Falling With the Rain

~ To the Mountains ~

Rainpaw let out a gasp of relief, her heart racing and pounding against her chest. She had nearly died. She twisted around to find Brambleclaw with the same mixed look of shock and relief on his face.

"I thought you were about to grow wings and become a bird there for a second," he said with an exasperated but relieved smile.

She blinked, still in shock that she hadn't joined Feathertail in the Tribe of Endless Hunting. Wait, what? , Rainpaw frowned, who was Feath—her mind went blank to whatever thoughts she had just had. Shrugging, she stood back up on her paws, "I thought I was about to join StarClan," she confessed in reply to Brambleclaw's weak attempt at a joke.

"I would have joined StarClan if we'd gone home without you," Brambleclaw replied with a small twitch of his ear. "Dustpelt and Cloudtail would have lined their nests with my pelt."

Now that was a funny joke, "Then I'm glad ThunderClan gets to keep its deputy!" She purred.

Carefully, Rainpaw manoeuvred her way around the tabby tom and waited while the other cats made the jump.

As they continued, they seemed to be in the clear until Hollypaw exclaimed her excitement just a bit too loudly, which alerted a nearby group of the strangers.

Rainpaw stayed silent as Brambleclaw somehow managed to get them past the strangers without a fight breaking out.

"Well, they're just an absolutely lovely bunch," she muttered darkly from beside Jaypaw.

The silver tabby's ear twitched in slight amusement but otherwise stayed quiet.

When they finally reached the entrance to the cave, Rainpaw's spirit plummeted. The way in was an even thinner path that sloped in a maddeningly steep manner. If she even put one paw in the wrong place, she would go tumbling into the stream and down the waterfall. She let out a groan out loud, if StarClan had wanted her to join their ranks, why couldn't they have let her be blown away by the wind?

Somehow, by some miracle, Rainpaw had managed to make it into the cave. In fact, she had done it without even slipping or catching her paw once, it almost felt like she'd walked the thin path hundreds of times! Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Jaypaw, who got stuck being carried down by his father.

She watched carefully as the others made their way down when something flickered at the edge of her sight. Rainpaw turned to see what it was and found the most peculiar of sights before her. In the shadow of the waterfall, there was a silver tabby-patched and white she-cat pacing anxiously and looking around like she was lost. Rainpaw peered at the mysterious cat, noting how no one else seemed to pay any mind at her pacing. Perhaps the pacing was a usual occurrence?

After staring and studying the pacing silver and white cat a little longer, she came to a conclusion. It wasn't that the other Tribe cats were used to the pacing, but they were outright ignoring the mystery cat.

"Rainpaw!" Lionpaw called, interrupting her thoughts.

She turned to find him and Jaypaw waiting for her as the rest of their travel group was being led away by a grey-brown tabby she-cat. Rainpaw scrambled to her paws, paused as she glanced one more time at the pacing cat before racing to catch up with her fellow Clan cats.

~ End of Chapter AN ~

That was a really short chapter, I am aware. However, I really wanted to get this out to you guys at midnight on Jan 1, 2025 (Happy new year!) but I didn't have time to write anymore. The ideas were clear and I knew what I was going to write, but time just did not allow me. I will say that I am going to try and get y'all another chapter or two in the 2025 year, but quite frankly, Warriors isn't all that exciting to me anymore.

I've finally committed myself to an original story that I plan on ACTUALLY publishing and so I want to use as much of 2025 to get the first draft up and running (worldbuilding is not a joke guys, it's taken me out like 5 times because I underestimated it). However, I do intend to see this fanfiction through. I'm probably going to end it at series 4, Omen of the Stars, even though I did have plans beyond it. Updates will not be frequent since I am entering that stage in my life where school matters an insanely great amount (who am I kidding? updates for this were never frequent).

If I'm able to start getting myself into a better schedule, I promise that I WILL be working Falling with the Rain (and Project Starfae if you're curious) into it so that y'all can maybe have a chapter a month for both or one of the two. Wiltedblossom's Love will remain with its chaotic unplanned messy schedule :).

Thanks so much to you all for being here and supporting Rainsong and I through this crazy almost 3 year journey!

Have a great 2025! And hopes for many chapters to come XD!

~ LittleOwl