"Mouse-dung!"
The spiteful curse reached Jayfeather's keen ears, and he looked up from his herbs. "Ivypaw?" he asked as the she-cat's scent wafted on the breeze. The faint scent of squirrel told the medicine cat that the apprentice had missed the prey. "Ivypaw I know you're there." Jayfeather tried again.
There was no response, and Jayfeather assumed that the rather irritable she-cat had ignored him and gone back to camp. "What do you want?" Ivypaw said softly, dislike lacing the call. Jayfeather looked back up, quickly pin-pointing the brown and white tabby. "Nothing," he said, forcing a bit of surprise in his voice. "You seemed… distressed. Is anything troubling you?"
The apprentice hesitated. "Well…" she began. Jayfeather braced himself for a long rant about her love-life, or the fact that her sister was doing so much better than her. Too bad, he thought, Dovepaw is the Third. She's supposed to be special. "I haven't been getting much sleep lately. Starry-Ones keep interrupting my dreams and-"
"Wait," Jayfeather mewed, confused. "Who are the Starry-Ones?" Ivypaw snorted. "Oh yah," she meowed, venom in her tone. "You wouldn't know my terms for them. I'm surprised you didn't catch on, they're right up your alley." Get on with it! "Starry-Ones are cats from StarClan, mouse-brain."
"WHAT!" Jayfeather yowled, shock pulsing under his grey fur. "You see StarClan? But that's-"
"Impossible? Crazy? Yes. But it's the truth. They always come, never to me, I might add, but they come."
Jayfeather sighed. This was going to be a long and very confusing night. "You'd better start from the beginning, when did you first see StarClan?" He hid his emotions well, for while his voice was steady, alarm caused his heart to flutter like a trapped bird. He settled down and began to listen as the apprentice, Kin of Firestar, began her explanation.
"When I was a moon or two old, I woke up in the dead of night, but the nursery was lit as though it was daylight. Then I saw that I wasn't the only cat awake. A slender tortisshell with stars trapped in her pelt was making her way towards our nest. I half closed my eyes, so she wouldn't see me. But she didn't even look at me. No she walked right past me to sit and stare at Dovepaw! And then, believe it or not, a blue furred she-cat appeared right in the middle of the nursery! My eyes flew open, but the Starry-Ones didn't notice. After all, why would they notice little normal me, when the oh-so great Dovepaw was right there? They didn't do much, they must have talked a little, but I didn't catch anything.
"Eventually they left, but I kept seeing the Starry-Ones. One night, we were apprentices, and a grey scarred she-cat came into the den. She prodded Dovepaw awake, and then the two of them left. It didn't stop there. I see them on patrol, when I'm hunting. I don't see what makes Starry-Ones, StarClan, so special. I think they're a big nuisance."
Ivypaw stopped talking suddenly, and Jayfeather caught waves of embarrassment flooding from her. I gave too much away, he thinks I'm weird. The thought just came to him, strong. "Ivypaw," he didn't quite know what to say. Then a thought came to him. "Ivypaw? Have you seen a dark tabby? Or a cat with a broken tail?"
The waves of embarrassment changed to guarded curiosity. "Not to my memory…" Ivypaw said slowly. "Unless… Are you talking about the Dark-Ones? I saw one… only once though. Sometimes I catch flashes… but I can never tell if it's one of them or not. The cat I saw was a big tabby, with amber eyes that glared at me; he was the only one to ever look at me straight. There was a smaller cat that looked similar, his eyes were blue. He was there for a brief heartbeat, then they were both gone. Why?"
Her question caught Jayfeather off-guard. But in that moment he knew what to do. Dovepaw wasn't happy keeping secrets from her sister, and now… He just hoped he could trust Ivypaw. "Well…" he gulped. This would be harder than telling one of the three. "Ivypaw, there is a prophecy. Older than the Clans themselves. It was given to Firestar quite some time ago, and I uncovered it from his…" he couldn't finish the sentence. There was no need for the young apprentice to be burdened with the knowledge of what they could do. "There will be Three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws." He could feel Ivypaw shiver, as if the words alone possessed a power. "The three the prophecy speak of are Lionblaze, myself and-"
"Dovepaw." Ivypaw guessed. "I knew there was something odd about her. So what should I do?"
Ivypaw stared at the blind medicine cat. He was staring at the ground, lost in thought. What had made her reveal her deepest secret? Maybe it was the fact that Jayfeather was being uncharacteristically… well not kind, maybe he had a bit more patience than usual. She, however, was just the opposite. Cinderheart had scolded her the other day for snapping at the younger apprentices, right before her mentor found out she was heavy with kits. Not that Ivypaw wasn't happy for her mentor, but now the grey she-cat had left her apprentice without a mentor for over six moons.
"I don't know," Jayfeather's quiet mew shook Ivypaw from her thoughts. "I should probably tell the others." It took a moment for Ivypaw to realize he was talking about Dovepaw and her mentor. A short growl built up in her throat. No one would ever refer to her as one of the 'others'. "Dovepaw wanted to tell you as soon as she found out," Jayfeather continued. "But Lionblaze and I wouldn't let her."
"Sh- she did?" Ivypaw stammered. Her arogence melted away. "That's… sweet." Jayfeather dipped his head. "How do you know it's Dovepaw?" she asked. She didn't really think they had gotten it wrong, but somewhere deep inside, hope flared, a warm flame that filled her with longing. "We-" Jayfeather began, but his voice broke off. "We have… powers." Ivypaw cocked her head, forgetting that the blind cat couldn't see her. "Lionblaze is undefeatable in battle; have you noticed his lack of scars for a brilliant fighter? I walk other cats dreams, and occasionally their memories. And your sister… she hears and sees things at a distance farther than any other cat."
Ivypaw pondered this new knowledge. "But," she said, as a realization came to her. "If you only know which ones are the three, why do I have a power? Why can I see Starry-Ones?"