Chapt 28

"Lionblaze who is this?" Heathertail whispered into his ear. In front of the patrol was a large dark brown tom. His whiskered twitched in amusement.
"Woody! It's good to see you again!" Lionblaze rushed over to his friend.
"How do you know this, rogue?" Gingerstep sneered. Lionblaze saw Woody's whiskers twitch in amusement.
"He helped us fight the beavers, without him, who knows what would have happened." Lionblaze explained. The other cats' fur stopped bristling, but Gingerstep's tail still twitched, eyeing the rogue suspiciously.
"What brings you back? No troubles I hope," Woody started cleaning his paw.
Lionblaze looked at his patrol, wondering if he should tell Woody about the Dark Forest. Heathertail seemed to know what Lionblaze was thinking and she dipped her head in agreement. Gingerstep was still eyeing the brown tom, but dipped her head at the older warriors. Lionblaze beckoned Woody forward and began telling Woody about the war.
When he finished, Woody dipped his head. "I'll do it. I'll help you find this Skyclan and help you fight the Dark Forest." Woody mewed.
"We couldn't ask you to do this," Lionblaze mewed back.
"If what you say is true, then it won't be long until they find my home and kill me, I will help you." Woody explained.
"We should keep moving then, we don't know how far the gorge is," Lionblaze got up.
"Wait, the gorge down river?" Woody asked.
"Yes, do you know how to get there? We need to find Skyclan." Lionblaze hoped Woody knew the way, it could make the trip go much faster.
"Yes, there are a large group of cats living there, could that be them?" Woody tilted his head quizzically.
"Possibly," Lionblaze hoped it was Skyclan. Woody took the lead and started pelting through the trees. The river started to bend but Woody kept going straight.
"Shouldn't we go with the river?" Gingerstep called to the front.
"The river bends and bends back, so we're just taking a quicker route." Woody called back. Gingerstep nodded and ran even faster. Soon it was past sunhigh and they were starting to tire.
"I think we should stop and rest for a bit. We could hunt too!" Lionblaze suggested, flopping onto his side. The other cats nodded before Gingerstep and Heathertail raced off in search of prey. Woody layed down next tom him.
"How 'bout that Heathertail, she sure is somethin'." Woody murmuredd watching the she-cat run through the bracken.
"Huh, oh no, I already have mate, he name is Cinderheart." Lionblaze mewed.
"That Gingerstep is feisty too, though she has a closed mind," Woody sneezed.
"All Shadowclan are, remember Toadfoot?" Lionblae purrred, recalling the argumentitive brown tom.
"Tigerheart wasn't as bad, he at least laughed at my jokes!" Woody chuckled.
"Are you two she-cats going to sit on your tails and gossip all day or are you going to come and eat some prey?" Heathertail purred. Lionblaze and Woody exchanged glances and padded up to the pale brown warrior. Heathertail had caught a small wood pigeon and a vole. Gingerstep came back with a toad and a mouse. Lionblaze chose the vole, Woody chose the mouse and Heathertail chose the pigeon. Gingerstep shrugged, took the toad, and began to tear the skit off.
"It's not that bad you know, it's kind of chewy but it just slips down your throat." Gingerstep took another bite of the slick piece of prey.
"You keep saying that, I'll still eat mice." Lionblaze's whiskers twitched at Woody's joke. Gingerstep snorted.
"Come on, we need to keep going, Woody how much farther?" Lionblaze turned to the rogue.
"Not much," Woody shook grass of his shiny pelt,"We'll probably get there sometime before tonight."  Lionblaze sighed and let the brown tom take the lead. They took it slow, padding quietly through the gorse and bracken. The forest opened up into a large grassland. Heathertail let out an excited squeal like a kit let out of the nursery. She pelted to the lead and started running ahead of the patrol. Lionblaze snorted and started to follow her, he looked behind to see of the others were following. Woody was steadily gaining and Gingerstep was running at a steady pace in front of him. He turned ahead and saw Heathertail stop dead in her tracks, tail and neck bristling. Lionblaze raced a up to her, and began to growl. The other two cats in their patrol caught up, panting. Five cats were standing in front of them, growling menacingly.
"Get off Skyclan territory!" A brown haired tom growled, stepping closer.
"Skyclan! Thank Starclan we've found you!" Lionblaze purred.
"I said get off our territory!" The tom took another step closer.
"Wait, can we just ex-" Heathertail was cut off when a ginger tabby launched herself at the patrol. Lionblaze leaped at the brown tom, lashing his claws up and down his pelt. The tom hissed and bit Lionblaze's forepaw. Lionblaze felt nothing as he went into a rage, he held the tom down on his back. The tom closed his mouth on Lionblaze's tail and flipped him over. Lionblaze held him down again.
"Clans! Stop this now! We come in piece!" Lionblaze howled. The cats sprang apart.
"What do you know about clans?" The brown tom countered.
"I am Lionblaze. My clan is Thunderclan, you knew my grandfather, Firestar, is that true?"
"Yes, I am Sparrowpelt." The brown toms fur relaxed when Lionblaze mention Firestar.
"We must speak to your leader, right away," Lionblaze pleaded. Sparrowpelt nodded his head and told them to follow. The halted at the end of the moor, which started the gorge. The Skyclan cats jumped down onto a rocky over hang. Lionblaze and the patrol halted over the edge, looking down at the cats.
"Come on," Sparrowpelt sighed. Lionblaze shrugged and jumped off the side. He was surprised it was much shorter than he expected. He nodded encouraging to the other cats above him. One by one they all jumped down.
"This is my apprentice, Foxpaw, over there is Redfang," Sparrowpelt nodded to a gray, broad faced tom. His hindlegs were unusually muscular.
"That she-cat there with the kink in her tail is Crookedtail, and the white tom with red paws is Flamefoot." Lionblaze realized that all the cats had muscular hindlegs. He nodded uncomfortably and padded back to the patrol. The Skyclan cats jumped down the gorge with ease and practice, but the patrol scrambled down, sending rocks flying down the gorge.
"Watch it!" Flamefoot scowled. Lionblaze snorted and jumped down to the Skyclan patrol. The others soon joined them paws bleeding from the hard stones. Lionblaze's paws were sore too but he knew he had to keep going. Soon they arrived at the bottom of the gorge where the river came back. Lionblaze bounded ahead, and soaked himself belly deep in the cool water. He shivered but the sensation felt good on his paws. He jumped out when he felt better and rejoined the patrol, who gave him odd looks of amusement.
"It felt good on my pads," He muttered. They slowly made their way up the gorge on the opposite side, slowing when they had to jump because the lakeside clans were not able to jump as high as the Skyclan cats. They had to scrabble for pawholds and pull themselves up without falling to their certain death. Lionblaze didn't know how they did this everyday, especially with kits around. Sparrowpelt left them and went in search of their leader. He returned a few moments later with a brown and gold she-cat.
"Greetings. I am Leafstar. Sparrowpelt tells me that you have met Firestar?" Leafstar asked the patrol of four cats.
Lionblaze dipped his head in respect,"Yes, Firestar was our leader before he died 5 moons ago. I am Lionblaze and this," He said sweeping his tail left to right,"is Heathertail, Woody, and Gingerstep. I have news to tell you, but I think it would be best if it was spoken about in private." He concluded. Leafstar nodded her head and beckond them to a cleft in the rock. Lionblaze thought it was her den, but the scent of herbs told him it was the medicine den.
"Echosong, please come and see me in my den. We have some visitors." The brown and cream she-cat called. She then talked to a dark ginger tabby, who followed them to another cleft in the rock. It was empty and she lay down tucking her paws underneath her.
"This is my deputy, Sharpclaw," She motioned to the ginger tom next to her,"Our medicine cat is Echosong, she will be with us soon. Now, tell me what this is all about." Her gaze hardened, Lionblaze was suddenly taken back.
"Well, um, I uh," Lionblaze stammered.
"Our clans are at war," Heathertail started explaining, looking at Lionblaze in amusement. Lionblaze studied his paws in embarrasment. Heathertail finished the explanation as a small silver she-cat came in.
"Echosong, these are our visitors, Lionblaze, Heathertail, Woody, and Gingerstep." Leafstar dipper her head politely.
"They have come, Leafstar. The ginger lion will pad through heather and wood to find the sky. Don't you see? These are all the things Starclan promised!" Echosong rushed to her leader. They talked in hushed voices, and Lionblaze wished he could hear as well as Dovepelt. Suddenly the talking stopped and Leafstar approached them.
"You are welcome for the time being, but we are at war. We cannot ask you to stay."
"Our clans are at war as well! Starclan sent us here, all of us will be safer if we stay in a large group. Please, we have to bring Skyclan by the lake," Lionblaze was bewildered when he saw fury rising up in the usually calm leader's eyes. He knew he had spoken out of place.
"No, Skyclan will remain where it is. You may stay until tomorrow then you will be escorted out of our territory." She showed them out of her den and left them with her deputy, Sharpclaw.
"Come on, I'll show you to the warriors' den." He grunted. Lionblaze saw the muscles ripple beneath Sharpclaw's pelt, this cat would not be easily beaten in battle. Lionblaze jumped after Sharpclaw, scrabbling to get up. They had to jump to the highest cave, and Lionblaze saw a few cats sleeping inside. There were shallow dips in the rock where moss would be placed. Lionblaze nodded his head to the warriors and padded to the far side of the den. He settled down on the hard rock, then Woody settled down to his right. Heathertail sat on the opposite wall with Gingerstep. He began cleaning himself then when he was done, he padded out to the opening of the cave. He was beginning to feel the effects of hunger, but felt uncomfortable taking something from it. He was upset that Skyclan didn't come with them. He knew the clans back at the lake would be dissapointed. He need time alone, so he decided to go hunting. He didn't know where, this place was barren and didn't look like it had much prey. He climbed up farther, and saw a small patch of trees. He knew this was his best bet of where to hunt so he ran off that way. He jumped into the brambles quickly and scented for prey. He smelled mouse, squirrel, and the stale scent of fox. He reminded himself to warn Sharpclaw later. He stalked through the ferns, careful not to warn any prey he was there, and halted as a chaffinch landed on the forest floor, a few foxlengths away. He caught it and killed it quickly.
Lionblaze purred as he brought back a squirrel and a vole, along with the chaffinch he caught earlier. He searched for the freshkill pile, but still could not find it. He looked up at the sun, it was almost dark. He sighed, knowing he'd wasted his time coming to this place.
"The fresh kill pile is over there if you were wondering." A she-cat padded out from behind a rock.
"My name is Cherrytail, my mate Sharpclaw told me about you. You must be Lionblaze," She looked up and down the golden tom, eyeing him curiously. She settled down on the rocks.
"So, would you like to know how Skyclan got here?" She looked into his eyes. Lionblaze was actually very curious, he settled down across from her, beginning to eat to chaffinch.
"It was a few seasons ago, me and my brother where young kittypets. We knew nothing of Skyclan, or anything like that," She started licking her paw,"There was a cat that came to the gorge every full moon and would stare at the moon and speak ina hushed voice to himself. Boris and I, that was Sparrowpelt's kittypet name, we called him Moony and we would be very mean to him. Then one day these two starnge cats came. We thought there was only one cat because they were both ginger, we thought it was Moony. Then they ambushed us one day and set us straight. They said their names were Sandstorm and Firestar. They taught us to hunt, and we came back the next day and the day after that. They explained to us that we were Skyclan descendants!" She looked at him with excitement,"Firestar told me that Starclan had sent them here to rebuild Skyclan. We said that we could help find them cats to join and we took them to find some Kittypets we knew. We helped find Shortwhisker, but he left after our first battle. I'll get to that later though."
"What happened to Moony?" Lionblaze asked.
"I'm getting there. One night there was a meeting for all cats, to tell them about Skyclan and the benefits. Some cats didn't want to join at the time, including Rainfur. Clovertail and her kits joined along with Leafstat, though she was just Leaf then. Sharpclaw was Scratch, and he joined as well. A few other cats joined, some didn't. There was a kittypet named Oscar, he just came to the meeting to mock us all. Once the clan was settled, and the borders were marked, we waited for a sign from Starclan for a medicine cat and a leader. Moony by then was called Skywatcher, and he died. We had found rats on our territory and they had injured Patchpelt. Firestar and Sharpclaw thought the best way was to fight, so they took me to fight. We had never seen so many rats, they covered the ground. One even spoke cat!" Lionblaze was amazed! He never heard of  a rat speak to someone! He leaned closer.
"The rat said that he would let us live but, we would have to leave the gorge. We left the rats and prepared for battle.Firestar and Sparrowpelt went to twoleg place to find a medicine cat, and low and behold, we found Echosong! Rainfur came to us and asked him to help rescue his kits and his mate from their twolegs. We helped them. The rats attacked a few days later, injuring us, but not killing us. We decided not to wait for the rats to attack us again so we followed them back to their nest. It was in a towleg barn, Firestar's patrol  went in firt while Sandstorm's stayed outside," Lionblaze saw her eyes brighten as she remebered the battle,"Firestar lost a life in their and Rainfur died. We regrouped outside and climbled a tree. We climbed down slowly, waiting for the rats to attack, then suddenly, Firestar jumped to the middle of hte herd of rats. We were confused but we jumped into the battle tto. Then it stopped just like that. Firestar was holding a large rat in his jaws. We had won, but we still had a lot to do, we needed a leader. Echosong had a vision from Starclan, of leaves dappling the ground. Leafstar was teh clear choice, for her waqrrior name was Leafdapple. Sharpclaw was then made her deputy! That's the story, hoped you liked it!" She purred, getting and stretching her back dramatically. It was now moonhigh and Lionblaze had a long journey ahead of him so he left to the warrios cave.