CHAPTER 1
Jaypaw woke up in Leafpool's den. He had been having trouble sleeping for the last couple moons. He kept having nightmares of snow and ice, jagged fields and burned trees, the screeching of cats, and images of fearsome beast dogs with glowing eyes and bared fangs. In the end, a calm voice always said, "The power of three will set us free." Then, he'd always wake up.
Stretching, Jaypaw got up from his sleeping position. Walking over to the entrance of the den, he sniffed around and thought, "Leafpool must be out. I wonder why she didn't wake me." Thinking little more of it, Jaypaw walked out of the den and the air outside told him it was around sun-high.
"Even weirder," he thought.
"Jaypaw! Jaypaw! Guess what!" Jaypaw heard his sister, Hollypaw, voice running toward him with the scent of rabbit coming from her jaws.
He heard his sister put down the pray. "Jaypaw, look at it! It's the biggest one I've ever seen! It looks as big as Foxkit! I can't believe I caught it!" Hollypaw meowed excitedly.
Jaypaw wanted to remind her that he couldn't see but he decided not to ruin his sister's excitement. He heard Hollypaw pick up the rabbit and move it to the fresh-kill pile.
"Well, I'm going to see Lionpaw. Want to come?" she asked.
"No. Maybe later!" Jaypaw called after his sister.
What he really wanted to do was find out what his dream meant. The power of three? Could it be tied somehow to the prophecy he heard in Firestars dream? No, that couldn't be it. Could it? Jaypaw walked over to the fresh kill pile, pulling out a plump mouse. He ate in silence, lost in thought of what his dreams and Firestar's prophecy could possibly mean to him and ThunderClan. While he was still lost in his thoughts, more cats approached with grave news.
"We found a new cat scent in our territory!" An angry cat hissed. It was Cloudtail, the white warrior, who had been out on border patrol with Sandstorm, Brackenfur, and Cederpaw. Jaypaw heard Firestar come out of his den, jumping down to meet with the warrior.
"Are you sure? Where? How fresh?" Firestar asked, faint worry tinting his voice. Jaypaw turned his head to the two toms. Maybe this would help him to figure out his dream, or at least help keep his mind of the nightmere.
"There were three new scents, and they were pretty recent and right near the border to ShadowClan." Cloudtail reported.
"Shadowclan!" Jaypaw mentally exclaimed, "They had to be involved." But, that thought still couldn't explain his dream. So he sighed and went off to see if he could sniff out Leafpool.
Jaypaw found Leafpool in the nursery looking over Daisy. The she-cat was fussing about some thorns in the bedding and about how Foxpaw was going to poke an eye out. Shaking his head, Jaypaw turned around and left.
Later in the day, near sunset, Jaypaw was heading out to the den he and his mentor shared when he heard his name.
"Jaypaw!"
Jaypaw turned to the sound of Lionpaw's voice. His brother sounded troubled about something. He leaned in close to Jaypaw's ear and asked nervously, "You haven't seen Hollypaw around, have you?"
"Yes, I did. A long while ago. Why?" Jaypaw asked suspiciously.
"Umm...no reason..." Lionpaw meowed. But, Jaypaw knew under his brother's calm exterior that he was worried sick.
"I know you're lying. So tell me now. What happened?" Jaypaw growled.
"StarClan! I hate it when you do that!" Lionpaw meowed angrily to himself. Jaypaw looked up at his brother; his feeling of anger soon replaced with a slight fear. Now, Jaypaw knew something was wrong. Lionpaw, out of all cats, scared? He was always the bravest of the three, and this was the least likely emotion ever to expect from him.
"Not here." Lionpaw finally spoke. "Meet me behind the warrior's den." And with that, he left.
Jaypaw waited a few heartbeats before going in the direction of the warrior's den, slipping behind it to where he sensed Lionpaw was.
"Ok, so what is it your so worried about?" Jaypaw whispered, impatiently.
"Did you hear about what the patrol said about the strange scents?" Lionpaw asked.
"Yeah, I did. So what?"
"Hollypaw went missing, didn't she?"
"What!" Jaypaw looked angrily at his brother. "No, I just saw her." Attempting to be rational, he tried to calm himself down.
"What did she say she was going to do?" Lionpaw pressed.
"She said she was going to go and look for you."
"Well, did you see her go anywhere?"
"What are you meowing about? You sound crazier than a fox!"
" I...well...Hollypaw and I went to check out the weird scent..."
"What else is new?" Jaypaw thought sarcastically.
"…and when we got there we ran in to this strange cat. So, we turned and ran for it."
"Why? You have never been one to run away."
"I-I know. It wasn't like me at all, but it was something about him. His eyes were filled with hatred…they were blood red. I don't know what but something told me to run, to run and not look back. I got to camp without anyone noticing but...now..." He seemed scared. A memory flashed of the strange cat in Jaypaw's mind, and he involuntarily took a step back.
"You think he has Hollypaw," Jaypaw said, shocked.
"Hope to StarClan that I'm wrong but..."
"Let's go then. What are we waiting around here for?" Jaypaw meowed, getting up.
They were going after their sister and they were going to get her back.
That was short but it's all I could think of for now. Looking back, I think a made Lionpaw a little OC, but I'm trying my best. I might go back and redo this, since things seem to be moving a little too fast. Anyways, I'm soooooo sorry for the long wait but I have barely gotten my computer up and running again eh.*sigh* Anyways, tell me what you think so far please! And, if anyone has any ideas as to what I could do with this story please tell me! Mew Rika signing off!
~Nya!
