The Twoleg nest was burning. She had gone to visit Alder and Bramble, to break the news that they were going to be uncles. But their nest was on fire and panicked yowls split the air. She could see a Twoleg yowling into a weird rock, but still no sign of either brother.
Finally, Alder raced out, panting and sobbing. The Twoleg tried to pick him up, but he crashed through the bushes.
"Alder, where's Bramble?"
Alder sobbed, sinking onto his haunches.
"Alder, where's Bramble?" She repeated, more firmly this time.
"D-dead... told me to run..."
Copper looked at the nest in shock. Her brother, the one with the mischievous smile and the endless optimism, gone. She wrapped her tail around Alder's and sobbed until no more tears would come.
That was the way that the Twolegs found them later, both exhausted from grief and clinging to one another.
She moved into the cold light of dawn. Her mother had gotten worse; there were whispers that it was something that the Twolegs couldn't cure.
She wondered how her mother would take the news.
She leapt onto her mother's fence, only to see a fresh-turned mound of dirt where her mother should have been. Her collar, the one she had always hated, lay on top of the fresh grave and made her retch.
How will I do this?
She took a the offending collar away from the grave. In its place, she placed dandelions from the garden onto her mother's grave – wild, like her.
What was that prayer she learned? The death one?
"May you find your way to StarClan. May you find good running, swift hunting, and safety where you sleep." Both of you.
She moved away from the nests. Her housefolk, once she came inside, tried to pet her, play with her, feed her. They even offered her some tuna, a rare delicacy.
It didn't matter. Food didn't bring them back.
When Alder and his housefolk moved away, she felt as if she had no family left.
On a grassy precipice in StarClan, Sparkpelt awoke. Stars shimmered at every hair on her pelt as she surveyed the scene. Her eyes came to rest on a younger dark-
"What are you doing here, Bramble?"
"There was a fire at my housefolk's nest. I was able to save Alder, but..."
"Oh, my son. You were so brave."
"Indeed." Bramblestar walked up to them; Alderheart, Sandstorm, Firestar, Squirrelflight and Sparrowkit stood behind him.
"Weren't I a kittypet?" Bramble asked.
"You were, but you still had some belief in StarClan. And that was enough to grant you access to both afterlives."
"Both?"
"Yes. If you go through that tunnel of trees, you can see the kittypets' afterlife. I believe one Tallstar used it to communicate with Jake."
"I missed you all so much." Sparkpelt purred.
"So did we. Juniperkit and Dandelionkit are almost frantic with excitement!"
"Come on, Mama." Sparrowkit told her. "There's so much I want to show you!"