Omen of the Sun Book One: Secrets in Shadows ✅

Chapter Nineteen

💥💥💥 =+= One Moon Later =+=💥💥💥

"All cats old enough to climb the Sky Tree gather beneath the Rock Pile for a Clan meeting!" Silverstar's meow rang out over the camp. Sunpaw woke suddenly, jerked from a few heartbeats of sleep she had managed to grab after meeting with Oakpaw the night before. She smiled and gave Cinderpaw a nudge with her paws. "Wake up, slow slug!"

Cinderpaw opened her eyes. Sunpaw gaped when she saw that they were dull and glistening with a fever. Cinderpaw sniffed weakly. "C-Coming," she meowed feebly. Sunpaw shook her head. "No, lie back. Rest. You're sick."

"But I-"

"You're sick! And I will get Featherpelt soon. Just go back to sleep."

Cinderpaw nodded after a slight hesitation and curled back up, coughing. Sunpaw padded out into the clearing, where she realized that she was the last to gather. She shrank into her pelt as she felt the gazes of all the cats burn into her pelt. Then Silverstar began. "Tonight we gather to celebrate the naming of one new warrior. Stonepaw step forward."

Sunpaw realized it must be Stonepaw's warrior ceremony. She watched as the sturdy silver tom stepped forward.

"Whiteswirl, has your apprentice learned the skills essential to becoming a warrior?" Silverstar prompted the gray warrior. "Many times over," Whiteswirl assured her. "Then I, Silverstar, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand your noble code and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn. Stonepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and defend this Clan even at the cost of your life?"

"I do," Stonepaw answered readily.

"Then I Silverstar, leader of CloudClan, give you your warrior name. Stonepaw, from this moment onward, you will be known as Stonewhisker. StarClan honors your spirit and fighting skills and we welcome you as a full member of this noble Clan."

"Stonewhisker! Stonewhisker!" Sunpaw cheered, her voice merging with those of her Clanmates. "May you server your Clan well for many moons," Silverstar meowed, resting her muzzle on his head. Stonewhisker licked her shoulder respectfully.

Sunpaw padded off to the medicine den. "Featherpelt!" She called. "Featherpelt, Cinderpaw's sick."

The gray tom hurried out. "Are you sure? That'll be the third one sick. Can she walk?"

Sunpaw shrugged. "I don't think so. She tried to get up but she was shaky and I told her to go back to sleep."

Featherpelt nodded. "Alright, I'm coming."

He padded back in, then came back out with Cloverfur and a bundle of herbs in his jaws. The three of them walked into the apprentice den. When they reached Cinderpaw's nest, Featherpelt's eyes widened.

Cinderpaw was lying, eyes closed, and shivering. The den smelled rank and sour, like sickness, and Cinderpaw was curled up in a tiny ball. She looked thin and frail. Featherpelt looked up at Sunpaw. "She's very, very ill," he murmured, eyes stretched wide with concern. "She might not make it through the night."

Sunpaw's eyes widened. "We have to move her," Featherpelt hissed urgently. "She might infect everyone else. Frostpaw is already sick, and so is Shadowfur, and Stonewhisker will be in the warrior den. So that leaves only you."

Sunpaw nodded, whiskers twitching, eyes the only thing that betrayed her deep worry for Cinderpaw. "Cloverfur, you move her from that end, and I'll move her from here," Featherpelt ordered. Cloverfur nodded and dropped the herbs near where Featherpelt had abandoned his. "We'll come back for them," Featherpelt meowed when he saw Sunpaw glance at them. "For now, I want you to move the soiled moss, take it somewhere where it can't infect other cats. Bury it; the cold ground will take care of the infection. Then get to sleep, and make sure to keep your strength up. Oh, and eat this."

Featherpelt shoved a small, dark green leaf at her. "It's tansy. It'll help you fight the sickness, if it tries to infect you. If you start coughing come straight to me, and if you hear any other cats coughing, do the same."

Sunpaw nodded once, trying to remember all the jumbled orders Featherpelt had given her. He and Cloverfur began to take Cinderpaw. They padded out, and Sunpaw chewed up the herb. It was sweet, but had a bitter tang to it. Sighing, she followed after the medicine cat and his apprentice with the moss from Cinderpaw's nest wrapped in her own. She figures she might as well change the bedding and get some moss in storage before the snow came and got everything too wet.

She dug a hole far from camp, near the HollyClan border, and buried the moss and looked around for a good moss tree. Spotting one on her side of the border, she padded over and began stripping the tree neatly of its moss. She got a huge bundle and prepared to go back to camp.

She heard a yowl. "Attack!"

She spun around. The whole of HollyClan, warriors and apprentices, was facing her. Leafstar, his golden pelt recognizable even in the moonlight, was at the head of the patrol, running through the water. Sunpaw, acting on instinct, dropped her moss and hared away, weaving neatly through the trees. She hoped they didn't know where the camp was, but she couldn't be sure. She sprinted around, taking long, confusing routes so that if they were following her they might get lost. Fear and adrenaline pushed her onward, made her ignore the pounding of her heart, the gasping of her trying to get air into her lungs. Her paws crunched over hard, brittle leaves until she felt sure that she lost them, and she took a quick route switch into camp. She leaped in and bellowed "HOLLYCLAN IS ATTACKING!"

Wow that was a short chapter. Don't worry though, the next chapters will be extra, extra long. I'm going to include a part with Oakpaw because I haven't done much with him and Sunpaw yet, and there will be a fight with Oakpaw, Goldleaf, and Sunpaw. You'll have to wait and see for the details!

And yaaaay! A cliffhanger! And I just made up an awesome name for them so they will now be called "Cliffies!" I don't know if someone made it up before me but my jPad says it's not a real word. So.

.0. Leafstar what the StarClan are you doing?! I wonder... I have no idea! XD

The next chapters will probably take a longer time to publish since they will be longer than usual, and my other books may not be updated as frequently. This will probably go on for about a week, maybe two. Not more than three, I hope. It's so cool that I will actually be done with this soon! Maybe - just maybe - we can get it up to 1K views! Do you think we could do that? Maybe! It already has something like 568 or something, so let's do out best!

I really need to dedicate more chapters. I think I will just go through at the end of the book and dedicate chapters to followers and commenters, voters, and readers. Maybe even you! Actually, most of you have probably already gotten a dedication so... :) Maybe you'll get another.

Thanks everyone! Oh and here's a challenge- in a comment, I want you all to write a sentence (ONE sentence) that has these words in it- Storm, butter, and Sunpaw! Okay everyone! And it can't be something like "The Storm was made out of butter and killed Sunpaw." Or something. Come on, be creative, think outside of the box! I will add more, so think think think!

Thank you for reading this super-edition author's note XD

~✨🐱✨ Rainfeather ✨🐱✨