Warriors #1: Kittypet Clanborn

Chapter 13

"Great catch!" Thornclaw praised as I gave the squirrel I had pursued a killing bite.

I only nodded and grunted in gratitude, unable to speak with the prey in my mouth. I scanned the clearing, padded over to what looked like a good spot, and dug up my catch to collect later. Finally, I was able to turn back and meow to Thornclaw, "Thank you!"

I felt incredibly satisfied as I padded back over to Thornclaw and began to search for any more prey scent. The two of us certainly hadn't hunted for a while, but we were catching a lot of prey, thanks to the blessing of new leaf.

It had now been a couple of moons since the battle between all of the Clans, and while things were somewhat peaceful, the past two lunar cycles had been quite the whirlwind.

Soon after the battle with the eclipse, all four Clans had planned to gather for the full moon gathering, as they usually did. It had been my first gathering, and ThunderClan, RiverClan and WindClan had arrived there to find that ShadowClan was missing, and they never ended up showing.

Well, at least not the entire Clan.

Blackstar had the nerve to appear at the Gathering with Sol at his side, who Firestar had sent away soon after the eclipse battle, seeing him as a threat. Blackstar had announced that he and his Clan were no longer relying on StarClan for anything, they had lost faith in their warrior ancestors, and that they would no longer be attending Gatherings.

ThunderClan had held a Clan meeting to discuss it, confused as to how Blackstar could have fallen for Sol's words so easily, but the only conclusion we had come to was that hopefully StarClan would speak through Littlecloud or possibly Blackstar himself.

Since then, ThunderClan had simply tried to live their lives as usual, hoping that Blackstar would come to his senses soon enough. For example, Thornclaw and I were out on one of our typical hunting trips. The two of us tried to go out hunting and talking together every once in a while, just to get away from the rest of the Clan for a bit of the day.

Each time we went out together, I never wanted it to end. But, after a couple more catches, I knew that we should probably return to camp. Almost seeming to read my mind, Thornclaw began to dig up his catches and beckon me with his tail, a hint of sadness in his eyes. "As much as I don't want to, we should get back to camp now," he meowed.

I exchanged the sad look with him before turning around to dig up my own prey. "We certainly can't keep all of this prey to ourselves!" I purred jokingly as I dug up all of my prey, picked it up and ran to catch up with my mate.

As we started to walk back to camp, talking about whatever, I paused as I suddenly smelled something that set alarms off in my head. I alerted Thornclaw immediately by flicking my ears and whispering, "Do you smell that?" After a few more sniffs, I realized that it was the scent of ShadowClan! At least three cats! Absolutely angry that ShadowClan had seemed to intrude on our territory so carelessly, I began to follow the scent. I heard Thornclaw following close behind me. I could tell he had caught the scent as well just by looking at his bristling fur and gritted teeth.

We eventually stopped in front of a big bush of brambles, realizing that the scent of ShadowClan was very strong here.

My claws immediately unsheathed as the bramble bush rustled. I felt my fur then begin to bristle as three cats emerged from the brambles. They were fairly small, so I figured that they were apprentices.

One looked like Firestar, with a bright ginger pelt, one had pale ginger fur, and the other was a dark brown tabby.

I narrowed my eyes. "Who are you?" I tried to meow evenly despite my wariness. Lately I had surprised myself with how hostile I was with outside threats. My kittypet instincts disappear more and more with each passing day! I realized.

I raised my eyebrows as I saw Thornclaw's eyes widen. "These are Tawnypelt's kits!" He exclaimed. I looked at the cats then looked at him, confused.

"Who is Tawnypelt?" I asked him, tilting my head. Considering Thornclaw expected me to know who Tawnypelt was, I assumed she was supposed to be a pretty well-known cat.

"Tawnypelt's a ShadowClan cat," Thornclaw answered. He then let his gaze turn back to the three intruders "These three are Flamepaw, Dawnpaw, and Tigerpaw."

I nodded to them in greeting, already figuring that they weren't a threat by their stances.

I watched as Thornclaw then took a deep breath. His eyes were not blazing, but were filled with calmness and concern. Thornclaw may be known for being short-tempered at times, I thought, but he holds it together very well. "What are you doing on ThunderClan territory?" he asked the three younger cats, tilting his head.

The apprentice that Thornclaw had pointed out as Tigerpaw stepped forward in front of his siblings. "I think the other Clans know already," he began, "But Blackstar has insisted that we stop going to gatherings and believing in StarClan." he explained.

Thornclaw flicked his tail. "That's right," he muttered, exchanging an anxious glance with me. "He said that you all gave up on our warrior ancestors?"

Dawnpaw nodded, her eyes glowing with frustration. "It's absolutely ridiculous!" She hissed. "And all that it took was for that weird cat... Sol to talk him into it."

I shook my head slowly, feeling incredible sympathy for the three cats, and anyone else in ShadowClan that disagreed with Blackstar's orders but couldn't do anything about it. If Firestar ever tried to do what Blackstar is doing, I don't know how long I'd be able to stand it!

I took a step closer to the younger cats. Touching my nose to Dawnpaw's ear briefly, I meowed, "Is that why you all are here?"

The bright ginger tom, Flamepaw, dipped his head. "Yes," he answered. I felt a chill run my spine as he then murmured. "Sol is still there, turning Blackstar against our ancestors more and more with each sunrise."