TB MOONRISE -- Chapter 5 (Patreon)

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“Be safe, y’hear?” Purdy called from below. “Y’kin always come back, and I kin always lead y’all through the neighborhood again! A-And look out fer hawks! And…”

Feathertail tried not to see the sadness and worry in the old cat’s eyes as she followed her companions up the trail that would lead into the mountains. She felt bad leaving Purdy behind – the Clan cats had to be the first friends he’d made in seasons. But our Clans need us, and maybe we’ll see him on our way back to the lake? She hoped so.

Midnight betrayed no such worry. “Fine, they’ll be,” she eased, touching Purdy with one of her big paws. “The stars watch them.”

Feathertail felt some comfort in Midnight’s words. The mountains and what lay within were still a huge mystery – but knowing that they were on StarClan’s path helped.

The land changed dramatically as Stormfur led the way up the slope. The ground beneath their paws went from soft and grassy to dry, weather-beaten, and stony. Dust billowed from every pawstep and Feathertail’s eyes stung. Stones clattered by when Mistyfoot caught her paw on one, the ThunderClan warrior hissing in annoyance.

Shadepaw watched the stones clatter by. “We’re going to have sore pads by sunhigh,” she lamented. “Keep an eye out for any dock or water as we go… if we don’t take care of our pads we won’t make it across the mountains at all.”

Feathertail nodded in agreement. Behind them, Midnight and Purdy were already small dots at the end of the trail. We’re so high up already, she thought, looking forward. The path they were on zig-zagged between boulders and scrubby bushes up the side of one of the peaks. Though the incline wasn’t terribly steep, it was still taller than any cliff the forest had to offer. And there’s higher still to go…

Something about it stirred Feathertail, though – despite the terror of the unknown, there was a sense of growing anticipation. The landscape behind them looked totally different than before, like she was suddenly a bird on the wing, soaring above it all. The trees and the Twolegplace in the distance looked so tiny, and the Thunderpaths were little gray streams so thin that Feathertail felt like she could jump right over them.

What will the world look like from the top, I wonder? No one in RiverClan had ever been so high up, and Feathertail hoped the Clan would be eager to hear of the lands the journeying cats had seen. RiverClan cats were always thirsty for knowledge.

“Brr,” Crowpaw complained, fluffing up his fur. “Feels like leaf-bare up here already!”

Feathertail blinked, thankful for her thick fur. She could barely feel the chill. She placed herself between the cutting cold breeze and the thinner-furred cats. “Maybe leaf-fall comes quicker up here,” she guessed, looking up the trail at trees clinging to a few scattered leaves. “We’ll have to huddle close tonight!”

“I wonder if we’ll have to go all the way up to the top!” Nightpaw mewed, eyes round as he stared up at the peaks. Feathertail blinked up, against the rising sunshine. The peaks of the mountains were bizarrely covered in a layer of powder. Not even my fur would protect me up there! She thought.

“Purdy made it seem like we shouldn’t have to,” Stoneheart assured. “If we keep to this path, he said, we’ll make it through fine.”

Crowpaw frowned, hunching his shoulders against another powerful, chilly breeze. Feathertail frowned and looked over the horizon. Clouds are forming… she thought. RiverClan cats were often keener about the weather than the other Clans, and Feathertail could feel something in her bones.

“We followed the Father here,” Crowpaw meowed, twisting his tail. “We’ll be following the Sun Trail to get home. It should help us if we get lost – I don’t think I’ll have any trouble reading the stars up here, if I don’t freeze to death first!”

Shadepaw flicked an ear, her eyes glinting with curiosity. “What’s the Sun Trail?” she wondered.

Feathertail trained her ears on Crowpaw. The WindClan apprentice, eager to dole out help if it made him seem important, lifted his chin and mewed proudly, “It’s a line of stars that point to the sunrise! That’s where it got its name from.”

Mistyfoot looked back. “Any stories about it?” She was walking side by side with Stormfur, the big RiverClan tom shielding her from the wind. Of course he would, Feathertail sighed inwardly. Her brother was too kind by half even when he wasn’t moony.

Crowpaw frowned in thought, then meowed, “Well… the elders think it has something to do with how the Clans came to be; but no one’s really sure anymore. It’s been so long no one really remembers.”

“Could it be the Great Clans?” Nightpaw wondered, his eyes shining.

Feathertail purred, recalling kithood tales of the Great Clans. They were thought to be the very origins of the Clans today, but no cat was really sure… or cared – tales of LionClan, TigerClan, and LeopardClan captured the minds of every kit, and the grandiose adventures of those larger than life creatures were an inspiration.

“Pssh!” Crowpaw snorted. “Who knows?”

Nightpaw bumped him with his forehead. “If no one really knows, then we can think whatever we want!” he declared.

Stormfur purred, twitching his whiskers. “Come on,” he urged. “Walk and talk. I want to get out of this wind.”

He picked up the pace, trotting up the slope. Feathertail kept up, keeping her body in the wind to keep the other cats from catching a chill. Its strength, the speed… Feathertail felt it pushing her paws from time to time. She looked up at Stormfur and found him looking into the wind, too.

He thinks a storm is on the way.

———————————————————-

By sunhigh the journeying cats had reached the end of the trail. It opened up into a larger clearing, rimmed by steep cliffs and boulders. Trees clawed at the sky here, their roots poking up from the ground, and the bushes were just as scraggly and leafless. Feathertail was shocked at how desolate and cold it all seemed, compared to the land they’d left behind.

“We’ll rest here a moment,” Stormfur decided, leading the group to one of the boulders. Though it was warm in the sunshine, it grew cold as soon as the winds started up again. Feathertail hunkered down, grateful for the moment of peace – the wind couldn’t penetrate the boulder her littermate had chosen, and Shadepaw had been right when she spoke of sore paws. Feathertail bent to lick her own, picking a stubborn pebble out from between her pads.

“I’m starving,” Crowpaw complained. “Have any of you scented prey?”

“In this wind it’s almost impossible,” Mistyfoot pointed out.

Shadepaw was checking Stoneheart’s wound. “We should try to hunt,” she mewed, giving the gray tom’s shoulder a sniff. “We’ll need our strength up here. I can feel the air thinning – who knows how high we’ll need to go?”

Feathertail shivered at the thought, looking up at the peaks again. Would the cats even be able to breathe if they had to go up to those snowy points? They looked as if they could pierce the clouds or touch the stars.

“Hush!” Nightpaw hissed. The small black tom pointed his tail off into the distance. Feathertail narrowed her eyes, spotting a bird hopping about across the open clearing. Feathertail’s stomach rumbled. It’s not huge, but it’s better than nothing…

Nightpaw hunkered down and began prowling forward – but the instant he came away from the shadow of the rock and into the blustering winds, the bird fled. Nightpaw groaned, lashing his tail. “I was three whole fox-lengths away! That’s not fair!”

Feathertail sighed, running her tail along his spine when he returned to sulk. “It’s okay,” she soothed. “This is a very open land, and the wind is powerful.” It was certainly nothing like the fields and forests the Clan cats were used to.

“Maybe Crowpaw might have better luck?” Stoneheart guessed, looking to the WindClan tom. Feathertail followed his gaze, hopeful – WindClan’s territory was the most open of the Clans, with hardly a tree to speak of on the rolling moorland. Crowpaw might be able to work out how to hunt up here.

Crowpaw frowned. “It’s open, yeah, but look at all that stuff on the ground – there’s nowhere to move! Hunting here is going to be hard for all of us.” He sighed. “I miss the moor…”

“We might have to wait until sunset,” Stormfur decided. “All the prey will be going into hiding then and it should be easy to trap them before they get to their dens.”

Feathertail frowned, tilting her head at the landscape. “Our pelts should blend in easily enough,” she supposed. She looked back at the group, her eyes flickering over their pelts. All the cats were some shade of gray or black. “Except for Shadepaw’s ginger patches, maybe. I’m sure if we just take it very slowly and patiently, we may be able to trick the prey.”

Crowpaw flicked an ear irritably. “You might want to be a rock, Feathertail, but I sure don’t want to freeze out there waiting for a mouse.”

Feathertail fluffed her fur, pouting. You don’t need to be a porcupine about it, Crowpaw! She wanted to hiss at the WindClan tom, but with a glance at Shadepaw she knew it wouldn’t work. Crowpaw only responded to stubbornness with more stubbornness. What I wouldn’t give for a pool big enough for fish right now! Wind didn’t matter as much when fishing.

The wind came again, forceful and cold, cutting right into Feathertail’s pelt around the stone. Worry pricked her like a claw, and she locked eyes with Stormfur, who seemed to feel exactly what she had.

“A storm is coming,” Feathertail murmured.

Stormfur’s whiskers twitched. “We’ll need to find shelter.”

Thunder rumbled, making the cats jump. Feathertail poked her head out from behind the rock. Great StarClan above! The clouds she had seen hours ago were now huge wall of darkness right on their tails. Lightning flashed within, and from the streaking of the cloudy shapes Feathertail could tell the storm would be fierce. What horrid luck! Feathertail cursed. It formed so quickly!

“We need to move, now!” she hissed.

Stormfur nodded, leading the cats away as fast as they could manage. Feathertail’s tail bushed as thunder again rumbled just behind, shaking the earth beneath her paws. Would they even make it to shelter? Feathertail could hear rain beginning to splatter against the stones.

The storm caught them the next moment – a torrential downpour of cold rain, deafening thunder and blinding lightning, surrounding them as they scrambled for safety. Stormfur led the way between two large boulders, scrambling up the slope against the wet earth.

Feathertail took up the rear, helping Stoneheart make his way up. The wounded tom slipped twice, nearly plunging them both back into the clearing, but Crowpaw fixed his jaws into the ShadowClan warrior’s neck and Mistyfoot dropped back to help push him onward and upward. Nightpaw and Shadepaw struggled together, their paws splashing mud.

The trail they were following led to a ravine that bordered a small river, it seemed, but with the downpour the whole path was flooded. A massive old tree whose leafless branches strove for sunlight swayed violently in the breeze, its roots clinging to the cliffside.

Nightpaw screeched as a wave of water almost swallowed him whole. Stormfur dropped back, diving down beneath the small tom and coming up with Nightpaw clinging to his shoulders, soaked and shivering.

“We need shelter!” Stoneheart yowled over the storm.

“I can’t see anything ahead!” Mistyfoot shot back, bracing against another wave. Her pelt was plastered to her body, her blue eyes frantic.

Feathertail gasped, spitting out a mouthful of rainwater. Mistyfoot was right – they could barely see a few pawsteps ahead or behind, and they were walled in with the water filling up all around them. The sky was a swirling vortex of clouds, a peal of thunder drowning out their yowls of terror. Feathertail’s chest tightened as her belly fur soaked through and her whole body seemed twice as heavy. We’ll be trapped here if we don’t make it out! The water had to flow out somewhere!

“Keep together!” Stormfur screeched hoarsely. “Keep–”

Lightning flashed, and a loud cracking noise blocked out whatever Stormfur was trying to say. There was an ominous groan from behind. Feathertail turned to look and was confronted with a towering wall of water, choked with the smoldering debris of the tree that had once marked the path they’d taken.

Before she could scream a warning the water fell upon them. Feathertail tried vainly to struggle, to keep sight of her friends, to grasp at the emergency water training every RiverClan warrior was taught – she thrashed, looking for the surface. As soon as her head broke through, she was plunged back down again as the powerful current swirled and spiraled her around and around…

She managed to claw her way up again, water roaring in her ears. Panic fluttered in her chest as the water sank its icy claws into her pelt. She spotted Stormfur’s dark head bobbing a tail-length away. Feathertail pushed forward, trying to reach him. No, she thought, noticing that he wasn’t struggling against the water. Stormfur, no, you can’t be dead! What will I do without you? I don’t want to live in a RiverClan without you!

Feathertail opened her jaws to cry out, but got a mouthful of water instead. The current was pushing, pushing, faster and faster, the rocks of the ravine path flashing by rapidly. Spitting, Feathertail raged against the urging of the water, pouring all of her strength into reaching her brother – only to see him suddenly disappear.

Confusion gave way to awareness all too late – there was nothing Feathertail could do as the land fell away and the water suddenly dropped, taking her and the others with it.