Ravenblaze's Determination [Warrior Cats Fanfiction]

Chapter 9

The whole Clan was suddenly in a huge commotion. They all knew that the queen's litter would arrive very soon, but none of them had really been preparing for it to occur at any given moment.

Maplepaw padded frantically around the nursery entrance while Dawnripple rushed inside. Maplepaw showed a faint flicker of relief when he saw Brokenflower limping over from the medicine den. The two medicine cats hurried inside the nursery, next to one another.

Some cats were a good distance from the nursery to give Streamwater and Athena their space. But space for the former kittypet mother was unnecessary — the brown dappled she-cat and her kits wearily stumbled outside into the camp clearing. Athena, at least, must have been sleeping.

Ravenblaze felt herself being pushed forward unintentionally by other cats who hoped to catch a glance of the newborn kits. Soon, she found herself looking at a very exhausted silver queen and one very tiny pale gray scrap besides her enlarged belly.

"What a cute she-kit, Streamwater!" Maplepaw gasped as he helped Dawnripple and Brokenflower helping Streamwater deliver the kits.

Ravenblaze didn't want to watch the rest of the birth. She managed to squeeze through the crowd of her Clanmates and walked as far away from them as she could. I'll never want to have kits, she thought, Who would want to stay stuck in the nursery for all those moons when there's work to be done for the Clan?

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Rain splattered on the already wet, muddy moorland, scaring away any prey that Ravenblaze could have caught on any other day. So much for hunting today, she thought as she sat underneath a tree, as the warm wind rustled through Ravenblaze's thick fur and the dripping grass-green tree leaves.

Suddenly, she heard a soft chirping noise. Ravenblaze looked up to hear the source of the noise.

A few tail-lengths above her head sat a thickly woven bird's nest on one of the many tree branches. From the sound of the chirping, Ravenblaze could assume that there were young birds in the nest, and their mother was due to return soon with their food.

Sure enough, Ravenblaze watched as a robin fluttered from the sky and onto the rim of the nest, and quickly acted. She unsheathed her claws and began to claw her way up the darkened tree bark as quietly as possible, the wind hopefully carrying her scent away. Ravenblaze slithered onto a branch a bit lower than the branch with the nest on it, and her branch was directly underneath the other, so she had a clearer view of the scene.

The young birds would surely have no chance of survival if Ravenblaze were to pounce at them. But three undersized birds would not be much use to the Clan. Maybe if she succeeded in killing their mother, she'd take her young as well.

The mother bird had finished feeding her offspring, and turned to fly away once more. But just as she was about to, Ravenblaze pounced, claws unsheathed, all focus aimed at the bird as it was startled and fluttered away. Ravenblaze managed to hook a few claws on one of her paws onto the bird's tail feathers, and the bird came cascading with the warrior to the soaked earth. The two landed with a small thud, Ravenblaze on her mud-stained white paws, and kept one forepaw on her soon-to-be prey. She lowered her head and nipped the struggling bird's neck, snapping it and killing her fresh-kill.

Ravenblaze lifted her catch, pleased with herself for managing to catch something in this weather. She set the bird by the base of the tree and began to climb the bark again, enjoying the rain as it cooled her down, listening to the chirps of the young birds, now motherless.

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The rain was beginning to subside, and behind some gray clouds, the pale sunlight poked out. The soft breeze lingered in the air alongside the moist heat as a soaked she-cat walked into SnowClan camp, four robins, one grown and three young, clamped between her jaws.