A Leaf in the Shadows
Chapter 1
Eyes, everywhere, they were all around her. Deep accusing stares of browns, ambers, greens, and blues. Threatening her, their fiery gazes were pulling her under a wave of guilt.
The words, the words were the worst. "Traitor! Sneak! Piece of foxdung! Windclan lover!" the words and the stares that came from her clanmates that once loved and respected her.
Now she was nothing to them, nothing but a traitor. Leafpool cowered at their stares as they moved closer, surrounding her. She felt trapped. She closed her eyes trying to escape their glares but when she reopened them, there was no one but her.
She was alone in the dusty clearing of the stone hollow, when her three kits appeared out of the surrounding dens.
Hollyleaf was the first to approach "How could you lie to us, because of you we grew up a lie!" she growled at her mother. Her sleek black fur bristled with anger.
'Mother' was a strange word to Leafpool as she knew she was never a mother to these kits, no matter how many times she told herself she was.
Lionblaze was the next one "Thanks to you, we are nothing but half-clans!" as he stepped back Jayfeather came up. "I will never call you mother; you are nothing to me. We should not exist!"
His words hit Leafpool the most, she tried calling out to her kits but they were fading, their stares the most hateful of all. Their stares were the last thing she saw before she awoke thrashing in her nest.
"Stop moving around! Some of us would like to get some rest!" Dustpelt hissed at her before curling back up in his nest. Leafpool's breathing started to calm as she realized it was still night and it was a dream.
Sure, her clan avoided her now and barely anyone spoke to her but she still could not blame her clan for acting like that even if it was all a dream. As the tabby got up, she stretched and shook her pelt free of moss.
Once she was outside the light of the half-moon shone down on her fur. Her son Jayfeather would be sharing dreams with Starclan at the Moonpool by now. She wished she were with him, she needed her ancestors' guidance more then ever now.
Looking at the stars, she imagined one was Hollyleaf. Ever since the tunnels collapsed, the whole clan assumed Hollyleaf was dead. 'Oh, my beautiful daughter if you are in Starclan, then I am sorry. Sorry for everything.' She thought as she glanced at the stars.
She decided that she would go for a walk in the woods, 'after that dream, there is no way I'm going back to sleep tonight.' She said to herself as she headed to the entrance. Cloudtail was on guard tonight and his pelt bristled when Leafpool came up to him. "What do you want? Going to go see that filthy Windclanner again?!" he hissed.
Biting back a harsh retort, she managed to calmly say "No, I'm just going for a walk in the woods. I need to clear my head." The white warrior eyed her suspiciously "Fine, but if anycat picks up your scent on the Windclan border on the dawn patrol, I'll know." He said moving out of the way of the entrance.
Leafpool dipped her head in thanks as she passed. Once out in the forest she felt she could breathe better without being next to all the cats in camp. She used to be a medicine cat so she was used to having maybe one or two cats in her den at a time.
Knowing she could not head towards Windclan she decided going the way to Shadowclan's border. She knew she was getting close when she saw pines, not oaks, birches, or other common trees of her home, looming above her. Sitting down by a tree, she tried to look up through the trees to see the stars but the leaves were too thick.
Suddenly her fur pricked; there was a scent that wasn't Thunderclan. Opening her mouth to taste the air, she recognized the scent instantly. It was Littlecloud of Shadowclan. His scent was strong; he must have just been here. 'But why would he be in Thunderclan's territory, shouldn't he be with the rest of the medicine cats.' She wondered. 'Maybe they have already left the Moonpool and are heading back to their clans, but he doesn't need to come through Thunderclan.'
'Plus he getting old and he's sick, there's no reason a cat of his condition should be here.' Leafpool kept looking around until her eyes landed on a hollybush and staring back at her were eyes that were bright amber.