Warriors Quest of Darkness (Nightfall Season #1)

Chapter 14

{ Time: Almost Dawn/still night after attack. }

Reedwhisker watched as Tigerstar shoved Tigerheart into the small cage. It was getting quite small. Three walls where the hollow base of a huge oak tree, the other wall made of bracken and branches.

Reedwhisker and Hollyleaf ran over to the new arrival.
"Are you ok?" Reedwhisker asked.

"Um, yeah." Tigerheart said looking around at the prisoners.

Squirrelflight and Petalfur laid down in a corner, both expecting kits but in about 4-5 moons. Willowshine sat near them.

"Welcome to the dark forest prison!" Hollyleaf said, "We get fed once a day with only a couple pieces of fresh-kill. And there is nothing to do but be bored."

"Errrr... Oh ok." Tigerheart said awkwardly.

"You'll get used to it." Reedwhisker said.

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Reedwhisker woke up later on. It was just after dawn. The Dark Forest cats would rest during the day and be active at night, because they were used to the dark. Hollyleaf sat beside him by the entrance of the den. Tigerheart then woke up and asked,

"Where are you going?"

"Today, we will escape." Hollyleaf said.

"Just you two?" Tigerheart asked, disappointed.

"We will come back, but for now, stay here." Reedwhisker said.

Tigerheart obeyed and curled up in the back of the den again.

Reedwhisker watched as Mapleshade took post as guard, instead of Sparrowfeather. She hardly payed attention, and slowly the two black cats crept out of the den and around the half-asleep Mapleshade.

Reedwhisker's whiskers quivered as his paws slowly stepped one after the other. Then, only a fox-length away, they ran. Hollyleaf took the lead, as she new ThunderClan territory much better than Reedwhisker. Though they did alert Mapleshade, she was a while behind.

"We did it!" Hollyleaf said.

They already planned their route. Towards the thunderpath, then into the inhabited territory to hide out until it was safe to journey back to the clan cats.

'There!' The thunderpath was right ahead.
Mapleshade was now right behind them. And Reedwhisker was lagging behind.

"Go!" Hollyleaf yowled, "I'll hold her off!"

Hollyleaf stopped and turned around to see Mapleshade slam into her. In the bright sunshine, she was almost invisible. It was after dawn now.

Then Hollyleaf saw something shiny. 'Yes!'

Mapleshade had pinned her down. With all the strength Hollyleaf could muster, she pushed Mapleshade off of her.

"Yowl!" Mapleshade screeched, her tail was caught in a shiny fox-trap.

Since they were out of ThunderClan's territory, they didn't clean up all the fox-traps. Hollyleaf turned around, ready to sprint across the small, deserted Thunderpath.

Reedwhisker was already a fox-length ahead. Hollyleaf ran towards him and thought 'we're going to make it!'

Then a red monster came around a corner.

"Reedwhisker! Run!" Hollyleaf shouted.

Reedwhisker turned to see the monster rushing towards him. He froze in fear. Hollyleaf sprinted towards him and pushed him out of the way of the monster.

She wasn't so lucky. The monster had hit her back, leg, and tail. Blood oozed out from a gash on her back leg.

Hollyleaf felt dizzy and fell to the ground. 'At least I'll see Fallen Leaves again...' Her vision started to darkened.

The noise of the monster stopped, and all other noise was fuzzy. With a small flick of her tail, Hollyleaf signaled Reedwhisker away.

He was on the side of the thunderpath, eyes wide open, probably wondering if i was still alive. Reedwhisker turned slowly, and left.

Hollyleaf closed her eyes and awaited death. She left like she was being lifted high into the sky, but it was soft, very soft. She was flying, flying somewhere fast. It was too dark. Too noisy. Strange scents filled the air...

'Am I in StarClan yet?' Hollyleaf wondered, 'is my body still in the middle of the thunderpath?'

Also to my readers: currently going through and editing all the chapters (this is after I finished the book) and I just realized I never posted the 2nd half of chapter 14 oops, enjoy