Chapter Text
The Silverpelt was fairly visible in the night sky as a blue shecat rested on the balcony of a half-collapsed twoleg nest. That she being Gorsestar of Hopeclan, She exhaled slowly, her breath warm into the cool air. Her paws, once swift, now had scars of battles fought and prey attacking back.
The territory of HopeClan was a shadow of what it once was, but the stars had not abandoned them. Not yet. “Thank you Starclan for such amounts of prey despite the territory we have.” She sighed looking at her paws before the sky again.
Tracing the Silverpelt, It had guided warriors before her, and now it watched over her as she led a Clan on the edge. She wondered if StarClan saw her as she truly was, not the leader she pretended to be but the shecat who sometimes wondered if the life she’d chosen was worth the pain.
“Are you proud of me Kestrelbriar?”
-*-*-*-*-
“Now now, if you six want a story you’re going to have to quiet down.” Smokethroat spoke to the group of young cats eagerly waiting for them to tell a story. They muttered the story, a tale of make believe from their mate’s dream.
The young cats muttered among themselves, their excitement a low hum like the buzz of bees in summer. One of the kits, a tiny white and chocolate one, couldn’t contain herself. “Please, Smokethroat! Tell us a story! A real one this time!”
Smokethroat chuckled, the sound deep and rumbling. “A real one, eh? Alright, alright. But this isn’t just any story. This is a tale from my mate’s dream. He says StarClan whispered it to him, so it must be important.”
“Once, in a long time ago, and far away enough from Hopeclan.. Farther than any cat had walked before, there was a young kittypet named Rusty.. now this Rusty was far different than most prissy and soft twoleg pets!”
A small kit with a mostly white pelt stood up,
“Ooh! How can a kittypet not be soft and pampered! Don’t they all love it there?”
The old tom next to Smokethroat chuckled for a moment before letting them continue,
“Most do, but not Rusty! He wanted to be free and catch mice to his heart’s content. But when he went into the forest a young apprentice from a clan pounced on him, and the two had quite the fight.”
“Did the cat get the Rusty?”
“I’m getting to that part, but no. The cat’s mentor and clan leader offered him a place in there clan. Thunderclan, but there was three other clans in the valley. Riverclan, Shadowclan, and Windclan.”
“How can four clans live in one spot without always fighting!? That’s what happen-”
“Ey that’s enough, this is meant to be calming you down. Now run back to your queens!”
Smokethroat sighed, nudging the kits and apprentices out of the elder’s den.
Waxkit slammed a paw on Lightkit’s head, and the two began to play fight on the way to the nursery. The four apprentices chatted all the way to the apprentice den, Owlpaw meowed first “That old quin! They must have bees in their brain! Only those two are kits! I a-I mean we are apprentices!”
“Owlpaw, it’s not a big deal! We practically are kits! You just got apprenticed a moon ago.” Leopardpaw called out
“A moon?” Owlpaw scoffed, puffing out his chest. “I’ve already memorized the warrior code!”
“Yeah as if.” Dawnpaw replied to the younger apprentice.
-*-*-*-*-
Dawnpaw was in a deep forest that had to be far outside Hopeclan territory.
“Young one. Your fate is in your paws, lead it wisely. Your power is unlikely any other cat.”
That soft voice is all she heard before a rumble growl came from behind her, followed by a sound of loud barks.
“What?”
Dawnpaw froze. The voice had come from nowhere... but it spoke. She spun in a slow circle, her fur rising on her back. “Who’s there?” she called, her voice trembling. “Show yourself!”
Yet only blood was answered to her question. Dogs, snapping at her flank, biting her neck
..you can’t feel pain in a dream.. right?
Dawnpaw woke with a fright, thank Starclan it was sunup so they didn’t have to go back to that horrible nightmare. Suddenly she realized one thing, Fennleblaze had called patrols! And she wasn’t up there! Dawnpaw got up, quickly scrambling to the tall-table.
“-stream, you two check the east border. Oh great! Looks like Dawnpaw is here, what kept you?”
Out of breath Dawnpaw replied with the truth, that was a horrific mistake considering the circumstances.
“Sorry! I overslept! Pleasepleaseplease don’t make me go patrol the south border again! I can’t stand being so close to dead monsters!”
“Tch. I should have expected that. As much as I want to I have set patrols there already, so you will be hunting by the smoke nest.”
Dawnpaw frowned, the smoke nest always smelt awful and if any cat went hunting there 50-50 chance they will come back covered in rat bites. At least Hopeclan cats had grown stronger immunity to rats. “As you say!”
-*-*-*-*-
By the time Dawnpaw reached the smoke nest it was near sunhigh, almost immediately killing a rat after she crawled under the fence. “Two rats at minimum,” she mumbled, repeating Fennelblaze’s words. A rat was only a fox length away, there was no cover so running was all she could do, pouncing on the rat when she got closer. With a swift bite to the neck it was dead.
Burying it next to the hole that she had entered from she looked for the next rat. Yet a small squeak came from not far away. Her head snapped toward the sound. A smaller rat darted out from under a pile of rubble. It froze when it saw her, its nose twitching. Dawnpaw’s muscles tensed.
She raced after it, paws burning from the thunder path, but that didn’t stop her. Why do they call it a thunder path? It sounds nothing like thunder!
She pushed her thoughts aside, yet the rat had escaped! “Mousedung!” She exclaimed, when a familiar presence came to her. A white cat was holding a rat, but the cat was over the spot where she had buried the rat she had caught, “Hey! Not fair I caught that myself!”
Dawnpaw chased the cat but it disappeared into the forest. Digging up the hole there was not just her rat, but another as well! She must have caught two and didn’t realize it, well at least her work was done!
-*-*-*-*-
Yet that night, a star had fallen from the Silverpelt. Cypresseswisker’s pelt blended into the night, something was off.. but what.? Then, like millions of voices into one, a prophecy no doubt.
“Three cats must come together,
Pelts of a setting sky, a flying darkness, and a spotted jungle,
Your greatest enemy will turn to be your greatest friend,
Paws must tread carefully to avoid a never ending storm.”