I don't own warriors!

The Quest of Shadows

Chapter 12

Wolfpaw stretched once more, padding along the muddy earth with Stormpaw and Firefoot. Maplebreeze was with them, escorting them to their final destination before they set out on their journey. Sleetpaw and Tawnyfoot were there too, to walk with them to the edge of the territory. "Do you think anyone is going to be there?" inquired Stormpaw, flicking an ear.

"If they're not," Maplebreeze said calmly, "we'll go and find them." As the group of cats reached the ShadowClan border, Sleetpaw and Tawnyfoot turned to face them.

"You're all right, for a kittypet, you know," Tawnyfoot said gruffly to Firefoot.

"Thank you." Firefoot dipped his head.

As Maplebreeze thanked Tawnyfoot for her Clan's hospitality, Sleetpaw faced Wolfpaw. "I'll miss you," she whispered. "I'll never forget the short time we had together. It was the best moon of my life." Wolfpaw felt his pelt grow hot as she licked his ear. "See you soon," she whispered.

"We should keep moving," Maplebreeze advised, eye on the steadily rising sun. Wolfpaw felt his heart ache as he turned away from the beautiful apprentice, following Maplebreeze. Stormpaw was marveling at the scenery on the walk to Twolegplace, but Wolfpaw only had his mind on Sleetpaw.

"We're here," meowed Firefoot as they approached a small stream running through Twolegplace. "I can feel it."

Sitting next to the stream was a sleek furred tom. He was white with ginger patches all over his fur. His dark green eyes gleamed inquiringly.

"Excuse me?" asked Firefoot. The tom looked up, eyes lighting up excitedly at the sight of Firefoot.

"You're the one!" he said, voice brimming with happiness and excitement. "I saw you in my dream!" His gaze fell when he saw the Firefoot's confused expression. He flattened his ears against his head.

"Sorry if I frightened you," he said, shaking his head. "I just had this dream, and a cat that looked just like you was in it . . . "

"You had a dream?" asked Wolfpaw curiously. Surely this Twolegplace loner couldn't be the one who had received the dream!

The tom pricked his ears. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "I'm Pebblesplash." Pebblesplash? thought Wolfpaw. That's a warrior name! Maybe this is one of the cats!
"Pebblesplash of RiverClan," Pebblesplash elaborated. "I had a dream that told me that I would meet other cats here. Cats on a mission, like me!" He shook his head. "I probably sound crazy..."

"We had the dream, too," replied Firefoot earnestly. "I'm Firefoot of ShadowClan. These are Stormpaw, Wolfpaw, and Maplebreeze of ThunderClan." Pebblesplash tilted his head.

"I didn't realize that StarClan had chosen so many ThunderClan cats," he meowed observing the apprentices carefully.

"StarClan only chose Wolfpaw, but Stormpaw wouldn't let her brother go alone," Firefoot explained. "Maplebreeze won't be coming with us. She's just here to send them off."

"There's only three of us so far," Wolfpaw said, frowning. "Where's the fourth cat?"

"Well, there's a cat from all the clans except WindClan," Stormpaw meowed, tail twitching excitedly. "That means the fourth cat is probably a WindClan cat!"

Firefoot nodded. "That's probably accurate."
"Well, we can't just stroll right on to WindClan territory," snorted Wolfpaw.

Pebblesplash flicked his tail dismissively. "Why not?"

Stormpaw stood on the moor, the wind tugging her fur, the grass rippling in the breeze. Patches of heather sent sweet scents drifting in the air. Pebblesplash's plan wasn't the best, but it was at least it was something. The white and ginger tom sat calmly, his yellow eyes following Firefoot's anxious pacing back and forth.

"Here comes a patrol," commented Wolfpaw. Stormpaw pricked her ears, straining her eyes to get a better look at the cats coming over the hills. There was a dark ginger tom, a silver-and-white she-cat, a long-furred golden tabby tom, and a young and lithe brown she-cat.

"ThunderClan!" hissed the silver and white she-cat, scenting the air.

"Smells more like ShadowClan to me," commented the dark ginger tom with a disdainful sniff.

"Who cares?" hissed the young brown she-cat. "Let's kill them!"

"Harepaw!" snapped the golden tabby tom, cuffing her lightly over the ear. "We will not kill them. We will drive them off the territory!"

The she-cat sighed, slumping. Stormpaw looked at Firefoot, expecting the kind ginger tom to do something, but he stood rigid, still.

"We don't mean any harm," Pebblesplash meowed, perfectly calm. "We just were wondering if any of your cats have had any strange dreams lately." The golden tabby and the brown she-cat tensed up, eyes alert, but the silver and white she-cat and the dark ginger tom laughed scornfully.

"Can you hear these two, Foxwind?" the white she-cat giggled. "Strange dreams - ha! I don't know what you cats are eating, but clearly, it's worse than our rabbits." She glared at them. "Have you come to steal prey?" she demanded.

"Enough," the golden tom growled.

"Why do you even need to know?" the apprentice named Harepaw asked haughtily, but Stormpaw could tell the brown she-cat was hiding something. The way her ears were pinned forward in excitement, the eagerness hidden under the distrust in her pale yellow eyes.

"You two go back to camp," ordered the golden tabby. "Harepaw and I will escort these cats off of our territory."

Foxwind flattened his ears, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "We can all escort them," he meowed insistently. "There are four cats here. You and your apprentice are only two."
"Two WindClan cats," the golden tabby tom reminded Foxwind. "And haven't I heard that one skilled WindClan warrior is capable of taking down a dozen cats of other Clans? Surely two WindClan warriors can take on five." The tabby flicked his tail dismissively. "Unless, of course, you think there are Clans are better than WindClan?"

Foxwind dropped his head. "No," he muttered after a moment of silence. "Come on, Whitefrost." He padded back over the hills of the moor, the silver and white she-cat following him.

The golden tabby lowered his voice. "Listen, what kind of strange dreams are you talking about?"

Stormpaw felt her body tingle with excitement. "Dreams about stones!" she whispered excitedly.

"I-I've had those dreams," whispered Harepaw. "Have all of you?"

"Only me, Wolfpaw, and Firefoot," replied Pebblesplash, flicking his tail at the gray apprentice and the ginger tom in turn. "Have you told anyone else about them?"

"Only Lynxpelt," Harepaw replied. "Miststar told me to not to tell anyone else."

"Well, we're all gathered here now," Firefoot meowed. "What do we do?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Harepaw rolled her eyes. "We travel to the jagged crack, across the rushing brook, through the thorny forest, and past the lush swamp to find these stones."

"I'm not so sure about this," Lynxpelt said, frowning. "I don't really want you to go running around in unknown areas without proper protection."

"We're warriors," Pebblesplash pointed out. "We can take it."

"Newly made warriors," Lynxpelt corrected. "I'm a senior. If Harepaw is going, I'm going too."

Firefoot and Pebblesplash exchanged glances. Then, Pebblesplash dipped his head. "I suppose we can't stop you from coming," he said.

Lynxpelt snorted. "You got that right."

"But what about Swiftpaw? I don't want her to worry," Harepaw asked her mentor. Her eyes were filled with concern.

"I'm sure Swiftpaw will be fine without you," Lynxpelt meowed reassuringly. "You'll be back in a moon or two."

"Can I at least tell her where I'm going?" Harepaw begged. "She won't be able to make it without me! And if I just disappear . . . " she trailed off. "Who knows what'll happen to her?"

"It's better it we don't," her mentor meowed sadly. "Swiftpaw could try to follow you or even report you to keep you out of danger." Harepaw looked down at the ground.

"Oh," she said softly. "Okay."

"Let's go," Firefoot said. "We need to go through Twolegplace."

"But my dream never said that," Wolfpaw said.

"Pinestar told me we had to go through the Twolegplace," Firefoot said firmly.

"Pinestar?" asked Harepaw, curiously flicking an ear. "You didn't get your message from Miststar?"

"I got mine from Skystar," Wolfpaw added.

"I think that each cat got their dream from a different leader," Pebblesplash assessed quietly, swishing his tail. Does that mean none of these cats know about Skystar? Stormpaw wondered. Does that mean none of these cats know about Sunstar? Could things be different in other clans?

"We should get going," grunted Lynxpelt. The sun was slowly climbing higher in the sky. "We're wasting time."

"You're right," meowed Firefoot. "Let's go through the Twolegplace, then." They set off.

"Um, hi," Stormpaw meowed to the brown apprentice. "I'm Stormpaw."

"Harepaw," Harepaw muttered back. "ThunderClan, I presume?"

"Y-yeah," she stuttered. The wiry brown she-cat looked quick-tempered and sarcastic, a trait Stormpaw found rather likable. She hoped to be friends with her. "How'd you guess?"

"You stink like the trees," replied Harepaw placatingly, wrinkling her white-tipped nose.

"Oh." Stormpaw frowned. She hadn't expected her to be so rude!

They had been walking through Twolegplace all day. Firefoot pretended to know where they were going. "We go right now, I think," he said, flustered. "I don't know for sure, but I have a good feeling about going right."

"This is pointless," growled Lynxpelt irritably. "We aren't getting anywhere."

"Yeah, didn't we just pass this den?" Pebblesplash asked, flicking his tail towards a dark red Twoleg den made of stones.

"We went in a full circle," Wolfpaw pointed out.

"A little lost?" Stormpaw jumped, whirling around, at the sound of an unknown she-cat's voice. A rather pretty brown tabby was sitting on top of a fence post, her whiskers and fur well groomed, frost blue eyes watching them rather haughtily. Stormpaw felt a low growl build in her throat as faint recognition stirred in her mind.

"Her eyes look like Frostshard's," she whispered to Wolfpaw. His amber eye looked confused.

"What?" he whispered.

"The cat in our dreams," Stormpaw replied. "The pretty silver one. Her name's Frostshard." She noted a slim, pink collar encircling the kittypet's neck. Stormpaw couldn't even imagine what it was like to wear something like that.

"I'm Coraline," she meowed. "I go by Cora, though."

Lynxpelt growled, but Pebblesplash silenced him with a flick of his ginger-patched tail.

"We're a bit lost-"

"Obviously," Cora interrupted, whiskers twitching with amusement.

Pebblesplash twitched an ear, but continued. "We're not from here. We're looking for some things. Can you point us to a jagged crack, rushing brook, thorny forest, or maybe a lush swamp?"

Cora flicked an ear. "Those descriptions are pretty non-specific. How smart do you think I am?"

Lynxpelt couldn't contain himself any longer. "We haven't got all day," he snapped. The sun was setting lower into the sky. "Just tell us what you know."

"Hmph," Cora pouted. "What I can tell is that there's a swamp nearby. Emerald Swamp, is what the Twolegs call it. If you leave now, you can reach it by the next nightfall." The kittypet squinted off into the distance. "If you keep walking, you'll reach a forest with two paths. Take the one on the left. It's some sort of Twoleg trail. My brother, Crow, told me. He's a rogue."

"We're trusting the word of a rogue?" Harepaw muttered. "Great."

"It's our best shot," Lynxpelt muttered. "Thank you for the information."

"No problem." Cora waved her fluffy tail in the air.

"Oh, by the way," Wolfpaw added, "if anyone asks, we were never here."

Cora tipped her head to one side questioningly, but the six cats turned away and padded towards the supposed forest.

"Do you really think there is a forest?" Firefoot murmured. "She could be lying, for all we know."

"She's our best shot," repeated Lynxpelt. They padded on for a little while. Stormpaw felt as if every den looked the same, every fence, every stone, every stray plant or weed in the ground looked exactly the same.

"Can't we sleep?" complained Harepaw. Stormpaw noticed the sky was turning from shades of scarlet and crimson to a deep shade of blue. She shivered. The sky looked blood red.

"My paws feel heavy as rocks!" Harepaw continued. As much as Stormpaw wanted to keep going, Harepaw was right. Even her own gray paws were beginning to tire, and she felt as if a pebble were lodged in the padding of one.

"Let's just wait to get out of Twolegplace," Lynxpelt mewed gently. "I wouldn't want to sleep in this place." As if on cue, a dog growled from behind a fence. The group's fur bristled.

Soon, the Twoleg dens thinned out and the trees became more frequent. The moon was climbing higher and higher, some of the stars blotted out by wisps of dark clouds. "Let's make camp here," meowed Pebblesplash, flicking his tail towards a leafy area under a huge oak tree, littered with acorns.

Harepaw immediately picked out an area in the soft foliage and fell asleep, making soft snores.

Stormpaw scratched scraps of moss off the base of the tree, making a sloppy, but suitable makeshift nest. She crawled into it, curling up tightly. Moments later, she felt Wolfpaw slide in next to her, his pelt warm against his.

"Good night," he whispered softly. Before Stormpaw could answer, she felt herself drifting into a blissful, dreamless sleep.

Woah! This is a really long one. We've been working our hinds off for you special few who have stuck with us all the way! Thank you for the kind reviews and favorites, they mean the world to us. Without you guys, I don't know where we would find the motivation to keep writing. Thanks for all your support! Please review! ^.^