Warriors: A New Life ~Series 2 Book 1~

Chapter 1

Stormstar's POV:

Morning sunlight streamed into Stormstar's den and he mumbled in his sleep, shifting in his nest. The black tom yawned, his ice blue eyes still tightly closed. He didn't want to wake up, he was having such a good dream. But he already felt himself slipping away from the peaceful view of the Hightree of his past home.

Finally, Stormstar blinked his eyes open and rose to his paws, stifling another yawn as he stretched. He sleepily gave his fur a couple of licks to smooth out the rough patches and padded slowly out of his den.

Stormstar still wasn't used to his den being on the ground. He was used to being high up in the Hightree. Everytime he had stepped out of his den for the past six moons, he had felt a twinge of panic nag at him. He sometimes forgot that Lightclan had been kicked out of their former territory.

His heart was still with the forest.

Everything in the new territory was different. They hadn't even set borders yet. Stormstar had ordered his patrols not to go too far out into the strange territory until he established proper borders.

To be completely honest with himself, Stormstar didn't want to set borders yet. He tried to delay it as long as possible because he still clung to the hope that he and his clan could one day return to their past home. But that string of hope was thinning fast. Eventually it would snap.

As he padded out of his den, his paws hit cold sand. The freezing snow had stopped falling but the days were still quite cool. Stormstar shivered from the cold sand underpaw and quickly stepped fully out of his den.
Stormstar gazed at the new Lightclan camp. He had wanted it to be similar to their past home, but it was tough when the entire surface of the floor was uneven sand. The general layout was the same, except for his den of course. Luckily, Stormstar had discovered a smaller clearing just outside camp with a large boulder sitting on the ground at the end of it. He had made that clearing into the clan meeting area.

The warriors den was much bigger than before, with the apprentices growing older by the day, their warrior ceremonies weren't far away.

What was interesting about the new camp, was that both the nursery and the medicine den were underground. Small tunnels led underneath camp and into spacious caves where Stormstar had set up the nursery and medicine den.

Lightclan seemed to be able to manage in the new territory. They found enough prey to feed themselves, though prey like squirrels, voles and shrews didn't live in most of the territory, only the woodland area, which was very small. It was roughly ten to fifteen fox-lengths long and wide. here were plenty of mice in the tiny area. Instead, they mainly fed on small fish that swam in the many streams that ran through the territory from the ocean. It was tough learing how to swim and catch slimy fish but the Lightclan cats were getting the hang of it.

Dawnheart had also discovered a new type of bird that she later found out, from a loner passing by, that the bird was called a plover. It was a bird that hung around the beach, feeding on the little fish. It was hard to sneak up on one, because there was no cover on the beach.

"Hey, Stormstar!" Dawnheart's voice pulled Stormstar out of his thoughts and he looked up to see his deputy trotting towards him from the warriors den. "I need to speak with you quickly."

"What is it?" Stormstar queried, his head tilted slightly in question.

Dawnheart's amber eyes bore into his, a slight challenge in her gaze. "I know I should have told you, but I sent out a patrol to check around the perimeter of the territory and see where they could set borders."

At first, Stormstar felt a flash of annoyance but then he sighed softly. Dawnheart had been nagging him about setting borders for a while. It was about time she took the matter into her own paws. "Who is on the patrol?" He asked with a twitch of his whiskers.

"Y-You're not upset?" Dawnheart pricked her ears in confusion and took a step back, changing her stance to a more calm way. "Um, I sent out Dapplegrey, Mousenose, Sunpatch, Nebulafang and Yellowpelt. I made sure I only sent out the senior warriors incase they did run into trouble. I didn't want any irrational or immature decisions being made."

Stormstar nodded his head slightly, "Good." He meowed. "Have you sent out a hunting patrol yet?"

"Yes, and I have also made the mentors take their apprentices out for a training session." Dawnheart reported, her eyes calm now that the main obstacle had been settled.

"Alright. Make sure you send out at least one more hunting patrol during the course of today." Stormstar meowed as he headed toward the camp entrance.

"Okay, Stormstar." Dawnheart meowed after him.

Stormstar glanced at the entrance. It was a bit of a tunnel. Approximately two or three fox-lengths long and one tail-length wide. Thorns and sharp branches had been stuck into the entrance tunnel so that if anything; cat, fox or badger would find it hard to get into camp. Stormstar had also set cats to guard camp at night. He didn't want to take any risks in the new territory. He hadn't seen any signs of new clans yet, but he had to be careful.

"Um, where are you going?" Dawnheart had trotted after him curiously.

"To join the border patrol."

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Nutwhisker's POV:

"We're low on poppy seeds. Again.." Shinewing reported to Nutwhisker as he gave Hazefang some comfrey for her injures.

Hazefang's broken bones had nearly completely healed and she was able to limp around the den with limited pain. Nutwhisker kept her confined to the medicine den but he encouraged her to exercise her stiff legs. With over six moons of doing nothing, her muscles had pretty much disappeared. It didn't take long to tire her out. But Nutwhisker could tell she was getting stronger each day.

"Is that clump of poppies still there?" Nutwhisker asked, the image of the poppies he had discovered in the dense woodland area by the edge of the new territory.

"I believe so." Shinewing meowed softly. "I can go and look if you want." She got up to leave but Nutwhisker held her back with a flick of his tail. He got up to face his apprentice.

"Where is Watersplash?" He questioned with twitching whiskers.

"Outside.. I think?" Shinewing sighed. "Don't worry Nutwhisker, I'll take a warrior with me incase there's trouble."

"Good, make sure you bring a strong warrior with you." Nutwhisker whisked his tail away from Shinewing's chest to allow the she cat to move.

"Sure, whatever." She muttered as she bolted quickly out of the medicine den tunnel.

Nutwhisker rolled his eyes and turned back to Hazefang. The former rogue smiled sweetly up at Nutwhisker. "How much longer until I get to leave the den?"

"At least another quarter moon." Nutwhisker replied. "It all depends on the strength of your bones." He paused but then pricked his ears again, "Speaking of strength, how are the exercises going?"

"I haven't done anything today but yesterday I did a few minutes of walking in the den." Hazefang mewed proudly. "My legs are barely hurting now!"

"That's great news." Nutwhisker purred and eyed the den quickly. It was quite large and provided plenty of space for Hazefang's exercises. "Why don't we do some exercises right now?"

Hazefang nodded eagerly and leapt to her paws, wincing slightly from her injuries.

"Careful not to strain youself." Nutwhisker warned, his bright green eyes flashing with concern for the silver-grey she cat.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Hazefang mewed as she started to slowly limp around the den. Nutwhisker followed her, making sure she wasn't tiring herself out or hurting herself.

"Watch this!" Hazefang bunched her weak muscles and launched herself in the air. It was only a small bounce but when she landed, she let out a yelp and fell over, kicking dust up in her sudden wake.

The dust clouded in Nutwhisker's light brown pelt and he coughed after breathing it in. "Are you-" He coughed again, "O-okay?"

"Perfectly fine." Hazefang replied, already rising to her paws and shaking away the dust from her coat.

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