"Echosong."
Twitching an ear, the silver tabby rose dutifully to her paws. In place of an inky cavern mouth lay a sweeping expanse of night sky, chinked with random stars. She was graced with the presence of a clawlike crescent moon, dappling the gorge's edge with leafy shadows. Greenleaf at its fullest, irony at its fullest; the world she had crossed over from in her slumber had been battling leaf-bare.
Echosong's gaze skimmed the edge of the rock, resting briefly on a glittering patch of sky opposite of her. It shuddered slightly under the touch of her leer.
"Fawnstep?" she guessed, approaching the silvery, half-transparent apparition. "What news do our ancestors have for me?" A flinty glare shadowed her face. "Are you going to caress my ears with riddles tonight, or tell me where I can find some much-needed coltsfoot? Rockfall teeters on the border between your world and ours."
Fawnstep's breath caught in her throat with an audible gasp; for a moment, a silvery sheen rippled down the length of the ancestor's body. Slowly her full coloring spread down her limbs, replacing the frost in her fur with a full, light brown tabby pelt. Nothing about the former medicine cat looked intimidated or nervous now.
"Curb your tongue tonight," hissed Fawnstep, crouching until her belly scraped the rock ledge. "How dare you blame StarClan. We are not killers!"
Echosong snorted. "But you're not saviors, either." Her tail slapped over her paws, echoing loudly through the silent valley. "If I were not tradition-bound," she meowed in a fierce undertone, "then I would not have come. I have a cave full of patients to tend to, all of them labored in their sleep. Maybe I'd have more time to gossip if you could tell me where those cursed herbs are," she added, pricking her ears halfheartedly.
The other feline didn't rise from her offensive crouch. Did Fawnstep fear being mauled by her own flesh-and-blood apprentice?
"We are imbued with very little true power. Every cat of StarClan once shaped the world; then that duty was passed on to the next living generation following suit. Let the dead rest in peace." Fawnstep's chiding was sharp with the truth and regret.
Cold, mirthless laughter rent the air. Echosong's whiskers stopped twitching after a heartbeat. "I'm sorry." Her response was hardly sincere, but regretful nonetheless. "Could you tell me where...?"
"Let me soothe your unease," whispered Fawnstep, springing from her crouch to come and touch noses with the other tabby. "Rockfall won't be joining us any time soon."
"Thank StarCl..." Echosong's joyful reply faltered.
Fawnstep's eyes were glazed over, her fur drooping as if oppressed by summer's heat. Warriors ancestors shouldn't have looked as emaciated as Fawnstep did, but up close the truth was undeniable. The starry cat spirit was a shell of her former—former—self, ribbed heavily from chest to hindquarters.
Why hadn't she noticed before? Fawnstep was ill—sicker than any of her living Clanmates.
The dead can't get sick, Echosong repeated to herself. Beneath her pads, a dark chasm opened up, threatening to swallow the medicine cat whole. Its name was doubt.
"StarClan's dieing, isn't it?"
"Yes!" cried Fawnstep hoarsely, widening her stance. Her voice rose several octaves as the she-cat tacked on, "The other four Clans of cats stand on the brink of utter destruction! The three! The three! The sun-stealer who fractured the divinity of their powers has united a darker art, darker than anything Star...StarClan...could have prophesied..."
Gossamer strands of saliva pooled onto the rock face as she staggered; in a split second Echosong was at her side, nosing Fawnstep's flank with rough shoves.
"Get up! You must get up!"
Fawnstep's eyes misted over; from between her gritted teeth, foam spattered Echosong's pads. Death, like the scent of carrion on the wind, buffeted her face.
"Amass...the survivors...revive the destruction the hunted have endured. Predator has become prey... Echosong, their faith has vanished!"
"Who's?" stammered Echosong. Electric currents iced over every nerve in her body.
"The other Clans. That is whom. When StarClan falls, cats can't find the light... When no path guides their pawsteps to our ranks, warriors fade like cobwebs in a storm. They are ravaged by time, if left unprotected. StarClan collects and unifies the dead after this life. We protect Clan spirits, from kit...to...to elder...and now, their guardians are vanishing. Our separate coven of ancestors dies in response to their downfall."
Fawnstep's eyes found her; crazed, the she-cat begged, "Find the Clans, I beg of you! What is left of our diminishing strength will be harnessed to guide your paths."
"'Your paths'?" Echosong squeaked. "You mean all of SkyClan—"
"Leave this place." The quiet order cut across Echosong's question. "It was made safe; naturally, on its own, the gorge...is a deathtrap for SkyClan. Rats came once...they come again. This Clan...must journey...must rescue the other descendants...before the three slaughter them all. One is b-battle-driven, the second torn between destruction ultimatum and salvation, the third blind to truth and ignorant... O sun-stealer!"
Sun stealer? The three? "Clan cats are doing this?"
But Fawnstep merely shook her head; the gesture alone caused a silent caterwaul of pain to be torn from her stretched out jaws. Gasping and scrabbling at the rock face, Fawnstep begged one last time, "Rouse the others...I love you."
Her form split into dust particles, filling the air with chilling premonition.
Her eyes flying open, Echosong realized the shudder had been a byproduct of the cold; she was awake in the Whispering Cave once more.
Barely conscious of her beating heart, disregarding the limp in her left back leg, she crossed the darkened causeway and embraced the nocturnal sky.
Around her, minuscule heartbeats labored across SkyClan's camp. Echosong was sensitive to every heartbeat that belonged to each individual cat; as a medicine cat, her gift was sacred and honed through a line of spiritual felines learned in the practice.
The silver tabby was even aware that Leafstar's lives had dwindled down to a mere five; taken from sickness, battle, accident, starvation, and kit birth, of which none of the litter survived. The leader had only reigned for a few years.
Pebbles cascaded down the side of the Rockpile as she surmounted the top. Long shadows groped across the rocky ravine floor below her.
"SkyClan, come! I implore you!" yowled Echosong.
Her cry summoned her Clanmates like moths to a firelight: Sharpclaw, their deputy, supporting Clovertail on his right shoulder. The warrior was contaminated with a bout of whitecough, though not nearly as bad as her son's. Rockfall plowed behind her, herded by Bouncefoot and Tinycloud. Cherrytail's eyes shone in the gloom as she and her brother, Sparrowpelt, slid from a nearby cave. Petalnose—pregnant with Patchfoot's kits—accompanied her newfound mate and children, Sageheart and Mintwing. Though he was no Rainfur, his unquestionable presence during her period of grief at opened up exciting new possibilities.
At last followed Leafstar. Their leader was aging, but youthful in spite of strife. And just as reprimanding to any cat that she felt was a threat.
"Echosong?" Her raspy meow cut across the clearing space between she-cat and she-cat. "Why are you up there? Only leaders can call a meeting!"
For the span of what felt like lifetimes Echosong leveled up the Clan seated below her, their upturned faces changing from greedy hope to raw terror. Was the message on her lips written as easily across her face?
"Our ancestors have spoken," meowed Echosong, raising her muzzle toward the moon. "StarClan is falling, and we, their predecessors, must set forth into the wild and save what is left of our former rivals. Thunder, shadow, river, and wind—or die trying.
"We leave with the dawn."
Author's Note: This was inspired from the popular demand of a reappearance from SkyClan. Its end is a cliff-hanger, but until I get that far, here's the beginning of it. Personally, the idea of the five Clans reuniting after some terrible journey and the inter-mingling concept of "the three" has always fascinated me. Any guesses on whom the sun-stealer is?
