Since it's Friday and all (woot!) I had time to bring up the next chapter already. I had the best time writing this one, especially the end, which I've had the idea for ever since I first started writing this fic. Thanks to all reviewers, and I hope you like this chappie!
Firestar called a Clan meeting the next dawn. Leafpool stumbled out of her den, startled from the early call, and joined the other cats to listen to her father.
"Cats of ThunderClan," he called from the Highledge, "I cannot say how happy I am to have Graystripe with us once more. But Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw, and Spiderleg's patrol brings other news. ShadowClan has been hunting in our territory. We successfully drove them off today, but that doesn't mean they won't return."
Yowls of anger rose from the cats, and Firestar stopped to acknowledge them before speaking again. "Our warriors have done well today, and I wish to honor one apprentice for that. Whitepaw, come forward please."
The she-cat looked astonished, and it was only after a prod from Sorreltail that she leaped up, scrambling beneath the Highledge to meet Firestar as he leaped down.
"Whitepaw," meowed Firestar, "Brambleclaw tells me that you fought well against ShadowClan today, and I wish to grant you your warrior name." He lifted his head up to the twilight sky, to the first gleaming star that shone like a drop of dew against the dusky sky. "I, Firestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior anscestors to look down upon this apprentice. She has trained hard to learn the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn."
He looked down at Whitepaw. "Whitepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code above all else, to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"
Whitepaw's green eyes gleamed as she replied, "Yes, I do."
"Then, by the powers of StarClan, I grant you your warrior name," announced Firestar. "Whitepaw, from this moment onward you shall be known as Whitewhisker. StarClan honors your bravery and your loyalty, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan."
He rested his muzzled on her head, and, after giving his shoulder the traditional lick, she bounded over to join Spiderleg and the other warriors. Brightheart and Cloudtail, her parents, covered her with proud licks, and her mentor Brackenfur looked just as proud as she did herself. Firestar let the voices call her new warrior name for a couple of heartbeats, and then yowled for silence once more.
"Brook and Stormfur stayed the night with us," he meowed, "But it is time for them to return to the Tribe. The thanks of ThunderClan go with them, for they have brought our deputy back."
Calls of thanks and agreement rose from the cats, and the meeting began to break up. Only Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Firestar, and Graystripe remained, Sunpaw at his side. Leafpool lagged behind, watching them, not wanting to interfere.
Firestar dipped his head to his best friend's son. "Good-bye," he meowed. "Thank you for all you did."
"I would do anything for my father," Stormfur replied, "And the Clans."
Brambleclaw touched noses with the gray tom. "Good luck in the mountains," he meowed. "It was good to see you again."
"You too," Stormfur mewed. "I'm glad I got to see the Clans' new home."
Leafpool watched her sister press her muzzle against Stormfur's, mewing a good-bye. "Don't go falling off any mountains!"
Stormfur's whiskers twitched. "Don't worry. Brook'll make sure I'm safe."
The Tribe she-cat nodded. "Stoneteller says that the Tribe of Rushing Water will never forget the our friends in the Clans," she meowed.
Glancing at each other, the other three cats left, leaving Graystripe alone to say good-bye to his son. The ThunderClan deputy touched his nose to Stormfur's ear. "Are you sure you don't want to stay with the Clans?"
The prey-hunter shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry. But the mountains are where I belong now. It's where Feathertail's spirit is, where she died. I don't want to leave her."
"You have always been loyal to her," Graystripe commented quietly. "And I know you did all you could to save her. I don't blame you, Stormfur."
Stormfur looked relieved, and he pushed his nose into Graystripe's thick fur for a few heartbeats. He suddenly looked very much like a young kit. "Good-bye, Father," he whispered.
Graystripe's eyes were full of sadness as he licked his son's head. He didn't say anything for a few heartbeats, and then he murmured, "I understand."
Brook, who had been hovering around a foxlength or so away from them, took a nervous step foward. "It was good to meet the father of Stormfur," she mewed.
Graystripe touched noses with her. "Thanks for all your help."
Stormfur stood back beside Brook, casting a last, long look around the camp. "Watch out for Sunpaw."
Graystripe nodded, for the first time a glimmer of spirit shining through his sorrow. Leafpool wondered how much he had relied on the young cat during their time spent together. The ThunderClan deputy stood watching, motionless, as Stormfur and Brook made their way through the thorns. The two mud-slicked cats padded towards the horizon, on their way back to their home in the mountains, and it was not long before they disappeared altogether.
Still Graystripe stood watching. Cold leaf-bare winds blew around his fur, but he didn't seem to feel them. After a while Firestar appeared, and he sat down next to his friend, brushing his flame-colored pelt against his deputy's dark gray one. They stood next to each other for a long time, not saying anything. Perhaps, after being friends for so long, they did not need to.
&&&
Leafpool circled in her nest as the sun went down. Sleep was harder to reach now, though the day itself had been relaxing. Whitewhisker held her vigil at the top of the cliffs. Graystripe was falling back into his old place in the Clan. And something in Squirrelflight had gone right. She could feel it. And Firestar, Firestar was happier than she had ever seen him, since before that long-ago patrol when they had seen the first monster, ripping through the forest.
Everything is working out for everyone else, Leafpool thought, thinking wistfully of Crowfeather. But why can't it go right for me?
When she finally did reach the lands of dreaming, she was hunting. The area she was in was unfamiliar, and the sun was setting, dying the sky dusky and dark, a glimmer of starshine glowing through. The moon was visible, but it was only a pale imprint high in the air.
Prey was hard to find, but when Leafpool crept under a peat bush she saw a crow pecking on the ground in front of her. She crouched, her eyes narrow. Crows were among the hardest of birds to catch, as they were cunning like foxes, but this one seemed stupid, to be standing on the ground, unaware of her presence. It held enough meat to fill one of the elders' bellies.
She unsheathed her claws and padded forward a few more steps, but then paused. An unexpected but somehow familiar scent reached her glands, and she lifted her head to sniff again. As she did, a silver blur leaped out of the undergrowth opposite her, pinning the crow to the ground.
Leafpool realized that the stranger did not have ThunderClan scent, and she drew breath to cry a warning. But before she could the cat looked up, the bird in its jaws, and Leafpool recognized her with a jolt. Feathertail.
"I'm dreaming," she whispered.
"You are, Leafpool," Feathertail murmured in her soft voice, taking a step towards her. She still held the crow, but lightly, as to not harm it, and she spoke around the feathers. As Leafpool looked on, she gently set it on the ground, holding its wings with her paws.
"Feathertail, I'm so sorry!" Leafpool mewed, dipping her head. "About Crowfeather. I know you loved him, and so you should. I won't say anything to him, I promise. He won't love another until he sees you in StarClan."
"Leafpool," Feathertail mewed, lifting her head from the crow. Her blue eyes sparkled in the dusky twilight. As the medicine cat watched, she retracted her claws. The crow sprang free and with a hoarse claw lofted into the air, circling around them.
"How I wish that I caught that bird," Feathertail meowed, following it with her eyes. "But I know that I cannot. I can hold it prisoner against its will, when I know that, in its secret heart, it yearns to be free?"
Leafpool realized that she wasn't talking about the bird. She was speaking of a cat, and, as she watched the blue-black crow wing its way through the sky, she knew which cat.
"Had I lived," Feathertail mewed, "Crowfeather and I would have perhaps remained together. But I did not. I fell to save him, Leafpool. Died to give him more time to live. For my tale was finished in the land of the Tribe. But Crowfeather's was just beginning."
Leafpool wasn't sure she understood, and she turned to watch the crow again. It flapped to the base of a tree nearby and pushed its black beak into the dirt. When it lifted its head again, it clutched something there. Not a grub, but a leaf. A brown leaf, crossed with darker muddied markings, like tabby fur. Leafpool gasped, and whirled around to look at Feathertail, but the silver she-cat was beginning to fade. Leafpool pricked her ears to hear the voice one last time.
"I give my permission, Leafpool, and I will look down on you both. All I wish is for Crowfeather...and you, to be happy. That is all I ever wanted, you know. For everyone to be happy."
What'll happen next? I'll get the next chapter out soon, I promise!
PS- I'm actually allergic to cats!