Chapter 5
RiverClan
A/N – Response to my one lonely (actual) review! (If you look at the other one, it's just an offer).
Avrilforever – Of course I know who you are zan, your email gives it away… Not to mention the Avrilforever bit…
Anyway, finally another chapter, hope you guys enjoy it!
"Whiteherb, what do you mean? How is it possible? StarClan have never not completed a prophecy before, it's unheard of!" Flamestar padded restlessly around his den, the three words Whiteherb had received swirling around in his head like a tornado.
"I don't know Flamestar, maybe the rest of the prophecy will come later." Whiteherb sighed, first a prediction of danger, now this, an unfinished prophecy of all things to go wrong.
"Maybe you lost connection and woke up before they could continue. Which means the next time you sleep, they will come and finish. That has to be it."
Whiteherb blinked at his leader, he had never seen him so concerned before, normally calm and logical. "Why is it so bad Flamestar?"
"Metal, it's a twoleg thing, maybe they're telling the destruction of the forest by twolegs! Whatever it is, if it concerns twolegs it must be bad."
"That's not necessarily true Flamestar. Maybe this twoleg thing can help us."
Flamestar stopped pacing and sighed. "Come see me when you've slept next."
With that, Whiteherb padded out of the den, leaving his leader to mull over his thoughts.
-()-
Thunderpaw's p.o.v.
"Are you okay?" Sunpaw mewed. "You seem distant."
"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"If your sure."
"Yes, for the last time, I'm sure!" Thunderpaw yowled.
Sunpaw blinked. "I was just being concerned you over sized piece of fox dung!" she spat, increasing her pace to be with the warriors. Blackpaw took her place by his side.
"Don't worry about her, she'll get over it. Quick to anger, that's what she is."
"Hm."
"Don't explode at me ok? I just want to know what happened. You're acting really off."
"Its nothing, just my sister."
"Ooh, I can relate to that. Sunpaw is SO annoying."
"She's your sister?"
"Uh huh."
"Oh. I see."
Blackpaw rolled his eyes. "So what's up with your sister?"
"We seem to be falling apart. We're not as close as we once were."
"Whack her with a stiff rabbit. Maybe she'll come round."
"That would really help Blackpaw, thanks."
"No problem, happy to help."
"I was being sarcastic."
Blackpaw shrugged "Either way."
They continued on in silence, padding through the forest, paws pounding on the dirt floor that was littered with dead leaves, the two toms increased their pace to catch up with the others as they had fallen behind while talking.
Soon, they came up close to the RiverClan border, RiverClan's scent was odd, as Thunderpaw drew the scent into his jaws he could taste a lot of different things, including a slight whiff of fish.
Blackpaw wrinkled his nose as they drew closer. "I'm never gonna get used to that smell."
Thunderpaw glanced at him from the corner of his eye as they stopped to renew the RiverClan border. The black tom was sitting there peacefully, watching the river run past.
"It would be so cool to swim." He murmured.
"Why can't you?"
"ThunderClan's fur, save for a few cats, is too thick to swim in the river unless they fancy taking ages to dry."
Thunderpaw nodded and padded forward a few steps to where the other cats where standing.
He ran a tongue over his mouth to feel how dry it was and padded down to the river to take a drink.
"THUNDERPAW NO!" Blackpaw yowled.
Rippledstripe, (Blackpaw's mentor) bounded after him quickly.
"You fool, this is RiverClan territory!" Rippledstripe hissed. "For all we know there could be a patrol just waiting to catch us out!"
"You're right about something for once, ThunderClan scum!"
-()-
Silverpaw's p.o.v
Silverpaw's ears pricked in tension; a sudden feeling had come over her that Thunderpaw was in trouble. She shook her head to dismiss the thought. I'm sure Thunderpaw's fine, he's with a whole patrol for StarClans sake. Yet she could still not stop thinking that something was wrong. Suppose the patrol had been attacked, outnumbered 2 to 1? A small sigh escaped her as she rested her head on her paws. She was lying outside the apprentice's den with Sleekpaw, after the she-cat had come back from training with Bluethorn.
Silverpaw had just closed her eyes when she was disturbed by Blackpaw running into the camp with wild eyes and announcing they had trouble.
I knew it! She thought, pelt bristling with worry. Oh, what's happened this time? Silverpaw ran up to Blackpaw quickly.
"What's happened?"
"RiverClan patrol. Thunderpaw stepped over the boundary."
Oh StarClan.
Duskpelt ran up to them, followed closely by Ashfur and Ebonywood. "Silverpaw, you stay–"
"No, I'm coming with you."
Blackpaw stared at her like she was a maniac, defying a warrior, her mentor no less. But Duskpelt wasn't like that, he understood.
Duskpelt nodded, "Don't get in the way."
Silverpaw shot out of camp after them, Ashfur and Ebonywood no doubt looking forward to their first battle as warriors. Her short legs stopped her from keeping up with the warriors, Duskpelt slowed and ran next to her, letting the others bound forward.
"I don't want you exhausted by the time we get there, go back."
"No." She panted. "My brother." Silverpaw gave a surge of energy and pelted forward, Duskpelt matching her pace.
When they came on the scene it was worse than they thought. Featherwing sporting an injury on her side and Brackenfur had a scratch on his muzzle, the warrior fighting valiantly.
The mass of cats fighting made a tremendous noise as they let out battle cries, charging into the battle.
The first cat Silverpaw came to, she jumped on, the she-cat sagged underneath her and Silverpaw raked her claws down the she-cats back. The she-cat rolled on the ground, throwing Silverpaw off and spinning her into the dust. She coughed and tried to get up, but the sudden weight of the she-cat kept her on the spot. The she-cat let out a screech and leapt off, skidding in the dust and turning around with her eyes glowing like red-hot pokers. Silverpaw managed to pick herself up and pelted after the she-cat, battling with ferocity she didn't know she could attack with. The she-cat ran, wailing loudly.
Silverpaw looked around to find Thunderpaw and saw him caught under a large grey tom, eyes closed and not moving. She let out a wail and ran across to the tom, scratching his muzzle with her claws. The tom roared and bought up a giant paw to slash at her with, his claws long and sharp.
Duskpelt yowled, hurtling into the tom before he reached Silverpaw and disappearing into the fray again.
Silverpaw nudged Thunderpaw with her nose, trying to rouse him. Blood was trickling from a cut above his eye and one of his pads was cracked and bleeding, it looked as though he had stepped on a rock. He groaned as Silverpaw prodded him and tried to get up, moaning from the pressure on his pad. She assisted him with her shoulder and helped him limp a short way before a RiverClan tortoiseshell ran at Silverpaw, swiping her claws in thin air as Silverpaw ducked quickly, the blow still nicking one of her ears. Thunderpaw let out a yowl and jumped on the tortoiseshell, forgetting his paw and the combo of brother and sister quickly finished off the she-cat, making her flee.
-()-
Thunderpaw's p.o.v
The battle started to thin out, most of the RiverClan cats had retreated. The last RiverClan cats followed shortly, running to their camp, most likely to tell their leader of ThunderClan's treachery.
Thunderpaw shook his head, trying to clear his vision of the blood that clouded it. He was leaning heavily on Silverpaw, keeping weight off his paw, he could tell that his dainty sister was having trouble holding him upright though. He didn't mean to cause her trouble.
Rippledstripe sauntered over to them. "You can go Silverpaw, I'll escort him back."
As Silverpaw ducked out from underneath his shoulder, Rippledstripe took her place, using his size to support Thunderpaw.
As he stumbled along, Silverpaw padded next to him.
"Silverpaw." Rippledstripe commanded, "Go back to camp, I'll make sure he gets there."
Silverpaw glanced at her brother and sped up, leaving them behind.
Rippledstripe kept up his stocky silence and made his way through the undergrowth, making sure Thunderpaw could make it.
"What were you thinking?!" Rippledstripe growled suddenly. "Why did you do it? Even a kit knows the Clan boundaries!"
Thunderpaw panted. "I'm not forest. Born. Or have you. Forgotten that?"
Rippledstipe's gaze hardened. "You've done nothing but bring trouble to this Clan from the beginning. You should never have come here."
"So me and my sister aren't welcome here?"
"It's not so much your sister as you."
Thunderpaw felt a surge of jealousy rush through his body, though he tried to dismiss the thoughts.
They continued on in silence, Rippledstripe dropping him in front of the medicine cats den. Silverpaw rushed over and ushered him into the medicine cats den. Mosspaw was sitting in there tending to Brackenfur's scratches. She finished pressing a cobweb on when she lifted her head and saw them come in. The young tabby warrior rose from his position. "Thanks Mosspaw." He nodded to the apprentices and made his way through the ferns overlooking the entrance.
Mosspaw turned to them. "Thunderpaw," she mewed. "Silverpaw. I see you're back again."
"Yes." Silverpaw meowed, sharing a look with the she-cat.
Mosspaw padded over to the fissures in the rock and paused. "Would you mind helping me, Silverpaw? Whiteherb's going to be out for a while he's searching for more comfrey and some honey. Comfrey reduces swelling and speeds up the healing process, and honey goes with horsetail." She muttered to herself as an afterthought.
"Uh, sure."
"Thanks. Can you get the marigold leaves for me?"
"Which ones are those?"
"The orange and yellow ones, they have a tangy scent."
Silverpaw sifted through the different herbs, poking through them until she found a tangy scent and grabbed a few leaves.
"Is this it?" she meowed through her mouthful.
Mosspaw looked up from where she was sorting through other herbs. "No that's dock, for scratches."
Silverpaw put the dock back and looked until a flash of orange caught her eye. She grabbed the leaves and padded over to Mosspaw, laying them on the ground. Mosspaw nodded her approval and crushed up the leaves for the juice, rubbing it into Thunderpaw's cracked pad. He winced with pain and watched as she collected a pulp of goldenrod and feverfew and added that to the paw, squishing the liquid into the cut while murmuring to herself what the herbs were used for. Thunderpaw wailed softly as the sting of the juices hurt him.
Silverpaw cleaned the blood off his face and then Mosspaw added the mixture onto the cut there. "You should stay here while your paw heals, and make sure you stay off it for the next few days."
Thunderpaw nodded agreement, yawning sleepily. Silverpaw nudged him into one of the spare beds of moss that were in the den. She saw Featherwing in another, sides heaving, but she didn't want to make Thunderpaw any more upset than he already was.
Whiteherb came back not long after and helped Mosspaw with Featherwing, making a honey and horsetail poultice to put on the wound.
Silverpaw left, promising to come back later. Thunderpaw started to doze, his eyelids drooping. He let out another big yawn and settled down comfortably. He might as well sleep while he was here.
A/N – Nearly double the length of the last one! Please review and make me happy!
