Aw, man... This is my least favorite chapter to write... I hope you enjoy, though, and I'm glad I wrote the next chapters first because my keyboard is going to be all wet... XDD And, just in case you don't catch it /somehow/ during the story, this is from Feathertail's point of view...for the first and last time. Please enjoy...
Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can't remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that's in between insane and insecure
Oh therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed
Nobody's perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word, and that's my best excuse
I leapt onto the rock that hung on the roof of the cave and felt it fall under my weight. I released a blood-curdling wail as I plummeted to the ground. Sharptooth looked up at me, but only in time to meet death.
I lay there, pain pulsating though my body.
I could hear the shudders of Sharptooth's body, the last breath he took, Stormfur racing towards me, and Crowpaw stepping up behind him.
"Feathertail?" Stormfur whispered.
"Feathertail?" Crowpaw meowed in a desperate voice. "Feathertail, are you okay?"
But I couldn't move. I couldn't lift my head to tell them the things I knew I had to before I died...
"She'll be fine. She's got to be. She...she's got a prophecy to fulfill."
Crowpaw pressed his nose to my fur and began to lick it gently. "Wake up, Feathertail," he whispered. "Please wake up."
I couldn't... Oh, Crowpaw...
A familiar scent, faint but clear somehow, filled my nostrils. Silverstream.
"Oh, Feathertail!"
Crowpaw gasped as I opened my eyes just a crack. "You'll have to go home without me, brother," I meowed to Stormfur as I fixed my eyes on him. "Save the Clan!"
My eyes then focused on Crowpaw, and in them I hope he saw a lifetime of love for him. "Think you have nine lives, do you?" I whispered. "I saved you once...Don't make me save you again."
"Feathertail...Featertail, no!" he choked out. "Don't leave me..."
"I won't." My voice was scarcely audible, and I knew that I couldn't stay for much longer. "I'll always be with you, I promise."
I closed my eyes slowly and heard Crowpaw's grief-ridden wail right before I could look down on my body.
There it was, stained on one flank with Crowpaw's blood. I had been the cat in the prophecy. I had released them from Sharptooth once and for all.
Then a silver she-cat whose fur shone like a star padded up to me. "My dearest Feathertail," she meowed, voice filled with love.
"Mother," I gasped. "Silverstream..."
She smiled and nodded. "Feathertail, it's time for you to come home now."
I looked back down to the cave and gave a pained look to Crowpaw, even though he couldn't see me. "Must I?"
"Yes, Feathertail. But know this: he will meet you in StarClan. There is not a single thing that will block your love for him as there was for Graystripe and me."
I smiled with comfort. The thought of seeing him again consoled me and I turned back to Silverstream, determination burning in my eyes. "I am ready, my mother."
