In Halfstar's Shadow

Chapter 6

As the dark clouds in the sky grew angrier, a light snow began falling. Sablepaw had not taken prey that night, and sat, watching Jayfire treat Toadkit, as the poor little kit coughed terribly. His eyes were closed, and she could see a little snot near his nose. She lifted her head to the sky, and saw a single star in the sky, shining bright, looking strong, and brave. She wondered if Starclan were watching her right now, but instead of a star, seeing a bug…a leaf…a puddle of water? A single snowflake….? Who knew.. She turned her head to Halfstar's den as he emerged, muscles rippling underneath his pelt. He leaped up onto the HighRock with amazing force.

"Let all clan cats gather beneath the Highrock for a clan meeting."

She sighed, and heaved herself upward, wincing in pain as a cut on her flank from the other day started hurting. She clenched her teeth, and let her muscles go loose, helping a little, and as she padded over, beneath the large overhang, it stopped hurting. She gave her attention to Halfstar.

"Two loners and their kits have spoken to me today, and would like to join our clan." Yowls of protest were heard throughout the clan, but by the look on Halfstar's face, they hushed up. "I know. We have been accepting too many cats, but Thunderclan is growing stronger every dawn, and every sundown, and we must match them pace by pace. Jay, Lark, please step up." Halfstar took a deep breath as the two cats took a few footsteps forward.

"Do you promise to learn the ways of the warrior code, and to protect, and defend your new clan, even at the cost of your lives?" "I do." They mewed together. "Then by the powers of Starclan, I give you your warrior names.. Jay, from now on, you shall be known as Jaywhisker. Lark, you shall be known as Larksong. You will both be trained by our warriors, and take place in training sessions, but I name you warriors of Shadowclan. Your kits will be now known as Shadowclan kits, but I do need to know their names…."

"Oh… Um, the tom's name is Cedar, and the she-cats name is Socks." Lark mewed carefully.

"What is a…sock? Um..nevermind….er… They shall now be known as Cedarkit, and Emberkit." Halfstar mewed, looking quite confused, but dipping his head to both the kits standing near their parents. "Lark, you and the kits will go the nursery and stay there, until they are 6 moons old. The other queens will explain the clan life to Jay and Lark. Thank you." He nodded once more, and then jumped off the rock, and walked over to Sablepaw as she stood up. "We're going to go train with Fangpaw. Come on." Sablepaw nodded, and then followed him out of camp.

Sablepaw's throat got a little caught up as she saw Fangpaw. She hadn't seen much of the apprentice, but watching him climb the Old Oak Tree was intimidating. Halfstar had already sat down by the time Sablepaw had arrived, and she padded over and took a seat next to him.

"What are you doing? Can you fight sitting down? Get up!" he mewed harshly. Sablepaw jumped up, surprised at her mentor's snappiness. He sighed a little, then nodded towards where Fangpaw was waiting. Rainheart was sitting on the side and started giving orders.

"Alright. Keep your claws unsheathed. This isn't a real fight. We will demonstrate a move." She mewed, and Halfstar got up.

"When your opponent is ready to attack you, place your hind legs firmly in the ground. Lot 's of times your opponent will jump at you, so when they do, you rear up and bring them down like this."

Halfstar positioned himself like he spoke, and Rainheart leaped at him, but kind of slowly. Halfstar stood up on his hind legs and right before Rainheart was about to crash into him he brought himself down on her, squishing her under her weight. He jumped off quickly, and as Rainheart stood up, Sablepaw realized she basically towered over Halfstar. Fangpaw nodded, and Sablepaw turned to face him quickly. She planted her paws in the ground and waited for Fangpaw.

Fangpaw bunched up his haunches, and leaped, coming straight for her. She held her breath as he came closer, everything going in slow motion like it is when stuff like this happens. She remembered what to do and got ready to come down on him, but Fangpaw crashed into her, and she just fell face first on top of him. She stumbled embarrassed and stood up, ears slightly down. Halfstar rolled his eyes as Rainheart praised Fangpaw. "Sorry." She mewed shamefully. Her hung head low as she braced herself for a second time, and took a deep breath as Fangpaw jumped. She pulled herself down, crashing into Fangpaw. Pride swelled up in Sablepaw's chest as Fangpaw struggled to get out of her grasp beneath her. She jumped off and waited for praise from her mentor. Halfstar didn't do much. "Good job." He mewed, and nodded. Sablepaw sighed. Yeah, real good job.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sablepaw returned late in the night from her training session and lay in the apprentice's den, snug in her nest. She could hear the faint rise and fall of the other's pelts as they breathed heavily in their sleep. Silentpaw was…silent. Fangpaw rolled over, and Lionpaw was murmuring words in his sleep.

"No……..Why, never…take..Shadow. No…never….give up…Shadow." Sablepaw sighed, and closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep. But she was worried.

She always saw the eyes of her family lurking around the territory, but there's always nothing there. She was worried the prophecy would come true…That the Wind would howl. She hadn't thought of much yet, but she knew it concerned her family. And that terrible…awful dream she had the other moon was terrifying.. She was terrified. Who wouldn't be. But…There were so many things that hadn't been explained. Things that needed to be. She needed help.

Sablepaw felt a nudge in the side of her flank and woke with a start, turning to Bravepaw as he looked at her.

"Wake up." He mewed, looking around carefully. Sablepaw opened her eyes wider now, but was confused.

"It's not morning! Go awa-" Bravepaw put his tail over her mouth in the middle of her talking, and ssshhhed her. "Follow me."

Bravepaw got up without a word and stepped over Starpaw, out of the apprentices den. She stood up also and reluctantly followed him out, turning the corner as she saw his tail flick to the side. They brushed through an old dirtplace passageway all the kits know about, and slipped out of camp, taking a last look at Tundralight who was guarding the main entrance.

"What is this about, Bravepaw?" Sablepaw asked him, giving him a stern look. "I was out taking a stroll when some loner asked me if I knew you. He wants to see you." He mewed, kind of scornfully. Sablepaw's heart soared when she saw her old friend Talonpaw's familiar pelt underneath a nearby bush as she came near. The loner bounded out of the underbrush and over to them. He stopped, but Sablepaw came forward and licked her friend on the ear. "It's so great to see you, Talonpaw!"

"….Breaking." he mewed, looking away.

"I don't care. What are you doing here?" she asked. Bravepaw mumbled something, then sat down next to Sablepaw, weary of the odd cat.

"I saw something.. Howlingwind. He was making these little kittens apprentices. They were no older than four moons! And there were these tiny little warriors! They already had their names. But they were so sick. They looked so bad." Breaking finished, lowering his head slightly.

"I saw Briarpaw. She received her name. Briarleaf. Same as your other sibling Stillpaw, now Stillfeather." He mewed.

"I could care less about those pieces of fox-dung!" Sablepaw hissed, baring her teeth at the thought of her family.

Bravepaw stepped forward and tried to assure Sablepaw it was fine. "Don't worry about them. If that's all you need…"

"Oh, but your always welcome in Shadowclan!" She mewed, her mood changed dramatically.

"I would rather not, Sablepaw. I would rather not. I just want to be alone." Her old friend had replied in a tone that no one would want to deal with. She was surprised by his words, stung even, and looked at Bravepaw. "Can you leave us for a minute?" she mewed. He sighed, narrowing his eyes at Breaking but nodded, and padded away, sniffing out a squirrel.

"What's wrong with you?! You're not acting like yourself anymore!" she mewed, staring at her friend as if he was going crazy, her eyes full of concern, angst, and sadness.

"I've just been really lonely. And I don't need your help! I've told what you need to know, now I'm leaving!" "Fine!" she retorted, watching as he stood up, and turned away.

"See ya."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Several days after Sablepaw's rude awakening and her dispute with Talonpaw, she continued with her duties, and set about now collecting moss for the elder's den, after getting into a fight with Lionpaw. She unsheathed her paws and scraped the green moss off of a stone, and grumbled under her breath. She didn't know why her once-best-friend had acted that way towards her. She was just being nice! Why did he have to treat her that way.

"Hey…"

Sablepaw spun around to face Bravepaw as he cheekily looked at her. "Oh, it's just you."

"Sorry if I scared you." He meowed.

"You always do that though! If you think about it, all you ever do is scare the living daylights out of me!" Sablepaw meowed tartly. Bravepaw looked hurt and then backed away.

"Sorry I bothered you." He meowed, turning to walk away.

"I'm sorry, Bravepaw. Please, don't go."

Sablepaw sat down, and sighed, the warm sun shining on her back. Bravepaw came and sat in front of her, staring, concerned, into her eyes. "What's wrong, Sable?" he meowed.

"There's nothing wrong… well…. I didn't know Talonpaw would act so rudely towards me.." she sighed. "I thought that he would act like he normally did, like he did when we were kits in Thunderclan. Like when I told him I should leave, escape all of the sneers, the snickers about me. He said that he would come with me. But he didn't. He broke his promise, he owes me! But he didn't have any problems in Thunderclan. Everyone loved him….I ruined his life."

Bravepaw tensed greatly as she was speaking about Talonpaw, but he protested. "No you didn'-"

"So when I try to do something nice, he acts like this? Like some…some… some rogue!? Some tyrant?! I don't deserve this, I tried making it up to him.. And he…he just, acts like…like this?!? How dare he! I…I…" Sablepaw continued her rant, but broke out in sobs in the middle of it. Bravepaw moved closer and wrapped his tail around her neck, and began licking her ear, trying to comfort his friend.

"Sablepaw…."

The brown she-cat closed her eyes and sighed, still crying. She then stopped abruptly, and stared up at him. "………………..Thanks…"

Sablepaw then stood up, and started walking away. "Where are you going?" Bravepaw called after her. She stopped, and stood there, for a really long time. Birds stopped singing, and only the gurgling of a creek could be heard. The moon was a large, golden circle resting on a dark ridge of hills. The approaching night had overcome the dusty light of dusk, smothering it with black clouds.

"Sable-" Bravepaw cut off, his voice trailing. He took a step forward, towards Sablepaw, but she just took a step back.

"I'm going to go think." She meowed blankly. Bravepaw looked very crestfallen, his eyes showed sadness and misery in them, and Sablepaw was aware of that, but she took a deep breath, and started padding away, her silhouette disappearing in the bushes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sablepaw had returned to camp after walking around Shadowclan territory for a long time, trying to pick up scents. She let herself fall asleep in the apprentice's den, her pelt moving up and down as she breathed.

The wind raged. Sablepaw tossed and turned, leaves hitting the den roof.

************************ Sable's Mind ***************************

Pain

There was a burning sensation in my throat. I turned around, and saw a pair of eyes, the same ones I saw earlier, shining at me. Deep, yellow orbs burned into my gaze. I felt blood trickling down my neck. I gasped, as the figure jumped at me. I saw a flash of brown, and then felt myself being crushed upon.

I knew I was dying.

Pain stabbed at my head, I could hear snapping, and my front leg went numb. I saw one more flash, of white and brown this time, and the pain soothed. I heard the wind whisper, as I fell unconscious.

"The wind is Howling for blood, and the Stripes of the Dark will make their mark, as Brave Is no more and Silence is heard by all."

I was chilled to the bone, but all I could think of, was the wind screaming in the air.

Half, Half, Half.

Yay! 6th chapter is finished! Please review…. Or there may be consequences!