Sorry again for the slow update! :[ But here's the next chapter.
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"Come with me," the lanky gray tom meowed, his amber eyes glinting. The dark brown tabby tom obliged, getting to his paws before padding after him. He cast a fleeting glance back at the patrol, anxiety and fear obvious in his round amber eyes. Jayfeather gave him a hard stare, while Ivypool nodded once at him.
They walked in silence until Tigerflame awkwardly mumbled the question, "where are we going?" The healer didn't reply immediately, just continued leading him towards a cave. As they stepped inside, the dark brown tom let out an awed gasp. There were large jagged rocks spiking up from the floor, along with a few jagged rocks that spiked out from the roof of the cave. Sometimes they even touched. There was also a pool of water in the cave, where he could make out a blurry reflection of a white circle… the moon, perhaps?
"The cave of pointed stones," Stoneteller informed him once they stepped inside. The dark furred tom seemed quite confident as he carefully walked around the stones and settled himself next to the pool, his amber eyes fixated on the reflection of the moon. He looked perplexed as he stared.
"Why do you look so confused?" Tigerflame asked curiously, his eyes narrowed in bewilderment. This was all new to him.
The dark gray tom simply replied, "the reflections are puzzling. I can't seem to understand what it's trying to show me. All I know is that the Tribe of Endless Hunting wishes to speak to you."
"Me?" his voice rose an octave, sounding slightly squeaky, like a kit's. Tigerflame suddenly felt very self-conscious as he rasped his tongue over his shoulders and his chest, unsure of what he should look like if he really were to meet the Tribe. "Wait, who's the Tribe of Endless Hunting? I thought you were the Tribe of Rushing Water."
The healer didn't look miffed and simply meowed, "the Tribe of Endless Hunting are our ancestors. Just like StarClan for you."
Tigerflame nodded solemnly, staring at Stoneteller through his round eyes. His thick lashes casted dark shadows down his cheekbones, his eyes narrowed into slits and looking down at his paws. His cheeks suddenly looked very angular. He was shy, and partially unwilling to meet their ancestors. Maybe they would hate him, with him being the reincarnation of a mass murderer and everything. However, he knew he would have to brave this. If not for him, then for Firepaw.
"How do I meet with them?" He asked bravely, locking gazes with the healer.
Stoneteller smiled, looking satisfied, "come over here and lay down. If they wish to speak to you, then it will be in this cave, tonight, that they come visit your dreams." The wisdom in his voice didn't cause any doubt in Tigerflame's mind as he walked over to where the Stoneteller was gesturing and promptly lay down, trying to get comfortable.
"Good luck."
The dark brown tabby tom tried to get comfortable on the hard rock, but the rock was cold against his skin and hard against his bones. He bit his lip, getting more and more frustrated by each passing heartbeat. He longed for sleep to come, but it felt like it never would. Tigerflame took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. There's no use in being nervous now. This has been your destiny since you stepped into this world. Tigerstar made sure of that. He told himself.
Sighing as he still couldn't fall asleep, he thought about Firepaw. He wondered if she had gotten her warrior name yet. Firetiger was a ridiculous name; so he assumed that she wouldn't name herself after him. Besides, he figured that her father had already picked out a name for her. He wished that she was lying here next to him.
As he finally began to relax, his body began to feel heavy with exhaustion and suddenly he didn't seem to have the energy to toss and turn anymore. He lay there, his eyes shut and body weary, before finally slipping into unconsciousness.
He sat quietly for a while in his dream. There was nothing that surrounded him except for a bleak gray landscape. As far as he could stare, it was just gray. There weren't even different shades, it was just all the same dull stone-colored gray.
Finally after sitting there for what felt like moons, a path carved out of the gray. It wasn't quite a path, it was rocky with crumbling pebbles and probably sharp stones that would embed themselves in his pad, but he decided to take it anyway. Forcing his weary body to move, he dragged himself towards the path.
As he reached it, a white she-cat bounded forward, blinking at him with highly intelligent green eyes. Her fur was soft and smooth, while she had a slender and dainty body. She flicked her tail in welcome as he arrived, but no smile played on her lips. "Follow me," was all she said before she hurried along the path once more.
Tigerflame cautiously followed her. She walked at quite a swift pace, expertly dodging stones and making her way across sliding pebbles with ease. He however didn't share her expertise, and often found himself stumbling or cringing as he stepped on a jagged rock. As he walked, his eyes ran across the scenery. The bleak gray color was slowly forming into mountains. If he listened carefully, he could hear the faint rushing of the waterfall.
What struck him as odd was that the path was perfectly straight, without any curves or steep hills or anything. They just walked and walked and walked. He slowly started to get impatient before chasing after the white she-cat. As he sped up to her, he let out a yelp of shock before skidding to a stop. Right in front of her was a steep hill, where the path was narrow and lead dangerously downwards.
Overhead, he felt as if he could hear the loud screeches and calls of eagles. He felt the wind buffeting against his pelt, the cold sliding right past his pelt and into his bones. Suddenly he was afraid. Glancing with scared eyes at the white she-cat, he took a few steps back.
Her face morphed for a heartbeat, the white hairs turning ginger, the green eyes a little brighter, the serious expression becoming playful. "What, you scared?" Firepaw teased him, waving her tail in the air. Then she turned away and raced confidently down the hill, her fur changing back into white as she ran.
Tigerflame took a deep breath before cautiously picking his way down the path. It wasn't as hard as he had expected, and when he finally made his way down, he realized with a gasp of shock that he was in a clearing. There were vast walls of stone towering above him on both sides, and there were a few cats prowling along the rocky paths.
The white furred she-cat who had lead him here appeared in front of him again, blinking her intelligent green eyes at him. "Welcome, Tigerflame," her voice was gentle and sweet, like honey, "my name is Half Moon. I'm one of the ancients."
"Hello," he meowed, dipping his head.
At her side, a pale gray tom padded up to her. His icy blue eyes seemed to have an intense fire in them, and he forced himself to tear his gaze away. "My name is Clear Sky," he meowed curtly.
"It's nice to meet you." Tigerflame didn't really know what else to say.
"Come. We need to tell you about something important," Half Moon meowed, turning away. She was about to lead him away when she was intercepted by a flash of silver. A silver tabby she-cat skidded to a halt in front of them, panting heavily. "Feathertail?"
"Bluestar," she meowed, "has something important to tell. She told me to tell you that it's finally come."
"How?"
"Less 'come', more 'discovered'."
Half Moon's expression changed and she pressed her lips into a thin line, her jaw tight as she glanced at Tigerflame through the corner of her eyes. "I need to talk to him right now, we can talk about this later."
"Then I'll tell it to Clear Sky first." Feathertail reasoned, her plumy tail swishing. The pale gray tom simply nodded and padded after the slender she-cat, looking quite curious as to what she had to say. Yet there was also worry in his eyes, as if he suspected something that was quite awful, but he hoped it wouldn't be true.
The white she-cat started walking again, and Tigerflame took that as his cue to follow. He tried to dip his head respectively before stumbling away and after the green-eyed she-cat. She padded up a winding path, leading him to a secluded area between two giant boulders.
Before he had even sat down, Half Moon had already meowed, "you need to go to the Moonstone."
He blinked in surprise, "why?" He remembered it, even though he had never been there before. It was dark and the pathway had always made him feel rather suffocated, but he didn't mind, because he was about to get his nine lives. He didn't take much time to stare in awe at the stone, rather just pressed his nose to it. He could almost feel it touching his nose. It was cool and made him feel very relaxed, his muscles getting weary and eyelids falling as he curled up and waited for his nine lives.
"It is the place where the first known cat had gone to the Dark Forest," she meowed quietly, "nobody can remember how the oldest of leaders, Maggottail got to the Dark Forest. You need to go the Moonstone."
"What makes that different to just the Moonpool?" He demanded.
"The Moonstone is where it all began. You must go to the border of StarClan and cross over to the Dark Forest. That is where you shall cleave yourself of your other half." She told him, her green eyes wise.
Tigerflame cocked his head to the side, "how?"
"You must kill yourself. In the Dark Forest. There are two halves to your soul. The light, and the dark. Every time a cat goes to StarClan, their soul splits. The darkness in them returns to the Dark Forest, while the good in them stays in StarClan. If they have more dark than light, then they will of course be a resident of the Dark Forest. However, if they have more light than dark, they will be welcome in StarClan. In your case, it's different."
"Light and dark. Me being the light, and Tigerstar being the dark?"
"Precisely. Tigerflame, it's the ultimate battle between you and Tigerstar. You need to fight him. Your light has to overcome your darkness in order for you to join StarClan."
"But what about the war? I need to be here. I don't want to die!"
"No need for you to fully die. You can kill the Tigerstar part of yourself. Stay on the border, and the half of yourself that's dark will leave you. You will be free. Not just you, but us too. Tigerstar will no longer be able to see through your eyes. He will lose his advantage. You will also be fully in control of your body, and we will be able to explain the plan to you. A plan that you play a crucial part in. It's finally here, after all. Once you do this, we can finally tell you."
Her eyes glinted, and Tigerflame wondered if this was something to do with what Feathertail had rushed over to talk about.
"Does Tigerstar die once I defeat him?" He whispered.
"No, he doesn't. But he does leave your body."
"Oh."
"Remember, you're timed. Now that Tigerstar knows you plan to remove him from you, he's going to start fighting for control of your body. He might even choose to kill you."
His throat felt dry. "Oh. And what if I don't defeat him?"
Half Moon's green eyes darkened as a shadow passed over her face. "Then you die. And you go to the Dark Forest as a lost soul. No memory. No voice. Nothing."
"Fantastic."
