Blazing Fire
By Erica
Inspired by Erin Hunter
Furious yowls and agonized screeches filled the air. Blazepaw flung herself at a shadow-like form, hissing and screeching. Rowanclaw had herself tangled with the DarkClan deputy, Bluefrost. Willowstar darted in and out of the battle, then jumping with a screech on the DarkClan leader, Flashstar. Digging her claws deep into his black and white pelt, he screeched in anger, and flung her across the clearing. Yowling in alarm, she smashed into Tallrock, and plummeted to the ground, limp as fresh-kill. She woke up, with starry form swirling around her, and was relieved to see the forms of her mother, Whiteflower, and her kits, Lightmist, Windkit, and Blacktail. They all stared at her with soft, amber eyes. Willowstar closed her eyes, murmured few parting words to those she loved most, and moments later, was back in the thick of battle at the TreeClan camp. She staggered to her paws and cringed, lifting her hind paw off the muddy forest floor. A scarlet stain on Tallrock slowly dried before her eyes, Her sea blue eyes narrowed to shimmering slits, and let out a menacing hiss. Flashstar stood before her, without flinching. Letting out her fiercest battle cry, she flung herself onto the DarkClan leader. Rising onto black hind paws, he positioned himself to bat her back into Tallrock, taking her seventh life. Willowstar thought he would try to kill her again. She ducked, and buried her teeth and claws into his soft belly fur, and began churning her hind paws, claws unsheathed. Flashstar howled with rage, and when Willowstar looked into his eyes, she saw a wildfire of fury, pain, and hate. She decided to end this pointless feud against DarkClan. She sank her teeth into his neck, and Flashstar went limp. DarkClan's warriors limped up to stare at their noble leader in disbelief. Stoneshard, the DarkClan medicine cat, desperately ran up to her limp leader, his eyes dull, rolled back in his head, sprawled out on the forest floor. "Was that the ninth one?" Willowstar inquired. Stoneshard sat on her haunches, her eyes clouded with sorrow. She stared at her paws, and scuffed the ground with a grey forepaw. "Yes."
Willowstar reeled back in shock, and glanced at her deputy, Coldfrost, in sheer horror. She killed Flashstar? In that blind moment of sheer fury, she had lashed out, and killed the long hated Clan's leader. This only worsened the thick war between DarkClan and TreeClan. Many seasons ago, a DarkClan apprentice was found on TreeClan hunting grounds. The previous leader, Froststar, visited the DarkClan camp, and took Willowstar, then Willowtail, with her. Froststar explained that there was an apprentice sighted on TreeClan territory, and that there would be no battle this time, but the next time she or one of her warriors saw an apprentice of any rival Clan, especially DarkClan, the young cat would need some experienced battle tactics, and may wear some battle scars home. Froststar was not a kind of cat to expect constant peace, but kept a form of peace for as long as possible. After Coldfrost, her mate, was driven out by his Clanmates, she was inconsolable. She was also amazed that her Clanmates would drive him out after his previous disappearance. She gave her ninth life just before Coldfrost came back the following sunrise. Froststar had purposely walked into a badger's den, tail drooping with sorrow for her lost Coldfrost. Willowtail had travelled to the Moonstone the following sunrise, and met Coldfrost on her journey home. Willowstar had eagerly invited him to rejoin TreeClan, and he gleefully accepted it. He reclaimed his deputyship, and he was like that ever since. As Willowstar watched her memories fleet away, her eyes returned to the still black and white figure on the ground. A large, silver-blue tom stepped up, his muscles rippling on his shoulders. "Stoneshard," he announced, "I need to go to the Moonpool and receive my nine lives from StarClan." Stoneshard turned slowly away from the fallen leader's side, and bowed her head. "Of course, Bluefrost. We will leave immediately. Willowstar placed her tail of Bluefrost's shoulder. "Have a safe journey, and may StarClan guide your paws. Welcome, Bluestar!" All of the warriors from both Clans yowled and cheered the new leader's name. "Bluestar! Bluestar! Bluestar!" Bluestar's eyes glimmered with pride, he held his head high, and his tail straight. He dipped his head to Willowstar, and weaved his way through the surrounding warriors. He beckoned for his Clan to follow him into the undergrowth, leading back to their own territory. Willowstar exhaled a sigh of relief. She stared at her deputy with eyes unwavering. For the first time in moons, a particular memory reappeared in her mind. She was in the nursery, with her mother. There was a familiar scent, clinging to another kit in the nest with her. Willowstar didn't remember having a littermate, yet the scent was… 'I need to go to the Moonpool. I will talk to Whiteflower. She must have answers!'
Willowstar shrank back as the icy water of the Moonpool touched her pink nose. Her pale white fur was fluffed up against the cold stone, but it didn't really help. Willowstar felt herself slipping away into a dreamworld, and then to the hunting grounds of StarClan. Whiteflower was waiting for her, her creamy white tail wrapped neatly around her paws. "I cannot give you the answers you seek, but I can give you some details." Her eyes clouded as she leaned over to whisper into her daughter's ear. "Yes, you had a littermate. A beautiful white tom, with a pink nose, like yours, and a black tail tip. Please don't tell andy cat, nobody in the Clan knows." Willowstar nodded, mostly out of shock, to surprised to speak. She began to shimmer and fade, and was gone in a shimmer of stars. She woke by the Moonpool, eager to get home. As the sun set as she got to TreeClan territory, she couldn't help thinking: 'Coldfrost is my brother?!'
"Rowanclaw will lead the dawn patrol with Emberfoot, Smokepaw and Darkcloud. Sapphireshine, you can go on the early hunting party with Sundrop, Swiftbreeze, and Blazepaw. Coldfrost beamed at his apprentice. "Are you ready?" Smokepaw nodded eagerly, and began prancing around the fern tunnel. As the two groups left, Willowstar padded slowly up to her deputy. "Coldfrost," she began to stammer."What is your earliest memory? What do you remember from inside the nursery?" He turned and stared at her with his cold, ice blue eyes. "Almost nothing. I remember a small, white she-kit who appeared to be my, I dunno, littermate, and… that is it." He stared at the ground. "And I don't even know who that little she-kit is! Or who she was." Willowstar padded up to him, and sniffed his pelt. A familiar scent filled her nose, of the nursery, of the damp moss in late leaf-bare, and of… Whiteflower! "Coldfrost…" Willowstar could hardly speak. "I am that she-kit."
Suddenly, the memories came flooding back. Willowstar's mind was filled with images of a small white kit, sleeping curled up next to her. She stroked his back with her tail, and sneezed as his black tail-tip flew under her pink nose. The many games of hide-and-go-seek that they had played on the snow, during their fourth moon, Willowstar, or then, Willowkit, had always found Coldkit, looking for a twitching black smear among the white patches of snow. She remembered pouncing on the white patch of fur, and her brother squealed in surprise. The flashbacks soon came to a close, and when she looked at Coldfrost, his eyes were brimmed with tears.
Willowstar gazed back, looking onto his icy eyes, then flicked him on the cheek with her tail. "Another question." WIllowstar announced to her brother. "If you are my brother, then who is our father…?"
Read book 2, Waiting Secrets