Ember- Chapter 3 Changes
Steele just stared at the tom blankly. "You... talked."
The tom let out a deep, echoing laugh. "I am not as stupid as you seem to think. I do have intelligence, as anyone of you do, though I may have come into this world from a different way than you may have."
Steele, too shocked to respond, didn't say anything. Breeze looked at Shadow, unsure what to say.
"Welcome to the realm of speech, Falcon." Shadow nodded to Falcon.
"Thank you Shadow." Falcon meowed gratefully, though his voice was as deep as ever.
Breeze smiled. "Hello Falcon!" She said, following Shadow's lead and trying to make up for Steele's rudeness.
"Pleasure to see you are speaking, Falcon." Shell meowed.
Celestial called for silence once more, and again it was brought upon the clearing except for an occasional murmur from Steele who kept repeating 'He talks...' over and over again.
"Now that you have all introduced yourselves and met, I dare say I should tell you why you are all here. You are all here for a prophecy made by the stars themselves. 'The starry ones hold the hope, as long as the breeze carries the falcon, the gray shell holds strong, the lady walks in shadow, the myra is as stubborn as the steel; that the bloody spike will not keep his reign, and the land they walk upon will stay.'"
"What does that mean?" Lady asked, her sparkling green eyes confused, yet lit up by the midnight.
"We are not entirely sure what it means but what we have gathered is that all of you here, if you still want to help, could help us stop the war that is coming. Help us stop the war that is coming between the light and dark. You all have seen what you are in here to do, so if you still don't want to have anything to do with this, you may leave now if you want. I will take you home and we can act like this never happened." Celestial offered, her speech over and now just curious to see who all would stay.
Breeze stood up and walked over to Celestial. "I will help. If I don't, the world may fall and it would have been all my fault. But if I do even if the world still falls, I will at least know I tried."
Shadow looked at Celestial. "I see her logic and I think the same. I will help, but the thing is, I will have to between my duties as a leader in ShadowClan, or I could ask my deputy to take over for the time being. Which would be best Celestial?"
"It does not matter but it would be best if you were here most of the time because if someone attacks, you can help whoever is here most if the time so there are less losses and casualties, which I warn you there will be now." Celestial meowed.
"I will talk to my deputy about this then." Shadow meowed.
"Does anyone else need a home here while they help in the prophecy?"
Breeze nodded.
"Yes." Lady purred.
"I believe most of us also will stay here but also carry on duties that we carry on in our normal lives." Falcon meowed.
Celestial smiled. "Very well. I do enjoy another's company."
Blaze stared at the ceiling of the den, little flames firing into the air as he breathed. Seed was still in her den, just so he could learn to control his flames even further so he didn't accidentally burn her to death while sleeping. He still had problems, though he wouldn't like to admit it. He had told Seed even so, when she asked why she couldn't come into his den to sleep at night. He couldn't lie; she was his mate, after all.
As he thought of his mate, images flashed through his mind. When he first met her, hiding in those bushes only the age of an apprentice in the Clans. He still remember those words that had burst out of his mouth that day and he wouldn't forget them any time soon. "I won't let anyone ever hurt you Seed." And he promised that. Blaze stretched and stood up, knowing he wasn't getting to sleep anytime soon. Maybe the night air would help.
He stepped out of his den, frowning at the loneliness he sometimes felt when he looked outside. He was set so far away from the others but it was for a reason. Even if he set his den on fire, he would be fine, his skin and fur fireproof, thank the stars. But if the fire spread... He felt sick just thinking about it. Blaze shook his head, taking in the cool night air. For some reason, he thought to look up at the Branch, as it was nicknamed.
Shock and anger ran through his veins until the shock faded away and only the anger remained. 'I always knew you were a traitor.'
"She's gone!"
Leaf smiled a wistful smile as she heard Blaze's yowl. She always knew Breeze would be up to the task. She knew the consequences, but yet she went. She stared down at the Clan from the trees and sighed. The she-cat looked up at the moon, knowing it was this moon that her younger sister and Breeze had stared up at that night. It was incidentally how she knew about the whole mess. Celestial had confronted her afterwards, and Leaf told her she was on her side. But was it the right choice? What if everyone, everything is all going to die because of her one choice? "I always knew you would be brave enough, Breeze. We all have to make difficult choices for the greater good." She sighed again, before leaping down to a lower branch so she could hear. Leaf knew she wouldn't like what she was about to hear but she had to know, and tell Breeze, if she could.
She watched the leader of StarClan, Tempest, run out of the den and towards Blaze. "You say Breeze is gone?" Tempest asked, his gray eyes flashing. Leaf personally was surprised Tempest actually knew Breeze's name. She guessed cats showed their true colours in a state of emergency.
"Yes, she left us." Blaze seemed to think Breeze was a traitor. Leaf wondered what could have turned such a loving brother into such a hateful cat, at least to his younger sister.
"Maybe she was taken by one of the Dark Forest, perhaps? Eclipse may have had a personal vendetta against the she-cat or maybe one of the Dark Forest but why and how?" Tempest mused, pacing back and forth. "I shall send out a search party, see if they can catch her scent. Blaze, you will lead it. Gather some cats to help."
Leaf clenched her teeth and fought the urge to go tell Tempest that sending Blaze was a bad idea. I guess he didn't pay that much attention to Breeze after all. At least he knew her name. More than he knew about most cats. "I'll need to alert Vale or Mist then, tell them to tail after Blaze and see if they could find Breeze's scent and follow the trail. She knew that Breeze was with Celestial but Breeze couldn't be put down as a traitor! She watched as Blaze entered each of their dens. Thank the stars he wasn't stupid after all.
Celestial stared at the cats in front of her, content. It was so... peaceful for a change. Usually there was too much commotion, and fighting between the Ancients but it had seemed so lonely the past few days she had sat here, alone, yearning to get away from her brother. Sometimes, it seemed that her older sister, Leaf, was the only one on her side. Fate had to worry about the fates of every cat and was so busy she hardly had time to speak to her mates. Time was just more distant than Leaf, and always seemed to be somewhere else. Creating the future, or teaching Rock, his new trainee. Time had been so sad at the loss of his daughter Moon, who could tell the future. Celestial had thanked the stars that Time managed to put aside his grief and train his grandson in the art of fortune telling. Change seemed to hate her, and she didn't know why. When she had first heard of Breeze, she had celebrated inside at first for a moment, before being consumed with guilt. She had finally found some cat who understood what she felt for this oh so many years. And her cousin Oblivion and his mate Twilight were just weird. Or as Leaf would say, evil. But while Oblivion probably was, wanting to destroy everything and blow to ashes what was left, Celestial believed in the good of Twilight. Twilight's feelings were just messed up. She did have two personalities after all, controlling both beginnings and endings. So she only really could talk to Leaf. She was so lonely when Leaf went to train her apprentices, Blaze, Mist, Vale, and Breeze. Celestial sometimes wished she could visit the land of the living, or even the dead realm she watched over, but she could never wipe the shimmer from her pelt. And when she was really lonely one day, she learned she could change the space of her form, like shapeshifting basically, in other words. Celestial turned into a badger, and went to the realm of the living. She became Midnight, and was taken in by a badger called Mystic. She taught her the ways of a badger, and Celestial told Mystic her secret, and was glad, for once in her life, that someone understood. Celestial told Mystic that she had to return, at least for now, and see what was happening in her realm. She had discovered she had been gone for many moons and that the Ancients were worried sick about her. Celestial was torn. It wasn't right to just leave Mystic waiting for her, but she couldn't leave her family either. Leaf, knowing her pain, had told Celestial of an ancient secret that would allow her to deposit a bit of her soul in her badger form and she would never have to leave. And now, every time she was alone, she would review and watch what had happened to her badger self knowing that she couldn't just go into Midnight's life and control her, because Midnight was her own being now, not some toy to be used for her own purposes. Midnight would do the same, and once, they met together and just talked for a while. Celestial was surprised at how much her badger self had changed in the time she had last seen her. Midnight was so wise, and kind. It was beautiful, and Celestial tried to model herself after the badger, to be so caring and selfless.
Celestial was broken away from her thoughts by a scream. She opened her eyes to see a three cats run into the clearing. Lady stood up, and walked towards the three cats, looking concerned. "What happened?"
"We got ambushed!"
"Cats of the Ancient Council Gather Around The Branch!" Tempest called out to the Council. The cats gathered quickly, and looked up at him in expectance. "I have sad news for us all. A cat, while on her vigil for the Council, disappeared. Her name was Breeze. She could control wind and air. You saw what she did to Seed. She is a dangerous cat, and having the audacity to run away during her vigil, we believe she is a traitor. This cat, Breeze, is unstable, and if you see her, get her to me to see with any means necessary. She is now a marked traitor and if you must, kill her or capture her on sight." The Council roared at one of their own going to the "Dark Side" as it would seem.
"She wouldn't leave us. Breeze is not a traitor!" Mist and Vale meowed at the same time.
Blaze shook his head as if he was sad. "She is; I saw her on the edge of the Void this morning. Breeze continued, as if it was nothing. I couldn't bear to tell anyone else but you both this. It would split the Council apart." Vale and Mist looked heartbroken at the thought.
"She abandoned us. For the Dark Forest. I would've never thought." Mist whispered, her eyes darkening. "Our own sister, a traitor."
Leaf watched, her head shaking, and claws dug deep into the bark of the tree she was hiding in. She was on the verge of jumping onto the Branch and just screaming about how they were all wrong! She couldn't believe Blaze had told such a lie. "No, no, no!" She muttered, closing her eyes tightly. But she would have to explain how she knew that and that meant revealing existence of the Ancients to everyone and that was dangerous. Last time they did that, their older brother died for it, in the mistaken thought that if they killed an Ancient, they would get their power. They couldn't go through that again, especially in such a time of turmoil. She took a deep breath. She couldn't tell Breeze this. It would break her very being. She knew that she would be an outcast and possibly never able to return but she never knew it would get this bad, that everyone, including her only family, would come to hate her. A flash of light attracted the cats' attention as Leaf, unable to hear any more, disappeared into the deepest essence of time that the Ancients lived in.
AN: Before I end this chapter, I'd like to know, guys, do you like the switching POVS? If not, I'll just keep with Breeze and just a side note, I may not always do this but for this chapter it seemed appropriate and I thought I should let it on what is happening back at Breeze's home and some of the other character's backstories. Hope you enjoyed and please let me know!
-Faded ;3
