DISCLAIMER: This is my first story I've done in years. I've recently got back into writing because of a friend. *hinthintAshdapplehinthint* Critiques are very much wanted and needed!

Stars.

That's all the cat could see above her. Bright, shining, stars.

This cat wasn't a normal cat either- She had a beautiful, glossy, ginger pelt that was softer than birds down. Her dark brown stripes were marked like spirals around her body as if they were painted on by a master artist. She was sporting a rather unusual pink-orange tail and bright, beautiful blue eyes that shone like sapphires. Her paws were very delicate as she tread her way across a vast moorland that occasionally showed shrubbery. In the she-cats mouth she held a very plump and somewhat large vole she caught just before she started this small journey. The cat inhaled letting the scent of the prey make her mouth water a bit. She shook the idea of even eating this precious fresh-kill. It was for someone very dear to her- someone very important.

A couple more pawsteps later, she began to notice the stars shining above her were slowly vanishing. She was on the right path yet she began to feel her joints aching. The she-cat slowed her pace and began looked side to side. Spotting a very sad looking dead tree, she heaved a little muffled sigh of relief and walked over to it. Sitting herself with her back to the tree, she placed the vole in front of her. Bringing her paw up to her face she licked it twice and brushed it over her face. As she was grooming herself she kept alert for any noises. Knowing just because she was still in StarClan, it wasn't uncommon for intruders to wander over the borders. The she-cat yawned and crouched down with her paws comfortably in front of her to take a break. Knowing she was quite older than some of her closer friends, the cat couldn't risk getting hurt now.

After some time had passed the she-cat began to arch and yawned. Sitting upwards she twisted her ears forward for any sounds. The soft bellowing of the wind and an occasional crow caw was all she heard. Nothing she could hear caused any alarm. She took that as a good sign and bent down to pick up the vole and continued her journey. Padding a couple more tail lengths she began to notice more dead trees littering the moor. She felt a cold jolt flood her body. Even though she enjoyed the time she was spending with her dear friend, the she-cat knew the immense danger she was putting herself and her friend in. She was just glad that her friend understood too. They needed to be extremely careful.

The dead trees began showing themselves even more now. She began to feel the grass beneath her paws slowly die away into hard dirt and pebbles.

She knew she was very close now. Guiding her paws to stay on the small strips of barely alive grass, she walked cautiously through the ever darkening moorland- or was she in the forest yet? The trees were very much here but no border marks were passed. She slowed down her pace knowing she had to be slower once she reached the entrance of this terribly scary place. Looking upward she saw two lonely, dim-lit stars trying so hard to shine through the dead tree branches telling her she was very much still in StarClan territory. Needing to focus, she looked back down at the path. The grass beneath the she-cats feet was almost completely gone and she dreaded walking on Forest ground. Inhaling deeply, the cat treaded onward.

The trees were growing in ever bigger bunches and surrounding her, using their long dead, interlocking branches to block out the small starlight the cat had and made it almost impossible to see. Trusting her paws, she felt for the large bulging tree roots that were showing themselves. They felt cold to the touch. The old she-cat had to navigate through the closely knitted trees, occasionally bumping her head or stubbing her paws over larger roots. But that wasn't even the worse part. The trees were close -so close that she could feel the cold, dead bark graze her skin. Whimpering and jumping at every touch, she quickened her pace although she knew it was a terrible idea to run in a place like this.

The she cat hit a rather large root and tripped face forward; legs locking behind the root, she couldn't help hitting her bottom jaw on the root, yowling, and biting down on the fresh kill very hard it was pushed out of her mouth. Getting the breath knocked out of her she laid in a daze for a couple of heartbeats before inhaling deeply and began to hack up small droplets of blood and vole flesh, feeling her throat push against the root. Her paws felt like someone clawed them from her shoulder to the paws. She gasped for air as her face felt hot. Knowing the noise she made, she was not safe here and began to slowly bring her front paws up to the top of the root. The moment she pushed herself up, an intense pain shot throughout her face. Feeling tears weld up in her eyes and trying to stop the pain she suppressed a cough and slid down over the root and laid down shaking. She knew that something bad would happen if she ran through this part of the Forest, yet she did it anyways.

The she-cat parted her jaws. Nothing felt broke and she was thankful. Even with pain shooting through her front legs, she stood and could feel her whole body shaking. She could stand pretty well showing that her paws weren't broken either although they hurt. She's experienced worse pain than this though. Pushing herself forward, the she-cat walked cautiously through the dark forest testing out every pawsteps and still getting a cold, painful chill throughout her body when her fur and skin grazed the tree bark. The more pawsteps she took the better she felt. Then it hit her. The vole. She forgot the vole for her very dear friend. Anger and regret flooded the ginger she-cat and made her almost yowl with fury. She couldn't turn back even if she wanted to. The knitted trees were a maze that she would get lost in. Empty-pawed, the disappointed cat began to walk once more with an empty feeling in her stomach. She felt too tired and hurt to even try to look for it and what was worse- she was running out of time. Shaking her and pacing herself she pushed forward until small light was creeping along the wide tree trunks. The she-cat felt a tinge of relief now that she could see and have at least some sort of light. She hated the dark.

Slowly, the trees the ginger cat was traveling through became less tangled and more spaced apart. You could actually walk through two trees without clambering over their overgrown roots bulging from the it happened. She hit the entrance. The musk of cat urine hit her nose and almost made her gag that she had to quicken her pace a bit to get pass the stench. Terrible. Even when she was inside the dark forest the stench loomed around her. How could any cat stand to be in this place let alone live here. Then the dark pang of truth hit her. They chose to be down here. Those tales of going to a dark, evil place if you were a bad kit had a smidge of truth to them even if they were just nursery tales. The she-cat looked up and to no surprise she saw no stars. A heavy feeling in her chest arose. She shouldn't even be down here.

Taking a sharp inhale, she pushed that thought out of her mind and padded stealthily through the dank and musky barren forest. She opened her mouth wide and perked her ears forward. She knew that if she were caught, not only would she die, but... so would her best friend. Her special friend. Even though her being in this place a few other times, she was still completely lost. It always seemed you could never come in here at the same place twice. Then if by some miraculous feat, she spotted her and her friends landmark. Three long, deep gash wounds on a somewhat average-sized tree. A happy warmth crawled throughout her body and she looked side to side for a place to sit. Finding a nice hiding place between a rock and an empty tree trunk, the she-cat crawled inside and got comfortable. She rubbed her shoulders on the grime and cobwebs coating the inside. This should hide her scent for a while. With the constant threat of death looming overhead she parted her jaws. She didn't scent anything unfamiliar while she was walking or even now. Maybe They abandoned this part of the forest.

Time passed as she sat alone in the tree trunk and she was getting stiff. Her jaws were still parted just in case anything were to pass. Then she got a whiff of something familiar. It smelled of her friend but she couldn't be so sure. The ginger cat remembered what he had said to her before.
"Hide. And don't come out until you see me or I call from you,"
Even with exhilaration surging throughout her body, she stayed put. Just in case. She perked her ears forward- Listening intently. There was a long pause. Then, she heard a faint meow.
"Rosetail...?"
That was it. The ginger cat named Rosetail bolted from her hiding spot, blue eyes sparkling, to see a fairly large gray and white tom. His face marking looked liked an almost perfect gray heart and he was sporting nice white, broad shoulders. His fur was spiked like a hedgehog and he had spots of missing fur that was laced with obvious scars and healed gashes. His amber eyes shone brightly once he saw Rosetail.

"Thistleclaw!" The ginger cat squeaked and she ran up him rubbing her cheek to his. He couldn't even mask his purr as he was taken aback from the she-cats sudden affection.

"Oh my StarClan, Thistleclaw, I have missed you so much. I'm so sorry I had brought you a vole to eat but something happened and I lost it but I'll bring something better next time I come to visit, like a bird of some sort-" Rosetail breathed without a pause. The gray tom pulled back from his sister.

"Woah, woah, sis, take a breather," He said quietly as he took a seat next to a barren tree. "And if you don't mind, perhaps lower your voice." He pulled a paw up and licked it while cleaning his face.

"Just because this is an unused part of the forest doesn't mean we shouldn't always be alert. Also, what do you mean you lost a vole?"

"Uh..." She paused at the thought of falling over that tree replayed in her mind. Her face didn't hurt as much now and it was barely noticeable. She couldn't say she got hurt in the forest, for it might alarm her brother and she didn't need that right now.

"I put it down and a crow came and snatched it up."

He cocked his head in astonishment.

"Really? Are you sure you didn't eat it or something?" He asked teasingly.

Rosetail purred and laid down in front of her brother. She couldn't help how excited she was to see him. It had been some moons since she had seen Thistleclaw, but his words stuck in her mind and wouldn't leave. Both her and her brother were risking their lives and their 'comfortable' lives. She didn't mind, however, if she and him were to get exiled. She has mentioned before to Thistleclaw that they should go someplace else. Alas, he has shown her that he does not want to or plan to run away with her because she "has a nice home". Rosetail thought otherwise. A home without him isn't a real home, but just a temporary shelter. The ginger she-cat often dreamt of a new home with her family. They could be together finally- Rosetail, Thistleclaw, and... their sister.

Their sickly sister.

She pushed the thought out of her head as it made a dark feeling shroud over her and meowed to her brother, "Thistleclaw, how are you? I haven't talked with you in a while. The last meeting you didn't even show."

Thistleclaw stopped cleaning himself and shifted himself uncomfortably. "Tigerstar was getting a bit suspicious and I panicked. I'm sorry I couldn't come here last time. Did you wait long?"

Rosetail blinked at her brother.

"No, I didn't wait long. Although I can't quite recall... I think I fell asleep at one point." She mewed with a suppressed laugh. The tom rolled his eyes and he laughed a little.

Then silence. Silence between the two cats. Rosetail knew as soon as the silence hit, Thistleclaw was going to ask that question. She inhaled slowly and deeply and waited for her brother to ask the dreaded question he always asked.

"How is Sweetpaw?" He asked in a hush tone. The ginger she-cat slowly exhaled and stared at the tom.

Rosetail didn't know what to say. Should she lie? Should she tell him the truth. He deserved to know, but...

"She..." The cat gulped. "She's not doing good." She paused and saw her brother's expression turn sour. She couldn't look him in the eyes right now and shifted her vision down to her paws.

"She's fading and Yellowfang and Spottedleaf can't do anything to help her. Not to mention she somehow is sick and they can't figure out with what."

There was another pause. The atmosphere around the two cats was heavy with confusion and grief.

"They couldn't do anything?" Thistleclaw choked out. There was obvious pain in his voice and he didn't even try to cover it up.

Rosetail felt like a piece of fresh-kill was caught in her throat. She tried to swallow it but it didn't go away. She shook her head.

Then silence hit the two again.

Rosetail couldn't even look up at her brother. The thought of her losing her sister was bad enough but the thought of her not being able to see her brother before she went away was even worse.

Damn that cat...

"Well..." The gray and white tom meowed with a steadier voice that cut through Rosetails thoughts. She looked up a bit to see he brother sit up and start cleaning his face once more. "I am positive the medicine cats are trying their best to help her. Sweetpaw will be fine."
Rosetail sighed trying to believe her brothers words. She wishes sometimes she was more like some of her friends and could wallow in ignorant bliss. She sat up looking at her brother. He was fidgeting and cleaning himself and also trying to believe his own words. She couldn't help but feel happy that they could spend some time together even if it was unbearably short.

Something hit the ginger she-cat. She had asked her brother a question from previous meetings and he had always rejected the offer, but now... All thats happened, he should agree.

"Thistleclaw," Rosetail meowed sternly. The gray tom stopped and looked at her.

"Will you come to StarClan with me?"