"C-Come on." Dawnkit ushered quietly, as they trotted wearily through the forest. In the first couple minutes Rosekit had stepped on a thorn and then Brindlekit had slipped onto his face, but they were now at a steady pace. It felt like they had traveled a great distance, but when Dawnkit looked back the camp was still in view.
Dawnkit pressed forward despite the lack of progress, managing to drag herself up a muddy slope, plastering her legs in a thick layer of mud. Kestrelkit was right behind her, but he had to turn around half way to help his brother up. Once they had helped everyone up, and they were all thoroughly a coat of brown, then they heard a screech. It was most assuredly Dovestar's and it sent chills down Dawnkit's back.
"Go. Run. Now." She whispered urgently, but her voice was strained with the sting of dried vomit and now mud. Dawnkit started to sprint and only hoped to Star Clan that everyone else followed. When she shot a look back, all of the kits were heaving behind her in their poor attempt to sprint through the brush. For the smaller cats it was harder to push through the leaves and branches, but they did it. Somehow they did it.
"Find them! We cannot let the taint spread through our forest." A faint yowl echoed through the forest. Dawnkit felt her heart thundering in her throat and the blood pulsing through her ears.
"Faster. Hurry." Dawnkit begged the kits who had begun to falter, she couldn't bear to see anymore death. Not when she could help it.
"I-I can't." Rosekit had begun to cry, and Dawnkit could see the strain that Rosekit was putting into her leaps. Every time she stepped forward her body shook with effort.
"A little more. We just need to find a place to hide. A little more please." Dawnkit begged. The nearby rustling of leaves and the growls of cats followed them through the forest.
"I have their scent trail. They're only kits, they shouldn't be hard to find." Dawnkit was so scared, and she could feel vomit fill her throat again. She swallowed it with a reluctant shiver, it tasted awful but she couldn't afford to. The scent of garlic hit her nostrils and her nose scrunched. It was so powerful and nasty… That was it.
Dawnkit veered to the left toward the thick smell of garlic, and then landed herself in a blooming garlic patch. "Quick. Roll in it. It'll hide our scents."
None of the kits questioned her, because they were to paralyzed with fear to question the only voice that could sound like an authority. They all began to roll violently in the herbs, and Dawnkit even pulled up a small clove of the white root to carry with them. Maybe it would throw off the warriors, it had to. The warrior's voice echoed through the brush, getting closer… And closer.
It a couple minutes of frantic panic she spotted a stream that stretched as long as the eye could see. The stream was deeply embedded into the earth, a couple fox tail lengths of a slope leaning sharply down to it. There was an alcove that Dawnkit was just barely able to make out, and it was protected by a thick array of roots.
"Down there. We'll hide down there." Dawnkit ordered, but her own voice didn't trust herself. What if it couldn't hide them and they all were caught? But she steeled her features and began to slide down the muddy slope that was so deep and mushy into the earth that her paws slide against clay too.
She inspected the alcove and found it was an old den of sort, for what had boringly had inhabited she did not know. But it had been dug deep and had old moss and dried grass covering the floor. The roots must have grown to block the entrance over the years that it has been left vacant. Kestrelkit was the first one to slide down next to her, and she could hear the warriors closing in. They only had so much time now.
"Get down. Come on." Brindlekit and Emberkit followed hesitantly after their brother, and Dawnkit pushed them into the roots and dropped the garlic at the small hole naturally cut out through the roots.
"Th-They'll find us." Whimpered Rosekit, who was still at the top of the slope with her sister. They both looked back and forth, as if they couldn't make up their mind about whether they trusted Dawnkit or not.
"What if they don't want to hurt us? What if they want to help?" Rosekit added, as if she was justifying her reluctance, but Ivykit looked less sure of Rosekit's theory. Ivykit, making her final decision, slid down to follow Dawnkit into the small alcove. Now that mostly every kit was hidden, Dawnkit stepped back into the alcove trying to hide, but also trying to coax Rosekit to join them. The warriors were closer, and Dawnkit could smell them.
"Rosekit." She hissed, "Come on." But Rosekit didn't move, she stood there frozen. Stubborn and reluctant as she always had been, but this was not the time. Rosekit's eyes flashed to the side, because she could sense them coming, probably smell them too.
Dawnkit's body grew rigid as she watched Rosekit turn around and run off into the forest. Ivykit immediately tried to spring up and follow her sister. Kestrelkit had to grab Ivykit and force her down, and Dawnkit had to force a paw into her mouth to keep her quiet, because in that moment a pair of dark colored warriors stepped along the edge of the stream. Their eyes felt like beacons and they survey the area, sniffing the air around them. All of the kits sat still, nothing but the sounds of their shaking, whispered breaths filling the den.
"This way." The dark brindle she-cat with a white muzzle and ice blue eyes murmured, heading in the direction that Rosekit went. "They might have tried to roll in garlic, which I admit is clever, but it wears away eventually." Then they trotted off at a steady pace.
They sat in fearful silence for the next couple minutes, eagerly listening to the world around them and hoping they only heard silence. Though it wasn't too long after the warriors disappeared that they heard a scream… Rosekit's scream. Ivykit released a muffled sob, burying her face into Emberkit's flank and shaking violently. Dawnkit stepped farther back into the alcove, tears swelling and burning her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. She should of have made Rosekit come… She should of…
"It wasn't your fault." Kestrelkit murmured into her ear. They had been friends since she was born. He was nearly two moons older than she was, and they always laughed about him being held back to wait for her and the others. But no one was laughing, or smiling now. Ivykit sat miserably against Emberkit's flank, her eyes blood shot and her fur on edge. Emberkit was staring at Dawnkit with a dull questioning gaze? Why? How? And Dawnkit was asking all the same questions, so she had no answers for Emberkit.
"What are we going to do?" Brindlekit asked so quietly Dawnkit barely heard him. He was afraid that they would be heard. She had never seen Brindlekit so scared, never seen him resolve himself to listen to a kit younger than him. He was the one kit in the den who had picked on Dawnkit, it had been an obnoxious incessant teasing that had annoyed Dawnkit so. Now he was so small and vulnerable. The days that Dawnkit wished she could have beat up and fought back against Brindlekit vanished and swept away in the wind.
"St-Stay here…" Dawnkit began, thinking hard. What were they going to do? "Stay here till night… Then we'll… Try to get far away as possible." She murmured, still unsure about the plan herself.
"How?" Emberkit spoke up, glaring at Dawnkit, as if this was all her fault. "We don't know how to hunt, how to fight, we don't know anything. How can we survive?"
"We'll have to figure it out." Dawnkit raised her head, staring at Emberkit back. Authority washed over Dawnkit, as she had been the one to get them out. She had led them to safety. And Emberkit now sounded like he was blaming Dawnkit.
"If you're mother hadn't gotten us in this mess… Our mother's would still be alive." Dawnkit's fur immediately went up and she had half a mind to hurl herself at Emberkit, but Kestrelkit stepped in between them. He looked slowly from Emberkit to Dawnkit, his eyes pleading.
"We can't fight now. Not when the stakes are so high. Be quiet the both of you..." He murmured carefully, looking back to his sister. Dawnkit's chest swelled with fury, but she backed down. If she didn't, one of them would seriously get hurt, and it wouldn't have been opportune for their current situation.
Hissing quietly under her breath, Dawnkit turned away and found the furthest most place to be from Emberkit. Though she had curled into a tight ball, she was nowhere falling asleep. She couldn't sleep, even if her life depended on it, because the fear was just too much. While her ears were twitching, picking up the surrounding sounds of the afternoon forest, she heard Kestrelkit talking quietly to his sister.
"But-" Emberkit shot back to something Kestrelkit said, but she silenced. Probably due to Kestrelkit glaring at her, he had that kind of effect.
"She had nothing to do with it, and neither did Featherdust. Our clan turned their backs on us Emberkit." There was a grumbled growl from his sister, and she heard a bit of shuffling.
"I know you're upset Emberkit… But we cannot blame each other. Especially not Dawnkit, even if her mother had done something wrong, we cannot blame her actions upon Dawnkit." There was a reluctant noise of agreement, and the den grew quiet again.
Dawnkit managed to close her eyes and drift into a dark, and terrifying, slumber.
