{{AN: 7/21/16: Eyyyy I was going through my old google docs and found my old copy of Demarc 33 Then I realized that I did put it up here, but only the prologue? The whole thing is now over 10 chapters and the longest - and first, believe it or not- warriors fic I've written. It's part of my history, and I'm glad to be able to share it with you all. Here's the 2013-written 2016-edited version of the story. R&R and enjoy. 3
ALSO please note that this story and ideas for it came in early 2013. All story arcing for SkyClan then had been limited to Firestar's Quest. Only events from that book are 'canon' in this fanfiction. None of the manga, nor any other SkyClan novella, nor TaQ are canon in this story, and will not influence the plotline of this novel in any way. The events of those books simply did not happen, nor will happen, to the SkyClan universe here. }}
Pale gray light spilled out of the half-moon, shedding a light silver cast on everything below. A creamy she-cat slipped silently over a boulder, the moonlight reflecting off her fur causing it to shine a brilliant silver. She stepped down onto a thin ledge dug into the side of the giant boulder and shivered slightly before starting slowly across. The river frothed a tail-length beneath her, occasionally sending a few drops of water up to splash her paws. The night was silent; even the crickets had stopped chirping in the dark forest on the cliff high above.
The white cat slipped into a thin crack between two boulders and into a soft light. She smiled and looked up at the hanging moss dripping off the rock face. It was a smaller cave, only about the size of the apprentices' or elders' dens, yet more mystical as the moss emitted a faint green glow and made the cavern look as if it were sparkling.
She let her tail slide across the side of the cave as she walked to the back, making it sway and shimmer. Purring, she curled up into one of the dips in the back. Like the rest of the cave, it was filled with the soft moss. It sunk down when she lay in it, conforming to her shape and springing around her sides, wrapping her in a soft cocoon. With a relaxed sigh she touched her nose to the cool moss and closed her eyes.
Suddenly, her eyes flicked open. A blinding light was shining on her left, but it wasn't green like the moss, it was a white light, colorless as a spirit. She squinted and stepped out of the moss nest, causing it to spring around wildly until it slowly lost momentum and settled back into place. She stared into the light until her eyes stung from the glare, but nothing was visible behind the veil of whiteness. She walked sideways out of the concentrated beam, still keeping her eyes trained on the source of the light while shifting her paws on the cool earth. Immediately, the light dimmed, revealing a patch of moss glistening like starlight. She saw the reflective dust hovering in the air where it was struck by the beam, a pathway of tiny stars leading a twinkling trail to the nest she had laid in.
A soft breeze rippled through the cave, tickling her ears and making the starlit moss flow gently backward like a wave of water. The wind whispered echoes back to her, giving hints to an opening behind the moss. She twitched her ears instinctively against the breeze and padded delicately across the ground, letting little fragments of moss curl between her rock-hardened pads as she paced towards the shimmering moss. She slowly pushed her nose into the moss and took a deep breath at the brisk air that flowed from behind. A cold tingle entered her body, sending a shiver down her spine.
She heard a whisper coming from behind the sheet of moss, ever so softly calling her forward; the voice as thin as a blade of grass. She stepped through the glittering curtain and let the moss slide smoothly over her back before dropping back into place behind her tail. Her gaze took in the tunnel walls in awe. There were tiny cracks like kit claw-scratches spider webbing the rounded tunnel.
She stopped to scrutinize the lighter cracks, intrigued by their complex designs like a flowing mosaic etched into the walls. As she was putting her head nearer to one of the crevices, a force suddenly pulled her straight until she was walking down the tunnel against her will. She tried to pull back in vain, fearful of the unknown force, but it only made her pawsteps shudder helplessly as they kept moving her forward. She lashed out against the force pulling against her with more ferocity, straining her muscles and unsheathing her claws to hold onto the ground, but it didn't even lessen her forward momentum. She let out a heaving sigh of defeat and went limp, letting her paws move of their own will as she traveled down the tunnel.
Abruptly, the force released her, letting her limp body fall to the floor in a heap. She yowled in surprise and leaped back up with a sudden energy she didn't know she still possessed after her futile struggles. Her fur bristled as she spun around, looking for the reason she was released. A small crevice was narrowed out of the side of the tunnel, sloping gently downward.
I would have missed it if I hadn't stopped right in front of it, she thought. She calmed down as she realized this was where she was supposed to be. Knowing the force wasn't going to push her any farther now that she was at her destination, she wanted to further investigate the wandering lines. She put her eye up to one of the slender cracks and looked into it, wondering how far back they went. A dim light radiated through it, making it turn to a sandy yellowish-orange. It looked as if it continued on a long ways down and even farther back into the stone. She studied it, enthralled by its simple beauty. After some time she realized she was wasting what little time she had until she was called back to the main cavern. Reluctantly, she turned down the smaller tunnel, similar to the last one.
Up ahead, she noticed something was blocking the tunnel. "Another starlit curtain of moss," she observed, speaking to herself. She trotted inside and gasped. It was an exact replica of the cave she was in before, but larger and filled with the shining cats of StarClan. They wandered around the roomy cavern or sat down sharing tongues.
She twisted through them until she made it to the middle of the cave where a lone cat was sitting in the center of a ring of purplish stones. It was the only place that wasn't covered in moss.
"Skywatcher!" she exclaimed, pushing her way through the last few tail-lengths of jumbled cats to step gently into the small and barren circle.
The glow of the moss reflected of the old cat's face, putting a sparkle in his deep blue eyes and defining each grey hair on his muzzle. His mouth opened a crack and a low, monotone voice spoke through him: "three cats have been chosen to unite three beings that cannot be united; the sky will storm and two must become the three or SkyClan will be no more." Skywatcher then shook out his starry fur and slumped down slightly before regaining his posture. "Echosong, find the three," he said in his normal voice. His shape flickered and was now dimming, growing less solid every heartbeat. "This is the new Whispering Cave," he said.
Echosong stared at his shape until he had completely faded from sight and only the echo of his voice remained in the cave. She stood, frozen, as she hastily tried to remember every word the wise cat had said. As she stood up to leave, the moss on the walls started to glow, soft at first, but growing brighter and brighter until Echosong had to close her eyes against the harsh light. As soon as her eyelids snapped shut, she felt her body jerk and pull. She opened her eyes in fear and found herself sitting in the old Whispering Cave. She sat and watched as the moss around her faded until the last light stopped shining with the spirits of StarClan.