Warriors #2: Warrior Rising

Chapter 22

Lilypetal's POV

Goldenpaw stared absolutely wide-eyed as we, Leafpool and Squirrelflight mainly, explained everything that had happened. Not only did they summarize what had happened at the Gathering, but what had happened from the very beginning - Leafpool falling in love with Crowfeather, running away with him, finding out she was expecting his kits, escaping with Squirrelflight so that Leafpool could give birth... absolutely everything that had happened up until now.

At first, I was very surprised that Leafpool and Squirrelflight were going into so much detail, but I then realized that they had been hiding all of this from everybody. All of this had been swarming in their heads for moons now, and it probably just felt incredibly relieving to throw it all out to someone.

And luckily, Goldenpaw was a good cat to do it to, and I couldn't help but well up with pride as I watched her. Although she was known to be quite the talker, she was a phenomenal listener, only putting her word in when she had a question.

Eventually, Leafpool let out a sigh as she closed it off, having just finished telling Goldenpaw the background behind the confrontation in the medicine den. The former medicine cat then let her head hang down limply, exhausted, almost as if she had just released a lot of tension from her body.

"Wow," Goldenpaw breathed. "Wow. Thank you for telling me. I can't believe you did tell me!" Goldenpaw squealed, but then dipped her head, containing herself once again. "I'm am so sorry for what you went through... and that Hollyleaf revealed everything that way..."

Something that Goldenpaw said clearly had struck Leafpool, her ears shooting up.

"Hollyleaf!" She exclaimed, whipping her head up to look at Goldenpaw. "Where's Hollyleaf? Where did she go after I left the medicine den?"

Goldenpaw's eyes widened, obviously surprised by Leafpool's sudden interrogation. "Well, she left camp," she answered, her voice shaking slightly. "I don't know why."

"Why would she leave?" Leafpool meowed worriedly, bursting through the bushes and into the camp clearing. By now, ThunderClan had returned, and a few cats glanced confusedly over as Leafpool appeared, me, Squirrelflight and Goldenpaw right behind her.

"Maybe she just left to take a walk?" Squirrelflight suggested, trying to calm her sister down. "She could be back at any moment."

"Hey!" A new voice meowed, and I turned my head slightly to see Snowpaw approaching us, her pale blue eyes curious as they usually were.

I padded up to touch noses with my daughter. "Have you seen Hollyleaf?" I asked Snowpaw once I pulled away. "Has she come back?"

I sighed with dismay as Snowpaw shook her head. "I haven't seen her, and she hasn't come back," she mewed apologetically.

Foxdung! I cursed to myself. I have a bad feeling about this. I then turned to look at Squirrelflight and Leafpool. "Should we go and look for her?" I asked the two sisters.

My eyes widened as Leafpool simply shrugged, lowering her head once again. "I'm not going to," she admitted solemnly. "I need to keep my distance for a while. I'm sure Hollyleaf wants nothing to do with me."

"Not with me, though!"

I gasped as suddenly a golden blur flashed past me, and before I even knew what was happening, Goldenpaw's tail was disappearing through the camp entrance.

"No!" I yowled after her, finding that my paws were following soon enough. "Get back here, right now!"

Almost as I was speaking, I knew that my commands would be pointless. As I arrived at the camp entrance, I could just barely hear footsteps behind me. So, I skidded to a halt and turned around to see that Snowpaw was right on my tail.

I panted, shaking my head quickly at my daughter. "Snowpaw, no," I breathed to her. "I'll deal with your sister. Stay right here." I don't want my other kit throwing herself into danger if I can help it. So, I tried to think up something as quickly as I could to convince Snowpaw to stay behind.

Thank StarClan, I was able to take advantage of Snowpaw's fantasy of wanting to become a medicine cat. I nodded to the medicine den, keeping my gaze on Snowpaw. "Stay here and watch the medicine den, would you?" I meowed to her pleadingly. "Don't worry, we will be back soon."

Snowpaw didn't argue, in fact, her eyes just briefly glistened with excitement and determination before she gave me a nod and turned to pad to the medicine den.

Once I was sure that Snowpaw was inside, I whipped around and pelted out of camp, hoping that I could catch up to Goldenpaw before she got herself into some kind of trouble. One thing that Goldenpaw certainly doesn't share with Thornclaw or me is her annoying amount of impulsiveness, I realized. I really hope that Hollyleaf doesn't hurt her...

I felt as quick as a WindClan warrior as I leaped over bushes and dodged several trees. But I felt as if I was gasping for breath once Goldenpaw caught my sight. She almost seemed to be running as if her life depended on it, clearly knowing where she wanted to go. As I tried my hardest to catch up with her, I realized that not only was I following Goldenpaw, but the scent trails of Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf.

They've gone this way, I thought. I'm sure that Goldenpaw is trying to follow this trail.

I pelted even faster with the hope that I might be able to run side by side with Goldenpaw. I'm not going to let her face, whatever she's going to, alone. But, unfortunately I had focused too much at looking straight ahead at Goldenpaw for the moment, and I let out a yelp as I suddenly tripped on a tree root and fell flat on my face.

"Foxdung! Foxdung!" I cursed out loud, heaving myself back up. "Great StarClan almighty."

I immediately sprang back up and let out a huff, seeing that Goldenpaw had now been able to run way ahead of me, and she was nowhere in sight.

I took a deep breath before bursting into a run once again, continuing to follow the same scent trail.

After several heartbeats, I found myself nearly falling on my face again as I suddenly had to stop faster than I had in my entire life.

I had found Goldenpaw, and she was standing next to Lionblaze and Jayfeather. They were all shouting down at something.

Oh, no. What's going on? I wondered fearfully. I padded up quickly to stand beside Goldenpaw to see that the three of them had been standing in front of one of the old ThunderClan tunnels.

Where's Hollyleaf? I thought, trying to push down my panic. Is she down there? Oh, StarClan no...

"Hollyleaf, no!" Jayfeather shouted into the tunnels, confirming my suspicions. "We can figure this out together-"

I gasped as Jayfeather's meow was then cut off by a deafening rumble, and I looked down to find a horrifying sight.

The tunnel below was beginning to collapse on Hollyleaf right in front of us.