This is my first fanfic and I wrote this before I joined the site. It's pretty long but I have plans for it to go somewhere. Please tell me what you think and if you think I should continue it. Thankies! =)
Moonsight ducked under the lichen that guarded the entrance to Ancient Hollow. Inside the vast, empty tree, a small, deep pool lie in the center, glistening and illuminated by the hole in the tree above her. A tunnel that went deeper followed the thick roots of the tree and yielded the herbs room, where emergency herbs for all of the medicine cats were held.
Moonsight circled the pool, closing her eyes as she whispered "Speak to me Starclan. I need to know why this is happening." The vines that crawled up the inside of the Ancient Hollow rustled as she lie down, her azure gaze piercing the depths of the pool. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting her amber tipped tail dip into the icy water. She waited to dream and finally slipped into unconsciousness.
The medicine cat found herself in Silverpelt, the place where Starclan, the warrior ancestors eternally hunted and where medicine cats and leaders often went when sharing tongues with their warrior ancestors. Stars surrounded the cream colored cat and she appeared to be walking on nothing.
"Moonsight, it's been long since you've come to share tongues with us." Moonsight lurched around, surprised by the strong voice that sounded behind her. She relaxed once she recognized the cat as her mother, who had joined Starclan long ago before Moonsight was apprenticed.
She stepped forward and touched noses with her mother, happy to see her again. Then she stepped back to gaze at Startalon worriedly. "Why is this happening to our clan?" She asked her mother. "Why can't we drink the water? Why have all the prey vanished? Five cats have already died of starvation or poisoning in Ruinclan alone!"
Startalon looked down. Suddenly the five cats that had died appeared beside her. She stepped forward and turned around so that she was standing next to her daughter. Moonsight intertwined her tail with Startalon's.
"For many moons, Starclan has wondered how long it would take before those twolegs would try and take over our forest…" Startalon trailed off. The silver tabby continued. "But the twolegs came in different ways then the Time of the Ancestors. They came through the water."
The Starclan cat nodded toward what seemed to be a hole in the starry blanket several tail-lengths away. Startalon nudged Moonsight toward it and she gazed down at the 'hole'. It revealed a huge twolegs den, spewing black smoke and churning water. The view from the 'hole' followed the river in which the water had come from and revealed a mouse drinking the water and, later, Sunpetal catching that mouse.
Moonsight turned around as she heard a choked sob behind her. There Sunpetal stood, weeping upon the remembrance of the fatal occurrence. Startalon rest her tail on her shoulders, comforting the small, orange cat. "Ruinclan must leave the forest, before every cat dies." Sunpetal managed.
Startalon bowed her head in agreement. "It is Starclan's will that Ruinclan leave the forest."
"But we can't leave! The clans will fight over our territory! And where would we go?" Moonsight turned to Startalon behind her, who in turn gazed at her with pity.
"They won't fight over poisoned land, Moonsight. You must trust Starclan to guide you." Startalon responded.
"But why me? Why did you choose me?"
"Keep your faith in Starclan and all will be revealed to you, Moonsight." Startalon stepped forward and touched noses with Moonsight. "We must go now; there is not one moon that passes that I don't think of you. I'm proud that you followed in your father's pawsteps as a medicine cat. The sun is rising. Trust in Starclan; goodbye, Moonsight." Startalon started to fade and the scent of the forest returned to her as she woke to the sound of rustling leaves.
Moonsight got up and shook off the dead leaves that had fallen into Ancient Hollow. Wrenclaw from Treeclan loped down the hollow entrance and stopped in his tracks, surprised to Moonsight there, but she seemed oblivious to his arrival.
"Moonsight! You scared me! Why are you here?" Wrenclaw calmed down and sat beside her, trying to follow her gaze to see what she was staring at. Moonsight twitched her ears but her eyes remained glued to seemingly nothing.
"Private clan business, Wrenclaw." Moonsight growled monotonously. She got up to leave and flicked her tail goodbye.
"But Moonsight-" Wrenclaw began, but Moonsight was already heading out of Ancient Hollow.
At Ruinclan camp, Moonsight dragged herself to the leader's den. She was exhausted from the traveling. She'd been gone all day. Once she was in Lilystar's den, she told the old leader of everything that had occurred when she shared tongues with Starclan. The wise leader expressed no emotion and nodded her head.
"And Starclan told you this?" Lilystar asked inquisitively.
"Yes, my mother, Startalon showed me the twolegs den that is poisoning us, it's huge and there is no way to stop it. We must leave."
The leader's eyes clouded with memories. "Startalon, my apprentice." She seemed to become lost in the past, her eyes gazing at something unseen. Moonsight shifted uncomfortably and worried the golden tabby had forgotten about the task. But then Lilystar shook her head back into reality, frowned and said, "Very well, go fetch Eagletail and Sparrowfur. I'll talk to them about what we'll be doing." Lilystar closed her eyes.
"Ok, but why Sparrowfur? I understand Eagletail because he's deputy but-"
"I'm not traveling with the clan, Moonsight, I'm too old to go. Eagletail will become leader and Sparrowfur will become his deputy."
Moonsight froze and gazed at Lilystar shocked as she took in this information. Then the cream she-cat bowed her head in sorrow, the leader she'd known her whole life wasn't going to travel with them to the new land. She backed out of the den to find the two warriors.
When she finally found them in the training hollow they were with Stripedpaw and Hollowpaw, their apprentices. The two warriors were sitting side by side watching their apprentices mock fight each other.
Sparrowfur was gazing at Stripedpaw proudly as Eagletail said to him "It's probably about time they were made warriors don't you think?" Sparrowfur nodded as the two young cats rolled past him and came to a halt, Stripedpaw pinning Hollowpaw down.
Hollowpaw glanced fearfully at Eagletail as Stripedpaw let him up and shook off his fur. Eagletail got up, fur bristling, "I'm scheduling more training for you, if you can't beat that scrap," he nodded at Stripedpaw who looked uncomfortable at his mention. "You won't be able to beat the weakest warrior in Mountainclan! How did I think you were ready to become a warrior?"
Hollowpaw shrunk at the big, black cat's words, his eyes were wide with sorrow and regret as he mewed, "But I have to work on my hunting-"
Moonsight then decided to relieve the poor apprentice and step in. She didn't care for Eagletail, she knew he was two-faced and ambitious. But she had to put up with him because Lilystar liked him and he was deputy. "Eagletail, Sparrowfur, your wanted in the leader's den." She gave a sympathetic look to Hollowpaw who gave her a grateful blink back. Eagletail straightened up and gave her a menacing flash before striding past her, not waiting for Sparrowfur to catch up.
"Why don't you two go find a couple warriors for a border patrol? Then find Eagletail and me when your back." Sparrowfur smiled and said to the pair. Then the dark, long haired tom loped to catch up to Eagletail, curiosity in his step.
The cream medicine cat gratefully started toward her den to get some much needed rest. She dragged her paws through the shaded entrance of her den to find Petalpaw treating Ripplepelt, a blind elder, of a cut pad. Moonsight nodded approvingly in Petalpaw's direction as the apprentice gently placed cobwebs on the cut. The cream cat lie down in her nest made of moss, grass and feathers and heard Petalpaw say. "Now try and keep that paw clean, we don't need to be having any infections."
The old cat mrowed a thanks and he padded out of the den with a slight limp. The medicine cat sighed, closed her eyes and fell into fitful sleep.
Moonsight awoke in the late afternoon. Petalpaw was nudging her. "Lilystar wants us to start preparing traveling herbs for the trip. She told the whole clan that we have to leave the forest while you were sleeping." She shook her head. "It's too bad Starclan is letting this happen to us." The small, white she-cat whipped around and continued, pawing herbs and stems. "I've already gotten those huge leaves from the riverbank and I think we've got enough herbs stored up for all three clans!" Petalpaw returned to her normal bubbly attitude as she wrapped some herbs in leaves.
Moonsight stood and shook the leaves and moss off of her cream colored pelt.
She yawned and stretched and said to her apprentice, "Thanks for letting me get some sleep, Petalpaw, I really needed it." She blinked gratefully at the young cat.
"No problem, I figured I could use the practice." Then she mumbled to herself, "Yarrow, catmint, juniper berries…" Moonsight's apprentice put the herbs into the leaves and looked her mentor. "I suppose we don't need spider webs, they can be found everywhere! And moss!" then she continued to list off more items she didn't need to bring.
Moonsight exited the medicine cat's den to find the warriors and apprentices of the clan heading out of returning from hunting. The fresh kill pile was huge and Moonsight went to talk to Eagletail. The black cat was speaking with Blackstone, one of the clan's most powerful warriors and Eagletail's brother. When the two were finished speaking, Blackstone caught her with his yellow gaze with a flash of almost pity but then quickly returned to the normal ambitious fire as he whipped around to talk to Thundereyes.
Moonsight didn't know what to think of Blackstone anymore. Before, when she was a warrior, they'd loved each other. Moonsight tried her best when she had to become a medicine cat to stop loving him but there was still part of her that cared about him. Blackstone himself still loved her, he even refused to think about loving another cat.
Shaking her head, she saw Eagletail turn to her, "Ah, our beloved medicine cat. Nice to see you at the late hours of the afternoon." He waved his tail absently as if he could care less about talking to the medicine cat.
"Why are you hunting so much, Eagletail? You know all the prey on Ruinclan territory is potentially dangerous and poisonous." Moonsight meowed.
"Moonsight, you know our clan needs strength for the journey."
"But-"
"And you know it's our last night in the forest."
"Well yeah, bu-"
"So I thought Treeclan wouldn't mind sharing some of their-"
"You took prey off of Treeclan's territory? That's against the warrior code, deputy."
"It's our last night what're they going to do to us?"
"It's not what their going to do, it's what Starclan will do."
Eagletail's eyes flared with rage. "Starclan have abandoned us, Moonsight, if they don't have enough power to stop the twolegs they don't have enough power to do anything to me. End of discussion."
Moonsight shook her head at Eagletail's ignorance. She was finding it hard to believe the clan would survive under his leadership. "I can't believe Lilystar hasn't seen you for who you are, a two-faced pile of fox dung!" She shoved past him, heading towards Lilystar's den but Eagletail turned around and laid his tail on her shoulder.
"I wouldn't go tell Lilystar, I seem to remember some kits born, oh it must be about six moons now."
Moonsight whirled around. Eagletail's green blue gaze glittered mischievously. "I don't know what you're talking about, there aren't any Ruinclan kits. Except for.." She trailed fearfully seeing the knowing gaze that belonged to Eagletail.
Eagletail stepped closer to the medicine cat. "Yes, except for those being apprenticed tonight. Two kits found in the forest, newborns, after Moonsight was 'captured by twolegs' and returned coincidentally two days after the kits were found. Remember?"
The cream she-cat took a step back. "I don't know what you're talking about, it was a coincidence."
"Was it? Now where were you heading?"
Moonsight's ears were flat against her head, her claws unsheathed and a low hiss escaped her throat. "What're you going to do when you're leader, Eagletail? Going to control the clan with fear? Like a coward? You know what? I'll be happy when you're leader, because your stupid ambitions will be fulfilled and I don't have to keep wondering what you will do next."
Eagletail hissed with anger. "The first thing I'll do is get rid of a certain medicine cat- and her kin. I have plans, Moonsight. You'll see, or not. It depends." With that Eagletail stalked away, his tail high.