Warriors: Rising Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter Twenty Five; The Journey Home

Greynose was preparing cats to dig Rippletails grave beside the river and Frostflower was beside him orginising hunting parties.

"Foxclaw and Gorsepaw, you two will be the first to help me dig the grave." He was saying.

"OK, Kestrelwing, Bluepaw and Stormpelt can help me with hunting then." Frostflower mewed.

Greynose was about to start digging up soil when Silverpebble stopped him. "She doesn't deserve to be buried here!" She snarled. "We would be leaving her behind."

"No we wouldn't." Greynose assured her. "She has made her way to StarClan. You saw it for yourself."

"I'm not leaving her!" The RiverClan warrior spat. "She is coming home with us, her spirit may have gone but we can still take her body."

"How in StarClans' name are we going to drag a body back? Home is three days away. I'm sorry Silverpebble, we ave to leave her." Foxclaw mewed softly.

"If she stays, I stay!" The silver warrior proclaimed. Dawnfire was not going to leave Silverpebble behind. Then RiverClan would have no one to welcome home.

"Silverpebble, you are coming home with us!" Dawnfire told her. "If you want us to carry Rippletail home then we will."

The others looked surprised and some gave her an angry glare as if to say "I'm not going to carry it." Silverpebble gave her a look of gratitude.

"At least you understand." She whispered. Dawnfire did understand. If Greynose had died, she would want his body brought back to ThunderClan.

"Frostflower, we'll hunt on the way. If we're bringing home Rippletail then we have no tim to waste. Silverpebble and Stormpelt, could you carry her please?" The two cats nodded and they heaved Rippletail onto Stormpelts' shoulders and Silverpebble kept a firm hold on her dead clanmates scruff.

They were about to start their journey home when a growl came from behind them. Pushing their way through the brambles was two more bears, only these ones were much smaller.

"That bear we killed, it must have been a queen with kits. And these must be her kits!" Gasped Frostflower.

Dawnfire agreed. The two bear kits were sniffing around and they spotted their dead mother. They clumsily walked over to their mother and began sniffing and whimpering. 

"What are we going to do?" Bluepaw asked. "We killed their mother."

"I know." Dawfire muttered. She suddenly felt bad. It was one of the worst feelings in the world. "But we need to get back quickly before our wounds become infected." Dawnfire had noticed some bretty bad claw marks on the warriors who were fighting the bear in the reach of the large creatures powerful claws.

"Lets just go." Greynose mewed. Dawnfire let Frostflower and Foxclaw ake the lead. She stayed at the back with Greynose.

"You know, I was thinking about kits." Greynose mewed.

That made Dawnfire stop suddenly. What was he getting at? "What? You mean..."

"Yeah! I was thinking that we could maybe have kits."

Dawnfire filled with pride at the thought of having kits. "When?"

"When we got back."

"Thats a bit soon don't you think?"

"I guess."

They carried on talking about kits until it was nightfall. She stopped the patrol and allowed them to hunt. She caught a fish for her and Greynose to share. Frostflower and Foxclaw weresharing a rabbit. The four warriors sat together and shared tongues. It felt more like home and for a while, Dawnfire forgot all about the bear and her kits, and Rippletails' death.

She decided it was time to sleep and now that she thought about it, she was exaushted from sitting her vigil and travelling all day.

She put her head on her paws and fell into a deep sleep.

she opened her eyes and found herself in a starlit clearing.

"Under a ravens wings, the stining nettlle, the morning and the brambles, those chosen shall seek out dawn." A voice whispered. She suddenly saw infront of her a black tom sitting bolt upright in a somewhat familiar clearing. The image faded and was replaced with the image of a brown and black tom in a pine forest. It was quickly replaced with the image of a small pale grey she-cat sitting by the lakes edge and then it was replaced yet again with the image of a pale brown she cat fishing in a river.

Then it faded and she saw her mother padding softly towards her. "We didn't know you'd be going home this early. But the raven, nettle, the morning and brambles will still come."

"Wha-?" She was cut short by Swiftleaf hushing her.

"There is no meaning to this. You shall meet them at the forest where you shall meet someone very special."

"Who?"

"I cannot tell you yet young one." Swifleaf mewed fadin into the shadows.