Chapter Text
Now we must expand a bit to a place far, far away from clan knowledge. Past the place where Dovepaw would eventually find the beavers and their dam. Even past StarClan's knowledge, to the sixth clan: FireClan. The story of FireClan is far complex and must be told separately from this story because this is Shadowpaw's story, not the history of FireClan.
FireClan was still recovering from the recent attack from DeathClan in their camp and the horrible news that Shadowpaw was missing and thought to be dead. Warriors, Queens, Elders, and Apprentices were cleaning up camp, patching up the outer wall and the dens. Shadowpaw's mentor, Lionpride, was silently grieving for Shadowpaw in her den and counting herbs to keep herself busy.
In the middle of the chaos, two young kits were asleep by their mother in the nursery, while one little kit was awake, her eyes intently watching the older kits play-fighting.
"Feel my teeth Bloodstar!" The fiery she-kit yelped before she and her sister jumped onto a brown tabby who was pretending to be DeathClan's leader.
"Ahhh!!! I'm defeated!!" The brown kit yelped before dramatically falling onto his side under a blob of orange and white fur.
The little kit knew that she was supposed to be napping with her littermates but she wanted to know how the battle had taken place and decided to ask the older kits because she figured that the other kits might have heard something from the elders' den.
"Flamekit?" The little kit questioned, "Will you tell me about the battle with DeathClan? Please?"
The fiery she-kit climbed off of the dark tabby kit and walked over to the little kit. "I don't know, little kit, I don't want to give you nightmares, your mother wouldn't be pleased if I did," she meowed.
"Please!" The small kit begged, "I won't get nightmares and Leaffrost is asleep so she won't know."
"Well, okay," Flamekit mewed "But if she gets mad or if you have nightmares I am not responsible for them, right?" She asked, lifting her green gaze to meet the little kit's gaze and letting it rest there for a moment.
The little kit replied, "Right." Flamekit stretched each of her legs in turn and settled down next to the little kit with her sister and the tabby kit close behind.
"At first, it was quiet and nothing was out of the ordinary and then a battle cry rang out, soon followed by another and another till the camp was full of noise."
The little kit listened on even though she had heard all of the noise from the nursery, but she was afraid that Flamekit would stop the story if she interrupted, so she stayed quiet.
"There was fur and blood everywhere. Cloudpool was fighting a big black tom with blood on his paws. And I can't forget Jayheart; she was fighting three toms and a she-cat all by herself. And Blossomflight was fighting a tortoiseshell she-cat, even old Fernshade and Flowerpelt and Molewisker fought and wow, you should have seen Rageclaw he fought like TigerClan, sending those scoundrels running! And of course, Leaffrost and Firefly helped to guard the nursery. Even Lionpaw and Lightningpaw fought, the lucky furballs! Oh, and Moonlight was fighting a large tabby tom and white she-cat and Lavastar, she fought like LionClan and TigerClan and LeopardClan, fighting off cat after cat and, sending them yowling into the gorse! Eventually, Shadowpaw got separated from Lionpride and then..." (Flamekit paused dramatically)
"Well, what happened then?" The little kit questioned, her eyes big and her fur fluffed up in excitement.
"They started to retreat and run off. A warrior patrol went after them. Soon after the patrol had returned, we found out that Shadowpaw was still missing and a patrol went out to search for her. It was difficult in the rain though. They followed her scent trail to the cliff and then it stopped at the edge with DeathClan scent right on top of it-"
"So DeathClan chased her." The little kit meowed.
"Hey, whose story is this little kit?"
"Oops, my bad, Flamekit." The small kit said.
"Just don't interrupt me again," The older kit meowed with an angry flick of her tail. "Now where was I? Oh, now I remember, the DeathClan cats had chased her into the river before retreating. Afterward, patrols checked both sides of the river but couldn't find her or any scent of her. Eventually, the patrol realized that they had no hope of finding her and they quit looking and went back home."
Well, The little kit thought, They couldn't find her but I can. She had made up her mind that after the camp was quiet and asleep that night she would sneak out and find Shadowpaw and come back a hero. She waited until the nursery was quiet and everyone was asleep before she looked out the entrance Wow, The little kit thought, Camp is huge. She waited until the camp was deserted before she headed out. She skirted the entrance, knowing that there would be a guard on duty and looked for another hole in the wall. She spotted one commonly used, for there were many scents and paw prints coming and going. When she reached the barrier, a horrible smell hit her scent glands and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. She hurried away from the smell and picked up a sweet, familiar smell, almost overlayed with the smell of death. Shadowpaw. She raced along the scent trail with no idea of how much longer she had until dawn. She kept running and then became aware that she was falling, faster and faster. There was a splash and a thunk before all was black.