Chapter 6
Gingerpaw woke up with the sound of thunder rumbling in her ears. She sat up and saw that the lightning was up north. That's where the Clans are!
She headed to a peak where she could see the Clans' territory. She saw the lightning was all around the territory, but mostly in ThunderClan. It even seemed to spread towards the mountains.
Gingerpaw headed back down. She ran to the cave as a tree toppled down.
Gingerpaw hissed and ran back to the Cave of Rushing Water.
Gingerpaw saw all the cats staring at the lightning coming closer. Most of the queens had there kits close to them. Even some of the ThunderClan cats stared. The sound of the thunder blocked out the sound of the rushing water overhead.
"Starheart!" Gingerpaw ran to the white warrior and mewed, "The lightning was right by the ThunderClan camp!"
"How would you know?" Starheart's eyes narrowed to slits.
"I may have gone out to check before the thunder came near the cave."
"I'll pretend you didn't say that." Starheart mewed. She let her one good eye look around.
By sunhigh the storm had cleared and Starheart was readying the patrol to go back. Ravenpaw and Cotton had decided to come.
Gingerpaw stayed with Cotton and Blizzard most of the time.
As they approached the barn Gingerpaw noticed that Ravenpaw and Sandstorm were starting to get tired.
Cloudtail and Squirrelflight headed into the barn and came out with a cream coloured she-cat. Gingerpaw knew this cat; it was Daisy the she-cat who lived in the Horseplace with her three kits, Smoky and Floss.
"Come inside! Some of you look quite tired." Gingerpaw heard the cream-coloured cat mew.
"Thanks Daisy!" Whitenose mewed.
"I'm sure Smoky won't mind at all." Daisy flicked her tail as the other cats followed.
Sandstorm and Ravenpaw headed to a corner of hay to sleep in.
"Are you going any further?" Daisy nodded her head to the two tired elders.
"If Ravenpaw's up to it." Starheart mewed.
Ravenpaw surprisingly didn't look tired at all. Just that he needed a little nap.
Gingerpaw found that she was surprisingly hungry and went off to find prey.
"Gingerpaw," Gingerpaw turned around to see Whitenose.
"Yeah?"
"We're about to leave."
"Oh! I'll head over there." Gingerpaw followed Whitenose back to the other cats.
Gingerpaw saw the ThunderClan camp. Finally! She was tired!
She ran inside, about to yowl a greeting. Then she saw the cats mourning by Shadowtail.
"What happened?" Gingerpaw stared in shock. She saw cracks in the wall that ran from the top to the bottom of the wall it was on.
"There was a storm. All the cats were hiding in their dens. They even got into the apprentices' den." Leafpool nodded to the wall where the apprentices' den was. It was extremely sheltered by the way it was dug in the wall, only the nursery and Brackenstar's den were more protected.
"Shadowtail was nudging the kits away when Icepaw ran out to help him…"
"Icepaw!" Gingerpaw's eyes widened, "Where is she?"
"In my den. Snowpaw's watching her." Leafpool nodded to her apprentice, Sorreltail's and Brackenstar's kit, sitting by Icepaw's limp body.
"Icepaw!" Gingerpaw ran over to her sister.
Snowpaw glared at her. "What?"
"Shh… she needs to sleep, not now." Snowpaw mewed.
Gingerpaw went over to the apprentices' den. She laid down in her moss and fell asleep.