Warriors: Rise of the Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-One

A bird landed on the root of a tree in front of Kinksnow, who was crouched and prepared to spring and catch the prey. Newleaf was so close, the prey began to return of hiding and DuskClan took advantage of the prey.

The two oldest elders, Clawfeather and Watchertail, had died from Whitecough a day after each other. Watchertail's kits, Bouncesky, Haystep, Reedfall, and Thornshine hardly spoke since his death. Even Heartfire, his mate, seemed so caught up in his death, that she barely took care of herself.

Eyes narrowing, Kinksnow quietly stalked towards the bird, a young crow, and leaped. The crow let out a cry of pain but went silent as she delivered the killing bite.

She buried her catch to pick up later and padded further down the hill. In DuskClan, it was mainly moorland but the occasional dead tree could be found within sight.

Heading for the DawnClan border, Kinksnow caught sight of a cream tabby she-cat carrying herbs. 'That must be the medicine cat,' she thought as the tabby padded out of sight.

Shrugging her shoulders, she began to search the area for more prey but came up empty. Huffing in dissatisfaction, Kinksnow made her way back to where she buried her first catch and dug it up.

Her thoughts wandered as she headed back home, mainly lingering on what Halfmist said about a dream she had had previously.

'I'm part of a group that will save DawnClan and the others!' She thought, a spring in her step as she padded closer to the camp.

Firewing and Fallensong were speaking with each other, Fallensong looking away with embarrassment as the tom meowed something with a smirk on his face.

Ferretflight, Hawkstrike, and Sparrowflame were lounging around on their backs near the center of the clearing and lazily washing as they spoke.

Kinksnow flicked her tail and dropped her crow off at the prey pile and sat down to groom herself when Mossspots padded up to her, his pelt shinning. "Whitestar wishes to speak with you, Kinksnow." The tom meowed gruffly and turned away, heading for Flamewatcher.

Sighing in annoyance, Kinksnow rose to her paws and headed for the leader's den. She poked her head through the vines sheltering the den from the sunlight. "Whitestar, you wanted to speak with me?"

Her leader nodded from the shadows and curled her tail, a sign for Kinksnow to enter and sit down. "As you know from Starlingstar's death, she had a dream about DawnClan perishing." The leader began, eyes intensely fixed on the warrior. "Halfmist had a similar dream and told me you were in it along with three other cats."

Kinksnow nodded, tail flicking over her paws. "She came up to me while I was going for a walk and told me about it."

Whitestar nodded and went on. "She also told me the names of the other cats in her dream." Kinksnow's heart lifted, wondering if Fallensong played a part in the dream. "Moonswirl of DawnClan, Lilyleaf of FireClan, and Iceblaze of IceClan." Whitestar meowed and Kinksnow's heart dropped.