SPIRIT CLAN

LEADER

Dewcloud: Blueish-gray tabby she-cat with white paws and a white tip on her left ear, green eyes. Guardian of all four clans.

Blood dripped from her front shoulder, it ran down her leg and stained the white on her paw, where a large gash had been opened. Bursts of pain shot through the leg every time she placed it down and caused her to stagger as she moved her way through the battle. Dew was just a kit, only five moons old, and so her small body went unnoticed in the fighting.

A large tom rushed by her, one paw reaching out and swatting her away, and she was sent rolling across the ground. Sharp stones and brambles caught at her fur; it tore and pulled at her skin. Despite her best efforts to be quiet a low, shrill, wail burst from her throat.

Her rolling motion was stopped only when she hit a large rock that was protruding out of the ground. Pain racked through her body and she struggled to get to her feet. Dew might have just been a kit, completely untrained in the ruthless ways of the clans, but she knew that if she stayed where she was the other cats would kill her. She also knew that if the fighting kept up like it was, every one else would die as well.

It was a struggle for Dew to get to her feet again, her whole body shook from the effort, but she managed it.

A wail from her left caught her attention briefly, two cats she didn't know were locked in battle near her, but she shook her head and tried to get back to what she'd been doing. If she could get to the leader of her makeshift clan, Lightening, then she might be able to do something. Maybe talk him into retreating or...Something. She couldn't just let all of her clan-mates die here though!

Pinning her ears to the back of her head, green eyes narrowing into determined slits, Dew started to weave her way through the fighting again. It was slower going than before because every step she took, every time she breathed really, pain would shoot through her body. But it didn't stop her.

She ducked under a ginger tom, from Breeze's clan it smelled like, and swerved to the left in an attempt to avoid being hit by a barreling she-cat. No one seemed to notice her as she crossed the battle field. At least, no one cared that she was there. A kit in the midst of a bloody fight.

Dew wasn't the only one of her age involved in the battle though. Other kits, some even younger than she was, were in the fight as well. They were struggling to stay with their mothers and fathers; to stay with cats that would protect them. But many had already died, killed off like they were prey, and their bodies now littered the moore that they were fighting on.

Lightening's brown pelt was visible through the throng of cats now. He was on his hind legs, front paws griping the shoulders of a cat from Stream's clan. And then, just like that, he was gone. Lost in the crowd around him.

Letting out a sullen wail, because she couldn't see him anymore and she didn't think that she could make herself walk much longer, Dew threw herself forewards in an attempt to catch up to her leader.

She had to catch her leader.

Had to tell him that the fight had to be stopped; cat's were dieing and it was a stupid battle anyway.

Had to ignore the pain that was coursing through her body and the blackness that was creeping into her vision.

And then a paw slammed into her. Claws ripped into her side and then she was rolling across the ground again. Only, suddenly the ground wasn't there any more and she was falling.

Her paws flung out around her, Dew raked at the air and the stone that she was slamming into and whatever else her paws came into contact with. Pain shot through her paws, up her legs, in her side and on her back. And all she could think about was that she still had to find Lightening.

Somewhere above her, she heard a she-cat let out a wail, and the thought that she recognized it briefly crossed her mind. And then it was gone and she was swiping at the air again and then suddenly...

Pain. Scorching, searing, eating away at her fur and her pelt and, oh Starclan it hurt, pain. And then, just like that, it was gone and she was bathed in darkness. Just blackness, a simple and soothing color, and the pain was gone.

There was another cat in the distance. Dew could tell because, even though she couldn't see it, a gentle wind was blowing the scent towards her. It wasn't a scent that she recognized, not of any of the clans that she knew, but somehow she was certain that the cat it belonged too wouldn't hurt her.

Padding across the blackness, Dew followed the scent right into...nothing. It was just gone suddenly and she was alone again. But it didn't scare her for some reason.

'You are a brave kit, Dew.' The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. It hit the darkness and bounced back at her, like an echo in a cave, and there was no way for Dew to tell where it had come from. 'A brave kit who's life ended far too soon. Do you know what happened, kit?'

Know what happened? Dew tilted her head to the side and looked up at where the sky should have been. "I was out on the moore trying to find Lightening. That cat, the one that hit me, he knocked me into the gorge didn't he?"

The thought hadn't been in her mind when it first happened but now, if she thought about it, that was the only thing that made sense. She knew that having the battle be so close to the gorge had been a mouse-brained idea. The whole fight was mouse-brained, started because they couldn't decide where each clans borders would be.

'Yes, kit. That is what happened. But you are not ready to join us here in Starclan yet. You have a greater purpose, should you accept it that is. No one will force you Dew.'

"No," Dew kept her voice strong as she looked up at the sky which, one by one, was slowly filling up with twinkeling stars. "I want to. It's to help my clan right? That's why I'm here, so that you can tell me what to do to stop the fight."

There was a sort of sadness in the voice when it spoke next and it made Dew wonder what she had said. 'Kit...Yes. That is why you are. You are here because you can stop this fighting. Your clans do not know of the Warrior Code yet. They do not follow it and because of that, this fighting is doomed to repeat itself.'

"Than what am I supposed to do? I can't tell them what to do! I'm just a kit, none of them will listen to me!" Panic started to seep into Dew's voice now.

'And yet you fought so desperatly to stop it once already. Dew. Are you willing to follow the path that only you can take? To stay here, in the forest, for all the moons to come?'Because if you are than you can save all of the cats you have grown up with and all the cats to come.'

"I...I would never be able to go to Starclan?" Dew questioned, head tilted up at the sky. There wasn't any answer but that was an answer in itself. "I...I'll do it. I'll do what ever I have to. Just tell me what to do! I'll do it!"

'I, Thunderstar, bless you with the grace of Starclan. From this moment on you will be known as Dewcloud, leader of the Spirit Cats! You shall be the sole guardian of Lighteningclan, Breezeclan, Darkclan, and Streamclan and shall guide their pawsteps. Other cats, those whos journeys are not complete, will join you but you will forever be their leader.'

'Dewcloud, return now to the battlefield. You will be seen, this one time only, and you will give the clans a message. Tell them to send their leaders, Stream, Dark, Lightening, and Breeze, to the Moonstone. There, they will be spoken to and the battle will end for good. They will listen to you now, Dewcloud. They will hear your voice for you will be the voice of nature.'

"The voice...Of nature?" The newly name Dewcloud blinked before bowing her head towards the voice. "I won't disspoint you Thunderstar. I will lead the Spirit Cats with honor and no complaint. Just..." Here she started to back up the way she had come. "Thank you for letting me save them."

And then Dewcloud, no longer in the body of kit but that of a fully grown warrior, turned around and ran full force through the darkness. She would do what Thunderstar told her to do. She would live life, or rather death, knwing she would never make it to Starclan. She would lead these other cats as they cam to her. She would save her clan.

No cat saw her as she weaved her way through the fighting. Many cats had died, their fallen bodies littering the ground, and the cats that hadn't were on their last leg. Dewcloud could feel the exhaustion that floated in the air as she made her way to the center of the moore-land.

Every step she took more became clear to her. She could see the tracks that prey had made fleeing the scene when everything had started at sunrise that day; she could hear the wind that blew gently through the trees. Little things that she had never noticed before were clear as day to her now.

She didn't notice how with every step she took, new grass sprung from beneath her paws, and the ground around her cracked and splintered. But the cats that were fighting did. Even though they couldn't see her, not yet, they could see the devastation that she left behind her. And it scared them.

Hackles raised, fangs bared, the cats backed away from the still invisible Dewcloud. She stopped in the middle of what had been the battlefield and looked around at the now cowering cats. Blood and dirt matted their fur, fear ran through their eyes, but they still weren't running. No, that wasn't something that any of them did. It was why this fight had gone on for so long, a fight to the death between all the cats.

And then, up above her, a single star glittered brighter than the others and all the cats could see Dewcloud standing there. Her green eyes sought out the four cats she needed, the four responsible for the pain brought out today, and she felt a grim satisfaction at the fact that they were limping out towards her already.

"Who are you?" One of them spat out. The black pelted cat, black as the very sky above them, was the one demanding answers. Dark had always been like that though. Always needing to know what was going on, using the knowledge he gained to plan his next move, as though everyone around him were nothing more than pawns.

It was a shame that Dewcloud wasn't a pawn any more.

"My name is Dewcloud, a kit from Lightening's clan, and you aren't the one to be asking questions Dark. You need to be listening to what I have to say." As she spoke, the wind around her picked up. Trees seemed to sway and groan, warning cats that looked as if they were about to flee to stay where they were, and she finally understood what Thunderstar meant about being the 'voice of nature'.

And so Dewcloud told the cats gathered below her the message that Thunderstar had given her. She told them where to meet him and then she told them all to flee to their camps. They would collect the fallen cats in the morning, peacefully and without incident, and that she would be watching them.

And then, without a single mention of the Spirit Cats that she would lead, Dewcloud's body shimmered and faded away. She was still standing there, watching as the injured cats retreated to their make-shift camps, but no one could see her now. And no one would see her again for a very long time.

That was just the life of a Spirit Cat.

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