Red Snow

CHAPTER 4

     A deep, old badger set stood in front of the traveling cats. It's ancient, broken interior danced with the wind. "It's perfect! A whole Clan of badgers must have lived here!" Mouseclaw exclaimed.

"You're right." Shellstar meowed as he sniffed through the bracken. He cautiously padded
forward and disappeared into the set. When he didn't come back, Cherrymoon began to worry.

She exchanged a nervous glance with Leafdusk and sighed in relief when his pale head popped back up. "It's abandoned. If we clear all the branches I think this could make a good camp."

     "And what will we be? A band of rogues?" Nightfang questioned. The other cats seems to share the same thought.

     Shellstar shrugged, "RiverClan of course."

"What?" Cherrymoon gasped. "I am not a RiverClan cat. Most of us here are from ThunderClan anyways. That's what we should be."

     Shellstar bared his teeth and Cherrymoon and the other ThunderClan cats. She thought he was going to attack her, but his neck fur lay flat and he sheathed his claws. "Echoleaf what do you think?"

     The former RiverClan medicine cat sat on the ground, her eyes staring at something in the distance. "RiverClan and ThunderClan are no more, but we are not a band of rogues. Rogues don't look to the stars for guidance, they don't rely on one another for safety. We are simply a lost Clan."

     Palefrost lashed his tail in frustration. "We can't be! We must have a name!"

     "I think she was trying to say that we LostClan." Shellstar murmured, hanging his head in grief. "Because she is right, RiverClan and ThunderClan are lost forever."

     LostClan? That's a terrible name! Cherrymoon thought, but brushed it off. They couldn't be anything else, so LostClan it was.

     When the naming process was over, all the cats trudged slowly into the old badger set. It was empty as Shellstar had said. Cherrymoon had never seen a badger set so big; there would be room for all of them and some left over space. Once they had looked around and settled down to share tongues, Shellstar leapt on a pile of dirt and cleared his throat. "LostClan gather round."

     "Who made him leader?" Leafdusk whispered into her ear while cradling Lakekit.

     "He probably assumed he was because he was a leader back in the forest." Cherrymoon whispered back knowingly, but she admitted to herself that she would rather another cat be leader. Who? She didn't know. Perhaps he was best fit, even if the tom was hard to be around.

     Shellstar hesitated before going on. "I think we can all agree that we would like to be as much as a normal Clan as possible. Therefore, we need a leader, a medicine cat, a deputy, and warriors."

Her ears perked up with interest? Deputy? No, you're too inexperienced. He would never choose you.

"So what? You're our leader by default?" Jaygaze sneered.

"Yes." Shellstar replied flatly. "Unless any of you doubt my leadership abilities?"

Jaygaze looked like he wanted to, but he kept his jaws shut and flattered his ears to his head.

"If there are no more interruptions them, I declare both Echoleaf and Swiftprance as our medicine cats." He dipped his head to the pair sitting side by side at the back of the crowd. They ducked as the cats starting cheering their names. "And I have chosen Nightfang to be the LostClan deputy."

     "Nightfang! Nightfang!" They chanted.

     Good choice. Cherrymoon purred as her friend was chosen.

     The black tom was obviously not expecting the honor. He licked his chest fur in embarrassment and then looked up at Shellstar. "Thank you, Shellstar. I won't let you down."

     Night fell and Cherrymoon had curled up for sleep. An owl hooted somewhere in the sky and she found herself restless. Swiftprance and Echoleaf's thread still hung over them. They were so far away from the forest now, what threat could BloodClan pose to them? Did that mean that they would return the forest they had sworn never to set foot on again? Deciding that she wasn't going to fall asleep any time soon, she lifted herself on her haunches and padded out of the badger set. Night hunting seemed pleasing right now, especially since there was prey crawling around everywhere. Night hunting. That's what I was doing when I met Snowshade. The memory distracted her from her hunt, and a shrew scuffled right past her. She sat down, but jumped back up when she heard a rustling in the brambles. "Whose there?" She called.

     There was a pause as the rustling stopped, then a golden she-cat walked gracefully towards her. She was beautiful, there were no scars on her body, just pure, groomed fur.

     "Kittypet!" Cherrymoon sneered. "Get out of here. This is LostClan territory."

     The she-cat didn't move. She laid down and started grooming her fur, her tail waving happily in the wind.

     Confused, Cherrymoon crept closer. "Did you not hear me? You're not welcome here."

     "Oh I heard you, but I'm not leaving. Every cat has the right to be here, besides, I was here first." She meowed as she confined to groom her pelt.

     "This is our territory. I don't want to have to fight you, because clearly I'd win." The she-cats stood face to face now, tails up in a challenge. But the golden she-cat sat down again.

     "You don't want to fight me, correct? Then don't. I'm not harming anyone. If anyone's invading it's you." She pointed her tail to a bush, and Cherrymoon curiously sniffed it. She froze. It had this she-cat's scent markers.

She heaved a sigh. "So what? Are we supposed to leave now?"

The golden cat shook her head. "Well I can't make you do anything but I suppose you should stay. My name is Star, and I'm supposed to help you and your Clan."

Cherrymoon scoffed. "Yeah, right. You just want to shelter with us."

"You can believe me if you want." Was all she said before disappearing back into the brambles.

Cherrymoon was left with her jaws parted wide open. What was that? Who was that? This Star cat... could she have something to do with the terrible fate laid out for LostClan?