Warriors: Dusk and Dawn - The Darkest Storm

Chapter 21 - Finding Flames

Duskwhisper finished playing with his kits and was exhausted but he decided to go and hunt since the fresh kill pile was looking a bit picked over. Tiredly, he trudged into the forest in search of a prey. Often he would look for voles because they reminded him of Hollyshine but he decided that this time he would look for squirrels.

As he got deeper into the territory, he stopped and scented the air for any nearby prey. Finding nothing, he continued on until he arrived at the training hollow. There he found Poppydawn and her apprentice Birchpaw training.

"Hello Duskwhisper." mewed the cream and white she-cat.

Duskwhisper gave a polite nod, "Hi Poppydawn. How's Birchpaw's training coming?"

Without letting Poppydawn reply Birchpaw bound up to Duskwhisper, "I'm doing great thanks to Poppydawn! She's awesome as a mentor. I can't believe I was lucky enough to have her."

"Yeah she is a good mentor. She turned me into a fine warrior didn't she?" purred the pale ginger tom, glancing at Poppydawn who was licking her chest fur in embarrassment.

Birchpaw's eyes widened, "You were trained by Poppydawn too!? Awesome! I bet that you had just as much fun as I have with her. Oh, by the way Duskwhisper, I was wondering, how is Shiverpaw... I mean is Echoleaf taking good care of him?"

The last part came as a bit of a shock, "Uh, yeah he is doing great. I'm sure he'll be back to training in no time."

"Great! He promised we could battle train together. Now I guess I'll have more experience than him but that's okay! " Birchpaw chirped, flicking her tail happily.

"Alright, well I better go. The prey won't just jump into my paws." purred Duskwhisper trotting out of the training hollow.

After Duskwhisper parted with Poppydawn and Birchpaw, he spotted a thrush perched in the lowest branch of a nearby oak tree. Quietly, he approached the unsuspecting bird. It picked through it's feathers as Duskwhisper drew near. The pale ginger tom began to climb the opposite side of the tree to the thrush and made his way to a low branch. He pulled himself up onto the skinny branch and used it as a stepping stool onto the next one until he was above the bird. Duskwhisper waited a few seconds before leaping down on the bird and crunching into it's neck.

"Yes!" he purred triumphantly, climbing carefully down with his catch.

When he buried it he chose a dead holly bush to bury it under and padded off. For a while, he didn't see anymore prey. Every few paw steps he could scent a mouse or two but the trail quickly went dead and it seemed that today Duskwhisper wasn't having any luck.

The sun was about half way across the sky by the time he arrived at the StormClan border and he scented blood.

"Emberpaw!" he heard someone shriek.

Quickly he stepped over the borderline to check on what was happening. "Hello?" he called softly, following the salty scent of blood.

"P-please help!" the cat yowled again.

Duskwhisper followed where the voice came from and found two apprentices, one was perfectly fine and the other was soaking in blood. Both were on their paw though so that was a good sign.

"Emberpaw needs help!" cried the pale gray, speckled she-cat.

Turning toward the bloodied, ember she-cat, he mewed, "I can carry her to your camp for you. I don't think you can handle her the whole way."

The apprentice nodded and helped Duskwhisper get the injured apprentice on his back. After they were all set, Duskwhisper started to run. He ran as fast as possible without dropping the cat on his back, which wasn't very fast but it was faster than the other apprentice could've carried her.

Soon after they started to make their way back to camp, they arrived. The entrance was hard to make out among all the bushes and brambles but he managed to locate and squeeze through it.

"Enemy!" someone yowled, fur bristling.

Duskwhisper's fur flattened as he set down the amber she-cat, "I helped her get here after being hurt."

Buzzardflight came out of the leader's den with Ashstar, the two toms looked at Duskwhisper and weren't very pleased. "Duskwhisper," hissed Buzzardflight, "What makes you think you can waltz in our camp and harm our apprentices?"

"No!" mewed the pale gray apprentice next to him, "He helped! A fox got to Emberpaw and I found her like this. I'm lucky that we were close enough to the border for him to hear."

Ashstar looked a bit skeptical but nodded, "Alright but you'll stay with Doespring and Acorn for the time being. You will not leave their side until we escort you to the border."

Duskwhisper gave a nod and sighed when Ashstar turned and went back into the Leader's den, "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Nice to meet you... Duskwhisper is it?" mewed a tortoiseshell she-cat, "I'm Doespring and I'll be watching you. This pale brown and white cat is Acorn."

"Hello," mewed the pale ginger tom, "it's a pleasure to meet you."

Acorn stepped forward and purred, "Come we'll show you to an empty nest so you can rest up for your walk back to ThunderClan."

Duskwhisper nodded and silently followed the two she-cats. Acorn showed him to a small nest tucked into a cave, it seemed unused and he settled down and looked up at the brown and white she-cat, "Thanks Acorn."

"Not a problem." she replied, sitting down nearby, "If you need anything I'll be right here."

With that Duskwhisper dosed off in the nest and for once, had a normal dream.

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A/N: How do you like them apples! A cat doesn't die every chapter. Emberpaw is being treated by the medicine cat now.