Warriors: The whispering heathers

Chapter 1 - Waking to reality

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"Bramblebounce? Are you okay?" A worried voice asked her, nudging her with their shoulder.
"Wha-" Bramblebounce blinked her blue eyes wide open, staring at the tom in front of her. "Oh! Flintivy... You scared me".
"I scared you? You scared the living darkforest out of me!" He frowned, his amber eyes glittering with worry.
Bramblebounce stretched and yawned, her brain still on her weird dr-, no, nightmare.
"And why's that?" She asked, tilting her head to the side with confusion. "I was just sleeping."
Flintivy twitched the tip of his tail. "You were twitching in your sleep, and you woke me up with all your rustling. When I saw you, your eyes were only half-closed and you were scratching the ground!"
The she-cat stared at him in surprise, pausing for a few heartbeats. She looked to the spot besides her moss and feathers nest. All scratched, he was right. Then she spoke, "I... You thought I was dead?"
"Of course! I mean, no. At least having a stroke or something similar. It happened to Fuzzyfoot and he's not here as you may know." Flintivy shrugged. "Poor guy was just trying to take some sleep, guess he's sleeping for all eternity now, up in the stars."
"Oh, please, Starclan again?" Bramblebounce scoffed, shaking the tip or her tail with annoyance, "You know these kind of stuff doesn't exist. Dead cats? Glowing? In the stars? That's just some nursery tales to make kittens too afraid to ever disobey–"
The tom interrupted her with panicked eyes, hushing her and brushing his tail against her mouth. He looked over her shoulder, and she followed his gaze.
"You sure you want to say these things in this camp? I guess not." He whispered, so low that even Bramblebounce could barely hear him.
Sprucestar was leaving his den, stretching and yawning. The dawn light brightened his silky, thick fur. His brown and white pelt looked poorly groomed, though. He's in a rush. She observed, watching him intently. But Flintivy got in her way.
"You know you can't stare at him for that long! He'll punish you if he sees!" He hissed in his own breath, but a worried shine glittered in his eyes.
"Let him punish me then. What difference will it make?" She sighed, looking down at her own belly. Thin, her own ribs showing off in the skin.
"You could die, Bramblebounce." Flintivy said softly, exchanging gazes with Speckleblaze, his mate. Her green eyes were understanding.
She shook her head with grief, and started slowly walking to lay down in the sun for a bit after Sprucestar left. That nightmare was better than this one.

Bramblebounce woke up in sun high, with a slap with Sprucestar's huge paw. She could barely react, with her weak bones keeping her off exchanging some claws with her clan leader.
"That's what you get for not hunting earlier, you useless piece of crow-food!" Sprucestar growled as he clawed at her nose.
Bramblebounce had little to no energy to react, or even say a word in her defense.
There was a few cats together, watching her with horrified faces, and Flintivy was among them, with both disappointed face and a guilty one. A light gray tabby she-cat was murmuring with a ginger and white one.
"It was her fault, Emberdusk! She's the one that prefered to keep sleeping like a hibernating bear!" Sandwind hissed indignant, her light gray pelt smoothened and clean. Her both kits, Blackkit and Dovekit, were jumping around in the nursery.
"Don't be silly, Sandwind," Emberdusk murmured, rolling her eyes. "It's not her fault, she apparently had a bad dream, and that's all."
"Don't talk to me like I'm a kit!" Sandwind growled, flattening her ears to her head and bristling her pelt. "Do you think I'm childish?"
"I do." Emberdusk mewed with amusement, and her calm gaze calmed the other she-cat down. "So, when are your kits going to be apprentices again?" She asked, while Vinekit and Brackenkit played with eachother near her paws.
The gray queen stood in surprise. "They were born a moon ago, so 5 moons?" She sat down again, curling her tail around her paws. "Shouldn't you know that?"
"They're not my kits."
"But they were born literally near your nest– You know what? Nevermind..."
When Bramblebounce noticed, Sprucestar had gotten off her, and was standing in front of her, against the daylight.
"How about you go make yourself useful, you stinky furball?" the clan leader growled, curling his lip in a snarl and showing his teeth.
She got up, making tons of efforts just to try to walk. She walked near the camp entrance, shaking her head to get rid of the blood in her nose. Her pelt burned with the feeling of being watched by him, and she quickened her step to avoid the glaring, green eyes.

She felt her steps heavy, and her body almost crashing on the cold leaf-fall grass. A bone-chilling breeze weaved through the open space. Bramblebounce's eyes were so tired that they wanted to automatically close, and her head felt heavy and tipped to the side. The she-cat sat down in the grass, trying not to fall asleep.
She remembered her dream. And a soft whisper ringed in her head as she widened her blue eyes. "The heather whispers for help, and the shade is destroyed by the sun. Only the bramble can save them."
She gazed at her paws in confusion, then slowly letting her eyes slide through the field, watching the heathers in it, and soon catching view of Shadeclan's territory. Tall pines stretching up in the horizon, a shaded, deep forest. The night was falling down, stars started to shine bright in the sky. Only a lake separated them. Only a huge pool, full of water, separated them. And the code. She thought to herself, flattening her ears.
Her heart sank when she saw the sun going down, almost realizing the prophecy's meaning.