I hope this one is a good balance between exposition and action!! I kinda have a problem with dumping lore and y'all, evidently, but I'll try in the future to add more action
Water rippled from all around me, dancing and dodging between my paws and tail-tip. A blue expanse stretched as far as my eye could see, and the only other colour to my eyes were the dark crags that split up the Sundrownplace. There were five of them.
Five for each Guardian.
One by one, they arrived from nothing, settling on each rock like nesting hawks.
Cowering in the centre, I felt like a tiny rabbit.
Bound to be tossed around as prey between the most powerful cats (and badger) of the spirit world.
They did not acknowledge me.
"Skywatcher," a heavyset grey cat greeted, his kind, warm eyes resting on the dappled tom sitting across from him. "You were the one to call this meeting. Why?"
Rock thrashed his tail impatiently, and roared between frustrated mutters: "No valid reason, I'd guess... Skywatcher loves making a fuss, after all."
Uneasy laughter echoed among them, and that feeling I felt when I first witnessed the Starflower returned to me. That clawing thought that I was not meant to be here.
"Mmm," Midnight rumbled. "Rock, patience. Skywatcher is young, but not fool. He is wise as any Guardian."
Skywatcher dipped his head to her respectably before speaking. "I have dire news of the Three, the Three we gave the powers of the Stars."
Half Moon, who had been laying splayed across her rock, eyes closed peacefully, shot up suddenly. "How dire?"
I was curious now. Well, more than I was before. Were they talking about the same Three from the Tunnel scrawlings? Wasn't Hollyleaf one of them?
"One of them has died," Skywatcher announced, and Midnight dipped her head solemnly. The rest of them followed, all but Rock.
"Which one, Hollyleaf?" Rock hissed. "The Hopeless One never showed any abilities to begin with. It was never really a Three, but Two."
There was a heavy silence now, broken only as Midnight rose upward from sitting. "It was always Three. It will be again. I have plan."
Half Moon's eyes were wide and worried as she spoke. "But, if Hollyleaf had no ability, as Rock claims, why? We gifted them their power- why did hers not take hold?"
"Simple," Grey Wing had been quiet for a long while, so his sudden speaking took the attention of every Guardian, and myself. "We gave them each abilities because we knew they would need to brave many challenges no ordinary cat could face on their own. Lionblaze, the Mindless One, was to be a tool for the Dark Forest. As the name implies, he was destined to fight with no regard for who, or why. If we did not find a way to stop him, he would have destroyed everything.
"So, strange as it may be, we gave him ultimate strength in battle. This scared him; he grappled with how unfair his battles were, and he convinced himself to stay on the path of good.
"Jayfeather was the Heartless One; his path would be one of cruelty. Unable to be a warrior, he was destined to be a medicine cat. However, he was unfeeling, and cared not for the patients in his care.
"So we gave him empathy. He can feel how others feel as if it were his own emotions. He can walk in their dreams, and see their fears.
"We tried to give Hollyleaf unwavering conviction in herself, to try and keep her from the depression that was dated to consume her, but it did not work because determination is a state of mind, not a power, and at some point she lost it completely. Lionblaze became the Soulful, and Jayfeather the Heartful, but Hollyleaf remained the Hopeless."
Those words remained in my mind long after they left the ancient tom's throat.
Could I give Hollyleaf back her conviction?
It seemed the Guardians had more to say, but I was on a mission now.
I needed to return to the Hopeless One, and give her back her power.
The power of Hope.