Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors...blah...blah...blah...don't sue me! And don't take my characters, please!
Chapter 2
Rowanpaw blinked and looked up at the tree where the four leaders were seated. Crimsonstar was talking; he recognized her tone of voice, but he couldn't understand her words. He looked around. The cats seated around him were all hazy colors. Only their eyes, ranging from light yellow to dark amber, were visible in the blur around him. What was going on?
A murmur spread through the blurred cats. They began to stand, waves of cats moving at the same time. Someone cried out. Eyes were beginning to blink in the darkness of the trees around them.
Blue eyes, and green eyes, and yellow eyes, and amber eyes...so many eyes!
Eyes blinked at him from the trees, from the shadows, from the grass. The eyes were all around him, smothering him and the Clan cats meowing in terror around him. He wanted to shout, but his lips were sealed shut with fear...
The eyes came toward him, attaching themselves to the bodies of moving shadows...no...the eyes were attached to...
Dark-pelted cats!
Rowanpaw gasped in surprise. There were so many of them! Coming from every angle were cats with fur in shades of gray, shades of black, shades of brown. There were too many of them to count! The shadowy cats tackled the hazy Clan cats around him.
He recognized Meadowlark's yowl...Cloverpaw's scream...Granitetail's battle cry...Thunderpaw's screech...
"Rowanpaw!"
He spun in time to see a pair of amber eyes attached to a dark gray body come hurtling toward him. Weight pressed down on top of him as the cat hissed in his ears and pounded at his shoulders.
"Rowanpaw!"
He struggled beneath the cat on top of him. He rolled and wiggled and slashed, but nothing he did could dislodge the cat from on top of him.
"Rowanpaw!"
He flipped onto his back, his ears twitching with the strain to hear her voice.
"Ginger...paw!" He choked as the gray cat's paw pressed down on his throat, making him choke on her name.
"Light demon!" hot breath hissed in his ear.
Rowanpaw gasped for breath...
Suddenly, the weight was lifted off of him...
He coughed...
"Rowanpaw, wake up!"
His eyes blinked open. Blinding sunlight streamed in through the entrance of the apprentices' den. He heard himself whisper, "Gingerpaw..."
Rowanpaw leapt to his feet, looking around. His throat felt raw, as if the dark cat from his dreams had actually been choking him. His limbs were sore and shaking beneath him. Thunderpaw's yellow eyes, fully of worry, caught his eye. His best friend was seated beside him, his striped fur bristled with concern.
"Rowanpaw, are you okay?" Thunderpaw said. The den was empty except for the two of them, but Thunderpaw's fright made him whisper.
A wave of guilt washed over Rowanpaw. Thunderpaw had no idea the magnitude of Rowanpaw's destiny. Frostflower hadn't told ThunderClan about the prophecy Stripedpelt had told her, so Thunderpaw and many of Rowanpaw's other friends and relatives had no clue about Rowanpaw's destiny.
"I'm fine, Thunderpaw," Rowanpaw said. He gave his ginger chest fur a lick to calm himself down. "It was just a really bad nightmare."
"About Gingerpaw?" Thunderpaw blinked with sympathy.
When Gingerpaw had first arrived at camp and Rowanpaw had befriended her, Thunderpaw had been angry. He'd confessed that he thought Rowanpaw liked Gingerpaw better. But Rowanpaw and Thunderpaw had talked, and Thunderpaw had come to realize that Rowanpaw's friendship with Gingerpaw no more different than his friendship with Thunderpaw. So, Thunderpaw had promised to be nice to Gingerpaw, when she returned. Rowanpaw knew it was because of their friendship that Thunderpaw hadn't said if Gingerpaw returned.
Rowanpaw nodded in answer to Thunderpaw's question. He twitched his tail. He wasn't lying this time. Gingerpaw had been in his dream. He hadn't seen her, but he'd heard her calling his name. She'd warned him about that amber-eyed cat that had attacked him. Did it mean something?
"We better hurry," Thunderpaw said. "Everybody else is up already."
Rowanpaw stretched. "Let's go."
The two friends padded out of the apprentices' den.
Rowanpaw looked around the repaired camp, taking in the fact that life as he'd known it had finally returned to normal. The Twolegs had completely left the forest. ThunderClan no longer needed to live on WindClan's territory and eat rabbits. Rowanpaw hadn't liked rabbits as much he did mice and birds.
Ashfang was seated beside the fresh-kill pile, talking to Crookedfern and Icefur. Rowanpaw guessed that she was discussing border and hunting patrols with them. As deputy, it was Ashfang's duty to assign patrols and keep order in the camp. Clawstar helped with assigning duties occasionally, but the job mostly went to Ashfang.
"Good morning, you two," Ashfang said as Rowanpaw and Thunderpaw walked over to the fresh-kill pile. Rowanpaw noticed Icefur give him a nasty glare before he and Crookedfern stood and walked away.
Ashfang broke into his thoughts. "Meadowlark wants you to clean out the apprentices' den today, Thunderpaw. She's out on a hunting patrol right now."
Thunderpaw grumbled. "Okay." He said a quick good-bye to Rowanpaw before grabbing a mouse from the fresh-kill pile and walking back to the apprentices' den.
"Aren't you interested in what we'll be doing today?" Ashfang asked.
"What are we doing today?" Rowanpaw twitched his ears.
"Clawstar is curious to see how often the other Clans are being attacked by the dark-pelted cats," Ashfang said. "We've had five sightings since the last Gathering. Since we won't be having another Gathering for at least half a moon, Clawstar wants us to go and speak to the leaders of the other Clans about the dark-pelted cats."
"Why am I coming?" Rowanpaw wondered, thinking that this was really the job for the deputy and a couple of older warriors.
"You're my apprentice. Why shouldn't you come?" Ashfang replied with a question. "Are you willing to go, or would you prefer to help Thunderpaw clean out the apprentices' den?"
"I'll come," Rowanpaw said.
"I thought so. We'll be leaving at sunhigh," Ashfang said. "I have a border patrol to do right now."
"Alright. See you at sunhigh," Rowanpaw said.
Ashfang flicked her tail in good-bye before going off to do border patrol.
At sunhigh, Rowanpaw met Ashfang at the entrance to ThunderClan's den. He had thought she would have asked some older warriors to come along with them, but nobody else came padding over.
Ashfang led the way to ShadowClan's territory first. When Rowanpaw asked why she wanted to go there, she replied she wanted to start with the least friendly Clan first.
They approached the ShadowClan border. Ashfang told Rowanpaw not to sneak, so that they didn't appear as a threat. Rowanpaw tried to walk as nonchalantly as possible, but it was rather difficult considering he was heading toward an enemy Clan's territory.
A ShadowClan patrol shouted at them from a distance when they crossed the border. Rowanpaw, with some difficulty, kept his fur flat. Ashfang sat beside him, looking somewhat regal to Rowanpaw. She curled her tail around her paws.
A black and cream tom with a white chest stalked toward them at the front of the ShadowClan patrol. He glared at Ashfang and Rowanpaw with suspicious, amber eyes.
"What are you doing on our territory, Ashfang?" he spat.
"Be calm, Brambletongue. We aren't here for a fight. As you can see, there's only me and my apprentice," Ashfang replied, her voice calm.
So that's why Ashfang didn't bring anyone else! She knew that ShadowClan would look at us as if we were a threat! Rowanpaw almost purred with admiration toward his mentor, but he kept quiet.
"And how do we know that?" the skinny, black she-cat beside Brambletongue hissed. Her silver eyes bore into Rowanpaw. He lifted his chin higher to show her that he wasn't afraid of her.
"There's only two of us, Winterthorn," Ashfang meowed. "Two cats can't be that much of a threat, can they?"
The silver and gray she-cat standing behind Brambletongue and Winterthorn spoke up. "Then why are you and your apprentice here, Ashfang?"
"Clawstar wanted us to speak to Crimsonstar," Ashfang replied with the same calm as before.
"About what?" the black and white she-cat apprentice sitting beside Brambletongue snapped. Rowanpaw recognized her as Roguepaw. She was glaring at him with pure hatred in her silver eyes, which he realized looked very much like Winterthorn's eyes. Perhaps Winterthorn was Roguepaw's mother?
Brambletongue hissed at his apprentice to be quiet.
"What we have to talk about is for Crimsonstar's ears only," Ashfang said, replying as if it hadn't been Roguepaw who had spoken. "Will you let us pass?"
"No," Brambletongue said quietly. "Roguepaw, go and fetch Crimsonstar. We will wait here and watch these two so they don't do anything...stupid."
Rowanpaw's neck fur bristled. How could Brambletongue think that he or Ashfang would try anything? They were only two cats! Who would be mouse-brained to go up against all of ShadowClan with only two cats in their army? Ashfang put her tail on Rowanpaw's shoulder, telling him without words to calm down. He let his fur lie flat.
Crimsonstar came a little while later. Rowanpaw had never been this close to ShadowClan's leader before. Her dark blue eyes looked like they'd been carved out of the sky at dusk and placed in her head. Most of her pelt was white like the puffy clouds he saw during the day, but her ears and tail were rusty red like leaves during leaf-fall.
"What is your business?" Crimsonstar hissed.
"Clawstar said that we were to speak to you alone," Ashfang said.
Crimsonstar glared. "I do not trust that easily, Ashfang. Brambletongue, you may stay with me. Winterthorn, you and Mellowclaw can continue your patrol."
The two she-cats walked away. Winterthorn glanced back a few times suspiciously.
Ashfang didn't speak until the two she-cats disappeared into the woods.
"We discussed this during the last Gathering, but Clawstar was curious and wanted to know sooner than the next Gathering. How many times has your Clan seen those dark-pelted cats since the last Gathering?" Ashfang whispered.
Brambletongue's ears twitched.
Crimsonstar's glaring eyes became even more squinted. "What use is that information to Clawstar?" she hissed.
"He was only curious. We've had five encounters with the dark-pelted cats since the last Gathering," Ashfang informed ShadowClan's leader. "He was wondering if the other Clans were seeing them as often as we do."
"Are you having trouble chasing them off?" Brambletongue snickered.
"No," Ashfang said. "Rowanpaw was able to fight and chase one off yesterday...by himself."
Brambletongue looked at Rowanpaw with astonishment in his amber eyes.
Crimsonstar's eyes remained squinted. "I don't doubt you take Rowanpaw's training seriously," Crimsonstar said. "We have only had one encounter with the dark-pelted cats since the last Gathering."
"Really?" Ashfang sounded surprised. "Thank you for letting us know..."
"But we've smelled them more often," Crimsonstar interrupted. Her voice was thick with agitation. "Their scent is everywhere in our woods. Trees, bushes, along the borders. The scent is never of the same cat, either. Calmwhisker, our best hunter, has investigated a majority of the scents. He says that only two of the scents he has found thus far have matched."
"How many different scents did he smell?" Ashfang asked. Rowanpaw noticed that his mentor's neck fur was bristling.
"Calmwhisker told me that he's identified over twenty," Crimsonstar's soft voice replied.
End of Chapter Two