By the way, Calicofur and Robinpelt(if it is a fight sequence with another character) are allowed for the fanart competition...
Chapter Three: Warning
"Dreamcloud, wake up!"
The sun-colored she-cat's amber eyes flew open, and they found Calicofur's face in front of hers. Slowly, she stretched, and looked around. That had been her last night at the warriors' den. Bittersweet, she guessed.
"It's time to make the trip to the Moonpool," Calicofur announced. "You need to recieve your nine lives now."
Dipping her head, Dreamcloud padded out of the den to the clearing, and began to call cats' names. Her kits appeared out of the apprentice's den, their eyes bright.
"Are you going to the Moonpool now?" Scarletpaw asked excitedly.
"You'll be back today, right?" Birdpaw mewed worridly.
"Calm down!" Rockpaw muttered to his sisters, rolling his eyes. He claimed to be the only sane one in the family to Singedpaw, his best friend."Yes, and yes," Dreamcloud purred in an amused tone. "And Scarletpaw, Birdpaw, Rockpaw has a point. Calm down."
"Right," Scarletpaw laughed, before looking a bit more serious. "Be careful, Mother."
"I agree," Rockpaw meowed. "Scarletpaw had to have gotten her insanity from someone."
Regret clouded Dreamcloud's thoughts. The three always said that whenever there was a certain trait they were commenting on, it had to have come from her. Everyone thought that Robinpelt had been their father...
She shuddered, remembering that terrible event four moons ago. Oh well. What was in the past was in the past.
The Clan gathered around, and she quickly gave orders. "Birchpelt," Dreamcloud meowed. "I want you to be in charge of camp."
"Me?" The tom's amber eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, you," Dreamcloud purred. "If we're attacked again, send a messenger to the Moonpool to alert Calicofur and I. I don't want to be in the dark about anything."
Birchpelt gave a quick nod. As he did this, Squirrelflight and Sandstorm padded up and pressed themselves against her.
"Be careful," Squirrelflight whispered in her daughter's ear.
"I will."
Brambleclaw walked up to her and touched his nose to hers. "Listen to what your mother said," he ordered. "We can't afford to lose you, Dreamcloud."
"Trust me," she murmured to him.
Finally, side by side, she and Calicofur turned, and began to walk out the entrance of the camp. Both were silent for a while as they walked, until finally, Calicofur spoke.
"Excited?"
Dreamcloud tilted her head from one side to the other. "So, so. Yes, I do feel a bit excited-but I don't want to ruin my Clan."
"You won't," Calicofur assured her firmly. "Dreamcloud, maybe you haven't noticed, but... cats like you and Windstar are born leaders. I watched you as a kit, and you were always ahead of the bunch..."
More silence for a moment, and Dreamcloud suddenly blurted out, "Do you think that I'll actually get my nine lives? I don't excactly have a pristine record."
"Of course you will," Calicofur assured her, touching her tail tip to Dreamcloud's shoulder. "It's not like they'll doom you to the bowels of DeathClan."
Dreamcloud pricked her ears and said sharply, "DeathClan?"
"You never heard the stories when you were a kit?" Calicofur's eyes widened in surprise, but she then looked away in realization. "Oh... wait..."
"What?" Dreamcloud asked.
"Nothing!"
"Tell me."
"Oh, fine," Calicofur muttered. "You're already a bossy leader." She paused, and continued more serously. "DeathClan is like StarClan, but so much different. It's where cats like Scourge, Brokentail... Tigerstar and Hawkfrost... ended up."
"Ah," Dreamcloud meowed. "So that's why you wouldn't tell me."
"Yes."
Dreamcloud darted a glance down at her long claws. Claws she had inherited from her father, but ultimately from Tigerstar.
Starclan... will you accept me?
xxx
The Moonpool seemed even more intimidating than it had when Dreamcloud first went there as an apprentice with Firestar. She wondered how Windstar had felt...
"Just take a few laps of the water, and that should do it," Calicofur said calmly, with the tone of a cat that had been here many times before.
Oh, wait. She had.
Dreamcloud hesitantly padded towards the Moonpool, and bent her head towards it. Her reflection bounced off of the still waters. She was stunned at how the moonlight made such a dramatic change to her normally pale ginger pelt, making it a blinding white. She shivered slightly at her own amber eyes staring.
Finally, Dreamcloud brought herself to lean down and lap a few drops of the water. It was icy cold, and made her shiver once again. But at the same time, it wasn't unpleasant...
Blinking hard, she realized that Calicofur was gone, and mist had settled all around her.
"Well," Dreamcloud said slowly. "This doesn't look good."
Why in StarClan's name do things like this always happen to me? ALWAYS. Oh, and Windstar, too.
A voice alerted her to the fact that she was not alone.
"Calm yourself, Dreamcloud."
Turning around sharply, Dreamcloud's eyes widened. "Firestar!" She cried, recognizing his pelt of flame immediately.
"Yes, Dreamcloud," he purred in amusement. "It is me."
Cats began to gather, and Dreamcloud blinked, looking around. To her relief, none of the cats had any resemblance to Robinpelt. Maybe he had gone to DeathClan...
"Let us start the ceremony," Firestar purred. Dreamcloud bowed her head and was still. Looking up, she saw a cat padding regally to her, amber eyes glowing. But this wasn't just any cat...
"Spiderleg!" She cried in surprise. Her friend's mate looked just as he had in life, but better.
Without a word, he touched his nose to her forehead. "With this life I give you the knowledge to do what's right. For your Clan, and yourself."
His amber eyes flashed as he said, 'yourself'. He couldn't possibly mean her relationship with Windstar, right?
Pain flashed through Dreamcloud. She felt Spiderleg's hurt after Calicofur rejected him, his great love for her, his feelings of joy mixed with regret when he discovered the Lightfur was expecting his kits, the thought of his kits dying...
And finally, his death. Another warrior charging up to him, slashing that deadly wound... Calicofur bending over him, looking like she was desperate to tell him something...
Dreamcloud was gasping when it was over. Looking up, she found Spiderleg standing over her. "Make sure she gets over it," he said sadly as he turned to walk back. "And take care of my son!"
Dreamcloud nodded. "I will."
A second cat came, one that made her heart wrench with pain. It was Lightfur.
As she touched her nose to Dreamcloud's forehead, Lightfur mewed, "With this life I give you friendship. Never betray it."
Dreamcloud was shocked my the range of emotions in Lightfur's life. As kits, she always played happily with her best friend, Dreamkit. But once they reached the apprentice age...
She was jealous.
Lightfur's envy coursed through Dreamcloud, and she gasped at the bloodthirstyness of it. Finally, as the horror of deathberries faded away, she looked up at the other she-cat.
"I betrayed our friendship," Lightfur meowed sadly, walking away.
As the third cat came up, Dreamcloud closed her eyes. It was a familiar tabby with warm amber eyes that haunted her.
Leafpool.
As the medicine cat touched her nose to Dreamcloud's head, she murmured, "With this life I give you healing. Us it both physically and emotionally. For your Clan and for yourself."
This life wasn't as painful... Leafpool's death had been much quieter than Spiderleg or Lightfur's but just as sad, for Leafpool had known she was going to die right there.
as Leafpool walked off, a fourth cat appeared. Dreamcloud bared her fangs at the sight of Ashfur, the tom who had almost killed her grandmother.
"I'm sorry for what I... did," he admitted. "And I want to give you a life." She tensed as he touched his nose to her head. "With this life I give you loyalty. Don't do what I did."
More pain, but Dreamcloud was shocked at how Ashfur had been threatened by Robinpelt...
As he walked off, a fifth came, this one unrecognizable at first. A little kit, black with a ginger ear and eyes that were still milky blue. A she-kit, who looked like Calicofur's dead kit, but older. Oh, wait, this WAS Calicofur's dead kit.
"Um, can you...?" The kit trailed off as Dreamcloud laid down for her to touch her nose to her forehead. "With this life I give you love. Love your Clan, and others."
Dreamcloud didn't feel anything, for the kit had been dead before she left her mother's womb. But all she saw was darkness. Nothing else.
As the kit walked off, the scent of RiverClan made her nostrils tingle, and she recognized Leopardstar. The former leader's amber eyes were focused on her as she touched her nose to Dreamcloud's forehead.
"With this life I give you bravery," she said. "The bravery to do what's right."
Dreamcloud felt Leopardstar's ambition through her life, and shuddered. But it was soon over, and the cat stared at her.
"Thank you. You proved who really killed me."
Snarls filled StarClan suddenly, as well as 'Not agains!' and a deep voice growled, 'Oh, deal with it!'
Dreamcloud stared in shock at the dark tabby with her claws and eyes. She gulped. "Tigerstar?"
"Oh, yes," the tom said with glee. "I'm here to give you a life, Dreamcloud. One you need."
She tried to get away, but was locked in place as his nose touched her head. "With this life I give you hatred. Unleash your hatred, Dreamcloud."
Tigerstar's life was terrifying. His evil ways, his death...
"Dreamcloud," Tigerstar hissed. "You are capable of much, and you know it."
As he walked into the shadows, Firestar came up. "I am sorry," he murmured, touching his nose to her. "With this life I give you faith. Never give up faith."
Dreamcloud was eager to have Firestar's life course through her, and she took it readily. As she opened her eyes, Firestar announced, "I hail you by your new name, Dreamstar. May you lead your Clan wisely."
"DREAMSTAR! DREAMSTAR!" But the calls of StarClan suddenly stopped as shadowy cats began to creep towards her.
Firestar stared at his granddaughter.
"DeathClan."
And she woke up.
xxx
EEEEEEEEEEK!