Warriors Secrets of The Shadows: Foes of The Winter

Chapter 24

A howl sounded deep in the trees. A conjoined WolfClan and ScarClan patrol and a ViperClan and AshClan patrol slinked through the woods.
Feralstorm and Slatetooth swept their tails just above the snowy ground. A wolf ran towards them, snarling. Then, cats leapt out of their hiding places and lunged for the mighty creature.
Yelping, the wolf tried to shake them off of its body.
Brightstripe clawed at it hard just near it's eye. While Goldenheart bit it's tail. Blossomclaw slashed it across the nose. The wolf growled and ran off. Slatetooth's tail was sweeping side to side and Feralstorm's flicking over his back as their clanmates bounded along side them a long way away from the dangerous wild woodland trees. Rowanfang pelted beside his father. Suddenly, he saw some AshClan cats across the lake. "Look!" He called.
Copperwhisker turned his head. "Beetail? Dewfoot?" He muttered. Rowanfoot was on the other side. "Dewfoot's hurt!" He called from where he stood.
Feralstorm nodded to the AshClan cats;Copperwhisker, Tanglefoot, Tasha, Cinderfrost, Fernstripe, and Kestrelbriar and they left to go to their clanmates.
Unease tugged at Rowanfang's belly. Earlier, he couldn't even imagine what it felt like to see your clanmate be hurt or near death in front of his own eyes, that was until Ashwhisker of WolfClan was killed in witness of her three kits, Elmpoppy, Sorrelheart, and Smallstep. His conjoined Clan had only been lucky that they sustained minor casualties from these creatures this time. What was his father like in these situations? He was brave and strong, but sometimes he saw fear in his eyes. "I wonder what happened.." He mewed aloud.
"You can go check if you want. But be careful." Dawnreed mewed, suddenly by his side.
"Can I go with him?" Stagheart asked her mother, Duststripe, who then looked to Feralstorm.
"Yes. You both be careful now." He told the two warriors.
With that answer, Rowanfang and Stagheart made their way across the icy stepping stones.
Beetail shook her head. "I kept telling you it was a bad idea to come.." She mewed to Dewfoot.
The she-cat was crying in pain. Coalleap looked at her, not a hint of sympathy in his eyes.
Stagheart stared. "She got hurt that bad?" She gasped.
"Must have been a monster on the Thunderpath.. My father's told me about them." Rowanfang commented. Beetail looked to see Cinderfrost bounding to them. "There you are! Where were you?" She asked her clanmate.
"Nowhere!" Cinderfrost yowled and ran in the direction of the camp.
"We need to get Dewfoot back to camp!" Sharpfrost yowled.
Leafmist and Missingdust supported her weight side by side.

Rowanfang winced each time he heard a pained whimper from Dewfoot. Bramble was pressing herbs to her injury. "StarClan.. This is the worst thing I've seen." She meowed to Yellowheart, who was practically gagging at the sight of the she-cat's leg. Anycat would just as even a glance. Stagheart was playing with Lithefoot's kits, Cinderkit and Smokekit.
"I'm gonna be much bigger!" Cinderkit squeaked to her brother, Smokekit.
"No way!" He declared. "I'll be bigger!"
"You'll have to sharpen up your moves first." The dark brown WolfClan warrior joked.
"And take a bath and a nap." Their mother purred, bathing them with licks.
"But I wanna go out of camp!" Smokekit protested.
"Yeah! We wanna fight the wolves!" His sister put in. At that moment, the queen looked horrified and her eyes formed into slits. "Absolutely not!" She snarled.
"But," Cinderkit's mew was just at a whimper.
"There is no way you two are doing that! Now take your nap." She meowed, as it was obvious that she was struggling with trying to calm herself. The brother and sister walked with drooped tails into the nursery. "When we're apprentices, we'll be the best warriors! We won't have to listen to what mama has to say." The black tom-kit rumbled to his sister as he laid down in their nest beside her. Rowanfang blinked at the she-cat.