Warriors: Uprising (Book 1)

Chapter 5

Shredkit jolted awake. His maroon eyes looked up at Dustshine as he was shaking. Dustshine was sleeping. She was snoring softly. He prodded her side softly, hoping that she would wake up. Dustshine opened her eyes and looked at her kit. "What's wrong, Shredkit?" She gave a worried look.

"I-I had a dream you were here an-and you weren't moving..." Shredkit was still shaking. It seemed like he was close to crying.

Dustshine brought her kit closer to her. "Shredkit, it's alright. It was just an unpleasant dream. Nothing will happen to me, and everything will be fine. Just go back to sleep."

"O-Okay..." Shredkit rested his head onto his paws and went back to sleep.

A few heartbeats later, an ominous figure had walked into the nursery. Dustshine looked up to see a pair of red eyes staring down at her. It was Blacksting.

"Blacksting!" She half-whispered so she wouldn't wake up the sleeping Shredkit. "Do you need something, my love?" She gave a smile to him.

"I want you to go somewhere with me." His mew was stern.

"Wh-What about our kit?" Her smile turned into a worried look.

"Leave him. Let's go." He turned around and padded out to the nursery.

Dustshine got up gently so she wouldn't wake up Shredkit. She then went to the entrance of the Nursery and before she walked out, she gave another worried look to Shredkit and then left the Nursery.

-

Shredkit woke up again with another jolt. He had another dream of an unmoving Dustshine. He was on the verge of tears at how scary it was to see his mother unresponsive. He looked around to an empty den.

"Dustshine...?" Shredkit's voice was shaky as he tried to look for his mother around the den.

"Dustshine wh-where are you? I'm scared..." The poor kit was feeling more scared and sad at the realization that Dustshine was not there.

Tears were falling down his face. He wanted Dustshine to be by him, but she was nowhere to be found, and Shredkit got too scared to move.

She had left Shredkit there, sad and alone, for the rest of the night.

-

When dawn arrived, Shredkit was still up, but he was shaking and tired. Dustshine had disappeared, and there was nothing he could do about it. Just then a cat came into the Nursery. Shredkit looked up in hopes of it being his mother, but it was just Nova.

"Shredkit!" she quickly headed over to the poor kit. "Where is Dustshine?" She sniffed the air to catch a faint scent of Dustshine and another familiar scent that she could not identify yet.

Shredkit was too scared to respond to the Medicine Cat.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Nova quickly cuddled up against the kit. He felt freezing.

I don't want her... I want Dustshine! Shredkit then lashed out at Nova, clawing at her side, which caused her to jump away from him. He then hissed at her. "I want Dustshine!" He yelled.

"O-Okay then, I'll go find her for you. Everything will be fine." Nova's right side of her body had tiny claw marks on it, tiny bits of blood were dribbling out of the marks. Nova then left the Nursery to look for Dustshine.

Shredkit only wanted to see and be by his mother.

-

Outside of the Nursery, Nova and Skybelly were meowing to each other about Shredkit and Dustshine.

"So he will not move at all?" Skybelly mewed to Nova.

"Not unless Dustshine comes back..." she replied, then sighed heavily.

Birdstar padded up to the two. "Well, it looks like Blacksting disappeared, too." the leader hissed.

"Of course he is!" Nova started, "Ever since he got,"attacked" as Buzzardgaze said, he hasn't been acting like his normal self." she gave another heavy sigh.

"Maybe losing one of his kits, and being a father of one is getting to him," Birdstar said.

Nova glared at her leader. "I don't think to force your mate to leave her kit alone is a way to deal with being a father, and Dustshine is in even more trouble for even going with him!" she yelled.

Birdstar just stared at her silently, then mumbled something to himself.

Skybelly's ears perked up, and he looked towards the entrance to the camp. "Dustshine is back."

Dustshine looked around. Then she looked in front of her to see Nova, Birdstar, and Skybelly staring her down. Nova ran over to her first.

Nova unsheathed her claws. "Dustshine, wherein Starclan have you been!? Your kit lashed out at me because of him wanting you! He felt so alone and sad because he thought something happened to you!"

"I was just out for a while with Blacksting to see the ocean." She replied, her ears lowering sadly.

"I could claw your face off right now!" Nova then had to calm herself and sheathed her claws, "I thought as a queen, you would understand how to take care of a kit, but now I'm not so sure."

"Please give me another chance! I didn't mean to leave Shredkit alone, I-I don't know what came over me. Blacksting just looked-"

"Don't even continue. I want you to go back into that Nursery and comfort your kit!" Nova ordered.

Dustshine nodded and hurried back to the Nursery.

Birdstar and Skybelly came up to Nova.

"I think you two should take care of scolding Blacksting. I need to rest." She gave one more heavy sigh and headed back to the Medicine Den.

-

Dustshine ran into the Nursery to see Shredkit laying there staring at nothing.

Shredkit looked up, and his eyes widened. He got up and ran up to his mother and nuzzled against her uncontrollably. Tears were streaming down his face. "Dustshine never leave me like that again! I thought I would never see you!" he stopped nuzzling and continued to sob.

Dustshine almost cried herself, but she gripped it back as she brought her kit closer to her. "It's alright Shredkit, I'm sorry for leaving you and I will never do it again..." She nuzzled up against him.

He looked up at her. "Pr-Promise?"

"I promise."