Omen of the Sun Book Three: Dusk

Chapter One

Sunpool

Just because she was a warrior now, Sunpool thought she should make a little more effort to be strong after Goldleaf's death. Especially if Applestar was going to overplay her feelings about his death and totally abandon her duty to the Clan, which she had a feeling she would.

Though to tell the truth, Sunooo wasn't feeling so great. There was nothing wrong with her physically, except for a small scrape she had gotten from climbing Sky Tree two days ago, but emotionally she was a mess. She couldn't process that Goldleaf was dead. She couldn't process that it was her fault.

And honestly, she really, really missed him.

She bent her head to lap at the tufts of fur sticking up from her chest. She wasn't really that hungry, but had a feeling she should eat something, even if not a lot. The one good thing about there being such little prey meant that she didn't have to eat much if she didn't want to.

She stood and padded slowly over to the small pile of fresh kill. It was more than they'd had for the past few weeks, that was true, but there was still a small amount. A bleary eyes Greenflower padded up and sluggishly took a trout from the top of the pile. She had also stayed up to keep vigil for Goldleaf, as had much of the Clan, for he had been well-liked throughout.

Sunpool took a skinny, slightly demented mouse-looking thing and brought it over to a rock, nibbling half-heartedly at it. It wasn't that she didn't want to eat. It was just she wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep anything down.

When she finally decided to just forget about the stupid mouse, the sun was already high in the sky and the deputy, Amberclaw, had begun to assign patrols. There had been quite a few deaths in the past moon, but none seemed to affect everyone as badly as Goldleaf's did, Sunpool realized. She felt grief-stricken, much more so than she had when Silverstar or Snowblaze had died. Maybe because she knew Goldleaf better. Maybe because he had made a small effort, which was more than pretty much everyone in the camp, to get to know her. Sunpool felt a sudden, horrible surge of guilt when she thought of the times when she'd pushed Goldleaf away, because she was mad at him. Wasn't he just doing those things to protect her? He'd said as much.

Shaking her head, Sunpool padded up to Amberclaw. "Is there any patrols I could join?" She hoped she didn't sound too grief-stricken. A grief-stricken, young warrior on a patrol sounded like a bad idea to her, but she needed something to take her mind off Goldleaf. To her relief, Amberclaw nodded. "You can join that one with Whiteswirl, Stonewhisker, and Shadowfur. They're going to FlowerClan."

Sunpool dipped her head and turned, padding over to the patrol. Please, please take my mind off it...

When they got going a few minutes later, Sunpool made an effort to ignore her thoughts and just focus on the snow and landscape around them. To her relief, the snow seemed to be melting- which meant that they were either in for a warm spell, or new-leaf was finally about to break out of its shell. Sunpool hoped that it was the last one; she had had enough of winter, and not enough to eat, and the greencough that Cinderstorm and Frostcloud had gotten, where Cinderstorm had almost died, due to a certain medicine cat poisoning her. Anger at Cloverfur swamped over her for a second, then she shook her head deliberately and continued. No sense getting worked up over something Cinderstorm's probably going to find a way to get revenge on.

As they padded through the forest until they reached the FlowerClan border, Sunpool focused on everything around her- the babbling of the stream near HollyClan that hadn't frozen yet, the brittle sound of twigs cracking, the soft swishing sound of snow under a cat's paw. It was beautiful, but deadly, like Applestar, Sunpool thought.

Applestar. That cat was going to kill her- or, at least, sentence her for slaughter. The prophecy decreed it- the pool of sun shall die. Of course, the prophecy had also stated that 'the lighting, cinders, and gold will rise', and she could only think of Cinderstorm and Lightningfeather's newfound powers.

She stopped short as Greenflower paused, hissing lightly. Sunpool padded around her. "What-"

The cave Skypelt had shown her her first day was right in front of them.

"Greenflower, watch watch it!" Whiteswirl hissed, nudging her to the side. She shook her head, clearly unnerved. "S-sorry."

She seemed to stay like that for the rest of the patrol; her movements were jerky and uneven, and she jumped at the slightest sound. Sunpool didn't get it- sure, it was terrifying to nearly fall into a cave, especially one as treacherous as that one, but there weren't any other caves in the territory. Relax.

Wait, why was she being so rude? Goldleaf's death had shocked everyone, and Greenflower seemed like she was on the very edge of the deep end. Nearly falling into a cave was understandable- she wasn't thinking straight, Sunpool could see. And if she wasn't thinking straight, it would make sense that she would be unnerved.

Maybe Sunpool should ask if she wanted to go to Cloverfur for something for shock- or, not. Knowing their medicine cat, she would probably just poison it or something.

Stifling a growl, Sunpool continued on the patrol. Everything was a lot more simple when Goldleaf was alive...

HELLOZUL!

Yes, I just said hellozul. Yes, it is a word. Isn't it, Swiftie? Lol.

Anyway... THE CLAN IS FALLING APART OH MY GOSH AHHH

AHH

GREENFLOWER ALMOST FELL INTO A CAVE

AHHHH!

I feel like this one isn't as long because I wrote a lot of it on my iPad. But when I wrote some yesterday I was at like 600 words so it should be decent.

I think I was.

Okayzul anyway.

BYE!

~✨🐱✨Rainfeather ✨🐱✨