ON THE EDGE OF THUNDERCLAN'S TERRITORY
The warm days that had been filling the forest recently seemed to be coming to a pause as they reached the mid-spring of the forest. The clouds had turned a dark foreboding grey, with the promise of more dark clouds to join them, and a slight breeze seemed to be picking up in the wind. Unluckily for the departing group, the clouds were moving ominously toward them.
"Come back safely! " Velvetfoot shouted out in farewell as Saige, Edgeclaw, Kickleg, Berrybranch and Owlclaw started off on their journey.
Edgeclaw looked back to see Bravepaw standing along the end of Thunderclan territory with Grayleaf, Velvetfoot, and Sharp-eye, calling out their last goodbye's.
Edgeclaw had tried to stay as light hearted as possible in front of Bravepaw, not wanting him to worry while he was away, but now seeing him there looking on, his head up trying to look courageous, Edgeclaw was filled with deep pride for his adopted son. In fact, he couldn't even picture his life without him anymore. This trip would be hard on them both, but Edgeclaw knew that this was something that they had to do.
Although neither one of them had brought up just how dangerous this mission was, the look that passed between them as they had said their final goodbye assured Edgeclaw that Bravepaw knew all too well that it was.
Edgeclaw, taking one last glance at the small distant forms of his clanmates, turned around as the patrol plunged down the high hill and he lost sight of them.
Even though Edgeclaw had been a warrior for numerous moons now, he had never been beyond the Clan territories, and now looked ahead at what would only hold a new view as they continued on.
"Hopefully we won't be caught in any of this rainy weather," Saige meowed, trying to lighten the patrol's mood, as a sound of thunder rippled through the sky.
"Well a little rain never hurt anybody," Berrybranch meowed as she smiled at Saige.
Kickleg then added crankily, "Well I don't know about you two, but I don't fancy the idea of being caught in a rainstorm that's freezing cold without shelter in sight. I sure don't plan to catch a cold the first day we start off either!"
"Don't worry Kickleg, I'm sure a shelter wouldn't be too hard to find, and if it starts to pour on us we can always climb into a tree or something and wait it out." Berrybranch meowed briskly, "After all, we're Thunderclan warriors! A little rain doesn't scare us!"
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Bravepaw couldn't help sighing and letting his head drop as soon as their forms had disappeared from view.
"Well there gone now," Bravepaw thought sadly. "Who knows when we'll see them again."
"Well we'd better be making our way back to camp," Velvetfoot instructed. "I need to go back and have some of the warriors add some branches to the top of the elders den. Oakfang had informed me last time it rained that there was a leak, and by the looks of the weather now, rain won't be too far off."
The four cats then began the returning trip back to their camp.
Entering the camp Bravepaw couldn't help thinking already how it seemed extremely empty in the clearing without the missing warriors.
Redpaw bounded over to Bravepaw as soon as they entered camp. "Hiya Bravepaw!" He said cheerfully. Then, noticing Bravepaw's depressed looking mood, Redpaw decided to try and cheer him up by asking, "What do you say we go practice and some more battle training moves?"
"I don't really feel like battle training right now, Redpaw," The young tom meowed moodily.
"Oh, come on Bravepaw! I need your help at doing the one where you jump and then twist in the air, lashing out your back paw?" He rolled on his back and flared all four paws in the air, looking very comical. "You're way better than me at that one! Come on, please!" Begged Redpaw.
Bravepaw couldn't help grinning as he replied to Redpaw, "Oh, alright, I guess. But you know I need the practice just as much as you do. You can show me how you use so much force in your attacks! You may be just slightly bigger than me, but I can't believe that you seem to possess the force of badger trying to get at his prey for breakfast!"
Redpaw playfully hit him on the side of his head with his paw. "Yeah, it's like I'm made out of solid rock!" He exclaimed jokingly as he struck a stoic pose.
"Meeowr!" Bravepaw laughed. To himself he marveled at how hard it was to be in a bad mood around Redpaw.
"Alright you furball let's go practice some battle moves then!"
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BLADESTAR'S DEN
"We still can't be certain that the 'wind' in the prophecy means that Windclan is growing stronger. They may have some plan of conquering some, if not all of our territory, but we don't know for sure, even though it does look that way, especially since Hedgestar seemed to be so defensive at the last gathering. I can't see what else it could mean," Bladetstar confided in his medicine cat, Elmfur.
The earth-packed walls of his den assured that no other cat was listening and would seem like a nice, cozy place to rest if it were not for their distraught meows in conversation.
"Wind is rising, Beware of Wind, it is growing stronger. That's all the Starclan cats kept meowling, over and over and then I felt as if our clan was being swept into the dark sky, and there was nothing I could do to stop it."
"Have you had any more visions since you returned from the Moonstone?" Bladestar asked hopefully.
"No, I'm afraid not… Although I must admit I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to fall into many a restful night's sleep." Elmfur meowed.
"Elmfur, I had known you'd been more busy lately than usual, but if I'd know just how busy you were, I would've assigned a warrior to help with errands and whatever else you needed. I do not want you to be over working yourself to the point of exhaustion!" Bladestar meowed with a small amount of authority in his meow.
"Oh I'll be fine, especially now being that Saige and the others are on their journey and Berrybranch has finished as much training as I could give her. I just hope that I didn't overdo it and she will be able to remember the important herbs for what she'll need."
Bladestar breathed a defeated sigh, "We can only hope Starclan will be watching over them on their travels and will bring them home to us safely." Licking his chest fur he added, "You know, I'm starting to be concerned about you not having an apprentice," Bladestar meowed, "Taking care of every-cat in ThunderClan is really too much work for one cat to be doing all alone."
Elmfur sighed, "Yes, I've been thinking about how nice an apprentice would be. Did you know that Briarnut has moved into the nursery?"
"Of course," Bladestar meowed "Sharp-eye could barely keep the grin off his face, or keep his tail from wagging to and fro like a dog when we were on a hunting trip. He told me that he was going to be a father again and that he felt as energetic and young as a young kit himself!"
"We need new kits around the camp again, maybe one of their kits will be interested in becoming my apprentice. Who knows?" Elmfur face brightened at the thought.
"Yes, a clan without kits for too long can also be a dangerous thing for its survival." The leader agreed.
"Speaking of Briarnut, I should stop by the nursery now and see how she's feeling and check on her."
Bladestar meowed, "And I guess we will just have to wait on Starclan to show us more, before we jump to any conclusions about their warning."
"That seems all we can do at the moment anyways with four of our warriors on a mission. We don't have the numbers to do anything rash." Elmfur added.
Small drops of rain and started falling from the sky, slowly wetting the earth with each touch. But within seconds it turned into a heavy downpour.
"I guess here's the rain we've been expecting," Bladestar meowed as he and Elmfur stared out from his den entrance.
"It really is starting to come down now." Elmfur agreed. "I'll let you know if I have any more dreams or visions involving the prophecy."
Bladestar nodded his head in understanding acknowledgement, "I know you will."
With that, Elmfur made a speedy dash across the clearing and into the warm nursery to check on Briarnut.