Omen of the Sun Book Two: Snowfall ✅

Chapter Seventeen

Sunpaw chased behind the sprinting kittypets. "Hey. Hey! Slow down!" She hissed, afraid to make noise. "I'll-"

Stanley turned around and gazed at her with frightened eyes. "We have to get away from it!" She yowled. Sunpaw winced at the loud noise, terrified that a HollyClan patrol would find them.

Mint, Hazel, and Stanley picked up speed, and Sunpaw, still wet from her fall into the river, lagged behind. The dog had stopped barking, but the kittypets continued running. "Hey! Hey! Hey!!! The dog stopped barking!" She snarled.

Stanley, Hazel, and Mint pulled to a halt and turned, panting, to Sunpaw. Sunpaw growled crossly; her bandages had been torn off. Her wounds were healing quickly, but she wanted the herb poultice to stay on.

"Is... It... Gone?" Hazel wheezed. "Yes, you flea-brain! Now come on, we have to get out of here before we're caught," Sunpaw snarled. The trees stretched high around her. "I have no idea where we are, so we're just going to have to go the way we came."

She fluffed up her fur. If I get in trouble because of these kittypets, I will rip their throats out, she vowed. Mint looked startled. "W-what? You don't know where we are?! Why'd you let us come into here alone?!"

Something in Sunpaw snapped. The anger and betrayal she'd been feeling because of Goldleaf betraying her again, Cloverfur nearly killing her, the prophecy, and Doveheart's dire prediction pushed through a mental dam. In one quick movement, she unsheathed her claws and raked them across Mint's ear, drawing blood. "You idiot!" She screeched, forgetting her caution in her anger. "You don't know anything, you stupid flea-bag! This is not my territory, and if it weren't for you, I'd be hunting for my Clan, but instead I'm lost in enemy land, and I'm not on great terms with HollyClan. So you just shut your mouth, because it's your fault we're in this situation!"

"Well, I heard a dog!" Mint said defensively, flicking his hurt ear so that drops of blood flew through the cold air. Sunpaw sniffed. There would be snow later. She shivered as she thought of Doveheart's warning- "Snow will bring danger to the Clan."

"What was I supposed to do?!" Mint asked, snapping her back to reality. Sunpaw rolled her eyes. "You were supposed to think. What was all around you?! Trees! Who can climb trees? Cats! And who can't?! Dogs, you flea-brained fool. Dogs!"

"We can't climb those trees!" Hazel interjected angrily. "Why not?" Sunpaw demanded angrily. If I get one more stupid answer...

"Our Twolegs! They removed our claws!" Hazel meowed, holding up a paw to show Sunpaw. Sunpaw growled. "I'm done. You guys are useless. Find your own way back to the Twolegs. I'm done."

She turned and began to run in the way she had thought she had come. She didn't hear the kittyepts follow. That's gonna come back to bite you in the tail, a voice in her mind chided.

Sunpaw didn't care.

She tore through the woods and wandered around until she found the stream leading into CloudClan territory. By then her anger had cooled somewhat and she began to fish again. By the time the sun had set, she had caught three fish.

The snow had begun to fall in heavy, thick flakes that sent chills through her fluffed-up fur. She sniffed the air and noticed that she couldn't detect any prey smells. Maybe I can hear them if I stand still, she thought. She stopped running and listened hard.

There was no sound.

There were no birds chirping, no mice or voles burrowing, no squirrels scratching. Sunpaw looked around and saw some cob nuts. She took them in her mouth and scattered them around, then rolled in snow to disguise her scent. She lay them at the base of a tree, where she knew many mice lived.

No mice appeared to take the bait.

Sunpaw sighed and picked up her fish again. The prey was probably all in its nests; she wouldn't find it. She padded back to camp, shivering every now and then from the cold. But she couldn't quite push the feeling that something was wrong to the back of her mind.

She walked into the camp and dropped the fish on the fresh kill pile. Then she reconsidered and picked one up, padding to the elders den. Please, please let Moonpaw or Gingerpaw have brought the queens prey, she thought to herself. She couldn't take card of Applefoot. She couldn't.

She brought a trout into the elders den. "Hi Rosefoot!" She said to her friend. Rosefoot looked up from licking her chest. "Oh, hi Sunpaw! Long time no see," she meowed. Sunpaw smiled. "Yeah. I brought you a trout, here."

She lay the trout on the floor. Rosefoot pushed it away. "Oh no, don't fuss about me, I don't need it quite yet. Give it to the warriors. They need to keep their strength up."

Sunpaw's eyes flicked to the old cat's belly and saw that she could count the ribs. "Oh no, Rosefoot, I can't. Here, you have it. We need the elders to stay healthy!"

"I'm getting enough," Rosefoot insisted, her eyes glittering. "Go give it to Shadowfur, she needs it. Poor thing's skinnier than the moon at claw-moon!"

Sunpaw dipped her head to Rosefoot. What's up with her not eating? She thought. She brought the trout put into the clearing and looked around. The delicious smell wafted into her nose, making her tempted to eat the trout, but she knew she couldn't.

The cats were stretched out around the camp with moss pulled over them to protect them from the snow. Shadowfur was sharing tongues with Willowfur, and Hailheart, Tansypool, and Skypelt were talking in serious tones. Sunpaw smiled a bit when she saw her mentor. She felt like she hadn't seen Skypelt in a long time.

Lightningfeather was standing impatiently by the entrance of the medicine den. Sunpaw giggles a little, but then stopped when Cloverfur stepped out. She looked around, and locked eyes with Sunpaw. Sunpaw dropped her gaze.

Applefoot was sitting on a flat rock with Goldleaf. She kept trying to press up against him, but he kept edging away. Sunpaw remembered what he had said, that he loved her. She snorted. He didn't love her. Loved to hurt her, maybe, but didn't love her.

She felt her eyes grow wet as she watched Applefoot and Goldleaf, and turned away in surprise. Why was she upset? She didn't like Goldleaf- she hated him! Hated him down to his bones!

Right?

Ooooh noooo Sunpaw has messy feelings!

Thank you, my loyal voters and commenters. It makes me happy that someone's enjoying my book!

Haha Sunpaw's reaction to Mint XDDDDDD I laughed when I wrote it. I know it wasn't too too exciting, but there's going to be interesting oarts coming, don't you worry 😉.

Ugh, I'm sorry, I have to go. I have to update Rain's Peril. And my GTW. And my quotes book. And a bunch of others, probably XD. Sometimes I think I have too many books.

Bye bye!

~✨🐱✨ Rainfeather ✨🐱✨