I remain ever so grateful to all of you who read and review this piece of work! It makes me so happy to see feedback and pushes me even more to write. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

But on with the story.

I do not own Warriors.

Chapter Nine

After the image became clear, Finchkit plunged into the Starpool. This time she didn't feel as disoriented or confused. I am going to see Finn, who is important, she thought confidently. This is part of my destiny. If I want to walk the path I'm supposed to, I have to work for it, no matter what Mothflight or any other cat says.

The world materialized around her. Blinking a bit because the moon, shining above, full, was so bright, she took in her surroundings.

She was in a forest clearing, similar to the one that the Starpool was in in StarClan, but, perhaps because she was in the living world, somehow this place seemed more real, sturdier under her small paws. Here, she could hear the sounds of nocturnal creatures moving around in the brush, the sound of crickets. It was leafbare, and the ground was covered in a fine layer of frost that kissed Finchkit's fur, cold enough to make her shiver. But the air hummed with warmth, and the trees kept out any chilly wind that might've been blowing out in the open.

Leaves, rotting and wet with melted snow, made soft rustling sounds as Finchkit walked, moving in a direction that seemed to lead the right way. She saw no sign of Finn; not that she knew what he looked like, but as she'd seen no other cat, she knew she hadn't seen him.

It was dark out, and the trees made the night even darker. She supposed that normally, she would've been scared to walk alone in a forest at night, but she knew that this was only a dream, and she knew that nothing could hurt her. She wasn't sure where this reassurance came from; certainly anything could leap out of the brush and finish her off in less than a few heartbeats, and then perhaps she'd be off to StarClan Two - but somehow, she knew that this would never happen.

"Hello?" Finchkit called out tentatively after the forest clearing came to an end and, having seen no sign of life other than a few mice and voles (which she didn't even attempt to catch because she knew she wouldn't be able to), entered the the tree-filled part of the forest. She wasn't afraid, but she didn't like the idea of plunging into the dense part of the forest where the moonlight couldn't reach her. By doing so, it was almost like she was lost to StarClan.

"Hello?" she called again. "Finn? Are you out there? I want to talk to you." I need to find out why Mothflight was so worried about him interfering with Tallkit's destiny. I need to figure out who he is, and who his mother is, and why he's coming to the Clan. But most importantly, I need to figure out what part he'll play in my destiny.

There was silence. An owl hooted in the distance, but other than that, she got no response to her plea.

I thought the Starpool was supposed to take me to the cat I want to see, Finchkit thought with muted frustration. It can't be broken. How can water be broken? Unless it's ice, but then it's not really water, I guess.

She made to turn back to the clearing, and that was when something pounced on her from behind.

"Off my territory!" squeaked a voice. She whirled around, claws extended, trying to retaliate to the attack. She caught a glimpse of white, and saw the figure of a kit not much older than she was. It shouldn't have been that difficult to fight him, or at least land a blow to his flank, but even though he was young, he already seemed an expert at battling, his tactic perfect, his position flawless. He was just near enough to attack her, but just out of reach for Finchkit to hurt him back.

Or maybe she was just so useless when it came to battle, even a kit could beat her.

You're a kit too, Finchkit reminded herself, but then added, Yeah, but I've got a DESTINY. That means I'm no ordinary kit!

Another voice added, But that doesn't mean you're going to be exceptional at everything.

The kit pinned her to the ground, letting out a triumphant yowl. "Pinned ya!" he crowed.

"Oof," Finchkit moaned. "Get off me."

To her surprise, the kit complied. "Yeah, okay. I see you really aren't a threat. Where'd you even learn to fight? I mean, I guess you probably didn't because you failed at doing anything. I'm not even hurt!" He looked proudly at his pelt, which was only slightly ruffled but otherwise untouched.

Finchkit, on the other hand, could feel stinging. Glancing down at her own fur, she could see blood oozing from claw marks. "What right do you have to shred me like that?" she shot back. "I was just walking by, minding my own business!"

The white kit shrugged. "How was I supposed to know that? Anyway, my mother says there are big scary wildcats who live around these parts, and you might've been one! Although, you were pretty small."

"Exactly," Finchkit snapped. "Do I even look like a scary wildcat?"

He appeared to take the question seriously. "Well, not really. But you kind of smell like the scent my mother showed me earlier today."

"I smell?" Finchkit asked, unsure whether she was offended or not.

The kit nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. You smell like heather and the wind."

Finchkit tried not to feel happy and hopeful at this statement. She looked down at her pelt again, eyes glossing over the injuries she'd sustained from the not-really-battle she'd just been through. Can it be, she wondered, that even though I haven't ever lived in WindClan, I still smell like the wind?

But that didn't make sense. None of the other cat she met smelled like the Clan they'd belonged to. Mothflight and Windstar hadn't smelled of wind or heather. And even though she didn't know the scents of ThunderClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan, all of the other kits she met smelled of nothing but the sky and stars.

"So, I take it you aren't a wildcat?" asked the kit, licking his front paw and then swiping it over his ear. He sounded very conversational and not at all threatening.

"I am," Finchkit mewed. But not really. I didn't live in WindClan. I'm in StarClan now. Was I ever 'wild'?

"Hmm," the kit mused. "I'm Finn, by the way."

So the Starpool isn't broken, Finchkit reflected. It led me to the right place, but the cat I wanted to see was hiding. She settled for glaring at the kit - Finn.

"Um," Finn mewed, shifting a bit awkwardly. "This is usually the part where you introduce yourself."

"I'm someone important," Finchkit replied, trying to sound wise and, well, important.

"Really?" Finn mewed doubtfully. "You know, I think in a way every cat is important. So in that case, I'm someone important too."

The she-kit deflated. She knew she probably would sound whiny to everyone else, how she kept wishing everyone else would stop being so important, how she kept wishing her destiny meant she was special, but she couldn't help it. Her life had literally been torn away from her. Knowing - thinking - she had a destiny was the only the thing that stopped her from screaming and crying and trying to find some way to get back to WindClan so that she could actually live.

"But okay, someone important," Finn broke across her thoughts, seeming to sense her distress at what he'd stated previously. "I have a big question for you. Do the wildcats here really eat rabbits live, and the bones of the cats they catch trespassing on their territory?" His piercing blue eyes widened as he asked this question, as if he saw a future where large cats with long teeth and sharp claws picked apart at his body, eating it for a meal.

Finchkit recoiled. The cats she'd met definitely seemed like the opposite of those who would kill and eat any cat. "Um, how would you eat a rabbit live?" she asked. "It would be all wriggly and impossible to swallow."

Finn shrugged again. "I suppose. But that's what's the legends say. And you're one, even though you're small. So is it true?"

The she-kit hunched her shoulders, looking at her paws which felt too small, her paws that would never grow because she would never age. "I wouldn't know."

"But you live with them," Finn protested.

I haven't been alive long enough with them to know anything, she answered snarkily in her mind. I'll only ever be this big and this old, having lived only heartbeats before I died.

"Yes," she mewed aloud. "And no."

The white kit cocked his head. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I lived with them, but not really," Finchkit elaborated. "I'm not alive, Finn."

His reaction was so funny she almost purred in amusement. But that declaration, announced aloud by herself, was like she finally surrendered. Sure, she'd been thinking the same thing - I'm dead, I'm not alive, I'm dead - over and over in her mind, but it was strange to actually confess this out loud.

"YOU'RE DEAD?" he yelped, his fur on end. "WHAT DID I EAT FOR DINNER? I MUST BE CRAZY. I'M TALKING TO A DEAD CAT." He got control of himself. "But wait, you CAN'T be dead. I'm talking to you. You're really here. I attacked you - I injured you!" He glanced at her pelt, and nearly fainted when he saw that the injuries he'd inflicted on her had closed - when had that happened?

"I'm talking to you from a dream," Finchkit explained with a strange gentleness that she didn't know she was capable of possessing. "Those wildcats? I was one of them. There are four living Clans of wildcats. I was from WindClan. But now I'm in StarClan, the Clan of the dead."

Finn shook his head from side to side, his ears flopping around a bit with the jerky motion. "This is so weird. Am I hallucinating? This is like the time I had a yew berry and thought my cousin Ash was going to turn me into a worm and eat me!"

"You aren't hallucinating," Finchkit assured him, feeling a bit annoyed with his disbelief. "I'm really dead, I'm really in StarClan, and I'm really visiting you from a dream."

"I guess," he agreed, though he still sounded doubtful. "I'm definitely not imaginative enough to come up with all this. So, assuming this is real and everything, why are you here?"

"Because you're part of my destiny," Finchkit asserted immediately.

She was surprised to see him remain skeptical. She wasn't sure what she'd expected him to do now, but she'd hoped for something other than increased doubt.

"So I guess I am important, then?" he mewed at last. "But why me? Why are you here? What am I supposed to do? If you're from StarClan, why are you visiting me, when I'm not even part of a Clan?"

"Because - " Finchkit began, and then cut herself off. She realized now how risky it was to talk to the world of the living, even in a dream. Knowing a bit about Finn's future, she found it very difficult not to tell him anything.

"Because what?" he inquired.

And Finchkit found herself replying, "Because it's what the stars foretold."

I hate myself, she thought, mentally berating herself. Now I sound like a typical StarClan cat, believing that stars somehow control a cat's destiny. I'm so hypocritical.

Finn looked amused by her answer. "So you can talk to the stars? That's pretty cool. But why did the stars choose me? Can you ask them?"

He probably wasn't intending to tease her, but he sounded a bit condescending, at least to Finchkit. She flared up. "No, I cannot just ask the stars. It doesn't work like that." Oh my dear - but she didn't have anything to pray to. She couldn't say StarClan, because she was of StarClan and she kind of hated them anyway, and she didn't know what else would work. Oh my dear non-existent something, I'm just getting worse. 'It doesn't work like that.' Why can I see Mothflight repeating those exact same words to someone else?

"It was just a question," Finn defended.

"I think I better get going," Finchkit announced. I found Finn, but he doesn't know anything about the future, obviously. He doesn't even know he'll ever be part of WindClan! I need to think of something else, but I'm lost now. What else can I possibly do? Do I really have to wait?

And while she was thinking all these deep thoughts about life - afterlife - she could also mentally scold herself for the things she'd told Finn - things involving stars.

"Oh," Finn mewed. "Okay. How do you leave my dream?"

I don't know, Finchkit thought. She was in a pool. Given, a pool of water that she could breath and move around in as if she were on land, but still a pool. So, logically, she should just swim up and make it to the surface, out of Finn's dream, right?

She tried to do just that, but quickly realized that it wasn't working and that Finn was trying to suppress his amusement. "You look funny," he mewed. "But to be fair I have no idea how to get you out of my dream either."

What happened last time, with Tallkit? Finchkit attempted to recall. He must've -

"Wake up," she instructed Finn.

He blinked at her. "What?"

"Wake up," she repeated. "It's your dream. And dreams only end when whoever's having them wakes up."

"Oh," Finn nodded. "How do I wake up?"

"I don't know!" she replied frustratedly. "You just open your eyes?"

"But my eyes are open," he mewed as if this were obvious, which it was. "Maybe if I poke myself with a claw?" he did so. "Nope, you're still here."

Or maybe I have to wake up, if I'm dreaming, Finchkit thought.

There was no struggle in the water this time, a desperate battle to reach the surface for air. Suddenly Finchkit found herself on the shore of the Starpool, the silver waters glistening demurely, and she didn't know how she'd gotten there.

For a moment she gazed at the pool, struggling to recall everything that had just happened. She'd met the cat, Finn, who was somehow important. And she was no closer to her destiny. The prophecy rang in her ears, still just as frustratingly mysterious as it had always been.

In two different worlds, they will walk the same paths.

She was so caught up in thinking she didn't notice that she had company until the new cat spoke.

"So, what are you going to do?"

Author's Note: Okay, this was a pretty long chapter, which I guess isn't a bad thing! Here's the first glimpse of Mistleaf's OC, Finn, who will have a fairly prominent role in this story.

Two things, really quick. First off, I'm trying to keep this story as close to the actual series and plot line as possible, but there may be some canon divergence. Finn/Cloudfall will be the only non-canon thing about this story. So...yeah. Otherwise, I'll try my best to stick to the events of Tallstar's Revenge. Additionally, I apologize if anyone thinks Finchkit sounds super whiny. I know her thoughts are kind of repetitive, but I'm attempting to really convey how dismayed she is at her death and how much she really wants to be important. It's kind of like this: if Finchkit had died like she had in the book, but Tallkit didn't have some big destiny he needed to fulfill, she would've been okay with that. But because she died for his destiny, she feels like she too needs to be important. It's sort of like sibling competitiveness, if you get what I mean.

Secondly, I would like to thank you all again for all the lovely reviews! It means so much, and they really motivate me to write. Virtual kisses and hugs to you all!

MyPatronusIsEmberdawn: Thank you! Haha, she does, doesn't she? Pretty rebellious, but she's going to need that trait...Thanks for reading and reviewing! I really appreciate all your support!

Remained unnamed: Thank you! AND MERE WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE ALL THE THANKS I HAVE FOR YOUR SUPPORT. Really, thanks so much. And in the next few chapters, I will try to make Icekit more cold like you described. I wasn't sure what her personality was exactly, but I'll make her less sympathetic. Would you hate me if she was a bit of an antagonist? And you're fine, I'm glad you clarified for me. I'm glad you think this is pretty authentic, that makes me really happy! Yup, Finchkit could pass for a typical teenager, and yes, I am possibly a bit psychic and might be reading your mind. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Pancake Unicorn: Okay, I'll still make sure to improve Tallkit's character next time he's written into the story. But thank you for the compliment! Please don't cry! Although I'm glad the last chapter had the intended effect - I wanted it to be sad. Hope you enjoyed Finn's character. Thank you, and I'll always be thankful for your support! Thanks for reading and revieiwing!

Hand Knit: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy reading this story! It means a lot to me. I do wonder if it's possible for that to happen, a kit wandering into StarClan without dying. I'm not sure, but I'll definitely think about maybe writing something like that as a sequel. I'll have to do my research, maybe look for a kit that disappeared in the canon series but never was confirmed dead. Anyway, thank you so much! I really appreciate the time you took to read this! Thanks for reading and reviewing!

jadewolf334: Finchkit really is, isn't she? Finchkit would like to thank you for your compliment! :). And I apologize for Finchkit's mean thoughts about Mothflight, but I'm glad you enjoyed their confrontation. I really don't believe Mothflight is a terrible cat. It's more like because she received the prophecy concerning the littermates, she got the responsibility of dealing with Finchkit, who is rather moody, dumped on her, and Finchkit is angry at her death so poor Mothflight is like the object of all her anger. And while Mothflight really does mean well, Finchkit kind of just interprets everything the wrong way. And I do agree with StarClan. Sometimes while reading the actual book, I get upset with some of the choices they make, so that frustration kind of carried over to this story. I'm glad you found parts of this amusing! That's always good to hear, because it's always a challenge to balance out the serious with the silly. I agree, I find StarClan Two oddly amusing (I wonder if there's such thing as that?) I'm glad you enjoy this story! And in response to your response to my response, No problem! You're a great writer and I enjoy reading what you've written. Please update soon! I must know what happens to Cascavel and Rosewood and everyone else. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!