A terrible, howling wind woke Russetfur from her sleep. Half a moon had passed since the death of her sister, and she was mostly recovered. She knew for sure she was pregnant now, but not because her stomach was starting to swell, but because she could feel the kits moving inside her.
Some things had definitely changed in the last two weeks; Littlecloud had gotten his full name at last, Brightflower's kits, Volekit and Mosskit, had escaped camp and been brought back, and Shadestorm, Flamesong, and herself had moved into the nursery.
Russetfur continued with her warriors duties, only slept in the den, as did Flamesong, because the only real reason they had moved early was to have space in the overcrowded warriors den. Shadestorm, on the other paw, was easily a moon further along in her pregnancy than the other two, and Flamesong was ahead of Russetfur, too, if not by so much. But even the nursery was crowded now, with Brightflower and her kits, Featherstorm and her newborn kits, and the three newer queens.
The nursery was the most sheltered den in the camp, so it came as a bit of a surprise when the wind woke Russetfur; you could usually not even hear it through the nursery walls. But this wind was louder than any Russetfur had heard before; it roared and surrounded the whole camp in one ominous crash of noise and sound.
The queen got to her paws slowly and stepped outside to see that the sky was black and terrifying. Pressure made her ears pop and she shuddered, hair lifting on her spine. She knew something was off, as she had had a foreboding squeezing in her gut for the last day and a half. All over camp, she saw, cats were staring at the sky, nervous.
Lightning flashed and Russetfur flinched. It wasn't even sunhigh, and the storm had already broken. Raindrops fell from the sky and splattered onto her dark ginger fur, but she ignored them, still sitting with her legs frozen and staring up with dark green eyes.
A dark gray funnel shape formed from the clouds, but reached down to touch the earth. The roaring got louder the flashes of lightning grew more frequent, and the rain fell faster. The shape grew closer and Russetfur backed slowly into the nursery. Her fur, now plastered to her skin by the downpour, would have stood completely on end had it been dry. Fear enveloped her mind. Russetfur had no idea what was going on, but it sure as hell wasn't good.
Things flew into the air as the cloud shape traveled closer. Brambles, branches, small bushes and shrubs, even Russetfur herself felt a tug on her paws, as if the funnel of cloud and wind and rain was going to suck her up into the air as well. She backed the rest of the way into the nursery, where the other queens pressed against the back wall, fear shining in their widened eyes.
Blossomkit, the smallest of Featherstorm's litter of three, began to lift off the ground as the den itself began to lift as well. Russetfur caught her by the scruff and crouched over the other kits. Flamesong did the same, taking the hint, over Brightflower's kits. Shadestorm was frozen with fear, her mouth open and her breathing swift and shallow.
Featherstorm took Blossomkit from Russetfur and set the kit at her stomach as the walls of the den fully crumbled and were sucked into the air. The roaring was deafening now, and the pull on Russetfur's paws was too great; in her standing position, she began to float upward, pulled up by the force of the cloud funnel.
She cursed loudly when she saw that Flamesong was also being sucked into the air, not a tail-length away. The queens started to revolve in circles as they were lifted higher and higher, until they were flying in loops, being whipped through the air alongside other cats, prey, and various debris.
For a second the two she-cats muzzles crossed paths, and though Russetfur couldn't hear a thing to save her life, she could've sworn the words on Flamesong's lips read, "Fight it!" Rain and dirt and sticks blurred her vision, but she was all too happy to follow the advice, intentional or not.
She churned her paws and hurled herself at the outside of the shape, which only flung her out of the shape and she slammed into a large pool of water, the impact so sharp and fast that she was momentarily paralyzed. Coughing up water that had found its way into her body, Russetfur struggled to the edge of the pool, her limbs aching and her whole body shivering and shaking.
She looked up to see that the thing had carried her all the way to the Burnt Sycamore. But it was what Russetfur saw the next moment that scared her. Flamesong's black pelt shot out of the funnel, which was now moving towards Carrionplace and Highstones, and threw her straight into the tree. They collided with an unbearable loud slam, and the queen fell to the ground. Russetfur clambered out of the water and pelted over to the best of her ability. She didn't have any deep wounds, but she had a lot of bruising and two of her ribs might have been fractured.
The dark ginger queen reached her denmate and crouched beside her. Blood trickled out of an abrasion on Flamesong's head, where she had struck the tree, but her chest showed breathing and her back paw twitched. her heartbeat sounded a little muffled, but Russetfur was just glad she was alive. Whether she would stay that way, however, was a question yet to be answered.
Russetfur took a good hold of the black she-cat's scruff and began to drag her towards camp. The funnel had receded now, moving past Highstones and towards the mountains, far, far away. Russetfur squinted and saw that moving shapes were out towards Carrionplace, but she couldn't help them now. She kept pulling Flamesong towards the decimated ShadowClan camp until she came across a most horrifying sight.
Lying still in a pool of silty, bloody water was Cloudpelt, his luxurious white fur stained with his own blood, still trickling from a long, deep wound that went from his chin to just under his left foreleg, exposing his vital throat and heart and killing him. Cloudpelt, who had only been the ShadowClan deputy for half a moon, was dead.
Tears sprang to the she-cat's eyes for Gingerpaw and Sleetpaw, who would be heartbroken. They had already lost their mother, and now their father. Russetfur shuddered, cursing her pregnancy for making her so emotional. Temporarily leaving Flamesong on the soggy earth, Russetfur used a paw to close Cloudpelt's eyes, which had been staring, blue as the sky on a normal day, towards the Thunderpath.
Before Russetfur could drag her companion two more fox-lengths, a cat came out of the rubble that was their camp and ran towards her. It was Owlflight. He looked over Flamesong fearfully. "She's still alive, right?"
"Yeah, she is. But Cloudpelt isn't." Russetfur replied after catching her breath. Seeing the young warrior's look of horror, the queen closed her eyes and panted, "Just help me get her back to camp." The black-pelted tom dipped his head, grabbing hold of her scruff with his teeth and dragging her. He ultra black stripes glinted in the light, and Russetfur looked up. The sun had returned when the clouds traveled to the mountains. With its return, the queen felt a glimmer of hope.
She was brought crashingly back to reality when she found Sleetpaw just outside of camp, trapped under some fallen debris. Russetfur pushed it all off of her, wrenching a claw in the effort, while Owlflight continued to camp with Flamesong. "Th-thank you, Russetfur." the white apprentice with her single ginger paw gasped.
"H-have you seen m-my dad?" she asked, gulping down air and squinting in the sunlight. As the warmth dried their pelts, Russetfur couldn't bring herself to look Sleetpaw in the eyes when she told her.
"I am so, so sorry, Sleetpaw." Russetfur said, as tears welled in her eyes again. It took a moment for the young she-cat to grasp what she meant, but the second she did Sleetpaw stumbled back.
Her voice shaking with disbelief, the apprentice stammered. "N-no. Not h-him too! C-c-cloudpelt is d-dead!" her words soon became incoherent with sobs, but Russetfur managed to pick out a few choice phrases. "StarClan, how dare you take away Cloudpelt! How could you!" she screeched in despair. "How fucking could you!"
The appearance of Brokentail distracted Russetfur from the hysterical apprentice. Malice gleamed in his eyes, and the queen could only hope it was bitterness for the loss of his Clanmate. The tom stepped forward, curling his bent tail around Sleetpaw's tattered shoulders. "There, there..." he said, a hint of darkness in his tone. Russetfur stepped forward threateningly, and he glared back at her. "I'm here, Sleetpaw." he soothed smoothly.
"Back off, Brokentail! My father's dead!" she snarled, shaking his tail off of her.
The tom's eyes widened. "Cloudpelt was your father?" he asked. Russetfur snorted in distaste. How self-involved could a cat be to not even know his ex-denmate's parentage, especially when both of them were deputies? The arrogant tom's own father came out of the shadows.
"Brokentail! Oh, thank StarClan you're alright. What's this I hear about Cloudpelt? Where is that tom, I need him to set up some patrols." Raggedstar said, standing shoulder to shoulder with his son.
Russetfur stared her leader in the eyes. "He's dead." she spat.
"What?" Raggedstar said in dismay. "Oh.. Oh StarClan... Cloudpelt, dead..." Russetfur, unwilling to listen to any more, followed the mingled scent of Owlflight and Flamesong to what used to be the medicine den.
Cats with injuries were all over the place, with Littlecloud, Yellowfang, and Runningnose dashing about trying to fix was currently looking over Flamesong. She ordered Owlflight to clean away the blood as best he could and to call her when he was done. He dutifully started cleaning her fur. Russetfur looked through the mass of cats and saw Dustfang. Fear piercing the queen's heart, she hopped over bodies and over corpses to her old apprentice.
Dustfang had a deep wound down her side, but the blood was clotting neatly and she was still conscious, not that she looked happy to be so. Russetfur purred that she wasn't dead and started cleaning the blood from her sticky fur, gently, so she wouldn't restart the bleeding of the wound. Dustfang looked around and smiled. "I'm pretty gruesome, aren't I?"russetfur shrugged.
"It'll make a cool scar." she meowed, and Dustfang chuckled slightly. Littlecloud paused on his way to some other cat and looked at the younger warrior's wound.
In a hurry, he mewed in a garble, "Russetfur, find some cobwebs and two or three poppy seeds, fix her up. You've had it done enough, you can figure out how to do it. And if you can find any, use some marigold and put it on there. You know the plant." The dark ginger queen nodded and stepped carefully over many cats to get to the medicine den. There was a very limited amount of marigold, but there seemed to be a little more goldenrod, which Russetfur knew to work just as well, so she took half of the remaining marigold and a bit of goldenrod, some cobwebs, and the only poppy seed she could find.
Stumbling back to Dustfang, she gave her former apprentice the poppy seed, who licked it up quickly. Russetfur chewed the marigold and goldenrod into a rough poultice and smeared it on the wound, ignoring the cry of pain from Dustfang. After wrapping her in a thin layer of cobwebs, which was all she had dared take, the queen stood to look for anything else she could do, now that Dustfang was falling asleep.
the other cats seemed to have been taken care of, so Russetfur fought her way to Flamesong. Just before she got there, she saw through the dust that Raggedstar was sitting on HighBranch. "Cats of ShadowClan!" he called, his voice muffled by distance, dust, and the aftermath of the pressure of the funnel. "Brokentail will be the new deputy of ShadowClan!" Russetfur's fur stood on end. Raggedstar was making the arrogant, cruel young warrior the deputy? She could understand making his son a warior too early, but deputy? When cats apprenticed the same time as he weren't even warriors? The she-cat would not end well.
"I would also like to appoint three apprentices as warriors!" he called. Russetfur wondered if this was really the tiem for such things. Half the Clan was sick, dead, or missing. "Ratpaw! You will be known as Ratscar, for the scars you bear both on your pelt and for Dirtmask. Gingerpaw, you will be known as Gingerheart, for your mother Foxheart, a former deputy and valiant warrior. Sleetpaw, you will be known as Sleetpelt, for Cloudpelt, your father, as he too was courageous and a former deputy. StarClan honors all of your strength and skill. Ratscar! Gingerheart! Sleetpelt!"
Russetfur cheered half-heartedly before continuing to Flamesong. She was just regaining consciousness, with Litlecloud crouched by her dark ginger queen reached them as Flamesong asked, confused, "Littlepaw? What's going on? My head hurts..."
"I'm Littlecloud, now, remember. I got my name a couple suns ago. Flamesong, do you have any other injuries?"the tabby tom asked, staring into her eyes.
Another wave of confusion enveloped the black she-cat. "You cant've, the Gathering was yesterday. The half moon isn't for a while. And what're you saying? I'm Flamepaw."
"No, no, you seem to be a bit confused. You are Flamesong. You got your warrior name a while ago. You're expecting Skyheart's kits. Do you remember?" Littlecloud asked, his voice somewhat alarmed.
The queen jerked her head backward. "What? No, I'm too young to be a warrior. I still have two moons worth of training. I can't be expecting Skypaw's kits, I'm only an apprentice! We never-"
"Flamesong... you're fifteen moons old. Maybe sixteen, I can't quite remember. You were made a warrior. You're a queen now. You share a den with Shadestorm, and Russetfur..." he trailed off, glancing up at the ginger queen whose name he said.
Flamesong only looked more panicked. "What? No, I'm ten moons old, Littlepaw! My name is Flamepaw, and I am not expecting kits! And neither is Shadepaw! I am not a warrior! I am ten moons old!"
