CotS #1: The Dark Path (currently being rewritten)

I woke up at dawn the next day. It was bright and sunny, pale gold and pink streaks glowing in the sky.

It was so breathtakingly beautiful.

"I like looking at it too," someone meowed from beside me.

Duskypaw. AGAIN?!

Oh, StarClan save me. Two toms padding after me, and two toms I wasn't interested in. Why did they like me?

"Don't you have training to get to?" I questioned him, actually trying to get rid of him.

"Not yet," he grimaced. "And, um," He added pointedly, "We didn't talk yesterday."

"We can't talk every day," I snapped back. "We're just Clanmates!"

Duskypaw looked back, amber eyes glowing with emotion. "I did tell you how I felt about you, Stormdawn."

I transfixed him with my unwavering violet stare. "I know how you feel." I sighed deeply. I wished I could tell him I loved him back. Duskypaw was a nice cat. He didn't deserve rejection. "There are other nice cats out there," I meowed forlornly, turning my back on the orange streaks across the sky.

"I want you," he protested.

"You're only an apprentice," I sighed.

"You make it sound like you're much, much older," he responded, eyes alight with mischief.

I let out a dry chuckle. "I'm not ancient, but I feel like I am." Wait. My ears snapped at the sound. Crunching of leaves somewhere in the territory. Now ... oh. Great Redwood. But the dawn patrol was headed to the border with Twolegplace ... I scanned the forest, through the trees, seeking everything that glowed orange underneath my heat vision. I didn't understand my powers, but I could use them.

I saw a group of cats, led by a snow-white she-cat with burning bright flame-colored amber eyes. Her eyes were darkened.

"Hey – Stormdawn! What are you looking at? What's so alarming?"

"Go back to camp," I instructed Duskypaw, "and wake everyone up. We're dealing with a big group of rogues, here."

Duskypaw's ears perked immediately. "What? Rogues! Where?"

"Go!" I hissed.

Maybe he obeyed me because he loved me. Maybe he was afraid. But either way, his dusk-colored form vanished into the trees. I knew the Great Redwood wouldn't be in the path back to camp.

Thank StarClan it wasn't.

I was going to confront the rogues myself, after all.

I trekked through the forest, scanning. The rogues were moving at an alarming speed, coming right in my direction. Finally, I stopped. They were headed towards me anyway – why would I walk? Let them do the walking to get to me.

I saw them pause, hiding in the bushes as they were. They could see me. I was right in the open, and they were wary.

"I can smell you," I called, "and I can see you. Don't worry. I'm not looking for a fight."

Finally, the white she-cat with her smoldering amber eyes came out of the bushes. An orange-and-white tabby tom, as well as a brownish-gray she-cat, followed closely behind her, unsheathed claws ripping open the undergrowth.

"You can stop that, unless you want snagged claws," I informed the snow-white she-cat's two bodyguards.

The brownish-gray she-cat let out a hiss of annoyance but retracted her claws.