Power of Three and a Half
Chapter 1: Conference
"Hey Lionblaze."
Lionblaze grunted and didn't reply.
"LIONBLAZE WAKE UP!"
Lionblaze woke up with a jolt, only to find his brother Jayfeather staring down at him. His blind eyes stared blankly at him.
"You're creepy when you do that," Lionblaze sighed. "What's going on?"
"I need help getting to the dirt place," Jayfeather grumbled. "I tried to find it myself but I accidently stumbled into the elders den."
"Ha!" Lionblaze snorted. "I bet they weren't very impressed."
"They didn't have to be so rude," Jayfeather snapped. "It's not my fault I tripped over Longtail and woke the whole lousy den up."
"Hey, shut up!" Hollyleaf hissed from where she was lying down. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"
"SORRY HOLLYLEAF," Lionblaze bellowed, succeeding in waking up everyone.
"Let's go," Lionblaze said quickly, making his way out the den. Jayfeather followed him, crashing through the den entrance, making way more noise then necessary.
"CAREFUL," Lionblaze yelled as a cat nearly walked into them. "DISABLED CAT ON THE PREMISES."
"Jeez," Jayfeather grumbled. "You make me sound retarded."
"WATCH YOURSELF," Lionblaze howled as another cat walked by.
"For crying out loud," Jayfeather snapped. "You're absolutely no help at all."
They finally got to the dirt place tunnel, but to Jayfeathers dismay, there was already a party of cats crowding in it.
"BREAK IT UP, BREAK IT UP," Lionblaze pushed through the group. "JAYFEATHER NEEDS TO GO."
"Oh my god," Jayfeather was so embarrassed he could barely even speak. Blossomfall and Briarlight were giggling, and Jayfeather could feel their gaze burn his pelt.
"What's going on in here anyway?" Lionblaze asked. "Are you guys having a party, or is it just the cool thing now to hang around the place where everyone does their business?"
"We were just having a conference," Bumblestripe explained. "We were discussing the lousy new system Firestars got going on."
"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense," Briarlight blurted out. "These double patrols are exhausting, and when we're done them everyone's too tired to do any training."
"Or hunting," Blossomfall put it.
"It is pretty dumb," Lionblaze agreed. "It also doesn't make any sense, I mean, does anyone actually know the purpose of the patrols?"
"No," Bumblestripe growled. "He wouldn't tell us, remember."
"He's been acting really weird lately," Jayfeather noted. "I remember I went out a few days ago to search for herbs. Firestar literally, and I'm not kidding, sent a full patrol of four warriors and two apprentices to follow me and make sure I was safe."
Blossomfall, Bumblestripe and Briarlight stared at him disbelievingly.
"He's not making it up, I know that for a fact," Lionblaze giggled. "I was one of the cats on the patrol."
"I'm aware," Jayfeather hissed. "You kept throwing berries and sticks at me."
"Heehee," Lionblaze giggled.
"It was absolutely not funny!" Jayfeather cried. "I couldn't even collect any herbs because every time I leaned down to pick one up, you made some sort of stupid noise, and then the whole patrol would fall over laughing."
"Oh, I heard about that," Bumblestripe snorted. "I wish I was there."
"That's just great, you losers," Jayfeather rolled his eyes. "Laughing at me, jeez."
Lionblaze opened his mouth to say something else but stopped when he heard another cat push its way into the dirt place.
"Holy it's crammed in here," Cloudtail mumbled. "What's the deal, guys. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"We were having a conference," Lionblaze launched into the story about how Firestar was ordering double patrols.
"I think he's worried about Shadowclan," Cloudtail said after he'd heard the whole story. "They were acting very odd at the last gathering, and I think Firestar just wants to take extra precautions to make sure we're ready if they decide to make a move."
"Well it's tiring," Blossomfall complained.
"Then maybe you should go to sleep instead of stuffing yourselves into the dirt place."
"I guess," Lionblaze muttered. "Come on Jayfeather, let's go."
"I never got to go," Jayfeather mumbled as they walked out.
"Well I guess you're gonna have to hold it until the morning," Lionblaze replied.
"I guess so," Jayfeather snapped.
Lionblaze walked Jayfeather back to the medicines cat den in silence, enjoying the quiet whisper of the trees rustling in the breeze.
"See you in the morning," Lionblaze said, then turned around to walk back to the warriors den. Jayfeather pushed his way into the empty den, and curled up in the corner. It took him a while to fall asleep, mainly because he wasn't tired. Unfortunately, just as soon as he was about to drift off, Hollyleaf burst into his den.
"JAYFEATHER!" she screamed.
"Oh my god, what," Jayfeather hissed.
"I saw it," she whispered. "With my own eyes!"
"What did you see?" Jayfeather mumbled, still half asleep. "And why did you not just wait until morning to tell me?"
"I saw Starclan," Hollyleaf said excitedly. "They told me something!"
"You don't say," Jayfeather mumbled. "And why did they tell you, and not me? I'm the medicine cat."
"I know, that's the weird part," Hollyleaf said confused.
"What did they say?"
"Um, it was kind of odd ..."
"Just spit it out," Jayfeather snapped, wanting to go back to sleep.
"Three became four, but only two knew, four became three and they lost what to do. Two thought the third was the only one left, but the one always knew there was little time left. They two had a feeling that they would be wrong, the third was the one who was there all along."
"Is this some kind of joke?" Jayfeather asked, getting annoyed. That's just fantastic, he thought. We finally figure out who the third cat in the prophecy is, and now this happens. It had taken moons and moons to figure out that the cat in the prophecy, There will be three, kin of your kin who hold the power of the stars in their paws, was Dovewing.
"Just think about it," Hollyleaf said mystically, then pranced out of the den with such excitement it made Jayfeather want to throw up.
Well it's obvious what she's thinking, Jayfeather thought to himself.
The third was the one that was there all along.
Hollyleaf was the third.
But why?