Warriors: War of the Clans - Darkness

Chapter 1

Fox woke up blinking in the morning light. He hadn't realized he had fallen asleep, by their mother's body. Something told him that it was not safe here, that Fox, Hollow, and Milk had to leave right now. He believed it.

He shook Hollow and Milk awake. They looked one last time at their mother, who looked small in death. Off in the distance, an inkey brew was boiling, coming their way, like the storm they were born in. Fox and his siblings padded away from their mother, who they had thought would be with them forever, never leave them no matter what. But that creature seemed to not count as 'what.'

Fox tried to remember some of her lessons. Sheltering... Hunting... they had never gotten around to hunting. They had been raised on milk before this moment. Now they were tossed into a wilderness where they didn't know what to do or where to go. Fox decided that they needed to find food first. What did Mum do when she hunted? Go into a crouch... then stalk forward... and pounce... and kill. But she hadn't taught them how to exactly do it right. Fox looked around for a mouse or something to eat. Nothing. Not even a twitch of whiskers or a rustle of leaves from a nearby bush. Hollow stopped in her tracks though, ears flicking.

She crouched down like they had seem Mum do a lot. It didn't seem the same, though, and the bird he finally saw she was stalking, took notice of them and flew away, chirping. He felt his belly rumble, and Milk mewled with hunger.

The rest of the day was spent looking at possible shelters, but none came up. He tried to stalk a small animal, and together, with Milk and Hollow surrounding it, they caught it, with Hollow making the final bite. They eagerly bit into the small animal, with each sibling making sure each one of them got enough.

Nightfall came, and with it, the clouds they saw in the distance. They looked up, wondering where the stars went, when it started to pour, with loud, booming noises to accompany flashes of light. The small kits, just a quarter­ moon old, or a week, stumbled through the darkness, already tired, but also hungry, because that animal was smaller than a kit their size and scrawny.

They didn't realize that they were tripping and struggling through the heavy rain to probably one of the worst places they could be. The lake.

Fox didn't see really what happened, it was so fast. His siblings were next to him one moment, gone the next, with only wet earth next to him. He saw them in the water, heads going up and under.

"Hollow! Milk!" He yowled. Hollow tried to call back, but got a mouthful of lake water in her, and she spit it out, going under again. Hollow struggled, trying to get back to Fox, but they were too far away from shore, and they kept getting lakewater in their mouths. He strained his eyes, which were not used to seeing very far, and he realized he couldn't see them any more. "Hollow?! Milk?!" He yowled once more, and this time, he couldn't see their small ears or paws flailing in the rough waters.

He stood there in shock. Hollow, Milk.... they couldn't just be gone. Could they? Hollow and Milk... you can't be gone... not like Mum... He thought with despair. In his short life he had lost everyone he had known. His mother and his siblings. He managed to stumble away from the lake, now his enemy. He stumbled into the woods, not near where he was born. His body battered, still fighting the slamming drops of heavy water. He tripped on a rock, and he fell to the ground, not bothering to get up. So easy to just give in, to just lay there forever, let the rain soak him up and take him to where Hollow, Milk, and Mum are. He closed his eyes, and fell into darkness.

<l........l>

Fox woke up in a nest with moss. He looked around, confused. He had closed his eyes, and he went from laying on the hard ground in the rain to a soft nest inside a den somewhere. He could still hear the rain dropping against the ground outside. He blinked his blue eyes, and they fell on another cat. He didn't even know there was any other cats before.