She felt her claws grating into the rock. They scraped deep marks, and suddenly she was plunging, down, down, down...
Sharptooth looked up. He screamed...
She felt herself and her weapon crash into him...
And then the icy cold of the floor reached her. Feathertail lay winded for a second, her breath coming in fast, shallow gasps.
She saw Sharptooth shudder and die. Her eyes closed. Thank you, StarClan... I did my duty. I'm ready to go with you now. A painful thought probed her, hard as a claw. StarClan didn't walk these skies. Would she be doomed to walk forever with the Tribe's ancestors? The same Tribe who had trapped her brother, who had driven them out, who had caused her death?
Her pelt glowed silver in the light. She felt radiant, light-headed. No... what about Stormfur? What about Crowpaw? She couldn't let them down. She couldn't!
With effort, Feathertail forced open her eyes. Crowpaw gasped. Stormfur looked up.
This was goodbye. She knew it. They knew it. But they didn't want to accept it.
Neither did she.
They exchanged their final words, and she laid her head down.
All at once, a swirl of mist surrounded her. She felt a warm presence guiding her, leading her. "Feathertail..." An achingly familiar voice, an achingly familiar scent. Who was this silver she-cat, who looked so much like Feathertail?
Oh. Her breath caught in her throat. It... it couldn't be... "Silverstream!" She choked out in barely more than a whisper. The cat pressed close against her, and for a serene moment mother and daughter had a joyous reunion.
"Shh," her mother cooed, and for an instant Feathertail felt like a kit again, snuggling into Silverstream's side, taking her first breath as her mother took her last. "It's okay now. It'll all be okay." Feathertail suddenly spun around. The full impact of what had just happened hit her. "Crowpaw!" she called out forlornly. "What about him? Oh, poor Stormfur, poor Crowpaw, poor Tawnypelt and Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw... Oh, what have I done!" Her pain-filled mew echoed along the bare expanses of the mountains.
Silverstream watched her daughter mewl, a sad expression crossing her eyes. A look of understanding soon replaced it. She fixed clear green eyes on her daughter and softly mewed, "You fulfilled your destiny. That's what you did."
Feathertail pivoted swiftly, bristling. "My destiny is to cause hurt to the ones I love then, is it?" Her ugly snarl was merely a mask put on to hide her mounting sadness. Those tender few words she'd exchanged with Crowpaw and her brother at her last moments...
Silverstream drew her close once more. "You have saved the Tribe from destruction. You will always be honored among them - and among StarClan. We don't exactly agree with The Tribe of Endless Hunting, but you have made a sacrifice that will affect them for generations."
All of Feathertail's anger seemed to melt away into pure sorrow. She felt her death, the loss of Crowpaw, the feeling that she had failed her duty as one of the four cats chosen by StarClan, slicing into her deeply. "All right, then, let's go," she mewed softly, and managed a smile. But there was something in her smile that had not been there before, and never would be absent from it again.
The two she-cats padded across the mountains and into the sky. Stars flowed from Feathertail's pawsteps. She turned one last time to look at the cats who'd travelled with her for so long. Her heart broke all over again as she spotted Crowpaw and Stormfur, both grieving inconsolably.
"Crowpaw," she whispered. "Your happiness... lies with someone else... a ThunderClan cat. Oh, Crowpaw... I'll wait for you. I'll wait for you forever, for more than forever, for eternity if I have to. One day, Crowpaw, we will be joined again, and walk the stars together." Her voice died on the wind, carried by a light breeze all the way down to where her body now lay.
Far below, in the shadowed light of the cave, Crowpaw pricked his ears.