Warriors: Rosetail's Promise

C H A P T E R   2

Ravenwing returned to her den alone. Cherrystar’s words haunted her, even though she was sure the dreams had nothing to do with StarClan. She lied down on her bed and sighed.

Why did I have to get myself involved in this mess? I wish herbs could fix the leader’s tortured mind. Ravenwing yawned. It was barely sunhigh and the day was already so long.

Suddenly she heard something. Her ears pricked and she got up. It had gotten silent, but it was right outside. She edged out slowly. What if it was one of those strange cats that couldn’t leave SunClan alone?

Something ran right past her. Ravenwing turned around as quick as she could and saw, indeed, another cat. But this one was just a kit. It seemed more scared of Ravenwing than she was of it, backed up against the wall of the medicine cat’s den.

“It’s alright,” Ravenwing assured the young cat. “I’m not going to hurt you.” This actually worked, the kit let the medicine cat walk right up to her.

“You talk much?” Ravenwing asked the kit. She said nothing, and seemed to be staring right through Ravenwing with her pale blue eyes. They seemed to glow, and add her snowy pelt and Ravenwing could almost mistake her for a StarClan cat.

“I’m gonna need to tell Cherryst--” Ravenwing began, and the kit finally responded. She ran up to Ravenwing and pawed at her with wide eyes, fur bristling. “I’m sorry, but it’s a Clan rule,” Ravenwing said. “Though how you slipped past both the border and hunting patrols, I have no idea. Do you want to come with me?” The kit eased up at this and walked to the exit of the den.

“Alright,” Ravenwing said. “Come on.” Ravenwing led the kit to and around the hill at the edge of the camp. “Last I remember, Cherrystar was somewhere around--”

“Here?” Frozentail said. He was alone, but the deputy would be able to tell Cherrystar later. “I see you’ve got a visitor. I trust she isn’t of any harm?”

“No,” Ravenwing said. “She tried to run away from me, and I have almost no battle experience!” Both Clan cats mrrowed in amusement. The loner stayed silent.

“She doesn’t talk much, does she?” Frozentail said.

“No. I still don’t know her name. Maybe she’ll tell me later. Do you think she can stay with us?”

“Probably. She doesn’t even look old enough to be an apprentice. I can’t imagine what it’d be like for her outside the camp.”

“Good. Can you tell Cherrystar about it?”

“Yeah,” Frozentail said. “I’m not sure how she’d react to that, though. She definitely wants to keep the border strict.”

“I hope she’ll let her stay,” Ravenwing said. “She looks like she hasn’t eaten in half a moon.”

“I know,” Frozentail said. “See you around?”

“Yeah. Come on,” Ravenwing told the loner. They walked back to the den.

“You fine with staying here? I have to go get some herbs for the stock. Wait, what am I kidding? That’s Maplepaw’s job.” As if on cue, Maplepaw walked into the den.

“What about me?” Maplepaw asked. At the moment, she was being trained mostly by Ravenwing, because Lilacpelt had kits two moons earlier.

“We need more herbs,” Ravenwing said. “Particularly marigold. You feeling up to that?”

“Yeah,” Maplepaw said with a sigh. She didn’t like having to fetch things for Ravenwing. “Who’s that?” Maplepaw asked, in reference to the snow-colored cat staring at the wall.

“I don’t know her name,” Ravenwing said. “She just came up here, probably not expecting a big cat like myself to find her. And yes, I already told Frozentail.”

“Okay.” Maplepaw turned to leave. “Be right back.”

“Yep.” Maplepaw left, leaving the medicine cat and the loner in the den.

“Can you talk at all?” Ravenwing asked the young loner. She turned to Ravenwing and made a quiet whimper, but didn’t say anything. She stared at the ground, clearly upset at the question.

“Oh. I didn’t know, sorry.” She nuzzled the smaller cat. Though Ravenwing was a pretty big cat, so it ended up being more of a push into the wall. The young cat made a sound like purring anyway, though.

“If you can’t tell me your name, then I’m just gonna have to name you myself. I think...Moonkit works. Do you like that?” She murmured something, which Ravenwing couldn’t understand but figured was something like “Yes.” “Good. We can’t just go around calling you ‘the loner,’ can we?” Ravenwing chuckled. “You’re probably hungry, let’s get you some food.” She walked out of the den. Moonkit didn’t follow.

“Don’t worry, the Clan might be a little nervous, but we’ll be alright.” Moonkit’s ears pricked, though. Ravewing heard it too, and it sounded angry. Cherrystar barged into the den with Rainwhisker behind her.

“What’s Frozentail saying about a loner kit stumb...ling…” Cherrystar trailed off. Moonkit was staring directly at Cherrystar, and looked very scared.

“Stop, you’re scaring Moon--”

“That can’t be.” Cherrystar said. “But it has to. You look like a little version of her.”

“Rosetail?” Ravenwing said. She looked back at Moonkit. Now that she thought about it, Moonkit did resemble Rosetail. The long near-white fur, the blue eyes.

“Yeah...Do you know her?” Cherrystar asked Moonkit. She shuffled her paws.

“She doesn’t seem to be able to talk,” Ravenwing said. “At first, I thought she was a StarClan ghost. That’s why I called her Moonkit.”

“I don’t know,” Cherrystar said. “I don’t want to take any chances, though.”
“Please let her stay!” Ravenwing pleaded.

Cherrystar didn’t respond for a moment. Probably considering what would happen if the silent cat became a part of SunClan. Finally, she said, “If you watch over her, and make sure she doesn’t cause any trouble, she can stay.”

Both Ravenwing and Moonkit lightened up. “Thank you, Cherrystar,” Ravenwing said.

“It’ll be a rough transition, but if the young one can handle living with no help at all, she can handle adjusting to Clan life. Don’t let me down, Ravenwing, Moonkit.” Cherrystar left, Rainwhisker behind her.

 “Well, you hear that?” Ravenwing said. “You can stay!” Moonkit didn’t say anything, just nodded and walked out herself, leaving Ravenwing alone.

“I’m quite surprised about that, though. Usually Cherrystar attacks first…” Ravenwing shook her head clear of the thought, if Cherrystar wasn’t suspicious, then neither should she. 

_______

“You sure this is a good idea?”

“Yes, Maplepaw, I’m sure. She’d probably die on her own.”

“We should stay on those loners’ tails, though.”

“I know, but Moonkit’s only five moons old!” The kit woke up to Ravenwing shouting, but she put her head back down and tried to sleep over it.

“You of all people would be hard on loners, your mentor died to one!” Maplepaw yelled at equal volume. Ravenwing was startled at the retort, she took two steps back before reacting.

“Th-that wasn’t fair...Nettlewhisker’s barely been dead two moons, and I try to be kind to any cat that’s in trouble.” She paused. “Then again, this is what I get for asking a warrior apprentice’s help. Some medicine cat I make.” Ravenwing sat down, depressed, next to Moonkit. Her eyes were shut tightly, as if she was trying to avoid it by not seeing it.

“That’s not what I meant,” Maplepaw said.

“It’s exactly what you meant. Go get some moss, I want to make an extra bed in here.”

“It’s dusk, and I’ve--”

“And you’ve nothing. Do you talk to Lilacpelt this way, or is it just because I’m not your mentor? Because one is slightly less bad than the other.” Maplepaw didn’t respond. “It is me, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t say that…”

“You go out and fetch something, which you hate doing, only to find the hard-edged near-warrior that you got it for has gone soft. I understand completely your confusion at my actions and your anger at what Moonkit represents. Just know that I asked Cherrystar before letting her stay here. Go to sleep.”

“If you say so.” Maplepaw walked out slowly, looking back at Ravenwing every few steps.

“Typical apprentice,” Ravenwing said once Maplepaw was out of earshot. “They think they know everything, but really, even if they do know it, they don’t understand.” She sighed. “Today’s been a long day.” And before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

_______

Ravenwing was unsure of where she was. It appeared to be a field full of tall grass as far as the eye could see, with some trees, but they were far apart, not like the forest. Like an overgrown StarClan, Ravenwing thought. She wandered around the place for several minutes before finding anything. This thing was a mouse. What's a mouse doing here, and why isn't it running away from me? Ravenwing said. It was on top of a couple of fallen leaves, but there wasn't a tree nearby. And Ravenwing was upwind of it, it could certainly scent cat. She reached out and clawed at it, but Ravenwing's paw went right through it.

 "Amber, where did you go?" some cat said. Ravenwing didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded too close. She tried to sneak away, but she stepped on a twig. This startled her enough to run a dozen fox-lengths before stopping. She stopped because she realized, why could I touch the twig and not the mouse? She walked back to where she was beforehand, and came face-to-face with a gray-faced cat with blue eyes and what appeared to be a mane of long white fur.

Rosetail! Ravenwing thought. She froze, but the rogue didn't even notice the cat's presence. She continued to look for this "Amber." If only I could identify this place...if it was StarClan, I could tell Cherrystar not to worry.

"Why in the depths of the Dark Forest am I here? Any StarClan cat? Please tell me!" Nothing came. Ravenwing didn't try to shout again. She walked in a direction. She couldn't see a moon, only stars, so she didn't know for sure which one. Eventually, she came to...Moonkit? The kit, well, wasn't a kit anymore, but Ravenwing could tell it by the eyes. Moonkit saw her quickly and ran up to her.

"Help me!" Moonkit whispered. "She's been crazy for the last half-moon over SunClan and Cherrydart, and I ran away, but now she's looking for me!"

"You're talking," Ravenwing noticed.

"Of course. What, do you think I don't have a tongue?" Moonkit said.

"You...don't. Do you even remember? I couldn't get your name, so I named you Moonkit. Back in the forest, in my den?"

"I...think so...but I'm not a kit. Not here, anyways."

"Where is 'here?'" Ravenwing asked.

"Duh. This is StarClan territory."

"It isn't. StarClan is more open than this. I'm always near a river when I'm there, and there's certainly more prey. And I'm not a ghost when I'm there."

"R-really? Then why is it always night here? The stars are so bright, the grass is too green. Rose said that sounded like StarClan, at least according to her friends."

"I don't know." Ravenwing paced. "Have you seen any old-looking cats? Morningsun, Bramblestar? Nettlewhisker?"

"No, but the names sound familiar."

"How long have you been here?"

"I have absolutely no idea. Longer than Rose has, that's for sure."

"And you haven't aged a single day since then?"

"Nope. That's why I thought this was...Star...Clan..." She was staring somewhere behind Ravenwing. "Uh...hi? Heh...heh..."

"Amber, what are you doing with SunClan cats?" That was Rosetail again. Ravenwing couldn't turn around, she was too scared. "And why won't you look at me? I'm no Dark Forest cat or anything."

"No, just worse," Ravenwing said with a quaver.

"Worse than the Dark Forest? You'll take that back."

"I won't lie, even to an enemy of SunClan."

"Fine. I thought since you had been so nice to Amber that you'd be kind to me, but no, I guess not. Go tell that prick of a leader that Rosestar will strike soon."

"See what I mean?" Moonkit said. "She's been calling herself Rosestar.”

"Let me take care of business," Rosetail said. She sliced through Ravenwing's neck.