A brown bushy tail poked up from some undergrowth. It began to shake from side-to-side, causing the ferns to rattle slightly. Not far away was a creamy ginger she-cat watching the thin squirrel silently. One wrong move and the squirrel would be gone. She was downwind, however, which was a very good thing.
With a swift leap, she fell on top of the squirrel—trapping it under her paws. A swift bite to the neck stopped its squirming for freedom. She brought herself back upright, and she turned her head behind herself. The only thing she could see were the gloomy expressions of the rest of the hunting patrol behind her.
     The cats behind her were Cloudfang, Strikeclaw, Dewfrost, Mapleheart, and Whitefang. Mapleheart was the deputy of ThunderClan, and the organiser of the hunting patrol. Her face was especially crestfallen compared to the rest of the patrol. None of them had a piece of prey in their paws or jaws, meaning only Dawnflower was successful in catching something.
     Cloudfang grumpily mumbled to himself as he turned away from everyone. Dewfrost then made an angered glance at the irritated white tom before turning back to Dawnflower with a frown. "It seems like you have noticed yourself how sparse prey has been for the rest of us..."
     Dawnflower made a slow gaze towards Mapleheart, who only looked away. Recent times were rough on ThunderClan, and it had already lost about half of its warriors in the last three brutal moons.
     With heavy reluctance, the patrol decided it was best to head back to camp, and catch up with Cloudfang, with what they had found. They knew that a thin squirrel wouldn't suffice for the Clan, but it was all they could find.

     As they entered camp, the sun was now halfway up the sky. A ginger tabby tom, Foxnose, and a gray tom, Ashfall watched somberly as the patrol headed for the clearing. Sunstar, the ThunderClan leader, leapt down from his den as he quietly approached the patrol. With an authoritative tone, he demanded answers for the lack of prey.
"For StarClan's sake, how can a patrol of ThunderClan's best hunters only find a measly squirrel?! Leaf-bare has been over for a few sunrises now, and yet you consistently fail to provide for the Clan?!"
Dawnflower felt a prickle of annoyance run down her spine over his obliviousness to their situation, but her loyalty to Sunstar was stronger. "Sunstar, if I may?" she asked respectfully. Sunstar nodded his approval, and Dawnflower continued.
"We have searched almost the entire territory for prey," she admitted. "The only place we haven't checked is the territory closest to the camp, which never has prey. Our territory is completely ridden of it. I wish we didn't have to tell the whole Clan, but we have completely run dry of prey. This 'measly squirrel' was the only thing we were able to locate. The only prey scent in the air we were able to find."
Sadness quickly fell heavy on the Clan at the news. ThunderClan had been the strongest Clan for many moons. There was only one true thing that could have taken it down so harshly.
Foxnose spoke up from the saddened crowd. "Sunstar, we are still recovering from the blizzard that blew through the Clans. What Dawnflower has said is true. There is no prey near our camp, and there is little to no prey within our territory. That blizzard kille—"
Sunstar snapped at Foxnose before he could finish. "I know what you are about to say, Foxnose! I'm warning you, don't. I know what that blizzard did to our Clan!"
Cloudfang came forward, walking in front of Dawnflower. A feeling of terror soon ran through her entire body as she knew why.
"Don't you mean what you did?!" the white tom hissed with spite. "You failed to evacuate the Clan when I warned you to! You, Mapleheart, and Dawnflower claimed that it was just some snowstorm, despite Strikeclaw, Blossomheart, and I warning you that it wasn't!"
The mention of Blossomheart sent a wave of chilling silence onto Sunstar. After all, Blossomheart was his daughter.
Dawnflower stepped back in front as she hissed at Cloudfang. "Now I recommend that you back off now. You don't get to use Blossomheart's name like that!"
Cloudfang glared at her intensely with pure anger. "She warned you all, and none of you listened, getting cats killed. Not even her own StarClan forsaken father listened! And you all wonder why I am so angry?!"
Strikeclaw retorted against Cloudfang's statement as other cats retaliated as well. "And would that have stopped cats from starving to death instead of from the overwhelming cold? Would it? No, no it would not have! Cats would have died regardless, Cloudfang. Whether or not Sunstar had listened to us, nothing could have prevented us from suffering greatly!"
     "Well we could have still prevented so many cats from dying, Strikeclaw!" Cloudfang snapped back.
Mapleheart stepped in between the two as she spoke firmly. "That's all done and over now. We are in the now. All we can do now is try to work back up."
Cloudfang glared at Mapleheart, but didn't retort back as much of what remained of the once great Clan was against him. All he did was mumble just loud enough for Dawnflower to hear.
     "And what if the other Clans find out before then..."
The white tom then walked off with an annoyed huff—with thankfully no other words to say. The crowd that had formed began to disperse, and life returned back to normal for ThunderClan. Well, for the most part...

Dawnflower felt a slight prod on her flank, and she woke up in the dark warriors' den. She flickered her eyes around, wondering who prodded her side, and her eyes stopped at a looming Lightstream.
"What do you want, Lightstream?" Dawnflower groaned groggily. Her eyes felt extremely heavy from being awoken from her sleep.
"It is about..." Lightstream had a slight hesitation before continuing. "Sunstar needs you."
The white she-cat padded off with her tail low, and she left the warriors' den. Dawnflower felt a soft sigh of annoyance release from her throat as she slowly got up to leave the den. She headed for the camp entrance, and carefully made sure she didn't accidentally kick Amberclaw.
As the moon began to shine high in the air, Dawnflower exited the warriors' den. She moved her eyes to the camp entrance, and she could see Cloudfang exiting camp, with Dewfrost following at a slight distance. She ignored it, however, and she made a beeline for Sunstar's den.
     Once she climbed to the top of the steppingstones, she walked towards the entrance of Sunstar's den. With a peek inside, she could soon hear the raspy, elderly voice of Sunstar speaking to her to come inside. With a long sigh, she finally entered. To the right-front corner of her stood Mapleheart, and the opposite corner stood Lightstream. In the middle of the den sat Sunstar.
The minimal light made it hard for Dawnflower to see inside, only making out the faint outlines of the said cats around her, but her vision was steadily improving so she could see in the deep darkness of Sunstar's den.
As her eyesight finally cleared up, she spoke softly. "What did you need me for?"
     Sunstar began to stand up as he replied. "Well...with the blizzard having taken a massive toll on ThunderClan, I am concerned with how the other Clans will react. We can't send nearly as many warriors to the Gathering as we normally do due to how low we are...They will catch on regardless of what we tell them. They will see our weakness clearly like it is a shining light in the midst of the deep dark."
Lightstream walked beside Dawnflower as she asked with narrowed eyes. "What exactly are you proposing, Sunstar?"
Sunstar replied almost instantly. His eyes gleamed with a little bit of frustration. "What I am proposing is ThunderClan watches its back. Regardless if they find out our weakness from us, or on their own, one of them will use that to their advantage and attack us. And they will find that out at the Gathering."
Mapleheart gasped with shock as she meowed out loud. "Sunstar! You seriously cannot be considering what I think you are!"
Dawnflower looked at Mapleheart with concern and confusion. She didn't know what was going on, nor what Sunstar was suggesting. She was still too tired to understand the situation.
Sunstar looked away from Mapleheart with visible shame. With a shaky voice, he rasped. "W-what choice d-do we have, Mapleheart? We at least are close allies with SkyClan. If anything, they might be able to help us..."
As Dawnflower finally realised what this was all about, Lightstream shot back in anger. "Sunstar, do you have bees in your brain! Have you forgotten the tumultuous events that had happened under Bramblestar's leadership?! The SkyClan-ThunderClan friendship ceased to exist because of Ashfur's meddling! Or, perhaps all the events that happened afterwards?!"
Sunstar glared at Lightstream. "And have you forgotten that the SkyClan-ThunderClan friendship was amended after so many moons?! How everything finally was amended when we aided them when ShadowClan was threatening their borders again?!"
     Fear prickled along Dawnflower's spine, and she finally intervened. "If we can trust SkyClan that much, then why can't we only tell them? Why should we involve the other three Clans in our problems?!"
     Sunstar spoke softly again as he responded. "Because they will get involved no matter what. ThunderClan was the peacekeeping force of this territory for so many moons. Now that we are almost on the brink of collapse, someone is going to try to fill our paws. Someone will fill the power vacuum left behind. You said it yourself just today, Dawnflower. There is no prey within our borders. We are weak and starving, and those fox-hearts in the other three Clans will find out. They will see our shallow eyes, and our thin bodies. They will see how hard it is for some of our warriors to walk, and some to even move their heads up—And you know what? They will take advantage of it."
Someone clearing their throat caused everyone to pause their argument as they looked at the entrance. Dawnflower could see Songfoot, the ThunderClan medicine cat, watching the four carefully. She finally stopped at Sunstar, and she meowed with a slight bit of regret.
"I just want to warn you that I had to use the last of my marigold. A whole bunch just went missing from its patch along the SkyClan border, so I was forced to have to use the last one on Clawheart."
     The gray she-cat walked off, and everyone looked at Sunstar once more. Sunstar made brief glances at them all as he meowed. "As I said, we have become weak, and the other Clans will find out. You are all dismissed."

-/-
Quite the introduction, eh? Very different than how I normally start my stories, actually. The only other story I believe I started off like this was Traveling Shadows.

So, how was this chapter?

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Thank you so much for reading this chapter, and I wish you all an excellent day!
(11 November, 2021)