So… this is the epilogue. Please enjoy, and thank you all for not killing me.
Come Clean – Hilary Duff
A sinuous stream flowed smoothly in front of Hollyleaf, and she glanced around curiously.
Where was Crowfrost, the battlefield, the bloody red stained grass?
Where was she?
She looked around one more. Bare plains in all directions, and the river the only landmark for miles.
Her emerald green eyes scanned the fields, looking for something as simple as a small hole to lead her somewhere.
No luck. The only thing besides grass was the river.
So she followed it downstream, waiting, hoping, that something would appear – that someone would appear, and tell her what was happening. All she could remember was battling it out with Crowfrost, and after a long duel, she had clawed Crowfrost's throat with her last bout of energy.
Shouldn't she be struggling to her paws, making her way back to camp, not full of energy, in some mysterious meadow?
She sighed, plopping down next to the river irritably. She slapped the river, watching, satisfied, as the steady current was disrupted momentarily.
She stared into it, watching curiously as the ripples she caused slowed, and an image formed.
Suddenly the ShadowClan camp was in her view. A crowd had formed in the center of it, teary eyed, moaning, yowling. Hollyleaf looked harder at the water, trying to see what was happening, to see through the crowd. She looked at the individual cats, trying to decipher their feelings about what was happening.
Blackstar was hunched in the shadows of his den, staring out with almost lifeless eyes, scaring Hollyleaf so bad she looked toward another cat.
Snowbird was desperately trying to calm Rosekit and Rockkit down, as they were wailing so hard that their throats had to be raw, but they weren't giving up. Snowbird's voice would crack off every few words, and she'd look away from them, pained.
Redwillow and Applefur were at the outside of the crowd, Redwillow's eyes filled with horror, unblinking, and every couple of moments a violent spasm would shake through him. Applefur stroked his fur soothingly with her tail, quivering horribly.
Olivenose sat by the warrior's den, eyes wild with fear, eyeing anyone who came within three feet of her, with suspicion.
Ratscar was staring mournfully at the bunch, cowering by the almost empty fresh-kill pile, shaking his head every once in awhile as though someone had asked him a question through all the terror.
Sitting on the other side of the pile, Crowfrost was crouched, head bowed, only periodically looking up, a look of happiness shining in his eyes, that would quickly turn into one of mourning and horror. Hollyleaf barely stopped her paw from instinctively shooting out to attack him, as this was just his picture, and she was scared that it would shatter, and she would never see it again, stuck by herself in this lonely field.
She looked around once more, hardly noticing the cats that hadn't had a lot to do with her the last few moons.
Only one more cat caught her eyes.
By the entrance to the camp, a ghostly figure was sitting, head hanging guiltily.
Scorchfur.
He was staring at his kits, eyes reflecting the sadness that theirs held.
Hollyleaf looked at him blankly, wondering why she could see him, and why he was there, while she was at some random, unfamiliar field.
Reaching one tense paw forward, she prodded the spot where he was standing in the water.
He looked up abruptly, right at her, and then with one last look at their kits, he padded out of the camps entrance, and out of her sight. She looked at it, desperation coursing through her, "Come back!" she called uselessly.
"Need something?"
Hollyleaf whipped around, almost falling into the river in the process, and came face-to-face with Scorchfur, who had somehow appeared behind her. She blinked speechlessly, before tackling him over happily. "Scorchfur! Where are we? What are we doing here? Where'd you come from? What's going on?" she fired off questions heedlessly, ignoring his half-amused, half-serious expression.
Eventually, he shoved her off of him, and sat up, shaking the dust from his pelt. "Hollyleaf," he interrupted her rambling. "We need to talk."
Sounds like a breaking up line, Hollyleaf mused to herself. "Yes," she agreed, "We do. More like, you do. Answer my tornado of questions already!"
He looked at her oddly, probably mulling over the way she said 'tornado of questions'. "Well, uh, yeah," He said finally, "We are currently in the In Between," he explained quickly.
"The In-"
"Shush!" he snapped, stuffing his tail in her mouth to prevent interruption. "Yes, the In Between. It's a place between StarClan and earth. Second, we are here, because… because you died yesterday," she tried to interrupt him to ask what he meant by yesterday and died, but he shot her a glare that silenced her. "Yesterday evening, Crowfrost killed you," he whispered.
Memories rushed back at her full blast. "Oh." She murmured meekly, managing such a simple statement even through his tail.
He waited a moment, expecting her to say something else, and when she didn't continue, he did. "I came from down there," he meowed, taking his tail out of her mouth and pointing down at the water that reflected ShadowClan's camp. "You got my attention by tapping the water; it signaled that you had finally woken up here," He paused in case she started talking again, nodding happily when she decided not to. "What's going on?" he repeated her last question sadly.
She watched him in confusion, but not interrupting him again.
At last, he sighed, shaking his head disappointedly. "Come with me," he meowed, starting down the river, gesturing what he said with his tail. She obliged, following at heels, staring into the water in amazement.
The territory was rushing by as they padded along it.
When they arrived at ThunderClan's camp, he finally stopped, staring into the river sadly. "This is where I drop you off," he meowed.
Confusion swept through her, "What? Aren't we going to StarClan together?"
He smiled bitterly, "I'm sorry, Hollyleaf." He meowed, shaking his head again. "I'm just dropping you off here. Then I'm going back to StarClan."
She shook her head madly, "No! What's going on!"
He avoided her eyes by looking into the river. "You're going back." He admitted minutes later.
She looked down at the river. ""I'm not dead?" she asked curiously, staring at Lionblaze, who was pacing outside the nursery entrance, occasionally sticking it in, just to get swatted out moments later.
"No," Scorchfur mewed, "You're dead." He glanced at her quickly, "You're going back as one of Lionblaze's kits."
"I'm being reincarnated?" Hollyleaf asked slowly.
He shook his head again, "Not exactly," he continued to shake his head as if he was trying to get a fly off his face. "You are going back," he repeated, "Just… not exactly." He must have seen her annoyance, because he continued, still struggling to find the right words, "You… You're more like a… a voice of reason." He paused, grimacing. "You have to lead this kit through troubles. It is this kits destiny to stop Crowfrost."
"So… I'm giving this cat schizophrenia?" she asked dryly.
He shook another invisible fly away from him. "Yes, in a way, I guess."
Hollyleaf looked at him sadly, "So I can't come with you?"
He shook his head, this time normally, "Not until your mission is done."
She nodded slowly and sadly, looking back into the water. "Isn't Cinderheart giving birth early?" She asked in alarm.
"No," another headshake. "It's been about half a moon; ThunderClan is already aware of your death. Time moves faster here."
Nothing seemed to surprise her anymore. "Okay." She turned to him. "This is where I leave, isn't it?"
He nodded slowly, eyes glinting with sadness.
She turned away, looking back at the ThunderClan camp. "What do I do?"
He looked down at the camp, and then her. "This is where we say goodbye," he murmured.
"But I don-"
Scorchfur shoved her into the river, looking down at her as she sunk deeper.
"I'm sorry…"
Was that a memory, or did he really say that?
Hollyleaf couldn't tell. The In Between was slipping away as she went lower and lower.
"What should we call her?" She heard Lionblaze's quiet whisper.
She stopped sinking, stuck at the bottom of this river.
Blackness was all around her, and she turned in furious circles, trying to find something, anything, that was different. If all she saw was black for the rest of this new kits life, she'd go mad.
"Hollykit, open your eyes!" Cinderhearts excited mew broke her concentration.
'Oh,' she realized dumbly, 'I just landed. I'm out of the In Between. How much time has passed?'
Her question was answered when 'Hollykit' opened her eyes.
Colors and light greeted her eyes painfully.
I see, Hollyleaf mused to herself, lying down comfortably, I'm in her head.
This could be a long wait.
[Let's go back
Back to the beginning]
Go to the next chapter to read my authors note!
Edit: Took the lyrics out because they were against the rules. Please take the time to listen to the song or search it up.
I left the ending lyrics in brackets, just cause they are effective... somewhat.
