WITHERING HERBS || A Warriors Fanfiction

|| chapter twenty nine

"It's time to split off."

The words rang out confidently from Hazelberry. It was time to put their plan into action.

"PineClan cats, go that way," the medicine cat flicked her tail in one direction, "And SquirrelClan cats go that way," the she-cat pointed with her muzzle in the opposite direction.

Sedgestorm and Flintpath shuffled towards where she had pointed with her muzzle, and with a tightened throat, Owlpaw walked over to where Stonestar and Hazelberry were standing.

"Remember to meet up, at least somewhat near where the Gathering would be," Hazelberry reminded Sedgestorm and Flintpath, "And don't come back without the cats."

They both nodded solemnly and padded off. Owlpaw watched them disappear over the rise of the hill. Neither of the tom's pelts reappeared.

Hazelberry flicked an ear, "Come on, Owlpaw, you're holding us up."

The tom quickly scampered after her, forcing his neck fur to lay flat.

"Now, once we see the ravaged pines, we'll know we're going in the right direction," the she-cat laughed. She acted as if she was dropping a feather and letting it spiral onto the ground, only to let it hit as lightly as ever.

How is that funny?

Owlpaw kept walking.

After a while, they finally came upon a ravaged forest, just as Hazelberry had joked about previously. She flicked her tail, almost happily.

"There it is!" she announced as if the other cats hadn't already seen it. To be perfectly honest, it was very, very hard to miss. The snapped trees and the scattered, small pieces of sharp wood made it very obvious that it was the remains of PineClan.

The three cats carefully maneuvered their way through the forest, jumping neatly over fallen trees and knobbly roots covered with bits of snow. The springy pine needles that lined the floor of the forest were no more. Now bodies of starved prey lived among the roots and fallen trees, their eyes glazed. Some laid in awkward positions, their bodies contorted as if they were searching for food and accidentally knocked their head on something.

Owlpaw quickly sped by the awful sights and, after scenting the air instinctively, he picked up cat scent.

"There are cats," he alerted the others quietly, not wanting to scare them off if they were closer than he presumed. He twitched his whiskers.

Clearly, Hazelberry wasn't too worried about it. She strolled confidently along until she came upon a small barrier of fallen trees. Narrowing her eyes, she backed up and lashed her tail.

"Go first," she ordered Stonestar, who, trembling, jumped over it. A moment later, a yelp was heard from the other side. A soft thump followed it. As he was jumping, Hazelberry had lightly jumped atop the branch which was now dangling dangerously close to the edge of the crevice.

"Go!" shrieked Hazelberry. It was clear she wasn't actually worried about Stonestar. She was perched precariously on the edge of the short barrier. Her fur was in bristles as she teetered on the edge. It was clear she had leaped onto the barrier to look over the edge and now she was causing the branch to fall slowly. Her body grew closer and closer to the crevice, as did the branch.

"I said, go! You idiot!" she roared, voice filled with venom.

Why would she tell me to go if she can see that it is a drop and not warn me?

Owlpaw launched himself over the barrier with a yowl - "Stonestar!" - until he knew he was falling. Terror surrounded him and gripped him with icy claws. He had almost expected to land a moment later but he realized he was still falling.

Oh, StarClan no.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he seemed to plummet down forever. His heart clenched with horror as he felt his throat tighten with anxiety. This was all Hazelberry's fault.

This is it.

Suddenly, he felt solidity return to his paws. Fur brushed at his left and he felt a gentle nudge from his right.

"Owlpaw, you're okay," a voice meowed quietly into his ear.

Slowly, the tom opened his eyes.

Walls of stone surrounded him. Standing up, he gazed around. Beneath his paws was smooth, solid stone. He was in a crevice in the ground. The walls were straight up and had small cracks in them. Only some of them were big enough for pawholds. There were small splinters scattered on the smooth, slate-colored ground, but there were little nests of soft moss.

Presuming this was the camp, Owlpaw soon spotted the dens. There were small dips in the ground, each lined with moss and a few had feathers. Around it was small sticks lined up to provide some sort of protection. Some of the dens had a small crown of springy pine needles and some leaves, but it wouldn't be enough to protect them from the now-falling branch above them.

He gazed upwards to instantly close his eyes. Small splinters were showering down. Looking at his paws, he opened his eyes again and quickly swept his gaze around the camp.

"We have to get out of here," a voice that he recognized as Heatherstar's asserted. He spotted the creamish-yellow she-cat weaving past a mottled gray she-cat, whom he realized was Robinstar.

"We can't... we're trapped, Heatherstar. It'll be nearly impossible to get up that wall..." It was Finchtuft who spoke, looking at the leader with a gaze that said everything.

"We have to get out," she protested, lashing her tail. Her eyes were swamped with anxiety as she looked at the walls of the camp. The leader padded toward the wall and shoved her paw in a small crack. Struggling up, her fur suddenly bushed up as she saw that she was trapped.

An ashy-gray tom sprinted over and crawled up behind her, supporting her back end as she tried to launch herself up. Her legs pushed powerfully up, but the tom, whom Owlpaw recognized as Rainpad, had struggled up behind her. She hung in the air for a moment, scrabbling for a pawhold as her claws scraped against the smooth stone.

The leader fell right onto Rainpad, crushing the tom and herself as they fell. A loud CRACK! echoed through the camp as they fell and a silence settled among the cats, weaving around them with wordless purrs.

A calico she-cat approached both bodies. It was Lilybreeze, PineClan's medicine cat. She nudged Rainpad, putting her ear to his flank, and then to Heatherstar's. Their bodies were contorted oddly; Rainpad's neck was twisted at an awkward angle, and Heatherstar's back was sharply angled, almost straight up, while the rest of her body hung limply over Rainpad.

She stepped back, her head lowering.

"They're dead."

Shock and grief pulsed in the clearing, but there was hardly time to mourn. They had to get out of here and fast. Hazelberry was screeching at them from above. She'd now leaped from the branch and onto solid ground. She was still leaning over the edge, eyes as wide as the moon as she yowled at the cats below. The logs were slowly cracking and falling down.

Owlpaw watched as Finchtuft, Duckfrost, and Logbite all stepped towards the two corpses that lay in front of them. They silently dragged the bodies into one of the mini dens and lay some of the leaves on top of their dead friends. They groomed their pelts swiftly and Duckfrost wordlessly laid a feather on top of Rainpad's fur.

"You idiots are all going to die if you stay down there!" Everyone seemed to look up at the fuming medicine cat who was perched above them, "Come on!" she screeched, motioning wildly at the cracks in the wall and then at the branch.

It was falling.