Warriors: High Tides

Chapter 18

The moment Bramblefoot awoke, she knew something was wrong. The weather was quite fine; there was nothing wrong with that. But the den felt... spacy. She could stretch her hind legs farther than she could the night before.

Then it hit her. Gorsewhisker and Harekit are missing! She stood up with such a loud yowl that all the cats in the den woke up at once.

"What's wrong?" Waspwhisker meowed, before realizing that the kit at her belly was gone. "Oh!"

"Gorsewhisker and Harekit are gone!" Bramblefoot meowed, standing and shaking her pelt to wrestle the sleep out of it.

"Good riddance," Ice growled, swishing his tail.

"Yeah." Ivystream meowed. "Nothing could have gotten inside without waking us up. He probably left on his own accord."

"Gorsewhisker didn't really like being with us anyway," Rookheart reasoned.

"But what about Harekit?" Waspwhisker yowled, her eyes wide and her whiskers twitching.

"He's gotten this far without nursing," Thistlepaw spoke up. "And Gorsewhisker probably was all strung out about a non-WindClan cat nursing his son. No offense, Waspwhisker."

"None taken, dear." The ShadowClan queen dipped her head.

Bramblefoot sighed and looked outside. Would Gorsewhisker be foolish enough to leave on his own in the middle of the night? As she thought about it, she realized she wouldn't really put it past him to do so.

"What time is it?" Ivystream meowed, flicking her ears.

Bramblefoot blinked and stepped forward, peering out of the makeshift den. The sky was deep reddish-purple, with streaks of blue slashing through like clawmarks. "We have a while until sunup," She meowed.

"Then let's hunt and scavenge as much as we can," She meowed. "In RiverClan, we always had the most problems with Twolegs during the day."

Rookheart turned. "You've encountered twolegs?"

Ivystream seemed frozen to the spot at his question. "Sometimes they came into our territory to play games or explore," She explained quickly. "And sometimes our apprentices would take a look and get spotted."

Bramblefoot felt iffy about this reply. She knows too much to have been taking 'just a peek', she thought.

She then slipped out, since Ivystream's instructions seemed reasonable. They did need to stow away before the Twolegplace beasts showed up, whatever they were. She'd heard rumors.

After all of the Warriors were out - Thistlepaw and Waspwhisker opted to stay behind - Bramblefoot turned to her comrades. "Should we hunt alone, or together?"

"In pairs, I should think," Rookheart mused. "Bramblefoot and Ice; me and Ivystream." He meowed.

"Now that Gorsewhisker is gone," Ice remarked, "It's a lot easier to decide on things like this."

"True," Bramblefoot sighed guiltily. Where had he gone? Would he return?

"So I suppose Bramblefoot and Ice should go down the road that way," He pointed down the way they'd been walking; "And then me and Ivystream should go back up the road."

"Sounds good," Ice meowed, turning to pad off.

"Good luck!" Ivystream called before she and Rookheart started off on their hunting excapade.

"Likewise," Bramblefoot called back as she walked after Ice.

For a while they walked in silence. Occasionally they got a whiff of cat scent; once, Bramblefoot caught scent of Gorsewhisker and got excited.