Dawnstar's Message

Chapter 19

**** Hello! OVER 660 READS NOW! Yes! Ok, so I updated chapter 16, and it has VITAL INFO... so please go back to it!! ****

CHAPTER 19 (BEACHCLAN)

Lichenpelt crouched intently beside the water. The shallow pool lapped at her white paws, and her bright blue eyes watched every shadow on the surface. She remained calm and still, until the awaited flash of scales caught her eye. She thrust her forepaw into the water, got a claw hold on the fish, and swiped it out of the water. It flopped around in her paw until she silenced it with a killing bite.

"Impressive catch!" Her mate, Salmonrun, praised her. He put down his own catch, a water vole, and rasped his tongue over her gray ear and purred. Lichenpelt picked up her catch and they headed off for camp; but not before Salmonrun tripped over something shining in the grass and fell on his face.

She suppressed a purr of amusement, and helped Salmonrun to his paws. "Are you alright?"

The white warrior was grumbling under his breath. He looked up at his mate. "Those fish-brained Twolegs! Always leaving their disgusting junk--" he shook off some dirt "--and making our home into a dirtplace. Just look at the lake!" She did; there were more food wrappers and apple cores swaying with the waves in the shallows among the pebbles. The BeachClan warriors wrinkled their noses and ran off towards their camp.

The BeachClan camp was a huge man-made pond that was dried up long ago; that is to say, it was huge in the sense that it could hold the whole of BeachClan with room to spare. Around the edges were weeping willow trees, and two streams trickled down the outer walls and into two seperate pools. The walls were made of stone and earth.

A regal river birch tree stood in the center, and at its base was an old fox den that served as the leader's den. Two adjacent badger sets served as warriors and apprentice's den. The nursery was a rock cave, smooth from the water that it was immersed in for years, which was also the location of one of the two pools formed by the stream. The medicine den, the other pool's location, was another rock cave on the other side of the camp. The entrance wasn't an entrance, really, but a step system of rocks that lead from the bottom of camp to a thicket of juniper bushes at the top.

They placed their kill on the pile with the rest and then trotted over to the warriors den. Her she-cat clanmates, Silverwing, Emberfur, and Daisyclaw, sat talking. They purred as the couple padded up.

"Ooh, and here comes the happy couple now!" Emberfur cooed.

"Yes, indeed," Silverwing, an elder she-cat, said with her country accent. "Now, hows about chya'll settle down here, next to your old friends, and join in the conva-sation here?" She smiled meekly. "Hmm?"

Lichenpelt purred. "Alright, Silverwing." She lay down next to her sister Emberfur and Salmonrun.

Daisyclaw got the conversation started again after everyone settled in. "We were just talking about the latest case of food poisoning."

"OH! StarClan save us from those wretched Twolegs!" Silverwing mewed. "Rotten creatures, dumping their dirt in our lake! Just because they dun't need it doesn't mean nobody else do!"

Lichenpelt agreed. "True. Three of our warriors are sick in the medicine den! Sharpstar was way too close to losing a life at the hands of some tainted fish." She gave her chest some embarassed licks and then stood and shook herself. "I'm going to get some prey for the queens." She stalked off with her dark gray fur fluffed up.

When she approached the fresh kill pile, she noticed its size, which was considerably normal. There was, in all, two trout, three bass, Lichenpelt's fish, Salmonrun's water vole, and two sparrows to be found in the pile. She chose a bass, and meandered off to the rock cave.

It smelled like fresh milk and kittens; a few sunrises ago Minnowpoppy's litter had been born, Rockkit and Rattlekit. Her last kit, Snakekit, had died from food poisoning. The Clan had realized at that point that something had to be done about the Twolegs tainting the BeachClan food supply. Lichenpelt placed the fish at the paws of the black queen, and she bowed. Minnowpoppy opened her golden eyes for enough time to recognize the warrior she-cat and nod her head graciously. Lichenpelt backed out of the den; the black she-cat's kits needed sleep.

The sun had gone down on another day in BeachClan. Lichenpelt used her amazing eyesight to navigate her way to the medicine den, in which she encountered medicine cat Smallfur. Her feminine white form was outlined with darkness. She was hunched over a skinny black form, an elder named Pebblethorn, who was ill because of food poisoning. Two warriors named Meadowtail and Rufflepelt, Lichenpelt's brother, also sat sick in their nests with the same illness.

Lichenpelt walked around Smallfur and made her way to her brother, Rufflepelt. His thick chestnut fur was flecked with dark brown, and his amber eyes shone despite his sickness.

"How ya doin', ol' buddy?" Lichenpelt greeted him.

Rufflepelt lifted his head groggily and nodded. "Doin' just fine, Lichenpelt. Getting better every day." He purred. "Smallfur," the brown warrior called. "Any herbs for me?" He broke off of the last word to cough.

Smallfur turned away from Pebblethorn. "Yes, I've got some juniper berries right here..." She grabbed a fat branch with dark purple berries in her jaws and padded to his side. She placed it on the mossy cave floor next to him and nodded. "Fine?"

"Much appreciated." Rufflepelt mewed. "When will I be a warrior again?"

"I'm not sure, but you are recovering. The yew to vomit the poison didn't work, so with the juniper and watermint, at least a moon." Smallfur put the juniper branch closer to his face. "Maybe more. You have a crazy stomach infection, so you will need a whole lot of time to heal! Now, eat half of the berries. No leaves." Lichenpelt sighed. Moons? That was way too long!

"Alright," Rufflepelt grumbled. He took one berry in between his teeth and crunched it. Juice dribbled down his chin, and he purred and looked up at Lichenpelt. "That's my favorite part, y'know. When I crunch the berry with my teeth--"

"--it feels like when you crunch the enemy under your claws." Lichenpelt finished his brother's well-known statement. The two cats purred. Lichenpelt left the medicine den, almost slipping on the wet moss into the frosty pool of water, which was fed by one of the streams that trickled into camp.

Lichenpelt growled under her breath when she found herself out of Rufflepelt's earshot. Stupid Twolegs! WHY did they have to dump their trash on their land? Even though they hopefully didn't know of the Clans' existence, they didn't have to hurt the environment like that! They couldn't be that stupid... Well, now that she thought about it, Lichenpelt realized they could. She mumbled to herself as she walked toward the old badger set which was now the warriors den.

Lichenpelt could hear the snores of the young apprentices in the badger set next to the warrior's one. She went into the den and saw mounds of sleeping cats. Silverwing, Daisypelt, Salmonrun, and most of the BeachClan warriors lay sleeping. Lichenpelt found her nest, a cumulation of moss and feathers in between Emberfur and Salmonrun, and settled in. Her mate's white pelt shone in the limited light that came in through the entrance. She warmed up next to him and drifted off into a labored sleep, filled with nightmares of her dying-of-poison clanmates.

*Ta da! Writers block gone. In fact I have a new idea for a story... don't know if I will create it. Chapter 20 will be of the Gathering. BIG REVEAL! Get excited... THANKS FOR READING!*