Chapter Five

Echoheart had ignored Skyflight's frantic cry and ran down the hill, leaving him standing up there, pale green eyes wide. They welcomed her into the camp, and led her away. Bile rose in Skyflight's throat. Strange and evil powers were at work in and around the camp. What if Echoheart was lost forever? What if everyone who had entered there from the outside was lost forever? It was time for them to leave, and quickly. But what was he to do? If he went back there, something awful might happen.

He took a couple paw-steps towards the hill, tentative and aware in his steps. He wanted to say a prayer to StarClan, but he knew that they weren't there. One more step forward, and he found himself in a completely different place. He was back in the land he'd visited in his dreams... Newmoon's world.

"Ash, darling, don't be afraid!" came a soft voice.

Skyflight looked around and narrowed his eyes. He wasn't Ash. The voice sounded familiar, and motherly. He looked to his side to see Dawnseeker standing next to him, her eyes wide and crazed.

The medicine cat stood his ground. "What do you want?"

"Please stay with me, Ash, I'm your mother," she whispered comfortingly.

Skyflight bared his teeth. "No, you're not. My mother is Thrushfeather of ThunderClan. You're just a mad fox; you're nothing but crowfood to me." He felt his claws unsheathing, and he tensed.

Dawnseeker was clearly taken aback, and hurt. "Ash, my kit, how could you say things like that? You are not Thrushfeather's kit, whomever she may be, you're mine! Newmoon sent you away so that you could help destroy the traitor kin – and you did – and you were amazing at it. No one even suspected it was you."

In a whirl, Skyflight slashed his claws across Dawnseeker's face. She yowled and stepped back, black blood dripping down her cheek and into her mouth. "I did nothing. You're a liar. ThunderClan is my Clan, and I would never betray them," he hissed in her ear.

"But you did," insisted Dawnseeker, trying to ignore the fact that Skyflight had struck her. "You took out important traitors, you weakened their Clan... and you led them into our forests..."

With sudden realization, memories came flooding back to Skyflight. He remembered slashing and killing, murdering cats, even his own mentor. "N-no," he squeaked. "This isn't real! None of this is real!" Dread and confusion swirled in his thoughts.

"It is real, Ash. But what you did was not wrong. You were helping your true Clan, StoneClan." Dawnseeker drew closer to him, giving him a lick on the cheek.

He pulled away, horrified. "StoneClan is not my Clan, and you are not my mother! You're a liar, and an evil deceiver. You don't love me, you don't even care!"

"Ash, I do love you!" exclaimed Dawnseeker. "I've been waiting forever to see you! I know my own son; our sovereign told me that it was you! She would never lie to any of us."

Skyflight turned to walk away, only to have Dawnseeker follow him. "Tell me how to get out of here," he demanded. "If you don't, I'll make things painful for you."

There was a slight flicker of fear in Dawnseeker's pale green eyes. "Ash, you are the masquerade, and you have the power of the Inner Gift!" she meowed desperately. "Can't you see that you belong with us? You belong with the mystic cats of Stone! You are not one of the traitor kin."

"Stop it with your strange words," Skyflight spat. "Show me the way out of Newmoon's world, or I swear to StarClan, I will rip your throat out."

At that moment in time, Skyflight didn't know whether he was being serious with his threats or if he was bluffing. He was certainly upset enough to do something irrational. If what Dawnseeker said was true, he'd killed before. There was nothing stopping him from doing it again. However, he didn't know whether or not things in Newmoon's world worked the same as they did in reality. This was a world of dreams, and anything could happen.

Dawnseeker didn't answer him, so he continued to walk into the thick, rolling fog. The ground was gritty and wet beneath his paws, and slime oozed from the ground. He heard a meow from the StoneClan healer, but didn't answer. He ignored her as she followed him further into the darkness.

After wandering in silence for what seemed like hours, he finally turned to Dawnseeker and, with all the strength he could muster, leaped on her and pinned her to the ground. He placed his claws at her throat, and dug them in slightly as a threat. "Dawnseeker, you tell me how to get out of here now!" he demanded.

She gasped and wriggled beneath him. "Ash, no, you can't hurt me! I'm your own mother! You wouldn't kill me, would you? I don't want to be turned to stone!"

Now he knew that he could kill her, if things came to that. "Well, Dawnseeker, if you don't want to die, you'll tell me how to get out of here, won't you?"

"But I am supposed to keep you here! Oh, either you will kill me, or Newmoon will kill me. Either way, I will not get out of this alive." Dawnseeker's desperate meows sounded dramatic and exaggerated, in a way. It almost sounded forced, as though she were stalling for time. But he remembered that this was generally the way StoneClan cats spoke. There was no help coming, but Dawnseeker seemed to want him to think there was by forcing her dramatic meows further.

Skyflight hissed under his breath. "Dawnseeker, I'm loosing my patience. You have only a few moments to tell me how to get out of here before I slice your throat."

"Ah! Alright, alright, Ash, I'll tell you the way out!" squeaked Dawnseeker. "Do you see those lights in the distance? They'll lead you into the Dangerzone, back in the real world... but Newmoon says it's an extremely long distance from the Dangerzone to our Clan camp... and there are strange things there!"

"Shut up, I don't care," Skyflight growled. "Strange things or not, I'm going. I've got to rescue my friends from Newmoon, and the rest of you." His hackles were raised, and the fur on his body stood on end. He stepped off of Newmoon, taking care to step on one of her paws as he did. She let out a mew of pain, and backed away, ears flattened.

Skyflight turned his attention to the familiar glowing lights in the distance. They had led him to Blaze before, and now they would lead him to safety. Even with the fog closing around him, he could still see them. He breathed in and began to travel in their direction.

"Ash, I love you!" Dawnseeker meowed loudly from behind him.

The ThunderClan medicine cat looked back at her. "I can't say the same to you, Dawnseeker."

She let out a cry of sadness and vanished in a thick black smoke. Skyflight felt slightly bad about what he'd done to her. It seemed as though she really did care for him, like a mother cared for her kit. But she was not his real mother, Thrushfeather was.

It didn't take long for Skyflight to reach the Dangerzone. He looked out from Newmoon's world and into the barren wasteland. There was a strange, tingling feeling in his fur. It was far too quiet out in this Dangerzone, and it seemed like there was nothing there. A few barren trees sat here and there, and boulders and rocks littered the ground, but there was no sign of any sort of life around.

He began to walk through the wasteland, looking left and right. He didn't know which way to go, but he assumed it was straight ahead. As he padded along, strange noises began to echo around him. At first, it just sounded like a murmur, but the murmur began to grow until it was a nearly deafening shriek. Panicked, Skyflight bolted ahead as fast as he could go.

Up from the ground in front of him a dark silhouette began to rise. It was a creature, unlike anything Skyflight had ever seen. It's mouth was wide open, revealing razor sharp teeth. It's talons were outstretched, and it was reaching for him; slashing at him. It had wings, long and bat-like. It's grotesque form made Skyflight freeze in terror. This couldn't be real; this had to be some sort of nightmare. His eyes were playing tricks on him... his mind wasn't working right... this wasn't real...

A sudden pain jolted him into reality. His chest was bleeding heavily, splattering his own blood onto the dry, cracked ground. He choked and jumped forward, feeling the pain beginning to increase. The wound the creature had made was deep, but not deep enough to quite kill him. He began to run blindly in the other direction, leaving a crimson trail of blood behind him. The creature began to pursue him, flying through the air and circling him.

Skyflight continued to run, but as he did he suddenly found that his paws had nothing beneath them. The ground was opening up, swallowing him inside it. He tumbled down through a tunnel, dirt and silt pouring into his mouth and eyes. When it all stopped, he found himself buried alive. He attempted to stand, but found he could not. He was weakened by the attempt, and collapsed on the ground. Everything began to darken... growing blacker... more distant... then nothing.

–

Echoheart felt extremely important. The StoneClan cats had treated her with respect and praise ever since she'd entered the camp. She'd never felt so at home before in her entire life. She soon learned that this was where Skyflight had taken the rogues, but he'd allegedly vanished into the forest and hadn't been seen since. The last she'd heard from him was a cry of warning. But what was he warning her about? These cats were nothing to worry about.

Their queens, or 'mothers', as they called them, were taking care of her kits in their nursery. Echoheart had also gotten the chance to sneer at Jett, and brag about her perfectly healthy litter. This was the life, that was for sure. Best of all, that attractive ginger tabby cat, Blaze, was there as well. She could only hope he'd get bored of Jett and decide to maybe have a litter with her instead. For now, though, she'd live the good life in StoneClan. She never wanted to return to the ThunderClan, they were all tragically insane.

Dawnseeker was the cat who'd been treating Echoheart best throughout the entire moon she'd spent in the StoneClan camp. She'd been almost like a mother to Echoheart, and she enjoyed every second of it. Dawnseeker would bring her the best prey out of the fresh-kill pile, and made her a nest with the softest materials she could find. Echoheart figured that this was what StarClan was like. Everyone seemed to get along so well, and the StoneClan cats weren't hostile to the outsiders at all.

Why couldn't the four Clans around the lake be like this? This canyon was like a utopia. No cats looked down on Echoheart, and everyone was so supportive and encouraging. Yes, this was the place she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

Now she was lounging beneath an overhanging boulder, grooming herself. Her fur had a new shine to it, and she was no longer thin and gangly. She was back to being her naturally attractive self. She'd been getting looks from some of the StoneClan fighters, especially a black-and-white tom called Thornbite. She'd also made friends with a mother named Violetheart; a shy white cat with tabby patches. She was the one who helped take care of Echoheart's kits the most.

Yes, Echoheart wouldn't trade this new life for anything. She was going to be a StoneClanner, now. Who cared about ThunderClan, anyway? They could make it with one less warrior.

–

Lightningstar stood in the middle of the Clan's camp, eyes wide and claws dug into the ground. All around her, bodies of her warriors and apprentices lay. Without a medicine cat, they hadn't had a chance. Skyflight had been gone for far too long. She never should have sent him away. Leopardpaw had no idea as to what to do. The apprentice had gone so far as to accidentally poison Shrewpaw with a deathberry. He'd mistaken it for something that would help. It wasn't his fault, he didn't know the difference.

"My Clan is being destroyed!" wailed Lightningstar. "Why has StarClan forsaken me like this? I don't know what I did to deserve this! I've always been a good warrior!"

Nearby, Redfrost and Nettlefang were huddled together. They were a couple of the warriors that were left. There were very few of them now. Echoheart had vanished under mysterious circumstances; Creeksplash was found, torn from throat to tail in the forest; Smokespots had fallen into sinking sand and couldn't escape; and Sunleaf was allegedly murdered by her own son, Robinpaw.

Robinpaw... What had made him do that? At that moment, he was huddled in makeshift prison den, with a bush of thorns pushed against the entrance. Brindlefur was standing guard outside the prison, making sure the now-insane apprentice couldn't escape. Lightningstar had never seen such a young cat just... snap like that... not since Nettlepaw, anyway. Would she have to exile Robinpaw, just as she'd exiled Nettlepaw?

Inside the prison den, Lightningstar could hear the apprentice meowing wildly about nonsensical things. He was spouting accusations regarding his dead mother, and clawing at the ground. How a puny apprentice like him had managed to kill a full-grown warrior like Sunleaf was unknown. It seemed nearly impossible. Robinpaw would have had to have had ten times the strength that he'd had in order to do that.

Another yowl came from Robinpaw, and black fog began to swirl out from inside the prison den. Brindlefur looked panicky, and stepped away from the den. After the fog cleared, there was no more Robinpaw. He'd vanished into thin air.

Lightningstar's eyes were wide and filled with horror. What was wrong with this place? The strangest things were happening to her Clan. The most horrible, unimaginable things. Cats were going insane, dying left and right... This never should have happened. She never should have left the ThunderClan territory. They should have all died defending it.

"Curse StarClan; and curse everyone! ThunderClan is no more!"

–

All around the Clans, cats were vanishing in black fog, or getting up and leaving without a single word to their clanmates. Even Flamestar, the leader of WindClan, walked away from his Clan and vanished into the forest beyond the old ThunderClan territory. No one knew where they were going, and for some reason, they really didn't want to follow. Everything seemed darker than it usually did. The lake was practically drained of water, the sky was cloudy and gray... and at night, the moon was somehow different. It seemed to be slowly disappearing, but not in it's usual crescent manner... it was fading.

Something wicked was coming, every cat knew it. Medicine cats were receiving strange omens from StarClan, ones that they couldn't interpretative... and warnings, many warnings. The general theme of these omens and warnings seemed to be the coming of a new moon... And all of this had the Clans in an utter panic.

Newmoon watched the cats from her world, staring through the water pools of reality and dreams. The cats of the masquerade were coming home, back to StoneClan so that they could all ally together... They'd done their jobs, working to weaken the Clans from the inside in certain ways. Now the StoneClan could destroy the traitor-kin without problems, and once again rule over all the territories, even far beyond the mountains and the hills.

–

Blaze felt a stirring deep inside of him. Images were swirling around in his mind, and his heart was pounding. He felt so much different than he had before. He felt connected to the other StoneClan cats, for some reason. More and more cats were beginning to wander into the canyon from the outside, and each of them he seemed to already know, even though he hadn't meant them yet. It was a singular mindset they all shared... something was binding them all together.

He recognized a few of the cats from other Clans, including Flamestar, the cat who had terrorized ThunderClan for many a moon. Despite the fact that he remembered the misdeeds of the cat, and the time that he had been captured by WindClan, he felt no hostility towards the leader. No cat felt hostile to one another, no matter where they came from, or who they held allegiance to.

StoneClan is what was keeping them from biting each others throats out. They all felt connected to the territory, and to the cats who lived there. Something had drawn them from their Clans and into this canyon. They were all there for some purpose, but none of them knew quite what it was.

Blaze took a look around at all the cats, and then he looked down at the ground. "We are one," he murmured. "But why?"