[TB] DAWN -- Prologue (Patreon)

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The full moon hung heavy in the black night sky, turning the backs of the ShadowClan patrol to silver. The small group of warriors stuck together, whiskers brushing and eyes darting from side to side, looking for some unseen enemy.

It shouldn’t be like this, Rowanclaw thought, unease prickling his paws. Normally the journey to a Gathering was peaceful and easy, even though ShadowClan had to cross beneath a Thunderpath to make it to Fourtrees. There was no feeling as if something were watching from the shadows, ready to spring out from the silence at a moment’s notice.

Rowanclaw glanced at his Clanmates. Orre and Wolftooth stood guard at the patrol’s flanks, while Blackfoot took up a position in the rear, his ears pinned back. Ahead, Nightwing jumped at the hoot of an owl, and Pinewhisker snapped his teeth when she trod on his paw.

“Enough.” Russetstar turned her head, green eyes blazing. “Be silent, or do you want to tell everyone where we are?”

This is a patrol heading to the Gathering, Rowanclaw wanted to whine. Not a battle party!

“Ease up,” Pansytail meowed, brushing her plumy tail along the Clan leader’s spine. Her eyes were soft on her mate. “Twolegs don’t work at night, every cat knows that.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Wolftooth growled a pawstep behind Rowanclaw, his tail-tip flicking irritably. “These Twolegs aren’t like the ones we knew, Pansy.”

Rowanclaw swallowed. Wolftooth and Pansytail had once lived in the nearby Twolegplace, part of a group of violent cats called BloodClan. That terrible group had broken apart after being defeated by the forest Clans, and moons later Wolftooth and Pansytail’s small group joined ShadowClan. If any cat knew Twoleg behaviors, it would be them.

“What are you going to tell the other Clans?” wondered Littlecloud, as if to steer the topic away. The small tabby medicine cat looked more anxious than usual. “The Twolegs are invading the Black Fens – we're lucky they haven't reached the tunnel beneath the Thunderpath yet! When they do...”

We might be cut off from the rest of the forest, Rowanclaw finished glumly. His fur prickled at the thought.

Rowanclaw looked at Russetstar expectantly. What would she say? Every Clan was being affected by the Twolegs, from what their patrols had seen from over the Thunderpath – Rowanclaw himself had watched a group of WindClan hunters cower helplessly in a bush while Twolegs plodded along their torn land, scaring away every rabbit. Would she mention that?

Would she mention the hunger? Rowanclaw couldn’t recall the last time his belly had known a full meal. He supposed, grimly, that there would be no need to talk about that – it was fairly obvious in their shrunken frames and poking ribs.

“I will tell the other Clans only what they need to know,” Russetstar answered simply. “I see no reason to involve them in our affairs, especially if they’re facing their own problems as well. ShadowClan can protect itself.”

Can we? Rowanclaw wondered.

“Wherever Stoneheart went, the rest of us should’ve followed,” grunted Pinewhisker. “He got out before it got bad.”

Nightwing bristled beside him. “If he knew, he should’ve told us! What kind of warrior just abandons their Clan like that?”

“Well, he left ThunderClan...”

Rowanclaw stared incredulously at Pinewhisker. “How dare you!” he spat, the fur along his shoulders rising. That’s my mate you’re meowing about! “You don’t know Stoneheart at all, do you?!”

Pinewhisker blinked, as if he hadn’t recalled that Rowanclaw was right there. Nightwing, whiskers trembling, turned her muzzle away to stare at a passing birch as if it were the most interesting piece of landscape in existence.

Rowanclaw dug his claws into the earth. “That’s what I thought,” he growled.

He felt Russetstar’s tail lay across his shoulders. “Blackfoot, go on ahead,” Russetstar meowed. “We will join you shortly.”

Blackfoot twitched his tail in response, pushing through the crowd. Rowanclaw felt frozen to the spot as his Clanmates awkwardly stepped around him. No one said anything to him as they disappeared into the undergrowth, leaving only Rowanclaw and Russetstar behind.

What can they say that they haven’t already said? He wondered as Russetstar took a step away from him. When the Clan had resigned themselves to Stoneheart’s absence, Rowanclaw had endured so much of their sympathy that he felt sick at the thought of yet another cat expressing their sorrow for his loss.

He was painfully aware of Russetstar’s gaze – was she upset with him for bursting out like that? He dared to meet her eye, only to find that her whiskers were twitching with amusement, not annoyance.

“It’s all right, Rowanclaw,” she said. “If some cat were badmouthing Pansytail, I don’t think I would have reacted any differently.”

Rowanclaw breathed a sigh of relief. If this were any other Clan, Rowanclaw expected he’d be reprimanded for his outburst – in ShadowClan, however, there was no such silliness. ShadowClan cats said what needed to be said... sometimes regardless of who it might offend.

“I asked this before, but... do you know anything?” Russetstar wondered. She tipped her head. “Have you seen any sign of Stoneheart since he left?”

Rowanclaw swallowed around a lump forming in his throat. “No,” he answered. “Nothing.”

Russetstar stared at him a moment longer, as if she doubted him – and then, sweeping her tail through the night air, she meowed, “I miss him, too, Rowanclaw – but we’ve a lot more to worry about than one missing cat. I’m sure you understand that.”

Rowanclaw’s tail puffed. “They’ve no right to doubt his loyalties!” he snapped. “Stoneheart is ShadowClan to his core!”

“I know,” Russetstar meowed patiently. Rowanclaw eased off – Stoneheart had been Russetstar’s apprentice for many moons. She knew Stoneheart as well as Rowanclaw did. “I’ve never doubted Stoneheart’s loyalties - but you have to admit that the timing of his departure...”

“It looks bad,” Rowanclaw finished, turning his muzzle away. “Believe me, I know that.”

“... Regardless,” Russetstar swept on, “we’ll be late if we hang about here. The other Clans will start without us.”

Rowanclaw got to his paws and followed Russetstar along the trail to Fourtrees, barely paying attention to where he put his paws. His mind was buzzing and his heart was aching. Soon I might be the only cat left with any faith in Stoneheart!

It didn’t help that he was the only cat that knew of real reason why Stoneheart left: Rowanclaw didn’t know why, but StarClan had chosen his mate for a grand, dangerous journey with cats from every Clan. He had gone off to fight some unknown darkness that was going to threaten the Clans and the forest they lived in.

Rowanclaw longed to tell the others; but without knowing the true nature of Stoneheart’s dreams, what use would the explanation be? What cat would believe that StarClan had chosen simple warriors to do this great task? He hardly believed it, still. But Stoneheart was gone, and so were other warriors from the other Clans – that had to mean the dreams were real.

The doubt gave Rowanclaw pause again. He had to hope that the dreams and signs were real, otherwise... Otherwise, they were just an excuse to get away from me.

He shook his head of the thought. Stoneheart was not that type of cat!

Blackfoot was waiting for them in a bed of ferns. A few steps beyond were Fourtrees, a small clearing in the forest bordered by the four largest oaks in the forest. Rowanclaw craned his neck to peer over the bushes and into the clearing ahead.

“No one else is here,” Littlecloud meowed, his ears twitching. “What’s keeping them?”

Rowanclaw frowned, lowering his chin. What was keeping the other Clans? Normally a Clan wouldn’t hesitate to be the first ones to step into Fourtrees on a Gathering night. Some Clans even loved to brag about it.

A chilly wind cut through Rowanclaw’s pelt. He shivered. There was a strange tension in the air tonight, so thick he felt like he could pierce it with a claw. What did that feeling mean?

Russetstar curled her lip. “I don’t know what’s stepped on the other Clan’s tails, but I for one don’t want to wait here until leaf-bare. Come--”

A loud growl, louder than any predator Rowanclaw had ever heard, erupted from within the trees, interrupting Russetstar’s call. Littlecloud whimpered, covering his ears. Pansytail was bristling from ears to tail.

“A monster!” she cried above the noise. “In the forest?!”

“What in StarClan’s name?” Wolftooth cursed, unsheathing his claws.

Another monster roared to life, this time on the other side of the ShadowClan cats. Rowanclaw’s heart beat in his ears – they were surrounded! He looked to Russetstar and Blackfoot. What should they do?

A third monster sounded from the opposite end of the clearing, and suddenly the clearing of Fourtrees was flooded with bright yellow light. Rowanclaw’s eyes watered from the intensity, and as he ducked his head below the ferns he yowled, “They’re waking up!”

“ShadowClan, fall back!” Russetstar called, her eyes flashing in the light. “Hurry!”

Rowanclaw pulled himself to his paws, pushing Nightwing ahead of him as his patrol retreated back the way they came. The roar of the monsters was grumbling and rattling now, growing louder and louder as Russetstar led them up a nearby slope.

Down below, in the clearing, Rowanclaw could make out the shapes of Twolegs walking through Fourtrees - long, odd shadows in their harsh and unnatural light. They pointed with their strange paws at the oaks, moving out of the way as large, boxy monsters, their shells a bright yellow, crawling forward.

“What are they doing?” Pinewhisker panted, eyes wide.

“Russetstar, we need to leave,” Blackfoot advised, an edge of panic in his voice. “If they see us...”

Russetstar was bristling. “I need to know what they’re doing to Fourtrees!” she snapped, pushing her deputy aside.

The boxy yellow monster raised what looked like its tail – but it was unlike any tail Rowanclaw had ever seen. It had long, sharp talons at the end, and with those talons it gripped one of the old oaks by its trunk. The tree rustled, some leaves falling softly into the night.

Another monster approached, and it pressed its strange front-end tail into the trunk of the oak. A harsh whine split the air, like the sound of some dying beast, and the smell of sap and wood flooded Rowanclaw’s senses.

“StarClan help us!” Littlecloud wailed. He stared at the moon imploringly, his eyes wide to their whites. “Stop them! Please!”

Rowanclaw was transfixed as the tail drove deeper and deeper into the oak. Moments later there was a loud snap, and a groan, and the oak gave way, falling into the embrace of the taloned monster. The taloned monster raised its tail, taking the oak with it, and, slowly, turned and dropped the tree to the side unceremoniously.

Twolegs swarmed over the tree like flies to a corpse. Rowanclaw felt bile rise in his throat as the monsters fired up again, crawling across the ground on their strange paws to the next oak. The third monster, another taloned one, trundled in and, like a badger, used its talons to pull up the Great Rock as if it were searching for beetles beneath.

In that moment, Rowanclaw understood the darkness that his mate had left to fight.

The horrors dragged on through the night, until Rowanclaw was cold and stiff and deafened by the noises of the hungry monsters. The ShadowClan cats watched, speechless, as the Twolegs and their monsters tore apart one of the oldest, most sacred places in the forest.

Stoneheart... Rowanclaw thought, mouth dry, wherever you are...

Please... Please, save us!