Warriors: A Changed Fate

Chapter 19

Bearclaw suddenly wakes up in his nest in the middle of the night to the sounds of cats howling. He opens his eyes, gets up, and quickly peeks out of the den along with many of the other warriors.

"It's SkyClan!" Bearclaw hears Applebranch meow angrily.

"ShadowClan, defend our camp!" Bearclaw then hears Ashstar yowl from outside. Bearclaw quickly exits the the den and fixes his gaze on a brown-and-white she-cat. He dashes towards the SkyClan warrior, leaping for her. The warrior notices him and quickly dodges, letting Bearclaw land hard on the ground with a thump.

"Missed me!" The warrior meows. Bearclaw lets out a growl. He gets back up and lunges for the SkyClan warrior yet again. But, he was successful this time. He tackles the warrior down to the ground and pins her. He then scratches the brown-and-white cat's cheek. The wound begins to bleed.

"You're not getting away with that, mouse-brain!" The SkyClan warrior meows, throwing him off her.

I thought Mistystorm said the SkyClan cats were easy to fight! Bearclaw thinks. His eyes widen as the SkyClan warrior tackles him down. Out of panic, Bearclaw scratches the she-cat's belly with one of his hind claws. She yowls from pain and then dashes off.

"I'm sorry Foxstar, but this young warrior is too strong!" The brown-and-white SkyClan warrior yowls as she runs out of ShadowClan's camp. Bearclaw looks around the rest of the camp and notices that his clan is having difficulties. Then, he spots him. A large and very muscular golden-brown tom leaps for Ashstar.

That has to be Foxstar! Woah, he's scary. Bearclaw thinks to himself. Before he could fully observe how the rest of the clan is doing, he is tackled down to the ground yet again. He looks up to spot a gray tom. But, suddenly, the gray SkyClan warrior is thrown off of him.

"Leave him alone! If you want to hurt him, you'll have to go through me first." Mistystorm hisses. Bearclaw watches his friend in admiration. Both him and Mistystorm gang up on the tom, working together to fight him off. However, the gray tom flees before they get the chance to fight, realizing that he doesn't have a chance against the two of them.

"Good job, ShadowClan!" Bearclaw hears Swiftfang yowl. "Almost all of the SkyClan cats are gone! Save mourning until after the battle!" He yowls.

Mourning? Did a ShadowClan cat die? Bearclaw wonders in his head. It's not time to think about that now, I need to think about helping my clan! He thinks. The large brown tom notices that Ashstar is struggling against Foxstar, so Bearclaw decides to be bold and leap in. As Foxstar has Ashstar pinned, Bearclaw leaps for the intimidating leader, sinking his claws into his back. Foxstar yowls from the pain, releasing his pin on Ashstar. He turns to look at Bearclaw.

"Oh, getting brave, aren't we? You seem to be young, thus you must be pretty inexperienced." Foxstar meows. What Bearclaw did suddenly hits him.

Oh StarClan, why did I do that? Bearclaw thinks. Then, Bearclaw watches as Ashstar takes this chance to fight back. She leaps for the larger cat, tackling him down. She leaves a few scratches, which was enough for Foxstar to realize that his clan did not have a chance any more.

"SkyClan! Surrender!" Foxstar yowls. Then, Foxstar and the remaining SkyClan cats dash out of ShadowClan's camp and back towards their own territory. Bearclaw breathes heavily, worn out by the battling.

"Thank you, Bearclaw, for saving me. You are a strong warrior and you have a lot of potential." Ashstar meows.

"Thank you." Bearclaw replies. That's when Bearclaw decides to look around to observe the damage SkyClan has done to the clan.

"Sootkit! Dovekit!" Wolfclaw yowls in a panic. "They're missing! I can't find them anywhere!" The old queen yowls. "SkyClan must've stolen them.." She meows angrily.

"Don't worry, Wolfclaw. We will get them back as soon as we can, I promise." Ashstar meows in response. "SkyClan will pay for this." She adds.

Bearclaw's heart sinks and his world stops as he spots what he was hoping he wouldn't see. His fellow apprentice when he was apprentice and one of his closest friends, Toadpaw, lying lifeless on the ground. Blood is flowing out of a terrible wound in his neck, which Bearclaw assumes what caused the gray tom's death.

"Tigerstripe and Toadpaw are with StarClan now." Ashstar announces after she observed her own surroundings.

Tigerstripe too? My father.. Bearclaw thinks. He lowers his head, feeling a massive amount of grief.

"There will be vigils for the both of them the next night." Ashstar announces. "Those of you who are wounded, especially if you have major wounds, go and see Cloudheart and Sagepaw." She meows. "We will get back at SkyClan soon." She says. The clan was very upset for the entire day the next day. They were sad over the loss of a loyal warrior and a young apprentice and angry at SkyClan for killing cats and stealing kits.