Warriors - Burnt Skies

Chapter 4

Nightpaw woke from her dream, quivering next to a sleeping Blizzardpaw. It wasn't the voice that had scared her - how else would the prophecy had been given to her? It was who the voice belonged to. Her parents both died when she was a kit but there was one cat she had always been close to. Her mentor.

"Are you ok?" Dawnpaw asked. "It can be scary, the first time."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you get the prophecy as well?" Nightpaw said, quickly changing the topic.

"Yes. So did Emberpaw," the tabby she cat replied.

Nightpaw looked around the now dimly lit cavern, not seeing the apprentice's distinguishable calico pelt anywhere.

"He went outside for some fresh air," Dawnpaw explained.

Before Nightpaw could reply, Blizzardpaw woke up next to her.

"Now how are a bunch of apprentices meant to do that and survive?" Blizzardpaw asked in his usual grumpy way.

"I hear you have a lot of faith in us," Nightpaw muttered, just loud enough for Dawnpaw to hear.

Dawnpaw twitched her whiskers in amusement before leading the way out of the cavern. Nightpaw felt a sense of elation as she felt a slight breeze ruffle her whiskers, telling her she was nearly out.

As Nightpaw stepped out into the daylight, she saw Emberpaw heading towards the group with two plump mice in his jaws.

"Hi Emberpaw. Did you get the prophecy as well?" She asked.

"Yep," he replied, placing the mice on the ground. "We can talk about it whilst we eat."

They discussed about the prophecy whilst tucking into the mice, deciding that StarClan was probably trying to tell them to find something beyond the Twolegplace next to ThunderClan territory. They set off just before sunhigh, managing to reach ThunderClan territory at sunset.

"We can probably rest in ThunderClan camp. I checked yesterday and the Twolegs were working on the other side of the territory. The camp should be intact enough to rest for the night," Dawnpaw meowed, trotting off in what Nightpaw presumed was the direction of the camp.

ThunderClan territory looked the same as ShadowClan: ash coated and desolate with bare, twiggy trees. It was a shadow of it's former glory. Nightpaw dug her claws into the ground. Why did the Twolegs have to do this? A Clan used to thrive here and now... It was nothing more than a wasteland. She looked around at the group, noticing that Blizzardpaw and Emberpaw clearly felt the same. Blizzardpaw's tail was lashing angrily and Emberpaw had his claws unsheathed. She couldn't see Dawnpaw's face but, from the fact that her shoulders were stiff and she was walking as quickly as possible, Nightpaw figured that she felt the same, probably even angrier.

Dawnpaw stopped as a ravine came into view.

"Even the Twolegs can't destroy the ravine," Dawnpaw muttered, a sense of pride in her voice as she reflected on ThunderClan's excellent choice of camp.

They followed Dawnpaw down the ravine, hopping over loose stones and debris from trees that had fallen down in the fire.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Blizzardpaw said, watching the stones clatter onto the ground several fox lengths below them.

"Of course it is! Warriors have went up and down this path for-" Dawnpaw was cut off as Blizzardpaw suddenly jerked forward.

All Nightpaw saw a tumble of grey tabby fur as it slipped toward the darkness below them. It all went in slow motion as Emberpaw scrambled towards Blizzardpaw, trying to catch him as he fell towards the void. But he missed.

Suddenly, Blizzardpaw stopped, floating in mid air. His mouth was open, ready for a final shriek and he quickly closed it. His long grey fur was wrapped around a fallen branch, but the branch was slowly bending under his weight. Nightpaw quickly hooked a claw into his pelt, dragging him back up to solid ground.

"Don't do that again," Nightpaw mewed, still trying to process what had just happened.

"I'm not planning on it," Blizzardpaw growled, trying to smooth down the fur that had gotten caught on the branch.

"I'll check you over when we reach the camp," Dawnpaw informed Blizzardpaw, before turning and heading towards the tunnel that was only a few tail lengths away.

"At least you don't have any chance of falling anymore - the entrance is right there," Emberpaw said optimistically, gesturing with his tail the direction of the camp.

Nightpaw pushed her way through the narrow tunnel, taking in the sight of the destroyed camp around her. There was no dens, they had probably been consumed by the fire, except the medicine den, which was made of the rock of the side of the camp.

"Surely there must be herbs left in the herb store - they would have been protected from the fire," Nightpaw meowed, glancing at Dawnpaw.

"That's what I thought was strange. There was not trace of the herbs or the nests that used to be there but they couldn't have burned," Dawnpaw mused. "The only reason there would be any left is if a cat took them."

"When did you start searching for survivors?" Nightpaw asked, a thought occuring to her.

"A day after the fire. We had to let it all settle down first," Dawnpaw replied.

"There could be survivors!" Emberpaw meowed, his eyes glimmering with hope. "They probably thought nobody else would live and left before we could find them!"

"That's impossible," Blizzardpaw pointed out. "The only cats that would have the initiative to go and get herbs and know what to do with them would be the medicine cats, and they would bother checking if anyone was left."

However much she hated to admit it, Blizzardpaw had a point. There was something fishy about the entire situation.

"We can rest in the medicine den and investigate in the morning," Nightpaw decided, heading towards the only den left.

"Good idea," Emberpaw said, following in her pawsteps.

They curled up on the dry mud of the medicine den after Dawnpaw had checked Blizzardpaw over. It wasn't as comfortable as the nest she used to have in WindClan, but it was better than nothing. She shook her head.

You're turning into Blizzardpaw, Nightpaw scolded herself, but she knew deep down that there was no hope of reclaiming WindClan, or any of the other Clans, territories.