Chapter 4

Featherstar's Life Lost

Bushnose POV

"Flyingpaw! The rules for battle training are keep your claws sheathed!" Bushnose hissed at his apprentice. Flyingpaw's eyes started to tear. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to!" Flyingpaw mewed tearfully.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. Well, I think that this should be the end of battle training," Bushnose announced.

"Awesome! I got my first battle scar!" Bushnose heard Tinypaw mew with delight.

"Are you okay? Is something bothering you?" Birdcall asked him kindly.

"Well, it's just, I feel, I feel that... why does there always have to be so much death? First Fallear, then Feathertwist, and I didn't even get to meet Nutkit! Why does everything always happen to me?" he yelled, starting to tear up the grass.

"Well, it's not all that bad. You have three beautiful kits, and your lucky Whitedew is still alive," she told him.

"You're right. I should just put the past behind me," Bushnose said. "Oh! I forgot! We should probably start preparing for their final assessments," he remembered.

"Whitedew! I brought you a vole!" Bushnose said through a mouth-full of vole fur.

"Thank you! The kits were hoping you'd come by," Whitedew purred.

'Look, Daddy! Boulderstrike showed me a battle move!" Stormkit squeaked. He did a perfect front paw swipe.

"I think we've found ourselves a mini warrior here!" Bushnose said.

"Well, I learned something even cooler!" Maplekit mewed. "Brownleaf showed me this herb. He said it was a poppy seed, and it makes you go to sleep!" she said, showing him a tiny black seed.

"In this case, we're going to need a few of those, because it's almost bed time." Whitedew purred.

"Aw! But we're not tired!" Stormkit objected.

"You need to get lots of rest so that you can get big and strong, like Bushnose," Whitedew said.

"Snowkit, did you learn anything today?" Bushnose asked.

"I learned that when you sneeze, your mama won't let go outside, like your littermates," the kit squeaked weakly.

"Well, maybe that's okay! Because tomorrow, I might show around the entire camp," Bushnose purred.

"Yeah!" Snowkit said, and started to cough.

"Okay, now time for bed. And tomorrow, Bushnose is going to show you around the camp," Whitedew promised.

"But we're still not tired!" Maplekit said.

"Well, kits that don't get to bed of time sometimes get their apprentice ceremonies delayed," Bushnose teased.

"Oh, well, I was just kidding," she said, and started to fake snore.

"G'night, kits!"

"Night daddy!" the kits replied. And he bounded off to the warriors den. He saw Dustclaw sneaking out of camp.

"Dustclaw, what're you doin'?" he asked.

"Oh, uh... uh, I was just going on a walk before I went to sleep," he said quickly

"I'll come with you!" Bushnose said.

"Oh, uh, well uh, okay," Dustclaw stumbled. "Um, let's hunt, Bushnose!" he suggested.

"Okay," Bushnose agreed. And they walked into the woods.

"Dustclaw, do you smell that? I think we've found a mouse's nest!" Bushnose said excitedly.

"Oh, yeah, uh, you can get the mouse, I... uh, I think I saw a squirrel!" he said, and he ran away.

Bushnose caught a few mice before realizing that Dustclaw was nowhere to be seen. He found a scent trail leading in the direction of the river. He decided that he'd follow it. He followed it all the way until it stopped at the river.

Why would Dustclaw want cross the river? That's SkyClan territory! Bushnose thought. And he walked back to camp to go get a search party. He was on his way back to camp when he scented a stale scent of SkyClan. Watertail! he thought instantly.

"Hmm, maybe he was following her," he wondered aloud, though there was no one around to hear him. He thought it might look for Dustclaw himself.

"Last time I fought Watertail, I almost lost my head! Maybe this time I'll lose my tail. But warriors risk their lives, and their tails, for their clan," he said to himself. And he went back to the place where he had found Watertail's scent to find his way back to the river.

He lifted his head, and realized that there was something different about Watertail's scent than usual. She smelled like milk, and Dustclaw.
What does that mean? Watertail's expecting kits, and Dustclaw attacked her? he thought. And he ran to the river. There's got to be some way to get across, without getting wet!

And he found a giant rock that he could jump onto, so he crouched down, preparing to jump. He jumped onto and found that it was green. Green and very, very slippery. He fell off the rock, and starting rolling down the river under water.

He thought, How am I supposed to swim? as he struggled to keep his head above water. He thought about just trying to blindy paddling around nowhere until he got to shore. He pushed himself up, so that he could see, and he could see that he almost right beside the shore, so he paddled himself there, one foot after the other. And soon, he was on the shore.

While he was recovering from the swim, he saw something big and bulky floaty around, and it was almost cat-shaped. Soon, he recognized it as Whitheredstar, from the few times he had seen him, and he looked he looked as if he had been killed, and then thrown into the river. Bushnose might have tried to grab him out, but he was not up for another swim. He bounded back to camp to tell the clan what he had seen.

"First, I was out hunting, and then, Dustclaw disappeared, and while I was out looking for him, I scented Watertail. She smelled like milk, and she smelled like Dustclaw. After that, I saw Whitheredstar's dead body floating in the river," Bushnose explained to Whitedew.

"What if there's rogues in the forest?" Whitedew said fearfully, wrapping her tail around her kits.

Dustclaw ran into camp and yowled, "Fox! A fox has got Featherstar!"

Bushnose stood, ran to his side, and said, "I need warriors for a rescue patrol! A fox has gotten Featherstar!"

All the warriors pricked their ears and jumped up. "I need Silverfang, Windflight, Birdcall, and Tigerstripe!"

They all bounded off to the forest, following Featherstar's scent. There they saw her, fighting a fox by herself. She clawed its nose and it grabbed her and bit her leg. She yowled in pain, and backed up. Some of the warriors tried to get closer, but were pushed back by the unusually large fox's paws. Bushnose hopped on the fox's back and raked his claws down its spine, but before he knew, the fox rolled over and he was crushed.

"Featherstar!" Silverfang called to her while clawing the fox's side. The fox rolled off of Bushnose, but something wrong his one of his hind paws. He couldn't move it, and it was very painful to try.

Featherstar was crawling away from the fox, but it was running after her. She was it's only target before Tigerstripe bit its tail, and it flipped around. Bushnose was trying to limp up to the fox to claw it a few times, and it started to run away. It was backing, growling.

Bushnose turned and saw two more patrols coming at the fox. Almost the entire clan jumped on the fox and the same time and trying to tear it apart. The fox was howling in pain, and it ran away, as fast as it could.

Brownleaf rushed to Featherstar with a mouthful of herbs and cobwebs. Flametoe was at his heels. Bushnose limped over to them, and asked, "Is she okay? Is she going to lose a life?"

"Maybe. These wounds are pretty bad, and I don't know how long she was fighting the fox," Flametoe said. She was breathing shallowly, and soon her eyes glazed over. She was losing a life. Soon, her eyes came back, but she was unconcious. "I think she'll have to stay in the medicine den."

"Bushnose, why are you walking like that?" Brownleaf asked.

"Well, I don't know; I can't move my paw."

"When did it happen?"

"Well, the fox rolled over onto me, and I think I might've broken it," Bushnose said.

"I think so, too," Flametoe said.

"C'mon, guys, let's get back to camp," Brownleaf called.