Warriors: Sunbeam (To The Past Book 1)

Chapter Fourteen

Bluepaw's whiskers quivered as she scrunched up her nose from a leaf landing on her nose. She sneezed before looking up at the trees. The sun made the leaves translucently beautiful. Yet she could barely think about it. She was panting from the heat and Snowfeather had given up on training her for the day. 

Snowfeather stretched. "Let's go to the lake. We can train in the evening when it is cooler." 

"Good idea," Bluepaw mewed as she stood. They headed to the lake, grouping up with Froststar and her border patrol. They must have just finished. 

As they got closer, they could hear the shrieks and screeches of cats fighting and in pain. Froststar bounded off, her patrol, deputy, and Bluepaw close behind her. What was going on? Was it the mountain cat?

They burst through the dry undergrowth and stopped in bewilderment at the sight before them. The Snowclan medicine cats were being attacked by something invisible. Their pelts were being torn and blood was spattering the ground. Birdpaw seemed to be the only one who wasn't hurt. She dodged something before swiping the air with unsheathed claws. 

Satisfaction glittered in her eyes as she then crouched and pounced the invisible attacker. She landed on something and bit hold of her attacker. A shriek came from whatever she was on. 

"What is going on?" Froststar demanded as she led the cats to them. 

Birdpaw was churning her hind legs, blood on her paws. She was thrown off and she got up after a brief moment. She must have been stunned by the impact. Bluepaw felt sympathy for her sister. She wasn't a warrior. Fighting must be harder on her than it was on Bluepaw. 

Birdpaw looked at Snakepaw who was pinned by something. Her eyes glittered with anger. "Darkclaw, get off of him!" 

Darkclaw? She had heard the name mentioned by Birdpaw before. Wasn't he a Dark Forest cat? 

She watched Birdpaw tackle the invisible attacker and she tumbled and rolled. Snakepaw panted as he got up, bleeding from a scratch across his face. Deerfoot and Snowdash managed to shake off their attackers and ran toward the patrol. 

"Why can't you leave us alone, coward? Why attack the weak?" Birdpaw yowled. Suddenly she vanished. 

"Birdpaw!" Froststar yowled in shock. 

Bluepaw stared at where her sister had been. She was stunned. "But how? How could she just disappear like that?" 

"Birdpaw is in the Dark Forest! We have to help! Snakepaw, go to Nightclan! Snowdash, you go to Wingclan! I'll go to Lakeclan!" yowled Deerfoot. 

The patrol watched the cats take off in their ordered directions. What was going on? Bluepaw glanced at Snowfeather. She knew she didn't believe in such things. Would this change her mind? Bluepaw sure was doubting her own opinion. There wasn't a hole where Birdpaw had been. The way she disappeared was nothing like falling into a hole either. 

She truly had a connection with Starclan and the Dark Forest. 

Why am I worried? She is a manipulative liar. She means nothing to me. Maybe I'm scared of what will happen to us if we stay. She looked away from the spot. She was confused as to why she wanted to join the medicine cats in rescuing her sister. She pushed her worry away. Birdpaw wouldn't worry about her so why should she worry about her? 

Bluepaw padded over to Snowfeather. Snowfeather sat down. "What do we do now?" Bluepaw mewed. 

Froststar sighed. "Nothing. There's nothing we can do. We have no connection with Starclan. We can't simply travel there and go to her."