Disclaimer: Warriors by Erin Hunter
Disclaimer: Cover art based on "Orion's Cat" by Rachel Walker from Edge of the World Art
Prologue
Raindrops plipped from stem and leaf to the ground where it gathered into a twisting snake of water that trickled outside the brambles of the ThunderClan nursery. The bush, butted up against the damp quarry wall, was protected from the leaf-fall storm. Inside the dim interior, the kits' ears quivered with each rumble of thunder in the gray skies. The youngest litter, no more than a moon old, burrowed into their mother's side, suckling for comfort. The older kits, nearing the moon of their apprenticeships, pretended to stand aloft from such kittenish fears. Still, their tails curled tight against their paws and they flinched with every roar of the unhappy clouds. Their mother, a black-and-white queen, curled in a moss nest as she waited out the rain. She opened her eyes to narrow slits and twitched her tail to welcome them, but they refused to abandon their dignity of age and did not turn their heads to face her, though their eyes darted in the black queen's direction.
Another flash of lightning lit the underside of the unseen clouds above. The answering thunder disguised the sounds of a fawn-colored she-cat entering the brambles. The she-cat licked the damp from her fur. The scent of herbs—of poppies, chamomile, and garlic—tickled the noses of the nursery inhabitants. Heads turned. Squeaks resounded from the smaller kits. They tumbled across their pale mother, her breath pushed out with an uff. The white queen with the silver tabby legs rolled over and smiled as her kits bowled into the fawn-colored newcomer.
Fawnfur lost her balance, nearly drowned in the wave of kits. She fell to her side, overcome with laughter. There were only three kits, but they made a commotion as wild as any twoleg offspring.
"You again?" growled the black queen with white stripes on her legs. Her two kits glanced down at their paws and didn't approach, though they looked as anxious as the youngsters to greet the new cat.
Fawnfur pulled her feet back under her and stood. Cloverkit slid down her back with an exuberant squeal. At her feet the other two demanded stories.
"What else do you have planned today, Lightningwhisker?" Fawnfur asked, her lip curled a brief moment before settling back over her teeth. Her tail lashed once. The kits pounced and she distracted them by letting them chase her tail in gentle circles. Better the youngest of the clan did not see the tiffs of their elders.
"Don't bellyache," Frostshine meowed to her fellow queen. "It keeps the kits distracted. Any other day you'd be complaining at their jumping on top of you. If she bothers you so much, go hunting."
The black she-cat twitched her ears as the next rumble drowned out the water trickling in the leaves outside. The gentle splash of rain returned to the nursery and Lightningwhisker said no more. She rested her head on her paws and turned away.
Frostshine smiled at Fawnfur and the medicine cat apprentice nudged the kits away from the drafty entrance and into the warm milky scents of the bramble den.
"I want to hear about LeopardClan again!" the littlest kit squeaked as she was nudged along.
"No, I want more Gray Wing!" shouted another.
"No, Darkfire and the twolegplace!"
"How Smoothshell caught her first fish!"
"Quiet, little ones," Fawnfur purred. "I cannot speak if you will not listen."
The three looked at each other and sat perfectly still. As much as any kits could. Their tails were atwitch and their ears lifted and fell as they watched Fawnfur's chest move with each breath. She could not help but chuckle at their eagerness. She looked over to Black-kit and Graykit, the older two, and motioned them closer with her tail. She would not leave them out despite the difficulties with their mother.
With a glance at the black queen, who refused to face their guest, the pair tip-toed to Fawnfur's side.
"Let's see, what story should I tell," Fawnfur meowed. The kits were eager to throw their suggestions yet again. Even Graykit offered. "How StarClan gave the Clans the warrior code."
Fawnfur smiled in the direction of the older kit. She would not mind telling such a story.
"But what happened to Hollyleaf once she left the Clans?" asked another.
"Hush, hush little ones," Fawnfur meowed. "How can we hear the voices of the Past if our own are louder than the whispers of our ancestors? Let us see if StarClan will be gracious tonight and give one of you the story you've longed to hear."
Black-kit rolled her eyes. "You know very well what story you are going to tell us," muttered the black-and-white kit.
Fawnfur wished she did. But she had no control over what she Saw. She could not predict the story which came from her mouth. Sometimes she could influence the visions. Mostly she could not.
"Remind me what we spoke of the other day," Fawnfur said. "What was it? Oh, yes, how Hollyleaf was believed dead when the tunnel collapsed on her head and she left Clan territory."
"And how she sent back her sons Darkfire and Dewstep to make the Clans follow the warrior code," Graykit leaned forward. "But she didn't succeed because Darkfire struck his brother a mortal blow and ran away from the Clans and—"
"We heard that ages ago," Black-kit whined.
"True," Fawnfur meowed. Still no pictures came to her head. She hadn't found the right story yet. "Well, I recall that we recently spoke about how Fallingstar became leader of ShadowClan."
"She was a ThunderClan cat," Cloverkit mewed. "Mom's sister!"
The three youngest kits stared at Frostshine in awe. One of their close relations guided a Clan!
"Why didn't you go to ShadowClan too?" Cloverkit demanded. "She could have made you deputy!"
Frostshine laughed. "My heart was always in ThunderClan."
"Kind of like Fallingstar's nosy, gray son," Lightningwhisker snorted from her nest. Her eyes lingered on Fawnfur.
"Lakefrost?" Frostshine questioned. Then she noticed the direction of Lightningwhisker's gaze and coughed and quickly glanced away.
"What? What?" the kits demanded.
"He was never interested in me that way!" Fawnfur protested. "StarClan needed him to find me so we could stop the Dark Forest."
"Little good that did," Lightningwhisker growled. "They still came. They still wreaked havoc in our Clans and killed our warriors. Without StarClan's help there wouldn't be any Clans left at the lake."
"It's not my fault. No one would believe me!" For a moment, Fawnfur's mind was taken back to that night after the Gathering.
The dawn had been a sickly green over the treetops. Bramblestar had stared at her with such disappointment as he cast her from the Clan. He declared that her prediction, her promise that the danger was coming, was nothing more than a lie. A way to hide her guilt as she unlawfully invited cats from ShadowClan into the territory and dallied with them.
After she was cast from the Clan, the following night the moon rose again, as round and bright as the night of the Gathering. But as it hung high in the sky, piece by piece, the circle was swallowed by shadow. Then the moon was gone, only to be replaced by blood. Black silhouettes with eyes glowing as red as the moon poured from shadows of the forest. They leapt from the roots of the trees, from the caves of the quarry, from the sheltered banks of the rivers. The spirits of the dead swarmed for the Clans, intent on their revenge.
The living cats tried to fight back only for their paws to slide through the murk of the shadows, as if they struck water and not fur. They could not land a blow, could not kill their enemies because their opponents were already dead. The Clans themselves were doomed to be erased from existence—!
"Fawnfur! Fawnfur!" Frostshine nudged the medicine cat apprentice, jarring her from the vision.
Fawnfur had let herself go too deep. She shook off the images, afraid of the ones that would come next. Of seeing over and over again her sister collapse, throat covered in blood. Morningsong had been the first to die that night. Fawnfur had nearly been the second. She swallowed back the tears in her eyes. Morningsong deserved it. She tried to make herself believe the words.
"Right," Fawnfur sniffled. "The Dark Forest cats killed for their twisted reasons, but before they could do greater damage, our pleas to StarClan were answered. The moon returned and the stars fell from the skies, landing in our Clans. Our ancestors came to defend us. Spirits can only fight spirits. We living cats could not even land a blow. StarClan chased the shadows from our midst. Now they will never return because as two brave StarClan cats closed the Darkpool—the Dark Forest's means of reaching the living world—and we have no need to fear their return anymore. The worlds remain separate as they should be. Balance between StarClan and the living Clans was restored."
Fawnfur thought she'd shaken the images of that night from her head, but something slipped back and her voice continued to tell the tale as it unfolded before her.
"But what of the cats who died during the Blood Moon?" she meowed. "Typically StarClan guides the warriors who've given their lives in the service of their Clan. They take them to the starry skies above to enjoy their days of rest. But that night, StarClan was cut off until the moon returned and no one could guide the spirits properly. More than a few cats ended up in the Dark Forest. Cats who glowed with the light of stars, outnumbered by the shadows of the dead."
So I'm back. At least for this story anyway. You are probably wondering why I've broken my silence after so long. This was one story I've still felt inspired to write after all this time. I had to answer the question left over from Unknown Skies of whatever happened to those cats I'd trapped in the Dark Forest. Plus I've always been fascinated of what actually happens in StarClan and the Dark Forest. We need an actual main series dedicated to those cats-mostly because, what does keep the Dark Forest from pulling their stunt of invading the living world again? (At least my series gives a reason.)
In part I am inspired by Erin Hunter's continued series (as even more questions remain unanswered after the events of the Dark Forest Battle) and by EnlightenShadow who I allowed to write his own version of "Hollyleaf's Challenge". I would invite you to read that story (and the sequels) and his original stories as well.