A Misty Path (A Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 8

"He's trapped!" Perchscale meowed, his fur bristling.

"Mossypaw, no!" Palestar sprang forwards towards the burning tree that Mossypaw was trapped behind. The brave RiverClan leader sprang upwards, his muscular legs lifting him high above the tree trunk.

"No, wait - !" cried out Iceshine, rushing after her brother and leader. But before the white-furred she-cat could jump over, a burst of flames sprang up in front of her, blocking her from the trunk.

"They're trapped! What are we gonna do?" Mistpaw panicked.

Perchscale let out a low growl, his dark eyes surveying the landscape. "They might still be able to get out if they go around," meowed Jayclaw hopefully.

"They won't make it in time," snarled Perchscale. Iceshine, meanwhile, was scrabbling desperately at the charred bark, ignoring what must've been searing hot pain tearing at her pads.

Suddenly, a dark gray shape rushed past Mistpaw, and an unfamiliar scent wafted over her above the choking smoke. A strange tomcat was running towards the fire, a large wad of moss dangling from his jaws, dragging across the grass. Drops of cool water fell from its dark green depths as he hurried around the tree and threw the moss down so it blanketed a path across the fire. Smoke and steam billowed from it as the strange young tom yowled: "Hurry! Get across here!"

Without hesitation, Palestar's soot-covered pelt appeared as he rushed across the temporary path the tomcat had made with the moss, his son dangling by his scruff from his jaws. Mossypaw was half-conscious, his eyes narrow and almost closed. Palestar had barely escaped before the moss shrivelled under the overpowering fire.

"Who are you?" Jayclaw stepped forwards, shielding his Clan leader from the dark-pelted tomcat. He bared his teeth aggressively and Perchscale flexed his claws threateningly.

"Now isn't the time to be fighting." Mistlefrost crossed the group of cats and took Mossypaw from Palestar. "I'll take him to the medicine den. You should take care of the fire. I'll send reinforcements when I get to the camp," she meowed, her mew muffled in Mossypaw's dark gray fur. Before anyone could argue, she turned and hurried away.

Perchscale narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the stranger. "Who are you?" he repeated Jayclaw's words. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" The tomcat's voice was high-pitched with disbelief. "Oh, I don't know, it's not like there's a cloud of smoke above here smothering the sky. Kinda hard to miss if you ask me."

Mistpaw repressed a giggle and spoke up. "That's not the point," she meowed, trying to sound as hard and vicious as her Clanmates. "Why are you here?"

The tom snorted and opened his mouth to talk when Palestar stepped between the two young cats. "Not now," he warned them. "The fire will spread to camp before we come to a resolution." he looked down at the tom. "If you stay, you help."

The tom nodded. "Alright. We need wet moss to suppress the fire."

"Isn't the fire too big for that?" asked Mistpaw.

"Just do it!" scowled the strange tom.

"Let's go!" roared Iceshine. She led the patrol, plus the stranger, to the moss-pile where the apprentices collected moss. "Get the biggest sheets of moss you can find."

The patrol of cats spread out, grabbing as much moss as they could find and rushing to the river to soak it. Mistpaw scooped up a massive pawful of moss and padded as quickly as she could to the river bank, the stranger behind her. As she dipped her moss-covered paw in the cool water, she got a good look at her companion. He was young, around the age of an apprentice, with short dark gray fur. Darker stripes ran down his pelt. His eyes were bright yellow, intelligent and sharp. She sniffed. Disgusting rogue. Leaving him at the riverbank, she darted back to the fire.

When she arrived, she saw, to her horror, that the fire had spread. A lot. The ThunderClan forest was still worse, but it wouldn't take long for it to spread to the vulnerable camp. She saw more warriors had arrived: Minnowfall, Leafsplash and Spottedface had appeared, and were rushing past her towards the moss pile. Perchscale spotted her and marched up to her. "Where's the rogue?" he asked harshly.

Mistpaw flicked her ear. "I don't know, still at the river - "

"Why aren't they with you?" Perchscale's eyes blazed. "What if they run off and steal prey or some other trespassing act?"

Mistpaw bristled and drew herself up to her full height. "Now isn't the time to be worrying about stolen prey!" she argued, angling her ears towards the blazing inferno behind her furious mentor.

"You can't trust them - "

"I'm not, but we don't have time to be worrying about this!" Mistpaw pushed past the warrior. "Lives are at stake here!" Running up to the blazing trunk, she tossed her moss as far as she could. It blanketed a small fraction of fire, smothering a chunk of incinerated grass. But it was quickly eaten by the orange flames. Mistpaw yelped as a shower of sparks fell towards her, singeing her pelt; another burning tree on ThunderClan's riverbank had fallen, crashing near her. The twigs snagged at her fur, and she ripped free. Her pelt felt numb, but she shook it off. She had to save the Clan.