Warrior Cats: The New Course (STILL UPDATING)

Chapter Eleven

"But why? If StarClan tells us to do something, shouldn't we do it?" Ravenkit asked.

"Yes, but . . . it's also a choice we make for ourselves," she tried to advise. "We don't listen to StarClan on a natural instinct. We do it because we want to."

Dewkit stared at the twinkling night sky from his nest, eyes getting droopy. His father and his Clan had suffered so much before he was born. He had only seen a glimpse of the hard life when there was still snow, but he was very little then and had little to no memories of it all. His earliest memory by sight is of Icestar standing over him, bloodied and scratched from battle. It was a hazy image, unlike the flashbacks of the Clan running low on food and herbs. But now, since the warm weather was changing conditions rapidly, Dewkit wanted to forget such suffering.

Silverleaf continued telling Dewkit and Ravenkit her tale of Icestar's battle with Dewstar, and eventually, Dewkit fell asleep.

When he woke again, he was surprised to find that he wasn't in the nursery, cuddling by his mother's warm fur. In fact, he want in MoonClan at all! Alarmed, he looked around quickly, his surroundings unrecognizable.

All around him stood tall oak trees, some unnaturally tall. They formed a canopy of leaves on long branches, dappling the sunlight on the ground. His surroundings were blanketed in coats of white, and nearby a small stream ran, noticeable by the loud water.

Are the white coats over the forest ground snow? I thought snow was supposed to be cold. His paws tread over the slushing white.

"Where am I?" he murmured out loud to himself.

Of course, there was no response. He was hoping for one, however. With no clue on what to do, he proceeded forward, wondering how he got here. The last thing he remembered was listening to Silverleaf's story as slowly drifted off . . . Could he possibly be sleeping?

The air tasted unusually good, making him feel as if he could run countless laps around MoonClan's camp. He felt as if he could beat Ravenkit in a fight, or even fly up in the trees like a bird. Dewkit kicked off the ground and ran through the snow, his heart beating. What a lovely dream! He raced along the forest, elated to be someplace where he was the strongest cat in the Clans, instead of the weakest.

He felt as strong as Icestar had been, in the Battle of Darkness.

As he dashed through the forest, he stopped short when he spotted a piece of prey up in the trees. What was it, a vole? As he got closer, he could distinctly se its bushy and long tail merging colors with the gray-and-brown tree. Perhaps it's a squirrel. They have tails like this, right?

He wriggled his haunches, and leaped at it, opening his paws completely as if he'd catch it like that. But before he even had the chance to land on it, the squirrel dashed up the tree and disappeared into the thick bundle of leaves.

Well, maybe he wasn't as strong as Icestar or his sister.

"What are you doing, kit?" said a voice so suddenly that Dewkit leaped with surprise. He thought he'd been alone in his dream world! Whirling around, he saw a cat he'd never seen before standing over him, with cool dark blue eyes and short white fur, matching the snow around them.

"I was hunting," Dewkit said, tilting his head. "And who are you?"

"Just a loner," he responded, flicking his tail. "You don't think you're going to ever catch prey like that, do you?"

Dewkit shrugged his shoulders, feeling hot with embarrassment. So this stranger had seen him after all. "I dunno," he mumbled, hoping he wouldn't be made fun of. At least it wasn't the other kits who'd seen him—they wouldn't miss a heartbeat to tease his poor skills in hunting, excluding Shadekit, who hardly cared about what he did.