Ashleap's Fall

Archaic

Knottedstar hisses orders at other cats, and around me the other kits wake up one by one. The whole camp staggers to life before breaking into a dead sprint as cats join patrols, warriors rushing out of camp. Apprentices are held back by firm tails and I see Emeraldlight stagger out of the elder's den. She herself used to be a tunnelkeeper, and she says something quietly to Knottedstar before lowering her head. I can't make out anything in the commotion and I resist the urge to rush out there and begin asking questions.

"Cinderblaze, I relieve you of your duty as tunnelkeeper." I hear Knottedstar say, loudly enough that even the kits in the nursery can hear it, and the camp turns, still murmuring, still questioning, but now all of them are watching her. Knottedstar is ready to sink or swim under the pressure of her clan.

"Emeraldlight, you'll take the patrol still here into the tunnels. I've already sent out a patrol on the overland, but we need to check down there. I have no idea what could lie down there, but this could mean the end of the clan if cats who died this recently are coming back. Even reincarnations themselves are very rare, much less one of a former leader."

"Do you think it has something to do with the prophecy Shadowstar recieved?"
"It could have everything to do with that." Knottedstar says, "Or possibly just negligence. Either way, it is our duty to fix this. DragonClan, to the tunnels!"

The patrol leaves briskly, leaving the remaining cats in camp to talk amongst themselves, over Knottedstar's orders to 'head back to sleep' and Cinderblaze's wailing. Eventually, Knottedstar walks right towards us, sitting herself down in the nursery. Carbonfrost is already there, licking Scarletsky's pelt, and Scarletsky has her eyes almost closed and her fur standing on end.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" I ask eagerly. "Please do!"
"They'll be scared senseless." Carbonfrost warns.

"They deserve to know. We told them about the flood, didn't we?" Knottedstar says, her eyes narrowed. I've never seen her so angry.

"This isn't the time to be telling stories!" Carbonfrost snaps. "The flood was fact. We all know what water is and why it's dangerous. We have no idea what we're up against here, and this is hardly the time to go planting ideas in kits' heads!"
"We've sent the patrols. All we can do is wait." Knottedstar replies coolly, facing down the usually levelheaded Carbonfrost as if he was a disobedient apprentice.

"That's not true! We could-" He starts, but his own mate cuts him off.
"She has a point." admits Scarletsky.

"Hmph." Knottedstar flicks her tail to close the matter, then turns to us. All of us are shocked silent by the chaos going on outside, and though we are older kits and are supposed to be fearless, we cluster together. Sparrowkit is sitting a little ways away, looking out at the confusion and I can tell he's thinking about Jadekit.

"What's going on?" asks Crowkit, snuggling timidly against Scarletsky's side.

"Are the warriors fighting?" asks Nettlekit.
"Are we going to die?" asks Goldenkit, and since no one can top that, we sit silently and wait for the answer.

Knottedstar answers none of our questions. "I have a story for you," she says, as if we hadn't talked at all. "I believe it will explain everything. This is the story about how our path diverged from that of the other clans. It has been told to you in pieces, and the tales themselves regularly rest between myth and fact, fluctuating slightly depending on who is doing the telling. Though I walked the tunnels when I was young, and I was inquisitive, I have not been able to piece together everything. To the best of my knowledge, these are the events that led up to the making of the tunnels:

Long ago, in the age of the Ancient leaders, when we lived at our first camp and the black fox had just departed these woods, there lived two kits who were born of the earth. The two of them were called in their dreams to a world beneath the soil, whispered to by starry spirits, and eventually coaxed into what appeared to be a rabbit den but was in fact something far more sinister and powerful.