by Erin Hunter
Redstar nodded. “I thought it would be. SkyClan could barely muster enough warriors to take us on. They wouldn’t have had any to spare to attack the camp. Thanks for staying behind, though. I know you would have liked to have been there.”
“My turn will come,” Seedpelt murmured. “Until then, I am honored to protect the Clan while you are not here.”
A long-legged ginger cat passed them on his way to the fresh-kill pile. He flicked Redstar’s shoulder with his tail as he drew level. “Well fought, old friend,” he purred.
Redstar dipped his head. “Thank you, Amberclaw. You weren’t too shabby yourself. Nice move with the sand-colored she-cat, I thought.”
Redstar’s brother paused. “Yes, she wasn’t expecting me to dodge quite so quickly when she hopped out of that tree, was she? She didn’t seem too happy about getting up afterward.”
“Stupid furballs,” Seedpelt snorted. “I don’t know why they insist on flinging themselves out of trees all the time. Don’t they realize we can see them up there, heaving about like great lumps of fluff?”
“Excuse me, Redstar, but are you going to stand there bleeding or would you like some cobweb on that wound?”
Kestrelwing was hovering at Redstar’s shoulder with a pawful of white stuff. He patted it fussily against the leader’s muzzle, making him sneeze.
“Enough!” Redstar ordered, shaking sticky strands out of his eyes. “See to the others first.”
Kestrelwing pattered away, muttering, “Oh, yes, because Clan leaders have blood to spare, don’t they?”
Gradually, the clearing quieted. The sky above the trees faded to pink, then gray, but the cats showed no inclination of going to bed. Warriors sat in groups, discussing the battle, reviewing what they had done well and moves that needed practice. Redstar joined them, praising and consoling, pointing out that whatever had happened, ThunderClan had won, and nothing else mattered. Kestrelwing met him as he was heading for his den.
“Have you seen the sky?” the medicine cat prompted. His eyes were shadowed with tiredness from treating all the injured warriors, but there was a gleam in them that spoke of more than a single victory.
Redstar looked up. The night sky was almost impossible to see behind the swath of sparkling stars. Silverpelt glowed brighter than a full moon, and the wind was full of the whispers of his ancestors, calling his name.
“StarClan approves, doesn’t it?” he whispered to Kestrelwing.
The gray cat nodded. “You won this battle with the blessing of our ancestors,” he agreed. “You are a hero in the stars already.”
Redstar felt a warm glow of pride—and relief, too. “Then this means that the territory we fought over today belongs to ThunderClan by right. Darkstar’s word stands, now and forever. It will never be given up!”
The Defeated Clan
Clanmates, we lost.”
Cloudstar padded into the center of the camp, his head hanging with more than weariness. Every scrape on his pelt burned like fire, and his paws were numb from leaping onto the hard, dusty ground. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured.
Birdflight trotted up to him, her swollen belly rolling with each stride, her amber eyes dark with concern. “You…you lost? But you said we had to win this battle!”
“Yes, we had to, but we didn’t!” Cloudstar snarled. Then he took a step back. “I’m sorry. You’re right; we should have won. We need that piece of territory to feed us.”
His deputy, Buzzardtail, limped past, his tail dragging in the dirt. “Go straight to Fawnstep,” Cloudstar ordered.
All around the clearing, queens and elders huddled around the returning warriors. They spoke so quietly, Cloudstar could hear a thrush warbling somewhere in the territory. Brave, foolish bird, he thought. If you stay here, you’ll be prey tomorrow. There were so few birds left, he wondered if he should send a warrior now to catch it. But every cat fit enough to hunt had fought in the battle, and all had come back with injuries, from ripped ears to a broken leg, in Mousefang’s case. That fox-hearted ThunderClan cat had jumped out of the way just as she dropped from the branch above him—StarClan knew how he’d heard her above the noise of the battle.
Maybe StarClan did know. But they weren’t telling him. Cloudstar wondered if his warrior ancestors had even been watching today. It certainly hadn’t felt as if they were on his side.
Birdflight nudged him gently. “You need to get that cut on your flank seen to,” she prompted.
“Not yet,” Cloudstar replied. “I must speak to the Clan first, tell them that we’re not giving up after one defeat.”
He clawed his way up to the branch in the gnarled thorn tree where he addressed his Clanmates. The branch seemed higher than usual, and his hind leg exploded with pain when he tried to push himself up. Once, he could stare into the trees from here and only guess where his territory ended. Now the half-built Twoleg nests loomed beyond the thin screen of branches, red and hard and threatening. They had swallowed up almost half of SkyClan’s territory already. When would they stop?
A cough below him brought his attention back to his Clanmates, who had gathered under the tree. The cats who had fought alongside him wore empty, defeated expressions; the only signs of hope were in the eyes of the cats who had stayed behind, the queens and the elders. Cloudstar hadn’t left a single warrior to defend the camp, praying that ThunderClan had no interest in launching a separate attack. His hunch had paid off; he told himself that the losses could have been worse.
“Cats of SkyClan!” He made himself stand straight and tall on his branch, and tried to sound like a leader whose courage hadn’t wavered with this defeat. “The reason we lost today is that ThunderClan fought harder and better. They wanted victory more than we did.”
There were a few looks of surprise from his exhausted warriors, but others nodded and twitched their tails, as if they were feeling guilty for letting their Clanmates down. Something stabbed deep inside Cloudstar’s heart—he knew his warriors had given everything they could, but they were outnumbered, hungry, and exhausted from too many fruitless hunting patrols. Yet he had to appeal to their sense of loyalty and honor to keep them fighting for their Clanmates.
“I don’t blame any of you. All I ask is that you look at what you did today, and see if you could have done any more. If the answer is yes, then there will be other battles, other chances to prove what it means to be a SkyClan warrior.”
Already the cats below him were lifting their heads, summoning up the remnants of their battered pride and thinking ahead to future wars.
Cloudstar finished: “SkyClan will take back what is rightfully ours. We will seize that territory from those ThunderClan thieves!”
A few reedy cheers rose from the listening cats. Cloudstar let out a sigh of relief. He had not lost his warriors’ faith. Sometimes it felt as if that were all that was left of his leadership. He lowered himself carefully down the trunk and limped to Fawnstep’s den. He needed cobwebs, marigold, comfrey to ease his bruises—but not poppy seed. He would not take the coward’s escape into sleep tonight. Instead, he would lie awake and figure out a better way to attack ThunderClan, a different strategy that would give his warriors the advantage from the beginning.
“Cloudstar! Cloudstar, wake up!”
A wet muzzle was thrust into Cloudstar’s ear. Grunting, he swatted it aside and sat up. Through the branches of his den, he could see the sky turning milky with dawn, but it was dark enough that the stars still glittered overhead. Are you still watching, StarClan?
Any words of wisdom now?
“Cloudstar, I have to talk to you!”
A blast of hot, herb-scented breath revealed that the intruder in Cloudstar’s den was Fawnstep, the medicine cat.
“What is it?” Cloudstar growled. “Is Birdflight having her kits?” He jumped up, suddenly wide-awake. “Is she all right? Do you need me to fetch herbs?”
“Sit down,” hissed Fawnstep. “Or you’ll wake every cat in the Clan. Birdflight is fine. Her kits will be here in the nex
t quarter moon, but not tonight. She’s sleeping peacefully in the nursery.”
She shuffled farther into the den and sat down. Her pale brown fur was just visible against the leaves, and her eyes gleamed when she turned her head toward him.
“I’ve had a dream,” she began. Her voice was higher-pitched than usual, and Cloudstar recognized another scent beneath the herb-dust clinging to her pelt: fear.
“I’m sure StarClan was showing me the future. Not far off—Birdflight was there with your kits, and they were still very small.”
“But strong?” Cloudstar interrupted. “There’s nothing wrong with them, is there?”
Fawnstep shook her head. “No, your kits looked…healthy.”
Cloudstar didn’t like the way she had paused, but he let her go on.
The medicine cat took a deep breath. “SkyClan was leaving the forest. I…I think we were at a Gathering. The other Clans were there. They were watching us go.”
“What? That’s absurd!” Cloudstar lashed his tail. “This is our territory!”
Fawnstep gazed at him, and Cloudstar winced at the sorrow in her eyes. “You don’t understand,” she meowed gently. “There was no territory left. Not for us. The Twolegs had taken it all, and we had nowhere else to go.”
A crack opened in Cloudstar’s heart, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t feel surprise, just sadness, and shame that he couldn’t have saved his Clan. Was this how his leadership would end? With SkyClan destroyed, hounded out of the forest like a mangy fox?
Fawnstep rested her tail on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Cloudstar. You should not have lost that battle. It is a defeat that we cannot survive.”
CONCLUSION:
ONESTAR’S FAREWELL
Hello, kittypets? Ah, there you are. I wondered where you’d gone. Did you get lost in these bushes? The island’s bigger than it looks from the shore, isn’t it? Follow me back to the clearing. We’re leaving now. We’ll take you as far as our border; then you must go home. You can find your way on your own, can’t you? Good.
Did you learn everything you wanted to know about battles? I’ve heard some stories tonight that were new to me, I must say. What was Cedarheart talking about? There are rumors that he knows more about the history of the Clans than any other cat, but he’s never shared anything with me.
Battle is not always the answer, but it is part of our heritage, the legacy passed to us by our warrior ancestors, as well as the path to our future. Some questions can only lead to conflict; all challenges deserve a brave, carefully planned response. As long as we fight with honor, courage, and respect for our enemies, the legacy of battle deserves to survive. We will continue to pass on our skills to the new apprentices, then watch as they train the next generation. Heroes will be celebrated, the losing side condemned to dust in our memories. This is what it means to be a warrior: to be proud of our legacy, of the battles that we have fought and that our ancestors fought on our behalf.
For as long as the fire burns in our blood, warrior Clans will fight.
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Written by Stan! • Art by James L. Barry
THE DELUGE
Whatever the previous adventure you played, consider that three moons have passed since then. Determine what age that makes all of the cat characters (including one belonging to the person who will take the first turn as Narrator) and use the information found in the “Improving Your Cat” section of Chapter Four in the game rules to make the necessary improvements.
Unless you are the first person who will act as Narrator in this adventure, you should stop reading here. The information beginning in the next paragraph is for the Narrator only.
The Adventure Begins
Hello, Narrator! It’s time to begin playing “The Deluge.” Make sure all the players have their character sheets, the correct number of chips, a piece of paper, and a pencil. Remember that the point of the game is to have fun, so don’t be afraid to go slow, keep the players involved, and refer to the rules if you aren’t sure exactly what should happen next.
When you’re ready, begin with 1 below.
1. Gray Skies, Wet Fur
Special Note: Some of the action in “The Deluge” depends on what Clans the players’ cats belong to. The text below assumes they are from different Clans and that they need a special reason to be hunting together. If, however, they are all from the same Clan, some of the details in this scene will be unnecessary. Improvise where needed to make the description suit the situation.
Read Aloud: “Rain. In times of drought it seemed like there could be no such thing as too much rain. But it’s been nearly a moon since any cat has seen more than a fleeting glimpse of the sky or the stars, and it’s been raining practically nonstop for days.”
Narrator Tips: This adventure takes place some time either before or after the drought the Clans experience in Omen of the Stars #1: The Fourth Apprentice. It doesn’t affect the story either way, but you may want to decide when exactly these events occur, just so your players have a better idea how they fit in with the main Warriors storyline.
Explain to the players that the rain has made things uncomfortable for all the Clans. It’s forced prey to stay in their dens, nests, and burrows as much as possible, which in turn is making it difficult for the Clans to find sufficient fresh-kill. Things are so bad, in fact, that StarClan has sent dreams to several cats telling them that it is important to send some warriors deeper into the forest to hunt. (If any of the players’ cats have the Interpret Dreams Knack, they may be among those to whom StarClan has spoken.) The players’ cats are those who have been selected for this assignment. If the players’ cats are from different Clans, you can tell them that StarClan has talked about the need for all four Clans to work together in order to make it through this deluge.
Allow the players’ cats to ask questions about and prepare themselves for the trip. There really aren’t any particular details that you need to give them (though you can improvise any that you like). The whole goal is for them to spend a day or two hunting farther up on the hill in the deep woods and to bring the fresh-kill back for all the Clans to share. The cats may want to take some traveling herbs before they go, and as long as it seems reasonable, let them.
Nothing of significance happens during the first day’s travel up the hill, but you can improvise some details if you like. Be sure to emphasize the rain, which varies in intensity from drizzle to downpour but never stops completely. Also note that the cats do not see or scent any prey along their journey.
The next day, the rain is as light as it’s been in a long time—a fine mist even lighter than a sprinkle—but it’s still there. There are also two sets of fresh tracks in the mud, each moving in a different direction.
To find out more, the cats can attempt See Checks, but not Smell Checks (the rain still makes it too difficult to get details that way), to get more information about the tracks. Knacks like Animal Lore and Track can be used to augment these Checks.
Any cat whose Check totals 5 or higher recognizes one of the sets of tracks as definitely having been made by a rabbit and thinks the other is probably a rabbit, too, only bigger. With a total of 8 or higher, the cat recognizes the second set is not made by a rabbit but still isn’t certain what animal made it. With a total of 10 or higher, the cat knows that the second set of tracks was made by a fox.
What Happens Next: Since the cats are on a hunting mission, they need to follow one of the sets of tracks. If they don’t care which set they follow, or if none of them got a 5 or higher on their Skill Checks, you should decide which tracks they will follow.
If the cats follow the rabbit tracks, continue with 5.
If the cats follow the fox tracks, continue with 14.
2. A Slippery Adversary
Read Aloud: “Hot on the trail, you burst through a de
nse thicket of brush and…find yourself back at the very spot from which you started. Somewhere along the line you must have made a wrong turn.”
Narrator Tips: The cats are right back where they began with nothing more to show for their efforts than an increased appreciation for how clever their target is. They only have a few choices at this point.
The most obvious choice is to get back on the trail and continue trying to track down the creature that made these tracks (which they may or may not realize is a fox). If they do this, the process is very similar to the one they just finished (in scene 14), except that the knowledge they’ve gained gives them an edge. This time, they only need a Check total of 7 or higher for success, and they only need four successful Checks to correctly follow the trail. However, as before, if they get three failures first, they followed the wrong trail.
Alternatively, if they haven’t yet followed the other set of tracks (the ones that obviously were made by rabbits), they might decide to let the mystery go in favor of hunting for fresh-kill—the reason they’re on this mission in the first place. This course of action is also possible following a second failure in tracking the fox, but only if they haven’t exhausted their rabbit-hunting possibilities (as described in scene 8).
It they’ve already done their hunting, though, they may instead decide that getting their catch back to the Clans is more important than solving this mystery. They will still be able to report that there is a strange creature roaming not far from the Clan territories (which is certain to make the Clan leaders a little nervous).
What Happens Next: If the cats succeeded in following the trail, continue with 9.
If the cats decide to take the rabbits they’ve already caught and head home, this is the end of the chapter. Pass the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 12.