Ravenheart dropped into a hunting crouch. Carefully, she moved forward, brushing past fern and other bracken. Treading lightly, she led Firemoon through the undergrowth, laying low.
"See anything?" Firemoon whispered.
Ravenheart shook her head and flicked her tail. "No, but they're close," she answered.
She pricked her ears and snapped her head around when a twig snapped behind them.
"Great Starclan, how can Thunderclan live in this forest?" some cat hissed.
"Quiet!" another one snapped.
Ravenheart exchanged a glance with Firemoon as they crouched together under a prickly honeysuckle. Glaring through the gloom, she recognized Fawnspring, Weedwhisker, Logpelt, Mapleleaf, Skyheart, Ivystem, Squirrelpaw and Longpaw.
Ravenheart nudged Firemoon lightly and cocked her head to the side. "The trap is not so far away, I'll go scare them towards it, you just have to steer them on the right path. You're faster than I am, so try and mock them so they chase you."
Firemoon nodded before slinking away. Ravenheart watched her go until she disappeared into a swath of ferns, then she turned and crept across the forest floor. Keeping her eyes narrowed so they wouldn't glow, she let her black pelt blend into the darkness as she followed the Windclan cats.
"Have you ever tasted a mouse?" Squirrelpaw asked them.
Longpaw nodded eagerly. "I have! Remember that time I told you that I was just going to a border patrol and said that you couldn't come with me?"
Squirrelpaw rolled her eyes. "How could I forget?"
Longpaw chuckled before flicking his tail. "Well, it wasn't a border patrol." While he told the story, Ravenheart clambered up an oak, half listening to Longpaw. "I went with Sootpaw and Ratpaw to hunt here on Thunderclan territory. We caught quite a lot of food actually, and we ate like Starclan cats!" he purred while Squirrelpaw gasped with awe.
Ravenheart felt anger bubbling up inside of her. And the warriors weren't even saying anything! As carefully as she could, she crawled out onto one of the branches, but before she could do anything, she saw a white pelt slinking in the undergrowth, with a grey one following. That's when she realized that Iceheart and the others had come back.
Bluepaw and Mossypaw were crouched under the same honeysuckle Ravenheart and Firemoon sheltered in a few moments ago.
Iceheart and Dewslip were holding a vine between them, flattening themselves about a fox-length away from each other.
Sunflame and Twigtail were bracing themselves in a bush beside Ravenheart's tree.
When they were all ready, they looked up at Ravenheart. The moment she raised her tail, the Thunderclan cats below her started letting out pitiful wails, and at the exacts same moment, she shook the branch as wildly as she could, showering down leaves at the Windclan cats. They jumped with shock, and a couple of yowls rang in Ravenheart's ears.
Less than a heartbeat later, Bluepaw and Mossypaw sprang out of their hiding place with shrill shrieks. The Windclan cats scrambled aside, Longpaw and Squirrelpaw colliding into each other, then they bolted towards where Sunflame and Twigtail were hiding. They rushed out, yowling and screeching. Ravenheart felt a glimmer of amusement and satisfaction as she watched the panicstricken Windclan cats scramble in fear and confusion, running straight towards, where Dewslip and Iceheart were hiding.
Ravenheart slithered down from the tree. "Go, Windclan cats are fast and if they catch up to Firemoon she's as good as dead," she whispered to Sunflame and Twigtail. They nodded before turning and hurrying into the forest.
Ravenheart whipped around as Dewslip and Iceheart straightened the vine and the Windclan cats tripped over it and tumbled down the slope, landing in a tangle of pelts and tails.
"Come get us, mangepelts!" Ravenheart yowled down towards them.
With furious yowls, the Windclan cats started streaming up the hill. Ravenheart whipped around. "Go!" she hissed at the other Thunderclan cats. They quickly nodded before sliding into the undergrowth, only Dewslip and Iceheart remained. Ravenheart scooted up a tree and watched down from there. Just then, Dewslip and Iceheart dashed into the undergrowth as the Windclan cats scrambled up the top of the slope. Ravenheart leaped from tree to tree as she followed them, sprinting on the branches, carefully aiming where to place her paws.
Then, she saw Iceheart and Dewslip leap for a tree each. The Windclan cats, just moments after them, skidded to halt. "Where did they go?" Mapleleaf hissed.
Just then, Firemoon sprang out of the undergrowth. "Can't catch me!" she yowled at them before whipping around and shooting into the undergrowth. With furious hisses the Windclan cats followed. Ravenheart narrowed her eyes as Firemoon jumped onto a fallen tree trunk, stopped there for a moment to look if the Windclan cats were still following before leaping down on the other side. The Windclan cats didn't realize that this was one of the traps. They flew over the trunk, but Ravenheart and the others had dug a hole on the other side of it and put a bunch wet moss in it. Ravenheart fought to force down a yowl of laughter as the Windclan cats shrieked with fury and shock.
"Having a nice bath?" Bluepaw asked them as she stood on a low branch of an oak tree a few fox-lengths away from where Ravenheart crouched, but she only got spits and hisses in return.
Bluepaw then leaped from the branch and bolted onwards with the Windclan cats and of course Ravenheart following. They were closing in on the main trap. Finally, the reached the slope down to the dam. Once again, Iceheart and Dewslip stretched a vine between them and the Windclan cats tumbled over themselves before crashing down the slope.
"I want to go home!" Squirrelpaw wailed.
Ravenheart leaped down from her tree to stand beside Firemoon and the other cats that had gathered on the other side of the trap. "Windclan cats aren't so fast after all!" Firemoon mocked them. The Windclan cats sprang to their paws and launched themselves at them, but the 'forest floor' gave way and they fell into freezing cold water. The Thunderclan cats let out yowls of laughter as they Windclan cats spat curses at them as they hauled themselves up from the water, shivering and soggy.
"See you at the next Night of Shadows!" Ravenheart yowled at them before sprinting away into the night with the rest of her patrol on her heels.
END OF BOOK TWO, FROM DUSK TO DAWN.
SMEW
