After running from a life of tragedy and loss, Dunepaw seeks guidance from a forgotten clan leader while the cats of the territories solve an unseen threat has already taken hold on them all.
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Written by: Jace Hays
Lore, Organ...
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The leader was prodded awake by one of his warriors.
"What?" he murmured.
"We got him," was all the warrior had to say to bring the leader from his den and to the clearing. There, a crowd of cats grew in size and noise around a jumble of vines and rocks.
The clan cats stepped aside for their leader, allowing him to see a lanky yet muscular muddy-brown tom laying silent in the net.
"Is he alive?" Otterstar asked.
"Burnetstream said he fainted and that he received minimal injuries," a warrior explained.
"Is that really the LightClan apprentice?" asked another.
The newly awoken Redleaf walked through the crowd that parted for him, eyes glancing at the leg that remained slung around his shoulder. "Yeah, that's him."
Cats murmured quiet conversations between each other until another raised his voice.
"That can't be Dunepaw!" Pinepaw asserted. "He was a skinny cat, not even a month into apprenticeship! This is some rogue."
Redleaf stood in front of the apprentice, his fur raised in challenge. "A rogue that happens to have green eyes and a stumpy tail? It's him!"
Otterstar lashed his tail, demanding silence. He leaned over the attacker, casting a shadow that blocked what little light bounced from the tom's mud-caked pelt.
The attacker's eyes flickered open by a sliver and his breathing quickened slightly.
Otterstar furrowed his brows to the young tom's subtly aggressive stare. "What's your name?" Otterstar asked.
The cat was silent. He matched Otterstar's stare with narrow green eyes.
"It's him, Otterstar," Willowfur said from behind the leader. "Don't waste your breath on Dunepaw."
"It's Falconfoot," the trapped tom muttered, keeping his voice so low Otterstar nearly considered the mew was a whisper of the wind.
Otterstar sighed and took a few steps back from the net. "Mistyleap?"
"Yes?" replied a she-cat.
"You remember his scent."
Mistyleap nodded and was the next to stand closest to the tom. Shortly after leaning over him with jaws parted, Mistyleap lurched back with a gag. "He smells like carrion," she spat.
"Otterstar, this is mouse-brained!" Redleaf growled. "Just make him lead us to Hickorystar!"
Otterstar was suddenly thankful that Redleaf had not distracted his stare from the attacker, as the young tom's eyes widened and legs tensed at Redleaf's final word.
Then, Otterstar felt a thick pelt brush his side and step towards the muddy fur that lay before StormClan's mercy.
"Burnetstream, I thought you were with Fennel," Otterstar told his sibling as she began to circle the assumed assailant.
