Darkstripe made his way to Tigerstar. He had managed to sneak off yet again. He promised to meet him to discuss the next course of action. Tigerstar was standing with Sasha and Blackfoot when Darkstripe approached him.
"Hey look who decided to come to the party. So anything new?" Tigerstar asked Darkstripe.
"Nothing that I can report on, we've gotten the news that Thunderclan has settled down into the Ardenne forest a few days ago." Darkstripe told Tigerstar where his group's whereabouts were. Tigerstar nodded as Darkstripe continued to speak. "Please tell me you have something big planned."
"I do actually, the line that Thunderclan has occupied is very weak as there are little to no divisions guarding it as everything is deployed in the north and south. The center is the weakest part of the defense according to Sasha who did a recon patrol there a couple of days ago." Tigerstar told Darkstripe about where the line could be breached if they were going to crack it. "The plan is that we gather our remaining tanks and planes and push through the Ardennes where Bluestar and the other divisions least expect it and keep going until we capture the port of Antwerp and cut off a good chunk of the army off, we should be able to capture a bunch of stuff that Shadowclan is going to need." Blackfoot left the room as he wasn't confident about this working out too well. "Blackfoot has shouted at me that this plan will quickly run out of steam and will never work and we've argued about what divisions I want and Blackfoot wanted to take most of my tanks away. However, I won out in the end and we're going to smash our way through Belgium."
"That's great to hear Tigerstar, do you have a name for this operation?" Darkstripe asked Tigerstar what he wanted to call it.
"Unternehmen Wacht Am Rhein." Tigerstar told Darkstripe. "Go now, the operation is going to begin in a few hours." Darkstripe nodded and left the room. Sasha looked at Tigerstar who was snickering to himself. He was going to give Thunderclan an unwelcome surprise.
The attack went ahead on the sixteenth, not one of us was expecting this. We only got about a week's worth of rest and now we're sent in to defend the area. Bastogne was surrounded on the twenty second of December and we weren't the only ones trapped there, several armored brigades and an irregular division, the 101st Parachute, were also trapped. However this didn't stop us from carrying out our duties.
Fireheart, Sandstorm, Ashpaw, Fernpaw, Cloudtail, Lostface, Bramblepaw and Brindleface were patrolling an area Bluestar had sent them to investigate. The wind was howling and snow was falling in sheets. Fireheart looked around as he was talking with the others about the most recent news.
December 22nd, 1944, Ardennes Forest, Belgium, 4 miles from Bastogne: 19:02
"It's frigid out here." Sandstorm began.
"Yeah this is pretty bad, we're just urinating on our rifles just to keep them functioning as the actions are freezing up." Bramblepaw added. "I just saw Tawnypaw peeing on hers."
"Yuck." Brindleface remarked. She continued to walk through the snow even if the wind was getting on her nerves.
"I can go for a nice cup of coffee when we get back to camp." Ashpaw mewed with a shiver in his voice.
"I don't drink coffee." Cloudtail replied. He continued to look around as they were in unfamiliar territory. Cloudtail looked to see something. "Wait here." Cloudtail went for to determine what the object was. It was familiar to him but whatever was in the area had snapped it. "Hey this is the ribbon I placed down on a branch earlier to mark our path in case we were looking for a way back to camp." Fireheart and the others walked over to see what Cloudtail was talking about.
"I've seen you've found Lostface's head ribbon you borrowed from her. Good job." Fireheart mewed. Cloudtail didn't respond as the stick had been torn but not the ribbon.
"Judging by this ribbon lying in the snow and the marks on the stick, it's clear that the dogs we've seen in the Netherlands and Aachen are here. They want another round with us." Cloudtail replied. He handed the ribbon back to Lostface who placed it on her head.
"Where can they be?" Fireheart asked.
"That I don't know for sure. This blizzard has us patrolling blindly in this storm so they could be anywhere." Cloudtail mewed. He didn't know where these dogs were. They had to take the threat seriously. Fireheart turned to see the lantern's light coming to them. It was Longtail and Frostfur.
"Fireheart, we've picked up dogs in the area. Two of them so far." Longtail mewed while Frostfur held the lantern. "They were talking about something with Tigerstar, they plan on crossing the bridge near this area if they are going to continue their pursuit, we're behind enemy territory as the troops are catching up and the dogs are among them."
"So let me get this straight, we got Tigerstar trying to make his race to the bridge with whatever he has left in terms of tanks. We're surrounded on all sides because of him and we need to destroy the bridge so his offensive runs out of steam?" Fireheart asked Longtail if he was correct on this.
"Yes this is correct but we're sending trucks to get the supplies and troops over the bridge so it doesn't fall into enemy hands. It should be ready to explode as of tomorrow." Longtail told Fireheart. The two cats shivered as the cold air was getting to them.
"We better find some shelter first from this wind so we could recover and make our way back to camp." Frostfur told them. The howling wind blew out the light in the lantern and this left them without any form of light. An ambush seemed likely.
"Okay let's move." Fireheart told the group. They began to move out to where they were going back to their camp. "Hopefully we can be around a fireplace or inside a building." Fireheart told them as they made their way back. However without any source of light, finding the camp was going to be harder than they could have imagined.
Fireheart and the group continued to make their way back to camp but finding it in the white-out was going to be harder than they anticipated. The group continued to wander through the forest, trying to find any signs for road junctions that might help them out. Having no light certainly wasn't going to help them in any way.
"Gah! I'm freezing my paws off. I think I might as well shave Cloudtail's fur to keep us all warm." Fireheart grumbled. He turned to Longtail and Frostfur who were still carrying the lantern that had no light. "We need to figure out a way to get that lantern light back on." Fireheart instructed them. Frostfur looked at the lantern and began to speak.
"It runs on Kerosene and there's plenty of it. It's the wind and the snow that's the problem. We need to better protect the lantern if we're going to find our way back." Frostfur told Fireheart about what was happening. Fireheart began to think for a second.
"We need to find some form of shelter where we can get inside and take refuge from this wind and snow. Once the lantern has been relit, we can continue our journey back to camp." Fireheart explained this plan. Frostfur nodded.
"Okay we need to do this fast as we're going to freeze out here. I know this might sound risky but we need to fire a flare into the sky." Frostfur told Fireheart that they needed to shoot a flare into the sky.
"Well hurry, I can't feel my legs anymore." Lostface told the group. She didn't want to be out here in the freezing conditions. Fireheart walked forth, got out the flare gun. He pointed the flare gun to the sky and fired it. The flare's red light was seen as it gave light over a large area. Fireheart turned to his left to see a shack on the side of the road, a lumber storage area.
"We can use the shack to relight the lantern." Fireheart instructed. The group nodded and they began to make their way to the shack. Fireheart entered the shack with Frostfur, Longtail and Sandstorm. "Cloudtail, see if you can make it back to camp from here and pick up a truck for us."
"I'll see what I can do." Cloudtail responded. The rest of the group began to move and make their way back to camp with Cloudtail taking the lead. Hopefully he could make it there in time. Fireheart then closed the door behind him.
The wooden shack wasn't big as it was used to mostly store lumber inside. At least it was shielding the four cats from the snow and the wind. Frostfur placed the lantern down to see if there was a way to relight it. Longtail pulled out a lighter as he wanted to assist her with lighting the lantern back up. Fireheart decided to take this moment to chat with Sandstorm.
"How are you feeling?" Fireheart asked Sandstorm.
"Not as cold here compared to outside." Sandstorm replied. Fireheart nodded while Longtail tried his best to relight the lantern.
"So Sandstorm, I've been thinking about this for a while and I've been trying to see if you wanted to follow through with this." Fireheart began. Sandstorm looked on as she was puzzled but she was interested in what Fireheart had to say.
"Of course, I've been waiting all the time for you to say it." Sandstorm told Fireheart. Fireheart was shocked. How did Sandstorm know about this? Fireheart just gulped instead and he knew he wanted to get on with it.
"So Sandstorm… would you want to marry me when this war is over?" Fireheart asked. Sandstorm's face lit up with excitement.
"Of course I want to." Sandstorm responded. She held her paw on Fireheart's. "I think I know why you didn't want to give Tawnypaw to me in the first place and now I can see why you wanted to protect me." Sandstorm continued speaking.
"Oh that was nice but I promise you one of Willowpelt's rookies to train in the near future, I considered you but we need to take out Tigerstar first." Fireheart told Sandstorm.
Cloudtail during all of this time led the patrol from the flare light in his attempt to make it back to camp. He had the majority of the group with him while they marched onward in the snow. They came across a path of dead rabbits. Cloudtail froze in his tracks like the blizzard that was hounding before them.
"Dead rabbits? What are they doing here?" Cloudtail asked. He dared to not pick one up as he was worried it would be rigged into a trap.
"Cloudtail, you need to check this out." Brindleface instructed him. Cloudtail looked up to see a trail of dead rabbits along the trail. It was heading straight for the camp.
"I think we should try sending up another flare just to be safe and we can find the camp much more easily." Cloudtail told Brindleface that sending up another flare would be the best option. The first flare in the sky slowly drifted down into the snow ahead.
"Well we can't as Fireheart has the flare gun and the flares." Bramblepaw told Cloudtail. The flare finally settled into the snow, tempting a curious Bramblepaw forward.
"Well we're going to stay put until Fireheart returns with the lantern. I'm not going to dare to take another step forward." Cloudtail told the group that his instinct was that the dead rabbits were going to lead them into a trap. Bramblepaw ignored the warnings and walked forward following the rabbit trail. Brindleface lifted her head up.
"Uh Cloudtail." Brindleface instructed. Cloudtail lifted his head up to see Bramblepaw following the trail of dead rabbits.
"Bramblepaw, you get back here!" Cloudtail hissed, the group decided to go after him. Bramblepaw made his way to the end of the dead rabbit trail to see the dead flare lying in the snow. He picked it up with his paw to see if he could use it as a light source, unknown to him, a small patrol of dogs were waiting in the blizzard, ready to ambush them.
"Hey Cloudtail, see I found the flare." Bramblepaw mewed, waving the dead flare around. Cloudtail and the others rushed forth and they decided to tell Bramblepaw something.
"Bramblepaw, you shouldn't have wandered off like that." Cloudtail told the apprentice. Suddenly, dogs began to appear and close in on all sides of the group.
"Ambush!" Fernpaw called out. They raised their guns and braced for a fight while dogs closed in on all sides.
Longtail and Frostfur finally lit the lantern back up after numerous failed attempts. They just placed the cover on the top and they began speaking.
"Finally, we managed to get this sucker relit." Longtail began. Frostfur huffed as they managed to relight the fire with some matches as the lighters weren't working.
"So how many failed attempts?" Fireheart asked.
"About six. This building isn't really good for trying to keep the area lit." Frostfur told Fireheart. She then turned to him. "I see that you two want to get married after this war is over, I think you two will be perfect." Fireheart blushed with embarrassment. Was Frostfur correct on this?
"How so?" Fireheart asked.
"Look you two didn't like each other since when we landed in Africa but looking at this, I see you two are loving each other. If you get married, can I be the one to toss rose petals on your heads?" Frostfur offered. Fireheart wasn't sure about this.
'Umm… give us some time to think, a perfect cake can't be raw and gooey in the middle." Fireheart told Frostfur. Sandstorm peeked her head out to see the flashes of a nearby battle going on.
"Fireheart! Cloudtail must be in trouble, we have to find him!" Sandstorm decided to interrupt the conversation. Fireheart and Frostfur snapped back to their duties as Frostfur picked up the lantern.
"Come on!" Fireheart commanded the group. They then began to run out into the snow ahead. "We're coming for you Cloudtail." Fireheart called out.
The group struggled through the snow as Cloudtail's tracks were getting quickly buried so it was hard to trace where he had gone.
"Finding him is like finding a needle in a haystack, are you sure you know where you're going, Fireheart?" Longtail asked. Fireheart looked up to Longtail as he continued to walk.
"Yeah I know. If not, I'll send another flare up." Fireheart responded. The four cats continued to crawl along the snow in the blizzard, looking for any sign of Cloudtail and his patrol, he knew it was impossible to see them vanish into thin air like that. More importantly the gunfire had stopped so they didn't know where they were going now.
"I think you should, we don't have any landmarks to navigate with." Frostfur suggested that firing another flare into the sky was the best thing they could do. Fireheart ignored her as supplies were needed elsewhere. They continued to walk through the snow. Finally a fresh sign. A dead rabbit was nearby.
"What this doing here?" Fireheart asked. He picked up the dead rabbit and felt it all around. It wasn't rigged with explosives so that was good news. "These rabbits are safe so we need to find more of them." Fireheart instructed the group to find more dead rabbits. Sandstorm, Frostfur and Longtail began looking along the trail for any sign of dead rabbits. Sandstorm came back as she was holding two of them.
"I found these." She mewed. Fireheart nodded as they were getting a clear sign of what was happening.
"Okay we need to look for more though." Fireheart instructed them to keep looking for the dead rabbits. Longtail and Frostfur decided to point to Fireheart about what was ahead.
"Fireheart, I think we found something warm." Longtail instructed. Fireheart and Sandstorm went over. "There's a whole bunch of these dead rabbits, loosely scattered in a path on this trail, Cloudtail's boot prints are also here." Longtail told Fireheart. So they had a lead, dead rabbits and Cloudtail's boot prints.
"Okay we need to follow them, but the one question that remains is, why are all of these dead rabbits out here and arranged along the path? This seems strange." Fireheart asked. Natural death of the rabbits seemed unlikely as they would have been in their burrows and hibernating the winter away. "Tigerstar must've taken a bunch of captive rabbits and slaughtered them along this path." Fireheart came to that possible conclusion. Sandstorm nodded as they followed the rabbit trail down.
"So what should we do about the rabbits?" Sandstorm asked. "Should we dump these bodies into a river or something?"
"Well that is something we should discuss with Bluestar…" Fireheart paused when he heard a wailing cry.
"No!" the cry was heard. Fireheart recognized that voice.
"It's Cloudtail! Come on!" Fireheart called out as he ran after them. Sandstorm, Frostfur and Longtail ran after him as they didn't want to be left behind.
"No! Not her!" The voice called out. They were going to be following the voice to see where it was going to lead them. They were going to follow the dead rabbits. The dead rabbit trail leads them to the group. Bramblepaw was shuffling around in the snow as he was puzzled. Dustpelt had arrived at the scene with Cinderpelt who was trying to gather information on what happened while he huddled Fernpaw and Ashpaw. Cloudtail was in tears while Lostface kept her paws on him so Cloudtail had something to cry into. Fireheart looked around as several dead dogs lay around the group. Bluestar was also there waiting for Fireheart.
"Fireheart you're finally here…" Bluestar began. Fireheart had no time for her and instead needed to know why his nephew was crying.
"Out of my way Bluestar." Fireheart told her. He gently pushed her aside but she began speaking again.
"Your apprentice told me he found the dead flare and it triggered an ambush." Bluestar told Fireheart. Fireheart didn't listen and made his way to the center. Cinderpelt was loading wounded dogs onto the truck and take them back for questioning.
"Why her! Why did it have to be her?!" Cloudtail continued to cry. Lostface rubbed her paws on Cloudtail to calm him down. Fireheart came up to them and wanted to know what was happening.
"What exactly happened?" Fireheart asked. Lostface turned her head to Fireheart.
"We found a trail of dead rabbits, Cloudtail was hesitant on following this trail thinking it was going to lead us into an ambush and Bramblepaw followed it, found the dead flare picked it up and the dogs attacked us on all sides, we were saved thanks to Bluestar, Cinderpelt and Dustpelt but we lost one of our warriors in the process." Lostface told Fireheart what exactly happened and why Cloudtail was crying.
"Let me see." Fireheart told them. He made his way through the snow to see what happened. Three dead dogs lay in the side leading up to the fallen warrior. He then spotted a lump of snow and began digging it out. Once the snow was cleared he spotted the body and his fur stood on an end. "Oh my Starclan." Fireheart mewed with fright in his voice, the others gathered around near him as the dead body was causing the others significant fright and crying. Fireheart was frightened. "This is something Tigerstar would do."
The dead cat that laid at the end of the trail was Brindleface.
[A/N]: This chapter is shorter than the others but this is going to be a build up for the next three chapters to come as these four or so chapters will be centered around this one battle and its is significant to this war.
Also I killed one of the warriors in this chapter so far and I can kill another next chapter but I haven't decided who as of yet but the events will go by slowly as a lot is going to happen in these next few days. Other than that, I hope to see you next chapter when the events continue to spiral around in the blizzard.