The scents of the forest swelled around Ravenwing as silently she stalked the thrush. No one else was about, it was only just turning dawn. She was spooked. She'd had a dream, where she had been running with a beast on her tail, until she had broken into a clearing where a blue grey she cat had spoken to her about a prophecy and about fighting her feelings. 'Why would Starclan send a message and prophecy to me?' The words kept running through her head. It had been pre-dawn when she had set off and since then she had missed 2 mice and a squirrel through lack of concentration. It just didn't make sense. She wasn't special. Medicine cats and leaders had dreams like that, not ordinary warriors! She wasn't even talented much, there were far better warriors than her. How did Viperslide come into all this? Ravenwing hated him…didn't she? Yes and no. She hated him for scorning her and always being sarcastic, but she did have an attraction to him. He was clever and excellent at fighting. He always put the clan first and Ravenwing always felt safe around him, even if he knew how to make her pelt crawl. His eyes were amazing, glowing like embers in a fire. The only problem was he hated her. Shaking her head to clear it of her troublesome thoughts, she tried to all her concentration into stalking the bird. It sensed her at the last second and took off. Bunching her muscles, she took a huge leap and snatched the bird mid-flight. As she landed with the bird in her grasp, her paws slipped and she started to slide backwards down a hidden slope. She was falling backwards and going down fast. The bird fell out of her grasp. She desperately tried to grab on to the ferns and dig her claws into the ground, but it was no use. She managed to her self around till she was facing the direction she was going. She could she an opening between 2 bushes where the slope stopped. The slope stopped at the top of a small drop, so she hurtled out of the bushes and landed against something bulky and warm. Stepping back she took in what she had bumped into, and with dawning horror realized that she had flown into the side of a badger. A large, striped head flew round. It stared at her with beady eyes, and she knew, as with any badger, that it had one intention; kill her. Rearing onto her back legs she clawed at its side until blood rose. Roaring in fury and pain, it swiped at her with a massive paw. She didn't have time to move before it batted her easily across the clearing. She hit a tree hard, and landed awkwardly on her leg. Pain blossomed in her back leg as she tried vainly to get up. Slowly the badger lumbered towards her. Its jaws were open wide to bite. One blow from one of its massive paws could shatter her skull. Sending a silent prayer to Starclan that her death be quick, she looked up at the sky and thought that the last thing she would ever see would be the pink sky of the breaking dawn.
