Hey Guys, new story. Well, the idea belongs to Laughing Rain but he got some warriors block and decided to give it to me! THX! Enjoy!
Brightheart stalked slowly through the forest. The night was unusually bright, a waxing moon hanging low in the sky.
All the Clan was asleep. She was the only one, a creature of the night, stalking for a kill.
She pounced.
Her aim was true, and she purred with satisfaction as she heard the snap of the small creature's neck. Her task was completed.
The limp body of a mouse hung from her jaws, swinging slightly as she made a small hole to put it in. She kicked some dust over her kill to protect it from the other inhabitants of the forest.
Midnight was always the best time for a hunt, giving her the stifling silence and stillness of night as a weapon, far sharper than claws. Most prey would be holed in their dens at this hour, but those out braving the shadows would regret it with a predator like Brightheart out.
Thanks to her mate, Cloudtail, she could hunt and fight as well as any, despite the horrible wounds the left her with only one eye and ear.
As an apprentice she had gone with her friend, Swiftpaw, to defeat the dog that was living at the Sunningrocks of the old territory and stealing much needed prey from ThunderClan's territory. They both hoped that this feat would convince Bluestar, who was the ThunderClan leader at the time, to give them their long overdo warrior ceremony. They did not know it was an entire pack.
Brightheart's face was savaged by the dogs, almost killing her.
However, she was luckier than Swiftpaw, who now walked among the warriors of Silverpelt.
Looking up to the sky, Brighthear could not see a single cloud. StarClan must be watching someone, she noted. Nothing bad I hope.
StarClan must not have been watching so carefully at the last Gathering. Sighing inwardly, the scarred warrior recalled the events of the last full moon.
It had been horrible.
Hollyleaf revealed a deeply hidden secret: Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were not her parents, nor were they the parents of her two brothers, Lionblaze and Jayfeather.
Crowfeather of WindClan, a warrior with a past of forbidden loves who had only recently regained the trust of his Clanmates, and Leafpool of ThunderClan, the medicine cat. Medicine cats were forbidden to have mates or kits, and mates from different Clans were highly against the warrior code.
The code was broken in two places, so Leafpool was exiled, almost of her own accord. Firestar did not enforce it, she was off the territory before sunrise and had not been seen since.
Squirrelflight remained in the Clan, even though she was at the heart of the scandal. In technical terms, she had never broken the code.
That did not stop the Clan from rejecting her.
She ate her fresh kill alone, and was poorly groomed because no one would have the compassion to share tongues with the she-cat.
Firestar and Sandstorm did what most parent's would do.
Grieve.
Brambleclaw was badly shaken. He hardly talked anymore, and when he did it was to snap at the attempts to help him.
Both leader and deputy were in bad emotional shape. Patrols were not being organized as they should, and the Clan was falling into disarray.
The three kits of Leafpool and Crowfeather were in just as lousy a situation as the rest.
Hollyleaf had apparently died the night of the Gathering in a tunnel collapse, chasing a squirrel.
Somehow Brightheart didn't believe that the sharp young warrior would be mousebrained enough to chase anything into those tunnels, but she grieved her all the same.
The other two- Jayfeather and Lionblaze- were outcasts as much as Squirrelflight. Some of the older cats muttered about it being 'Just some more mixed blood in a Clan of kittypets and rogues.'
Even Jayfeather was excluded from daily Clan life, despite being the only one in the Clan who knew two mousetails about healing.
Rosekit almost lost a paw to an infection after Daisy roughly pulled a thorn out of her paw rather than coming to get it taken out by the careful work of the medicine cat.
Every other cat in Firestar's extended family could feel some pain from the shockwaves going around the Clan.
Although her friends, family, and society were in a confusion, she could feel peace and serenity among the shadows and whispers of night. She swivelled her ears to get a pinpointed location on the mouse she had been stalking. She shifted naturally into a hunter's crouch and began to slink forward to her prey. It was in her sights now, and she was preparing to leap-
SNAP!
A twig crunched loudly, but it was not Brightheart who had made the careless mistake. She hissed, then whipped around at the sound of another twig snapping. She swung her head wildly in a panicked frenzy.
"Who's there?" she said in what would have been a commanding voice, had it not been drowning in a sudden burst of fear scent. "Show yourself!"
An amused purr rose from the brambles.
The shape of a cat stepped into the clearing slowly. Brightheart could not recognize the scent or pelt of this cat. She could tell they had just given themselves a furious wash, then rolled in some strong-smelling substance. Foxdung, maybe? She thought to herself.
"Who-
She didn't get a chance to ask..
The shape sprung upon her, and Brightheart was unable to fight back before thorn-sharp claws summoned blood gurgling from her throat.
The darkness of the night she had formerly relished were creeping into her vision, but she could see the cat step into the moonlight. This was a cat she recognized, one she knew well. StarClan, why? She asked herself. She had no quarrel with her killer. She could only see a speck of their pelt, silver in the moonlight, before blackness took her vision.
Out of the dark, she could see a cat walking on a path of stars. It was her mother, Frostfur, with Swiftpaw and Bluestar by her side.
"Come with us."
And she did.
Couldn't believe... I could not believe what I had just done. It was right... no, wrong... no, necessary... but still, the guilt did not wash away as quickly as the blood from my paws...
Hazeltail stood and stretched luxuriously in the cold leaf-bare sun. Despite all the trouble in the Clan, the sun still rose and fell, warming the earth and its inhabitants.
Cloudtail walked over to her, a worried expression on his face.
"Have you seen Brightheart? I can't find her anywhere in camp." he meowed.
"No, I haven't seen her," the worry deepened. "But I'm sure that she's probably out hunting. We can use all the prey we can get!" she finished quickly.
Cloudtail nodded. "I guess I'm only overreacting. On a different subject, Firestar put me in charge of the dawn patrol. Would you care to come? I have Berrynose, Spiderleg, Cinderheart, and Sandstorm already."
"Okay, I'll be right along." she replied. Cloudtail padded away to speak to Firestar and Brakenfur. Seeing patrols being organized and sent out was a comfort to Hazeltail. The young warrior had noticed that most tasks were carried out by single warriors, not a patrol. Padding over to the group of named cats, she noticed that no one seemed to fully know what they were doing.
"Mousewhisker and Thornclaw are patrolling the ShadowClan border already! This is supposed to be a hunting patrol!" Spiderleg shouted.
"No, this is the dawn patrol!" argued Sandstorm.
"If you haven't notice already, its a little past dawn right now!"
"Maybe it's both?" Berrynose suggested half-heartedly. Everything with Hazeltail's brother was that way now.
"No!" the two older warriors yowled at the same time. Thankfully, Cloudtail padded over and managed to get the patrol out of camp before they clawed each other's ears off.
It turned out to be a hunting and border patrol, as Berrynose had suggested.
Any hope of the Clan recovering its organization was lost at that statement. Cloudtail stood at the head of the patrol with Sandstorm. Both warriors were rubbing their heads up against the trees and plants on the border, leaving their scents to warn off the other Clans. Hazeltail and Spiderleg were both hunting.
Stepping lightly, Hazeltail stalked a mouse. It stood, nibbling a seed. Despite its leaf-bare scrawniness, it would be something to bring back to camp. She pounced, but faltered and fell when she saw the scene before her.
Letting out a shocked yowl the young warrior stumbled back into the brush. She could hear Spiderleg running through the brush, his yowl to Cloudtail, Cloudtail's grief filled shriek as he buried his muzzle into the cold fur of his dead mate.
Such was the commotion that no one saw Berrynose slinking silently away from the group of shocked warriors.
I watched her mate grieve, inhaling the she-cat's scent. He was thunderstruck. He had not expected this, despite what he had thought earlier. I hated watching this, but it was inadvertent.
Cloudtail sat, watching the sky. Brightheart's fur glowed softly in the moonlight, beautiful even in death. Looking up, he could see the stars twinkled, safe among their great numbers.
Never having truly believed in StarClan, the white warrior was met with conflicted reasoning. Either way, he hoped his mate was safe, wherever her soul rested.
Cloudtail soon found himself begging silently for the she-cat's safe passage to StarClan.
Whitewing sat beside him, silent as stone, unmoving in a mournful vigil. Her eyes were closed and her breathing steady, as if asleep, but she was very alert. Jayfeather hadn't been fond of her decision to leave the nursery to grieve her mother, but she had held firm.
Grieving... It stirred pity in my heart. I must learn to ignore that feeling.
Onestar yowled from his branch, signaling the beginning of the Gathering.
"All is well in WindClan. We have nothing to report." the brown tabby nodded to a spotted she cat. Despite her age she stepped up majestically to report news from her Clan.
" The prey runs well. One of our warriors slipped and twisted her leg recently, but other than that all is ordinary."
Blackstar stepped up. "ShadowClan has been hit by a minor epidemic of white cough." he paused, then continued, "We say this not because we request help. We have more than enough catmint, thank you very much. We are honestly more worried about the other Clans catching the disease." he finished satirically. "Firestar?"
"I must report the death of one of our warriors, Brightheart. She was apparently murdered sometime last night."
Brightheart's death was unexpected to the Clan. Good.
Bluestar sighed as she watched the scene unfolding in the Clans. She could only watch...