CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

My spirit loped out of my old, scarred, gray-muzzled body. I was young and whole again, as I had been when... when Lichenblossom was still alive. An overwhelming sadness washed over me, but I pushed it back, realizing that I was dead now too. I would see her in StarClan.

I looked around. Wolfstar was grinning at me.

"Well, this is more like it!" she crowed, shaking her thick gray fur.

"How're we gonna get to StarClan?" I wondered.

"That's what we're here for," said an achingly familiar voice.

"Mothface!" I cried as I turned. I ran toward him. He wasn't thin and gaunt-looking, as I had last seen him. Next to him stood... Lichenblossom! She smiled, and I nearly cried with joy.

Wolfstar was socializing with Foxtooth, whose bossy attitude had apparently been left behind.

"Come on," Lichenblossom said. "Let's take you home."

We bounded across the forest, never tiring. I felt as light as a feather, yet as sturdy as an ancient oak.

We arrived at the Moonpool, and our guides leapt in with no hesitation, vanishing as they did so. Exchanging a glance with Wolfstar, I dived into the pool.

I gasped. StarClan was beautiful! Everycat I had ever known in life that was dead now was there.

My eyes widened as I saw Mothwing, Cloudtail, and Purdy, all cats who hadn't believed in StarClan, sharing tongues under an old beech tree.

"Hey, Gingerstar! Come join us!"

I looked over my shoulder to see Brackenfur, Brambleclaw, and Foxleap. "Sure!"

Life in StarClan—well, more like death in StarClan—was wonderful. I gave Ivystar her ninth life, and watched as more and more of my Clanmates—and more and more of my former classmates—arrived in StarClan.

When Wildstar lost her ninth life of a snakebite, my formerly annoying classmate Pouncestar (Colton, one of Zach's cronies) became leader. When Darkstar fell in battle, Turtlestar became leader. It wasn't until every single one of my classmates had died (Turtlestar was last) did Bluestar gather us together around the Moonpool.

"I've gathered you here today because you have left your human lives alone for too long," Bluestar said. An icy feeling started in the pit of my stomach. My family would be of their mind with worry! I'd have been gone for at least nine years ... my younger siblings would be older than me! All the other kids who had been in my grade would be adults by now! My parents would be old! ...Or at least, older than they already were.

I sighed in relief as Bluestar said these next words. "Time has been frozen in your world, so as soon as you go back you'll be twelve or thirteen years old again.

"Now, we can't have you gone from StarClan forever. While you sleep, you will be with us. If there is ever some drastic need for you, we will give you a warning that you are going to fall asleep so you don't just pass out suddenly." She waved her paw over each of ours in turn, and the StarClan symbol appeared on our paw fur.

"It will glow if we need you. Oh, and you won't look exactly the same as you used to ..."

"What do you mea—" I started to say. But I never finished my sentence.

I heard a faint poof, and the dreaded sparkling orange mist clouded my vision.

Having your molecules pulled apart and rearranged into a different body isn't actually all that painful.

I felt a tingling sensation all over my body, and my vision blurred. When my eyesight cleared, I was standing in exactly the same place I had been sitting—except I was a Twoleg.

I shook my head and looked at my paws—no, my hands. I then turned to Mothface beside me—no, Kyle. He looked exactly the same as he had before we turned into cats—except that his previously blue eyes with round pupils were green with cats' pupils!

I looked around. Everyone else's eyes were their cat eye-color and like a cats'. My eyes were the same way when I looked in the Moo—Crystal Pool! So that's what Bluestar had meant!

I looked down at my hand. The mark that had been on my paw was now on my hand. I raised an eyebrow. While the eyes I could explain away as colored contacts, this would be hard to hide.

"Class! Time to go!"

We looked around. Ms. Dello was calling us over. "I hope you remembered your groups," she said with a smile.

I glanced around. After all that time in the Clans I doubted it anyone remembered our groups. It was Wildst—Callie spoke up. "Could you say them again? I forgot."

As Ms. Dello called out the groups, I wondered if anyone would notice how different we were—not just in looks, but in personalities. For the next couple days, people treated me different. I looked behind my shoulder more often, as if I was expecting I was going to be attacked. I volunteered to do more leadership things in school. My rivalry with humans who had been in other Clans increased, except with my closest friends. Kyle and Alex were much nicer, and we were much closer. The teachers wondered what had happened to change our personalities so much, but we came up with an explanation: we had simply got to know each other better when Ms. Dello and the chaperones left us alone on that field trip. This obviously had flaws, but there was no other reasonable explanation.

The prophecy I had heard on the day I got my nine lives all made sense now. "There will be a new Clan." Obviously not a real Clan, but enough cats to make up one—my class."Come by the pool of moons." We came to the world of warriors through the moonpool. "And their leader shall spell certain doom." I have a feeling that "their leader" referred to me, although I do not think I really spelled certain doom to anyone. I did help the Three, so I guess it made sense. A little bit.

No one asked about the marks on our hands. It was as if they didn't even notice them. My parents were angry with me for not telling them I was going to get colored contacts (insert sigh here), but settled down when I assured them I bought them with my own money, and besides—everyone in my class had done it too. It was the "new thing".

Rest assured, we human-cats would never be the same again. Our experiences together changed everything. I suspect that Kyle (Mothface) and Kendra (Moonfrost), as well as Ally (Horsegaze) and Colton (Pouncestar), will marry someday. After all, they were mates; but then again, who knows how things will turn out in a world where breakups are common? Lily (Breezewhisper) will get to see her mate, Tanglewhisker, in her sleep. But as for me and Lionblaze... Although I had been assured that he and I would meet in my world someday, he hasn't yet, and it's been quite a while. I hope he shows up soon, before I'm forced to move on.

Anyway, you've heard our story. Now scram, before I get out my claws and make you!

THE END