Here's another chap for da story! Longest one yet! U guys, this one is really exciting (I think), well at least at the end, so enjoy and don't forget to suggest, correct, and review! XD XD XD
A brilliant pair of blue-green eyes blinked open in the black of night. The owner shook her head, trying to wake up. The two eyes darted to the entrance of the nursery, just barely seeing the moon peeking through the heavy clouds covering the sky, still not having had rained themselves out.
The blue-greens looked back inside, connecting with the two pairs next to her, one green, one blue. They nodded their consent, acknowledging that they had seen her.
They all turned to the corner of the room, searching for two more sets of eyes. They waited, a breeze stirring their fur as it swept through the den, chilling them to the bone. After what seemed like an eternity and when they were about to leave without them, two more pairs of eyes opened, revealing yellow and green eyes staring back at the three others.
They sat there, staring at each other, until the blue eyed cat slowly and quietly got out of his nest, then made his way over to the nursery entrance. Once he was out, the green eyed kit from the other nest followed in the way the other cat had done, soundlessly stepping out of her nest, making sure not to disturb her mother. Then the other green eyed kit left, leaving her sister by herself while she escaped the room.
The blue-green eyes turned to the last pair left, the yellow one, whose owner was slowly making his way out of his nest. He froze halfway, though, the queen in his nest shifting slightly. The yellow eyes grew to the size of mossballs in fear, widening until the whites of them were clearly seen. The queen let out a huge yawn, turned over, and went back to sleep, much to the relief of the two kits. Quickly and quietly, the yellow eyed kit got out of the nest, scampered through the entrance, and ran out into the cold leaffall air.
The only kit left was the blue-green eyed cat, who slowly moved away from her mother. She carefully placed one paw over the edge of the nest, then another, and another. As silently as possible, she drew the last one out, breathing a sigh of relief that nothing had awaken her mother, and she walked out of the stuffy den.
Aspenkit slid into the outside clearing of the hollow, meeting up with the other kits. She slapped her tail across her mouth, telling them to stay quiet. Then she pointed it at the thorn barrier, where Sweetfang sat guarding the camp. Aspenkit shook her head and pointed the tail instead at the dirtplace tunnel. Since the wind was blowing towards the tunnel, hopefully Sweetfang wouldn't smell them and detect that they were there.
The others nodded and they crept around the outside of the camp, keeping to the shadows so that Sweetfang didn't see them.
They had reached the dirtplace tunnel right when Sweetfang turned towards them. "Hey!" she whisper-called. They all instinctively pressed into the thorns of the outer barrier.
Sweetfang purred, amused. "What are you doing, Poolkit? It's okay if you use the dirtplace!" Aspenkit inwardly fainted in relief. Sweetfang had only seen Poolkit and her white pelt. The others pressed themselves farther into the thorns.
Poolkit blinked in surprise. "Um . . . okay! Thanks, Sweetfang!"
Aspenkit, Whiskerkit, Shinekit, Batkit, and Poolkit squeezed into the tunnel and met up again at the other side. They stayed quiet for a bit longer as they trekked through the forest. They finally stopped once the camp was out of sight, flopping down on the ground.
"I thought we were goners!" Shinekit admitted, letting out a long sigh. "It's a good thing we all have dark pelts! Well, all but Poolkit at least . . ."
Batkit panted out, relieved. "I do feel pretty bad about lying to her, though."
"But think about how happy and proud they will be when we come back with lots of information about WindClan!" Aspenkit exclaimed. The four other kits looked at her expectantly. "Look, I know it'll be hard, but if we pull it off, then ThunderClan could win the next battles! Everyone in the clan would look past the fact that we snuck out at night and went into another clan's territory and we'd be heroes! Blazestar might even reward us! Maybe we would be apprenticed early!"
By the end of her speech, all of the kits were up on their paws, kneading the ground in anticipation. "You're right!" Whiskerkit said. "It will sooooo be worth it when we get apprenticed at two moons! What if he lets us choose our mentors?" He turned towards Poolkit. "Who would you pick?"
Poolkit's green eyes lit up in longing, wishing that it could be true, wanting to be able to pick her mentor. "If I got to pick, I'd pick Cardinaltail. He's one of the best fighters in the clan! I'd like to be able to fight as well as him."
"I don't know about you, but I'd pick Smokeleg," Batkit said. "He's the deputy, so he must know lots of fighting moves and hunting techniques!"
"I think Shadowpelt would be a great mentor!" Whiskerkit purred. "She's young, so she'd be good with battle practice."
Shinekit thought for a moment. "Flamepaw. When he's a warrior, I think he'd be great. I was talking to him today when we went to collect cobwebs and he seemed cool."
Aspenkit knew who she wanted immediately. "I'd definitely pick Pepperheart. He's nice but a good fighter. He'd be good at telling me if I'm doing a move or anything wrong." She shook herself when she looked up at the sky, realizing her mistake. The moon, though still high in the sky, was beginning to move back towards the horizon.
"You guys, we don't have time to stand around and talk about this! We can do it later, after we get back!" she exclaimed. The four others nodded in agreement. "Let's go, before dawn comes and we get caught!"
The five kits ran off in the opposite direction from camp, Aspenkit in the lead. She lifted her nose and opened her mouth slightly, scenting for what Glacierfire and Smokeleg told her WindClan smelled like. What was it again? She inwardly questioned herself. It smells like grass, heather, and wind . . . well obviously wind, it is called WindClan.
She took a long, drawn out inhale. Leaf mold, trees, squirrel; that was really all she could detect. She took another inhale, but didn't smell anything new.
A stab of fear went through her. What if they couldn't find the WindClan border? Then they'd be left to stumble around the forest alone until a ThunderClan patrol found them! Then they'd be in trouble, and it would be all her fault.
Come on, just try a little harder. Just smell! Aspenkit breathed, exhaling, then took in a huge breath of air. Trees, squirrel, mice, birds, undergrowth, and . . . just faintly . . . grass and heather! Coming from up ahead, to the left!
She yowled in achievement and victory, then changed their course, shifting slightly to the left. Trees passed by the kits as they ran at full speed through the forest, the shadows falling on their pelts and then back on the ground as the cats passed straight through them. They all focused on the path in front of them, not taking their eyes off of the underbrush and woods ahead.
The trees stretched on and on, but Aspenkit was finally able to make out the moorland up in front of them after running for what seemed like ages. They only had to sprint for a few more foxlengths before they burst out of the trees and out onto the grassy slopes.
Aspenkit, Whiskerkit, Shinekit, Poolkit, and Batkit stood where they were, panting, looking at the hills around them. A huge landscape of green, yellow, and orange grass spread out in front of them, stretching on into the heavens themselves. Up above, the sky was clearly seen, overcast and promising rain. Off to the right, a huge expansion of water sat, more water than Aspenkit thought existed in the whole world. Directly in front of her, a river flowed into the lake, separating ThunderClan and WindClan's territory. She squinted, looking at the horizon line, and was just barely able to see what had to be the gathering island and the barn on RiverClan's territory.
"So . . . ." Batkit prodded. "What now?"
Aspenkit narrowed her eyes in concentration. Obviously they would have to cross the river to get into WindClan's territory, but it looked like it was too deep for them to wade across. She padded up and down the river, finally stopping when she found a stretch of it far upstream that was shallow enough for their feet to touch the bottom.
The five kits got in, shivering at the cold water that licked at their paws. As they walked farther in, the water crawled farther up their legs, eventually reaching their belly fur. It's for the clan, Aspenkit thought to herself as she walked in deeper, the water reaching almost to her shoulders, freezing her blood and making her teeth rattle. It'll be worth it when we come back to ThunderClan with information that will help us win those battles.
The water finally started getting lower, subsiding back down their legs and eventually only covering their paws. All five cats jumped out of the river on the other side, shaking their fur out and shivering from the cold.
After a moment of huddling together and warming up, they sat back and scented the air.
"It smells like the camp is over that way," Whiskerkit mewed, pointing over to the left with his tail.
Poolkit shook her head. "It couldn't be. There's not enough of their territory left on that side. Besides, it would be way too close to the border for their camp to be here." She smiled. "Not even WindClan are dumb enough to have it there."
They all stuck their noses in the air again. "What about over there?" Batkit suggested, pointing towards a far off clump of hills to the right. "It's far enough away from both the ThunderClan and the RiverClan borders and those slopes around it would keep other cats from seeing the camp." He scented again. "And the wind is coming from that direction and it smells really strongly of cats."
The others nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that makes sense," Shinekit purred.
"Right, let's go then," Aspenkit meowed.
They set off towards the hills, keeping low, the grass and occasional bush being the only coverage and protection they had if they were spotted. A brutal wind swept across the moors, going directly through the kits as they ran on, chilling them beyond any cold they had ever known. But they kept going, running through the grasses and flowers of the moor.
They finally reached their destination, the hills, and found that Batkit had been correct. Snuggled in between the slopes was WindClan's camp, quiet and sleeping. The five kits gave little hops of excitement, but quieted down again when Aspenkit slapped her tail across her mouth, motioning for silence again. They had come this far; the journey would be pointless and it would be extremely humiliating if they were caught now just because someone talked a little too loudly.
As quietly as they possible could, the cats crept down the hillside, all thankful for their darker fur, except Poolkit, who was squished in the center of the five, the others' pelts hiding her lighter one.
They stopped when they reached the outer wall of the camp. Aspenkit thought for a moment on what to do next, then pointed with her tail at the cat guarding the camp. Or the cat who was supposed to be guarding the camp. The light brown tom was fast asleep, out cold. The other kits nodded, eyes narrowed in amusement. Since the guard was asleep, they could go into the camp and no one would see them. The only problem was their ThunderClan scent . . .
Aspenkit looked around wildly, spotting a clump of heather a couple of foxlengths away. Running over to it, she jumped in and smothered her fur with the leaves, making sure to rub the scent of the heather on all of her fur, getting it in every nook and cranny. Whiskerkit, Shinekit, Poolkit, and Batkit watched her with blank expressions on their faces. Aspenkit stood up and motioned for them to do it too.
They looked at her, question and confusion written clearly on their faces. Aspenkit grunted in annoyance and whispered, barely loud enough for them to hear, "It'll disguise our scent so they won't smell us!" Their eyes lit up with understanding in unison. Aspenkit just rolled her eyes.
Once they had all rolled in the heather, they grouped up again by the camp wall. "Find out everything you can about anything important! The battle, any sicknesses, anything! Don't go into dens, just check around them," Aspenkit whispered, even quieter than before so that the others had to lean in. "Meet back here in five minutes!"
With that, they split up. Whiskerkit and Poolkit went towards the apprentices den and elders den, while Shinekit and Batkit went to the warriors den and the nursery. That left Aspenkit with the medicine cat den and the leader's den.
Sniffing around the outside of the medicine cat den, she caught sent of a familiar smell. Where did she know that from? Oh! Cobwebs! Scenting again, she could distinctively smell the sticky white webs, and the overpowering essence of it told Aspenkit that they had an ample amount of it.
So WindClan have been preparing for a battle, too. She thought to herself, encouraged. At least that confirms ThunderClan's suspicions.
She sniffed around the outside of the den again, and, finding nothing more, made her way over to the leader's den. Aspenkit looked up as a drop of water hit her nose, her stomach twisting when she saw that it was starting to rain.
Her head snapped around when she heard a scuffle over by the entrance to the camp. The guard was starting to wake up, the water by his paws causing his eyes to groggily begin to open.
Aspenkit let out a soft growl. Their mission would have to be cut short. Making eyes contact with the four other kits, she twitched her head to where they had agreed to meet, signaling to them it was time to go.
They met up on the outside of the wall in a matter of seconds. Right after they disappeared from the inside of the camp, a loud yawn rang out. Peeking through a crack in the wall, Aspenkit spotted the guard stretching and smacking his lips, blinking his eyes to get himself to wake up.
Almost immediately afterward, a dark brown tabby tom with a black tail pushed his way out of the warriors den, padding over to the light brown guard.
"Hey Lizardshine," the dark tabby greeted. "Any excitement while I was asleep?"
"Nope, but thanks for asking, Ropetail," Lizardshine answered, letting out another enormous yawn. "I think I fell asleep for a few minutes, though."
Ropetail smiled. "Don't we all?"
The two continued talking as Aspenkit nudged her head back up the hill towards ThunderClan. They crept up the hill, the dark clouds keeping the moon from shining on them and darkening the land so that they were kept hidden from the WindClan cats.
They were at the top of the hill when Shinekit's foot slipped on a rock, sending the stone plummeting into the camp, making various clinks and clacks on its way down.
The talking from below stopped. The five kits froze in their tracks, huddling to the ground and praying to StarClan that they weren't seen. They only thing heard was that of the rain pouring down on the ground, drenching any cat out in the open in a matter of seconds.
"What was that?" Lizardshine asked, the kits barely hearing him over the rain.
"I don't know . . ." Ropetail answered. The ThunderClan cats held their breath, hoping and begging that he didn't decide to check out what caused the noise. "Probably just a rabbit or something."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
The two chatty warriors continued their conversation, all thoughts on what sent the rock into the camp gone from their minds.
When Aspenkit was sure they were preoccupied with their discussion, she hurried the kits up the hill. Before she went over the hill herself, she heard Lizardshine say one last thing: "Hey, has our camp always smelled this strongly of heather?"
. . . . . . . . . . .
On the other side of the hill, the five kits bolted away from the WindClan camp, the rain coming down so thickly that they could barely see the foxlength of ground in front of their noses. Aspenkit looked up at the sky, not being able to see anything but the dark gray of the rain-heavy clouds. She pushed harder, running faster than she ever had.
They finally reached the river, which was tossing and turning from the storm, all of the extra rainwater causing it to overflow. The cats frantically ran upstream, looking for the shallow water area that they had used to cross, but all signs of it were gone.
"What now?!" Shinekit yelled, anything below that volume not audible over the booms and crackles of the thunder.
"I . . ." Aspenkit started, scraping her brain for any idea. The four other kits looked at her, eyes alight with fear and desperation. And something else . . . hope. They were looking to her for an answer, the way out of this situation. And she had to give it to them.
"Alright, here's what we do," she started, confident. "With this much breeze, there's bound to have been a tree somewhere that's fallen over the river. If we find one, then all we have to do is dig in our claws and cross it to the ThunderClan side of the border!" The others nodded, fear still shining brightly in their eyes, but the hope now more present than before. "Let's spread out! We'll find it faster that way."
The rain came down on the cats as they searched the river, blinking the water from their eyes, the lightning from the sky the only source of light they had. Aspenkit ran the length of the river, looking up and down for any tree or means of crossing. She was about to give up when she heard a small yell from upstream.
"I found one! Everyone, I found one!"
She ran in the direction of the voice, finding Poolkit standing next to a giant uprooted tree that was leaning across the river and onto both territories. Aspenkit nodded and turned back to go find the other kits, but ran back to Poolkit when she saw them all racing up the bank towards her.
"Okay, let's go!" Whiskerkit yelled.
Batkit got on, then Poolkit, Shinekit, Whiskerkit, and finally Aspenkit.
"Dig in your claws!" Batkit warned. "It's slippery!"
It was torture to have to move so slowly, the rain and river water rushing around them, but if they moved any faster then they could easily lose their grips and fall into the rushing torrent.
They had reached about halfway down the tree and Aspenkit was beginning to feel more confident when a particularly bright flash of lightning lit up the dawn sky. Aspenkit's let out a screech of fear, ears pressed to her head, heart stopping, at what she saw not twenty foxlengths away from her.
A giant wall of raging water came rushing at the kits, overflowing the banks and pushing over the nearby trees. The other kits shrieked in terror when they saw it, too, huddling on the tree, frozen in horror. Aspenkit told herself to go, told her legs to move, but she knew that in the end she wouldn't be able to outrun this thing. She let out another whimper of fear and pressed herself into the rough bark.
She let out a shrill scream to the four other cats huddled on the tree, wailing "I'm sorry!" as the furious wall of water overtook them, swallowing up any fleeting light from the world and filling their visions with the cold, malice filled color of black.
Author's Note Thing
Cliffhanger! U gotta love 'em! AND THIS CHAP WAS 3422 WORDS! XD XD XD im proud of me! . . I no, I really should stop counting the wordcount…srry.
If I don't get any reviews for this chapter, I'm going to be REALLY confused, bc I thought this was a great chap! XD Idk, whatevs. Anyways, this chap kind of starts off the exciting parts of the story, so don't worry, the boring parts are all done and another huge character will PROBABLY come in next chapter . . . only it'll be pretty obvious who it is and what its role is.
OK so I have a question of the day thing (qotdt): should the next chapter be from the viewpoint of Smokeleg and what happens in thunderclan when they find out the kits are missing or the viewpoint of Aspenkit bc (spoiler alert) she obviously doesn't die?
Don't forget to suggest, correct and review! Hopefully I will update tomorrow! Byeeeee!