "Nobody knows what this is!"

   A star bounced on each of the cats' noses, it then bounced away, "What was that?" Thistlestorm pawed at his muzzle.

   "We should follow it," Dawn murmured.

   The cats followed the star, it led them to the Gathering place. The star grew into a black figure, "I am Crowstar, former leader of LightningClan."

   Thistlestorm gaped, "Really?"

   Crowstar twitched his whiskers, "Yes," He looked at all the cats, "A great danger is coming, and only you can stop it. It's a power so strong, StarClan can't make a dent with it. But we can give you the strength."

   "What is this danger!?" Thistlestorm came closer to the starry figure.

   "Sleep now," Crowstar whispered, "You are safe for now." Then he faded away.