Chapter 4

Cloudpaw crept forward, dragging her paws silently alongside the water. The squirrel she was staring at was slowly scurrying around, picking up nuts before deeming them unworthy for eating. It's gray fur glowed silver in the moonlight and Cloudpaw knew that she would receive high praise when she returned back to the camp with such a catch. She stalked forward, lifting her paws carefully over leaves and twigs, not wanting to miss the best of all squirrels. It suddenly looked up, nose quivering with fear, and even though she knew she was upwind, Cloudpaw sprang forward, claws stretched out, ready for the kill.

Cloudpaw's paws slammed into the ground and she snarled in frustration as she felt nothing, but rock underneath her claws. Cloudpaw glanced around, hoping to see the silver squirrel somewhere nearby, but there was nothing. No footprints, no rustling leaves, no scent, the squirrel might as well not even have existed. Cloudpaw scraped her claws across the rock in anger before she realized something. She was scraping her claws against rock. There was no rock in her territory and that was when it dawned on her. She wasn't in JayClan territory!

Now running around in confusion, Cloudpaw scrambled down the rocks before stopping as she realized she wasn't anyone near the lake. Had she grown wings when she fell a- that's when it dawned on Cloudpaw. She was dreaming and since she was so aware of everything around her that meant that StarClan must have sent her the vision. Either that or Cloudpaw had a very vivid imagination. It could go either way.

Detached from the dream, Cloudpaw walked around, her conscience telling her where to go. The gray-and-white apprentice slid down some rocks and was about to continue on her nighttime adventure when voices made her look down. There, gathered underneath the perch where Cloudpaw watched, were about a dozen cats.

There was obviously something going on for all the cats were mewing at once and continued until a gray tom sprang onto a giant pile of fallen rocks, located directly below Cloudpaw. The tom was obviously very old although his body showed the hard signs of a warrior's life. His left ear was shredded completely while a ugly scar was just visible on his shoulder. His gray fur was dull and there seemed to be many patches of it missing from his body. As he scrambled on top of the rocks, the tom showed a bad limp on his hind leg. Cloudpaw wondered who this cat was, but her question was answered when she caught a glimpse of the tom's face. True his face was battle-scarred and his muzzle was white with age, his green eyes flamed with such control that Cloudpaw realized that the old tom was leader of this group of cats.

"Silence!" The tom thundered and every cat fell quiet, "Sandfire, come up here!" A cat- so different from this first- sprang up to stand beside his leader. The tom was much younger than his leader- Cloudpaw guessed he was probably just a couple moons older than herself- and his rippling muscles proved it. The tom had dark ginger fur that glowed like fire. When Cloudpaw caught a glimpse of the cat's face, she noticed he had the same green eyes as the leader even though they belonged to a much different cat. The cats had to be kin. "Sandfire, come and tell the Clan what you and the others have learned."

Clan? Cloudpaw wondered, but listened as Sandfire began to speak, "As you all know, Ravenfur, Birdheart, and myself were sent to search for ThunderClan in hope that one of Firestar's descendants might be able to help SkyClan now as they did so many seasons ago." SkyClan? Cloudpaw had no idea what Sandfire was talking about although some things made sense, but how would a loner know of ThunderClan? Or Firestar? "Instead all we found twoleg dens and monsters. Poor Ravenfur lost his life because of one."

"So you sent them on a suicide mission, eh Mintstar?" A dark tom cried from the shadows and several cats took up his call. Mintstar waved his tail for silence, but the snarling continued until the dark tom spoke again, "Ravenfur died because of stories! Firestar nor ThunderClan have ever existed! They are just fable names that you made up!"

"Ratpelt, you know as well as I, that they are real! I met them when they came to reunite us again as did your grandfather! Sharpstar would have been a rogue had it not been for Firestar and Sandstorm!" Mintstar snapped, green eyes flaring with anger.

"You were, but a kit when you say they came to help us!" Ratpelt snarled, "And Sharpstar told me those stories when I was a kit because that's all who will believe them! Kits! Your stories are those for kits!"

"Be quiet!" Sandfire yowled, "It doesn't matter whether the mission was important or not! What matters is those rats! They have already ended so many lives! If we don't stop them than there won't be a SkyClan anymore!"

"But we can't do fight them without more cats!" A brown she-cat wailed, "I have already lost my brother in hopes of finding ThunderClan and we failed! We are all going to be wiped out!"

"Don't think that way, Birdheart," Mintstar comforted although his green eyes continued to glare at Ratpelt, "As long as StarClan is beside us, we will not be destroyed again. Maybe our warrior ancestors have a plan for us."

At that moment a voice emerged from the shadows: "I had a dream! A dream, Mintstar!" The speaker was a silver she-cat with tiny white paws although that didn't stop her from leaping up beside Mintstar and Sandfire. "Echosong came to me and told me that to find the Clan we must head towards a lake and there we will find the Clan. The lake lies over that mountain." The she-cat nodded towards the mountain that loomed on the horizon and with a jolt, Cloudpaw realized that those were the mountains that she could see from her territory.

"Don't tell me we are trusting dreams, Mintstar," Ratpelt scoffed, but everyone ignored him all looking expectantly at Mintstar who stalked up towards the front of the rock and yowled, "My friends! StarClan has showed us a sign! We shall follow it!" Everyone cheered with relief, all except for Ratpelt who stalked into the shadows, flanked by two large warriors. "Grayleaf, you and Birdheart shall listen to Songheart and she shall give you herbs in preparation for your journey! You leave at dawn!"

"Mintstar, I must ask something," Sandfire protested before the meeting could end, "I want to go with them. I need to do it. For Ravenfur."

Mintstar nodded, "A brave request. One that I would be a fool to deny. Very well, Sandfire you will accompany them."

The cats soon left leaving Cloudpaw on her own. Confused at what to do, Cloudpaw was about to leave when a voice behind her hissed: "Four will take one and make five, making history repeat itself. Thunder will fall on the lake and the Clan of birds will be no more. The end is now."

Cloudpaw whirled around, but before she could glimpse the speak, she felt the dream fall away.

*

"So now you agree with me?" Cloudpaw opened her eyes as she heard her littermates arguing outside the apprentice den. Cloudpaw stretched and with her dream clear in her mind, padded out to join her kin. Airpaw was glaring at Waterpaw who was scuffling her paws on the dirt, looking quite unlike herself. "What happened to 'Airpaw, you're hearing things?'"

"Well I thought you were, mousebrain," Waterpaw snapped, "But I heard something too. A she-cat from StarClan came to me and said "Four will take one and make five, making history repeat-"

"Itself. Thunder will fall on the lake and the Clan-" Airpaw continued and Cloudpaw's eyes widened. That's exactly what she heard!

"Of birds will be no more. The end is now." Cloudpaw finished and her two siblings glanced at her, their expressions shocked.

"But- how?" Waterpaw stammered.

"I heard it too. I had a dream last night and I heard that prophecy." Cloudpaw explained and Airpaw was about to open his jaws when another voice growled.

"Prophecy? What prophecy?" It was Darkpaw and all three heads snapped to looked at their brother as he emerged from the warriors' den. Before any cat could explain, Darkpaw snapped, "You three must have eaten some bad prey. StarClan would never choose apprentices to be a part of a prophecy. Stop kidding yourself."

And with that Darkpaw stalked away, leaving Cloudpaw to wonder why he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, but I had no idea what to do with Cloudpaw. So I made her have a dream, but don't worry. This dream isn't random. It will come into play later.

Another apology for this chapter being so much shorter than the others, but I hope quality matters here, not quantity.

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