Chapter Twenty-eight: Discovered
"My kits!" Dreamcloud cried, desperately searching the nursery for them. But all she saw was a few drops of blood here and there.
Her kits' blood.
"No!" She wailed. "It can't be! The dream can't be coming true!"
"Dreamcloud?" She turned to find a stiffening Calicofur. "You had a dream?"
"Yes," Dreamcloud panted. "They were all dead! The kits! Windstar..." Her amber eyes lit up. "Windstar! I need to tell him, maybe-"
At that moment, Firestar padded into the nursery, his eyes narrowed. "What's going o-" He froze when he saw the scrap of fur... and the blood...
"It isn't...?" The leader trailed off, unable to say anything else.
"Somebody stole my kits," Dreamcloud whispered, her eyes on that scrap of ginger fur. "Somebody stole them. I have to get my kits back!"
"Dreamcloud," Firestar meowed gently, sadly. "It looks like whoever took the kits..."
"No!" Dreamcloud snarled, pelt bristling. "They aren't dead! None of them are dead! I'm going to find them."
Without another word, she bounded out of the nursery. Calicofur's blue eyes widened, and Firestar shook his head.
"I'm not letting my granddaughter get killed by some crazy cat who murders kits!" He hissed, and followed. Dreamcloud was a queen who was still suckling kits. According to Calicofur, she would have to wait one more moon before she could go and start getting back in shape. Firestar, though getting older, and having only two lives left(AN: He had four in the start of the series, but lost two in between Sunlit Snowdrift and Invasion), was in shape, and fast.
But one thing he didn't have was this.
Dreamcloud was a queen running to save her kits. She would do anything.
Firestar panted as he tried to catch up with her, Calicofur at his heels. Where was Dreamcloud going? It seemed like she had a purpose...
The tom slowed up as the ShadowClan border came into view. Surely she would stop now.
"Don't!" Calicofur yowled, but to Firestar's shock, Dreamcloud simply ran over the border without a care.
"What's she doing?" Firestar spat, turning to the medicine cat. She looked guiltily away. Calicofur had never been good at keeping secrets when pressured.
"Calicofur," Firestar growled. "I, as your leader, command you to tell me where my granddaughter is going and why."
She tried to stay quiet, but it was too much. More guilt was setting in...
"Robinpelt isn't the father of Dreamcloud's kits," Calicofur finally blurted out, and added in a much smaller voice:
"Windstar is."
Firestar gaped, then recovered himself. "Windstar?" He asked shakily. "Windstar, as in leader of ShadowClan."
"He was Windshadow when they found out," Calicofur reasoned, but it did no good.
"How long has this been going on?" Firestar snarled angrily, pelt bristling.
"Well..." Calicofur thought back. "Virtually from when they were apprentices, but they weren't mates then."
"I should have known," Firestar murmured. "She was always close to him at Gatherings..."
"Please don't tell the Clan," Calicofur begged suddenly, knowing that it was the right thing to do. "Think of the kits... your great-grandkits, whether you like it or not. Sure, they were sired by Blackstar's son, but you of all cats should pity forbidden lovers."
"Graystripe and Silverstream?" Firestar was confused. "That was different, he was my friend-"
"I wasn't talking about them." Calicofur's eyes and voice were equally icy. "I'm a medicine cat. I walk with StarClan-so do Dreamcloud and Windstar. We all know about how you loved Spottedleaf, a medicine cat, when you were an apprentice."
"It never became anything-"
"You still loved her."
Firestar dipped his head. "I love Sandstorm now," He protested weakly.
"The past is the past, Firestar. You can't make it disappear."(AN: A rare Calicofur power moment)
The tom finally nodded slowly. "Fine. I won't tell the Clan. But we still have to stop her."
"Why?" Calicofur asked. "She's just trying to get her kits back."
"You know as well as I do that they're dead. I will not have my kin killed in something-"
"You don't think they're dead, truly, I can see that!" Calicofur protested. "We at least need to try."
xxx
"Oh thank goodness," Dreamcloud breathed when she saw the white tom conversing with the wolves in a cave. This way, she was technically not on ShadowClan territory anymore. She had just slipped through it. "Windstar!" She called desperately.
Her mate turned his head, and his green eyes showed shock. "Why did you come here?" He asked, padding up to her.
"The kits..." She murmured. "The kits were stolen."
Windstar was silent for a moment before saying a single word. "No."
"It's true," Dreamcloud whispered, eyes overwhelmed with sadness, fear... but behind all of that, fury. Fury that burned in her eyes as it had when she was an apprentice and had just met him...(AN: Y'all remember that? Them getting mad at each other at a Gathering... they have come a long way.)
"Wait," Swift said, startled. "Your kits were stolen?" She turned to a different pair of wolves, one dark brown, the other black and silver. She spoke in a deep, barking language. Her native tongue. Obviously, these wolves hadn't been taught cat yet. Both wolves looked shocked, and the female, the black and silver one who's sides were bulging, stood up and barked furiously, snarling, eyes burning. Swift snarled back, but it wasn't like the two were facing off to fight. The brown wolf came to stand beside Blizzard. To everyone's surprise, he spoke in cat-with even more of an accent than Blizzard, but cat.
"My name is Luka," He growled. "This is my mate, Timber." He nodded toward the expectant she-wolf. "We are angered of the thought of young ones being hurt. My mate is too close to delivering our litter to fight, but I will join you."
"As will we," Swift agreed. Blizzard looked worried.
"Your pups-"
"Will be fine," She assured him.
"All right," Windstar said shakily. "Thank-you. Luka, Timber, my name is Windstar, and this is my mate, Dreamcloud." As he spoke, Luka was translating for Timber. "We need to plan things so that the enemy is surprised by you wolves-" He turned to Dreamcloud. "Wait-which piece of crowfood stole our kits?"
Dreamcloud's eyes were icy. "Robinpelt."
Letting out a wordless snarl of rage, Windstar unsheathed his claws and began scraping them across the ground, eyes burning.
"He'll never take another breath after this."
xxx
Calicofur sniffed everywhere for her brother's scent as Firestar organized patrols to keep the Clan busy-to let them know they hadn't given up on the kits. It sickened her that Robinpelt would do something so low as to kill kits...
As she wandered deep into the forest, she realized that she hadn't been in this area ever before. Her eyes narrowed at a rocky ridge ahead, and slowed her quick paces. Carefully, the medicine cat approached it, and without looking inside, kicked a pebble down to see how deep it was. The pebble clicked pretty soon, but along with it came a voice.
"Hello?"
Calicofur froze. "No," She corrected herself softly. "That's not possible."
"Calicofur?" The voice was excited, and familiar. "Calicofur, is that you?"
She couldn't stand it any longer, and rushed to the edge, looking down. Sure enough, there was a black shape with a pair of amber eyes she loved.
"Spiderleg!" Calicofur cried. "It is you! But you're suppo-"
"Ssh!" The tom hissed. "Keep your voice down, or they'll hear you."
"Who are they?"
He was reluctant as he spoke. "Calicofur," Spiderleg began. "This may-"
"I know my brother's foxdung," Calicofur hissed. "So just get on with it."
"I overheard Robinpelt plotting with Rainwhisker, Shalefoot, and Dottedtail. They decided to steal Dreamcloud's kits-kits with Windstar-to get to them. To set a trap and kill Windstar, and force Dreamcloud to become a permanent queen and be Robinpelt's mate. Robinpelt said that he would reward the others generously if they helped him. He did the same with Ashfur, you know. Anyway, they saw me, I was caught, and they put me in this pit to die. It's too rocky for me to climb out of."
"I think... I think I can make it a bit easier," Calicofur murmured.
Moments later, she was rolling a log toward the opening. It was rotten and lightweight, but strong enough to hold Spiderleg as he got out.
"Look out," She called as it fell. The tom jumped aside, but then ran up, meeting her purring. They're pelts pressed against each other as they twined around, and finally, Calicofur pressed her face against his.
"I thought I would never see you again."
"Same here."
Calicofur blinked slowly. "We've got to tell the others what's going on!"
Spiderleg mrowwed with laughter. "I can't wait to see Robinpelt once Windstar and Dreamcloud have a hold of him..."
xxx
Predictions? Also, the sequel to this(which is ending soon) will be called 'Windchaser, Dreamcatcher', and after that, 'Blood Stained Sky'. Possibly more, but only those two are definite.