Warriors: Finding Myself: Downcasted (Book Two)

Prologue: You're In Danger

PROLOGUE

A strong breeze blew through the dark ShadowClan camp, the moon was just a claw mark in the sky, barely lighting up the camp. Puddleheart was in the nursery, caring to Cloudsong, who was yowling in pain. Her kits were coming and if that didn't give it away, Featherpaw was racing back and forth between the medicine den and nursery, herbs in her jaws and her eyes wide with fear. She had been a medicine apprentice for a while, but she'd never helped give birth before.

Slateleaf was sitting outside the den, standing up every time Featherpaw rushed out, but she said nothing to him. It was killing him to not know what was happening to his mate. We all saw Cloudsong and Slateleaf becoming mates, they were very good together.

Tawnypelt's eyes flickered to Beestar, who was sitting under the hazel branch, her eyes half closed. She knew her leader couldn't sleep, this was her kit who was giving birth and that thought worried her. Beestar had lost a kit when she was giving birth and it broke her heart.

But Tawnypelt knew Cloudsong was strong enough to give birth and nothing bad happen.

Paws padded to her and she looked up to see Dawnpelt, one of her own kits, padding over to her. She had lost Flametail, who was Littlecloud's apprentice before Puddleheart. "How're you doing?" she mumbled to Tawnypelt, a supportive smirk on her face.

"I'm okay," Tawnypelt mewed back, her tail curling as far as possible around Dawnpelt. "Cloudsong will be perfectly okay." The sky got darker and her pelt prickled. It was leaf-fall and leafbare was definitely coming upon us now. Bad timing for kits, but ShadowClan was grateful.

Puddleheart and Featherpaw exited the nursery and Puddleheart began speaking to Slateleaf who jumped to his paws and rushed into the den without hesitation. Both medicine cats were smiling so it seemed there was no problem.

Time to go meet the new kits, Tawnypelt thought and padded away from her kit, waving her tail in goodbye and meeting up with Beestar, walking side-by-side with her leader, slipping into the den where Cloudsong was laying, Slateleaf licked her cheek and three kits, a white she-kit, a gray she-kit, and a tiny brown tom all suckling from Cloudsong.

Her eyes widened and Tawnypelt flashed back to when she was gazing at her own kits. "They're beautiful," she purred to the queen and warrior, smiling widely. "Have you named them?"

Cloudsong nodded at her. "Winterkit, Moonkit, and Twigkit." She pointed to each one as she went and Slateleaf nodded in agreement. "We wanted their names to be different."

Tawnypelt dipped her head. "Congratulations," she mewed softly and then backed out of the den, leaving Beestar to talk to her kit. Every warrior in ShadowClan was awake and whispering to one another. After Beestar had gotten rid of the two groups, pine hunters and outgoers, everyone had gotten closer. It was nice to feel like one Clan again.

"Everyone get back to your nests!" Tawnypelt ordered. "I will make patrols in the morning." She watched as everyone slowly flooded back to their nests, the four apprentices, besides Featherpaw, were whispering as they went.

Mudpaw and Echopaw were apprenticed two moons before, but Flowerstem, their mother, remained in the nursery, deciding she belonged there instead of as a warrior. Clumsypaw, Stonepaw, and their sister, Featherpaw, were apprenticed a few moons before. There were plenty of apprentices and more on the way.

She glanced over at the warrior's den in hesitation. She wasn't ready to sleep yet, something about it scared her. Tawnypelt watched the cats flood back into their dens and she sat in the middle of the clearing, watching.

Nothing moved and everything was quiet but something was bugging her. What was it?

And then, out of the corner of her eye, something moved and her head instinctively looked towards it, her heart pounding. She watched a completely black cat walk towards her and when the cat looked up at her, it's eyes were completely black. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest. She wasn't sure what to do. Had she fallen asleep? Was she imagining things?

"Night and snow will combine to destroy all of your kind," hissed the dark cat and then it padded away from her calmly, its tail waving back and forth as if saying goodbye.

Her jaws parted to yowl out at it, but instead, her voice was a whisper, "Who are you? What do you want?"

The cat turned around, looking at her with its unblinking black eyes. "You're in danger, Tawnypelt," it hissed at her, a small smile creeping on its face. "What are you going to do?" And then, in a blink of an eye, it disappeared and Tawnypelt was, once again, alone in the dark, quiet clearing.