Falling With the Rain

~ The Hunt ~

I was stunned. Hunting the prey in their own dens! That was brilliant! She had evidently scented the prey in the stump and trapped it. It was a bit peculiar, why hunt the prey in their own dens when they come out plenty of the time? Shrugging it off, I went back to sniffing around for prey.

Suddenly, I was hit by the scent of a fox. It was everywhere! But the scent was stale, a fox had drank from the stream earlier. I didn't need to worry about it now, so I attempted to search for prey. It was a struggle screening out the fox stench for prey scent.

Rainsong's POV

I was sniffing around for some more prey to hunt when my nose met the awful stale scent of fox in the air. Frustrated, I concentrated on separating the layer of old fox scent for the newer layer of fresh forest scent. Triumphant, I took a good sniff, there was a water vole nearby, but Firepaw was already on its case. I couldn't scent anymore prey nearby, so I padded away deeper into the forest.

~ Timeskip Because I Don't Have Any Motivation ~

Surprisingly, I was decently content. Longtail and Willowpelt had caught a thrush as well as 2 squirrels, Brindleface had caught a mouse and vole, and I had caught 2 wood mice and an entire litter of mouse pups. There were 3 of them in the nest and they had all been sleeping. The other wood mouse was their mother. I had guessed that the pups were about 13 sunrises old, they already had fur and weren't dependent on the mother's milk. We each dropped our catches and separated into the vast population of cats.

I ventured into the nursery to visit Frostfur again. I had finally decided to tell her about a moon and a half ago. She had cornered me and the fresh-kill pile and insisted we took a walk so that we could talk. Brindleface on the other paw, went over to Whitestorm. Looking away quickly, I began chatting with Frostfur.

Soon, there was noise outside. Frostfur shooed me out to go see what it was as she attempted to soothe her kits that had woken up. Walking out of the nursery - not many cats could say this, but I was small enough - I decided to find out what the commotion was. Coming in were Bluestar, Firepaw, Graypaw, my least favourite cat Tigerclaw and the Shadowclan medicine cat.

Bluestar walked up onto Highrock, Tigerclaw following her like a kit and its mother. I perked my ears towards them to hear their whispers.

Tigerclaw's yowl sounded impatient. "It's just too dangerous to bring an enemy warrior into the heart of ThunderClan! Now that she knows the camp, even the youngest ShadowClan kit will hear of it. We will have to move."

"Calm down, Tigerclaw," Bluestar purred. "Why should we move? Yellowfang says that she is travelling alone now. There is no reason for ShadowClan to hear of it."

"Do you really believe that? What on earth was that foolish kittypet thinking of?" Tigerclaw spat.

"But think for a moment, Tigerclaw," mewed Bluestar. "Why would the ShadowClan medicine cat choose to leave her Clan? You seem to be afraid that Yellowfang will share our Clan secrets with ShadowClan, but have you thought about how many ShadowClan secrets she might share with us?"

Pffffft, I thought Lionheart was the deputy. And why did Tigerclaw care? He wouldn't care if the clan was filled with filthy Shadowclan warriors if he was leader. Did Bluestar really expect Yellowfang to give the secrets that easily? She still has kin in her now former clan!

Bluestar then jumped off Highrock and walked towards the nursery. As she approached, her eyes were a bit cloudy with distant thoughts.

"Frostfur!" Bluestar yowled as she neared the nursery.

Frostfur squeezed out - quite gracefully - from the brambles.

"Hush, kits," She purred reassuringly. "I won't be long." Then she turned to her leader.

"Yes, Bluestar? What is it?"

"One of our apprentices has seen a fox in the area. Warn the other queens to guard the nursery carefully. And make sure all kits less than six moons stay inside the camp until our warriors have driven it away."

Frostfur nodded. "I will pass on the warning, Bluestar. Thank you." Then she turned and squeezed back into the nursery to quiet the crying kits.

Bluestar then padded to the fresh-kill pile, took a plump looking wood pigeon and went over a clump of senior warriors. I then followed her with my own wood mouse and sat beside her. Whitestorm was on her other side, Brindleface with him. I ignored the pair and listened to the discussion.

Many of the senior warriors bursted out with questions. Was Yellowfang going to stay here? Or was she going to be kicked out soon? Would she join Thunderclan? Or go off as a loner? Questions and tensions were high around this cat. Bluestar however silenced every cat with a flick of her tail.

"Those are her decisions, but we will keep her here till we deem not to." She responded, it was a simple but set decision.

Everyone's heads flicked to me, of course other than the pair I was ignoring. Swallowing the piece in my mouth, I sat up and pondered for a minute.

"I say that we keep her here." I started. Everyone stayed quiet knowing there was more. "I think we should keep her here till we have no use for her and till she decides what to do. It's frankly her choice to stay and or to join. This isn't our decision. If Starclan wills it, then she will stay, but I honestly think that Starclan will leave this up to her."

Nearly every cat was nodding at this. Tigerclaw on the other paw seemed to be masking his anger. Bluestar nodded approvingly at my words.

Firepaw's POV

I had given the mouse to Smallear and wandered to Graypaw and Ravenpaw.

Graypaw saw me approach, and paused in his licking. "Has Bluestar mentioned your punishment yet?" he asked.

"Not yet," I replied gloomily.

I looked over at where Bluestar was sitting. I could make out Rainsong right by her side. This stirred up a little conversation in my memory from when I had first joined.

"Didn't you say Rainsong isn't a senior warrior yet?" I asked in a puzzled tone.

"She isn't." Graypaw confirmed.

"Then why's she sitting with Bluestar and the senior warriors?" I mewed, I was very curious. I hadn't seen Bluestar inviting her.

"Think of Rainsong like Bluestar's most trusted warrior." Graypaw replied.

"She's also very wise." Ravenpaw mewed. "Lots of the warriors, senior and younger, go to her for advice. Even Bluestar sometimes confides in her. When things like big decisions come up, a majority of warriors will look for her approval in the decision. If she approves of the decision, the decision usually works in the clan's favour. Almost as if she sees the future and voices her opinion."

I was impressed. A warrior as wise as an elder? Wiser than the senior warriors! And BLUESTAR confides in her? That she-cat must be the whole of Starclan as a living cat. This honestly amazed me. Maybe I would go to her in the future for some advice.

~ End Of Chapter A/N ~

Mkay, so I'ma assume you're all mad at me for not finishing the whole of the actual chapter. But instead shortening it to my pleasure for MY book. I'm sorry! I really am! It's just that I have no motivation to continue in Firepaw's POV. I also don't have anything exciting planned for Rainsong till I can find a part in the book. That's why I did this. I AM SO SORRY! Don't hate me! :') But anyways, I'll TRY to get to the more exciting parts as soon as I can. (Gosh that'll take a while, I'm not even done book 1 yet. OnO) ALSO the next chapter will be the night in between chapter 9 and 10. Sorry I'm skipping so much, I honestly just want to get to the exciting parts and have no patience to do the boring stuff you'll find in the actual book. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless!

~ LittleOwl