Prologue
The stars glinted up in the night sky, so far away from the cats gathered in the clearing.
"I'm coming, my friends," Springstar rasped. She coughed once more, her body wracked with exhaustion. "Just a few more moments now."
"Quiet, Springstar," a gentle voice whispered. "None of that talk. WindClan needs you."
"You are a good medicine cat," the elderly leader wheezed, not taking her eyes off of the stars. "You know as well as I do that this is the end."
Galefoot dipped her head, silenced. WindClan's leader was on her last life. There was nothing to do except wait. She knew that there was no turning back.
She couldn't believe that it had happened like this. It had just been so sudden.
Springstar had been standing on the leader's hill, admiring her sleeping clan, when it struck.
She doubled over coughing, calling three specific cats to speak to her before she died.
The clan had crept out of their dens, watching with scared eyes. Everyone in camp knew that their leader's last life was coming to a close.
"Springstar?" The tentative mew came from a small cat, with dark paws and golden eyes.
"Yes, Falconpaw?" The leader angled her ears towards the voice of her apprentice.
"Please don't go," the gray cat sobbed. "I'm not ready for you to die yet!"
"Don't worry," Springstar reassured him. "I will always be with you."
"Promise?" Falconpaw asked.
"I promise," the leader complied. "Just remember to give your new mentor the same respect you gave me. You're a great cat, Falconpaw. You will make a great warrior one day, and perhaps a great leader after that. And I will always be there for you."
That came out a bit more stereotypical than I meant it to be, Springstar thought. Oh well, he knows I mean it.
Falconpaw sniffled. He knew that life wasn't going to be the same without Springstar alive, no matter what she said.
There was a rustling sound behind Falconpaw and another cat stepped through the long grass and onto the hill.
"Dogheart?" Springstar asked. "Is that you?"
"I'm here," the ochre deputy replied. "Don't worry, Springstar, I will take good care of your clan."
"I know you will," the brown furred leader purred. "Otherwise I wouldn't have appointed you as my deputy. But you must remember not to let the anger inside you win over the good. You are a very ambitious cat. That can be a force for good or a force for evil."
Springstar paused to cough again.
"You should get some rest," Dogheart whispered with a lick around his leader's ears.
To any watching cat, the deputy may have simply appeared concerned, but Springstar could tell that he didn't want to hear this. But he has to. For the good of all the clans.
"I will have rest," she creaked. "In StarClan I shall rest. But you need to listen to me, Dogheart. You can be a great leader, make WindClan strong. But you need to remember the light."
"Always," Dogheart forced a purr. Internally he seethed at being instructed as if he were no more than an apprentice.
I will make WindClan strong, he thought. I will make WindClan brave. I will make WindClan great again. You will be proud, Springstar. Someday you will see that you worried over nothing.
"It's time," The leader said. The bright moon slipped out of the cloud cover, turning the gold flecks on her pelt to silver.
Finally, Springstar lowered her eyes from the stars and looked to the three cats assembled below. The cats she loved more than anyone else in the world.
"I am ready."
A/N This is my first FanFic, so please don't be too harsh cause I know it's not all that great. (That doesn't mean I don't value your reviews, please critique me as much as you can.) I will try to update weekly-monthly, but sometimes I am very busy so there might be occasional longer waits.
This story is set years after the books, with no cannon characters and in a completely new setting.