Warriors: Duskmoon and Dawnsun #2

Dusk woke up, tired and hungry. She hoped yesterday had just been another bad dream. But as soon as she saw the makeshift next in the corner of the barn, she knew Dawnpaw had really come.

She lifted her head, and Vine saw and came right over.

“Good morning,” She purred.

“Everyone’s inside,” Dusk said drowsily.

“There’s a terrible storm,” Vine informed her. “That’s why Dawnpaw hasn’t gone back yet.”

Dusk nodded and shivered. It was very, very cold.

“We’ve caught several barn mice, so we can all have breakfast and lunch,” She continued. “We’ve had many moons of sunshine, and I suppose everyone just needed some rain. But not this much rain.”

Dusk noticed everyone was sleeping soundly.

Vine raced down the bars and then back up with a very juicy mouse. “Here, eat this,” She said. She checked on Dawn and stifled a gasp.

“What’s wrong?” Dusk said as she rushed over.

“I have never seen a kit this perfect!” She purred. “She’s one hundred percent healthy, beautiful, and just needs a little food! She’s energetic too!”

Dusk sighed happily and ate the whole mouse, then gave Dawn the milk she needed.

“You were lucky to have just one kit,” Vine said. “You can focus everything on her.”

“Yes,” Dusk purred.

“I’ll leave you be,” Vine said. “Rebel has a nasty cough I want to rid of.”

Dusk waved her tail off to Vine kindly and nuzzled Dawn. She was perfect.

Dawnpaw raced up to Dusk. “Duskp-” She stopped herself. “Dusk, she’s perfect.”

Dusk purred at her sister. She wasn’t mad anymore. At least, not now. She listened to the pattering of rain on the roof and smiled, licking her kit.

Dawnpaw cleared her throat. “Dusk, I came because the Clan is at war with ShadowClan,” Worry filled her mew. “We can’t stop them, they just attack.”

Dusk urged her to go on with a simple stare.

Dawnpaw sighed. “Shadestar wants to be great like our great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Graystripe, and Flickerclaw wants to be great like our great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Firestar. But mother and father can’t concentrate when their daughter is missing.” She looked around. “But...”

“But you promised to bring me home?” Dusk asked, her eyes narrowed.

Dawnpaw nodded. “Today I was going to be made a warrior. But we need you, Dusk,” She looked at Dusk, her voice full of grief. “Unless you want to be Duskpaw again.”

Before Dusk could answer, a creaking moan filled the room. Sliver’s head jerked up and looked at the door.

Kinka was already up, looking at the door, growling at it.

Suddenly, water-filled the barn.

Dawnpaw looked at Dusk in horror.

“Flood!” The white she-cat that had insisted her name was Kinka shrieked. “Vine, Frosty, help Echo, Cow, and the other elders! Barncats! Help the wounded! Hurry, get to high ground!”

The barn had no Clan cats in it, but it was moving quickly and orderly. Cow, Echo, Rebel, Mango, Fern, and Echo’s kits were already up a tree.

A dark silver tom yanked Dawn out of her nest.

“Put her down!” Dawnpaw ordered. Hurt shone in his eyes and he hissed.

“That’s Dawn’s father,” Dusk growled at her. “Silver, I’ll take her. You help the others.”

The strong tom nodded and raced away, helping each cat get into a tree.

Dusk held tight to her kit when suddenly, the bars underneath Dawnpaw’s paws began to creak.

With a jolt, Dawnpaw realized they were going to snap.

She leaped to the lofts and stayed planted on the one lowest to the ground when Dawnpaw realized, Dusk was trying to carry her nest and Dawn.

“Hurry!” Dawnpaw urged.

“Dawn doesn’t want to leave her nest!” Dusk yowled back. “I’m coming-”

Suddenly, the bar snapped.

Dawnpaw let out a yowl of fear as her sister plummeted into the water below, and she leaped into the muck.

Dusk swam to the surface, but horror still shone in her eyes. “Dawn!” She screeched.

Dawnpaw swam to her and realized the kit wasn’t with her.

She saw a fuzzy silver-and-orange she-cat floating out of the barn, paddling helplessly.

Dusk dove underwater, the nest in her grasp, trying to swim out of the barn.

None of the cats in the trees could see, the fog around the area was too thick.

Dawnpaw watched her sister keep diving to get Dawn back, and she sighed. She leaped in and dived with her.

Suddenly, a bar hit her, and the world went black.



Dawnpaw hacked up some water and looked below her. Water was all around her, and she poked her head inside whatever was floating.

Dusk was licking Dawn roughly while she suckled.

The carcass of a fish lay next to her.

Dusk reached into the water and brought a small fish into the small, floating den.

“Where are we?” Dawnpaw asked in wonder.

“A log,” Dusk replied bitterly.

Dawnpaw noticed the whole bottom of the log was full of straw and brambles. Dawnpaw at the minnow and through the tiny bones out of the log. It was getting dark outside, and they kept moving forward.

“We should sleep,” Dawnpaw recommended.

“No, we need to find land,” Dusk insisted, taking a drink of the water. “Besides, we have a poppy, cobwebs, and borage in her, nests, water, and fish to eat.”

Dawnpaw fiddled with her uncomfortable nest, then looked behind her. There was no opening like there was on Dusk’s end.

“You can sleep over here,” Dawnpaw insisted.

“No, you drowned. Besides, I’m not sleeping tonight,” Dusk said. She put Dawn next to Dawnpaw to sleep. “I’m looking for land.”

“You have a kit,” Dawnpaw reasoned.

“You’re injured,” Dusk countered.

Only then did Dawnpaw realize the agony in her hind leg and head. “Is my back leg broken?” She asked, fear in her voice.

“Yes, but only a little,” Dusk said, tying vines around the log to make it sturdier.

Dawnpaw shuddered. Dusk was right, then. She did need to sleep.

It was hard, but Dawnpaw let the waves rock her to sleep.



Dawnpaw blinked her eyes open. Dusk was awake and letting Dawn suckle at her belly.

The log was stopped.

“Why did we stop?” Dawnpaw asked groggily.

“I didn’t want to jar your leg,” Dusk said. “And I and Dawn were hungry. Besides, I found land a little bit from here.”

“How?” Dawnpaw asked, bewildered.

“I smelled it and heard squirrels,” Dusk explained.

That made sense. The pain in her head had killed her sense of sight, smell, and she couldn’t feel anything with her front right paw.

Dusk had told her it was a small head injury, and everything should come back to normal today.

After Dawn suckled, something amazing happened.

One of her eyes popped open.

Dusk looked at Dawn in amazement and brought her over to see the water.

It was a long time until she was done.

Dusk padded out of the log, hesitating to touch the ground. But Dawnpaw did everything other than hesitate.

“Ground, ground, sweet ground!” She praised the ground.

Dusk rolled her eyes. She grabbed the nest that Dawn had started to sleep in out of the log and onto her back, using burrs to attach it.

“How did you get so smart?” Dawnpaw asked. “The log, you know how to swim and hunt fish, attaching something with burrs...’

Dusk looked at her sister. “The rogues taught me a lot about nature and more practical uses,” She said. “A lot of it was about only talking to the cats who you knew, and they knew you.”

“May I just say that I smell the Clans?” Dawnpaw whispered.

Dusk jerked her head over to her. “Yes, you can say that, but I say we make camp in those bush roots over there,” She said.

Dawnpaw nodded and Dusk started to dig up the roots of the bush and weaved them together, creating a gap for them to get into.

Dawnpaw yawned slightly and grabbed the nests out of the log and the herbs before it rushed downriver.

Dusk grabbed them and made her own bigger so Dawn would fit. The little she-kit hadn’t seen ground before, and the forest would be a great place to start.

She put the herbs in a small cranny in the branches and cuddled up with Dawn, then sighed. Dawnpaw couldn’t hunt and they needed food.

“Can you kitsit Dawn?” Dusk asked her sister. Dawnpaw nodded vigorously. “Good, then I’ll get dinner.”



Dusk came back with a plump rabbit and small shrew. I want to see if Dawn can eat meat now. It’s been two and a half moons since she was born! “Dinner,” Dusk said as she tossed the rabbit down. “Eat what you want of it. I’ll have what’s left.”

Dawnpaw nodded and picked at the rabbit while Dusk ripped the shrew into small pieces for Dawn to eat.

Dawn willingly ate every bit.

“Hey!” A tom’s voice called.

“Rogues!” A she-cat's followed.

“From the bush over there!” A young tom’s voice sounded this time.

Dawnpaw squeezed out of the makeshift den. “Sandwhisker?” She called out. “Goldenleaf? Cloudpaw?”

“Dawnpaw!” The golden she-cat cried.

The white young tom squeaked in excitement. “You’re home!”

The cream tom nodded with pleasure. “Shadestar and Flickerclaw will be happy that their kit is home,” He said.

Dusk came out, her back arched.

“What’s going on, mama?” Dawn whimpered. “Are those bad guys?”

“ThunderClan,” Dusk snorted.

Goldenleaf turned her head. “Keep up, you three,” She said.

“She’s a kit!” Dusk lashed out. “She can’t keep up!”

Dawnpaw looked back at her, excitement in her eyes. “Shh!” She hissed.

Dusk struggled against the patrol and picked Dawn up. This was ridiculous!

“Hey, did anybody else hear that?” The young apprentice, Cloudpaw, asked.

“I smell something nasty,” Sandwhisker snapped.

Suddenly, a huge russet-furred fox came up, growling.

“Fox!” Dawnpaw shuddered.

Dusk quickly evaluated the situation. Using all the rogues taught her about foxes, she knew they usually didn’t climb trees. She found a short but tall enough, young, sturdy tree that would hold Dawnpaw and Dawn.

“Up the tree!” She hissed to Dawnpaw. “And bring Dawn!”

Dawnpaw nodded and raced up the tree, Dawn in her jaws.

Dusk gave a quick look at the fox. “It will mostly use its forelegs, and its belly is its weakness,” She said. “Sandwhisker, Goldenleaf, use belly scrape. Cloudpaw, yank his tail. I’ll get its back and neck.”

“I don’t take orders from a rogue!” Sandwhisker said. “I give them!”

Goldenleaf sneered. “I’m listening to her. Attack!”

Dusk watched the plan leap into action, and she grabbed the fox’s back. “Hurry, hurry!” She hissed.

The fox yelped in pain.

Dusk smiled.

“Well done, my beautiful daughter.”

Dusk looked to see Shadestar, and suddenly, her world went black.

Dusk woke up. It was a bad dream, she sighed. But she breathed in a deep scent of herbs. Suddenly, a black she-cat with amber eyes was standing over her.

“Awake at last!” She sighed. “Duskmoon, that fox battle hit you hard!” She smiled. “I’m Whiteclaw, by the way.”

Duskmoon did notice the young she-cat had a single white claw.

“You have knocked unconscious in the battle two sunrises ago. The shock almost killed you,” Whiteclaw explained.

“Engh...” Dusk replied. “Dusk...moon?” She shook herself. “Ugh.”

“Well, Dawnsun was supposed to be made a warrior a long time ago,” Whiteclaw explained. “And you defeated the fox. It only made sense to make you a warrior.”

“But I don’t belong here!” Dusk screeched. “I’m Dusk!”

“Duskmoon,” Whiteclaw replied gently. “You are Duskmoon.”
Dawn struggled to look up.

“Hello there, Goldenkit!” Whiteclaw purred. “Where’s your mommy?”

Dawn hiccupped and wailed.

Dusk cringed. She lifted her paw and let her claws slice Whiteclaw’s muzzle. “That’s Dawn,” She growled. “And she’s my kit.”

Whiteclaw looked startled and nodded firmly. “Now I know what the prophecy means,” She murmured. “Dawn with the rising sun, falling a beloved one, past is the future now, remember what Firestar meowed, Dusk falling with the bright full moon, a gathering night she shall come through, but now the past is past until Dawn comes again.”

Dusk swallowed. She’s right, she thought.

I am Duskmoon.