Chapter 9

"It All Comes Together."

3/15/17 - 3/16/17 - 3/17/17 - 3/18/17

Snowpaw found it strange that this WindClan medicine cat apprentice showed up to visit Hailstone and Duskshade, and quickly leaves for Duskshade to leave as well.

Duskshade returns from whatever he was doing and left Snowpaw with confusion.

Is this some medicine cat thing or something?

"Snowpaw."

The said apprentice looks at Driftcloud. "Hailstone wants you and Nightpaw to escort him to ShadowClan."

"Why can't he get a warrior to do it?"

"He mentioned that he wants you to experience the territory beyond ThunderClan. Anyway, once you return we'll practice your mock fighting."

Snowpaw nods and pads to Hailstone and her second cousin, Nightpaw. The speckled tom waits near the thorn barrier and sees Snowpaw approach him.

"Ready?" He asks them. The two she-cats nod, and follow Hailstone outside of the gorge.

The density of pine trees block out the sunlight. Snowpaw is glad to see her white paws.

"Ouch! My paw!"

Nightpaw wasn't so lucky.

The small black she cat sticks close to Snowpaw as her line of sight after tripping over a root for the third consecutive time. The bramble covered camp of ShadowClan left an ominous feeling inside Snowpaw and Nightpaw as they stop in front of a thorn tunnel.

"Stop right there!"

Snowpaw looks at the tall tree where a pale grey tom is sitting on a branch, looking down on them.

"It's me, Rabbitstep!" Hailstone calls. "I came to talk to Kestrelwing!"

Rabbitstep climbs down the tree and disappears into the camp of brambles; he comes out and stops in front of the entrance.

"Kestrelwing is out, but he should return shortly."

"That's fine. We'll wait inside for him."

Rabbitstep narrows his eyes and nods before leading Hailstone and the two apprentices inside. Going past a large boulder, Snowpaw looks around the camp, instead of rock crevices, ShadowClan had bramble thickets for dens.

Many of the ShadowClan cats stop to watch the ThunderClan visitors with sharp suspicion, some of the apprentices were curious. Snowpaw can also see Dewpaw.

Fox dung.

She silently begs for Kestrelwing to return as soon as possible. The ShadowClan medicine cat appears from behind the elder's den with a light brown tom behind him.

Hailstone stands up and meets with Kestrelwing in the clearing. The two medicine cats talk quietly, Snowpaw couldn't pick up what they were saying.

"Snowpaw, Nightpaw, why don't you have small talk with Owlpaw while I talk with Kestrelwing?"

Hailstone doesn't wait for a reply and follows Kestrelwing inside his den. Dewpaw and Poolpaw wastes no time to approach Snowpaw with snide looks.

"Hello, Rabbit Defender ~." Dewpaw's eyes glitter with the gleam of a bully.

"Did you save any rabbits lately?" Poolpaw asks.

Nightpaw glares at the two littermates when Owlpaw growls, "Is that all the creativity you can come up with?"

Poolpaw glares at him. "Again? What kind of ShadowClan cat are you?"

"The kind that doesn't like stale jokes."

Dewpaw scoffs. "Forget this, Poolpaw. Let's go. I wouldn't be surprised if he was half-Clan by the way he was behaving."

Owlpaw's tail bushes out and forcibly looks at the two cousins. Snowpaw and Nightpaw feel a strong pull when they look at him.

"... Sorry."

"For what? Standing up to a rabbit defender?" Snowpaw snorts.

Owlpaw flattens his ears. "For not doing it in the first place."

Hailstone appears from Kestrelwing's den and approaches Snowpaw and Nightpaw. Snowpaw watches Owlpaw slowly back away from them and sit next to Kestrelwing.

She also sees a dark colored tortoiseshell she-cat giving Owlpaw glares of disapproval.

She must be his mentor. She doesn't look like she likes him - or at least pretend to.

Snowpaw's heart went out to the ShadowClan apprentice before following Hailstone and Nightpaw outside.

Snowpaw notices that Petalpaw is sneaking around camp a lot more often. She even talks with Raccoonpaw and sometimes sneaks off with him.

She better not be influencing Raccoonpaw in a bad way.

Her sister is a harmless little prankster, but the boundaries between jokes and harm sometimes blur out for Petalpaw if Featherpaw, Berrypaw or Snowpaw aren't there to stop her.

"Hey, Snowpaw."

The white-silver speckled she cat looks at Thistlefang padding toward her.

"I heard Hailstone took you to ShadowClan, what for?"

"He wanted to show us the camp. It wasn't even that long of a stay."

"Still, their apprentices were the ones who taunted you at the Gathering."

Snowpaw flicks her ear. "Not for long. Owlpaw stopped them, surprisingly."

Thistlefang frowns. "He did…"

"Yes. He's a bit of a coward, though. I don't think his Clanmates like him that much."

"..."

Thistlefang's silence made Snowpaw look at him. "What?"

The dark brown tabby tom shook his head. "Nothing." He pads to the warriors den where Daisyleaf and Hawkfeather were. Snowpaw feels at a loss to Thistlefang's mood change.

"Follow me…"

"Follow me, and unite with the rest…"

Nightpaw opens her eyes in the dark den. She looks out to the entrance. Nightpaw slowly rises from her nest and pads around her denmates' nests, she accidentally steps on Berrypaw's flank.

The cream brown tom snorts and twitches his tail.

"Don't eat the mushrooms…" Berrypaw mutters, drifting back to sleep. Nightpaw mentally sighs with relief. She safely pads out of the den and exits the gorge and thorn barrier.

Nightpaw smells a familiar scent leaving the forest, and she knows that mint scent anywhere.

Snowpaw? Where's she going?

Nightpaw makes it across the moors and sees a cat watching over the moors, she's glad to have black fur to blend in the dark. Nightpaw picks up a WindClan scent mingling with Snowpaw's. She couldn't be meeting a WindClan tom, could she?

What about Thistlefang?

Shut up! Stop jumping to conclusions and find Snowpaw!

The small black she-cat pads through the edge of RiverClan and hopes to StarClan that she wouldn't get caught, she smells RiverClan's scent with Snowpaw's and the mystery WindClan cat's.

Nightpaw crosses the tree bridge, and steps on the island. A white pelt stands out in the dark and shade from the trees.

"Snowpaw!" She cries. The said she-cat looks at Nightpaw and different pairs of eyes look at the ThunderClan apprentice: two were green and two were amber.

"Nightpaw?"

The ThunderClan apprentice recognizes the voice of Spiderpaw.

That explains the WindClan smell!... Oh, duh.

Nightpaw races toward Snowpaw and Spiderpaw until she stops and sees the amber eyed black tom.

"Nightpaw, this is Beechpaw from RiverClan." Snowpaw says.

"Not to be rude, but, why are you here?" Nightpaw asks her cousin.

"Why are you here? Why is Beechpaw and Spiderpaw here?"

Spiderpaw looks reluctant, but he says, "I was listening to a voice. It told me to come here, that's when I saw Snowpaw leaving the moors and Beechpaw crossed the bridge when I showed up."

Spiderpaw gives Snowpaw a teasing glance. "I thought you two were meeting each other."

Snowpaw bushes her fur. "Don't be absurd! A voice told me the same thing!"

"Wait..." Beechpaw said. "The voice told us to 'follow it and unite with the rest', it was talking about you guys?"

Nightpaw's ears pick up soft paw steps. A light brown pelt bristles as the cat pads toward them with shock in his green eyes.

Owlpaw looks at each cat. "What's going on…?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Spiderpaw grunts. "Let me guess, a voice told you to come here?"

Owlpaw's fear scent explodes from him, it confirms Spiderpaw's question.

"Okay, let's review what happened." Snowpaw suggests. "A voice told us to come out and meet with each other, here we all are. The most important question is why?"

Spiderpaw suddenly exclaims, "It might be StarClan's doing."

"StarClan, really?" Owlpaw asks quietly.

Spiderpaw takes a deep breath.

"It was a long time ago. I was getting strange dreams where I was constantly in danger of being attacked by a… creature.

"When I stopped Cheetahpaw from attacking you," he said to Nightpaw. "I felt a strong connection when we locked eyes together."

"And it was not like that!" He hisses at Snowpaw and Beechpaw.

"It was more about familiarity than affection, like we were in the same nursery. I talked to my sister - who's a medicine cat apprentice - and she started looking into it when she and Hazelheart went to Moonpool."

"And what did she say?" Beechpaw asks him.

"Nothing. She simply told me to take it easy and think of something peaceful before I go to sleep."

"Must be hard if you have an arrogant furball like Cheetahpaw as a denmate." Snowpaw says.

Spiderpaw nods with agreement.

"Wait… That happened with us." Beechpaw said looking at Owlpaw. "I felt the same thing when I saw you."

Owlpaw blinks wit wonder. That might explain why he was comfortable enough to tell Beechpaw about his father's identity. Beechpaw looks at Spiderpaw.

"And these creatures you dream of, did they look like dogs, except bigger with shaggy fur and sharp teeth? Yellow eyes, maybe?"

The WindClan apprentice blinks and slowly nods.

"We had the same dream as well." Nightpaw said.

Beechpaw says, "Me too. I even heard a voice afterwards. "Snow of the rose and night of the falcon…"

"Spider woven in web of lies." Spiderpaw said.

"A restless owl and a towering beech. All must go to the mountain and fight the ancient enemy of cats or risk the fall of the Clans forever." Snowpaw whispers.

Owlpaw looks around and said, "You mean we weren't exhausted and hearing things?"

"How can we misinterpret something like a voice in our head?" Nightpaw asks.

"And when we mentioned the dreams about these creatures, those were wolves."

Spiderpaw bristles his fur.

"Ancient enemy of cats… those beasts are related to useless, stupid dogs?"

"Apparently, the wolves aren't so stupid." Beechpaw replies. "They work in groups like the Clans, and their efficiency and strength is strong enough to take down an animal the size of a horse."

"That's insane… What does StarClan want us to do about it?" Owlpaw asks shakily.

Nightpaw sweeps her tail on the ground. "I believe they want us to go to the mountains to help the Tribe cats."

Snowpaw, Beechpaw, Spiderpaw and Owlpaw look at her.

"Couldn't they ask for warriors to do that?" Owlpaw asks.

"They asked us." Snowpaw replies. "Grandpa Cloudwind told me that StarClan has reasons for doing things, they trust us with the task."

Going to the mountains, though?

Nightpaw is scared, but she's mostly excited about the prospect of traveling to the mountains, and the refuge of the ancient Clans before settling down near the lake.

Snowpaw's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"If I may add, I think we should meet up with each other if we learn anything new. If we're going to the mountains together, we might as well get used to each other."

"This island is perfect for it." Spiderpaw said. "There's so many scents during Gatherings that nobody can say we were here."

"Do you know what you're talking about?! We're betraying our Clan - what if we get caught?"

Spiderpaw glared at Owlpaw. "We won't! Not unless you're going to tell on us."

Owlpaw shook his head. "It still doesn't feel right…"

"If you don't like it then you can just stay behind!"

Beechpaw gives Spiderpaw a warning stare, he pads to Owlpaw and whispers.

"It's okay, Owlpaw."

"No, it's not. My Clanmates already give me dirty looks for defending others outside the Clan, if they-."

"They won't find out." Beechpaw insists.

Owlpaw looks at his paws. "..."

Beechpaw looks at the others. "He'll be there."

Nightpaw nods uncertainly. "Okay. We should go back to our Clans before we're missed."

Miles away from the lake, in the depths of the mountains behind a waterfall. Two bulky cats approaches a shaggy brown she-cat in a ring of cats.

"Stoneteller, we managed to get them to back off."

"But why are you looking so scared, Moss?"

Moss' breathing slows down as she sits on her haunches next to Frost.

"It was an accident! The alpha slipped and fell off the cliff, all I did was push him…"

Stoneteller shushes Moss. "It is alright. I understand."

"But his mate doesn't." Frost put in. "She thinks it was intentional, what should we do?"

A white she cat whispers to her cream kit before padding toward Stoneteller as voice rang and echoes bounce off the rocks.

"What are we going to do?"

"They'll kill us all!"

"What if they harm the kits and kit-mothers?"

"Everyone, calm down." Stoneteller said. "We must do what we can and hope that the Tribe of Endless Hunting will guide us through these hard times."

The white she-cat spoke up. "Why can't we go look for help? I know a group of cats by the lake-."

"It's not wise to bring outsiders when we are in dark times, Bird that Flies in the Sky."

"It's also not smart to not ask for help." Bird said snappily.

Stoneteller looks at the white she cat. "Bird, I understand your concern for your daughter-."

"It's not just about Dove, I'm talking about common sense. No matter what our...previous leader was, we asked for help when we're in bides."

"... I understand that, but the Clans probably don't know how to deal with a threat like this."

Bird opens her mouth to protest when she feels soft fur touch her back leg.

"Mom…" Dove whispers softly. Bird nudges Dove back to the heavily pregnant brown tabby.

"Have faith." Stoneteller announces to the tribe. "We must prevail over this darkest time and hope for a miracle."