I got this awesome idea. Read this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors.


It began, in accordance with all things, as a small seed of an idea. At first, a catalyst, to set off the unfolding of events. And then: a thought here, a small notion or two there; simple, harmless contemplation. The spark of inspiration, a small flicker of doubt. But once it began, it was unable to be stopped. A snowball, slowly careening toward destruction.

They should have known better. Should have backed out before they even started, should have lifted the burden onto their own shoulders as everyone else in the Clan had. Should have not kept quiet, and let the secrecy decimate their Clan. Should have done the right thing. But once it started—well then, there was no going back, was there?


Duskfire crept along the edge of the tree, ears pricked, eyes watching. She observed the small, clueless mouse stuff nuts into its mouth until its cheeks bulged round, storing food for the long leafbare that was sure to come. And in a way, that's what she was doing. Grabbing food for leafbare before the prey all scampered into their hollows and holes in the ground.

A cold leaf-fall wind sped toward her—she could see the invisible force tousling the sparse leaves still left on the oak trees around her—but she held her position behind the tree, steeling herself not to move. The rush of freezing air bit into her pelt and she longed to just pick up the two mice she already had and scamper home to her warm nest, but she couldn't afford it. Her Clan couldn't afford it.

She peeked around the tree again, and saw that the mouse had packed all it could into its mouth and was now readying to leave. It was relaxed, having no idea of the hunter waiting in the shadows, its tail flicking from side to side. The small rodent twitched its whiskers and then began to scurry away—right toward Duskfire's hiding place.

Duskfire smiled. What good luck! Thank you, StarClan, she thought, and leapt.

The mouse froze as the cat hurtled toward it, stopped in its tracks. And then Duskfire's claws reached it and it was all over. The abandoned nuts fell to the ground, waiting once more to be picked up by inquisitive rodent paws and stored away into a cache hidden away in a hollow for leafbare.

Job done, Duskfire gathered the three mice up in her mouth, swinging them from their tails as she hurried home, nervously eying the dark clouds that gathered above. She was happy with her catch, and that she had found enough. There was no telling how much she would be able to find tomorrow.

She looked up again, the movement of her head making the small bodies of the dead mice bounce against her throat. The clouds were even darker now, almost black, covering the entire sky. Leaves rustled, and the cold leaf-fall wind was back, cutting into her coat and howling into her ears. Within a few moments, a splash of water hit Duskfire's nose—forcing her to momentarily stop and rub her foreleg across her face to clear the hazy drops obscuring her eyesight—and the skies opened, pouring down wet sheets of rain. White light flashed, and a second later, thunder rumbled in the distance.

By the time she would get to camp, her pelt would be completely soaked.

Thinking hard, Duskfire made a decision. At the large rock ahead, she would take the left path instead of the right. She'd always taken the right, ever since she was a small apprentice on her first outing, ready to train and ready to learn. "Always take the right," her mentor Eaglecry had told her. "It will lead you home." But her best friend, Honeyfur, disagreed. "The left path will bring you back to the camp, too," she'd argued before. "And it's quicker, too." She claimed that she'd used it many times, but then, she also said that she'd beaten a fox once. Honeyfur was that kind of cat.

Duskfire eyed the left route suspiciously. She hated stepping out of her boundaries, but if she would get home quicker…

She finally resolved to take the left path. She clenched her grip on the freshkill—they were beginning to slip out of her jaws—and put a paw beyond the left side of the rock. She paused for a moment, as if waiting for a sign from StarClan. As if on cue, lightning crackled across the sky once more, a dire reminding of her need to get back to camp.

Unable to decide whether that was a good thing or not, Duskfire took one more hesitant step—then jumped as thunder roared in her ears. That clinched it for her. She had no desire to be fried by the storm and sent to StarClan before her time. But after a while on the path, she didn't seem to be anywhere near the vine-infested entrance that marked the LightningClan camp. Even with the breakneck pace she ran at, and the memory of Honeyfur saying that the left path was the shorter one, she could see no sign of camp.

Rain beat mercilessly on her back, and water ran down her pelt in rivulets. Duskfire was cold, shivering, and, she realized with a shock, lost. She had no idea where she was, and the stormy weather didn't make it any better. She'd only had her warrior ceremony a couple moons ago, and sometimes she still acted like an apprentice before remembering to be more mature.

Duskfire looked frantically around for shelter. There was no way in StarClan she was going to be able to get home that night, or at least until the storm died down and she was able to find her way back. She couldn't hide under a tree; she still remembered the time she and Honeyfur went out of camp to catch prey one rainy day, only to see a bird killed right before their eyes with one merciless stroke of lightning.

And then she spotted it. A hole in the side of the cliff, carved right into the rock. A boulder about the same size rested beside it. Funny, Honeyfur had never mentioned this when she'd bragged about how she always took the left path. But it was shelter, and Duskfire wasn't going to stand in the rain all day. Quickly, before she could change her mind, she bolted into the hole, and was instantly rewarded with no more rain splattering down her back. She dropped the three mice—which were drenched with water, and she doubted anyone would want to eat them anymore—onto the ground.

But once there was no more rain distracting her anymore, she realized that the hollow had a very…empty feeling. Like there was nothing alive in it and there hadn't ever been. But I'm alive, she reminded herself. I'm safe from the rain, and I'm going to stay here until it lets up. But still she shivered, and cold crept into her pelt. She hadn't noticed it before, but now she did—an overall, freezing atmosphere in the cave. Something new had appeared just at the edge of her sight, and she went cross-eyed until she figured out what it was—a perfect miniscule icicle that had formed on the tip of her nose.

Duskfire shivered, and decided that the cave no longer seemed very safe. She would have to find another place to spend the night. She gathered up the mice and padded toward the entrance, but just as she did so, there was a creaking sound and the large boulder outside began to roll. The earth, now drenched with rain, had transformed into mud and was moving it. She ran faster, wishing to be out of the cave, but her steps faltered when she realized that the boulder was cutting off the remaining gray light coming from the entrance. It was going to seal her in!

She doubled her pace, but to no avail. Steadily and surely, the rock rolled to a stop in front of the hole three fox-lengths before she reached it and the cave went pitch-black. Duskfire dropped her mice and pounded on the rock with her forepaws and put her shoulder against it and pushed, but the boulder didn't budge an inch on the non-muddy ground. She tried to dig a hole beneath the rock, but the cave had frozen the ground so much that it, too, was hard like stone. Finally, she sat down on her haunches and cried out for help until her voice was hoarse. But no one came.

She was trapped.


Honeyfur trotted along, paying no attention to the thunder emanating from the dark sky above. She carried a plump rabbit in her jaws and was very pleased with herself for catching it. I can't wait to show this to my Clanmates, she thought happily. It's so big. When she got to the fork in the road, she took the left, as always.

She maneuvered the trail with ease, for she had been here for a thousand times. She knew it like the back of her paw. But today something was different. She couldn't figure out what until she looked down and saw pawprints. Had someone been here before her? All the times that she'd gone on this path, she'd never seen anyone else, as the rest of the Clan always took the right one. As time went on, she'd come to think of the path as her path, and it unsettled her to think that someone else was using it.

A little while more, she began to hear cries for help. They were coming…from the cliff? Honeyfur went up to the cliff side and pawed at the rocky wall. Nothing seemed out of place. But yet, someone seemed to be inside there. Strange.

Mud rushed past her legs, turning her silky golden furred paws to dirty brown stumps. Setting down the rabbit in a mud-free spot, Honeyfur tried to groom herself, but gagged with disgust when a stray twig got caught in her throat. She spit it out and decided that she would have to groom herself back at the LightningClan camp.

She pressed her ear to the cliff, listening hard. But now there was silence, stone cold silence. Had whoever it was given up? "Hello?" she yowled. "Is anybody in there?" There was a silent pause, and then a muted movement inside.

"Honeyfur? Is that you?" called out a muffled voice. It was Duskfire.

"Yeah. Are you stuck inside?"

"The stupid rock won't mooove!" wailed Duskfire. "It shut me in and now I'm trapped and it's so cooold!"

"Hang on; I'll try to get you out."

Honeyfur squinted and looked closely at the cliff face. When she did, she saw just the faintest jutting out of a boulder edge. If she hadn't known where to look, she would have bypassed it entirely, leaving Duskfire alone in her ensnarement. The break in the cliff wall was that subtle. Honeyfur put her shoulder to the rock and pressed down, shoving at an angle so that the massive stone would roll out of the cavity it was set in. Surprisingly enough, after a few pushes, the boulder gave way, moving easily on the slippery, muddy ground. After a few seconds, Duskfire sprung out, eyes wide with relief.

"Thank StarClan I'm out! Thank you, Honeyfur. It was so terrible in there. And cold." She shook herself, as if trying to get warm.

Honeyfur pressed her pelt against Duskfire's, a gesture of reassurance. "It's alright, you're out now." She picked up the now-soaked rabbit, and her next words came out muffled. "Let's go home now."


The next morning, Duskfire woke up and padded quietly to the fresh-kill pile, wanting to get a small piece of prey to eat before she went out to hunt. The dawn patrol had already gone, and she hadn't been one of the cats picked. But when she got there, she was shocked to see the fresh-kill pile decimated to little more than a scrawny bird. Duskfire flipped the bird over with one paw, as if the dead swallow was hiding perhaps ten more pieces of prey under it. But there was nothing.

Duskfire swallowed hard. In her lifetime—which wasn't very long so far, but still—the fresh-kill pile had never been like this. And leafbare hadn't even completely come yet! For a moment, she let her thoughts swirl into a frenzy, and wondered which of her Clanmates would die that leafbare, before she shook her head to clear them.

Suddenly, she remembered the mice she had left in the cave the day before. She could go get them and put them in the pile! Then she recalled their water-drenched bodies and wrinkled her nose. Would they be edible by the time she got there? But at least it would be worth it to try.

Afraid of being trapped in the cave again, Duskfire went and woke up a grumpy Honeyfur from her slumber. They agreed that only Duskfire would go in there, and if she got trapped, Honeyfur would free her again.

They soon arrived at the cave. It was closed, even though Honeyfur had left it open after she'd freed Duskfire and they'd gone home. The mud must have moved the rock back, Duskfire theorized. The two she-cats easily pushed the boulder away, and Honeyfur stood guard at the entrance while Duskfire went uneasily in to fetch her mice.

She'd left the prey at the very back of the cave, where she'd dropped them in despair, and she went there now. Blinking in the dim light filtering through the entrance, she felt the ground for the mice, and soon found them. She picked them up and brought them back out to Honeyfur. "Do you think they're still edible?"

A memory popped into her head: A moon before, Blackpaw, a newly appointed apprentice, had brought back a vole and acted like it was the best thing in the Clans. He refused to let any of the other apprentices eat it, nor the younger warriors, and spent the rest of the day watching the fresh-kill pile doggedly to see which senior warrior or high status-holding Clanmate—like the deputy, perhaps—would pick it up to eat. Word spread through LightningClan that Blackpaw was guarding the fresh-kill pile, and more specifically, his vole, so the other cats went out of their way to avoid that particular piece of prey. And the next day, Blackpaw had dashed excitedly to the fresh-kill pile, only to find a rotted vole with flies circling around the smelly body.

Honeyfur pawed at the mice, seeming to remember Blackpaw's vole, too. Gingerly, she lowered her head and took a small bite out of one of them. She chewed slowly, delight spreading over her face. "Hey, it's not rotten at all! It tastes like you caught it just a few moments ago!"

"Really?" Surprised, Duskfire bent down and took a bite out of the mouse. "It is! Huh." They finished the first mouse together, and then Duskfire made to pick up the other two, but Honeyfur stopped her.

"Here, leave one of them in there," she said, and tossed the small rodent into the cave. "You take this one back to the camp, and we'll come at nightfall and see if the third mouse is still edible." Duskfire thought over the idea, and agreed. They sealed the cave again, and then Honeyfur caught a squirrel before they padded back to camp.


Night came and found two she-cats huddled at the cliff face.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Honeyfur?" one of them, a small gray-and-brown mottled she-cat, inquired nervously.

Honeyfur, a golden-brown colored cat, nodded confidently in answer. "I'm sure, Duskfire. Now help me move this." Together, the two warriors shifted the boulder to the side and stepped in.

Honeyfur had never been in the cave before, and she found herself shivering violently before taking control of her shudders. Her friend turned to gaze at her with a knowing look.

"It's cold, isn't it?"

"Yes." Their breaths came out in puffs, frosty clouds of air that hung in the cave before disintegrating.

Duskfire found the mouse and dragged it outside. Honeyfur followed quickly, not wanting to be in the cave one more second. And yet as she gazed at the hole they had just vacated, she found it to be a mysterious place that whispered of secrets, and something whispered inside her mind—an idea, perhaps? But it was gone just as quickly, and Duskfire was now reporting that the mouse was indeed safe to eat.

With this new discovery, Honeyfur was excited. "Don't you see what this means?" she asked, the idea coming back to her. The idea was so ingenious that she could hardly believe no one had ever thought of it before—but then again, no one had ever found the cave except for them.

"What?" Duskfire said, looking at her curiously. She offered her the rest of the mouse; there was no way they were bringing it back to camp with a bite already taken out of it.

She was practically quivering with anticipation now, her breath coming out in fast, cold gusts of air. "Don't you see?" she asked again. "This cave…it can preserve fresh-kill!" When Duskfire tilted her head to one side, still confused, she elaborated. "We can store food here, and it won't ever spoil. This-this could get us through leafbare! Whenever we need to eat, we can just come here! We won't have to gobble up our food one day only to starve the next."

Now Duskfire got it; Honeyfur could see the understanding dawning in her eyes. "That's a brilliant idea, Honeyfur!" she breathed. "We'll be the most well-fed of all the Clans." She turned to go, the half-eaten mouse forgotten. "Come on; let's go tell Hawkstar right now!"

But Honeyfur had stopped, hesitation in her stance. "I…I'm actually not sure we should do that," she stammered, heat sweeping over her pelt from what she was about to admit.

Duskfire paused also, confusion etched in her features. "But this could help get our Clan through leafbare! We would have food safely stored away for whenever we need it." She peered at her friend more closely, and was shocked to see Honeyfur turning away her head in shame. "Are you possibly saying that…?" She couldn't be. Honeyfur was a loyal warrior and had always followed the warrior code.

"As young warriors, we'll be the main fighting force in the following moons," Honeyfur began haltingly, unsure if what she was doing was right. She pushed the thought away, of course she was. "So, we are the ones who need to keep their strength up. We are the ones who need full bellies every day. We are the ones who need to live."

Duskfire's mouth hung open in surprise, and Honeyfur took a step backward, not sure what Duskfire would do next. "It's okay, though, if you still want to tell Hawkstar—" she started to add hastily, but the mottled she-cat interrupted her.

"I…I think I agree with you." Honeyfur blinked, surprised, not expecting that answer at all. Duskfire went on. "But…if the elders or the queens seem to be hungry, we'll bring them a few extra pieces of fresh-kill, right?"

"Right," Honeyfur agreed, feeling immensely relieved that Duskfire was going along with her. She held out her paw, wanting to cement the agreement with something more final. "Do you promise that this secret will forever stay with the two of us, and only the two of us?"

The gray-and-brown she-cat hesitated for only one second before putting her paw on top of Honeyfur's. "I promise."


So, how did you like it? The next and final chapter will be up soon. Please review. ;)

~Ponyiowa