Warriors: Rosetail's Promise

Chapter 2

Ravenwing returned to her den alone. Cherrystar's words haunted her, even though she was sure the dreams had nothing to do with StarClan. She lied down on her bed and sighed.

Why did I have to get myself involved in this mess? I wish herbs could fix the leader's tortured mind. Ravenwing yawned. It was barely sunhigh and the day was already so long.

Suddenly she heard something. Her ears pricked and she got up. It had gotten silent, but it was right outside. She edged out slowly. What if it was one of those strange cats that couldn't leave SunClan alone?

Something ran right past her. Ravenwing turned around as quick as she could and saw, indeed, another cat. But this one was just a kit. It seemed more scared of Ravenwing than she was of it, backed up against the wall of the medicine cat's den.

"It's alright," Ravenwing assured the young cat. "I'm not going to hurt you." This actually worked, the kit let the medicine cat walk right up to her.

"You talk much?" Ravenwing asked the kit. She said nothing, and seemed to be staring right through Ravenwing with her pale blue eyes. They seemed to glow, and add her snowy pelt and Ravenwing could almost mistake her for a StarClan cat.

"I'm gonna need to tell Cherryst--" Ravenwing began, and the kit finally responded. She ran up to Ravenwing and pawed at her with wide eyes, fur bristling. "I'm sorry, but it's a Clan rule," Ravenwing said. "Though how you slipped past both the border and hunting patrols, I have no idea. Do you want to come with me?" The kit eased up at this and walked to the exit of the den.

"Alright," Ravenwing said. "Come on." Ravenwing led the kit to and around the hill at the edge of the camp. "Last I remember, Cherrystar was somewhere around--"

"Here?" Frozentail said. He was alone, but the deputy would be able to tell Cherrystar later. "I see you've got a visitor. I trust she isn't of any harm?"

"No," Ravenwing said. "She tried to run away from me, and I have almost no battle experience!" Both Clan cats mrrowed in amusement. The loner stayed silent.

"She doesn't talk much, does she?" Frozentail said.

"No. I still don't know her name. Maybe she'll tell me later. Do you think she can stay with us?"

"Probably. She doesn't even look old enough to be an apprentice. I can't imagine what it'd be like for her outside the camp."

"Good. Can you tell Cherrystar about it?"

"Yeah," Frozentail said. "I'm not sure how she'd react to that, though. She definitely wants to keep the border strict."

"I hope she'll let her stay," Ravenwing said. "She looks like she hasn't eaten in half a moon."

"I know," Frozentail said. "See you around?"

"Yeah. Come on," Ravenwing told the loner. They walked back to the den.

"You fine with staying here? I have to go get some herbs for the stock. Wait, what am I kidding? That's Maplepaw's job." As if on cue, Maplepaw walked into the den.

"What about me?" Maplepaw asked. At the moment, she was being trained mostly by Ravenwing, because Lilacpelt had kits two moons earlier.

"We need more herbs," Ravenwing said. "Particularly marigold. You feeling up to that?"

"Yeah," Maplepaw said with a sigh. She didn't like having to fetch things for Ravenwing. "Who's that?" Maplepaw asked, in reference to the snow-colored cat staring at the wall.

"I don't know her name," Ravenwing said. "She just came up here, probably not expecting a big cat like myself to find her. And yes, I already told Frozentail."