Warriors: The Prophecy of Fire

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hawthorneclaw woke to the feeling of sunlight streaming down on her pelt. She slowly blinked her eyes open and peered out, expecting to see a familiar black tom, but instead seeing an empty nest adjacent to her. The memories came flooding back like a storm causing her to let out a low whine. After he had moved on to StarClan, they had held a vigil that she had stayed up all night for with Fernfoot who was Mosstail's littermate, Dawnstar who was good friends with him, and Willowwing, Fernfoot's only kit. It had been two moons since he had passed, but she still woke up expecting him.

She walks out into the forest, the gentle chirps of birds and the faint babble of the streams soothing her, ebbing the harsh memories. The death of Mosstail weighs down on her though and she doesn't care to hunt those birds. Suddenly she hears a loud crash and a yowl of pain. Instinctively, she races over to the sound of the voice. When she arrives, her eyes narrow in fury. In the forest is the same white she-cat from last night, her torn ear and scar even more prominent in the daylight. Beneath her paws is a golden she-cat, her green eyes ablaze. Great StarClan, that's Dawnstar! The two cats make eye contact, but Dawnstar flicks her tail, signaling her to stay hidden. Eyes wide, Hawthorneclaw watches as her leader rakes her claws against the wounds that she had given her last night, and the intruder yowls in pain. Taking advantage of her weakness, Dawnstar springs up and pins the cat, making sure that she was sideways on top of her so she couldn't scrape her belly, too. The golden she-cat takes her claws and rakes them across her attacker's face.

"I don't want you anywhere near my Clan ever again. You hear me?" The white she-cat whimpers in reply and Dawnstar releases her. She scrambles to her paws and races away.

"Wow. You really are an amazing fighter." Dawnstar lets out a loud purr and opens her jaws to reply, but nothing comes out but a hoarse cough. She crumples to the ground in a heap, bite-marks on her spine. The same white she-cat darts away, her tail held high. Hawthorneclaw's eyes narrow as she sees the she-cat, the one who had killed her mentor and friend, running away. Her eyes dart down to the golden leader. Her pelt is matted where she got bit and her breathing is ragged.

"Dawnstar?" Mosstail had explained about leaders losing their lives and coming back, but she had only witnessed Pebblestar's death, which was her last one. As Dawnstar's breath slows and eventually stops, Hawthorneclaw covers the wound with cobwebs to be ready for her revival. A few heartbeats of silence later, Dawnstar gasps, taking in gulps of air. "Breathe," she tells her soothingly. She takes breath after breath and is soon breathing normally.

"What happened?" she choked out.

"The cat we were fighting came back and killed you. I believe you're good now, but I'll have to check." Hawthorneclaw pulls off the blood-soaked cobwebs and investigated the sodden fur, but the wound is gone- only the blood left. "You're good. You'll be weak for a few days, but soon you'll regain your strength. You don't need to tell any cat, but if you want to you can. It's all your choice." The she-cat nods and leans on the medicine cat's shoulder, walking back to camp with her. One thought penetrates through all else in Hawthorneclaws mind: who is this cat, and what does she want with the Clans?

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It had been about a moon since Dawnstar lost a life. Since then, some big things had happened. Her dream with the two cats in the flame kept coming, night after night, until one morning when she woke up and realized that she was having Nightsky's kits. The dream had been talking about her: she was the one to have his kits! The only cat she told though was Nightky because she didn't want to be cast out from the Clans. Since she was halfway through her pregnancy, she had decided that today was the day to tell Dawnstar. With a nervous gulp, she walked up to the leader's den.