Warriors: Rise of ThornClan

Chapter 9

Leafstep raised her tabby head up to the sky, just as a fat drop of rain splashed down onto her nose. She inhaled deeply, parting her jaws. No, it didn't seem that a thunderstorm was coming, but a downpour seemed to be on the way. 

"Leafstep!"

She turned to see Nightsong, the calico she-cat, racing towards her. "There's a cat here to see you." she panted. "He says he's from WindClan, and it's urgent."

Leafstep's heart skipped a beat. "Lead the way, Nightsong." she growled, and her tail thrashed. Trouble was in the air, she could smell it.

Once they reached the camp, a collapsed black shape came into view. Picking up her pace, Leafstep soon stood above the shape, and Rowanstorm and Sootflight stepped away. When Leafstep blinked the rain from her eyes, she could see it was Breezepelt, a very aged WindClan elder. Though ThornClan orders could be harsh sometimes, Leafstep couldn't believe that WindClan would send out their oldest elder to sprint to ThornClan camp; an elder who could potentially die any second. After all, stories claimed that Breezepelt had been alive during Firestar's reign- countless moons ago. Gazing down at the tom, Leafstep wondered, reasonably, if he was dead. 

She prodded Breezepelt with a paw as the rain began to fall harder.

Groaning, he rolled over, and opened his orange eyes. "ThunderClan!" he gasped. "ThunderClan is attacking us!"

Mutters arose from many cats in, who had gathered around Breezepelt and Leafstep in a half circle. Leafstep whipped her head around and gave them all one of her infamous flint-like, wrathful glares. "Be quiet, all of you." she seethed, and stooped over Breezepelt, fanning out her short fur as much as possible to block the poor elder from the downpour. As much as Leafstep despised his bitter and arrogant temperament, he was physically harmless nowadays. "How many of them are there?"

Breezepelt gasped again, like a fish without water. "Not many... a large patrol. They're stealing prey from inside our camp! We have almost none left! Everyone else was engaged in battle... I barely made my way out to run here."

So that was why the elder was out in these wet conditions. Leafstep gently hauled him up by his scruff, Breezepelt whining in protest like a newborn kit. She passed the tom to Snowpool, who carefully carried him into the medicine cave. After watching them go, Leafstep turned to her already-gathered clan as the rain soaked their fur, growing louder and faster.

"Cats of ThornClan." she shouted, flattening her ears. "We are now asked to go into battle against WindClan, for ThunderClan is taking their prey when they already have enough. When they don't need this prey. Is that just?"

Cheers of no arose from the crowd, and Nightsong yowled, "Flay those fox-hearts!"

Leafstep continued to raise her voice, growing more confident. "No, it is not! Not just at all, and a cowardly, despicable act. Should we go teach them what's right? Teach them who, for all their arrogance, is the best clan, the fiercest clan, in the clans' territory?"

The resulting roar from ThornClan was deafening, even over the pounding rain. Leafstep smiled mirthlessly. "If I say your name, come over to me! Sootflight, Rowanstorm, Nightsong, Bristlefang, Nettlescar, Darkpaw, Swiftpaw! You will be fighting in today's battle, congratulations. Iceclaw, Birchtail, and Sagepaw, you three will guard the healers and Brackenheart in case ThunderClan attacks while we are gone. Snowpool will tend to the WindClan elder, but Jadepaw!" Leafstep looked down at the little soaked she-cat with a devilish grin. "Welcome to your first battle, Jadepaw. It's one you won't forget."

Jadepaw bounced on her paws with excitement and went to join Darkpaw and Swiftpaw, who grinned at her, congratulating the medicine apprentice. Leafstep turned to Brackenheart, whose kits stood underneath her, soaked and shivering. "Go inside the nursery, Brackenheart," Leafstep meowed softly, feeling a pain of sympathy for the fierce warrior inside the ginger queen that wanted to battle. "I will keep Spiderpelt safe."

It was only a promise, but a promise made by the most powerful cat in the clans right now- and Leafstep didn't make promises often.

They bowed heads to each other, and Leafstep signaled with her tail for the battlers to follow in line behind her as they began to race away over the plains.