Warrior Cats: Dawncloud's Journey

Chapter Fourteen

      It had been exactly three days since the death of Ravenkit. His heroic actions still left everyone devastated, but also left them with the determination they needed to get to WindClan. Dovefur's muzzle was still crimson, only lighter now as she washed most of it off. Crowkit however, refused to wash off the blood. Although most of it was Blackbird's, the small splotches of her brother's sacrifice was all she had left. 

"I'm hungry, Mother," Cloverkit mumbled under his breath, not taking his eyes off of the ground in front of him. 

Before anyone could answer, Crowkit sprang in front of him, her fur stood up and her gaze was the challenging look of a enemy, not of a sibling.

"Can't you be quiet like the rest of us? If your hungry make yourself useful and kill yourself some prey! I'd be surprised if you could even kill that!" She spat, everyone staring in shock.

"Crowkit!" Featherkit hissed, whacking her sister in the back of the head.

Crowkit turned to face her sister, her blue eyes now showing emotional pain. She burst into tears as she collapsed at Featherkit and Cloverkit's paws. Dawncloud rested her tail on her grieving daughter as she watched Spottedkit disappear into the bushes.

"I should have made him my deputy in our game!" The black she-kit wailed. "He wouldn't have needed to prove himself then!" 

Cloverkit placed his paw on Crowkit and sternly said, "It was his choice, Crowkit, even if he had been deputy he would have done what he did." 

He looked up at the sky before completing his small lecture. "StarClan needs him up there as much as WindClan will need us down here."

The sentence sent a shiver down Dawncloud's spine as Crowkit gazed towards her younger brother. She smiled, and buried her face embarrassingly in his spotted pelt. He laughed, making the air seem to dissolve the tense pressure that ingulfed them. One by one, everyone began to laugh, five voices cheered out together, but as it began to die down, Dawncloud could have sworn she heard a sixth voice laugh with them. It wasn't Spottedkit's, she wasn't back yet. No, it was a male voice, a kit's laugh. Dawncloud closed her eyes and purred as the she-kit she was just thinking about rushed out of the bushes. 

"Everyone! I found something!" She gasped as everyone whipped around to see what she meant. 

"What was it, are you hurt?" Dovefur unsheathed her claws a little bit  as her tiny friend bolted to her. 

Instead of speaking, she turned her head in the direction of a group of five cats. Two were the size of Dawncloud's children while the others were clearly adults. Dawncloud lifted her ears as a smell flooded into her nose. It was a smell she had not smelt in a long time, and it took her a while to realize what it was.

"Dawnpaw?" A female voice called from the group.

The cats separated as a beautiful calico she-cat stood in front. 

"Is that really you?" She asked. 

The kits let out mews of surprise as the remaining group examined the four. Dovefur's mouth hung open, as she glared at the warriors and apprentices; a group of cats she had not seen in such a long time, let alone a clan far away from her original home.

The two calcio she-cats only stood, embracing the appearance of the loved one they had not seen in moons. Their eyes were both a bright shade of green, their pelts were both very rare to the clans, although one was covered in claw marks and blood while the other was freshly groomed. 

"Yes Mother," Dawncloud finally spoke. "I'm home." 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: yes, although all my chapters are quite short, this one was indeed the shortest. This is because I plan to make the epilogue the longest, which will require most of my thinking. In the next book, I will try and make the other chapters longer, most likely resulting in less chapters. But anyways, the epilogue will be as like any other chapter, but longer and having a longer time skip. Thanks for reading my lovelies!