Windstar got up off the ground under the hightree. He was really embarrassed, and he ran back to his den. Blinkingeyes was right. He HAD never laughed since Stringstar had left.
Once he was in his den, he tried in a desparate attempt to fall asleep, but failed. All he could think about was Stringstar. And he had a feeling something bad was going to happen to her.
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Everyone in the camp stared at their leader. These were her last 2 lives, and everyone had a bad feeling that something was going to happen.
Suddenly they heard a screech. "A ROUGE IS ON OUR TERRITORY!" Suddenly, everyone knew it was Fantail. Softpelt leapt away from the camp, and jumped onto Fantail. They fought, tooth to fur, and claw to face, until, eventually, Softpelt was dead and Fantail was severely hurt.
No one bothered to call the medicine cat to help Fantail. He deserved to die. Instead, everyone stared in horror as Softpelt lay, dead, on the ground. Everyone mourned him, and he was buried. Softpelt, the deputy of MudClan, was dead.
Stringstar had to pick a new deputy. She thought about it for a while. When she couldn't decide, she went to go hunting, just to ease her mind. She would think about it when she got back.
But she fell asleep on a rock, and by the time she got back, it was time for her to announce her deputy.
She looked desperately around. When her eyes landed on Shadepelt, she knew he was the one destined for the position. "Shadepelt, I want you to be the new deputy." She didn't bother to do the proper ceremony. She was to tired. She fell asleep, and fell off the top of her den, landing on her head.
"MISTHEART!" Shadepelt screamed. "MISTHEART, I THINK STRINGSTAR IS LOSING A LIFE!"
Stringstar was up in StarClan. "Where am I?" She asked.
Whistlesong came up to her. "You are losing a life. You are sent here until your body recovers and you can go back."
"But I want to go back now!" Stringstar protested.
"No." Whistlesong refused. "This is your last life. Be careful with it. Don't do something stupid again to waste this one!"
"Hey! I was tired!" Stringstar screamed, but Whistlesong had disappeared, and she was back in her body.
When she awoke, everyone was crowding around her. She got up, and groaned. "Uggg… what happened?"
"You fell off of your den, and landed on your head." Mistheart explained. "But don't worry. You'll be ok."
Stringstar groaned again. "Uggg… my head hurts. I'm going to go back to bed."
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Windstar had been on a hunting patrol, and when he got back, he was very tired. He had caught about 6 prey, and he decided to take a magpie. He took it to his den, where he ate it, alone. When everyone in the clan was asleep, at moonhigh, and he had a feeling something horrible had happened to Stringstar. But he fell asleep in no time.
Windstar was on a hill. A robin was flying right over his head. He wanted to leap at it, when the robin turned into Whistlesong.
"AHHHH!" He screamed. "What the hell? Were you not just a robin?"
Whistlesong laughed. She always loved to tease Windstar. But she suddenly turned serious, and got to what she was going to say. "Stringstar is on her last life." She explained. "She is going to die soon. She will go in a battle with Blinkingeyes. Don't try to stop her. This is the path we have chosen for her."
Windstar awoke. Blinkingeyes would never attack Stringstar. He said in his mind. StarClan must be wrong. Blinkingeyes and Stringstar are best friends. They would never hurt each other. StarClan must be wrong. Windstar felt he had nothing to worry about. But, he was wrong.
That day he decided to talk to Blinkingeyes. "Hey." He said. "I need to talk to you. Meet me in my den."
When Blinkingeyes walked in, Windstar asked her a question. "You would never try to hurt Stringstar, right?"
Blinkingeyes stared at him for a moment. "Stringstar betrayed us. She is no longer my friend. If she did something horrible to us, then I would hurt her. But I would never hurt her because of something minor, like stealing prey."
Windstar continued his feelings of not being worried. Stringstar would never do anything horrible to the clan.
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Stringstar was, once again, walking towards LeafClan territory. She needed to talk to Windstar. It seemed that they were crossing the boarder, as if they were claiming some of FlowerClan territory as their own. She didn't like this. She felt that FlowerClan territory belonged to MudClan, because a former member of FlowerClan was a part of her clan.
She walked to Windstar's den. "Are you trying to steal our territory!" She asked him.
Windstar gave him a long look. "I would never do that!"
"I'm talking about FlowerClan territory! It should belong to US because we have a former FlowerClan member!"
"Are you saying that you only excepted Grubpelt into your clan so that you could take their territory!"
"NO!" Stringstar stared at Windstar. "I'm not that mean! I took her because she needed a clan. It was HER idea that we should have the territory!"
Blinkingeyes gave Stringstar a long look. "Get out of our territory…" She hissed. "Or I'll rip you to pieces!"
Stringstar stared back at Blinkingeyes. "I'm talking to Windstar, not you!"
Blinkingeyes started to come forward, when Windstar remembered his dream. "Stringstar, I think it would be best if you just left."
Stringstar gave him a look of disgust. "Fine!" She spat. "But if I EVER catch LeafClan on FlowerClan territory again, you're all dead!"
Chapter 2
Windstar went back to his den. He knew Blinkingeyes was going to do something to make Stringstar mad, like going to FlowerClan territory and stealing prey. He decided to keep and eye on Blinkingeyes. He walked to the warriors den, and watched all the sleeping warriors from outside.
But eventually he too fell asleep. Blinkingeyes woke up, and got out of her den. She took Coldfur and Leafpaw with her, and walked towards FlowerClan territory.
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Stringstar knew she should take some warriors with her to FlowerClan territory. She jumped up on top of her den, when Shadepelt walked up to her. "I don't think it is a good idea to stand up there anymore…" Shadepelt informed her.
"Oh." Stringstar said softly, as soft as the squeak of a mouse. "I guess I'll just find a new place to announce meetings." She walked to the center of the camp. "All cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather around the center of the camp for a clan meeting."
When all the cats had come, she started to talk. "I want some of us to go to FlowerClan to make sure LeafClan doesn't try to take over. I want Grubpelt to come with me, along with Vultureclaw, Nightfoor, and Hamfur."
All the cats walked to FlowerClan territory, Where Grubpelt showed them the best places to hide. Sure enough, Some LeafClan cats were scented, and all the MudClan cats jumped out of their spots.
"ATTACK!" Stringstar yowled. She ran right at Blinkingeyes, because she knew it was her idea. She dug her claws into her back, but Blinkingeyes quickly threw her off. Blinkingeyes picked her up by the scruff, but Stringstar struggled free. She turned around, and raked her claws against Blinkingyes flank, but Blinkingyes jumped back and bit her ear.
Stringstar wasn't paying attention, and pulled away. She got a giant rip in her ear. "MEOW!" She screeched. Suddenly, Vultureclaw came to help her out. She gave Blinkingeyes a warning swipe in front of her face.
Stringstar suddenly gasped, "This is MY fight, Vultureclaw!"
Vultureclaw walked away, knowing that the two cats needed to settle this once and for all.
Stringstar leapt onto Blinkingeyes's back, wrong move. Blinkingeyes threw her off, and Stringstar landed with her belly up. Blinkingeyes then jumped on to her belly, a powerful force coming with her, and killed her.
Blinkingeyes and the rest came home. "We have FlowerClan territory!" They said excitedly.
"WHAT?" Windstar exclaimed. "You snuck off without telling me! You can't just go and attack whenever you want! You need my permission!"
Blinkingeyes suddenly knew she did everything wrong. "I'm sorry." She said. "But I killed Stringstar, so she can't kill us anymore!"
Windstar suddenly jerked forward. "YOU KILLED HER!" He started breathing really hard and slowly, some wheezes coming out.
Blinkingeyes then remembered that Windstar had loved Stringstar, and that he probably still did. "I'm-I'm sorry…" Then she felt sad. Stringstar was her friend.
Windstar started shaking. "StarClan, why have you done this to me?" He whispered. A tear fell from his eye. "Why?"
Blinkingeyes stared at him again. "I'm really sorry." She said one last time, before going to her den to get more sleep.
Once Windstar was in his den, he broke out crying. "STRINGSTAR!"
Windstar hadn't come out of his den for a whole day. Curvetail was starting to worry. He walked in. "Windstar?"
"Go away."
Curvetail walked in anyways. The ground was damp, probably from Windstar crying. "I think you need to come out now."
When Windstar lifted up his head to protest, Curvetail saw his eyes were red and really watery. Most of the fur on his head was wet, and his whiskers all drooped downward. Curvetail suddenly knew not to bother him.
"Never mind. Stay in there as long as you want." He said. "Just don't starve yourself. I'll go get you some fresh kill."
Curvetail went to go get some fresh kill.
"How is Windstar?" Waterclaw said, Coldfur right next to him, listening for an answer.
"Not so great." Curvetail said. "His eyes are red and watery, and his face is all wet. Even his whiskers are downward."
Waterclaw sucked in air through his teeth. "I hope my daughter is happy in StarClan, that's all I have to say."
In about 2 hours, when Curvetail went to go check on Windstar, he found that Windstar had only taken one bite out of the mouse. "Aren't you going to eat?" Curvetail asked him.
"I'm not hungry." Windstar replied. "Please, just go away."
1 hour later, Windstar jumped on the hightree, looking worse then ever. Now, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked as if he were trying to drown himself in tears. He started to talk. "I think StarClan is punishing me." He said.
"No way!" Coldfur shouted. "They love all of us! What the hell are you thinking?"
"I think they are trying to punish me because I have loved someone from a different clan." Windstar continued, ignoring what Coldfur had said.
Everyone started to protest. "StarClan don't hate you! You heard the stories about Greystripe and Silverstream, Bluestar and Oakheart, our legendary ancestors! And StarClan loved them all!"
"SILENCE!" Windstar screamed, and everyone hushed. "I am going to go to the river."
"YOUR NOT GOING TO KILL YOURSELF, ARE YOU!" Blinkingeyes shouted. "It was my fault, not StarClan's!"
"I'm not going to kill myself." Windstar said. "I'm going to look at my reflection, and see how horrible I look."
"Oh." Blinkingeyes seemed ashamed. "I'm sorry."
"Why don't you just look at the puddle you've made with your tears!" Curvetail suggested.
Windstar automatically knew that if he made a puddle, he would look horrible, but he looked a lot more horrible than he expected.
"I'm getting way to bent out of shape from this." He said, with a long sigh. "I suppose everyone loses their love ones."
"Tell me about it." Waterclaw said. "I've already lost all of mine but one!"
Windstar took a long sigh. "I want 2 patrols. One hunting, one border. Waterclaw, take Leafpaw with you on a border patrol. Coldfur, Blinkingeyes, and Greenpaw, go on a hunting patrol."
Once everyone was gone, Windstar looked up at the sky. It was almost dusk, and he could see one star, the brightest one, which he guessed was Stringstar.
"Stringstar, Stringpelt, Stringpaw, Stringkit, I've always loved you, no mater how old you were. And I always will."
