Warrior Cats: Forest of Blood

~Chapter Ten~

   Snowberry curled her tail against her kits. Scorpionkit and Frostkit were perfect. She wouldn't trade them for the world. They'd be great warriors for sure. The two loved to wrestle and seemed to dream about being the best of LightningClan. Scorpionkit wanted to be a great fighter, Frostkit wanted to be the best hunter.

   Purring, Snowberry let them suckle themselves to sleep. Tired as well, Snowberry drifted off into a dream.

   

   Snowberry padded on bloodstained grass. Horrified, she sniffed it. She could smell the blood faintly, but it seemed like it had been there for a couple of years at least. 

   There were a couple few old trees in the meadow. They all had holes in them wide enough for a cat to fit into. It almost looked like a giant woodpecker had been there. Dried up mud paw-prints were on the trees, some had claw marks through them.

   On the largest tree at the top was a large hole, next to it was a large paw-print with four claw marks through it. Beneath it was a slightly smaller hole, with a slightly smaller paw-print. There were three claw marks through it. She poked her head into the smaller hole, if you concentrated, you could smell the ever faint scent of cat. 

   The other tree had only one paw-print with two claw marks through it. There were about two dozen holes in the tree, sized just right to fit an average sized warrior. Another tree had three really large holes. One hole had a paw-print with three curved claw marks through it. Inside the hole was super spacey. It was large enough to fit several cats. A crevice in the tree had shriveled leaves in it. Snowberry sniffed the leaves but couldn't get any scent out of them. Another one of the really large holes connected itself to the space. The last hole was slightly higher up and had enough room for about five cats.

   Snowberry wondered what group of cats once lived here. The other tree had a dozen holes in it that could fit about a dozen smaller cats.

   Suddenly, familiar scents started flooding through her. They were very familiar, but Snowberry couldn't make them out. Then she saw starry spirits walking through the territory. They looked lost, as if desperate for a resting place.

   She saw cats sleeping in the holes like nests. Snowberry saw a few she-cats walking among their young kits. Apprentice-sized cats pouncing at each other. Larger cats were even teaching some of the smaller ones. It was like a Clan, but Snowberry didn't understand. This Clan didn't exist near the current ones.

   A largely built tom with long silky white fur was laying down on a branch sticking out from the largest tree. He looked down pleasantly at his "Clan", like the way a leader would. Snowberry was confused, she looked around trying to look for an answer. She jumped onto one of the trees and went to one of the higher holes. Inside of it, a cream tabby she-cat nursing three kits. Two girls and a boy. The father was crouching near the she-cat. He was a light brown tom. Snowberry widened her eyes as she realized the fur colors of the kits. One was dark gray with black spots, like Needle from NightClan, the other was a light brown tom like Torch from NightClan. The other one was white...like herself. Shocked, Snowberry almost lost her grip on the tree bark.

   That couldn't be her. There was no way. 

   Yowls shot across the clearing, cats jumping from their nests in the trees with bristling fur. Snowberry looked to see a black tom with purple-like eyes leading a group of cats. Behind him was Sal-inja and all the other cats that were currently in GloomClan. Except for Lion. Snowberry looked among the cats of the "Clan" to see that Lion was there with them. With the blink of an eye, the two groups clashed. The "leader" jumped down from his branch gracefully and met who Snowberry realized was Haunting. The two leaders fought with no mercy. But ever so soon, the white tom was laying lifeless on the ground, Haunting was barely injured.

   Slowly, cats started vanishing from the clearing. Until all that remained was Haunting staring at the cream tabby she-cat, trying to lead her kits away from it all.

   Haunting put his paw on the dark gray and black she-kit. She squeaked helplessly.

   "What's their names?" Haunting laughed.

   The she-cat cowered, "The dark she-kit is Nightkit...the brown one is Treekit... the white one is, Snowkit."

   Snowberry widened her eyes. That could not be her!

   Haunting hummed and let go of the she-kit and grabbed Snowkit, "This one resembles light, I'm afraid I have to kill her. Perhaps I should kill them all, they'll probably be useless anyway. But I can let you live."

   The she-cat yowled, "Don't kill my kits, please! Kill me instead! But promise me that you won't kill them!"

   Sal-inja came up from behind the she-cat and slaughtered her. Haunting looked at the kits, "Come, let's go to your new home."

   Then, NightClan left.

   Snowkit, Nightkit, Treekit...

They're all alive still?

That tom kept you alive?

Thank StarClan.

I miss you all...

   Snowberry fell from the tree and blanked out into darkness.

The rain that comes after a fire, the soot from after the fire, the frost of the winter and the        scorpion of the summer, will follow the ashes of the dead to bring the clouds back into the sky.