Warriors: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 (Book 2)

𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. (𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐)

The sun had gone up in the sky, the light shined through the newly formed cave, where the blue crystal shards glow. But they have been grieving about Dust'star for moons and moons, they even begged the spirits to show where he was, but nobody knows. It is stressful for the now young warrior Emerald'gaze to handle. His eyes are still the dark emerald color that has been descended from his mother. And he looked slimmer, he has not been living well after losing his adopted parents at a young age, he wondered if the spirits were just a bunch of greedy liars for a long time.

He had to take care of the heirs on his own and protect them until warrior age.

Milk'kit, a goofy, but a foolish tom with brown, dark brown and white spots all over.

Oleander'kit, an annoying tom, and often known to have the role of a leader in his little sibling group. 

Night'kit, a dumb, shy she who looks familiar to her mother except the black eyes. However, she shares the same personality with Seven's brother, Nome who is mute just like her. 

One'kit, the bossy, and rude brother of the group. He is fully brown with dark brown spots.

They'll all be turned into apprentices in a few weeks, since it's been moons after they were born. They never get to learn about their parents since they only saw them for a short amount of time before they both disappeared. Lake'star couldn't let them know what happened to their parents, and now they only focused on being heirs. And the oldest will be the next Water spirit as they soon die. But Emerald'gaze has been heavily criticized, he had strange visions of seeing Dust'star standing in the dark, as he looked at the sun rising. He had that same vision of him, just staring down as the gray light shined.

He felt as somebody was touching him, until he flinched after seeing an orange striped tom with yellow eyes that goes by the name of Sun'wing, the clan's deputy. He blinked staring at Emerald'gaze looked at him with his widened eyes. Sun'wing did feel bad since he was more likely a punching bag to the clan.

 "You're dreaming about your father aren't you." He said, Emerald'gaze blinked. "Sorry, I didn't get enough sleep." He said, rubbing his eyes. "Oh please, I haven't had enough sleep either, the angry pig is overworking us. He needs you though." Sun'wing said Emerald'gaze scrunched his face, and then opened his eyes trying not to drift to sleep. "What does he need now?" He asked.

"Follow me." Sun'wing walked from the den, Emerald'gaze walked towards the bossy leader himself, Sun'wing headed off to assign patrols. Lake'star's personality begin to change, he used to be the so-called charming 'Finn' as a prisoned kitty-pet. The stress of handling a clan that early made him to a grumpy, rude, and a strict leader. "I see that you were enjoying your sleep." Lake'star said, Emerald'gaze's vision were slightly blurry, he felt lightheaded. "Yeah, until Sun'wing decided to wake me up, what do you want?" Emerald'gaze asked.

"I want you to go help FireClan with prey, you know they're scarce with food and water." Lake'star explained. "Your ancestors in StarClan will be proud of you for doing something productive for once." Emerald'gaze gave an annoyed glare at him. "If StarClan will be proud of me for doing something, why don't they help with food and water?" He said, Lake'star froze. He got confused and thought about what Emerald'gaze said, but he just brushes it off not answering his question. "No arguments, go do it now." He demanded.

"Whatever." He walked off rolling his eyes, he didn't want to do all of this work since he's tired. He rather spends time with his siblings or just stay alone. Oleander'kit seen Emerald'gaze walking out, he ran towards him. "Where are you going, big brother?" He asked, looking up at him. Emerald'gaze turned around, he slightly smiled. "I'm going to go do some helping, I'll be back."   he spoke, Oleander'kit looked down. He felt unsure about it. "What's wrong?" Emerald'gaze asked. "You're always at work all the time, I wanted to ask if you'll be in the apprentice ceremony?"

"Well, if they don't make me do duties, I'll be the first one there, I promise."  Emerald'gaze said, Oleander'kit jumped in happiness. "Thank you!" He said, before the leader noticed Emerald'gaze talking to Oleander'kit, he slightly hissed at him. Emerald'gaze noticed Lake'star watching, he turned to Oleander'kit. "I'll see you tonight." he said, and walked away, Oleander'kit smiled and ran to the heir's den. Emerald'gaze walked upward from the waterfall and to the forest. 

He walked around for a little, he keeps hearing voices, the voices of memories crawling behind. However even if he wastes his entire time as a kit trapped as a prisoned kitty pet, he enjoyed being with Dust'star. He and Deer'step had comforted him ever since his parents have died such a gruesome scene. But he knows that Dust'star wouldn't just disappear out of nowhere, he still thought that the spirits had something to do with. He saw how his younger self would walk with a cat whose face were shadowed with a brown paper bag. And being lectured by a she-cat with a yellow cape. He remembered those happy memories with them, why did StarClan took them so early?

All those memories were left behind, and now he has to move without them. He seen the dry, and hollow wasteland, with no water and less prey around. The cats looked miserable, where has Flame'star been doing? He thought. Until he heard something that's rustling in the bushes. He turned around and looked, but there was nothing to be seen. He then heads off to the territory, where he wasted no time since Lake'star had let FireClan know about the cats from EarthClan and WaterClan helping them. So, he went on to find some prey. 

He stepped foot into the deserted land, red dirt and all. It used to be so beautiful, a lot of elders used to have a vision of the grass and trees that used to be around. There was water, and prey. But after all, they're just seeing things, like usual. 

As hours go by, the sun starts to grow a vibrant color of orange and red, the sky grew darker as the color of pale blue and had a hint of purple and pink. Emerald'gaze is exhausted after this trip dealing with the blaze of fire, sweat and blood finding food. He went back to the FireClan cave multiple times, dropping prey off. And then after that, he is finished with hunting. But the dead forest started to get incredibly foggy though. He had to leave from the dead forest quick, his paranoia sparked up seeing so much fog.

He heard some strange owl-like noises; he swiveled around to make sure no cat was stalking him. There were thoughts coming from his head, trying to comfort himself. 

𝙊𝙠𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙠𝙖𝙮 𝙀𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙙'𝙜𝙖𝙯𝙚, 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙤𝙛 ....

He continued on trying to get back as fast as he can, but he felt that someone is watching him. His heart started to beat; he heard something in front of him, he froze and closed his eyes.  He slowly turned around hearing something breathing on him, the wind moved through his fur, he opened his eyes seeing a shadowy cat staring at his eyes. They both stared down at each other, before the cat roared showing its teeth and went through Emerald'gaze, he bumped his head on the tree, the crows flew at him. He quickly ran off with the hallucination he just saw.

He ran that fast he clearly didn't know where he is, but he ended up being in EarthClan's forest without realizing. He ended up falling into a hole where he landed in a hidden den, and passed out.

Dust'star and Bridget froze seeing a random cat barging in, Dust'star widened his eyes seeing the familiarity of their appearance. 

"𝙊𝙝."