CHAPTER 6 | THREE LIVES GONE
1066 Words
Rainpaw’s POV
Rainpaw striked a strong blow over a small white she-cat’s ear. The she-cat yowled in anger as blood burst from her ear, failing her paws in the air but Rainpaw caught her by the scruff and bit down hard. Rainpaw quickly realised the she-cat was Whitetail. She let go of Whitetail’s scruff and the white warrior fled out the camp. Rainpaw looked around. Her clan was majorly outnumbered and she soon spotted Firestar defending the nursery against three warriors with Sorreltail. She raced over but as she was running she saw to her left the White pelt of her beloved Whitepaw.
She switched directions. She came to a halt over the white cat’s body. He was still alive but weak. She gave him a lick but another cat hurtled toward her. She dodged the black and white cat and he tripped over Whitepaw’s body, toppling his black paws over. Rainpaw sprung toward the black cat but he whipped around and crashed forward into her. He bit her tail hard and she yowled fiercely. Again the black cat scraped his claws through her fur, slicing her skin, spraying blood all over her pelt and his. She lay on the ground next to Whitepaw. Her wound stung. The other cat had left to join another fight. Thunderclan was slowly loosing.
Rainpaw staggered up onto her paws. Her back right leg was in great pain. She tried to put pressure onto it but she couldn’t. Her head hung low as she looked around the battling cats. She turned toward Firestar and Sorreltail. They had managed to defeat one of the enemy cats but they were both growing tired. Thunderclan couldn’t continue like this for much longer. Her injured leg dragging behind her, Rainpaw limped toward her clan leader. She managed to reach him through the blood pools, bodies and lashing claws and tails. She fell beside him as Firestar pinned a black-grey cat to the ground.
“What are you doing here?!” he growled, though there was almost relief in his voice. His relieve vanished when he realised she was almost finished and he saw Whitepaw’s body.
“Firestar,” croaked Rainpaw with great effort. “We can’t keep up with this.”
There was fear in Firestar’s eyes and fear scent flowed off both cats. “We can’t do anything else! We will have to retreat and leave our territory.”
“No, Firestar! We can ask starclan!” Rainpaw managed to yowl. Suddenly Rainpaw felt a massive wave of energy and strength.
“But you don’t believe in Starclan.”
“Faith,” she replied, giving him a nod that told him she did. She staggered to her paws and looked to her left then to her right. On both her sides she saw faded cats standing beside her, ready to fight. With all her strength Rainpaw sprang onto the cat Sorreltail was battling and crashed into him, bowling him over. The power that surged through her paws and muscles made it easy. Her enemy, fled out through the thorn tunnel and out the camp.
“Thanks,” heaved Sorreltail. “What are you doing here?”
“We can speak after we have won the battle,” she replied, charging toward the next cat she saw battling with Hollyleaf. This cat was a ginger tom with white paws. She sliced her claws across his flank, ripping the flesh, sending blood everywhere. Then she bit down into his front leg. The stench of blood filled her nostrils when the warm liquid filled her mouth. The ginger tom fled out of camp, leaving Rainpaw spitting out blood. The other cats where still battling, but the WindClan cats were getting fewer as the cats Rainpaw had helped went on to other cats to back up their other clanmates.
The last WindClan cat had just fled leaving the ThunderClan camp covered in blood and exhausted cats. Everyone was laying down, sides heaving. There were three bodies that were limp and to Rainpaw’s relief Whitepaw wasn’t one of them. Rainpaw looked again, searching for the ghostly figure of cats but they had vanished. Building up the strength Rainpaw staggered toward the once white pelt of Whitepaw that was now matted with blood and dirt and lay beside him. She groomed his fur but cringed her face at the foul taste of blood.
The sound of Foxpaw’s voice startled Rainpaw. “What are you doing here? You have no right to set paw in ThunderClan’s territory.”
“If it weren’t for Rainpaw and Whitepaw Thunderclan could very likely have just been driven out of it’s home.” It was Firestar who spoke. “She and Whitepaw came back.”
Foxpaw didn’t object any further. He too was beaten with exhaustion.
“Why was WindClan here?” asked Whitepaw with a voice that Rainpaw was barely able to hear. Rainpaw sniffed at his ribs. Her nose very faintly touched it and he flinched. “Ouch!” Rainpaw could tell he was in great pain.
“Hold on. His ribs could be broken.” Leafpool, the medicine cat had shown up and was pacing toward the apprentice. She looked tired and ill. The whole clan looked as if they had been fighting and working non-stop ever since they had left.
Leafpool continued to examine Whitepaw as Rainpaw asked again for him, “why was WindClan here?”
“Onestar came here with few of his warriors. He said twolegs had invaded part of their territory and scared away most of the prey. Already it being winter they had hardly enough food to survive. They looked thick and well fed and we suspected they were lying so we denied help to them. We are scarce on prey ourselves anyway,” Firestar answered as he gasped for air after each sentence.
Brambleclaw continued for Firestar as the ginger tom fell down in exhaustion. His mate, Sandstorm bounded over to support him while Brambleclaw spoke. “WindClan didn’t like the response so Onestar gave the signal for his warriors to attack. Seems like they expected a battle because they had almost their entire clan outside our camp and they all gushed in and attacked.” Brambleclaw sighed. He sat down.
The sound of Leafpool’s voice startled Rainpaw and turned to see her beside Spiderleg’s body. “Spiderleg, Poppyfrost and Berrynose are dead!”
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