The Dawn of Dusk
Book 1
Chapter 2
Switch to: Emberpaw's Point of View
"Come on, do I have to fight him?" a gray tabby with yellow eyes complained to his mentor.
"Yes, Goldenpaw. Now, square off and fight like warriors." Emberpaw stood to face his challenger. Yes, he was a medicine cat, but Cloverbreeze insisted that he completed his warrior training too. Goldenpaw made the first move, but Emberpaw saw it coming and twisted around so his back feet were facing the gray apprentice. Before Goldenpaw could realize what was happening, he had been kicked with great force in the face.
"Not fair!" he yelled. Emberpaw chuckled a bit under his breath, trying not to let his mentor, Tigerstripe, hear. Goldenpaw picked himself up from the ground and walked out of the training ring with his remaining dignity.
"A good fight!" Tigerstripe said. "You're defiantly progressing well."
"Thanks, Tigerstripe. I have to go and help Cloverbreeze. See yah!" He raced off towards the medicine cat den without another word.
Cloverbreeze was sitting in the corner, looking troubled.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Make sure we have enough supplies, I have received a dream." Emberpaw wanted to ask what was wrong with Cloverbreeze, but he didn't. It wasn't a dream; that was for sure. It was a lot deeper and none of the tabby apprentice's business anyway. Plus, he was stressed balancing warrior training with medicine cat duties; a good walk in the woods might help.
* * * *
It was sun high by the time Emberpaw arrived at the herb gathering place. "I smell rain." He said aloud to no one, or, so he thought. At his words, the bushes rustled and a flash of silver-blue fur was seen on the ThunderClan side. He couldn't tell who it was, so he assumed the worst; RiverClan or rouges. He bared his teeth and hissed. "Come out and I won't hurt you." The thing made no move towards him.
Ready to pounce, he parted the grass with his paw. What he saw shocked him. A gray she cat lay on the ground. Her fur was covered with sand, blood, and pieces of clawed fur. Her deep yellow eyes were glassy. It took him no more than a second to recognize the cat; it was Dovepaw, the WindClan apprentice he had met two days earlier.
"Wake up!" he yelled into the cat's ear, but she was too far gone. WindClan was too far away, she might be dead by the time he got there. No one was allowed to take a cat of another Clan into there camp since Minnowstream's War. The only option was to treat her himself.
He grabbed her by the scruff and raced to the nearest shelter, the Tiger Mouth. The Tiger Mouth was a small cave with stones coming from the top and bottom, like the teeth of a great cat. He placed her body on the cool stone floor and picked some cob webs of the nearby Tiger Tooth. "Alright, apply even pressure to the whole wound until it stops." He reminded himself. That should have stopped the blood flow, but he missed a serious head injury. There was not much he could do about that, too much pressure and he could damage her brain.
The few minutes it took for her breathing to almost completely stop felt like only a heart beat. Her blood coated his big white paws He stayed for only a few more minutes.
"Oh, StarClan! I failed. I failed." It was too late to bury her, so he left her there. Tomorrow, he would tell WindClan about this, as well as Cloverbreeze. The sky had turned dark, and suddenly, a star fell. Emberpaw looked up in amazement. "StarClan is mourning for her too,"