Warriors: Rosetail's Promise

C H A P T E R   5

“Ravenwing!”

   The owner of the name was running. She ran into her den, trying to make sure Moonkit was alright. Moonkit was gone. Panicking, Ravenwing looked around futilely.

   “Looking for something?” a sly voice said from just outside the den. Ravenwing whipped her head around.

   It was Rosetail.

   Moonkit was cowering behind the rogue. Her pelt was bristling. Rosetail’s was smooth; she was calm while the Clan was being attacked on all fronts.

   Ravenwing was about to say something, but was interrupted by a cat running up, bleeding from her belly. It was Lilyfrost. One of the strongest cats in the Clan…

   “Ravenwing, help!” Lilyfrost shouted. She pointed her tail toward the battle going on in the distance.

   Ravenwing turned to Rosetail. “This was all you,” Ravenwing growled.

   “Yeah, what will you do about it?” Rosetail smirked. “Maybe killing me will cause this to end?”

   “I...I cannot…”

   “You were trained as a warrior, however lightly.” That was Nettlewhisker’s voice. Ravenwing didn’t face her mentor. “She is no better than a loner.”

   “But she’s got Moonkit hostage…”

   “She will survive. Now is the time you face your fear. Quickly, your Clan is dying.”

   “It’s yours too…” Ravenwing trailed off. She walked toward Rosetail. This screamed of being too easy.

   “Go right ahead. I’ll give you one chance. If you can’t do it, then you will die with your excuse for a leader,” Rosetail mewed.

   Then, it all stopped. Ravenwing found herself laying on the ground. She got up and realized she was in her den. It was a dream…? Ravenwing shook her head. It couldn’t have been a vision. Otherwise it would have finished.

   “StarClan, what are you doing?!” Ravenwing yowled at the night sky, probably waking up every cat within a hundred fox-lengths. She covered her mouth. That was a mistake…

   Just wait, you can talk about it with Cherrystar in the morning… But Ravenwing’s worry had been fully piqued.

   She knew that the day was drawing near. StarClan-caused or not, her instincts told her so.

____

Cherrystar had very little to say about Ravenwing’s vision. In fact, that morning she said almost nothing. She did walk around the Clan though, so she clearly wasn’t too scared to do that.

Ravenwing still felt uneasy, even after relating her nightmare to Cherrystar. So she picked the next most likely cat to be able to help her.

Lilacpelt was busy feeding her kits. They were almost apprentice-age (five moons next full moon), but Lilacpelt still treated them as if they were kits, much to the annoyance of Mousekit.

“Come on, soon I’ll be in the apprentice den! I can feed myself!” Mousekit closed his mouth defiantly.

“Well, I need to value the time you’re a kit, don’t I?” Lilacpelt said amusedly.

“Ugh…” Mousekit put his head on the ground. This was when Ravenwing walked into the nursery.

“Ravenwing. What a surprise,” Lilacpelt said. “What brings you here?” Meanwhile Dawnkit had finished her vole and stretched.

“Uh, it’s something...big cat-like,” Ravenwing explained, to try and keep the kits from listening, even though she knew that it would have the opposite effect.

“Oh, well then. I’ll be right outside with Ravenwing, okay?” All three kits heard, and two acknowledged, but Leafkit was busy eating and said nothing. Ravenwing walked just outside the den with Lilacpelt, and explained her dream last night.

“Wow…” Lilacpelt exclaimed when Ravenwing had finished. “Well, it was just a bad dream, right?”

“Yeah…but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s going to happen, and soon.” Ravenwing shook her pelt.

“Someone’s real tense.” Lilacpelt smiled to try to break the tension. “If it was going to happen, wouldn’t StarClan have sent a vision?”

“Exact...ly…” Ravenwing knew this in the back of her head, but it took someone else saying it to get drilled in. “Thank you.” Ravenwing walked away, leaving Lilacpelt in the dust.

   Ravenwing walked back to her den, washing her paws in the hidden pool in the back. She wasn’t unclean, but it just felt nice to her. Afterward, she walked inside, where Moonkit was pacing around the beds.

   “Is someone bored?” Ravenwing asked Moonkit quietly.

   The kit looked up at Ravenwing, nodding once their gazes met.

   “Well, let’s try and fix that, huh?” The black cat turned toward the entrance to the den, where there was a face that Ravenwing didn’t often see.

   “Oh, um, am I interrupting something?” Brookpaw asked. She was Goldenfur’s apprentice, so often she would be hunting while Ravenwing was around.

   “Oh, not really, Brookpaw. What brings you here?”

   “Have you seen Pinepaw? When I woke up, he was not in the apprentice’s den, and Goldenfur and Frozentail were looking for him, but…” Brookpaw looked at the ground.

   “You’re worried about your littermate. I understand completely.” Ravenwing thought for a moment, making a half-round around the room. “I haven’t seen him this morning, but I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually. You’ve already got both his mentor and yours on the case.”

   “Th-thank you for the help…” Brookpaw looked up, if only a bit. “I guess I’ll go help them.”

   “Moonkit and I will come with you. Ten eyes will definitely find him. Right?” Ravenwing looked at Moonkit, who seemed to be reflecting Brookpaw’s nervousness. “It’ll be easy,” she added.

   “Y-you don’t have to help. But thanks anyway.” Brookpaw turned around and walked away.

   “Well, I guess that settles that,” Ravenwing noted. “I’ll go help her. You don’t have to come.” She walked outside. She noticed rather quickly that Moonkit followed her, but said nothing and followed Brookpaw.

   Goldenfur was waiting for them in the west of camp, at a small berry bush. “Oh, did you get someone to help?” he asked his apprentice.

   “Yes, Goldenfur,” Brookpaw answered. “Has Pinepaw turned up?”

   “No, not yet,” Goldenfur said. “Frozentail is looking down south, where the kits were playing yesterday. I figured we could go up that way, it’ll keep us away from where Frozentail’s looking.” He pointed in a direction roughly opposite of where Frozentail would be. “Meanwhile, Ravenwing can look in the middle of our two areas. Sound good?”

   “Yes,” Ravenwing and Brookpaw said at the same time.

   “Alright, let’s go.” Goldenfur walked out of the camp, Brookpaw following behind him.

   “This way,” Ravenwing told Moonkit, as she walked toward the sun, which was just barely past sun-high. How’d they let this slide all morning? I know it was a bit later of a start…

   It took her a while, but eventually she caught the scent of a SunClan cat. It was coming from her left, along with a strong wind. “That’s probably him.” Ravenwing set out in the direction of the scent.

   A few moments afterward, Ravenwing heard a yowl. It sounded painful, so she quickened her pace. “Pinepaw’s probably in trouble!” she spat, more due to danger rather than anger. She ran up to a bush and stopped.

   It was Pinepaw, alright. He was with an unidentified dark brown cat. She was young, maximum Kyupaw’s age.

   “This is SunClan territory!” Pinepaw shouted at the loner. “What am I supposed to do, tell Frozentail nothing? He’s my mentor!”

   “Yeah. If you tell him, well, my family might want to do something.”

   “Against a whole Clan? I don’t think so,” Ravenwing said as she walked out of the bush. “Enough is enough. Pinepaw, you better have some sort of explanation.”

   “Urgh! Don’t come back! You’ve gotten me in trouble,” Pinepaw told the loner.

   “You don’t and I won’t.” The loner walked away curtly. Ravenwing’s attention turned to the apprentice.

   “I’m sorry for going out on my own…” Pinepaw said. He sounded like he meant it.

   “I’m not the one that’s going to reprimand you,” Ravenwing said. “Let’s just find Frozentail and get back to camp.”

   “Fine…” Pinepaw looked down at the ground as the two of them walked back into camp.

   “Were you hurt at all by that kit?” Ravenwing asked the apprentice.

   “No, we just argued,” Pinepaw said. “Though I did get in a tangle in a vine earlier, but it didn’t cut me or anything.”

   “If you say so,” Ravenwing responded, a bit absent-mindedly. She was looking around the camp for Frozentail. “He must not have come back yet,” Ravenwing added at a whisper.

   “He’ll be back soon. And then my pelt will come off.”

   “Then I’ll put your pelt back on,” Ravenwing said, as a screech sounded in the distance.

   “W-what was that?!” Pinepaw started to panic. A gray blur ran by, probably Moonkit.

   “I dunno, it could’ve been Frozentail, bad, or a loner, fine, or even not a cat.” Ravenwing looked in the direction of the yowl.

   “I th-think we’re about to find out…” Pinepaw pointed at the bushes. Out of them ran Frozentail.

   “MOVE!” Frozentail yelled. Both Pinepaw and Ravenwing moved well away from the running cat, and watched the bushes, which were rustling.

   “Looks like five, maybe six cats,” Ravenwing said. “Loners usually don’t group up that large…” Even that group of four Lilyfrost and Dustclaw found was only four, and that was three days ago.

   They watched. Moments passed.

   Finally, one of the cats left the bushes and walked into the camp. A brown speckled tom, he looked back and forth. He didn’t seem scared of the fact that there were about a dozen cats now looking for the reason of Frozentail’s commotion.

   “Where is your leader?” the tom said. “I would like to speak with them.”

   “Wh-why should we tell you where Ch-Cherrystar is…?” Pinepaw stuttered.

   “Because, if you do not, we will fight our way through you. And there will be bodies.”