Post by mistytail on Dec 1, 2012 19:15:18 GMT -6
Hey guys! So as you all know, this is the gem that's been causing tons and tons of drama on Tumblr (that's finally subsiding, thank god). Please feel free to critique what I have, I'm always willing to improve. c:
Prologue
The forest, to the unobservant eye, has a misleading image of stillness and quiet. If one focuses only on the tall, towering trees with their green canopies that hang high in the sky, and fails to notice the soft skittering of mice and squirrels in the earth, and tunes out the ever-changing chorus of birds, then yes, the forest is quiet and still, especially at night.
Cats, of course, cannot afford to be unobservant. Especially not the cats of the four warrior Clans, whose lives and successes depended on their constant vigilance. Even the blue-black night sky could not fool them into truly being still. Though the warriors were able to sleep thanks to the cats of Silverpelt that lived in the sky above them, it was the usual way of the warrior to be a very light sleeper. Things that went bump in the night could very well have meant destruction for them all, and a warrior must be ready to spring into action at the first sign of danger.
The only time a warrior slept soundly enough to truly dream would be if their warrior ancestors had a message for them. Such was the case with the leader of ThunderClan, Firestar.
The dark ginger tom slept soundly in his mossy nest, the rhythmic rise and fall of his mate’s sides lulling him into a deep, sound sleep. Soon enough, Firestar felt himself slip into the land of dreams. He found himself in the middle of a wide, open moor, where the stars were as big as the moon and lit the endless expanse of green grass. The tom opened his mouth and tasted the sweet air, the smells of ice and fire on his tongue like cold honey.
His ears twitched in surprise as he heard a cat approach him. Firestar turned his head and saw a dark blue-gray cat walking up to him, with her pelt sparkling like stars. “Bluestar,” he meowed politely, turning his body to face her and dipping his head in respect. “We meet again. It’s been a while.”
“A long time, my dear Firestar,” the old she-cat replied, sitting on her haunches and elegantly wrapping her tail around her paws. “I see ThunderClan is doing well under your leadership.”
Firestar sat, comfortable in his former leader and mentor’s presence. “Thank you, Bluestar. I learned everything I know from you.”
She smirked, twitching her long, gray whiskers in amusement. “Not everything. You’ve learned from your Clanmates as well.”
Firestar twitched his ears and felt his face heat up with embarrassment, and he began to groom his face with a paw. “I thank you for your kind words,” he meowed, “but I know you must have come for a greater reason than to toss some compliments my way.”
“Mmm.” Bluestar nodded, looking suddenly troubled. She cast her blue gaze down onto the grass before her and watched a starry field mouse run by.
Firestar waited for a few moments before asking, “Bluestar? What is it?”
She sighed. “StarClan has asked me to send you a message.” She turned to face him, looking at him as gravely as she did when he was young and disobeyed her and needed a scolding, and she wanted to make sure that he paid attention to every word that she said. “There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.”
“Power of the stars?” asked Firestar. “What does that mean? No cat is more powerful than StarClan.” Briefly, Firestar’s mind flashed back to the moment in the old forest when Tigerstar had allied TigerClan and BloodClan and claimed that he had become more powerful than StarClan. Shortly after he had been brutally slain by BloodClan’s leader, and all the Clans watched as all nine of Tigerstar’s lives were taken from him at once. Was that an omen from StarClan? Would his kin, if they truly were more powerful than even StarClan, meet a similar fate?
“I don’t know,” said Bluestar. “No cat does. It’s difficult to explain.”
“And what do you mean, kin of my kin?” Firestar pressed, raising his voice in a mixture of frustration and worry. “My daughter Squirrelflight is about to kit – surely you don’t mean that…?”
Bluestar simply blinked. “It’s almost morning, you’re waking up.”
“No! Bluestar, answer me!”
But Bluestar and the starry field melted away before his eyes, and the ginger-pelted leader felt his eyes opening against his will. “No… come back…” he grunted miserably before finally accepting that he was now awake. He sighed deeply and got to his paws, stretching widely with a loud, graceless yawn.
Sandstorm gave him a swift kick in his side with one of her hind legs and he yelped in surprise. “Ow!”
“Quit your whining,” she grumbled. “You’re going to wake the entire Clan with all that moaning.”
He cracked his back and rolled his eyes playfully. “At least they’ll be doing as I say for once and not running off on me like some young cats we know.”
“Oh, don’t talk badly about them,” chided Sandstorm, grooming her light ginger pelt casually. “You did plenty of your share of running off when you were a young warrior.”
“I hate it when you’re right.” He gave his mate a playful nuzzle on the top of her head. “I’m going to go check on Leafpool and Squirrelflight,” he meowed. “Be back in a jiffy.”
Sandstorm shook her head. “It baffles me that you still use kittypet talk every now and then.”
“We can’t all be Clanborn purebreds like you,” he teased. “I’ll bring back some fresh-kill from the pile and see if Brambleclaw’s organized the dawn patrol yet, all right?”
Sandstorm nodded sleepily and Firestar took that as his cue to leave. Pushing against the curtain of moss, his eyes quickly adjusted to the dawn light in his Clan’s camp. It was still quiet and sleepy, but thankfully he could smell that Brambleclaw and Leafpool were up and about. Wandering into the center of the camp, Brambleclaw exited the warriors’ den and approached his leader with his tail high. “Good morning, Firestar,” the young cat mewed.
“Morning, Brambleclaw,” replied Firestar pleasantly. “How is everyone?”
“Doing well,” Brambleclaw said. “I’ve got Cloudtail, Brackenfur, and Brightheart coming with me on the dawn patrol this morning.”
“Excellent, thank you. Have you checked on Squirrelflight yet today?”
“I have, but she’s still asleep. Annoyed Ferncloud and Daisy a good bit by poking my head in there again. Leafpool says she’s due to kit any day now.”
“Fantastic!” He gave the brown tabby a playful cuff on the shoulder. “Are you nervous?”
His deputy gave a sheepish grin. “A little,” he said.
“That’s all right, so was I. Just relax and know they’ll come when StarClan wills it.”
“I will. Thank you, Firestar.” At that, the two cats heard the grumpy mumbling of the three cats that had been chosen for the dawn patrol leaving the warriors’ den and approaching the center of camp. Brambleclaw turned his head to face them. “You lot ready yet? It won’t be dawn for much longer!”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get this over with,” groaned Cloudtail, and Brightheart cuffed him in the ear.
“Don’t talk to our deputy that way!” she hissed. “It’s not his fault you were snoring and waking up the rest of us.”
Firestar gave a hearty chuckle. “Try not to kill each other, you two.”
“We’ll do our best,” the white warrior said, giving a sidelong glance at his mate (which she couldn’t see anyway since he was in her blind spot), “but I make no promises.”
“Don’t be daft, Cloudtail,” mewed Brackenfur. “We all know Brightheart’s quicker on her feet than you are.”
“Hey, hey, settle down everyone,” meowed Brambleclaw, trying to ease the usual early-morning tension. “Let’s take out our aggression on the border, all right? Move out.”
The four warriors went through the gorse tunnel, and Firestar watched until the last cat’s tail disappeared before getting to his paws and approaching the medicine cat’s den. He could see that Leafpool was already hard at work gathering herbs. “Good morning, Leafpool,” he meowed pleasantly.
His quieter daughter jumped in surprise, the small collection of herbs she’d had in her jaw falling to the floor. “Oh, foxdung!” she hissed. Sighing, she turned to face her father. “Good morning, Firestar. Can I help you?”
“Just checking in,” he meowed. “How is everyone?”
“Doing well enough,” she sighed, collecting her herbs and placing them on a stone shelf next to her. “Squirrelflight is almost ready to kit, and Daisy and Ferncloud’s litters are doing well enough. They have a small cold but it’s nothing serious, though I want to keep an eye on Daisy’s kits. They don’t have Clan blood so it’s more likely they’ll catch things like whitecough and greencough. The elders are doing well enough, aside from the usual aches and pains.”
Firestar nodded. “That’s good, that’s very good.”
“Yes,” mewed Leafpool. “I have to walk with Squirrelflight this morning though. She insists on going on a walk outside the camp, and I told her it’s dangerous, since she’s about to kit any second, but you know her, she won’t listen to a thing any cat says.”
“Have patience,” Firestar said, walking in the den and giving her a quick, affectionate lick on her forehead. “Everything will work out the way StarClan wills it to. It always does.”
Leafpool groaned. “StarClan can be horribly unfair sometimes.”
“Now, don’t say that,” Firestar said, but Leafpool cut him off.
“You don’t understand!”
Firestar raised a paw in utter shock, backing away slightly from the tabby. “What are you talking about?”
Leafpool opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. “Nothing. Forget I said anything. I’m just under a lot of stress right now, trying to get my own sister ready for kitting and all.”
“All right.” He nuzzled Leafpool’s cheek with a cautious purr. “But Leafpool, never forget you are my daughter. If there’s anything you need to talk to me about, you can always come to me, all right?”
She sighed, exasperated. “Yes, father.” She put the clump of herbs in her mouth. “I have to go now,” she meowed through a full jaw. “Squirrelflight wants me.”
“Have fun!” he mewed, and he watched her slip away through the entrance of her den. Firestar followed her, and watched her go into the nursery. She came out with Squirrelflight a few moments later, and he felt a surge of pride swell in his chest. He was about to be a grandfather!
And yet, Bluestar’s prophecy hung over him like a dark storm cloud. “There will be three, kin of your kin…”
Prologue
The forest, to the unobservant eye, has a misleading image of stillness and quiet. If one focuses only on the tall, towering trees with their green canopies that hang high in the sky, and fails to notice the soft skittering of mice and squirrels in the earth, and tunes out the ever-changing chorus of birds, then yes, the forest is quiet and still, especially at night.
Cats, of course, cannot afford to be unobservant. Especially not the cats of the four warrior Clans, whose lives and successes depended on their constant vigilance. Even the blue-black night sky could not fool them into truly being still. Though the warriors were able to sleep thanks to the cats of Silverpelt that lived in the sky above them, it was the usual way of the warrior to be a very light sleeper. Things that went bump in the night could very well have meant destruction for them all, and a warrior must be ready to spring into action at the first sign of danger.
The only time a warrior slept soundly enough to truly dream would be if their warrior ancestors had a message for them. Such was the case with the leader of ThunderClan, Firestar.
The dark ginger tom slept soundly in his mossy nest, the rhythmic rise and fall of his mate’s sides lulling him into a deep, sound sleep. Soon enough, Firestar felt himself slip into the land of dreams. He found himself in the middle of a wide, open moor, where the stars were as big as the moon and lit the endless expanse of green grass. The tom opened his mouth and tasted the sweet air, the smells of ice and fire on his tongue like cold honey.
His ears twitched in surprise as he heard a cat approach him. Firestar turned his head and saw a dark blue-gray cat walking up to him, with her pelt sparkling like stars. “Bluestar,” he meowed politely, turning his body to face her and dipping his head in respect. “We meet again. It’s been a while.”
“A long time, my dear Firestar,” the old she-cat replied, sitting on her haunches and elegantly wrapping her tail around her paws. “I see ThunderClan is doing well under your leadership.”
Firestar sat, comfortable in his former leader and mentor’s presence. “Thank you, Bluestar. I learned everything I know from you.”
She smirked, twitching her long, gray whiskers in amusement. “Not everything. You’ve learned from your Clanmates as well.”
Firestar twitched his ears and felt his face heat up with embarrassment, and he began to groom his face with a paw. “I thank you for your kind words,” he meowed, “but I know you must have come for a greater reason than to toss some compliments my way.”
“Mmm.” Bluestar nodded, looking suddenly troubled. She cast her blue gaze down onto the grass before her and watched a starry field mouse run by.
Firestar waited for a few moments before asking, “Bluestar? What is it?”
She sighed. “StarClan has asked me to send you a message.” She turned to face him, looking at him as gravely as she did when he was young and disobeyed her and needed a scolding, and she wanted to make sure that he paid attention to every word that she said. “There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.”
“Power of the stars?” asked Firestar. “What does that mean? No cat is more powerful than StarClan.” Briefly, Firestar’s mind flashed back to the moment in the old forest when Tigerstar had allied TigerClan and BloodClan and claimed that he had become more powerful than StarClan. Shortly after he had been brutally slain by BloodClan’s leader, and all the Clans watched as all nine of Tigerstar’s lives were taken from him at once. Was that an omen from StarClan? Would his kin, if they truly were more powerful than even StarClan, meet a similar fate?
“I don’t know,” said Bluestar. “No cat does. It’s difficult to explain.”
“And what do you mean, kin of my kin?” Firestar pressed, raising his voice in a mixture of frustration and worry. “My daughter Squirrelflight is about to kit – surely you don’t mean that…?”
Bluestar simply blinked. “It’s almost morning, you’re waking up.”
“No! Bluestar, answer me!”
But Bluestar and the starry field melted away before his eyes, and the ginger-pelted leader felt his eyes opening against his will. “No… come back…” he grunted miserably before finally accepting that he was now awake. He sighed deeply and got to his paws, stretching widely with a loud, graceless yawn.
Sandstorm gave him a swift kick in his side with one of her hind legs and he yelped in surprise. “Ow!”
“Quit your whining,” she grumbled. “You’re going to wake the entire Clan with all that moaning.”
He cracked his back and rolled his eyes playfully. “At least they’ll be doing as I say for once and not running off on me like some young cats we know.”
“Oh, don’t talk badly about them,” chided Sandstorm, grooming her light ginger pelt casually. “You did plenty of your share of running off when you were a young warrior.”
“I hate it when you’re right.” He gave his mate a playful nuzzle on the top of her head. “I’m going to go check on Leafpool and Squirrelflight,” he meowed. “Be back in a jiffy.”
Sandstorm shook her head. “It baffles me that you still use kittypet talk every now and then.”
“We can’t all be Clanborn purebreds like you,” he teased. “I’ll bring back some fresh-kill from the pile and see if Brambleclaw’s organized the dawn patrol yet, all right?”
Sandstorm nodded sleepily and Firestar took that as his cue to leave. Pushing against the curtain of moss, his eyes quickly adjusted to the dawn light in his Clan’s camp. It was still quiet and sleepy, but thankfully he could smell that Brambleclaw and Leafpool were up and about. Wandering into the center of the camp, Brambleclaw exited the warriors’ den and approached his leader with his tail high. “Good morning, Firestar,” the young cat mewed.
“Morning, Brambleclaw,” replied Firestar pleasantly. “How is everyone?”
“Doing well,” Brambleclaw said. “I’ve got Cloudtail, Brackenfur, and Brightheart coming with me on the dawn patrol this morning.”
“Excellent, thank you. Have you checked on Squirrelflight yet today?”
“I have, but she’s still asleep. Annoyed Ferncloud and Daisy a good bit by poking my head in there again. Leafpool says she’s due to kit any day now.”
“Fantastic!” He gave the brown tabby a playful cuff on the shoulder. “Are you nervous?”
His deputy gave a sheepish grin. “A little,” he said.
“That’s all right, so was I. Just relax and know they’ll come when StarClan wills it.”
“I will. Thank you, Firestar.” At that, the two cats heard the grumpy mumbling of the three cats that had been chosen for the dawn patrol leaving the warriors’ den and approaching the center of camp. Brambleclaw turned his head to face them. “You lot ready yet? It won’t be dawn for much longer!”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get this over with,” groaned Cloudtail, and Brightheart cuffed him in the ear.
“Don’t talk to our deputy that way!” she hissed. “It’s not his fault you were snoring and waking up the rest of us.”
Firestar gave a hearty chuckle. “Try not to kill each other, you two.”
“We’ll do our best,” the white warrior said, giving a sidelong glance at his mate (which she couldn’t see anyway since he was in her blind spot), “but I make no promises.”
“Don’t be daft, Cloudtail,” mewed Brackenfur. “We all know Brightheart’s quicker on her feet than you are.”
“Hey, hey, settle down everyone,” meowed Brambleclaw, trying to ease the usual early-morning tension. “Let’s take out our aggression on the border, all right? Move out.”
The four warriors went through the gorse tunnel, and Firestar watched until the last cat’s tail disappeared before getting to his paws and approaching the medicine cat’s den. He could see that Leafpool was already hard at work gathering herbs. “Good morning, Leafpool,” he meowed pleasantly.
His quieter daughter jumped in surprise, the small collection of herbs she’d had in her jaw falling to the floor. “Oh, foxdung!” she hissed. Sighing, she turned to face her father. “Good morning, Firestar. Can I help you?”
“Just checking in,” he meowed. “How is everyone?”
“Doing well enough,” she sighed, collecting her herbs and placing them on a stone shelf next to her. “Squirrelflight is almost ready to kit, and Daisy and Ferncloud’s litters are doing well enough. They have a small cold but it’s nothing serious, though I want to keep an eye on Daisy’s kits. They don’t have Clan blood so it’s more likely they’ll catch things like whitecough and greencough. The elders are doing well enough, aside from the usual aches and pains.”
Firestar nodded. “That’s good, that’s very good.”
“Yes,” mewed Leafpool. “I have to walk with Squirrelflight this morning though. She insists on going on a walk outside the camp, and I told her it’s dangerous, since she’s about to kit any second, but you know her, she won’t listen to a thing any cat says.”
“Have patience,” Firestar said, walking in the den and giving her a quick, affectionate lick on her forehead. “Everything will work out the way StarClan wills it to. It always does.”
Leafpool groaned. “StarClan can be horribly unfair sometimes.”
“Now, don’t say that,” Firestar said, but Leafpool cut him off.
“You don’t understand!”
Firestar raised a paw in utter shock, backing away slightly from the tabby. “What are you talking about?”
Leafpool opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. “Nothing. Forget I said anything. I’m just under a lot of stress right now, trying to get my own sister ready for kitting and all.”
“All right.” He nuzzled Leafpool’s cheek with a cautious purr. “But Leafpool, never forget you are my daughter. If there’s anything you need to talk to me about, you can always come to me, all right?”
She sighed, exasperated. “Yes, father.” She put the clump of herbs in her mouth. “I have to go now,” she meowed through a full jaw. “Squirrelflight wants me.”
“Have fun!” he mewed, and he watched her slip away through the entrance of her den. Firestar followed her, and watched her go into the nursery. She came out with Squirrelflight a few moments later, and he felt a surge of pride swell in his chest. He was about to be a grandfather!
And yet, Bluestar’s prophecy hung over him like a dark storm cloud. “There will be three, kin of your kin…”
