Chapter 4

Moon scrambled to her paws and realized Heatherwhisker was staring down at her looking annoyed. The sun was shining through the opening in the den.

"Come on! Rivermist and the others are all awake and ready to go!" Heatherwhisker meowed impatiently. Moon shook out her fur and padded outside of the den. Outside, Rivermist, Pebblestorm, Flamelight, Puddlejump, and Greenheart were impatiently waiting outside the den. Moon glanced at Rivermist apolgetically but Rivermist turned her head and began to set off without saying anything to her.

"I am very hungry." Greenheart said. "We should probably hunt before we head off. There should be plenty of small woodland creatures among the trees."

The cats sniffed and wandered alone to find some prey. They needed some breakfast to fill them up.

Rivermist killed a mouse scurrying towards a tree. Greenheart caught a hare. Pebblestorm and Flamelight both caught their own squirrels. Heatherwhisker caught an ugly little vole. Of course, Puddlejump didn't catch anything, except a few ants.

Moon crouched down and sniffed the air for prey. Everyone else was eating the prey they had caught but Moon was having trouble catching something. Her thoughts were on something else... The dream she had had last night had haunted her since she had woken up. Should I tell Rivermist? But how do I know if my dream was true, it isn't like I'm a medicine cat! Moon realized a rabbit was standing right in front of her and she quickly pounced. She killed the plump rabbit with a swift, clean bite.

She padded back to the rest of the group and decided to tell Rivermist about her dream. But only Rivermist, I don't really trust the rest of these cats yet, sadly. Besides Icepaw is HER apprentice.

"Um, hey Rivermist. Could I talk to you?" Moon asked slowly.

"Sure. Is there something wrong? I feel like you've acted strange today." Rivermist was concerned.

Rivermist led Moon behind a pine tree for some privacy.

"Last night I....." Moon trailed off nervously. Am I making the right decision telling her??

"Go on. I want you to tell me. I'm here for you." Rivermist said. Moon could tell from her expression that she wanted to know and was worried.

"Okay. Last night I had a dream. Um, kind of a strange dream. I dreamed I was in a forest. It was almost pitch black! And in one of the clearings I saw... Well, I saw Rowan and Icepaw." Moon began carefully picking her words.

"Really? Do you think it was from Starclan?" Rivermist's ears perked up.

"I don't really know. The place I was in didn't really look like Starclan. Quite the opposite. Anyways, Icepaw kept begging Rowan to let him go and not to hurt his clanmates. Rowan well said that he wouldn't hurt us until he got what he wanted. I think this dream was a warning. It's been bothering me all day." Moon meowed. I'm not going to mention the "friends in the shadows" or the strange voices. No. Not yet at least.

"Well, at least we got a warning. I'm glad you told me. I'll be alert from now on. Hopefully it turns out to be a dream. It would be bad if Icepaw was captured by Rowan. Should I tell the others about the dream?" Rivermist licked her nose.

Moon awkwardly shifted her paws and flicked the tip of her tail as she thought of a reply.

"Um... I hope you don't mind but.... I don't think.. I mean I don't know if I can trust the others... It's just...." Moon trailed unsure what to say without offending Rivermist. Moon flattened her ears. That came out wrong!

"Very well. I won't tell then. At least I know. Even if we do spot a strange cat with him, they would all attack. It'll be ok." Rivermist licked her paw and smiled at the rogue she-cat.

"You sound like some kind of leader right now! You seem much more happy and less anxious compared to yesterday. Something happen last night?" Moon purred with amusement, her whiskers twitching.

"Well, I fall in and out of being ok. I mean, nothing special happened last night. I got the hang of being out here. We should probably continue on. Let's go find my apprentince." Rivermist left and followed the others.

Birds chipped high up in the trees. A moose quietly chewed leaves on a bush. The sky was a bright blue and only a few cloud covered the sky. The grass swayed in the wind and happy forest animals chittered happily. I never realized how beautiful it is out here. I guess I was always distracted.

Rivermist sniffed the air. "I smell something unusal ahead. Should we go around it? I can't identify what it could be."

"Surely it's nothing serious! Let's continue. Maybe it's something neat!" Greenheart cheered.

The smell became stronger as the group of approached thick trees. Moon wasn't so sure about this. Was that fear she smelled on the air? Soon enough they arrived at a hill. The hill led upwards and more trees blocked their vision. Moon warily looked around. Why is this place familiar? The group of cats trudged up the hill and as they came to the top the smell became so strong they knew they had to be close to something. Rivermist took the others as they began to enter the clearing, but Moon hesitated. Rivermist padded into the clearing just as Moon remembered. It's a trap.

The cats saw a large, dirty white barn in the middle of the clearing. The area was treeless and errie but the entire place was surrounded by more thick trees almost like a wall to keep out unwelcome visitors. Then, there was a sound of angry hissing cats. Dirty, rugged cats surrounded them.

"Welcome my friends. I've been waiting for you." A cat rasped from behind them. Moon whipped around to see Rowan himself. Great Starclan! Rowan seems even more intimidating up close!

"Where's Icepaw rogue?!" Rivermist shouted. "Don't fret, he's near." Rowan snarled.

There was a yelping sound coming from inside the barn. Two young, gray cats stood in the barn crying out for help.

"Who's the other kitty???" Rivermist asked.
"Windpaw?! I can't believe! Everyone thought he died but here he is all along!" Moon meowed in surprise. As the rest of the group looked at her confused she said, "Windpaw is an apprentice from Flameclan. He went missing one day and no one could find him. We just assumed he was dead."

"Now that you arrived I'm assuming your pathetic group of cats are going to fight my rogue friends?" Rowan meowed his voice smooth and calm.

"You guessed right." Moon growled.

The cats hissed angrily at the rogues and the battle began.

Heatherwhisker threw her claws in Rowan's scarred face. Rowan knocked her over with his mucular paw and she fell to the ground with a deafening thump.

"They're stronger than I thought!" Heatherwhisker cried. Moon saw Rivermist jump in front of Robin and they began to slash their claws into each others faces.

Pebblestorm leapt forward and dug his teeth into Frog's neck. The ugly mangled cat's face seemed to glow with hatered. He tore a piece of Frog's neck and the cat began to go limp but desperately swiped his claws around blindly. Flamelight rushed towards Frog and tore the wound open more killing the rogue. Blood spattered onto Flamelight's face and she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Rivermist was distracted by seeing Pebblestorm kill the hideous rogue and was severly clawed on the neck by Robin. She bit Robin's front paw and bloodied it. Robin hissed.

Heatherwhisker was being chased by Rowan, and she ran for her life. He was just too strong. As she passed by another rogue, Ice, She ripped out her eye and Ice's cold blue eye was dangling off her paw.

Moon jumped in front of Rowan blocking his way from hurting Heatherwhisker anymore. Moon jumped forward slashing Rowan's face with her sharp claws before he could dodge. Rowan tried to snap towards her neck but she jumped over him and dug her claws into his flank. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Windpaw, the small Flameclan apprentice, rush forward in front of Rowan and hiss.

"Windpaw, NO!" Moon yelled in horror. Rowan moved forward and Rowan's teeth dug into the apprentice's little neck. Rowan easily snapped the apprentice's neck. Windpaw's eyes were full of pain and then he fell limp. Moon stared at the dead body not sure what to do next. Icepaw covered his eyes with his paws and shook his head violently. Moon suddenly felt a surge of anger.

"How could you kill him?!" Moon yelled. She slashed her claws at Rowan's flank leaving a nasty gash. Rowan swiped his claws at her neck. Then something seemed to catch Rowan's eye. He bounded away to the barn. Greenheart was fighting Jasper farther away from the rest of them. Jasper suddenly lunged at her stomach and tore it open. Blood poured onto the ground, staining her fur. Moon gasped. While she was distracted she felt claws rip into her neck. Moon turned around expecting to see a cat but to her dismay no one was there.

Rowan was carrying Icepaw out of the barn by his scruff and Icepaw wailed.

"No! No! Rivermist! Help meeee!!!" Icepaw cried. The other rogues retreated with Rowan. Rivermist tried to chase them, but she was in pain was was slowed down.

Greenheart laid on the ground meowing in pain. Heatherwhisker ran over to the Sunclan deputy.