Pinestar lifted his head and blinked his hazel eyes open.
The clearing was splattered with blood. He stood up and winced in pain as he realized his leg was broken.
Apprentices huddled together in small groups, shivering with fear and pain. Murkclaw lay, unmoving, on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Tawnymist bent over his corpse, yowling sorrowfully. Goldenstream was helping Windstreak over to the medicine cat den.
Lilypetal was busy distributing herbs. Snowpaw was hot at her heels, a bundle of borage clamped in his mouth.
Nightfrost had a large scratch across her face, but she was insisting that Lilypetal check that her kits were okay first before she was treated.
Why, StarClan!? Pinestar thought. Just then, Fallowheart approached him.
"We won, Pinestar," she panted, blood seeping out of a slash in her side.
Pinestar nodded, but his eyes were grim. "But our Clan is still in ruins..." he murmured, turning away.
~~~
He limped aimlessly between the trees of the Gorseledge, his eyes darting this way and that, not looking at anything in particular. His heart was filled with anguish for his Clan, and he wondered why StarClan had let this happen.
Pinestar then noticed yellow eyes gleaming in a bush beside him, and whirled around right as the eyes winked out.
Snaketail... an unidentifiable voice whispered in his mind. The snake... The bushes rustled.
Pinestar shouldered aside fronds of bracken as he chased the intruder. Every few heartbeats, those gleaming golden eyes would flash at him through the thick foliage.
He ran faster.
A hissing sound filled his ears. Ssssssssssss...
An adder. An adder was hissing.
Sssssssss...
He ran even faster, paws thundering on the soil beneath him, claws unsheathed, ignoring the stinging pain in his leg that was getting worse and worse.
Sssssssss...
He fell to the ground, breathing hard. The hissing was right near his ear. He opened his eyes a crack and saw an adder hissing above him, its fangs dripping with venom, deadly venom, as bitter sweet as fatal juniper berries.
This was it. Pinestar closed his eyes, and the razor sharp fangs pierced the skin underneath his pelt...
Everything went black.
~~~
Fallowheart left the clearing, now blood soaked because of the fox attack. She raced up to the leader's den to check on Pinestar. She had had to drag him out of the battle and into the den when he lost a life.
To her relief, she found him sleeping soundly.
She approached him and prodded his flank with her paw.
He didn't move.
She ran to the medicine cat den, yowling, "Goldenstream! Help!"
The tortoiseshell she-cat had a bunch of marigold leaves in her mouth.
"Yes?" she answered, her voice muffled behind the marigold.
"Pinestar...he won't wake up!" Fallowheart hissed, panicked.
Goldenstream's eyes widened, and she spat the marigold leaves out of her mouth.
"Take me to him!" she ordered.
Once they had arrived at the leader's den, Goldenstream pressed her ear to his flank.
"He's having a dream with StarClan," she murmured, rising. "Leave him be."
~~~
Pinestar stood up and stretched.
There was no snake bite on his flank.
Was it all a dream? he wondered as he checked out his surroundings.
He was back in PoplarClan camp. All was calm. There was no blood, no corpses, no foxes. Maybe there was no fox attack, no adder...
But where were all his Clanmates?
He padded forward curiously. Suddenly Fallowheart appeared in front of him.
"Pinestar!" she greeted him warmly.
"So...there was no fox attack?" he asked. He was still confused.
"What fox attack?" Fallowheart purred with amusement. "We never had FOXES!"
"Good, because I had a strange dream."
Fallowheart sat. "Dream?" she asked innocently. "Explain."
Pinestar sat as he began his tale.
"I was walking through the Gorseledge, and saw a pair of yellow eyes watching me. I chased them."
Fallowheart's eyes darkened.
"Then I heard an adder hissing."
A soft rumble started up in Fallowheart's throat.
"I fell to the ground, and then was bitten by an adder," he finished. "But then again, it was only a dream!"
Fallowheart's hazel eyes hardened, and suddenly turned...yellow.
"Um...Fallowheart?" Pinestar began to back up.
Scales replaced Fallowheart's fur. Her legs dissapeared, and her head became long and narrow. Sharp, glistening fangs replaced her teeth.
She had turned into an adder.
A loud hiss reverberated around the clearing.
"Basil! HELP!" Pinestar yowled.
His brother's voice echoed in his ears.
"The snake is coming soon...Both Clans must beware...Warn the pike..."
~~~
Goldenstream and Fallowheart watched Pinestar anxiously, then both sighed with relief as his eyes snapped open.
"Pinestar...are you alright?" Goldenstream asked.
Pinestar looked back and forth between both she-cats before answering.
"The snake is coming soon...Both Clans must beware...Warn the pike..."
**Pinestar**
((On a further note, the Gathering is tonight! The cats that will be going to the Gathering are as follows:
-Windstreak
-Thunderstorm
-Goldenstream
-Shootingstream
-Patchedtail
-Windpaw
-Seapaw
-Seabreeze
-Stargaze
To get to the gathering, just click
HERE.))