EPILOGUE

The full moon shone brightly in the night sky. Willowstar curled her lip as she gazed up at it. Let them watch, she thought with a dark pride. Let them see what we have become, and let them know how powerless they are to stop us. It had been Thornfur, her deputy, who had pressed his muzzle to her shoulder and sent the darkness through her veins. He was sitting below her now, tense as he watched the crowd of cats before them.

WindClan had been first to arrive at the island that night. Willowstar had made sure of that. There was a certain tactical advantage to watching the other Clans stream in. She could taste their weakness, feel their worry. They had all suffered recently. ShadowClan was weak, and stank of death. Rowanstar was old and weary. ThunderClan seemed shaken to the core. Willowstar would have loved nothing more than to end them now, but her warriors were not strong enough to take on all the Clans together. Not yet. And the darkness was telling her to wait...

Not now, it said. The voice was soft, gentle. It whispered, it soothed, it coaxed, and Willowstar longed for its warm approval. The time is not right. Wait. One day, all of this will be yours.

The darkness had become her closest friend, her most trusted confidante. It could read her so easily, it understood how she felt, it made her feel like she was worth something. It never laughed, never scorned, never refused her needs. Above all, it made her stronger. As the she-cat sat there, presiding over the Gathering, she could feel it coursing through her, a vivid energy crackling with power.

The other leaders spoke. She knew them all; they had once been her friends. But now she knew the truth – they were weak. Rowanstar was too sickly to command her Clan, Eaglestar too dependant on others, Slatestar far too forgiving. She had been like them once, needy and unsure, but know she knew how to command. Willowstar would be the greatest leader WindClan had ever seen. This was her time; her destiny.

She stared down at her warriors with fierce pride. They were her children. Willowstar could feel her connection to all of them, so strong, so intense. She could sense how they were feeling, and they could reach her mind as well. It was as if they were one entity, one single cat, and she was their queen. This was how the Clans were supposed to be, cats acting as one.

There was strength underneath the pelt of each WindClan cat, strength that was desperate to be set free. They understood that they had to wait, though like her, none of them liked it. But they all followed the darkness. It promised them everything they could ever want, it gave them so much, and it asked for nothing in return. Just loyalty, the voice said, caressing her. Just that.

Then it was her turn to speak. Willowstar cast a quick glance at the stars before stepping forward, her eyes glittering. "WindClan is strong," she announced. "We have one new warrior to present to you – Cloudpaw has received his warrior name, and from now on will be known as Cloudstorm. We honour his strength and his ambition."

Far below her, Cloudstorm stepped forward. He was handsome, though he still carried a sense of youth, and he held his head up high. The other Clans cheered him on. Willowstar looked down at him approvingly. The tom showed much promise; he would become one of her finest warriors. They applauded him, but soon he would become an image from their nightmares made real.

She couldn't wait for that day.

x x x

Something prodded Cherrytail awake. She looked up, blinking sleep away from her eyes, and saw Beechclaw standing over her. "What?"

"You told me to wake you when the others returned from the Gathering," he mewed wearily. The tom looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep for days; she supposed he must be spending all his time watching over Auburnfur and the kits. Breezekit hadn't had an episode since Branchpaw's breakdown, and the wound on his stomach was healing well, but Beechclaw refused to leave his son's side.

"Right," she said, pulling herself to her feet. Her swollen belly made her movements awkward and ungainly. Every night, Cherrytail prayed for her kits to be born, though she knew it would be at least another half-moon yet.

"Slatestar just came in. The others are following him." Beechclaw gave her a terse nod and looked over at Auburnfur. The queen was sleeping soundly, her kits in a pile by her belly. A rare look of affection passed over the brown tom's face. Cherrytail wondered how her mate would react when he saw their kits. They would be so beautiful, he would have no choice but to love them.

The ginger-and-white she-cat padded out of the nursery, barely managing to squeeze by Beechclaw and out into the clearing. Slatestar was pacing around underneath the Highledge. "I'll call a meeting in the morning," he was telling Nettleclaw sombrely. "We'll have to make sure the whole Clan knows."

Cherrytail approached her father, nodding politely to the deputy as she did so. "What's going on?" she asked Slatestar quietly.

Slatestar paused. "It was quite an eventful Gathering, to say the least," he mewed. "ShadowClan has a new deputy."

A sudden chord of panic struck her. "What?" she gasped, forgetting to check her words. Cherrytail drew in a deep breath. "What happened to Falconswoop?"

Slatestar fidgeted uncomfortable. "I'm going to announce it to the Clan tomorrow morning," he said. "You should get some sleep; your kits could be born at any time."

"Father," she mewed firmly. Cherrytail knew that Slatestar didn't like the title, and she rarely used it, but right know she was desperate to learn what had happened in ShadowClan. "Please tell me."

Slatestar sighed. "Apparently Falconswoop was a traitor. He was behind the battle that killed Hailstripe, and he tried to murder Eaglestar. That's all I know."

"What..." Cherrytail didn't know what to say. That couldn't be true! "Where is he now?"

"He's dead," said Slatestar flatly. "Redfur is the new deputy. Anyway, ShadowClan is weak. They have few warriors, though they just named a new one. We should do our best to give them room to recover – there's no sense in threatening them at a time like this. There have always been four Clans."

"Yes, Slatestar," Cherrytail mumbled. "Thank you."

Slatestar licked the top of her head. "Go to sleep. You shouldn't be up in the first place."

Cherrytail followed his advice and headed back to the nursery, but she found herself unable to sleep. No matter how she twisted or turned, she couldn't get Slatestar's words out of her head. Falconswoop was dead. All of the light seemed to have vanished from her life. All of her future plans were ash in her mouth. The she-cat leaned down and licked her swollen belly, refusing to believe any of it. There must be some mistake. He couldn't be a traitor.

"He would have loved you," she promised their unborn kits. "Even if he did try to kill Eaglestar, he would have loved you all the same. Falconswoop was a good cat. Your father was a good cat..."

X X X X X X X

A/N: So the epilogue was a little short, but there really isn't much more to say. Knight of the Shadows will hopefully be released in a couple of weeks. I want to write a few chapters before I start posting them up. I've actually already started on the prologue - it's an exciting feeling. I'll update this story with an author's note when the next book is released, so as long as you're subscribed, you shouldn't miss out.

Anyway...Pawn of the Stars is over. Done. Finished. It's a crazy feeling. It's been a long ride - over a year - and it's been worth every word. Thank you to all of my reviewers, new and old! This couldn't have been done without your support.

Thistlethorn of ShadowClan: The next book will have an allegiances page at the beginning, don't worry!

bubbletail: It's over...for now. Sootclaw will make his choice eventually ;)

monkeyCsaw: Ouch, yeah, those earlier typos are kind of nasty. I should have proofread it better back then :P Anyway, thanks a lot for the wonderful review :)

Coqui's Song: I settled on Sootclaw a long time ago, but that still didn't prevent me from freaking out when the time came. Sootfang and Sootstrike were close seconds, though. And hopefully older Sootclaw shall not disappoint :D

The Last Clan: Well, ThunderClan's not exactly in a position to turn him away, haha. Thanks for reviewing!

zestia240: Thanks!

frostfeather: Well, I don't think it was an easy decision...but ThunderClan needed a medicine cat more then ShadowClan needed a medicine cat apprentice, and I think Eaglestar recognized that :) Thanks for the review, and for letting me know Sootclaw is a creeper :P

Blackish: By "destroy", I didn't mean kill, I meant turn him evil, as it were. As for Dawnpaw…she's in pretty serious shock. I think that accounts for the weariness. Plus, she did see Branchpaw ascend to StarClan, so that took away some of the grief. She's in mourning, yes, but that's different from grieving. She can mourn without having it take over her.

Anyway, losing loved ones makes you bitter, angry, depressed, stuff like that - you can lose sight of your own life. Don't tell me this is the first you've heard of that.

As for Sootpaw's love of Dawnpaw…it wasn't romantic love in that moment. It was his appreciation of her, a deeper emotion, not like "lol she's hawt". And that moment was before she killed her brother, though I appreciate your point.

Good points, though, and definitely some stuff that could have been different.

EverythingBurnz: First of all, thank you for such a glowing review! Kitepaw definitely still has a lot to go through, poor guy. His story is only just beginning. Also, I'll be introducing some female characters who will (hopefully) be distinctly not like Dawnpaw ;)

WOW. GUYS. IT'S OVER. THAT WAS IT. Let's take a second to savour that feeling...

...

Alright. I'm good now.

Thanks for reading and please review!

- PV :)