Ok here's the battle, which I don't think I'm very good at writing haha. This chapter wasn't supposed to be this long, infact I was gonna do the vigil AND an apprentice ceremony (Briarkit, Bumblekit, and Blossomkit are basically six moons at this point in the story)
Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing! Keep em comin'!
ENJOY!
Rosepaw POV
Rosepaw raced through the forest, as fast as she could run, a WindClan apprentice closing in on her. She pushed forward, she had to make it to the camp and tell Firestar the patrol had been ambushed!
Berrynose and Sandstorm were renewing the scent markers when suddenly the patrol was face to face with a fighting force.
Rosepaw hardly had time to look at the warriors they faced before Brightheart hissed in her ear "Go get help!"
And now it was only Hazeltail, Berrynose, Sandstorm, and Brightheart against a WindClan ambush. Rosepaw had to hurry!
She tore through the undergrowth and saw the entrance to camp.
Yowling as loud as she could, "WindClan! Help!" hardly able to get the words out while full-on sprinting.
Then Birchfall, Lionblaze, Brambleclaw, Honeyfern, and Toadpaw came running towards her, ready to follow. The WindClan apprentice got one look at them and tore the other way.
She led them straight to the WindClan border, not stopping to even explain what happened. Brambleclaw knew she was on the border patrol, her yowls for help had been all the deputy needed to form a patrol.
They could hear the fighting cats in the distance, spitting and hissing. Finally the noise grew and grew, until they burst right into the thick of the fighting.
Rosepaw scanned the sea of fur and found her mentor Brightheart surrounded by three WindClan toms, they were closing in on her, yet the she-cat still lashed out with claws as sharp as thorns.
Brambleclaw followed the apprentices gaze and dove at the biggest tom, a warrior named Leaftail. Rosepaw followed right after tackling a brown tom she didn't recognize. With Brightheart left with only one attacker she sprang on top of the tom and raked her claws down his back.
Rosepaw kicked out with her hind legs and jumped away from the brown tom she was fighting, landing a fox-length behind him, she got a gripe on the base of his tail and bit down as hard as she could. The tom screamed and yowled until Rosepaw let go, and he tore back across the WindClan border.
The apprentice looked around for another cat to attack, when suddenly she felt the earth rumble and the sky cracked with thunder and lightning. Many of the battling cats broke apart and startled from the noise, no one had been expecting a storm.
Without warning, rain poured from the sky, effectively soaking almost every pelt. Neither side of the battle was willing to let rain stop this fight though.
Then suddenly another crack of thunder spooked Hazeltail who sprang back and landed right in a bramble thicket. Her long, wet fur tangled into the thorns. She tried to get lose but it only dug the thorns deeper into her already knotting fur. The young warrior yowled in frustration, helpless to free herself as her Clan fought on.
Rosepaw looked to see if anyone was in trouble and found Lionblaze battling two WindClan warriors on his own. And Rosepaw knew these warriors, she had met them at her first gathering, Willowclaw and Owlwhisker, they were both experienced warriors! Lionblaze couldn't fight them both on his own!
The apprentice flung herself at Willowclaw, tearing her claws down the gray she-cats flank. "Get off my territory!" Rosepaw spat.
But before she could try anything else lightning struck an oak tree near the battling cats, cracking a large branch off the top. It came smashing through the canopy breaking several more branches on its way down, until it fell to the forest floor, with an ear-splitting crash. The noise this time had frightened the cats enough so that WindClan rushed back to their side of the border, no doubt trying to escape the storm.
A few ThunderClan warriors made loud caterwauls of victory when they saw the cats flee. But Rosepaw noticed that two cats were missing.
"Where are Berrynose and Hazeltail?" she asked.
A few cats were certain they'd just seen Berrynose, but no one could remember the last time they saw Hazeltail.
The rain was ceaseless it seemed, the dark gray clouds rolling across the sky.
"We've got to find them!" Honeyfern shrieked.
Sandstorm brushed her pelt against her former apprentice, comforting her. "We'll find them, come on, let's see if we can find their scent."
All eight cats searched through out the undergrowth and around the border where the battle was fought, but they found nothing. It was hopeless, the endless rain had washed away any scent the cats had hoped to find. Eventually they had to return to camp or risk being washed away themselves.
Rosepaw was helping her brother walk back, his front paw badly wounded. She noticed Sandstorm supporting Honeyfern, comforting her also it seemed.
"Firestar will send a patrol once the rain stops." Sandstorm promised her.
"But what if their hurt?" The young warrior asked.
Sandstorm did not have an answer.
Their heads hung low, they limped back to the ThunderClan camp to tell their clan-mates the bad news.
------
Jayfeather POV
Jayfeather was preparing a poultice of herbs with Leafpool in the medicine den. They knew cats would return injured, they had to be ready.
Without warning Jayfeather was out in the storm, fear-scent all around, rain water soaking through his long pelt. He looked around him and found Berrynose clawing at his fur.
But this wasn't his fur. This fur was long, with gray and white patched through-it. Jayfeather could remember it when it wasn't wet and ragged, when it was soft and fluffy. He was looking down at Hazeltail, he was seeing what Hazeltail saw!
He looked over and saw the WindClan border through the forest brush, the river swollen with water.
"Just hold still Hazeltail! I'll get you out, I swear!" The brave tom shouted over the sound of the storm.
"I'm trapped." she hissed, "Go! Before this storm kills us both!"
"I'm not leaving without you!" Berrynose growled, biting through more and more of the bramble thicket.
Every time Hazeltail thrashed thorns stuck deeper and deeper into her flesh, the she-cat was starting to panic. The thicket she was stuck in was in a sort of ditch, which was rapidly filling with rain water. If she didn't get out soon, she would drown.
A crack in the sky and a groan from above made both cats look up, eyes full of fear.
And just as quick as it had come, the vision was gone and Jayfeather was back in the medicine den, next to Leafpool has he had been before, gasping and panting.
"What's wrong?" Leafpool asked, startled by Jayfeather's ragged breathing.
"I have to find them!" The gray tom gasped, trying to nose his way around his mentor.
"Find who? What are you talking about?" Leafpool pressed.
There was no time! Jayfeather couldn't explain everything he'd seen, he had to go help them now before he was too late!
"The patrol, the storm, Leafpool I have to find them!" he yowled ready to bowl her over if necessary.
His mentor heard the panic in his voice and moved out of his way. The tom raced out, Leafpool right on his heels. Jayfeather knew he needed more then one cats help. Firestar was on the high ledge outside his den, he came down as he saw the two medicine cats appear.
"Is something wrong?" The ThunderClan leader asked.
"Jayfeather's had a vision, some-" but before she could finish her sentence, the remains of the patrol came rushing into camp. Brambleclaw heading straight for Firestar.
"WindClan retreated, the storm was too much for them. But Hazeltail and Berrynose disappeared after the battle, we searched but the rain was too heavy and we had a few injuries." The deputy reported.
"I know where they are!" Jayfeather yowled, frustrated for all the delay. They were wasting time!
Firestar nodded. "Brambleclaw go with him, Cloudtail too, and," the flame-colored tom looked around for a cat to choose. Honeyfern and Mousewhisker stepped forward, worry and determination in both their eyes.
"Honeyfern and Mousewhisker too, go now!" Their leader yowled.
Leafpool gave Mousewhisker and Honeyfern herbs to carry for Jayfeather and the rescue party was off, hurtling through the forest. Jayfeather faltered a few times, but quickly recovered shaking off his clan-mates worried mews.
"Do you want us to slow down a bit?" Cloudtail asked the blind tom.
"No!" he spat, "Just take me to where the battle was fought, now!"
The rain was finally starting to ease off as the patrol came near the WindClan border, where only a few moments ago, cats were screeching and clawing at each other. Fur and blood scattered the ground, evidence of the battle fought.
Cloudtail started sniffing around, trying to pick up the missing cats scents. Jayfeather could remember what this area looked like from his vision of Hazeltail, she was off to the side, near an oak tree, entangled in the underbrush.
He came closer to the area he knew he would find them, when a horrible stench filled his nostrils. Blood, lots of blood. The young medicine cats stomach turned as he called to his clan-mates. Brambleclaw sped over, but slowed when he saw Jayfeather's expression.
"Have you found them?" The dark tabby tom asked.
"I think so." Jayfeather whispered.
He couldn't see it, but he knew that laying there, was Hazeltail and Berrynose dead. He couldn't sense anything from them, they way he could sense every cat around him.
Brambleclaw called the other three cats over, to help him drag the large tree branches off the two warriors underneath. When the four cats had managed to haul all the debris off the thicket, they found a sad sight. There lay their clan-mates, Hazeltail, her fur still tangled all around the brambles, and her brother Berrynose, his long cream-colored fur ragged and wet, his body lay over top of Hazeltail, as if the tom was trying to block the worst of the blow from the tree branch.
The group managed to carry their fallen clan-mates back to camp, to sit vigil for the brave cats.
-----
So sad! I almost felt bad for killing them, but if I didn't ThunderClan would have like almost 40 warriors walkin around, that's too many! R&R Thanks!