I walked across the snow filled clearing, luckily the storm and wind had died down so the hunt will be easy. Why must the elders and queens eat first, we are the ones who are more important. I scowled at the thought of elders eating prey while the apprentices and warriors go hungry.
I stopped walking once I caught the scent of a rabbit. I quickly followed the scent and saw a plumb rabbit just sitting there. I grinned and pounced. The rabbit struggled under my paws and I quickly killed it with a blow to its neck.
I can't wait to eat this! I thought. Then I remembered that the elders and queens have to be fed first.
I sighed and carried the rabbit towards camp. Hunger clawed at my stomach, I haven't eaten in days! Without knowing I was biting into the rabbit. I quickly stopped. You're breaking the warrior code! I imagined my mentor scolding me.
I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and started to eat the rabbit. If the elders are so important then they can hunt for themselves. I cleaned the blood off my face and buried the bones of the rabbit.
"There you are Dustpaw, where were you?" my mentor, Redwing, walked up beside me. "Oh, I was uh… hunting. But I can't find any prey out here." I lied. Redwing sighed. "Let's try hunting at Moss Rocks there seem to be many birds there." She suggested.
I nodded and followed her to a clearing filled with boulders covered in moss. A few birds were pulling the moss off the rocks.
Redwing pointed with her tail to a huge flock of them by a raspberry bush. I crouched down and stalked up to them.
When I turned to look at Redwing, she was stalking up to a large raven. I turned back around and leapt catching two with both my paws.
I snapped their necks and they went still. Redwing walked up with the raven in her jaws.
"Come on Dustpaw. This should feed the elders for a while." She said. I nodded and followed her back to the camp. We put our prey at the almost empty fresh-kill pile. "Goldenflame come quick!" Pigeonsong called out from the warrior's den.
"What is it Pigeonsong?" Goldenflame, the medicine cat, came out of her den and over to the warrior's den. "It's Adderbite! He's not waking up!" she yowled in fear and sadness. Adderbite was her mate and the deputy.
Goldenflame quickly ran in the den and came out slowly with her head lowered. "Adderbite died of starvation." She said. I stared in horror at what she said. The deputy was gone? Dead? Why didn't he eat!
Yellowstar sighed as Adderbite's body was being dragged into the clearing. "I will chose a new deputy at moon high, but first we shall grieve for the fallen deputy that has served the clan well." He told everyone.
Pigeonsong cried next to her dead mate with her sister trying comforting her. The sun was slowly going down and at sun-set someone from the fresh kill pile gasped at the raven Redwing caught. "Yellowstar look!" Goldenflame say showing the raven to the old leader.
"What is it?" he asked. "That's the raven Redwing caught." Jaycall said. "But look! One of the wings is covered in blood, making the wing red. It's a sign from Starclan saying that Redwing is going to be the new deputy." Goldenflame told him. Yellowstar nodded.
After the ceremony the other apprentices said I was lucky that my mentor is the deputy now. I went to my nest in the apprentice den and fell asleep.
I woke up with my stomach growling with hunger. I walked out of the den and looked around. "You can go ahead and get a piece of fresh-kill. You didn't eat for a while now." Redwing told me. I nodded and took one of those birds I caught and sat with Littlepaw.
Moons later… Dustpaw sat next to his thin clanmates. Half of the elders, most of the kits and a many of our warriors had died of starvation. But not me. I have eaten the first prey I caught without being caught. Redstar was leader now and I have had my warrior ceremony a few moons ago. I am Dustheart, my mate is Littlefeather and she was expecting my kits. I can't let her starve like the others. My mother, father, and brother have all past because of this endless winter.
I will just have to find a place warmer for my new family to live. We could start are own clan! Redstar was announcing another death. This time it was her father Firefeather. I saw Redstar be the only one to sit vigil for him being the last of his family alive.
I sighed and left to go hunting. I luckily caught a starling and a mouse. I ate the mouse and brought the starling back for Littlefeather. She ate it and I lined the feathers she plucked out in her nest.
"Dustheart. I have been thinking. This place is cursed with endless leaf-bare, I- I think we should leave." My mate told me. "I was thinking the same." I said. "When should we leave?" She asked. "We could leave now. We can travel past the Jagged Stones I heard there is a beautiful forest behind the mountains." I told her.
Littlefeather stood up and we snuck out of camp. "It's a good thing I been a medicine cat apprentice long enough to remember the herbs." She said. "Thank you for becoming a warrior apprentice just to be with me." He told her.
She purred and nuzzled me, our tails intertwined as we walked.
It took us two moons but we were over the mountains in a forest. It was not leaf-bare, it was new-leaf. The prey was plentiful and our three kits were playing around in a clearing. We decided to be loners instead of clan cats. So we changed our names. I am Dust, my mate is Feather, and our kits were Stone, Bright, and Leaf.
When they were apprentice age we told them about Starclan, but nothing more. Once they were the age of a newly made warrior a group of foxes have attacked us, I was left very badly wounded but my family… was gone, there wounds were too deep and they all died. Everyone but me. I now spend the rest of my days in agony staring at the final resting place my kits and mate were in.
Then a thought came to me. What would have happened if I didn't eat that rabbit? Or any of that prey I ate before giving to the elders or queens. Starclan has punished me. Now my clan could be gone and it's all my fault. It's all my fault they died! I just started at where my family was buried, thinking about all the cats that have died because of me.
Everyone must hate me now. If only I followed the warrior code.