Wildpaw stalked the mouse and pounced. She killed it with a quick blow with her paw. She trotted over to the roots of the oak she had buried two mice and a squirrel. Prey dangling from her jaws, she padded back through the woods to where Pudding and her kits where laying.
"Here you go," Wildpaw mumbled around the prey and dropped it at her feet. Pudding's eyes widened at the small pile of fresh kill. It must look like a feast to her, thought Wildpaw. She took a one of the three mice for herself and settled down in the shade of a hazel bush. Finishing her morsel in famished gulps, Wildpaw got to her paws and stretched until the leaves on the forest floor brushed her belly fur. Pudding was just swallowing the last of the squirrel, mouse bones scattered around her.
"Thank you so much!" she mewed happily. "You saved my life and my kits lives!" Wildpaw flicked her tail in embarrassment and looked at her paws. She took a deep breath and a dark, shadowy stench hit the roof of her mouth. DarkClan! They had followed her!
"Pudding! Come with me!" she hissed, scanning the undergrowth and scooping up a protesting kit at the same time. Pudding did as she was told, but confusion lit up her face. looking both ways, Wildpaw led the way over a ridge and started racing across the open grass, the kit bouncing against her chest. Pudding dashed after her. Wildpaw skidded to a halt when her back turned cooler, indicating that trees were overhead, blocking out the sky. Pudding set her kit down gently and whipped around to face Wildpaw.
"What is your problem!" she hissed at her. Her eyes darkened as she gathered up her other kit and curled up around them. Wildpaw looked away, not wanting to explain. They were still after her and she could only run.....
~♥~
"We have to figure out what the prophecy means," murmured Tornadostar, her wise silver gaze hardened with determination. Shinestream squinted in the darkness of the cave only they knew about.
"What was it again?" Shinestream wondered. Tornadostar hissed in frustration. She just wanted to leave the cave, because foreboding crashed down on her every time she remembered how invisible eyes had scorched her pelt on the trek here.
"The darkness is coming, to overwhelm the light, but the star shines brighter, but the wind will run and save the wild, berry and hazel will come together, the leaf will compose its own song, and the spotted lily shall see what is to come," Tornadostar repeated for the third time. Shinestream nodded, her gaze starring at nothing in particular as she ran through the prophecy in her head.
"Darkness could be DarkClan. Light is obviously LightningClan. 'but the star shines brighter' makes no sense," mewed Shinestream. "'The wind will run' could mean.........I don't know...." her voice trailed of in confusion. She looked at Tornadostar, and saw understanding flash in her eyes.
"Windrunner!" they gasped at the same time.
"It makes sense! 'the wind will run to save the wild' must mean Windrunner will save the wild......." rasped Tornadostar. Shinestream nodded in agreement and continued decoding StarClan's mysterious message."'The berry and hazel will come together'? What could that mean?" Tornadostar wondered. Shinestream shrugged.
"The leaf will compose it's own song' must mean Leafkit and Songkit! They are about to be apprenticed," Shinestream reminded the jet black she-cat. "And we already know that Spottedpaw and Lilypaw have seen what's to come." Tornadostar nodded blankly and flicked her ears towards the mouth of the cave, the only light source streaming into the cave. Cra-ack! A twig snapped somewhere among the bushes near the cave. The she-cats glanced at each other.
"You stay here. I'm going to go check it out," murmured Tornadostar. The medicine cat opened her jaws to protest, but was silenced by a glare from her leader. She watched, her fur on end, as the jet black cat crept out of the cave, her ears pricked to hear the slightest movement. Leaves rustled ahead and Shinestream crouched lower into the dark shadows. She watched the ferns swallow up a black tail tip as her leader plunged deeper towards the sound of the rustling. Shinestream closed her eyes, praying to her warrior ancestors that Tornadostar was safe. Suddenly, a frightened caterwaul split the air, echoing all around Shinestream as it bounced off the walls. She jumped up and pelted into the undergrowth, the light temporarily blinding her. She crashed blindly towards the sound of Tornadostar's yowl for help. As her muscles began to burn, she skidded to a halt for a heartbeat to listen.
"SHINESTR--" screeched Tornadostar, but her cry was cut off. Fear crashed over the she-cat as she bounded toward the yowl and froze in horror at what she saw.
The leaves scattered on the forest floor were bright red with blood. Tornadostar's blood. Shinestream looked at it in horror and backed away, her pelt fluffed up in pure terror. She whipped around and raced back to camp as fast as an ancient WindClan cat. Invisible eyes watched her retreating form as she headed back to camp to tell the Clan.
~♥~
Stargaze knew her secret would come back to haunt her. She could feel it. It was struggling to be set free and she couldn't do anything about it. With Tornadostar thought to be dead, she was leader, but betraying StarClan made her not fit to be leader. She knew her decision would haunt her as her secret would until it was set free. She leaped onto Overhang Rock, the sun reflecting dully of her unkept pelt from grief and hopelessness. Charred, the dusty brown she-cat, sat next to Leopardshadow and Darkshadow, his mate's belly bulging with his kits.The last border patrol had found her almost starved to death. Now she was healthy, her fur well kept and sleek.
"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath Overhang Rock for a Clan meeting!" she yowled at the top of her lungs. Cats began streaming out, wondering what it was this time.
"Naming new apprentices proves we will remain strong." she began, gazing down at LightningClan. "Today, from this moment on Charred will be known as Charredpaw until she has recieved her warrior name. Swiftwing will be her mentor." Stargaze dipped her head, guilt crashing over her as she thought about the kits she had abandoned.
"I will find you, Wildpaw...." her voice trailed off. She couldn't leave her kit to die.
To Be Continued
