Warriors: Storm Clouds

Chapter Fifteen

Her dream had left Brookpaw extremely troubled the whole trip back to the ThunderClan camp. She barely even spoke to Ravenfoot, who looked liked he wanted to ask her what was wrong, but was holding his tongue. Fallingleaf had said something about cats keeping their dreams with StarClan to themselves. Perhaps that's why he's been so quiet. In reality she'd been grateful that he hadn't asked, because the silver tabby did not want to talk about it.

     The only trouble they'd run into on the way back was the soaked moor. The rain and melted snow had turned the soil into reddish mud that slipped out from under their paws on the gentle slopes. Brookpaw had been covered in so much of the sloppy red-brown stuff that she'd looked like Amberpaw. A quick wash in the very cold stream in ThunderClan territory had solved that problem, and then they'd walked back into the camp.

     Most of the cats appeared fine, but apparently Twigtail had gotten sick overnight. Aspenglow still wasn't sure what was wrong. She'd taken Twigtail into the medicine den, and advised Hawkstar to send patrols out looking for any sort of dry bedding to put in the elders den. Lilystream was out leading one such patrol currently, and Ravenfoot had left the camp again to go help her.

     "Hey, Brookpaw!" It was Fallingleaf. The light tabby had a scrawny mouse plopped in front of her. "You want to share?"

     I don't feel like eating anything, she thought, but talking with Fallingleaf might get the awful dream out of her mind. At least for the moment. "Sure, thanks." She sat down in front of her friend, taking a bite of the mouse and trying not to gag.

     "So how'd it go?" Fallingleaf asked, green eyes sparkling.

     "Fine," Brookpaw lied, "The Moonstone was amazing."

     The light tabby nodded in agreement. "I told you it would be. But I suppose you don't truly get it until you see it for yourself. Unfortunately, my first trip was sort of ruined by Sageclaw. I guess she was just really grumpy that evening. Every once in a while she is..."

     Brookpaw gave Fallingleaf a look. "You didn't tell me that before. That must've been fun."

     Taking another bite of the mouse, Fallingleaf nodded. Brookpaw was about to ask her if she'd seen Amberpaw today when suddenly the tabby's ears perked up and she stopped chewing like she'd seen a spirit. Brookpaw felt an unfamiliar presence somewhere behind her and turned to see a young long-haired black tom with a white stomach strolling into the camp. Instantly her and Fallingleaf's hackles were raised and the two she-cats had begun to run at the stranger when Leafpaw tackled him.

     Brookpaw had to admit the calico's technique was very smooth. She'd soared through the air and landed so that her forepaws were squarely on the tom's shoulders, while her haunches were still free in case he would try to jump up. It looked as if the black cat had had the breath knocked out of him. He made no struggle to get up.

     Briefly she thought of the black cat from her dream. Is this him? Almost as soon as she'd thought of it she dismissed the idea. The cat from her dreams was older, had blue eyes, not yellow ones, and only had a white chest.

     "What are you doing here?!" Leafpaw hissed at the tom.

     By now all the cats in the camp had come out to see what was going on. Hawkstar was walking towards Leafpaw and the tom, looking calm and authoritative. His whiskers were twitching humorously as he watched, the only thing betraying his stern expression.

     Brookpaw could smell the fear scent on the tom as Leafpaw glared at him. And she couldn't exactly blame him. The calico looked awfully fierce, with her unrelenting green gaze, bared fangs, and missing ear. Fallingleaf looked over at Brookpaw and shrugged as the tom didn't answer.