Chapter 1
"Kits, wake up!" A gentle voice called to her five kits, waking them up slowly. "Princess is here." Daffodil blinked her eyes open and saw her mother, Momo sitting by her and her siblings.
"Hi mommy!" Daffodil squeaked, tumbling over to her, stepping on her brother, Sunny's paw.
"Watch it!" Sunny hissed, getting up and racing to keep up with Momo and his siblings.
The four month old kits were going to meet their kin, Princess outside. She was going to tell them about Firestar, another one of their kin. But only Daffodil seemed excited, she had had multiple dreams of eating freshly killed mouse, of course killed by her, out in the forest, unlike her siblings.
"Hello kits!" A familiar voice greeted, a slender brown kittypet walked out. "Sit down so I can tell you about Firestar, his story is quite long."
The kits plopped down, exhausted from the walk. They listened carefully and quiet. Daffodil was hanging on every word, completely awed, as well as Blacky, her only sister. Whereas her brothers were yawning and flicking a dead beetle to each other.
But where Firestar was, it was chaotic and noisy. A white furred apprentice dashed into the clearing, almost hitting the fallen tree. He panted, his leg letting blood spatter the ground beneath him as he gingerly held it up. His heavy breathing and clumsy entrance brought the clan out of their nests.
"What has happened Bearpaw?" Firestar asked, managing to make his voice heard over the rambling of the clan. The cats quieted down right away at the sound of his voice.
"Deerpaw, Littlepaw, and I went out to hunt because the food pile looked low. When we were chasing a squirrel, it went into Shadowclan's territory. We didn't realize and chased after it." Bearpaw breathed deeply. "No one was hit by a monster, luckily. As we continued our chase, Deerpaw opened his mouth to check where the squirrel went, but instead the stench of Shadowclan hit him and he yowled to us that he smelled other cats." Bearpaw wheezed loudly then continued, "But he was too late. There were three of them, all warriors and much bigger than us. We fought well at first, teaming up and injuring the first cat sending her flying back to her camp. But then the others lunged on top of…." Bearpaw's eyes clouded with pain as he remembered the scene. "D-d-d-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-paw and L-l-l-l-ittl-l-l-l-e-e-pa-w-w-w." His body shook. "Deerpaw instantly fell to the ground, not managing to attack. Littlepaw swerved and fought back but soon was on the ground too." His voice shook with the shock and fear of the moment. "I ran back as fast as I could but-" Bearpaw let out a small yelp of pain, shook violently, and fell down as his leg twitched.
Jayfeather pushed through the crowd, bundles of herbs poking out of his mouth. He leaned down and began working on the apprentice. "He's okay, just suffering from shock. His leg isn't hurt too badly. Now, go back to your own business and listen to Firestar while making a path for me." Jayfeather grumbled as he began to carefully drag the injured apprentice to his den.
"Thank Starclan!" Thunderboom said, relief filled her voice as she went to check up on her injured kit, her mate, Lightningstrike, stayed in the clearing with their other sons.
Firestar took one look at his clan and jumped up onto the HighLedge, no need to call them together. "Okay, I will lead a patrol to fetch Deerpaw and Littlepaw, and fight if we have to. I will take Wolfpaw, Lightningstrike, and Graystripe. Dogpaw, clean up a bit so we have space to walk in carrying them if needed, you can also get help from Deerpaw and Littlepaw's parents. Everyone else continue on, Brambleclaw, give them some stuff to do." Firestar ordered, leaping down at the end as his patrol gathered around him.
The group silently made their way out of the clearing and into the forest. It wasn't hard at all to find where the group of apprentices went, and where the two apprentices remained. All they had to do was follow Bearpaw's blood trail left on the forest floor. The trail stopped right in a thunderpath.
"He was hit by a monster!" Graystripe nodded at the site. The group nodded sadly.
The group scanned the opposite side of the forest for the two apprentices. Then suddelny, as Wolfpaw skimmed his eyes over part of Shadowclan's territory he saw a light brown lump. Littlepaw! Nearby was a darker lump of brown fur, Deerpaw. They were hardly in Shadowclan's territory, but just a bit away from the thunderpath. He stepped forward, about to go get them when Firestar hissed, grabbing his scruff and pulling him back. Seconds later, a monster zoomed by, right where Wolfpaw was seconds before. He whimpered, reminding himself to never be so foolish ever again.
"This time, wait for me to tell you to go." Firestar implied nicely, stepping out of the bush to check for monsters.
Wolfpaw saw him perk his ears up and look solely back and forth. He stepped back when a monster came into sight, zooming past him, ruffling his fur the wrong way. The thunderpath barely remained quiet until two more cars zipped by. Then the thunderpath and air remained quiet and clear.
"GO!" He yowled when no monsters where in sight of could be heard.
Firestar took off running, Wolfpaw right by his side, Graystripe ran in the back of Wolfpaw in case he slipped or stopped, Lightningstrike next to him. They skidded into Shadowclan territory as they heard another monster. Deerpaw laid right in front of them, scratches on his shoulders and rump, a lone bite mark on his neck. A death bite delivered by a trained warrior. There would be no way to save him, his chest no longer rose or fell in a steady beat. But Littepaw's did, but just a bit too fast, abnormal. She was badly scratched all over, bit marks scattered across her, a single massive cut on her chest oozed out blood. By the looks of it, Wolfpaw guessed that they were too late for both of them.
"Graystripe, Lightningstrike, go get Deerpaw's body and bring it over here." Firestar said blankly as the two warriors carefully walked over to the dead apprentice. "Clean him up a bit too."
Wolfpaw carefully walked over to Littlepaw, as if just he walking would end her life. Firestar followed him. The two tom's bent down by her and cleaned her endless wounds. She carefully lifted up her head as Firestar started to clean her chest wound.
"Firestar!" She managed to some-what purr. "We were just trying to help catch prey for the clan." She whispered, looking at him sadly.
"I know, Bearpaw told us." Firestar nuzzled her gently on the head. "You were very brave."
Wolfpaw took his turn to speak, reminding her of all the times they spent together with Deerpaw, Foxpaw, and his brothers. All those times training, practicing battle moves, stalking each other in the nursery, taking tours of the camp, talking at Gatherings, and so on. She purred more, her chest still beating but slowing down a bit now, her breathing a bit deeper.
