Please review, and as I said, even if you're not a member of this site you still can! All criticism welcome, I really appreciate it, honestly. Also THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to CheyRae, who favorited my fanfic!
Leafgaze and Moontail, who were familiar with the territory, led the now large group of ten cats to a small clearing where they could talk without any cat getting in their fur. The group was unusually subdued, each of them thinking about what Silverdrift had said about the final struggle. None of the four wanted to think about what they had to risk and do to get rid of the memories. And the medicine cats were all wondering if this fight would be like the Great Battle, with StarClan fighting with them once more.
"So how exactly do you plan on getting rid of the memory that she was talking about?" Moontail asked. "We - we don't know yet," Leafgaze confessed. The other three of the prophecized four nodded. "You don't?" Dusklight asked, startled. "I think our mentors will teach us, though," Darklight replied. "How do you get into other minds, anyway?" Dappleleaf asked, leaning in eagerly. The four glanced at each other while the three - the two witnesses and the SkyClan "guardian" - all shared a feeling, some sort of feeling that seemed to weigh their pelts down. It was Swift that Flies Through the Stars who realized what it was - dread.
"Well? Can you show us?" Dappleleaf asked, cocking her head. Feathershine glanced at the other three. They nodded slowly. "I'll stay out of your heads, in case one of us needs rescuing. Although I don't think it's necessary, we've all been fine up to this point," Feathershine meowed. Leafgaze, Darklight and Elmwind stepped forward, to lock gazes with their Clan's medicine cat and mutter the chant. Feathershine watched as they all entered the trance-like state, not moving at all. Troutspirit, who had been restless for a time now, stood and shook his pelt thoroughly. "I'm going for a walk," he called over his shoulder as he disappeared into some undergrowth. Cloudleap jumped to his paws. "Wait! Don't go far, and please don't get lost or hurt," he said. Troutspirit nodded quickly and padded away. Feathershine turned her eyes on her Clanmate. "He's homesick," she murmured, glancing at the entranced cats. "Only those of ThunderClan aren't," Swift assured her. Cloudleap nodded. "You've got no idea at how far the SkyClan camp is. Skystar showed me what it was like, and we saw those wolves of Binaera's pack heading this way," he meowed. "Tell us about how SkyClan is now. According to our elders, Firestar re-founded it at a gorge, far away, even if you started to journey from the old camp in the forest," Feathershine said eagerly, her ears pricking forward. "Well, the first leader - Leafstar - she's long gone now, and our leader's currently Cliffstar. And our deputy's Thornfang, but she should be called Thorntongue, the way she talks," Cloudleap replied.
As Feathershine's eyes flicked towards the six entranced cats, she saw that Darklight had pulled out of Dusklight's mind. "That was - wow!" Dusklight meowed breathlessly. Darklight only managed a small smile. Clearly, delving into other cats' heads was tiring if you did it too much. "Darklight, just rest for now. Troutspirit's gone for a walk - he might bring back some fresh-kill, although I really doubt he could," Feathershine said soothingly. Darklight merely nodded, then sank onto the soft ground.
Eventually, Moontail and Leafgaze and Dappleleaf and Elmwind pulled away as well. The two who'd done the accessing collapsed just like Darklight. "Spiritlight didn't tell me about this," Feathershine muttered, pacing between the three cats. Troutspirit chose that moment to return.
"Hey, I caught some fresh-kill. Took me a while to get that hunter's crouch the ThunderClan cats are always using, but I got it in the end. Here." Troutspirit deposited two mice, a vole, a bird, and a squirrel. "Very nice," Cloudleap remarked, passing the two mice to the exhausted three warriors on the ground. "I suppose that the territory's replenished after we - uh - left?" Moontail asked, pawing the large squirrel. "Probably," Troutspirit agreed. "Thanks," the three tired cats croaked, starting on the mice. Feathershine shook her head. "I don't know what's happened to them! Just mind-reading a few times shouldn't do this amount of damage," she muttered, bending down to take a bite of the vole, which she could keep to herself thanks to the plump squirrel and the bird. "I agree. I mean, Feathershine's done it more than any of them, and I don't see her acting as though she had greencough," Swift meowed, looking up from the bird. Cloudleap and Troutspirit nodded gravely while the other medicine cats looked frightened. "Maybe we've done something?" Dappleleaf managed to squeak. "I highly doubt that you did anything like that. I'll ask Spiritlight as soon as I can," Feathershine said reassuringly.
"You don't have to wait." Feathershine stared in shock as her second mentor started to gain a sort of solidness before her eyes. "I know what's happened to them, don't worry. It really depends on how hard they concentrated and how long they stayed and also how large the web was. What I like to call mind-accessing is a complicated thing to do," Spiritlight meowed. The other three medicine cats looked extremely relieved, then dipped their heads at the StarClan she-cat. "Now, about this memory-ridding you have to do -" Feathershine gulped "- I don't approve of it. You're all so . . . untouched, and once you do something like disposing of a memory you're stuck with the agony of having to watch what happens to your victim and the fact that you're responsible. And when you do it, the memory gets distorted. All sorts of things happen, and some of them aren't the greatest. The last time I had to do something like what you're going to, the cat in it exploded. Then it somehow came back only to be carried away by some sort of huge monster, nothing that I'd ever seen or heard of before. I don't want you to see things like that." Feathershine sighed. "Well, we have to. And I'll do it for all of the cats here," she replied. Spiritlight looked at her with something like pride, only increased tenfold by feelings both admiring and caring.
"All of the cats will thank you, believe me," Spiritlight said after a while. Feathershine's ears twitched. "Oh, I know that. Will you be able to guide my paws as I do it?" she asked. Spiritlight nodded. "I'll do as much as I possibly can," she assured the RiverClan medicine cat. Feathershine dipped her head at Spiritlight as the starry cat disappeared.
Darklight, who'd been the first to break away from Dusklight's mind, looked up from burying the mouse's bones. "I feel much better now," he meowed, padding over to Feathershine. She smiled and flicked his side with her tail. "You have to thank Troutspirit for the mice," she replied. Troutspirit looked extremely embarrassed as Darklight thanked him. "I'll do whatever I can to help," he said matter-of-factually.
Leafgaze and Elmwind recovered shortly afterwards. "Let's go back. If I know Swiftstar she'll probably be worrying her fur off at the way we disappeared," Elmwind said. The other nine cats all nodded in agreement.
The young WindClan warrior was right, except all of the leaders were worried and suddenly acting as though they were queens and the warriors and medicine cats were naughty kits who'd gone off exploring. "What's all the fuss about?" Leafgaze muttered through a mouth full of fur as Lightstar slapped her tail over her warrior's mouth as she'd started to speak. "Leafgaze's right. What happened?" Darklight asked, interrupting Darkstar's speech about not informing leaders of things they needed to know. "We were just worried that we'd lose the only hope of driving the wolves away," Dewstar said curtly. "Dewstar, we won't run off like addle-headed kits!" Feathershine said indignantly. "We know, but we've been on tight strings ever since our Clans were taken. You've never been a leader, so you don't know what it feels like . . ." Swiftstar drifted off.
"Lightstar! Darkstar! Swiftstar! Dewstar! There's wolves, at the lake's bank! I think they've somehow picked up our trail again!" A ThunderClan warrior who'd been chosen for the patrol that checked the area for wolves crashed into the meeting. All four leaders leaped to their paws, eyes blazing and tails lashing. Feathershine exchanged a glance with her friends. "I guess that the time has come to get rid of those memories," she sighed.