The Renaissance - Book 1: Rising Sun - Chapter 8

THE TRUTH?! YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

XD XD XD XD Ignore me. I have waaaaaaaayyyyyy too much fun when I drink orange juice at noon. XD Anywho, we learn... well not the truth, but kind of something like it.

I don't own Warriors.


Chapter Eight

Yowls of terrified cats echoed throughout ThunderClan territory. Sunpaw let out a yowl of confusion and shook her head in dismay. She could hear the voices of her Clanmates around her, calling to her for her help. "Sunpaw!" Hollypaw's voice called from her right. "Sunpaw help me!"

"Hollypaw!" Sunpaw gasped and turned toward the direction of her voice. She trying to peer through the overpowering darkness to see her sister, but couldn't. "Hollypaw, where are you?!" she yowled.

"Sunpaw, over here!" Finchpaw's voice called.

"Finchpaw!"

"Sunpaw!"

"Sunpaw!"

"Save us, Sunpaw!"

"Help us!"

"We need your help!"

"Sunpaw!"

Suddenly, everything went quiet. The voices left leaving Sunpaw standing in the forest, trembling. Her body trembled and she wanted nothing more than to let out a yowl of distress and curl into a ball. She looked up from staring at the dark, muddy ground beneath her paws to see a ghostly figure coming toward her. "StarClan! StarClan, help me!" she cried.

The figure approached her slowly, and as it got closer, a familiar scent flowed from it that made Sunpaw sigh with relief. "Jayfeather," she breathed. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, it's me," the ThunderClan medicine cat's sharp voice came from in front of her. He stepped into view and looked her up and down for a moment as if he could see her. "It's the first time I've walked in your dreams, young one. I never expected them to be so dark."

Sunpaw looked at her paws sheepishly. "Yeah… I've been having nightmares a lot lately."

Sympathy flashed in the older cat's eyes for a brief moment, but then it was gone. "Sunpaw… I'm not here to chit-chat or gossip with you. I'm here for serious reasons, obviously. It's not every day an apprentice gets visited by the Clan medicine cat in her dreams… But there is something I wanted to speak with you about—something important," he meowed.

"It's about the prophecy, isn't it?" Sunpaw blurted on, then slammed her mouth shut.

Jayfeather's whisker's twitched, and he unsheathed his claws. He dug them into the ground with a dark look on his face as if he were imagining that he were sinking them into flesh. "You heard then?"

Sunpaw nodded solemnly. "I overheard you and Bramblestar."

"Yes, about that," Jayfeather meowed quickly, his gaze returning to her. "You mustn't tell Bramblestar that I came to visit you. He wanted to wait until you were a warrior to tell you, but… But I fear that your skills will be needed sooner… Onestar once told me something that I always found interesting, you know? I was on my way to visit RiverClan, and I met him on the lakeshore. It was before the Great Battle and, even though he didn't know it would even happen yet, he could feel the unease of the Clans. He looked out at the lake, and he said 'The water is calm, but the currents pull beneath the surface. Though they can't be seen, they have the power to drag cats to their deaths.' Sunpaw, I fear that we are facing a danger like this again."

Sunpaw stared at Jayfeather wide-eyed. "So… you think that the Clans are under attack? Do you think the rogues that killed Tornclaw—"

"What rogues?" Jayfeather interrupted her, his voice harsh and almost scathing. "What do you know?"

Sunpaw shrunk back from him, not feeling as confident. "Well… When we patrolled along the ShadowClan border this morning, we met a ShadowClan patrol and they told us that a warrior named Tornclaw had been killed near the RiverClan border… They said that they thought it was rogues."

Jayfeather growled, his fur fluffed up in anger. "Why didn't Bramblestar tell me?" he asked, more to himself. "I had a right to know. He should know how important this is!"

"Bramblestar said that he didn't want to worry the Clan," Sunpaw offered.

The medicine cat just growled. "Firestar…" he trailed off and lashed his tail with irritation. "What am I saying? I'm starting to sound like Lionblaze," he muttered, again to himself.

"Lionblaze talked to Bramblestar on the way back from the border," Sunpaw meowed. She thought that Jayfeather had a right to know about that since he had been kept in the dark about so many other things. "He told Bramblestar that he would have made a better leader than him… Do you think that Lionblaze would try to… I don't know… Do something to Bramblestar?"

Jayfeather stared at her for a moment, and then grinned. Sunpaw's eyes widened as she saw the grin form on his face. "I don't think it's so funny!" Sunpaw hissed.

He dropped his head and his shoulders shook. For a moment Sunpaw thought he was having some kind of seizure, but then, he raised his head. Sunpaw recoiled in confusion. He was laughing.

"Sunpaw!" he exclaimed in a purr. "Lionblaze is a mouse-brain… No offense to you of course. Don't worry about him… He's got a big mouth but not enough guts to do anything about it. He is a brave warrior, yes, but sometimes he's just all talk. Ignore him, apprentice. You have greater things to worry about," he meowed, his laugh dying away. "We all have more serious things to worry about."

"Jayfeather… do you think that the Clans are really in danger?" Sunpaw asked.

He nodded almost sadly. "Yes, Sunpaw. I do. I can only hope that StarClan will be by our side to help us through this."

Sunpaw opened her jaws to say more, but she saw the vision beginning to fade. "Jayfeather!" she called, but he was gone.

"Sunpaw!" Hollypaw's voice jolted her back into reality.

Sunpaw's eyes flew open and met the wall of the apprentices' den. She looked up to see her sister prodding her with her forepaw. "Are you okay? You were murmuring in your sleep and you nearly clawed me to death!" she meowed worriedly

"I'm fine," Sunpaw lied to smooth the worry in her sister's vibrant green eyes. "Really I am… I just had a nightmare is all." Sunpaw couldn't tell Hollypaw the truth. She wanted so badly to tell her what was truly on her mind, but she couldn't. Hollypaw shouldn't have to worry. She's a normal cat… I… I'm not. She can be a normal apprentice and have no other worries but whether or not she'll become a good warrior. I don't have that luxury.


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