BraveClan's touching story/(3): Rediscovering Wonders from Darkness/7

## Part 7: DarkClan’s new warriors

I'm going to do DarkClan's menacing story, at some point, the stories will totally merge: Darkstar yawned. He was feeling victorious after the raid of BraveClan. He was sure everyone had died. His mate, Purpleslash, put her tail on his paws. They watched their children and grandchildren do their warrior duties. "Amazing, isn't it? We have a ton of prey and a ton of warriors. We even have two more from BraveClan!" exclaimed Purpleslash. Desiree, a kittypet and Fierylight, a BraveClan warrior. They had said they wanted to join DarkClan. Darkstar had understood. They didn't get killed. The Clan's motto was, "Join, and you won't get killed." Tons of cats joined each day.

Desiree was the daughter of Swiftsand and Thymegrass, and Fierylight was the daughter of Heatherfern and Vixenpetal. Desiree became Destinypaw. They did their best to help DarkClan. It was cool. Darkstar wanted to kill more cats, but there were none in the vicinity. One day, a warrior named Dapplethorn reported a rogue camp, and he wasn't kidding when he said it. A fully-fledged rogue camp was there. Darkstar sent cats there, to fight it. DarkClan won, but the rogue Clan managed to defend most of their cats, and ran away. But they stole all the prey and herbs.

Fierylight was one of those cats who was sent, but she was looking for the rogues, and where they've gone. Then she got lost. She called her Clanmates' names out loud, but there was no reply. For days she was lost, and she didn't know what to do anymore. Then she came across another camp. She went towards it. Then suddenly kits started jumping on Fierylight. Then a voice said, "Ah, aunt, you've come back." Fierylight's face turned into a contorted frown.

Then another voice said, "Traitor! You joined DarkClan! You killed me before!" Fierylight saw the face of Bravestar. He looked stern.

He said, "I remember in my old life, my aunt was from a Clan, and she joined another one. I never understood Clan life until I made one. BraveClan. And you can't destroy it as long as we're here."

"As-as long wh-who's here? " she asked. Bravestar replied, "Us."

"I'm Leafkit, a.k.a FALLSTAR!" Leafkit said calmly.

"I'm Cinderpelt," yelled Emberkit.

"I'm Rainingkit, and I'm much more acquainted with Clan life than with my old one!" Rainingkit said, clearly Rainleaf.

And Cloudkit said, "I'm Cloudkit, also known as Skysoar."

Greenmoon and her kits had also come to check her out. Greenmoon was holding herbs. "I was just in the middle of sorting, what in StarClan is going on?!" she demanded. Specklekit and Lynxkit looked confused. Very confused. Then Fierylight realized what was going on. The prophecy cats had come back. She had no idea it was her own nephew, too, however. She was wondering what everyone was doing.

Then Fierylight asked, "Who else is alive?" Bravestar calmly replied, "Shadowcreek, my mate." Fierylight looked at everyone's faces in mega confusion and puzzlement. Each of the faces looked angry.

"YOU KILLED ME WHILE I WAS CINDERPELT!" yelled Emberkit. Before she knew it, she was a prisoner.

Fierylight thought she looked stupid, to be back in BraveClan again. She didn't even know it still existed. She thought everyone died... unless... they must have all run away. But how about Greenmoon? She was dead, she thought so. And she was standing there right in front of her. She must have played dead! This reckoning came down on Fierylight like lightning, and she felt distressed. She didn't know how to tell DarkClan, but she didn't even know how to go back. Or get out of prison. She felt doomed forever. She was already thinking about plans for what she might do when she dies and joins the Dark Forest or something.

Back at DarkClan, there were so many warriors, and since Fierylight was fairly new, nobody even noticed she was gone. Except for Destinypaw, who had gone with her to DarkClan in the first place. Destinypaw looked worried, Fierylight hadn't come back. She knew her very well, because of them being Clanmates both in BraveClan and DarkClan. They had almost became best friends.

So she told Darkstar about this. Frankly, he lectured her about something. "Ah, you're new, yes?" he replied. "So we usually fight, and whoever dies, it's not much of a problem to the rest of the Clan, except maybe their family. But our army consists of dozens of cats, one death of a simple warrior isn't even a loss to the Clan. You see, Destinypaw?" he said, nastily grinning.

When she listened to that, she had a dumbstruck look on her face. Not even caring about Fierylight? She walked away solemnly, she didn't recall BraveClan having these kinds of rules. Destinypaw thought that even if BraveClan had this many warriors, there would be no such thing as that rule. But she just shrugged. She might see Fierylight in the Dark Forest, but she wasn't so sure.

Warmpaw, an apprentice of DarkClan asked, "Why so sad, Destinypaw, miss your old stupid Clan?" Destinypaw hissed and replied, "No, I don't, I'm sad about Fierylight, she had to meet her fate." Warmpaw did a dry laugh. "Really? She yo best friend?" Destinypaw walked away from him. The next time a few warriors did a patrol, she came along with them secretly. Auburnfur, Spottedlark, Shrewspeck and Mothspring went on a patrol, and she secretly followed them. She padded her toes and such. This patrol was about finding more cats. This Clan is bloodthirsty, she thought. Not like BraveClan. She suddenly had a homesick feeling, but she whooshed that away. She was also scared of getting caught.

Shrewspeck said, "Ha, those cats we find are going to be D-E-A-D!" Auburnfur replied, "And we are gonna loot 'em all! This Clan'll be here for ages and ages to come!" Part of Destinypaw wondered if they just steal from others instead of doing it themselves. They came across a Twoleghouse. A Twoleg was there. The four cats started attacking him. The Twoleg had a cylinder-like thingy. He aimed at Spottedlark, and something exploded. Spottedlark was bleeding, and it looked like she was dying. Then he shot at Shrewspeck. He was dead, too. Then Auburnfur and Mothspring kept scratching him, and he dropped the cylinder-like thingy and ran like the wind. He had many cuts.

Auburnfur and Mothspring stared at the cylinder. "Well, we gotta report to Darkstar that Spottedlark and Shrewspeck are dead," said Mothspring, without even looking at the dead bodies. Destinypaw was horrified. She didn't know how to stay in this Clan without crying. She imagined if she died, and no one even acknowledged it. She started thinking about BraveClan, how it wasn't like that. She was thinking about that Clan, how she wished it still existed (which it did). Then Auburnfur and Mothspring were going to turn back when Destinypaw moved out of the way. They both stopped. "Looks like it's a cat," replied Mothspring. "Yup," replied Auburnfur. They both pounced at the spot, but Destinypaw leaped out of the way and ran back quickly.

She was the one to tell Darkstar first about the deaths. She realized it was a mistake after. "How do you know? You weren't with them," he said. Destinypaw said that Auburnfur and Mothspring told her. Darkstar said they weren't here yet. Then they came back. Mothspring and Auburnfur were about to tell Darkstar, but he already knew. Mothspring asked, "How?"

"An apprentice told me," he said, pointing to Destinypaw. "She said you told her." Destinypaw was about to faint. Auburnfur replied in total confusion, "Um, no, we didn't. We would tell you first and then her if we wanted to. But always you, first, Darkstar." Mothspring agreed.

Then Darkstar turned on Destinypaw and yelled, "And you, missy, how else would you know?!" Destinypaw wasn't sensitive and wouldn't cry when someone yelled at her. She just looked sad and decided to tell the truth.

"I followed them. I saw it. Shrewspeck and Spottedlark were shot by a Twoleg," she said.

Then Darkstar did one of his nasty grins and said, "You're only supposed to leave camp with your mentor or with a warrior's permission, Destinypaw. Since you're a new one, I'll let you off. But I don't want you wandering off into an area you don't know and get lost. Got it?" Destinypaw just nodded and stalked off. Then Auburnfur and Mothspring told Darkstar the details. Destinypaw saw no reason to listen to them, so she just went back to her den and thought things over.

She still thought about what might have happened to Fierylight, when her mentor, Birdrose called into the den, "Destinypaw! Time to train! Hope you practiced beforehand!" Destinypaw nodded, and just followed her mentor. *Best to do normal Clan stuff now, and worry about lost members later,* she thought, *but where is Fierylight? She couldn't have gone far…*