A dark fog of misery hung over the RiverClan camp that night.

The senior warriors sat Leopardstar's vigil with her. Blackclaw, Mistyfoot, and Mosspelt sat very close to her. Mistyfoot was lying down, rasping her tongue slowly along Leopardstar's pelt. Willowheart watched from afar, with the apprentices clustered unhappily around her. All six of them were experiencing the first loss of their lives, and there wasn't anything Willowheart could do to comfort them.

But as the moon rose even higher, Willowheart knew they had to get some sleep. She gave each of them two poppy seeds and allowed them to fall asleep in her own medicine den. They all curled up, and it warmed Willowheart's heart to see her kits fitting in so well here.

When she finally feel asleep, she was in a dreamland that had become unfamiliar to her; it was a green, grassy landscape, filled with many trickling streams that reflected the starlight.

The starlight.

She was in StarClan's hunting grounds.

Uncertainly, the medicine cat padded forward. "Is anyone here?" she called. "Please, is any cat here?"

"I am here," meowed a voice. Willowheart looked up sharply. To her shock, it was Feathertail; and even more shocking, the pretty pale tabby touched her nose to Willowheart's in welcome. But there was sadness in her eyes, as if she knew of something to come.

"Have you forgiven me?" Willowheart whispered.

"StarClan could never forget one of their own," Feathertail replied, "but, Willowheart, there is a change in the wind blowing. It comes quickly."

"What sort of change?"

"Follow me." Feathertail crooked her tail, and Willowheart padded after her. They came to the source of all the streams - a sparkling starlit pool. "Look in it," Feathertail instructed her.

Willowheart looked in it.

She gazed into it for many minutes, her eyes wide with horror and her blood running to ice. When it was over, she looked up fearfully at Feathertail. "He's not gone yet."

"But he is the least of your worries."

"I know."

"The future you just saw is not your path," Feathertail told her. "It depends upon the pawsteps of others. They will shape the future of all the Clans. Depending on the path they choose to take, the Clans may rise or fall, and no cat, not even those of StarClan, can change their decisions once made."

"So I can't stop it? If they take the wrong path?"

"You can never stop it," replied Feathertail grimly. "But you can help them along, you and others. Look into the pool, one last time."

Willowheart did so, and she saw a blurry landscape, shaking and rocking in the pool. Then, as if she were looking down from the stars, clouds suddenly were ushered onto the scene, covering her view of the land. Just like her vision before the battle - which she had thought afterwards had foretold Leopardstar's death - the clouds were bloodred.

Taking a deep shaky breath, Willowheart looked up at Feathertail. "Is there a prophecy?"

"No. Only a vision, and no cat expects you to work it out yet. There are few cats that you must share this with, Willowheart, and I am sure you will figure out who they are."

Willowheart nodded and sat back. Feathertail pressed comfortably against her fur. "No matter what path you take from here," Feathetrail meowed, "whether or not it is loyal, StarClan will always be with you."

The dappled silver medicine cat nodded, and Feathertail padded away with the sky. Her pawsteps left a path of stars behind her, and so did Willowheart's as she padded back off to her own life, full of questions, full of discovery.

FIN

OH THANK GOD. IT'S OVER!

I know you guys waited a really, really long time for the completion of this story. I really hope you liked it, and yes, there will probably be a rewrite. And the rewrite will be a hell of a lot better! I'm rather fond of these last chapters, and I hope you are too.

StarClan bless you all.
Gladewing