Warriors As Humans!

Chapter One

"Tag! You're it!" Holly tapped her brother Lion on the shoulder and darted away before he could get her back.

"Not fair!" Lion huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "You cheated!"

"I did not cheat!" Holly protested, prodding Lion in the belly. "Just because I'm faster than you!"

"But I always loose!" Lion stamped his foot on the ground, causing a wave of dirt to roll at Holly's black skinny jeans. "I don't want to play anymore."

"Spoil-sport," Holly growled, and turned away from him with a contemptuous flick of her long, silky black hair.

She gazed around their campsite, which was set in a sunny forest clearing in the middle of nowhere, just the way she and the rest of her Clan-mates liked it.

There were six tents set up around the clearing – one for warriors (adults from twenty to forty), one for apprentices (teenagers of twelve to nineteen), one for elders (adults of forty-one and over), one for the Clan doctor, Leafpool, one for the Clan leader, Firestar, and one for the children of eleven and under to share with their mothers.

That last tent was where Holly, Lion , their brother Jay and their mother Squirrelflight slept. They did have to share it with a woman called Ferncloud and her two six-year-olds Fox and Ice, but Holly didn't mind. She found their presence comforting, and often shared a sleeping bag with Ice when it got too cold.

It was at that moment that Jay crawled out from the tent, his grey hair blowing in the soft breeze that had picked up. He must have sensed Holly's annoyance, because he rolled his eyes and said "Is Lion acting like a five-year-old again?"

Holly nodded and glanced over her shoulder to where Lion was sitting cross-legged on the dusty floor, picking at the little green shoots that were poking through the rich soil. "No-one would know that he's actually eleven, and going to become an apprentice in three weeks."

At her words, Lion looked up and ran a hand through his short ginger hair. He looked sheepish. "Should we play catch, or something?"

Holly knew that he was just trying to make up for being a brat, so she shrugged and looked at Jay. "It's up to you."

Sightless blue eyes glared back at her as Jay said drily "Yes, and I suppose I'm just going to magically locate the exact position of the ball, the have my fingers guided towards it by StarClan. Or have you forgotten that, oh yes, I'm blind?"

"No need to get so arsey about it," Holly said hotly, then jogged off towards her tent. "Wait there!" she called over her shoulder as she ducked under the green canvas material.

She found herself in a maze of sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and back-packs, and silently cursed her brothers for not being more orderly.

Navigating her way through the camping apparatus, she found her bag and unzipped it quietly, careful not to wake Ferncloud, Fox and Ice, who were sleeping hidden in the corner. Holly could only locate them by the sound of their breath stirring the sleeping bags.

Everyone in camp was probably still asleep, apart from the dawn patrol. The dawn patrol was a group of people who went and guarded the borders every morning as soon as the sun went up. Holly hadn't seen them leave, but she was assuming her mother had been one of them, since her sleeping bag was cold.

Holly's fingers closed around the ball she had been looking for. She tugged it out of the pack and turned to go, but froze in her tracks as ice sat up blearily.

"Holly, is that you?"

"Just go back to sleep, Ice," Holly said gently.

"But I just had a nightmare! It was terrible, Holly." The little girl looked so downcast and frightened that Holly crawled over to sit next her, pulling her into a warm embrace.

"What happened in it?" Holly asked.

Ice shuddered. "Well, to start with there was you, me, Fox, Jay and Ferncloud, and we were all in this really dark gloomy tunnel with nothing but a torch. Suddenly the walls and ceiling started to cave in, and there this massive rockslide, and then we were stuck! There was nowhere to go apart from this massive cave, so we went in and there was a really dark, rushing waterfall, and then Ferncloud dropped her torch, and it was nothing but darkness, Holly! Just awful, clingy darkness."

The six-year-old shuddered, and Holly gave her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be alright," she said soothingly.

Ice gazed at her with worried, doubtful blue eyes, and shook her head. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Now why don't you try to get some more sleep? For me?"

Ice nodded and curled up again next to her mum, buried in the sleeping bags.

Holly turned and crept back out of the tent, slipping on some boots at the last moment to keep her feet warm.

The cool breeze tugged her loose hair as she emerged from the tent; it had definitely picked up. Holly straightened up, blinking in the sunlight, and tossed the ball at Jay. The little bell inside it jangled, and her brother was able to stretch out his arms and catch the ball.

"Present!" Holly called after it, feeling a warm glow inside her as Jays mouth twisted into a rare delighted smile.

Jay gave a whoop of joy and jumped into the air, which was so out-of –character that Holly had to gawp.

Of course, she was totally un-prepared for the ball that slammed into her face, knocking her to the ground with a thump!

"Ouch! I'll get you next time!" Holly had meant it as a threat, but she was laughing too much for it to have any real effect.

"Ooo, I'm scared!" Jay laughed. It made Holly grin to see him like this; usually he was so grumpy and defensive of his blindness, he would bite off someone's head off if they so much as gave him the time of day. He was always convinced that people pitied him, and he hated pity. He always said that he was like any other person, and could do anything a normal person could do if he tried hard enough, and Holly agreed. It was unfair to treat him any differently, just because he had something wrong with his eyes.

Holly picked herself off the ground and dusted off her 3OH!3 t-shirt. 3OH!3 was a band, and she sometimes got picked on for liking them, but she didn't care. Their loss if they were too worried about their social-lives to listen to good music.

She leaned over to pick up the ball, and stopped as a sudden realisation hit her.

"Hey, where's Lion?"

Jay frowned and sniffed the air. "No idea. But now that I think of it . . . where's everyone?"

Just by gazing around, Holly couldn't see anything wrong. "Don't be silly," she chided her brother. "They must still be sleeping . . ." her voice trailed away as she finally noticed the weird echo it was making.

Her first thought? Uh oh. But she pushed it away. Nothing bad could have happened . . . could it?

"Let's check the tents," she said anxiously, with a glance at Jay.

Together they checked, but they found no trace of anyone, nor anything to suggest where they had gone. The camp was deserted apart from them, Fox, Ice and Ferncloud. That left four children to protect the camp if there was any trouble, with only one adult to help.

In other words, they were doomed if anything stronger than the wind attacked.

Great.

Holly ducked into her tent again and gently nudged Ferncloud, who stirred sleepily then fixed her light green gaze on Holly.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Wake up," Holly whispered. "We need to ask you something." She beckoned Jay into the tent, and they both settled down among the sleeping bags as Ferncloud sat up and rubbed her eyes drowsily.

"What would you like to ask me?" she queried, her voice kinder now that she was more awake.

Holly wrung her hands. "It's just . . . where is everyone?"

Ferncloud stared at her.

A sharp pain stabbed in Holly's side as Jay elbowed her in the ribs.

"What Holly's trying to say is, we checked all the tents and there's no-one else in the camp. Even Lion's gone."

Holly rubbed her side and glared at her brother. "Yes, thank you, Jay," she said coldly.

"Well, that's odd," Ferncloud's brow furrowed in a frown. "Are you sure you –" her voice broke off as her eyes widened in terror.

"The tunnels!" she screeched, and leapt to her feet. She grabbed some clothes and ran. Holly turned just in time to see her sliver hair flowing behind her as she darted into a little compartment in the tent where she could get changed out of her nightclothes, then turned her head back to see Ice and Fox arousing.

With a glance at Jay, Holly grabbed Ice's hand and lead her, stumbling, out of the tent and into the bright sunlight of the forest clearing. Jay stood beside her with Fox.

"What was that about?" Jay hissed in Holly's ear, but holly shook her head. She had no idea.

The trees around the clearing, that were normally so comforting, seemed to pressing in on them right now, suffocating them. Whatever had happened to her Clan-mates, – and it couldn't be good, judging by Ferncloud's reaction – Holly needed to help them. She couldn't just stand here, knowing that all her friends and family were probably suffering a terrible fate right at that moment. She could tell that Ice felt the same way, because the grip on her hand tightened, and she looked down to see the little girl staring back up at her.

"Holly," she hissed through gritted teeth, so that Jay and Fox couldn't hear her. "Do you think this has anything to do with my dream?"

"That's impossible," Holly assured her uneasily, but the truth was, she really had no clue. Heck, three hours ago, she would have thought it would be impossible for her whole Clan to disappear without a trace, but look what had happened?

The wind was gale-force now, and the sun had disappeared behind a barricade of black clouds, promising a thunderstorm. Holly's hair whipped painfully across her face – she really should have tied it up. However, just as she turned to get a hairband, Ferncloud stepped out of the tent, looking stunning as usual in a loose-fitting blue top and flare jeans, with a pair of black converse sneakers on her feet. The only thing that looked odd was the weird mix of green eyes and silver hair – Holly still hadn't gotten over that.

Jay rolled his eyes. "Finally," he muttered to Holly, and she glared at him, but really she couldn't blame him. She knew how infuriating it was to just stand there and admire the scenery when your Clan-mates were in possible danger.

"Right," Ferncloud said briskly, but Holly could see the fear in her eyes. "Let's get a move on shall we?"