The Aftermath of Dawn to Dusk

Chapter 8

It was a staredown between the two cats; Each waiting for the other to make a move. Creekstar's expression was stern as he was looking at the cat that has taken a life from him. They got the jump on him once, it won't happen again.

 Looking at the cat, her face was a mix of surprise and anger. Yet in all of that, she didn't succumb to the urge to violently attack Creekstar. Creekstar could tell this cat has seen many battles, this may be a challenge.

 Creekstar could sense Cranberrypaw behind him, she had gotten up as soon as he hauled the rogue off of her. It was too close with that save he had to make; Cranberrypaw could have died if he was a second late.

The cat across from him started to move now, ever slowly he might add. From the slow movement though, Creekstar could tell what her plan was. The careful tensing of her back legs clearly showed she was about to pounce. That would be an easy counter. 

 The cat's back legs were tensing more and more, as if she expected Creekstar not to notice. Creekstar was watching the she-cat very close now— squinting even — to make sure that he did not miss the moment in which she jumped.

 Creekstar saw it, it was very subtle but the tensing stopped. She was going to jump now. Creekstar took a breath, waiting for the cat to finally jump. It was only a few seconds at most, but to Creekstar it felt like minutes. Waiting for someone to make a move can feel like ages. But then the she-cat jumped. 

 She flew through the air, with a screech and angry eyes, straight towards Creekstar. But it was to no avail. Creekstar, having prepared for this, rushed forward and below the cat and arched his back up with a jolt, effectively knocking the she-cat out of the air and towards the ground. The she-cat landed on her paws and hissed back at the two Riverclan cats. 

"I won't give up, believe me..." The cat meowed and walked away in the shadows, knowing this battle would be to hard to win. When the cat had fully dissapeared Creekstar took his eyes of the bush they had dissapeared in.

"Sad to see the world hasn't gotten lose of that sort of cats while others have perished.." He meowed to his apprentice. He started to pad away from where the fight had taken place and felt his apprentice follow him through the few bushes they came by. The Riverclan leader had only a few of his clanmates left, himself with Cranberrypaw and one of his warriors named Lakefoot. Creekstar and cranberrypaw eventually came back in their camp after swimming through the water that surrounded their camp. The camp was as empty as everywhere in the territory since that one day moons ago.

 'Lakefoot is probably out hunting while we were out'  Creekstar thought. Since that one day there wasn't much to do except to try picking up their lives again by living with the warrior code. Gatherings on full moons had not happened anymore so they did not know how the other clans were doing, if they were still alive at the least. Cranberrypaw went to sit at the entrance of the den that used to be the apprentice den. Creekstar decided to sit with them as there was no one else anymore so it would be to lonely for his apprentice. It had broken Creekstar's heart to see someone so young lose every kin, friend. 

"Do you think we will get through this" Cranberrypaw suddenly meowed after a long silence, she had turned to Creekstar so he met her gaze when answering, "I'm very certain we will Cranberrypaw, we are the strongest clan there is and this will not change that. We will grow back as it used to be..". Deep down Creekstar knew it wouldn't be that easy, with no cats it was hard to even call theirselves a clan. The tom still had not lost his will to go on, he still believed in Starclan and waited for his sign that could just tell them more.

It was sunhigh when Lakefoot padded back in camp with a big salmon between his jaws, he directly ran towards his leader and the apprentice to share his catch. The dark grey, ragged tom sat down and reported to his leader while also taking some bits of the large fish. "Quiet as usual, hunting went well altough it took me a while to take this big salmon with me. How did the fighting training go?"

"Bad, there was this rogue from the farm that attacked us and-d Creekstar fought against them.." Cranberry had responded so fast that Creekstar hadn't said a thing. A deep growl came from Lakefoot as he said "Who were they? let's teach them a lesson. I would have shredded them to pieces!". Creekstar looked at his warrior and knew that he meant it, Lakefoot was a very loyal but also quite agressive warrior. He would attack without hesitation but would also underestimate his opponents. 

"We won't do that Lakefoot and you know why. We are simply with to few of cats to fight battles. No cats to spare if injured and no medicine cat to help thos who are injured and i will not lose more clanmates than is nessecary." Creekstar spoke. Lakefoot wanted to protest but saw that Creekstar could not be changed of mind and nodded to his leader and started eating further.

 The Riverclan cats went on with their day after that, back to hunting and working on their nests. The work was now for everyone the same, there was no division in apprentice, warrior and leader. They all knew it had to come from everyone to keep surviving. When the sun was going down and the sky became darker the cats sat together again and spoke about what would happen nexr day. The leader drifted away in thought and Creekstar knew that they would have to do something soon, he just had to wait for the sign that starclan would give him to give his clanmates the hope they very much needed.