Chapter 4
Ambermoon was grooming her fur in steady strokes.
Just a few sunrises ago, Snowfall had told her about a prophecy.
"Why not send it to me? After all, I am a Medicine Cat." She had mewed.
"Probably because it was about my death?" Snowfall had meowed.
"What if it ends up involving Dewleaf and I, too?" Ambermoon had queried.
But Ambermoon was far too tired to think about it any longer.
She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.
"Ambermoon!" Millie called.
Ambermoon sleepily blinked her eyes open.
"What?" She mewed.
"Could you check on Briarlight for me? Jayfeather won't let me in the medicine den." Millie replied.
Ambermoon turned her head around to find Briarlight asleep in her nest.
"She's fine." Ambermoon told her quietly so she wouldn't wake up her and Jayfeather.
"Do you still spend time with Blossomfall and Bumblestripe?" Ambermoon couldn't stop her question from spilling out.
"Well, now that I think about it, no." Millie meowed guiltily.
"You know, they feel neglected." Ambermoon told her gently, sympathy for Millie's other kits in her tone.
"Well, I guess I was so worried about poor Briarlight, I forgot about my two others." Millie mewed sadly.
And with that, she padded out in search of Blossomfall and Bumblestripe.
At sunhigh, Ambermoon was watching Firepaw practice his moves on Tendrilkit. Being the only apprentice, Firepaw could only practice on kits and warriors.
"We are in desperate need of apprentices." Jayfeather mewed, padding up beside her.
"Why can't Leafpool ignore StarClan and become a Medicine Cat again?" Ambermoon asked.
Jayfeather sighed.
"Who knows how StarClan would react to that." He mewed.
A cry of pain escaped Tendrilkit.
"One moment, please." Jayfeather meowed before rushing over to Firepaw and Tendrilkit.
Leafpool padded up to Ambermoon.
"How I very much wish I could be a Medicine Cat again." She sighed.
"I'm not a natural at hunting or fighting. If StarClan granted me one wish, it would be to be able to become a Medicine Cat once again."
Ambermoon looked at Leafpool with a pang of sympathy.
"You're very lucky." She told Ambermoon.
"You have Jayfeather as a mentor, and you have the ability to save lives. Sometimes I wish I never fell in love with Crowfeather."
"Well, if you hadn't, you wouldn't have had your kits." Ambermoon mewed softly.
"Another of my punishments was Hollyleaf dying." Leafpool mewed, crestfallen about her only daughter's tragic death.
"That wasn't your fault. Hawkfrost is the one that killed her." Ambermoon meowed.
"Yes, that I know. But... for some reason I feel that StarClan planned her death." Leafpool whispered.
"Of course not!" Ambermoon purred.
"It was Hawkfrost."
"From this moment on, until she has earned her warrior name, Flightkit will be known as Flightpaw, and Cloudtail will mentor her." Bramblestar meowed.
"Flightpaw! Flightpaw!" ThunderClan cheered the young apprentice's name.
Snowfall paced around in a circle, because Flightpaw was on her way to becoming a warrior, in which then she could kill him.
"Oh! It hurts! Jayfeather, Ambermoon! There's a painful lump in my belly!" Wailed Icecloud.
"No!" Cried Jayfeather, racing over to her. Ambermoon followed.
"No cat that's had that has ever survived." He mewed.
"No! I'm not ready to go to StarClan yet!" Icecloud wailed.
"Keep calm, Icecloud. I'll do the best I can." Jayfeather told her.
A long time ago, Tawnyspots of ThunderClan had the same condition. Ambermoon remembered what Jayfeather had told her.
Before Firestar was born, when Bluestar was Bluefur. The story was passed down, Medicine Cat to Medicine Cat.
Ambermoon shuddered at the thought of Icecloud dying.
Jayfeather began to massage Icecloud's stomach.
"I don't think she'll make it." Jayfeather mewed.
Dustpelt and Foxleap bounded up to Icecloud.
"You have to save her, Jayfeather!" Foxleap hissed.
"Yes, you have to!" Dustpelt growled.
Jayfeather spun around and focused his blind blue eyes on them.
"If she dies, she dies. It won't be my fault. Her chances of survival are really slim!" He spat.
Dustpelt and Foxleap backed away.
No cat wanted to get on the grumpy Medicine Cat's nerves.
Ambermoon sighed.
Would her best friend really die?
"Icecloud, please don't die! You're there when I need you most!" Ambermoon pleaded.
Icecloud smiled up at her, but it faded once she felt more pain.
"It's OK." She barely managed to croak out the words.
"You're a Medicine Cat. I'll still see you when you visit the Moonpool."
A rogue tear trickled its way down the side of Ambermoon's face.
She'd miss her friend.
Chapter 5
Snowfall watched with much grief as Icecloud was taken away to be buried by the lake.
She would be missed greatly by her Clan.
It had been two moons since she reported the painful lump in her belly. Tendrilkit and Badgerkit had been apprenticed, and Tendrilpaw's mentor was Sandstorm, while Badgerpaw's was Blossomfall.
"I'll lead the dusk patrol." Squirrelflight mewed.
"And I want Leafpool, Millie, Snowfall, and Lionblaze to come with me."
They padded into the forest.
They came across a ShadowClan apprentice who was hunting on ThunderClan territory, along with a warrior who wasn't his mentor.
"Thistlepaw and Marshcloud." Squirrelflight meowed calmly.
"What are you doing hunting on ThunderClan territory?"
Marshcloud hissed.
Snowfall remembered Birchfall telling him when Marshcloud was a kit, he had gone on the Great Journey, along with his siblings, Applefur and Toadfoot.
"Leaf-bare is on its way, and we're starving!" Marshcloud spat.
"That doesn't give you any right to hunt on our territory." Growled Lionblaze.
"Humph!" Thistlepaw mewed.
"We can hunt if we like! Our Clan will be destroyed if we don't!"
"Attack!" Squirrelflight meowed.
Marshcloud and Thistlepaw retreated back into ShadowClan territory.
"Well, we certainly showed them off!" Leafpool yowled with triumph.
"Now, how about we hunt?" Snowfall suggested.
Snowfall returned to camp carrying two plump mice.
Leafpool, one scrawny vole, and everyone else strangely carried the same thing, a starling.
"I'm starved!" Ambermoon announced before racing over to grab a starling.
Then, she gasped.
"What is it?" Jayfeather asked her, padding over.
Ambermoon stared speechlessly at the starling.
"SkyClan has returned!" She mewed.
"SkyClan?" Sandstorm queried.
"Back in the Forest Territory, Firestar and I went on a quest to try and bring back SkyClan, but we failed." Sandstorm's eyes drooped at the mention of her dead mate's name.
"But where will they stay?" Bramblestar meowed, approaching the gathering cats.
A tabby she-cat burst through the thorn barrier.
"Sandstorm!" She mewed.
"Where's Firestar?" This time it was softer.
Sandstorm's head bent down.
"Sorry, Leafstar, but he was killed by a flaming tree." Sandstorm answered.
Several other cats burst into the camp.
"Where shall we stay?" A tom asked.
"Follow me." Sandstorm mewed.
She returned a sunrise later, and mewed, "SkyClan has gone to the mountains, to become rivals with The Tribe of Rushing Water. I showed them the way to get there, and hopefully they survive."
The cats of ThunderClan nodded.
"Now they have company." Dustpelt joked.
Ambermoon shuffled her paws.
"That's not all." She mewed.
"Flightpaw will kill Snowfall!"
Snowfall closed his eyes briefly in annoyance.
"Bluestar gave me a prophecy!" He yowled.
He told them the prophecy.
"You should've told me sooner." Bramblestar meowed.
"Will you still name Flightpaw Flightwing?" Snowfall asked him.
"Of course." Bramblestar mewed.
His eyes twinkled with worry.
"What?" Snowfall asked his leader.
"I'm afraid she'll grow up to be like Tigerstar." Bramblestar mumbled.
"My kit? Never!" Hissed Thornclaw, overhearing.
"I'm afraid so." Bramblestar told him.
"StarClan has never been wrong before."
"Yeah, they have." Lionblaze mewed.
"They were wrong about Hollyleaf being one of the Three."
"That's different." Bramblestar told him.
"I don't know what to do about Flightpaw, though."
"I'll train her not to be evil." Cloudtail, Flightpaw's mentor, mewed.
Bramblestar sighed.
"Please do everything you can. Not only might she destroy Snowfall, she could destroy the Clans as we know it."
"How?" Snowfall queried.
"She could get help from the Dark Forest, and Clan traitors, and rogues like Breezepelt.
Snowfall shuddered.
The Dark Forest battle was over, and now there would be a similar battle caused by one cat!
This time around, Snowfall wasn't so sure they'd survive.
Chapter 6
Dewleaf closed his eyes briefly.
He waited for the WindClan warrior to make her move.
It was Nightcloud.
Nightcloud sprung at Dewleaf, bowling him over and sinking her claws into his side.
Dewleaf winced, and pinned her down.
He sunk his teeth into her shoulder, sending her fleeing into the forest.
He turned around and ran over to help Cherrybloom and Molenose, who were struggling against three WindClan cats.
Ivypool let out a screech of pure fury. She ran over to help her mate, Molenose.
Dewleaf stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a kittypet leap at Millie.
Dewleaf dug his claws into the kittypet's flesh.
This was the same kittypet Blackstar had described at the gathering!
"What are you, WindClan's new ally?" Dewleaf spat.
The kittypet thrust his face at Dewleaf, leaving Millie laying sprawled, injured, on the blood-soaked grass.
The kittypet slashed his claws across Dewleaf's face.
Dewleaf bit down hard on his throat, leaving a deep gash there as the kittypet fled into the woods.
"A kittypet was helping WindClan, you say?" Bramblestar asked.
Dewleaf and Millie nodded.
"I saw him off, though." Dewleaf mewed.
"What kind of kittypet would attack ThunderClan?" Dewleaf mewed, half to himself.
"A crazy kittypet, that's who." Millie meowed.
"We will find out what he's up to." Bramblestar mewed.
The gathering was crowded.
Cats murmured and mewed endlessly to one another until Mistystar raised her tail for silence.
"RiverClan is healthy and well-fed." She mewed. "That is all."
She nodded to Onestar.
"WindClan is rich in prey, and very healthy." He meowed.
Dewleaf rolled his eyes.
They were anything but rich in prey. But he guessed they didn't want to seem weak.
Though Dewleaf could tell by their thin frame and fur plastered to their noticeable rib cage, that they were on the verge of starvation.
The leaders spoke, and Bramblestar called ThunderClan over to go to camp at the end of it all.
Dewleaf curled up in his nest. His quick breathing soon turned to slow as he drifted to sleep.
A paw prodded his side.
Dewleaf blinked his eyes open, his vision at first blurry from sleep, but then it cleared up.
Leafpool was standing over him.
"Squirrelflight wants you to go on a hunting patrol." She mewed.
Dewleaf stretched, and got to his paws.
He and Leafpool join Millie and Lionblaze, all ready to hunt.
They padded out into the snowy forest, the frost-covered leaves leftover from Leaf-fall crunching under their paws.
Dewleaf felt grief stab him as he remembered Icecloud's death.
The lump in Clan cats' stomachs had echoed through the Clans. It had happened a few times before.
Dewleaf parted his jaws to drink in the early Leaf-bare forest scent.
He spotted a plump, huge and fat squirrel, nearly as big as him, nibbling on an acorn.
This squirrel was so fat it would be too slow to escape him!
Dewleaf dropped into a hunter's crouch, and began to stalk it.
The squirrel jerked its head up, and darted away, scrambling up a tree.
Mouse dung! Thought Dewleaf. I almost had him!
The squirrel fell out of the tree, and dropped to the ground.
Dewleaf watched the life drain from its eyes.
He searched the tree, but saw only the snow covered pines stretching out into the sky.
He shrugged to himself, and carried the prey to camp.
Later on in the day, all the apprentices shared his catch.
"Jayfeather, come quick! All the apprentices have been poisoned!" Ambermoon yowled.
Dewleaf and Snowfall followed Jayfeather to where all the apprentices were writhing in agony.
"Tell me more about your squirrel." Jayfeather instructed Dewleaf.
"Well," Dewleaf mewed.
"It climbed a tree and fell out, dead."
"I'll need to take them to the Medicine Den. Ambermoon, lend me a paw and take Tendrilpaw into the Medicine Den, I'll get the rest." Jayfeather mewed worriedly.
Dewleaf's heart raced.
This was all his fault! He should've known that if a fat squirrel fell out of a tree it was sick or something!
What if the poor apprentices died?