Tinyclaw's New Path

Battles Worth Fighting

In this part there is a new evil arising, a cat makes a surprise visit to ShadowClan. An unheard of Clan makes and appearance and threatens the livelihood of every cat in the forest.

Chapter 23: Dogs

It had been a few moons since Tinyclaw had returned to his clan, he felt comfortable and safe. Tinyclaw woke up with a warm and happy feeling in his belly when Brindleface purred and cuddled closer to him. He nuzzled her neck and purred in return. He began to drift off back into a dream, but before long he was awoken.

"Hey Tinyclaw!" and older sounding voice called.

Tinyclaw blinked slowly and raised his head, "What is it?" he opened his eyes more clearly to see Whitestorm hovering over him.

"You said you would go hunting with me today, get your tail out of your nest and let's go!" Whitestorm commanded, poking Tinyclaw with his paw.

Tinyclaw grumbled out a sigh, "Fine," he got up quietly and slowly, being sure not to wake Brindleface. When they exited the warrior's den, they saw the camp was busy with cats.

Tinyclaw heard a voice calling and turned to see his daughter, Fernpaw rushing over, "Whitestorm! Whitestorm!"

Tinyclaw notice her face seemed very scared and worried,  "What is it?" Whitestorm asked in a concerned tone.

"Swiftpaw and Brightpaw went to hunt down the dogs!" she panted.

"What?!" a voice hissed from inside the warriors' den, Longtail emerged with a look of worry on his face.

"Longtail, Tinyclaw, you two deal with this, I need to notify Bluestar and secure the camp in case they lead the dogs back here!" Whitestorm commanded, not giving and time for a response as he dashed for Bluestar's den.

"What exactly happened?" Tinyclaw pressed, not wasting time.

"He said they wanted to prove to Bluestar they could be warriors and so they left for Snake Rocks!" Fernpaw reported with her voice trembling.

Longtail sounded very concerned, "Thank you, Fernpaw for telling us right away," turning to Tinyclaw, Longtail asked for instructions.

"Go tell Fireheart, I am going into the forest to find them and see if I can turn them around, bring a partol with you, we have no clue how many dogs there really are!" Tinyclaw commanded. Without question, Longtail raced to the medicine den where Fireheart was situated.

Tinyclaw wanted to say good bye to his daughter before he left, just in case he didn't come back, but he didn't have time to spare. Tinyclaw raced out of camp and towards Snake Rocks, he could follow the scent of blood clearly, knowing it was cat blood, he grew worried. He finally arrived at the rocks, seeing the large dogs, he didn't spare time to attack. Tinyclaw lunged forward, but found his fur got caught in a thorn bush, Tinyclaw scraped and pulled at his skin to come loose, and was forced to only be able to watch Swiftpaw and Brightpaw struggle.

Tinyclaw's blood ran cold when he looked up to see one of the dogs had an eye ball in it's jowls, no... It's my fault they're dead.... Tinyclaw looked reluctantly down at the dog's feet to see Brightpaw laying on the ground motionless, one side of her face was red with blood, and where her eye should be was blacked out. Tinyclaw looked a bit to his right to see Swiftpaw was still alive. Tinyclaw tried to let out a yowl, but a thorn caught his throat and prevented him from making any noise. Swiftpaw fought blow for blow with the dogs, until one caught hold of his neck. The dog shook him violently and dropped his limp body on the ground. Once the dogs confirmed the two apprentices were dead they left. Tinyclaw heard paw steps behind him and became extremely scared that he was about to meet his demise.