Dawnstar's Message

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

Dawnstar awoke to the silence of leaf-bare. His den was strangely empty, despite Shade's dark prescence in the front of his cave. Dawnstar rolled over and looked at the cave ceiling and contemplated his life.

EarthClan was well. Squirrelcloud had had 5 healthy kits!! Flamekit (ginger tom) , Frostkit (white she-cat with blue eyes), Stormkit (gray tom), Blossomkit (white she-cat with brown spots),and Leafkit (gray tabby tom). Sunny, Snowy, Rain, and Butter were settling in, and Shade was apparently her brother, not her mate. Shade had begun making friends with Spottedclaw and Brindlepelt, which was a good sign. All of the warriors were healthy, not diseased or weakened. The prey was running well. The forest was at peace. But Specklegaze didn't love him anymore, but strangely it didn't bother him as much as he had thought it would. She hadn't been with him in a while, and he hadn't made excuses to be with her. And the prophecy was distracting him.

Dawnstar snapped to attention when he realized that it was almost sunhigh and that it was the day he had to bring a patrol to BeachClan to clean up. He jumped up and dashed out of the den into the daylight.

Dawnstar stood, chest to the wind, on the ledge outside his cave. He looked out across his camp, and up at the oak that was at eye level. The sunlight glowed on warrior's pelts below. The golden light reminded him of Specklegaze. Oh, how he had fallen for her, before she drifted away from him. He sighed. What would StarClan have as a reason to take away the mother of his daughter? The former love of his life? Dawnstar flinched. Former love. He realized that Specklegaze had been right; she didn't love him, and he was a great leader.

No need to despair, he convinced himself. I have a great life, and I can be happy with the friends and the Clan I have.

A bushy tail swished in the corner of his eye, in the leafless oak tree. A squirrel! HOW could a squirrel sneak in here? Why would it?

Shade crawled out of the cave and sat drowsily beside Dawnstar. "Wh-what time is it? Sunhigh?" He looked at the leader. "You win. No one attacked me in my sleep," he said with a grin.

Dawnstar nodded and smiled. "I told you you could trust us."

"I like those two," he said, pointing out Brindlepelt and Spottedclaw. "They're alright."

"You know, you've never told me about where you all came from." Dawnstar wrapped his tail around his paws as he sat down. He had some time to spare.

Shade grumbled and yawned. "Fine." Shade began his story.

"When Sunny and I were kits, we lived with Twolegs, as you call them. We had vaguely deciphered their language- that is, the sound of their voice, and the look of their faces. When they got too mad, we wouldn't be fed. We eventually grew up and Sunny found a mate, and had kits. Soon after, our Twolegs got so mad that we weren't fed at all and we had to run away, and take Sunny's kits with us. We traveled a long way and barely got by, sometimes attacked by other people's cats or bands of rogues. But don't get me wrong, we haven't had a soft life. Harder than yours, probably. Then you found us. That's our life story." Shade began grooming himself.

"Well, I'm glad you're in a better place now. I have to go to out on patrol now."

"Patrol?" The dark tom paused. "What's that?"

"Well, our territory is so big," Dawnstar explained. "We have to send cats to defend our territory and our rights to do as we please here. EarthClan cats can't go into other territories. All four Clans agree to the borders, and we can do what we want on our own territories, as long as we patrol them to make sure that the other cats in the forest don't come onto our land. It's pretty simple, really."