Storm Challenge for the Warriors Forum -
Hey, this is my first challenge on the Warriors Forum. This story actually contains a lot of characters from the story I'm working on: "Hell on Earth".
Smoked streamed throughout the forest, coating everything. Cats screeched with fear. Kits wailed for their mothers while the yowls of battle rang through bodies.
A dark grey she-cat with a light grey paw was running through the forest, away from the fire that was gaining on her. Her eyes streamed from the smoke. She was looking for her Clan.
"Whiskernose!" she screamed. "Where are you guys?"
Out of nowhere, a cat rammed into her side, sending her flying sideways. The stench of Thunderclan filled her nose, and she found herself face to face with a huge, ginger tom. He snarled at her and lunged for the she-cat's throat, but she pushed him off of her with her hind paws.
The she-cat scrambled up and rounded on the tom, her fur fluffed up. Her claws slid out and she crouched, ready to defend herself. The tom threw himself at her and raked his claws down her side. She yowled in pain and spun around to deal the tom a blow to the ear. She suddenly felt teeth sinking into her throat and blood flowing from the wound. She staggered and fell to the ground.
The ginger tom turned and fled as paw steps came pounding towards them. The yowls from the new cats faded as the world turned black…
Fogpelt woke up, panting. Her nest was scattered all over her, some even on the cats around her.
Oh. It was just a dream, she thought. Thank Starclan!
Fogpelt got up and shook out her pelt before padding out of the warriors den. Outside, the deputy of Shadowclan, Woodpelt, was giving cats their jobs for the day.
"Squirreltail, I want you to lead a border patrol and make sure that Thunderclan isn't trying anything funny. Take Flowerlegs, Adderstrike, and Dapplepelt with you. Oh, Darkstar!"
A black tom came bounding out of a den on the other side of the clearing. Flowerlegs, a white she-cat with distinctive golden spots on her legs, came padding up to him and rubbed her muzzle with his, purring. The two of them were mates, as well as Fogpelt's parents. Darkstar purred back before padding over to Woodpelt.
"Good morning, Woodpelt." Darkstar dipped his head to the large brown tabby tom. "I would like to lead a hunting patrol today."
"No problem," Woodpelt replied. "What cats would you like?"
Darkstar cocked his head to the side, thinking, before he replied, "I'll take Bouncepad, Frogleap, and Fogpelt."
Fogpelt felt excitement flutter in her belly. She may not be the best cat when it came to hunting or fighting, but she gave it her all. She stretched around to give her dark, grey pelt a quick grooming before bounding over to join her father and the rest of the patrol.
Bouncepad, a small black she-cat, was her mother's sister. Bouncepad had one misshapen pad, a result of a battle when she was an apprentice. Frogleap was a black and white tom.
The patrol walked out of the thorn barrier that protected the camp. The smells of the pine forest invaded Fogpelt's senses. She loved the forest. Only, right now, the Clans were going through a drought. The air was suffocating from the heat.
Darkstar told the patrol to slit up since they might catch more prey that way. Fogpelt padded towards the stream that marked the border between Shadowclan and Thunderclan.
She opened her jaws and let the scents wash over her tongue. She immediately scented a squirrel and found it eating at the roots of a pine. She dropped into a hunters crouch and crept forward, keeping downwind of it. Fogpelt wriggled her haunches, about to pounce, when the squirrel suddenly fled up a tree. On the lowest branch, the squirrel sat chattering angrily before disappearing in the branches.
"Fox-dung!" Fogpelt exclaimed. She had been so close to catching it. How had it seen her?
The patrol met up again. Bouncepad had a mouse, Frogleap a vole, and Darkstar and fat blackbird. Darkstar looked at her sympathetically.
"I saw what happened," he mewed. "Your dark grey pelt makes the perfect camouflage, but your light grey paw is what gives you away. Since it's in the front, you need to learn how to keep it tucked by your body so that way prey won't spot it."
Fogpelt bowed her head, embarrassment and shame scorching her fur. She was a warrior and the leader's daughter, yet she couldn't even manage to provide for her clan.
Frogleap turned towards her. "Why don't you see if you can find some moss and get some water for the kits."
She nodded glumly before stalking off into the forest. She located some moss near a holly bush. She scraped it into a ball and headed for the stream.
The steam was drying up. The drought was taking its toll. There hadn't been any rain in moons and the heat kept getting worse. What would the Clans do without water?
She filled the moss and padded back to camp. On the way back, her vision blurred for a second before clearing. She blinked, confused. Maybe she was tired? But a cat she didn't know slunk out of the bushes then, giving her no time to think about that.
Fogpelt dropped her moss and growled, her fur bristling. The newcomer, a fluffy white she-cat, padded up her to her, ignoring her sign of hostility.
"What are you doing on Shadowclan territory?" Fogpelt demanded.
The newcomer merely blinked. "I am Cloudshine, Fadingstripes's old mentor."
Surprise shot through Fogpelt. Fadingstripes was the Shadowclan medicine cat. She had just been a young kit when Cloudshine had passed. She was one of the kits that Cloudshine died protecting from a fox.
"W-why are you coming to see me? Shouldn't you be talking to Fadingstripes?"
"The prophecy is for you," she responded. "Not him."
Cloudshine stepped up to Fogpelt, her face less than a mouse-length from her own face. Cloudshine's dark blue eyes shone as she recited the prophecy:
"As the forest withers, the blood will continue to flow. Fires will rage and smoke will cover all - and, in the end, it is only those not blinded by pride that will live to see the rain once more."
Fogpelt's vision blurred once again as Cloudshine disappeared. She began shaking. Fogpelt raced back to camp, the ball of moss long forgotten.
"Darkstar!" Fogpelt screeched as she skidded into camp. The cats in the clearing looked up with alarm.
Her father came racing out of his den, Flowerlegs and Woodpelt hard on his paws.
"What is it?"
"Cloudshine came to me with a prophecy," she whispered, still shaking.
Darkstar's eyes widened with surprised and beckoned with his tail for the three cats to follow him into his den. He murmured something in Woodpelt's ear and he steered away, running across the clearing and disappearing inside the medicine den.
A moment later, Woodpelt appeared with Fadingstripes at his side. Darkstar told her to tell them what had happened. She repeated everything that Cloudshine had told her.
Fear was etched on all of their faces and the smell of it filled the den.
"What are we going to do?" Flowerlegs whimpered.
Darkstar licked Flowerlegs's head comfortingly. "I'm not sure. But we will figure it out. For now, no cat is to speak of it. Carry on with your duties." He flicked his ears at Fogpelt, dismissing her. She noticed that he didn't tell the others to leave. Anger picked at her pelt. She had been the one receive the prophecy, yet she was the one being kicked out?
That night was the Gathering. Fogpelt was one of the cats to go, as well as Squirreltail, Scarcheek, Stickpaw, Dapplepelt, Frogleap, and Yellowstripe. She could feel excitement bubbling in her stomach as she crossed the tree bridge to the island.
Scents of Thunderclan filled her nose as she pushed through the bushes into the clearing. She spotted mother and daughter, Frostclaw and Moonpelt, sitting next to each other. Close by them were Whitemane and Brightspirit. She noticed two she-cats she hadn't seen before and guessed that they were new apprentices. Fogpelt later found out that they were Leafpaw and Turtlepaw.
Windclan followed close behind Shadowclan. Rabbitnose and Snowpelt appeared with their apprentices, Clawpaw and Spottedpaw. Silvermoon padded beside her daughter, Moonshine, the Windclan medicine cat.
After a few moments of mingling, Riverclan appeared. The sleek furred cats were the last Clan to appear, and the leaders gave the cats some time to talk to the new arrivals. Troutwish and her sister Pinkheart padded into the clearing with their younger brother Sunpaw. Their mother, Morningstar*, followed, purring.
A sleek furred Riverclan tom appeared next to her. His black pelt and white muzzle gleamed in the moonlight.
Fogpelt suppressed a purr. Instead, she nodded to the Riverclan tom. "Whiskernose."
Whiskernose dipped his head before murmuring under his breath, "Follow me."
The two cats slipped silently away, unnoticed by the other cats. They crouched side by side, deep in the bushes where no cat would see them. Whiskernose purred and pushed his white muzzle into her dark grey shoulder fur. Fogpelt purred back and licked his head.
"It's so good to see you again, Fogpelt," Whiskernose mewed. "I feel like it's been ages!"
Fogpelt agreed with him. She was in love with the Riverclan tom. The warrior code was against it, but she loved him nonetheless.
The two cat's green eyes shone with love for each other. Just because she was in love with a cat from another Clan meant nothing to her loyalty to Shadowclan. She had lived and breathed for that Clan all of her life. That wouldn't change.
Fogpelt and Whiskernose stayed like that for the whole gathering, pelts brushing and breathing in each other's scents. A yowl sounded from the clearing: it was time to leave.
Fogpelt jumped at the yowl, and Whiskernose's eyes shone with amusement. She was spooked rather easily. They touched muzzles and said good-bye.
Fogpelt woke to smoke filling her nostrils. She jumped to her paws and saw the other warriors around her stirring, alarm flicking off their pelts like grasshoppers. She dashed out of the den and saw the source of the smoke.
A fire had started in the nursery and had spread to the elders and leader's dens. All the cats were trying to put it out as fast as they could.
Fogpelt remembered the line from the prophecy: Fires will rage and smoke will cover all.
Before she could yowl out to Darkstar, the crack of a tree split the air. Cats swarmed all around Fogpelt as they pelted for the camp entrance, desperately trying to escape before they were killed.
Before she could move, the tree groaned and gave one final crack before it fell onto the camp. She was luckily far enough away that she didn't get directly hit, but splinters rained down on her. Fogpelt stared in horror at the site. There were cats under the tree!
She could see the ginger pelt of Squirreltail, the black body of the queen Slitneck, and her father's body. Fogpelt let out a wail at the site of her father's lifeless body. None of his lives would help pull him through that death.
By now, the fire had spread almost all around camp. She couldn't see or hear any of her clan-mates through the thick smoke. She turned and bolted out the nearest part of the camp wall that wasn't on fire.
Out in the forest, she could hear the screeches and yowls of cats. It's just like my dream, Fogpelt thought in horror.
She ran through the trees, calling desperately for her clan-mates. This time she was prepared for the attack of the big ginger tom. Fogpelt pushed aside some of her fear and inhaled the Thunderclan cat's scent, reconizing the smell of Firestorm.
Firestorm snarled and threw himself at her throat, but Fogpelt dodged. As her flew past, she raked her claws down his side. He yowled in pain and rounded on her.
Before he could attack, a flash of black attacked the ginger tom. Fogpelt recognized Greenstar, leader of Windclan. Greenstar slid his claws across Firestorm's throat, and the huge ginger tom fell to the ground, dead.
Greenstar stood over his kill, pride emanating from him. Greenstar was a young leader, but loved to fight. He had already lost quite a few of his lives.
Too focused on his gloating, Greenstar didn't notice the Riverclan tom, Bristlepelt, attack him. Fogpelt ran away as the two toms began fighting. She screamed for Whiskernose, afraid that he had died. She found him near on the Shadowclan side of the border. He raced towards her.
"You're alright!" he gasped. "There's fire everywhere!"
"I know. What are we going to do?" Fogpelt wailed.
Whiskernose only pressed his pelt against hers, lost of an answer.
After what felt like moons, rain began to pour down on the land around the lake. Before hand, Whiskernose and Fogpelt had found Cherrykit and Greykit, Slitneck's kits, wailing inside a clump of bracken in Thunderclan territory. They each took a kit and hid with them, fighting off any attacker that came close.
The Clan territories were filled with dead bodies, many of which were on the wrong cat's territory.
"Only those not blinded by pride that will live to see the rain once more," Fogpelt breathed.
The prophecy had been fulfilled.
Many moons after the terrible fire and battle, the Clans had been restored. Or, really, they had all become one clan. There hadn't been enough cats to all form their own clans.
Whiskernose was now Whiskerstar and the leader of Lakeclan. Morningstar, the only remaining leader, had stepped down so that she could be with her kits. The Clan lived in the woods where Windclan used to be. That way, cats used to the brush could still hunt comfortably, while used to be Windclan cats could hunt on the moor, and the Riverclan cats could use the lake and the river.
The warrior code had also been changed some. Clan leaders could have kits and mates as long as they're deputy would step in to take care of the duties for them. Medicine cats could also have mates and kits now, so long as they had apprentices with their full name.
Cherrykit and Greykit had survived and were now known as Cherrypelt and Greyneck, named after their deceased parents.
Fogpelt lay curled up in the nursery, the warm scent of milk surrounding her. She looked down at the curve in her belly to gaze lovingly at three kits, born only a few sunrises ago. One was named Shadowkit, a tiny black she-kit. Another was a large white tom named Blizzardkit, and the third was the runt of the litter. Wavekit was a very small she-kit, with a black and dark grey pelt. She had one white forepaw and one light grey forepaw.
Whiskerstar pushed his way back into the nursery. While Fogpelt was having to stay in the nursery, Whiskerstar had built a nest and stayed in there too. When the kits were apprentices, they would move back into his den.
He curled around his mate, purring quietly so he wouldn't disturb the kits. They water was back and no sign that there was a drought, and Fogpelt was happy living in the new united clan.
* - Morningstar became leader when she was still nursing her son, Sunpaw. The leader and deputy of Riverclan died, and Starclan chose Morningrays to become clan leader. Her mother then took care of her son. Troutwish and Pinkheart are from her first litter.