A New Horizon Book 2: The Dying Forest {COMPLETE}

Chapter 22

"There's not a single piece of prey in this stupid forest!" Falconpaw lashed his tail, claws ripping into the slightly frozen ground. He, Cherryleaf, Sedgepaw and Fawnheart had been hunting since early morning it was already past sunhigh. The only prey they had managed to find was a small mouse caught by Sedgepaw.

"Relax, Falconpaw." Cherryleaf mewed, but despite her words Falconpaw could tell she was just as annoyed and stressed as he was. "We'll find some more."

"We've been hunting all day." Falonpaw growled. "And we got a tiny mouse, I haven't scented anything either."

"Neither have I." Fawnheart added with a sigh, twitching her tail tip. "I think we should call it for now."

"But we don't have any prey!" Sedgepaw argued. "What will everyone think when we should up with a single mouse."

"They'll understand." Fawnheart assured the apprentice. "Cinderflame will send out another patrol and hopefully they'll have more luck than we did." Falconpaw's claws continued to shred the ground. He hated giving up, he felt like a failure. How can we call ourselves warriors if we can't feed our Clan?

"We have to find something, the forest can't be completely empty." Cherryleaf urged, she clearly didn't want to give up either.

"Cherryleaf, if we stay out here and hunt till our paws fall off then what's the point? We're just going to get more frustrated. We have to head back, we're not the only ones struggling the rest of the Clan will understand."

Cherryleaf flattened her ears and looked away, her tail swaying with annoyance. After a while she let out a sigh. "Fine, we'll go back." Falconpaw wanted to argue, but he knew his words wouldn't convince the others to say. I'm just an apprentice.

With Sedgepaw's mouse, the four cats started back towards the camp with their heads hung low. I wish I knew what was causing this. Falconpaw thought. Can it really just be that's it's so close to leaf-bare?

Once back in camp, Sedgepaw dropped her prey in the fresh-kill pile which was painfully small. How will we ever survive leaf-bare? No herbs and no prey. His heart felt heavy, weighed down by fear and anxiety. I could be the bravest cat in the forest, but I can't fight away sickness or hunger. He glanced towards the medicine cat den, he knew how stressed Honeypaw was. I'm sure she feels just like I do. He dropped his head and trudged over to the drinking pool, about the only thing in the forest that wasn't going away.

After a few laps of the icy water, Falconpaw looked up towards the SunTree to see Dawnstar stepping out with Pebblestep and Honeypaw beside her. All of their eyes showed fear, Honeypaw stared at her paws which moved slowly behind Dawnstar as their mother stepped outside of the SunTree.

She began climbing and Falconpaw knew she was about to call a meeting, the rest of SunClan noticed it too. I wonder if it's about prey. Falconpaw blinked and took a seat before the SunTree, his Clan started gathering around him. Cinderflame took her spot on the tree and the medicine cats sat beside it.

Dawnstar didn't even need to call the Clan, they were all already gathering, she looked over her Clan sadly. What happened? Falconpaw wondered. I don't understand why she looks so sad, did something happen? "I know you're all wondering what's happening, why herbs are dying and why prey is running incredibly low." There were murmurs of agreement between the SunClan cats, Falconpaw put all his focus on his mother. "A few days ago, at the half-moon, we finally got our answer." Dawnstar took a deep, shaky breath. "StarClan told us that the forest is dying." Falconpaw's jaw dropped. The forest is dying? How did that even happen and what were they supposed to do about it.