Hope that finals for everyone went, or is going, okay!
Deadeye's pov
"What's the plan for it then?," Skyfur asks me.
"There is none," I say.
"Let's send out search parties of four. That way, if Pufftail needs to be carried back, two can carry her and two can guard her. We need five cats to stay at camp with Jayfeather, Darkpelt, Olive, Slink, Lilac, Spotpaw, Birdpaw, and Snowflight-"
"You are not leaving me out of the fun," Snowflight says, padding out to stand by Needleclaw.
"It's in the best interest of the group that you stay back here. You're expecting kits, and if you get hurt that could cause both you and the kits to be harmed. If you want, You can be on the lookout at camp, but leave the fighting to the warriors assigned to stay," Skyfur says.
Snowflight sighs but nods, and Skyfur looks back at the group. "Does anybody want to stay at camp?"
"I'm staying with Snowflight," Needleclaw says. Skyfur nods.
Hazelstream also stays back, and Skyfur has Sunfoot and Bushfur stay back. "Dustcloud, Badgerstripe, Fernbush, and Mudsplash, you are one group. Deadeye, Redwing, Nightflame, and Moongaze, you are another. There will also be Russetspots, Longpelt, Ravenstorm, and Patchfur in a patrol, and Ashtail, Pebblefall, Mousebelly and Molefur in another one. Fluffheart, Firetail, Frostpelt, and Pitchfur is another group, and the last group is Hailstorm, Whitepelt, Honeydrop, and Raggedfur. I will stay back here."
"Why can't I go, Skyfur?," Olive asks.
"You guys haven't been trained yet," he says. Olive's face falls in disappointment, but she goes to stand with the others staying back anyways.
"Who put him in charge," I hear Badgerstripe growl under her breath before she turns to meet up with her group. I sigh before padding over to my group.
"You doing okay?," Redwing asks me as we slide down the hill.
I blink, losing my balance and regaining it before looking at her. "Yeah. I just... I hope she's okay."
"She'll be fine," Moongaze says.
I sigh. "I sure hope so."
Moongaze's pov
"Pufftail!," Deadeye shouts as he lands after jumping over a fallen tree. "Pufftail please! Yell back if you hear me!"
"He's getting pretty frantic," Redwing says to Nightflame and I.
I nod, watching him climb up a tree and look around before he jumps down. "They've been by each other's side since Pufftail was kitted, as I've been told. Probably feels like he's losing a sister," I say. Just the thought of something happening to Ravenstorm makes me shiver, and I focus back on what's going on.
Hey guys!," Nightflame shouts and we see her standing next to some tangled brambles. I pad over and spot some white fur, and when Deadeye runs over and smells it he twitches his tail.
"That's her. She must've fallen down this- Pufftail!," he shouts, looking down the hill behind the brambles before slowly making his way down. I look down as well and just see the black and orange stripes on Pufftail's tail sticking out of a bush at the bottom.
Once Redwing, Nightflame, and I get to the bottom we see Deadeye through the branches in the bush. I push through the leaves, and see that Pufftail was passed out an suspended in the branches from one paw stuck in a knot. "She must've gotten stuck as she was falling."
"Let's just get her out of there," Redwing says.
With some careful maneuvering, the four of us manage to get her out of the bush. There were patches of fur missing and her fur was slowly turning red in a few spots from scratches. Her paw she was held from was at a weird angle, as was one of her hind paws.
"Oh Pufftail," Deadeye sighs, gently licking one of the scratches.
"We'd better get her back to camp," I say.
Pufftail suddenly groans and lifts her head a bit. She blinks a few times before looking at us. "What happened?"
"We think you fell down this hill," Redwing says, waving her tail toward the steep and rocky slope. "How do you feel?"
"Kinda out of it," she mumbles, and tries to get up before hissing when she places either of her bad paws down. Nightflame stands next to her so that she has something to lean on, and just twitches her ear in response when Pufftail thanks her.
"C'mon. We'd better get you back to camp," Deadeye says, going to stand at her other side. The two of them help Pufftail over to where the slope wasn't as steep and was smooth before helping her up.
"I hope she'll be okay," Redwing sighs, eyeing the tufts of fur stuck in the bush.
"She's... she's been through worse," I say, remembering the daylight gathering and when she insisted on helping me get the herbs. "We should find the other patrols."
"Yeah. Let's go over by the stream. I think Badgerstripe's patrol went that way," she says, following Deadeye, Nightflame, and Pufftail up the hill. I nod and pad forward into step next to her.
"You two take Pufftail back to camp so that Jayfeather can look at her. Redwing and I will look for the other patrols," I say. Nightflame nods and the three of them head back to camp while I turn to Redwing. "The stream, right?"
"Yeah."
"Let's head that way then."
"Wait wait wait," Redwing says, and I stop with her, watching as she twitches her ears while looking around. "Do you hear that?"
I listen too, and I hear growls and hissing. I look at Redwing and wave my tail. "C'mon. Let's go."
We run forward, and I start smelling a few of the other cats from the group as well as hearing that the growling and hissing was two of them arguing.
"Is that Skyfur? Wasn't he supposed to be at camp?," Redwing says. I nod, and then pad through some bushes with her behind me.
We are greeted with the sight of Skyfur and Badgerstripe, both equally angered, glaring at one another. Dustcloud, Fernbush, and Mudsplash were standing off to the side, and I spot Olive behind Badgerstripe.
"You have got to get it in your head that you are no better than any of us, Skyfur! You always act like you're so high and mighty, but you aren't! You're the same as the rest of us! You don't have the right to say anything like that to Olive!"
"I told her to stay at camp! What if she had gotten attacked?! We still don't know this territory! She did something stupid!"
"You haven't been doing any better than her! You're the mouse-brain in this situation! Who gave you the right to boss us around?!"
"Nobody else was doing anything!"
"Because we didn't know what to do! Then you come in and pretend that you've come to save the day, but you didn't! You need to get your head out of the tunnels and start thinking about how others think of you mousebrain!," Badgerstripe shouts. Then she turns around to Olive. "C'mon. You can come with us. Who knows. Maybe you'll be the one to see Pufftail."
"Bit late for that, actually," Redwing says hesitantly, and everyone looks at us. "We found her already. Deadeye and Nightflame either took her back to camp or are on their way there right now."
"Was she okay?," Olive asks.
I nod. "Not perfect... but she'll live. One of her front paws and one of her back paws were hurt and she's got some scratches, but she seemed to be okay enough to get back to camp with a bit of help."
"Well, at least she'll live," Fernbush sighs. "Uh... How's Deadeye? He's not still freaking out, is he?"
"Not nearly as much as before. He calmed down a lot when we found Pufftail."
"We should get back to camp, then," Dustcloud says as he pads in the direction of the camp.
When we got back to camp, Jayfeather was wrapping Pufftail's paws in bindweed and cobwebs while the rest of the group looked to be more at ease. I look over to where the lake is to see the sun starting to rise, and then stretch.
"Long night?," Redwing asks. I nod.
"Little bit. Especially with the stress from Pufftail missing," I say.
"Moongaze!," I hear, and turn to see Birdpaw running up. "I asked Needleclaw if he could show Spotpaw and I some battle moves, and he taught us how to do the front paw blow!"
"That's great! Can I see you do it?"
"Yeah. What on?," she asks.
"Go ahead and do it on me. Now let's see what you've got," I say.
She hits me with such a force that I'm dazed, and I shake my head, turning to her. "That was a good-"
My vision goes black.
There are cats battling all around me. Some young, some old. Some fighting side-by-side with another cat, and some all alone.
I whirl around once and see Sunfoot get swallowed up by a few more warriors, taking him down and pinning him. Badgerstripe sees and runs to help, but warriors knock her over and she is lost from my sight as well.
Everything was havoc. I step back a bit, and one of my paws touch something sticky, and when I look at it my paw was shimmering and red.
"Moongaze," I hear, and look around frantically. There is a wind and a light from above, and I whirl around again to see two glowing white eyes right before I light envelops me, words echoing in my head.
"Through war and love in two bright nights, light will rise."
Another prophecy! Who thinks they know what it means?
I have been writing so much. I actually finished this story. I really hope that you guys like the ending of it. It's a bit... odd? Not really odd... But I don't have the word for it. I like it, though.
By the way, I was thinking about being evil about halfway through last week and posting a hint about something later with these guys, but decided against it. Maybe I will do it later though. Who knows.
Oh! You should really go and look at the allegiances and maybe even read through this again. I realized that something in the plot later wouldn't add up with something earlier in the story, and changed it. If you want it to make sense to you when it comes, then reading at least the first five chapters would be a good thing.
I'm also quite curious who everyone's favorite character is from my story. Review if you want to!
Bye!
Ttyl
-TheRealDigiGal
