Warriors: Rising Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter One; Intruders on ThunderClan Territory

Dawnfire padded through the thorn tunnel, and into the stone hollow, her jaws full of fresh-kill. It was the middle of greenleaf where prey was at its best. Every night cats would go to bed full and not hungry. But in a couple moons, the harsh season of leaf-bare would be upon them, gripping the forest with its icy claws. Dawnfire shuddered, the leaf-bare that Dawnfire had been born in killed her mother and Dawnfire too was almost in the paws of StarClan.

The padding of paws behind her and her apprentices voice brought her out of memories. "Hey Dawnfire! I want to do some battle training. Can we go do some?" she looked behind her to see her apprentice Poppypaw. The young blue-grey she cat was always rushing around and always got in the way.

"Sorry Poppypaw. If you want to do training get Foxclaw or someone to do it. Runningshadow gave me patrols today." Dawnfire replied. "And i'm sure Mossnose wouldn't mind some help."

Poppypaws' ears dropped, "OK Dawnfire." With that the young she-cat turned and padded towards the medicine cats' den. Oh well, I'll take her out for some hunting tomorrow. She thought. She took a vole for herself from the fresh-kill pile and started to eat. When finished, she went to find Frostflower and Salem for a patrol.

"Runningshadow wants us to check the WindClan border. She said they were hunting very close to the border yesterday." Mewed Dawnfire when she found them sharing tongues.

"They better not be," growled Salem. He was a rouge who wandered onto ThunderClan territory last leaf-bare. When a patrol found him and brought him back to camp he showed great ferocity towards being accused for stealing prey. Because of this, Redstar the ThunderClan leader offered him a place among the Clan. Salem accepted and in return showed warriors the skills he knew. He always showed great courage and strongly stuck to the warrior code. "If I catch a WindClan cat on my territory they'll be trouble!"

"Now Salem, a cat doesn't have to kill a cat to prove he's loyal. In fact, a loyal warrior doesn't pick fights unless necessary." Forstflower mewed politely. She was friends with Salem like Dawnfire, but wasn't always a fan of his way of doing things.

Salem just muttered under his breath and padded ahead of Frostflower.

The patrol reached the border after a while and began to mark the scent markers.

"Dawnfire!" gasped Frostflower. "Come look at this.

Dawnfire padded to where the pretty white she cat was standing. There at her paws, a tail length into ThunderClan territory sat a pile of feathers, blood and bones. She bent her head down and sniffed the prey. "It has WindClan stench all over it!" She hissed. "Look for anything else that shows they have been-" A growl from Salem interrupted her. She looked to see Salem staring over the border. A group of three WindClan cats were coming towards the border. They were quite far away and showed no signs that they saw the ThunderClan cats and carried on.

"Quick, into the bracken! We can see what they do from there." Dawnfire hissed. They sat crouched in the bracken where they could see the WindClan warriors.

"Come on, we just missed a patrol." mewed a black tom once they reached they border. Dawnfire recognised Breezetail from the gatherings. Behind him came a ginger tom and a smaller brown tom who she'd never seen before. She guessed he was an apprentice.

The WindClan patrol stepped over the border, cautiously looking from side to side in case any ThunderClan cats saw them. Dawnfire wanted to leap at them but something held her back.

"Harepaw!" the ginger tom hissed. "You left the bird there." he flicked with his tail to where the carcass of the crow was lying a few fox-lengths in front of them.

"Sorry." replied the small brown tom, Harepaw.

Breezetail stepped up to him baring his teeth. "Nice one Harepaw. Now a ThunderClan patrol will find it. Now come on. Lets hunt before a ThunderClan patrol does find us!"

Dawnfire rose up from the bracken and beckoned with her tail for her Clanmates to follow her. "Well your luck just ran out." she snarled at Breezepelt.

The three WindClan warriors looked up, startled that they had been watched the whole time. For the first time, she realised that their ribs were showing under their pelts.

"Get out of our territory, now!" Salem growled.

"Make us." challenged Breezepelt.

With a dread, Dawnfire realised that her and her Clanmates weren't going to get out of here without a fight.

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