It has been A LONG TIME since the last chapter. Chapter 10 should be much quicker because this chapter was really hard to write. For one it was Halloween time, then thanksgiving, and school is busy at this time. Another reason is that this chapter is super character-driven when I focus a lot on the plot. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy our continuation since the very shocking unstable cliffside. Leave a review if you enjoy!
Nightstorm ran through the mountains with the rest of the patrol. Since Sandfur was already ahead of them, they were easily able to see where she was headed, and they thought surely Sandfur recognized where Lighthaze's trail led. The cliffs had become steeper and more jagged as the patrol carried on, but they put up with the harsh mountainside and pushed forward. Suddenly a short yelp broke the air. The patrol all froze for a moment when they heard it, and Nightstorm instantly knew.
Sandfur!
Nightstorm ran up with the rest of the patrol to where the sound had emerged from. The patrol approached a small cliffside and noticed a patch of the ground missing. The earth appeared to have been torn up. Nightstorm heard a sudden clunk sound from below. He walked towards the cliffside, but the ground started to become loose. He was pulled back by Whiteheart as more of the cliff came loose and slid off.
"Stay back! " yelled Whiteheart.
Nightstorm fell back on the ground. Then, he cautiously peered over the edge from where the ground was stable enough. The rest of the patrol joined him, careful to not fall off themselves. Nightstorm thought he could make out something on the ground, a sand-colored shape. He gasped. Sandfur was splayed on a large surface of stone far below them.
Nightstorm stood shocked, completely frozen. No one beside him said anything, they were all too shocked by the sight. Graywhisker started having panicked breaths and stepped away so he would stop looking at Sandfur. Whiteheart seemed as if she was about to say something, but she kept stuttering over her first words.
"W-we, we need to get down there," she eventually sputtered.
Suddenly Sandfur jerked awake, which caused some of the patrol to jump back in surprise. But as they soon noticed, she could barely move. Nightstorm watched, helpless, as blood began to pool out of her head. Her face appeared panicked, her eyes darting from side to side. But then, she stopped moving. Sandfur's head fell flatly to her side.
Nightstorm would have cried out for his friend, but nothing came out. He saw Whiteheart take action and run down the other way, Graywhisker and Whiteheart soon following behind. Nightstorm did not move, he knew it would take the warriors a long time to get to where Sandfur was lying, and by then it would be too late to save her.
Nightstorm peered down again and noticed an object next to Sandfur. The sun's reflection made the object shine so brightly that Nightstorm had to squint his eyes in order to focus his attention on Sandfur's breaths. It only took him a heartbeat to realize that she wasn't breathing at all.
No!
Nightstorm immediately plodded back down the mountain. He recklessly slid down each small cliff, faster than he had ever done, in the hope of reaching the bottom as soon as possible. He pushed past the patrol, continuing to dart across the rocky terrain while his muscles screamed in pain. Without warning, he tripped and stumbled straight down into a bush. Once the shock of the fall had passed, Nightstorm bounced back up and shook the leaves and twigs off his pelt. He looked around and realized that he had made it to the bottom of the mountain, and he then sprinted around its side to finally reach the clearing where Sandfur lied.
He skidded to a halt. Blood was dripping off the rock that Sandfur lied on. Her eyes were closed and her jaw was gaping open. There were splattered bloodstains on her claws. The shiny object that had been there before was inexplicably gone. Nightstorm was frozen, just staring at her. The view of Sandfur's corpse triggered Nightstorm to remember a white cat that was similarly bloodied. Back when he was a kit, anyway. He could imagine the place where Sandfur lied, and instead a white kit lying there, mauled.
When he pushed those thoughts out of his head, he realized that somehow, he knew that there was no saving Sandfur. She was dead. His friend was dead. He abruptly heard a cry from right behind him as Graywhisker shot past Nightstorm. Graywhisker began trying to frantically prod Sandfur awake.
"Please no! Sandfur no! Wake up! We- We need a medicine cat," Graywhisker looked straight at Nightstorm as he cried, "Nightstorm go get somebody! Go get Addertail!"
Nightstorm didn't respond. Graywhisker's shouts flew past him, echoing off the trees. They became distorted until Nightstorm didn't hear Graywhisker at all. Graywhisker instead told Sootfire, who promptly ran back in the direction of the camp. Nightstorm didn't even blink. He only stared, motionless. Any color he would've noticed around him drained away. There was no more life in it. None that Nightstorm could see, anyway.
"Okay," He replied to Graywhisker.
The smoke-colored warrior seemed confused at the response, but he soon ignored Nightstorm and continued to try to prod Sandfur awake. Nightstorm turned around and walked towards camp. He realized he couldn't feel the cold earth beneath him, but he didn't care, and continued his path. Whenever Sandfur came up in his head, Nightstorm pushed that thought away.
After a little while of walking through the woods, Nightstorm saw a figure appear in the distance. He realized it was Yellowstar, who ran past him with a few other warriors. Nightstorm slowly looked back, only to see the patrol disappear behind the trees. He then heard the distant sounds of wails behind him. More of Nightstorm's clanmates poured through the trail, but he wasn't surprised by this. So little had happened for so many seasons, barely any deaths… Or murders… When they had found Lakeheart a few days ago, they had carried her back, but Sandfur would still be lying dead on the rocks, with her blood glistening in the sunlight.
Don't think about that!
Nightstorm felt a pain in his chest and fell to the ground. He gritted his teeth and blocked out the thought of Sandfur's corpse. There's no need to think about anything… Nothing happened… What is there to think about? Exactly.
After reassuring himself, Nightstorm got back up from the ground and noticed that Mintbreeze had appeared from the path in front of him. She seemed to be concerned as she sprinted to a halt in front of Nightstorm and opened her jaw to speak.
"Nightstorm! Everyone is running around! What's happening? Is Sandfur okay? Are you okay?"
Nightstorm's ears became deaf to the name that Mintbreeze had mentioned.. "I'm fine, I think," he murmured. "Wait- do you see any scratches on me?"
Mintbreeze scanned him briefly and then met his gaze. "No, you're fine," she meowed.
"Alright…" replied Nightstorm, "I think I'll go rest now."
He pushed past Mintbreeze and strolled towards the camp entrance. As soon as he entered FireClan's camp, he watched chaos ensue as cats everywhere pushed over each other trying to figure out where Lighthaze had disappeared to. Nightstorm realized he hadn't thought of that yet.
Where is Lighthaze at? Coincidentally, as soon as Nightstorm had thought that, Lighthaze burst through the entrance. All of FireClan froze and stared directly at her. With her hairs standing on their ends, the she-cat looked to be completely different from earlier that day, when she had been staying close to Firepelt and was being rude to everyone. Now she appeared afraid and panicked, with a tang of pure fear visible in her eyes. Lighthaze noticed someone in the crowd and changed her expression to a glare. Nightstorm saw where she was staring and noticed Firepelt hidden amongst his clanmates. If Lighthaze was fine, how had Firepelt lost her in the woods? The entire crowd of warriors went silent as Lighthaze scowled and stomped up to Firepelt.
"Where in the name of StarClan did you go?" demanded Lighthaze.
Firepelt began stumbling backwards as Lighthaze furiously approached him. She continued to berate him, "I was out there for who knows how long you fox-heart! I was afraid you might be hurt! I mean, do you even see me? Look at me! My pelt is ruined!" Lighthaze paused when she realized everyone had their eyes on her."Why is everyone staring at me?"
Nightstorm's ears rang with the awkward silence. Was anyone brave enough to tell her? Snakefang unexpectedly stepped up. "It's Sandfur," he explained, his tone more somber than usual, "She..."
Lighthaze's eyes turned to fear as she seemed to dread what Snakefang would say next. "Wait, what?"
"She's dead," said Snakefang in a somewhat monotone voice, as the silence around the two cats grew louder, "Sandfur is dead."
Lighthaze stood staring directly at Snakefang for a few moments. Just simply staring… Nightstorm wondered what Lighthaze felt in those moments. Was it shock, grief, maybe guilt? It must have been shock because Lighthaze didn't seem to show anything at all. She hadn't broken eye contact with Snakefang; she hadn't even blinked.
"CaveClan is here!" shouted Graywhisker abruptly.
The already confused clan turned to the entrance where Moonstar stomped through. He looked at the gathered cats and turned to Snakefang. "Where is Yellowstar?" he growled.
"Out, uh… There was an… incident…" explained the deputy.
Moonstar titled his head. "What was it?"
"Sandfur… She was killed."
"That's strange… Our warrior- Oakshade… He was killed this morning…" murmured Moonstar.
The clan gasped in shock. Nightstorm was confused by this. Why would Oakshade be dead too? It must have been earlier during the day since the CaveClan patrol would've had to traverse both their rugged territory and FireClan's dense wood territory.
Moonstar continued. "He… We're not sure how he died, honestly. This is all so strange… Lakeheart, Sandfur, and now Oakshade… It appears like it was an accident. Something must be happening to the Clans, these can't all be accidents…" Moonstar turned to Graywhisker, "Where is Yellowstar?"
Snakefang pushed past Graywhisker, seemingly angry that Moonstar asked for directions from Graywhisker instead of himself. "She can't talk right now," explained Snakefang angrily, "She is out in the woods somewhere, and I'm not too sure where. She is currently grieving the death of her daughter, so give her some due space."
Nightstorm was surprised to hear such a thoughtful response from Snakefang, although Moonstar didn't appear to be satisfied with this information.
"I suppose I'll wait in camp for her to return," meowed the CaveClan leader.
All of a sudden Addertail rushed by Nightstorm and instantly started to assess the situation. "We already have a dead cat, so I need to know if anyone else is hurt," the old tom explained frantically.
Everyone shook their heads. Addertail turned to look at Nightstorm. "You have a bad scratch on you."
Nightstorm tilted his head in confusion.
That's weird, Mintbreeze told me she didn't see anything. Maybe it slipped her eye.
Addertail continued, "How did you get it?".
Nightstorm shrugged. "Maybe when I slipped down the mountainside. I didn't feel anything, so I don't know."
Addertail sighed and led Nightstorm to his den. "This should be treated now, or it might get infected later on."
It was later in the day when Nightstorm had left the medicine den after getting rosemary plastered on his wound. The scratch had somehow appeared on Nightstorm's side, despite the fact he never noticed it. Maybe he was just too focused, though he would not remember what exactly had made him so desperate.
Yellowstar had returned to camp wailing while some cats confronted her. Nightstorm hadn't seen Lighthaze since the news was given to her, so perhaps she was grieving alone somewhere. Nightstorm pushed the two thoughts out of his head. It was currently nighttime, and the Clan had gathered around for a vigil. However, Nightstorm had stayed back, only watching from the warrior's den as the other cats gathered around the corpse in silence. Yellowstar was still wailing. Nightstorm knew there was no stopping that for a long time. Was she even fit to be a leader at this time?
"Nightstorm!" erupted a voice from behind him.
Nightstorm gasped and turned around to see Graywhisker, who must've snuck into the warriors' den behind him. When the shock from Graywhisker's unexpected arrival wore off, Nightstorm felt somewhat annoyed.
"What in the name of StarClan are you doing?" he hissed.
Graywhisker looked relieved for a moment after what Nightstorm had said. "Oh, you're still fine… Good thing, since I came to talk to you about something…"
Nightstorm didn't feel like talking. In fact, he didn't feel like doing very much at all. He thought of another way to question why Graywhisker wanted to talk to him. "Why aren't you at the… The vigil?" asked Nightstorm, trying to escape the conversation.
"Sandfur's vigil," corrected Graywhisker.
Nightstorm wanted to push that thought out of his head too. Had Graywhisker really come to talk about… No. Nightstorm didn't want to talk about that in the slightest.
Still, Graywhisker continued with what he had been saying before. "I could actually ask you the same thing. Why isn't Nightstorm, Sandfur's best friend, attending her own vigil? I know why, so it doesn't matter to me. Anyhow, there is a problem and I can only talk to you about it while everyone else is grieving."
Nightstorm took a deep breath. He didn't want to hear what Graywhisker had to say, but would do it anyway out of politeness. Perhaps this was Graywhisker's way of grieving. After all, it seemed like FireClan's recent loss had deeply struck his heart.
"Fine…" replied Nightstorm, "What is it?"
"The… Sandfur's death…" said Graywhisker sadly as Nightstorm noticed him tear up a little. "I don't think it was an accident like everyone is saying it was. I think there is something more to it. I mean, is it really a coincidence that Lakeheart dies of an 'accident' and as soon as Sandfur gets onto somebody, Firepelt in this case, she…? She dies. And not to mention Oakshade dies this morning in a similar 'accident'."
"I don't know," Nightstorm uttered. "Why are you telling me this?"
Graywhisker appeared somewhat taken aback by the cold response. "I mean… We have to investigate, right? You can't tell me these are all accidents. Something is happening and we have to reveal it to the Clans before it's too late."
Nightstorm wasn't phased by Graywhisker's ideas. "Too late? What does that mean- No, you know what, I don't care. Nothing is going on… Let's just… I don't know, maybe… Move on?"
"Are you really going to leave Sandfur's death in vain?" questioned Graywhisker as Nightstorm walked to his nest, "She died for this case! We have to finish what she started!"
"Then why not just tell the whole Clan so they can help? Why do you need my help specifically?" yelled Nightstorm.
Graywhisker's voice became much quieter all of a sudden. "That's the problem… We can't trust anybody in this Clan… You can't trust anyone, I know that already, you only trusted Sandfur… I don't really trust anyone either, but I can trust you."
"Can you stop saying her name?" Nightstorm was too tired to think of a good response, "Go away right now, I need to sleep."
Graywhisker sighed, nodded quickly, and left the den. Now Nightstorm was alone inside a giant den. It felt strange because usually there would be some cats in the den, some warriors, but it was just him. He tried to sleep, but the question kept bothering him. Was Sandfur murdered? Don't think about that. But if she was… Don't think about it; move on as you did before. Were they really all accidents? Of course, they were, but that's not important, just forget. But if they weren't, I could investigate for myself… A spark lit up inside his head. He could no longer ignore Sandfur's death. He had to do something.