Stargaze sat on Overhang Rock, starring down at the Clan she had to lead. She had to accept her close friend and leader was most likely dead. Dead. The word rang in her ears like a bell. She would never see her wise silver eyes spark with happiness as she gazed fondly over the kits in the nursery. The edge in her meow when she scowled her warriors for eating on a patrol. Grief hang in the air. She had to appoint a deputy, for she was now leader. Not deputy. She sighed and looked at the sky and saw that the sun was setting.
I got until moon-high to decide. Maybe StarClan will guide me, she thought as she made her way to her new den that still smelled faintly of Tornadostar. She curled up and fell asleep in a couple of heartbeats.
~♥~
The gray mist! hissed Lightningstar in her ear before she sat bolt upright. Stargaze leaped to her paws. StarClan had made no sense! She growled silently to herself and stalked through the camp, mewing soft, tense greetings. She had to decide who would support her with every hair on her pelt. She gracefully leaped onto Overhang Rock and faced the Clan. Her name seemed obvious since her eyes shone with the stars of their warrior ancestors. The gray mist, came the whisper on the wind. Stargaze forced her bristling fur to relax and opened her jaws to yowl for a Clan meeting. There was no need; all the cats had already gathered, their eyes white. Gray mist hung in the clearing, shrouding the cats in foggy air., moisture dampening their slick pelts.
"I say these words in StarClan's presence. May they hear and approve of my choice of de---" she stopped and gaped at the clearing she couldn't see her Clanmates at all. Except for two. They say next to each other in the middle of the clearing, the fog forming a circle around them. She breathed in sharply. The gray mist! came the silent yowl that only she could her. Graymuzzle and Seamist! She understood.
"And the new deputies of LightningClan will be Graymuzzle and Seamist!" she finished and the fog seemed to melt into the shadowed moonlight along the edges of the clearing, revealing the forms of her Clan-mates once more. Utter surprise appeared on her Clan-mates faces. They seemed to want to ask "Why two deputies?!?", but crickets played an annoying melody as silence gripped the camp.
"Graymuzzle! Seamist!" came the squeak of Rabbitkit and then Wishkit. Stargaze purred in amusement as the Clan over took the squeaky cries. Stargaze raised her tail for silence and the clearing fell quiet after a few heartbeats.
"Tidekit and Shadowkit have reached their sixth moon. Nightstorm can move back to the warriors den. From this moment on, Tidekit and Shadowkit will be known as Tidepaw and Shadowpaw. Shadowpaw's mentor will be Leafcliud. Tidepaw's mentor is Shadowsong. That is all." Stargaze nodded and watched newly named mentor and apprentice touch noses. No matter what happened, Clan life went on.
~♥~
"You're to travel to the Moonstream and Crystal Pool tomorrow at moon-high," reminded Shinestream as Stargaze stretched and curled up. She nodded sleepily and fell asleep as the pretty Bengal medicine cat padded lightly out of the den. Ferns swooshed as she slid through the entrance back into the camp clearing and the moving shadows slowly put Stargaze to sleep. Horrible dreams filled her sleep. Wildpaw, Lilypaw, and Sunpaw---her kits she had abandoned so many moons ago---were at the edge of a cliff, hungry licking flames surrounding them. Only one way out was a tree branch a dark gray matted form blocked. He was looking at a dark ginger she-cat, bright fire in the flicker light of the flames, with a hungry look in his eyes. He gave her one final cold glare and padded into the trees. And her kits scrambled over the tree branch, to safety. She woke up with a start. Something told her she had just experience something from the past, when the Three were still very young. A terrible secret had been revealed and
