Greysight was awoken by the soft, prodding touch of another, and as her senses came into focus, she realized it was Moonfur, gently touching shoulder.
"Greysight?" she inquired, having seen the way Greysight twitched in response to her touch.
Greysight's eyes slowly opened into a pair of thin slits and she turned her head toward Moonfur, blinking once or twice as she woke up.
Before she had dozed off completely, she had managed to slink back into the warrior's den, but now she was up yet again.
Moonfur did feel a bit guilty doing this, but the others had insisted, and no one else wanted to be the one to do it. She had seen how tired Greysight had been, but everyone was anxious to discover what, if anything, Greysight had learned during her visit to the Moonstool. Waiting was near impossible. It was bad enough to feel the anxiety herself without looking at her clanmates' twitching tales as they just hung around the camp, waiting.
Honestly, couldn't they have gone out hunting? Or gone on patrol? They were all just waiting around and fueling her own impatience. Finally, after letting Greysight sleep for a good long while, she couldn't take it anymore and she did what they were unwilling to do and she went to wake the blind warrior up.
"Greysight?"
Greysight grumbled in response and twitched her whiskers, squinting in irritation.
Moonfur scoffed, not at all intimidated by the look. "Don't act like a kit." she meowed.
Greysight merely grunted in response and begrudgingly pulled herself up from her nest, turning her back to Moonfur as she stood up and yawned. She felt extremely stiff after waking up.
"I'll act however I like, fish-breath."
Moonfur narrowed her eyes, but at the same time she couldn't help but smirk at that one. She had had a small fish earlier that one of the others had managed to catch. Of course Greysight would be able to smell it on her breath, despite the distance between them.
"Nice." she retorted as she tilted her head to eye the other she-cat, but she soon dropped her baiting tone and took on a kinder, more genuine one.
"I'm sorry I had to wake you up, but everyone's really anxious to hear what StarClan's said." meowed Moonfur. "They're all waiting."
Greysight had begun to lick her paw and went on to begin cleaning her ears when Moonfur was glaring at her back, but she stopped mid-swipe and brought her paw back to the ground.
She turned her head, as if to look over her shoulder at Moonfur.
She could feel them all outside in camp- and Darkpelt's heavy pawsteps as he paced near the tree stump.
"Okay."
Moonfur blinked and echoed Greysight.
"Oh, well, okay."
She began to walk out of the warrior's den, looking back at Greysight as she did only to see that Greysight was, in fact, beginning to stand up and follow her outside.
Every cats' gaze fell on Moonfur as she stepped out of the warrior's den, and they remained there as they waited for Greysight to follow her.
Greysight followed Moonfur to the spot where they usually held their clan meetings in the center of camp.
Moonfur rolled her eyes as she watched Roseclaw, Thistleprick, Branchfur, Mintleaf, Ambergaze, and Warflight collectively get up and hurry over without even needing to be called.
She sat down, glancing around camp. Her eyes landed on Darkpelt as he came over from near the stump, and Lostheart as she emerged from the shade of the forest, and finally she saw the cat she had been looking for.
She smiled as her eyes landed on the worn out-looking tom who seemed to make her heart beat slower and faster at the same time.
Noticing her gaze, Raggedear blinked and stood up, aiming a smile her way- that sincere, shy smile that Moonfur loved. The smile that reminded her that he was so much more than how he held himself- how he thought of himself, and that he wasn't used to receiving love.
Everyone had gathered around with varied expressions, but Velouria was not there. Moonfur supposed that she was sleeping in the den they had offered her, but that was fine. It wasn't necessary for Velouria to be there while they discussed this.
"I can't wait to hear what StarClan has said." Mintleaf told Roseclaw. "I have a good feeling."
She smiled at Greysight.
"Something good will come out of this."
Roseclaw responded with a look that said: 'I don't know. Maybe?', and she looked to Greysight who seemed ready to speak now that they were all together.
"I hope that trip wasn't a waste of time." mumbled Darkpelt.
Greysight didn't respond to Darkpelt with words, but she did hear him.
An air of awkwardness still hung in DarkClan camp like an invisible mist. Greysight could feel it, but she held back a frown.
Pineneedle had jumped into the ravine.
He was dead.
These words remained unspoken and unrepeated.
Unbeknownst to Greysight she was not the only one still dwelling on these thoughts. Certainly they were still very much present in the minds of all her clanmates, but some were more concerned than others. Cats like Lostheart, Raggedear, Moonfur, and Mintleaf couldn't quite seem to stop thinking about it.
Was it wrong that no vigil would be held? Was it wrong that TreeClan would never know?
Was it wrong that there would be no one to mourn his death? No friends or family to comfort or apologize to for their loss.
Thinking about it made Lostheart feel strangely sad, and she wasn't quite sure why. Pineneedle certainly wasn't a cat who deserved her sympathy, perhaps anyone's sympathy. But he was gone, and that was it.
Was it wrong that she couldn't help but feel that they were partly to blame for it?
Perhaps.
He had cared for no one, and no one cared for him now that he was gone.
Could loneliness transcend even life itself? Lostheart had never really thought about it before. And what of all the other cats who died alone or away from their families' and friends' sides. What if they had no family or friends to begin with, and none waiting for them on the other side?
Were their deaths even acknowledged? Were they meaningless?... Would their memory of having ever existed die with them, or fall into oblivion?
He had been so cruel to her... why was it that these thoughts surfaced at all?
Why...did she feel pity for this contemptible cat?
"Are you feeling better, Greysight?" asked Roseclaw with a touch of concern, pulling Lostheart from her musings.
"What? Yeah, I feel fine." Greysight answered quickly. She didn't quite care for Roseclaw's tone.
It was dark out, yet everyone, save for Velouria, had sat out here waiting for her, Greysight realized, hearing the loud chirping of crickets from the forest. They were all hopeless, she mused, feeling that slight twinge of annoyance she had felt at Roseclaw's tone once more.
It wasn't like she didn't like being the center of attention, she had always loved letting others know about her victories and talents. She...
"I do have some good news." The use of 'good' could have been debatable- nothing was ever good enough.
But how to explain it to them? She didn't quite feel like telling them everything, but after past experiences she begrudgingly told herself that doing so would be the right thing to do, and her best choice.
"I know that the prophecy was created by a cat who calls himself Cro."
The cats blinked and glanced at one another upon hearing the name, but they only saw blank, questioning faces in return.
No one had heard that name before.
"Calls?" Darkpelt emphasized. Not called?
"He's not alive." Greysight replied, putting a quick stop to his line of thought. "But he is not a member of StarClan. I suppose he must have been a clan cat at some point though."
Maybe? She didn't know quite how to explain who Cro was because she didn't know herself, so she said what she could to make her clanmates understand better.
"Apparently, this prophecy has existed for a very long time. It's ancient, and so is that name." she continued. "They say that he brings suffering."
"A name associated with misfortune..." Darkpelt murmured bitterly, causing Greysight to turn his way ever so slightly.
His gaze snapped up.
"Why?" he hissed.
"I don't know why, or when, or anything like that. That information is beyond me, and is probably as old as the prophecy itself. What I do know is that there is most likely a connection between those rogues, the prophecy, and Cro."
"What do they have to with the prophecy?" Thistleprick asked suddenly.
"You all heard they way they spoke, they knew things they shouldn't have known. You all heard them yourselves, and we know what Scar was capable of. They told us our clan would be destroyed, they must know about the prophecy-"
"The prophecy said that DarkClan would suffer in a never-ending cycle of misfortune." Lostheart meowed thoughtfully. "I don't recall its destruction being noted."
"'Darkclan will be left to wither way into nothingness'..." Roseclaw paraphrased. "Maybe that's what Pain meant by our clan being doomed for destruction."
"So what? They know about the prophecy? We already know about the prophecy! What I'm more concerned with is if these cats intend to speed up the process and destroy our clan themselves! Is that what this is?!" Darkpelt growled.
"Pain said that he knew these things because 'a bird had told him'," said Greysight, "I believe this was a reference to Cro. Do you all see now? You must see the connection."
The cats were quite, none arguing against her.
"Why intervene?" questioned Lostheart.
"They are a threat to the clan," meowed Warflight, "The harbinger in the prophecy must be that Pain! He looked like their leader, and he's the one that spoke to us!"
Darkpelt immediately stood up, a low growl rumbling loudly in his throat.
"If he's the one we need to defeat, we need to hunt him down immediately and put this prophecy to rest!"
He practically roared the words.
"Maybe..." Lostheart remarked quietly, having heard of the cat's background from Velouria. "But if he is, then why appear at all? It would have been much safer if he stayed away."
"He must be cocky." Branchfur growled. "He's trying to finish all of us off before we can get to him."
"We wouldn't be able to get to him at all if he had never shown up, and we would not even have the possibility of ending the prophecy." said Lostheart.
Greysight heard her clanmates' words, but she was still having a hard time making sense of it. They were bringing up so many things she hadn't even thought of before.
"That's all I know." finished Greysight quietly, her mind racing.
"That's it?!"
Should she tell them...?
Greysight thought back to when she had kept the prophecy itself hidden from the others, and how they had reacted. Lostheart had told her that she had done what she thought was best and not to worry about it, but she felt like those were empty words only meant to make her feel less guilty. She had kept something important from them, and in response they felt betrayed, like she didn't trust them.
By not sharing that information, Darkpelt had accused her of putting the clan in danger...
But he hadn't been wrong, had he?
"I've seen him." Greysight finally managed to blurt out, the others going silent. "I've seen Cro before, in a dream."
Ambergaze blinked, her small mouth parting slightly.
"Really?" she meowed, almost in awe.
"You have?" Darkpelt repeated gruffly, surprise all over his face.
Lostheart's eyes moved over from him to Greysight in silence, flashing in the moonlight.
"Twice, actually. I didn't know who he was at the time, I'd never heard his name before." She defended.
"That's crazy..." whispered Thistleprick, trailing off.
Roseclaw's eyes went wide.
"What did he say? What did he want- did he do something?"
"The dreams are a little foggy- they're hard to remember." Greysight admitted. She remembered a lanky dark shape and the sound of his voice, but that was all. "He told me his name, and that he's been watching DarkClan for a long time, that he was like StarClan."
Watching her.
"The second time he said that our clan's destruction was inevitable, that this prophecy was his curse."
She didn't mention that she had been the one to seek him out, or even that she was capable of doing such a thing. Remembering their encounters, it was strange. She didn't include the things he had said about her, and she did not know why it was important, why he seemed so interested in her.
"...So, you knew about this, then?"
Darkpelt spoke slowly, his voice low.
She had expected him to shout- Actually, she had hoped he wouldn't notice it at all, but of course, he would.
Greysight faced him evenly, without emotion.
"I didn't know if his words were true. I wanted to confirm them before sharing this with you, I had to be sure."
"You never mentioned either of those dreams to us."
"Maybe I should have mentioned the second, maybe not." Greysight conceded, her tongue growing sharper as she went on, feeling her blood beginning to boil. "But I don't have to share any of my personal thoughts or dreams with you."
Darkpelt glared at Greysight for a long moment before finally turning and stalking away.
"Right." he growled.
They watched him go, used to such cold behavior from the warrior, but it was still hard to avoid feeling a bit of secondhand awkwardness after watching the scene between the two.
Greysight's heart beat rapidly in her chest after all she had said, and her skin was hot beneath her pelt. She was now frustrated, anxious, and, to her frustration, feeling something akin to embarrassment and she didn't know why. That angered her too.
The one thing she had left out, aside from anything relating to herself, was Browneyes.
Perhaps she wasn't always the wisest cat, but bringing him up now, in the situation they were in, didn't feel right. She didn't know how it would affect them all, and so she hadn't shared that piece of information. Of course she wanted them to know that it was Browneyes who had helped her, helped them, and she felt that Browneyes might want them to know as well, but not now.
When all of this was over, then she could tell them that it had been Browneyes.
For now, the clan had to keep it together. They had to stay together, work together, and be strong together.
They needed to trust each other, she realized. Just like Browneyes had said.
It was hard to tell where each cat stood with one another, but it was very clear that Darkpelt didn't fully trust her.
Why did he feel the need to be so stubborn all the time?
