Claws of war: the forgotten clan

Chapter Eight

Airpaw woke up from the morning sunlight and said her farewell to Leafdew. She took off and flew up to Airclaw camp.

She saw her palace and stood outside. She wanted to listen what the others would think if she were gone. Airpaw looked in from a window and saw her mother-Queen Spacemoon sobbing.

"Oh, Airpaw, what am i going to do without you? I have already grown old and useless and everyone is starving and dying because of my stupidity. Oh, I just want you to be happy and safe!" And she broke off burying her face in her paws.And she broke off burying her face in her paws.

Airpaw felt empathy and sorry for her mom. She decided to just walk in the castle normally, but she would have to hide the truth and lie.

She dipped her head down, and walked to the front gates of the cavern.

"Princess Airpaw! Queen Spacemoon had been looking all over the island for you. Where had you been?" Windheart gasped. She took her by the paw and led her to queen Spacemoons bedroom. Windheart nodded to her, and left her alone to talk to Queen Spacemoon. The Airclaw kit sighed and slowly pushed the door open. The wooden big door opened and Queen Spacemoon was reading a scroll on her bed. She sighed mournfully, without looking up and shook her head.

"Please, Dustpaw, I am fine for the seventh time." she said.

" Erm, mother, it's me." Airpaw coughed awkwardly.

Queen Spacemoon paused, by the smooth and cute voice, she knew that it was definitely her daughter. She looked up and a little smile grew on her face and she jumped out of her bed to hug and welcome Airpaw back.

"Oh, Airpaw! You have no idea what i've been through! Oh, I'm so happy to see you!" She squeezed Airpaw like a giant life preserver and then looked sternly at her. "Airpaw, where have you been? I've been looking all over the kingdom for you! You may never go out there, you hear me?"

Airpaw looked down and sighed. She stood there motionless like a wooden branch.

"Mother, I understand, but I'm almost one winter now. I need to see the world in order to be a good queen. That's my dream. And you have no idea what I've been through." she argued softly. The queen softened her gaze and sucked in her cheeks.

"Alright." she finally admitted. "I will think about it. You can go to your room now." Queen Spacemoon smiled weakly and nodded. As Airpaw started heading out the room, Queen Spacemoon looked out of the room.

"Wait," Queen Spacemoon said. Airpaw turned and whipped her head around to look at her mother. She waited for a reply, and patiently waited.

Queen Spacemoon opened her mouth but then she paused, and she gave a long, awkward pause. The queen nodded to herself and led Airpaw further in her room. She got out a key and opened a cabinet near her bed.

"Um, Mother? What are you doing?" Airpaw asked. Queen Spacemoon squatted down and eyed the cabinet and looked for something. It was filled with junk covered in dust, like if it were an ancient treasure. There were jewels, a purple rare conch, a wierd, wooden torch that had mysterious carvings on it and a dusty old scroll. She got the scroll covered in dark leather skin and handed it to Airpaw.

"Open this and read this once you get in your room. It's very important." She finally explained. Airpaw nodded and dashed straight to her room, heart beating with excitement as her wings fluttered, and she struggled to keep them back. Airpaw loved scrolls, and this time was no different. She jumped on her bed, and rolled over with the scroll to read.

The truth of history for royal princesses and hiers.

The truth? What does the scroll mean by that? Airpaw thought curiously. She shrugged and kept on reading.

Many years ago, when there were only 5 clans, a special moment happened. A young and healthy male kit had been born. His family was very poor and barely had enough gold coins to feed him. So sadly, they gave their kit to a wealthy, rich family. Snowtail, the kit's name, became part of 2 families now. In his new family, his siblings teased him and he felt left out every day. When his old parents came to visit him, it was the most enjoyable time. One Snowfall, he complained to his new parents that he felt cold and dizzy. His parents took him to a healer and the healer said that he was a new, undiscovered hybrid. His parents didn't believe the healer and ignored her completely. Everything eventually came well and good until one day, Snowtail fainted at his school. His old parents had died and his new parents finally gave up and threw him out of the door. Since then, he became very poor and lonely. He decided to run away from the cloud kingdom. He flew to an unknown island and spent his days there. Every Sunfall, the island would grow very humid and hot. So, Snowtail packed some coins and supplies to spend his sunfall in the cloud kingdom. It was very cool there. He brought foods, fur coats for the winter at the island and departed the next night. When he was packing his supplies, he met a beautiful she-cat named Softwing. She was very good at flying and was the same hybrid as Snowtail. They fell in love and eventually got married and went back to the island. They had 3 healthy kits called Dovewing, Peacefur and Breezeshine. Then, there were more and more generations of the hybrid, which Softwing named Skyclaws since they were more adapted to warmer climates and were very good at flying. Then one day, when Soarpaw, a 6-month-old kit sneaked off to the cloud kingdom to celebrate sunfall when a Cloudclaw patrol came along and asked her what he was doing there . He said that he was getting food for his family and the Cloudclaw patrol asked who his parents were. The Cloudclaws finally found out about the Skyclaws and went to war against them and captured all of them in jail. Queen whirlwind, Queen of the cloudclaws knew that they had to be separated. She said goodbye to her sister, Breezefur, the heir to the Cloudclaws since Whirlwind was leaving to be the Skyclaws queen. Every full-moon night, the queens and new princesses from the CloudClaws and the Airclaws would meet between the great oaks, located at the tippy top of the cats ear. Each princess has to be at least 10 moons old to attend the meeting. So that is the truth. We are descendants of the 'mean, malicious' Cloudclaws.

B-but-i was told i was special! A sad pair of eyes came up Airpaw's face and she sighed with disappointment. Every cat was being lied to since they were born, and even the un-royal adult cats didn't know that they were cowardly descendants from the Cloud Claws. She was about to put the scroll away and start getting ready for the meeting, but she skimmed past an additional part written in ink.

To-Airpaw. Hope you do well on your first meeting! Can't wait to introduce you to my Cloudclaw friends! Best wishes, Queen Spacemoon

Airpaw smiled gratefully at the note and heard a noise. Someone was coming! There was a rustling of the leaves, scraping of the claws, and loud grunts. Airpaw quickly put the scroll away under her blanket and blended in with the wall frantically. She was shocked in horror as the sound was coming into the room!

Okay, Okay. Don't panic. Her voice echoed through her empty mind. Maybe its just a bird or a squirrel. What if it was a tiger? Tigers have claws, okay, if it an intruder-

Bam! The window quickly opened and a white, furry blur came rolling across the room. The white figure sat up and slipped around the bedroom. Airpaw found a large wooden stick and without hesitation, she grabbed the stick and hit the furry monster.

"GAAAAAAHHH!" she closed her eyes and swung the stick at the white figure as hard as she could.

"Hey!" the monster turned around and rubbed his head painfully, and Airpaw realized that it was Whiteout.

Airpaw sighed and started to giggle. Then she laughed and laughed as Without just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"I've heard you talking to Queen Spacemoon. Whatever it is, can you please tell me?" Whiteout pleaded.

"Alright, okay. But it's a SUPER-DUPER-DUPER long story. I could even write a scroll about it!" Airpaw calmed him down and nodded her head. Without smiling, he sat down on the floor, his eyes wide and he leaned in close, like a newborn kit eager to listen to a story.

"Well, it all started out when i came across the red mountains..."