Warriors - Burnt Skies

Chapter 5

Nightpaw woke up to the sound of excited mews coming from outside the ThunderClan medicine den. She scrambled up, giving her fur a quick groom, before squeezing through the entrance and looking around the camp. Dawnpaw had Emberpaw, who's fur was fluffed up with feigned terror, pinned to the ground. Blizzardpaw was watching the two play fight, occasionally shouting comments from the sidelines.

"Emberpaw, you're too soft on her!" The grey tabby tom shouted.

"No I'm not!" Emberpaw shouted back. "She's just really good!"

Nightpaw sidled up to Blizzardpaw as the other two started playing fighting again.

"It's called confidence building," she whispered in his ear, twitching her whiskers as he leapt back.

"Where did you come from!?" He exclaimed, causing the play fight to stop as Dawnpaw checked out what was going on.

"The ThunderClan medicine den," Nightpaw answered.

"Well, obviously you did!" He growled back.

"Why did you ask then?" Nightpaw shot back.

"Ok, ok. Everybody stop arguing," Dawnpaw said, waving her slightly dishevelled tail.

"Why don't you fight against Dawnpaw now, Blizzardpaw?" Emberpaw asked.

"Fine," Blizzardpaw growled. "I'll show you how it's done."

As Blizzardpaw trotted off, Emberpaw sat down, wrapping his tail neatly over his paws. Nightpaw sat next to him, watching with interest as Blizzardpaw got ready to show Dawnpaw 'how it's done'.

"We've been teaching Dawnpaw how to fight whilst you've been sleeping. Anyone would think you're hibernating!" Emberpaw joked.

"Yeah, I find it hard sleeping in new places," she said, studying her paws.

Technically she was telling the truth, but that wasn't the main reason she was tired. The main reason was that she had been having nightmares about the Twolegs destroying the territories again but she didn't tell Emberpaw that.

"It can be hard trying to sleep in a new place," the calico tom meowed, his amber eyes glowing with sympathy.

She suddenly felt incredibly bad that she had sort of lied to this cat who was actually quite nice.

"How is Dawnpaw doing with her training then?" Nightpaw asked, changing the subject.

"She's doing quite well, considering she's a medicine cat apprentice," Emberpaw replied.

Nightpaw narrowed her eyes doubtfully as Blizzardpaw pinned her down with ease once again, the tabby she cat not even making much of an effort to shove him off.

"Really?" Nightpaw asked, wondering if Emberpaw genuinely thought Dawnpaw was doing well or if he was just being nice.
Knowing Emberpaw, it was probably both.

"Yeah; of course Blizzardpaw is better than her - he's had an extra six moons training," Emberpaw replied, not having any doubt whatsoever in Dawnpaw's fighting skill.

Nightpaw glanced at the sky, noticing that it was nearly sunhigh. She stood up and stretched, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on her back. It almost felt like she was at home again, having fun with her friends. Almost.

"We should probably investigate the ThunderClan medicine den," Nightpaw said decisively.

"Why would we need to do that?" Emberpaw asked, titling his head.

"Because all the herbs are gone, remember?" Nightpaw said impatiently, starting towards the medicine den.

"Ohhh, I remember now!" Emberpaw replied, bounding towards her.

They searched the entire den but couldn't find any signs of who, or what, stole the herbs.

"There's not even any scent," Nightpaw sighed after searching for a few minutes, "come on, let's go get the others."

She trotted out of the den, seeing that Dawnpaw and Blizzardpaw were still fighting. There was a clear winner - the grey tabby tom had the she cat pinned down to the ground once more.

"Everyone come over here," Nightpaw said, gesturing towards her with her tail.

Blizzardpaw stopped his fight with Dawnpaw, glancing up and releasing some of the pressure on Dawnpaw, who he had pinned down. Dawnpaw took this opportunity and knocked her opponent off her, clumsily pinning him down.

"Get off," Blizzardpaw muttered, batting her away with ease. "That wasn't fair."

When she finally had the group assembled, Nightpaw explained how they should probably quickly scavenge and then set off across the Twolegplace. They all agreed, even Blizzardpaw, who grumbled a response but they chose to take it as a 'yes'.

After a quick and very successful scavenge, they shared the scraps and started heading towards the Twolegplace.

"You do know where it is, don't you?" Nightpaw checked.

"Of course I do," Dawnpaw replied," this was my home."

They continued walking in silence until they reached a tall wooden fence that loomed up above them. They each leaped up, claws scrambling for a pawhold on the smooth surface, before pulling themselves up. The four apprentices stood in a line, balanced precariously on the fence and turning back to look at what was once their homes.

ThunderClan and ShadowClan had became mere ashes. RiverClan and WindClan had been torn up by huge monsters. Even Fourtrees was now destroyed.

"We will never be able to defend our territories or spend time with our Clanmates ever again," Blizzardpaw yowled, his voice echoing off the silent, bare trees.

"We are each other's Clanmates now," Nightpaw said softly. "We need to keep the memory of the Clans alive."