Rainfeather picked up the limp body of Fernkit in her jaws. Eyes shut tight with grief; she relied on her nose to get her to the burial mound.
Remorse crashed over her in waves. This was never supposed to happen!
Knowing she was in a bumpy part of ShadowClan territory, Rainfeather opened her strange silver eyes, keeping them fixed on her fox-red paws. Behind her, her smoky grey tail dragged through the pine needles on the forest floor.
As she walked, Rainfeather felt her sister's pelt brush against hers. On her other side, Moonclaw flicked his tail against Rainfeather's flank in a rare show of sympathy. Behind them, Rainfeather could feel the presence of other cats: Stormypelt, Russetfur, Blackstar, Littlecloud, Tawnypelt. Along with those, she could sense StarClan walking among the others in the procession: Nightstar, Pebbleheart, Pinewhisker, Singingthrush.
Tears cascaded down every cat's faces as Rainfeather carried the two-day old kit toward the burial mound by the lake, where the last rays of sunlight would fall before Silverpelt appeared in the sky.
Blackstar ascended the large rock that marked the place where the last sunrays would fall before dark.
"StarClan," he began, his voice breaking. "StarClan, we ask you to welcome this kit, Fernkit, and give her a special place in your ranks. We honour this kit because of the services she did to her Clan." Blackstar surveyed the assembled cats. "She found her lost brother, Mistkit, when he was lost in the forest. She could make me, and everyone in the Clan, laugh whenever she wanted, and often without trying." This brought teary smiles from the listeners.
"And she saved our nursing queen and her newborn kits from a deadly enemy. An adder found its way through the camp, undetected, toward the nursery. It entered, and Fernkit was the only one to see it. Instantly she raised the alarm. The queen was too weak after her recent kit-birth to do anything but watch in horror as Fernkit, seeing the adder get close, pounced on it, clawing its throat and biting it behind the head. She killed it, but it bit her. By the time our warriors, and Littlecloud, got to the nursery, they were both dead.
All this happened in a few seconds."
Blackstar nodded to Rainfeather, who scraped a large hole in the dirt and laid her young, newborn sister in it. Silently Rainfeather dipped her head in acknowledgement to the kit's great deed. Tears flowed from her eyes onto the prone body of the kit, pooling in the hollow between the head and the body. And that little pool of water, Rainfeather caught a glimpse of her dead mentor, Singingthrush.
The tide is rising.
Water, Air, Darkness, and Sky will be washed away by the tides.
Hardship will have to be battled.
The four come together
A war to be fought.
The water is your friend
Or so you thought.
Numbly, Rainfeather stepped back, allowing other cats to pay their respects.
Puzzling over the words of what could only be a new prophecy, Rainfeather kept backing up, until she bumped into Willowsong. Her sister gave a rusty, teary purr. "Hi, Rainfeather."
Lowering her head, Rainfeather allowed tears to flow freely from her eyes. They both knew that there was something about their youngest sister that would be impossible to replace. Willowsong and Rainfeather had lost a sister - ShadowClan had lost a brave and valuable warrior.
Leading her sister to a clump of bracken, Rainfeather began to tell Willowsong about the prophecy that had come to her from Singingthrush.
"Her exact words were: Water, Air, Darkness and Sky will be washed away by the tides. Hardship will have to be battled. The four come together, a war to fought. Water is your friend, or so you thought. I think that the last part of it means - " But she never got to tell her sister what she thought, for around her, the other cats suddenly grew silent. Blackstar leaped down from the Burial Stone as Willowsong gave Rainfeather a nudge with her nose, whispering, "It's time..."
Stepping forward, Rainfeather addressed the first, earliest warrior in Silverpelt, coming to view this burial before the sunset.
"Warrior of StarClan," she began in a loud, clear voice. "I ask you to take care of Fernkit's spirit as she travels to StarClan. My sister is - was - a brave warrior, even as a kit. We call upon you to take into loving care." Rainfeather's voice broke. "Please..."
And as she scraped dirt over the prone body of Fernkit, the last rays of the setting sun fell upon Fernkit's grave and Rainfeather's paws seemed to be made of living fire. One last tear dripped from her nose, like a falling star onto the pile of earth that covered Fernkit. Next to her, Willowsong and Moonclaw moved forward, each holding a fern in their jaws. Silently, they drove the ends into the moist earth and stepped back as those last rays of sun disappeared and Silverpelt appeared in all its glory.
And, barely visible along the horizon, was one small star.
To be continued...