Dawnstar's Trouble {COMPLETE}

Chapter 44

The sky was empty, not a single star, just darkness. Dawnstar's eyes searched the sky for any sign of StarClan, but Silverpelt had seemingly vanished. The only thing in the sky was the half-moon, but it wasn't glowing very brightly. Dawnstar removed her eyes from the sky and tried to figure out where she was. Without the light of the the stars and moon, she could barely make out any of her surroundings. She extended her claws and learned she was standing in grass, she sniffed the air but couldn't smell anything familiar.

Dawnstar took a cautious step forward, dead grass crunched under the weight of her paws. With a flick of her tail, Dawnstar moved forward making sure to test every step. There was no sound other than her breathing and pawsteps which she tried to keep quiet just in case any cats were lurking around. Dawnstar kept herself low to the ground, unease prickled up her spine. Something wasn't right.

"Scared, Dawnstar?" A voice whispered in her ear. Dawnstar lept forward in alarm, claws extended and teeth bared. A cat she had never seen before stood before her, he was a large cat with a long winding scar down his foreleg and another one across the bridge of his nose. His amber eyes were dark and full of malice.

"Who are you?" Dawnstar demanded, standing up tall. She had no idea who this cat was, but he had the same pale brown pelt as Thornstar.

"I thought you were supposed to be smart." He sneered. "It should be obvious, you named your kit after me."

Dawnstar's ears flattened. "Falconclaw." She growled his name, the name that had been avoided in SunClan.

"So hostile." He flicked his tail. "I figured you'd be happy to see me, you did name your son after me afterall."

"We named him that so SunClan could forget your name!" Dawnstar spat, jumping in defense of her son.

The scene around Dawnstar and Falconclaw changed, they were suddenly in the SunTree, Dawnstar saw herself curled up with Lionclaw, Honeykit and Falconkit were lying on top of each other as they always did. "Your son is young, but he could choose any path he wants. Maybe he'll realize that his mother is a fool."

"Stay away from my kit!" Dawnstar swiped at Falconclaw, he quickly ducked out of the way. She noticed Falconkit twitch, as if he had heard her shout.

"Calm down, Dawnstar." He chuckled. "Don't want to wake your son." Dawnstar stood protectively over her two kits, Falconclaw shook his head. "Watch your back Dawnstar, because just as your precious Flowerstar said...there's a storm coming and I'd hate to see you fail so miserably." Falconclaw's body began to fade, and Dawnstar was sitting up in her den. Her eyes instantly went to Honeykit and Falconkit, both were sleeping soundly. She let out a quiet sigh and pulled her kits closer to her, Falconkit let out a mew of complaint but didn't wake up.

"Don't worry, Falconkit..." She whispered. "I won't let anything touch you, I promise. Not Thornstar, not Falconclaw...no one. I'll protect you." She nuzzled her son and fell into a restless, and dreamless sleep.

Dawnstar slept for a while more, and when she woke up she heard Honeykit and Falconkit playing outside, Lionclaw had already left the den. She stood up and stretched her limbs, letting out a yawn. Her dream with Falconclaw still pricked at her pelt, but she tried to shake it off. She made her way out of her den and looked into the camp. It was just before sunhigh and the camp was lively, the warriors den had been completely repaired and even expanded to welcome the AshClan warriors into it. They had been welcomed and accepted into SunClan and even seemed like normal members. Cherrypaw and Briarpaw also fit right in, they were glad to be back with the friends they had as kits and their mentors were training them well.

Briarpaw was still a bit skittish, but she was being a lot more friendly with the other apprentices, Dawnstar knew she had picked Yarrowtail well. They already had a bit of training in AshClan, but they were taught to be ruthless and they had to learn how to fight in SunClan, Cherrypaw struggled more so with that but she was coming along well.