Warriors: Traitors (Book One)

Chapter Two

Chapter 2

~

                 Moonpaw dreamed of being in a battle. Looking around, he saw every one of his clan mates fighting against cats he had never met before, probably from another clan. He saw a massive black tom with ridiculously long, sleek fur and a massive light gray head. His blue eyes locked on the new apprentice and he hissed loudly before charging towards him.

“The warrior code will be broken,” all of the cats vanished Moonpaw spun around as he tried to locate the source of the voices that surrounded him, “the forest will turn crimson with the blood of betrayal, and cats will decide where their loyalties truly lie.”

                Where each individual cat had been fighting before there were now just small pools of blood, most overlapping with other to form pools of the sticky liquid as it flowed over Moonpaw’s paws, staining them red. The tom that was about to attack Moonpaw before walked through the blood as if it were nothing more than water.

As he passed each pool, it turned back into a warrior. Moonpaw’s siblings rose from the pools and followed the blood-soaked cat as more warriors rose and began racing after him. Before they disappeared into the trees, Moonpaw could hear them yowling in blood-thirsty madness, splashing through the crimson puddles with crazed looks in their eyes.

“Beware the eagle of fire!” The voices said and repeated several times before the dream faded to blackness.

Moonpaw moaned when he opened his eyes and a tiny ray of sunshine pierced through his eyelids. He rolled a bit to the side before opening his eyes and stretching his eager limbs. He yawned and bounced happily out of the den. Once outside he took a deep breath, inhaling the ThunderClan scent deep through his nostrils. The memory of his dream came to him and he shivered, but he thought nothing of it as he padded away.

                At the center of the camp Wolfheart, his mentor, was sending patrols out left and right. Moonpaw made his way to the edge as Shadepaw, Cloudpaw, and their new mentors left to start training for hunting. Some way off Moonpaw heard Piranhapaw’s mentor telling him to stay inside the camp for the day to care for the elders and queens and change the bedding in the warriors’ den. Horrible as it was, at least he could say he was the first one of their litter in the warriors’ den.

                “Moonpaw, I’m glad you’re up,” Wolfheart purred after she told the rest of the cats around her to choose their own hunting patrols. “Most apprentices don’t wake up until sun-high on their first day.”

                “I was just too excited!” Moonpaw half lied. He had indeed been very excited, but that wouldn’t have woken him.

                Wolfheart meowed, “Well good. Your first test is; can you smell your brother and his mentor?”

                “Inside the camp?”

                “We aren’t exactly leaving without them,” Wolfheart replied.

                Not wanting to question his mentor any further, Moonpaw opened his mouth to detect any trace he could of the two cats. He smelled the strong herb-filled scent of Flamefur the medicine cat, the comforting milky scents of the nursery, and the relatively old scents of his other siblings. Inhaling as deeply as he could, he could detect the faintest trace of Shadepaw and Brokenheart.

                “Over there!”Moonpaw meowed as he flicked his tail towards a bush at the side of the camp that the two were resting under.