BraveClan's touching story/(3): Rediscovering Wonders from Darkness/15

## Part 15: Plentiful Clan and Lost Warrior

A few moons after Part 13: Destinyflower and Rainingclaw talked to each other in the nursery as they were both expecting Warmtail and Thunderflames' kits respectively. They looked at Tawnypaw and Burntpaw who were almost warriors. They looked at the kits who didn't have to be nursed anymore and were all playing.

Tawnypaw and Owlpaw got physical training with their mentors' mates. Tawnypaw got to be with Yarrowpaw. Sunpaw and Sootmist also joined in, and Tawnypaw looked interested in the former. Owlpaw got to be with Desertpaw and they were really happy. The mothers knew why, of course.

And most of all, Destinyflower and Rainingclaw were both prophecy cats, who had a spiritual purpose in the history of BraveClan, and StarClan, too.

Shadowcreek, Bravestar and Marigoldstar were happy that they were becoming grandparents again, since the legacy of BraveClan and the Legacy Prophecy cats could live on.

"Don't you think it is great that BraveClan grew so much?" Destinyflower asked the queens.

"Yeah, I never thought that there would be so many cats!" Diamondhare replied with glee. "The nursery used to mostly be empty when we were kits in SunClan."

"What did it look like?" her son, Silverkit, asked enthusiastically. Fenikkit, Orangekit, Hopekit, Redkit and Bluekit nodded eagerly. The other five kits were playing with each other outside of the nursery. Diamondhare explained how she and Thunderflames usually played with the apprentices because there were almost no kits.

"I usually play with Owlpaw and Minnowpaw," exclaimed Bluekit. Diamondhare raised an eyebrow with humor. "Oh really? Are your kit friends too boring for you?"

"No!" squealed Bluekit. "I just like apprentices."

"Me too!" agreed Hopekit. Lynxdaisy said, "You will be apprentices in three and a half more moons, then you can get to play with Owlpaw and Minnowpaw all as apprentices!" Fierylight nodded.

Then Orangekit asked Rainingclaw, "What about the BraveClan nursery?"

"Well, to begin with," she started. "I remember a lot of things. Do you want me to tell you what happened before?"

The other queens shot her a worried look, as it was pretty dark, indeed.

"When I was born, the Clan was really empty. Only Lynxdaisy, her brother and me and my siblings were the only kits there. That may seem plentiful, but there were only three warriors! Bravestar the leader, Shadowcreek, your grandmother, Orangekit and Bluekit, and Greenmoon, who is all of your grandmother, except for Hopekit and Redkit. You were also named after cats that lived in the past, except for Hopekit and Moonkit, too." Rainingclaw told the names of whom they and their siblings were named after. The kits asked who they were and Rainingclaw explained a little bit about them, along with Diamondhare and FLowermoon as they only knew about the SunClan cats.

Destinyflower thought it was interesting that the queens had so many stories and information to tell kits and apprentices like elders, of which there were none, anyway.

Diamondhare also thought this and explained how it was really strange not to have elders, since elders usually told stories. Silverkit asked her and his mother what an elder was, and Lynxdaisy said she didn't get to experience having elders before, so Diamondhare explained to her.

"In SunClan, there were so many elders!" Diamondhare explained. "We would usually hang out in the elders den along with the apprentices since there were almost no kits anyway, and listen to elders' stories all day. They even told me the legend of Sunstar, founder of SunClan."

"Do elders look old?" Redkit asked. "I wonder what an old cat looks like."

"The oldest cats are Fierylight, Greenmoon and Marigoldstar, I am pretty sure," said Lynxdaisy. "Then Bravestar and Shadowcreek, then Flameheart and Flowermoon and Hazecrest and Sootmist, and Destinyflower and Warmtail. But Rainingclaw and her siblings and me and Specklewhisker are the next oldest."

"Old cats have wrinkles," Fierylight added. "I am not old yet, of course, because I don't have wrinkles. But that is also why there're no elders."

The kits were really interested. "Is Sunstar old?" quipped Fenikkit.

"Um, Sunstar died a long time ago, but yes, he was old when he died, and he died peacefully in his sleep," Diamondhare answered cautiously. "Like Bravestar the first," Lynxdaisy added. "Our leader, Bravestar, was named after the founder of BraveClan."

The kits were surprised but they started barrelling more questions at their mothers and other queens.

Destinyflower whispered to Rainingclaw and Fierylight if they should tell the kits about the prophecies, and Fierylight said that they can tell that another time.

"Were there any elders when BraveClan was founded?" Silverkit asked thoughtfully.

"Nope, there were only young cats. But later on, those young cats turned into elders," replied Rainingclaw. "Then, later on, BraveClan shrank for some bad reasons, and there were only five cats left, Bravestar, Shadowcreek, Greenmoon, Destinyflower, and Fierylight."

"Really? Then how are there more cats?" Hopekit asked, a bit confused.

"Most other cats came from SunClan, and they merged with BraveClan to make both Clans bigger," Destinyflower explained very simply. "Also, the SunClan cats had kits with BraveClan cats. So your mothers and fathers are the second generation, and you are the third, and you are the future of the Clan!"

The kits understood and they looked happy to be the future of the Clan. "What bad reasons did it shrink for?" Silverkit asked curiously.

"We will tell you once you grow up since it is too bad," Fierylight said quickly, and the other queens nodded. The kits looked slightly disappointed but they continued asking questions.

Bluekit asked, "Is BraveClan big again?" Orangekit told his sister, "There are a lot of cats, so maybe?"

Lynxdaisy and Destinyflower nodded. The former explained, "Though not as big as original BraveClan. There were dozens of cats since they had almost no hardships. We are still big enough as a normal Clan as we have grown again with the addition of kits and outsiders, especially you and your parents!"

The kits were intrigued. "Did we make the Clan big?" Fenikkit asked with hope that they did. The queens nodded joyfully.

"I am one of those outsiders and I brought my mate and Desertkit and Jumpkit, now Desertpaw and Jumppaw, to the Clan," Flowermoon said. "Together, you kits and we outsiders all made the Clan big again! Our Clans, BraveClan and SunClan have a mutual relationship now as we have fully merged. The only thing is that Marigoldstar is also here, and she is the leader of SunClan. And BraveClan's deputy is Shadowcreek currently, which makes sense since she was one of the first cats in neo-BraveClan."

"Really?" Redkit exclaimed gleefully. The queens nodded. Lynxdaisy also explained, "Oh, and my mother, Greenmoon, didn't use to be a medicine cat. Before the shrinking, she was a normal warrior, but after the shrinking, she became a medicine cat because she learned some things from Bluetail, whom Bluekit was named after, and the other medicine cat, Cinderpelt. Also, if she didn't become a medicine cat, BraveClan wouldn't have one. But since she wasn't a medicine cat before, she was allowed to have me and my brother, since she was only a warrior."

"Really? How come?" Bluekit asked her mother in confusion. Fierylight answered, "Medicine cats aren't allowed to mate as they may favor their mate and kits over other Clan cats. Greenmoon is an exception since she mated with Fallingspines while being a warrior. Bluetail did break this rule, though not on purpose. She had three kits, all of whom are our ancestors, and she told her brother, Moleclaw, who pretended these were lost kits." Fierylight explained about what Fallstar, Bluetail and Moleclaw's father, did and how he might have figured out.

The kits all listened to the story in great wonder and intrigue.

Outside the nursery, Bravestar was listening in and watching the kits and apprentices play a game, which oddly reminded him of the real thing. Moonkit tumbled over Spotkit and Pollenkit pounced onto Heatherkit and Daisykit pretended to claw Moonkit and Owlpaw. Desertpaw pretended to claw Daisykit but Daisykit dodged and pounced onto Spotkit, who pounced on Owlpaw. Tawnypaw and Sunpaw were keeping track of fake injuries that the cats may have gotten, so they were the referees.

Bravestar wished he had such a kithood with this many young cats as there were very few, only Greenkit and Shadowkit. In his first life, his life was pretty much with his mother as a loner. Then later on when he was an adult, he moved on and lived his life by himself until he started the Clan, BraveClan.

Shadowcreek was also watching the kits play. She commented to her mate, "How far we've come. From three cats to thirty, I am pretty sure."

Bravestar nodded in agreement and said, "It's a good era in BraveClan and SunClan's history, and it is good, too, since we can prepare for a bad instance." But then he sighed. "Though I don't know how long the good era will last, and when the bad instance will cut off this good era."

Shadowcreek just said, "Well, we have strong warriors. Hopefully, just hopefully, DarkClan won't find us. I hope we will kill them off once all our kits become warriors and have kits of their own. That DarkClan force will be nothing against BraveClan, then. And if a threat does happen, then we can easily kill that threat."

Bravestar just nodded and replied, "I hope you are right, Shadowcreek. I put my trust in you and Greenmoon ever since we restarted BraveClan, which is also why I appointed Greenmoon as the medicine cat and you as the deputy."

Shadowcreek just nodded and went closer to Bravestar. "And since we have prophecy cats, including you, from both prophecies, we will be stronger against those threats. Together... we will thrive and survive, and conquer those evil threats."

Bravestar silently agreed and the couple, now much older and wiser than before, continued watching the young cats, few of which were their grandchildren, play Battle as they all were squealing with energy.

### ~~DarkClan, moon after now~~

He looked at Airpaw training with Longfang and he was annoyed that Brownfur and Auburnfur demanded such a change, which was also much to Airpaw's dismay as she liked Frozenbreeze.

But he figured that after Auburnfur lost her kits, she didn't want to lose any more, especially Airpaw. Airpaw told her mother and older sister that she didn't need to change her mentor, but Brownfur insisted that Longfang was a prophecy cat so being mentored to him was a blessing, especially since he was strong. Longfang and Darkstar also agreed that Airpaw needed better training, and did the mentor ceremony for her again. Airpaw was forced to touch Longfang's nose with hers.

Now, without an apprentice, Frozenbreeze wondered what he could do. Airpaw occasionally spoke to him and told him that it was neither of their fault that the dog attacked them, and that he shouldn't have been punished, and he always agreed with her on that.

He decided to go hunting. Hunting was rarely needed as they could just steal other cats' prey, but it was leaf-fall, a season which shortly led to the chilling one, leaf-bare. It was even feared by DarkClan, occasionally. Frozenbreeze knew that DarkClan shouldn't entirely depend on other cats hunting for it, but have some warriors hunt, too.

He started wandering by himself, remembering the dog. *At least Airpaw could tell Longfang what happened when it happened, but what about now?* he thought worriedly. He hoped nothing bad would happen.

He also remembered the time they fought BraveClan orginally and was victorious in destroying the Clan, but three cats were left. He was only an apprentice, Frozenpaw, so he couldn't necessarily go and fight them. *But that also means that BraveClan will never recognize me if I am by myself,* he knew.

Frozenbreeze noticed Lightpaw go with her mentor, Talonwing, who recently became a warrior when he was given Lightpaw as an apprentice. When walking more, he spotted Puddlestem with his apprentice, Nettlepaw. Then he walked more and saw Stormwood with a medicine cat, Smokyleap, and the three medicine cat apprentices, Clawpaw, Flamepaw and Icypaw, who were successors to Smokyleap, but apprentices of Smoothdash, the oldest medicine cat.

Frozenbreeze remembered the previous medicine cat as an apprentice, Blackface, who was really nice to him and treated him well when other cats never did. He also discovered that Blackface was his father while he was dying, and that a kittypet was his mother. He always wondered who it was, though.

He shook those thoughts away as they weren't important and was relieved that three patrols of cats were here to save him, the last being a bigger one.

Frozenbreeze later travelled until he heard a noise. He froze as he wished that it wasn't a dog, but it was just a rabbit. Frozenbreeze started chasing it for some time until he crashed into a tree again, though not as hard as when he was chasing Destinyflower and Warmtail.

This incident oddly reminded him of when that happened. The two runaway cats kept zig-zagging and it was hard for him to catch up and he eventually lost focus and crashed into a tree and nearly broke his nose.

He got up and knew he lost that rabbit. Then he looked around to see if there was a familiar way to go back to DarkClan, but somehow, it looked completely foreign. He looked at the tree and tried to see which direction he smashed into it from, but he was still slightly dizzy. Then he realized he lost his way back to DarkClan. Frantically, he picked a random direction and started to run.

He ran for some time until he felt tired. Then he saw he was completely lost, and nowhere to be seen. He hoped for a sign of something to lead him back, but there was nothing.

Frozenbreeze sat down, trying to contemplate his dire situation. He was glad he knew something how to hunt and fight, but it wouldn't do good against larger enemies, such as that dog. Then he wondered what to do. He knew that DarkClan wouldn't try to search for one cat, as that would waste more cats who could do better stuff, and most cats didn't care about him anyway.

*Except for Airpaw,* he remembered, but even while being the daughter of a prophecy cat, she wasn't in a position that she could send for a patrol. Only leaders and deputies could do that. And Darkstar and Highjump were less fond of him anyway.

He decided he had to hunt again. He found a mouse and ate it, then he felt stronger. Then he started travelling in the direction he was travelling before and travelled for half a day. He hunted again and later on, found an open space. He noticed a camp.

*BraveClan camp?* he wondered for a moment, since he didn't go to the battle. Then he saw a few rocks in the center of this camp, arranged in an X, which was a sign that DarkClan had attacked.

He wondered what to do next, but then he thought about finding BraveClan, but he slept in one of the abandoned dens.

He woke up the next day and hunted, and continued to travel in the same direction he did before, and then at sunhigh he noticed a sound. He immediately braced himself for an attack until he saw two dark-red-pelted cats talking to each other, but one had bigger ears.

"So, I think I would take her as a mate," said the one with bigger ears. It sounded like a tom.

"Really? Well, I did notice you two talking too much," teased the other one. It sounded like a she-cat.

"I am a warrior, though, and she still an apprentice," replied the tom.

"Not for long. She and her brother and us are only separated by half a moon, so it'll be soon."

Frozenbreeze wondered who these two cats were but he guessed that they were littermates, since they looked the same age.

"Yep, but I doubt we can be mates so soon," said the tom to his sister.

"Yeah, but more kits is good for the Clan."

"You jumped to kits? That is interesting... but enough about me! I thought I saw you stare at Crescentpaw."

*Crescentpaw?* Frozenbreeze wondered. He knew these must be Clan cats but he never heard the name of Crescentpaw before.

"What?" retorted the she-cat. "I did not! I was just watching the younger cats play."

"Your eyes were following him, Burntfur, I could notice."

"Your observations are wrong, then, Tawnyclaw. If anyone, I would choose Bravestar."

"But he already has a mate! And oddly enough, he's our cousin, too. Much older, though."

"I know. It means I'm not interested in anyone, so Bravestar would be the best option."

"That is disappointing. I thought I would have some gossip to tell Sunpaw."

"You can tell your 'mate' whatever you want, Tawnyclaw, but don't tell *me* what you're doing with each other.'

Frozenbreeze learned a few things from their weird conversation, but he was getting disinterested since he was never really interested in gossip, anyway. But Bravestar reminded him of BraveClan, for some reason.

"Tell me when you get a new mate, Burntfur," said Tawnyclaw teasingly.

"Whatever. Anyway, I wanted to talk about something. Do you think we were one of the first cats?" asked Burntfur.

Tawnyclaw didn't seem fazed about the change of subject, but Frozenbreeze thought he may learn something. "Hmm, I think Specklewhisker and Lynxdaisy and those four prophecy cats were. But we are the kits of Fierylight, a light prophecy cat, and I guess we're the third litter of the Clan."

Frozenbreeze stopped. *Fierylight?* he thought, very shocked. He remembered who Fierylight was. A cat who ran from DarkClan, to BraveClan. Later on, she turned out to be a light prophecy cat as per the dark prophecy cats' dreams. *But this means... they're BraveClan cats!* he realized.

"Yep, I guess so, but we were slightly premature, you know, by half a moon, otherwise Sunpaw and Yarrowpaw would have been older than us," replied Burntfur.

"Yes, I guess so, too. But it is really interesting that we were one of the first cats, and we made the Clan grow. I also remember the shortage of mentors, which is why I got Destinyflower as a mentor regardless of her being a queen."

*Destinyflower?!* Frozenbreeze thought again. He figured if Tawnyclaw was the apprentice of a light prophecy cat and he and his sister were the kits of another light prophecy cat, they had to be BraveClan. But he figured they were only fourteen moons old, as Sunpaw and Yarrowpaw were only half a moon younger but still apprentices.

"Yes, I remember, too. And I got Fallingspines, which is also cool, because he's the father of Specklewhisker and Lynxdaisy," said Burntfur.

"But we can also get to be mentors, too! Since more warriors means more potential mentors."

"Yeah, that is true. But I want to be a good warrior first."

"Me too, but I would like Silverkit, since he is very bubbly like me and Sunpaw. But he's also the grandson of Marigoldstar, another light prophecy cat."

Frozenbreeze realized he was learning more and more information from their innocent conversation. *Marigoldstar was the leader of SunClan, but somehow, her grandson is in the Clan?* Auburnfur also told him that she had two sons and a daughter, of which the older son died, so he guessed that one of her remaining kits joined the Clan somehow. He wondered if he should tell Darkstar, if he could go back anyway.

"Speaking of which, do you remember when Shadowcreek and Lynxdaisy told us about the weird incident where Fierylight was possessed, before we were born?" Burntfur asked her brother, grimacing a little.

"Yeah, I think she was possessed by the Dark Forest, like how the other cats were during that civil battle they told us about," Tawnyclaw replied seriously. "I guess StarClan tried to save her from being possessed by giving her that prophecy and healing everyone. Leaffeather *did* tell us about that dark vision he got from Bluetail, Bluekit's namesake and Greenmoon's mentor, too."

"Not actual mentor, though, but she watched some stuff. Although Emberheart is also teaching her and Leaffeather, as he did in his previous life."

Frozenbreeze remembered that BraveClan had a civil battle, as Darkstar told everyone in DarkClan, and so he wanted to take it down while they were still weak, but they came a little too late. When the three cats ran away. But he had no idea about that incident where Fierylight was possessed. And he was also confused about previous life. How can this cat, Emberheart, have a previous life? It was strange for him, since that couldn't even be done by StarClan cats. Normal ones, anyway.

But then a noise interrupted his thoughts. Tawnyclaw and Burntfur heard it, too. Their ears perked up and they stopped talking, but then, a huge brown thing jumped out of the bushes. Its mouth was open wide.

The two dark-red-pelted new warrior littermates from BraveClan looked very frightened all of a sudden, which reminded Frozenbreeze of Airpaw. *They probably never saw a dog before like Airpaw!* the white tom realized in an instant and knew that he couldn't keep quiet.

The dog nearly leaped on them and they managed to dodge and were about to start running away, but then Frozenbreeze jumped in front of the dog and scratched his forehead. But then he felt pain sear through his body, but it seemed to be emanating from his chest. A huge gasp escaped the two frightened cats and they stopped running when they saw what happened.

*"Oh no!"* Burntfur exclaimed fearfully. *"We need to help him!"*

*"What if we die?!"* Tawnyclaw wailed in alarm. Burntfur didn't reply but instead tried to hiss at the dog to save Frozenbreeze, and the latter thought he was going to die, as it felt like it would bite its chest open.

The dog, very fortunately, let go of Frozenbreeze, but barked angrily at Burntfur who recoiled in great terror back next to her brother, and then ran off back where it come from. Then the two cats, still in shock with what just happened, ran to the hurt cat's side.

Frozenbreeze felt like he was in great pain, and he thought he saw blood on his chest. The dog hadn't bit deep enough to kill him, but enough to start bleeding.

*"Are you okay?!"* screamed the two warriors simultaneously as they were still horrified at what happened. The hurt cat couldn't reply immediately as he was breathing too heavily. Then he groaned.

*"He-he saved us!"* Tawnyclaw told his sister. *"We need to save HIM!"* Burntfur agreed as they both saw what happened, and yowled in helplessness, *"We need a medicine cat, though! And none of us know any medicine!"*

Frozenbreeze listened to what they said. *He-he saved us!* *We need a medicine cat!* He inhaled sharply. *Is this how I will die?* he wondered. He never thought he would go down saving two young BraveClan warriors who were also kits of a light prophecy cat, of all cats from a dog. After all, he was a DarkClan cat. But oddly enough, he didn't regret doing so. He remembered Airpaw, and he thought he saw her smiling at him.

He realized that he had saved three cats from a dog now. He wondered why it would be and he thought about it. Frozenbreeze knew that all of those three cats were too inexperienced with bigger animals like dogs, especially Airpaw only being a young apprentice, so he was the only one who could do so. He was also thankful to Longfang for saving him from getting killed by that dog, but he didn't like his attitude about it. But Frozenbreeze knew what he did.

Finally the pain subsided a little, and he managed to get up. The two littermates were visibly very relieved. Then Frozenbreeze just said, "I am okay, but you should probably talk in your camp, instead of on patrol. Also, you should try to save yourselves, too."

The two warriors quickly nodded and kept talking about his bite, but Frozenbreeze shook his head. "I can get treated elsewhere. Besides, I doubt your camp will accept me." He knew BraveClan wouldn't recognize him but he wondered if Darkstar would be okay with him going to BraveClan, if he found out. *Maybe only if I told him that found the way to BraveClan camp,* Frozenbreeze figured, *otherwise, probably not.* He also wondered about Fierylight, Destinyflower and Warmtail and if they'd recognize him.

The siblings insisted that their camp was nice to strangers as long as they weren't aggressive, and would even treat him and let him go. Frozenbreeze thought about it but then he felt a little dizzy. Then he said, "I don't want to trouble you two new warriors. I am guessing it is a while back, and maybe I wouldn't be okay. I don't want you to have to carry me back. Or have to alert someone to carry me back."

The siblings kept insisting that they could help him, and Tawnyclaw even asked his named but Frozenbreeze denied. He didn't know why, but he felt at peace being by himself. "You can get rewarded for saving us," pushed Burntfur. Tawnyclaw nodded and added, "And you will be saved by our two wonderful medicine cats, and also a warrior who was a medicine cat before." Frozenbreeze knew who he was talking about, the latter probably being Emberheart.

After some pushing, Frozenbreeze grudgingly agreed, although he hoped no weird spiritual force would find out about him ever being in BraveClan camp, or that those three light prophecy cats would recognize him. The two siblings were even more relieved and Tawnyclaw was the one to give the message. Burntfur started licking his wound to prevent it from getting infected or worse (all the warrior apprentices were taught by Emberheart, Greenmoon and Leaffeather basic medicine in cases where there was no medicine cat on-site), and Frozenbreeze was okay with it.

Then more BraveClan warriors came who he didn't recognize at all, and two medicine cats, too, and slowly carried him. The older medicine cat who Frozenbreeze guessed was Greenmoon thanked him for saving Tawnyclaw and Burntfur and congratulated the two warriors for trying to treat his wound in turn.

Frozenbreeze just nodded and felt weightless as he was carried to BraveClan camp, with oddly enough, no worries at all.