A/N: I have a new Microsoft Word © Trial! Which is why I could update. Please enjoy.
There was nothing except a wide open plain, with long grasses blowing in the wind. Snowfeather expected a lot more, maybe scores of cats waiting once she hit the spiritual world to congratulate her. But nothing showed itself to her.
"Hello?" she mewed, glancing about. She padded a few steps, and mewed the question again. The grasses grew, making a large hill visible directly above her. Snowfeather took a step towards the hill, when a golden head popped up.
"Come here, Snowfeather!" the cat called, and waited impatiently at the top of the hill. "Hurry!" she urged, making Snowfeather walk faster.
It was hard work, the grass slowed down her normal quick paw steps. The hill seemed to grow larger as she walked up, frustrating Snowfeather. The she-cat waited at the top, her face a mask of indifference.
As she crested the hill, the stars seemed to shine brighter than before, almost blinding the white she-cat. They fell from the sky in a rush, and formed a tornado before touching down on the soft ground on the other side of the hill.
Each star separated from the funnel, and went to their own special spot. With a shower of pure white sparks, they formed into a bunch of cats.
Snowfeather had never seen anything like this in all the time she had visited the StarClan members. The she-cat next to her laughed daintily.
"I've never seen such a show," Snowfeather mewed quietly to her. The golden she-cat dipped her head, and glanced at Snowfeather, her eyes gleaming happily.
"I know. It's special because we were all medicine cats once. We are connected to StarClan, even in our deaths. We show that to our newly made medicine cats. Being a medicine cat is always better than being a warrior."
Snowfeather stared at the golden medicine cat, taking in her words. "So… medicine cats can do more in StarClan because they were so connected during their life?"
The golden she-cat nodded. "Come on now, I'll introduce you to them. I'm Mothwing, if you don't recognize me."
Snowfeather kicked herself mentally for forgetting RiverClan's previous medicine cat. She had taught Willowshine, and supposedly died of the same disease that most ThunderClan cats died of. Mothwing led her down the small slope quickly, because the grass was shorter.
As she grew closer, the faces of most of the medicine cats broke into smile. There was so many of them, from those who had just died to those who were alive when Thunderstar led ThunderClan. Save for a few cats, most of them were darker, blander colors.
"Welcome, young one," a gray she-cat mewed. She dipped her head and closed her eyes, showing off many of the scars. She had dirty, matted fur, and yellow teeth, but Snowfeather felt drawn to her.
"Yellowfang," Snowfeather whispered, remembering the many stories Smokewhisker told her of the cranky medicine cat. Yellowfang gave a small smile, but Mothwing pushed her down the line of waiting medicine cats.
She passed legendary medicine cats like Barkface, Spottedleaf and Mudfur. Snowfeather was awed in the presence of all of these cats, and realized that she would never know anything compared to all of these cats combined.
"We're almost there," Mothwing whispered, making Snowfeather wonder where they were going. Her eyes starting to water due to the brightness of the surrounding cats, she looked up in the sky. It was black, but still shone with many stars that twinkled and blinked with friendliness. Snowfeather realized that the medicine cats had come down with most of the brightness of the stars, but there were still thousands of warriors in the sky.
"Snowfeather," a cat called, jerking Snowfeather back to reality in her dream. She gasped, for the cat that stood in front of her was a very familiar gray tom. "I've been excited to meet you ever since you became a medicine cat apprentice. I've seen you as a kit, but this is different. You've grown now, and you're educated in the ways of a proper medicine cat."
Snowfeather stood in astonishment at seeing Jayfeather once more. He hadn't changed a bit, except for the fact that his milky blue eyes held some recognition of what was going on. "Jayfeather…"
"I can see, good for you to notice," Jayfeather mewed, sounding snappy, but Snowfeather knew that he was just joking. "I can speak for every cat here, and say congratulations for your new name." As he spoke, every cat behind him murmured 'congratulations,' making a deep rumble through the sacred StarClan earth.
Jayfeather jumped up on a small, flat rock, making him stand out amongst the cats behind him. "I'm happy that you got the name 'feather.' It really means a lot."
Snowfeather looked at him in confusion. Yes, it was part of his name too, but it couldn't mean that much. Many cats had the name of 'feather.' She opened her mouth, hesitant to speak until Jayfeather nodded slightly. "Why… does it mean so much to you, Jayfeather?" she asked quietly.
"Happy you asked," he mewed, smiling slightly. "It means that Smokewhisker like you enough about you to name you after her mentor. She cares too much about me to fully let me go, and she blames herself for my death. The fact that she named you after me symbolizes that you are worthy enough in her eyes to be 'feather.' Plus, she's moving on."
Snowfeather stared at Jayfeather. The cat looked so much different than when she had last seen him. He looked healthy and robust, happy to be alive in StarClan, where he could see. While she was intently looking at Smokewhisker's mentor, she replayed his words in her head. She then realized how much Jayfeather knew Smokewhisker, and how Snowfeather didn't. Although she was Snowfeather's mentor, there was a lot that Smokewhisker kept secret, that she apparently told Jayfeather before he died.
"It's not just that, dear," a white she-cat spoke up near the back. She pushed her way through the rest of the cats, and stood next to the rock Jayfeather was on. "I'm Sagewhisker, and I think your name is beautiful. It's more than being named after him." She ended her sentence with a meaningful tail-jab at Jayfeather.
Snowfeather ducked her head in modesty, embarrassed that a StarClan medicine cat was calling her name beautiful. Sagewhisker smiled, and glared at Jayfeather. She then dipped her head, and moved back in the crowd, sitting down where Snowfeather could see her.
"Now that my son is done," another cat meowed, and Snowfeather immediately recognized Leafpool. She was surprised that the she-cat was allowed to stay a medicine cat in StarClan, and even more so that Leafpool meowed the taboo word of 'son.' Leafpool's words made Snowfeather grow hot and uncomfortable. She hoped that none of them could see how she reacted at the word son, and thought of Swiftfang. "The real reason you're here!"
Snowfeather looked at all the medicine cats, wondering which one would say the words. To her amazement, Spottedleaf stood up with a smile. "Peace is coming to ThunderClan, dearest Snowfeather. It'll bring joy to many, but also a great sadness."
Peace? Snowfeather wondered. It must be peace through the Clans. So no more fighting, for the time being. She nodded in recognition of Spottedleaf's words. The she-cat smiled in a way Snowfeather couldn't comprehend, and sat down amongst her fellow medicine cats.
Mothwing, who was still next to Snowfeather, nudged her in the direction of an older, longer furred she-cat. She had eyes the color of ice, but they looked friendly enough. "That's Quailfeather," Mothwing whispered, but was quiet the second Quailfeather started speaking.
"Your destiny is soon upon you, young medicine cat. It will continue on into another Clan, but it is yours to start," the SkyClan medicine cat mewed, making Snowfeather cock her head in confusion. Nearly every StarClan member had told her of her 'destiny' that she must fulfill, but how could she do it if she had no clue what she was to do?
"Quailfeather, you speak of my destiny but…" Snowfeather's words trailed off as the cats started to fade in front of her. All at once, they burst into a shower of white sparks like before. However, Snowfeather glimpsed a smile on Quailfeather's face that mirrored Spottedleaf's before she exploded. The sparks formed into one star per cat, and the tornado formed again. Except this time, the funnel spun upwards, and spit the stars into their respective places in the sky.
With the bright starlight gone from the earth and now in the sky where it belonged, Snowfeather realized the ground was very dark, and her eyes tried hard to adjust. But as they tried to see in the darkness, the scene around her grew darker and darker until it was finally black.
Aware of her surroundings at the Moonpool, Snowfeather kept her eyes closed for a bit longer, trying to get her heartbeat and breathing slower.
She opened them a few seconds later to see that she was the second to last cat awake. As Snowfeather was about to speak, Willowshine opened her eyes with a sigh.
"I hope all of you have had good dreams from StarClan," Littlecloud mewed, "for I certainly had a good one." This caused the medicine cats to laugh and nod.
Snowfeather enjoyed being a medicine cat, for she was allowed to step aside from the silly Clan fights, and have long lasting friendships with other cats that were allowed to do the same. A warrior wasn't allowed to do that, because his or her life was based on the silly Clan fights.
"It was nice seeing you today," Whitebelly said to all of the cats, although his eyes focused on Smokewhisker. The she-cat shrugged her shoulders, and blatantly looked away from the hopeful WindClan tom.
"Goodbye everyone," Snowfeather mewed, giving everyone a friendly glance. "I'll see you at the Gathering!"
Smokewhisker led her away, chuckling under her breath. Snowfeather felt better after they left the openness of the Moonpool and went into the forest. She couldn't explain it, but every time she left the comforting presence of the trees, she felt anxious to go back, and it would only stop once she stepped foot in the trees. It was momentarily forgotten once she had her dreams, but always nagged quietly in the back of her mind. Happy to be under the protective trees, Snowfeather sighed.
"You're very happy, and you just sighed," Smokewhisker mewed, breaking the silence of the night. "You had a good dream, then? It's a bit overwhelming to have the medicine cats congratulate you on your name, isn't it?"
Snowfeather almost stopped short, surprised that Smokewhisker knew so much about her dream with the StarClan members. However, she realized that her mentor probably went through the same thing, and relaxed.
"Yeah, it was wonderful. There are so many medicine cats," Snowfeather admitted. Her mentor nodded, picking up the pace. Snowfeather could tell by Smokewhisker's pace and posture that she was tired, and wanted to sleep as soon as possible. She reminded herself that she didn't know nearly as much as Jayfeather on the subject of Smokewhisker.
"And, uh, Smokewhisker?" Snowfeather started, keeping the pace with her mentor easily. Smokewhisker grunted, prompting Snowfeather to speak. "They told me something about…" she paused, feeling as if she could keep her destiny to herself, as it might not go down well with her mentor. "Jayfeather said he misses you," Snowfeather lied quickly, hoping against hope that Smokewhisker wouldn't notice the pause.
Her mentor smiled a happy smile. "I miss him too, so much. Thank you for telling me." Smokewhisker was quiet the rest of the journey, and Snowfeather knew that she was thinking of the times she spent with Jayfeather. However, Snowfeather's mind was on the subject of her destiny, and what she could possibly do to help it along.
A/N: This was actually a fun chapter to write, and I learned a lot about medicine cats when researching them. What is Snowfeather's destiny? What does Spottedleaf mean by peace? Why am I asking these questions?