Chapter Twenty-four: Clouds
Everyone has a secret. A forbidden relationship, an attempted murder.
But all secrets come out with time.
Time... and vengeance.
xxx
Swift looked up at the starry sky. The den she and Blizzard stayed in-platonically, of course-had a perfect view of the stars. They glittered in her gray fur.
"Do you see anything?" Blizzard asked, padding up to stand next to her. Swift shook her head.
"I wish I did. So much has changed in our lives lately. I was captured by the Twolegs... perfectly horrible, but without, I wouldn't have gained a friend-Windstar." She looked at him, affection in her eyes. "And I wouldn't have been reunited with things."
"From every bad thing, comes a good thing," Blizzard murmured, pressing his muzzle into her fur for a moment before silently walking back into the den to go to sleep.
"Does it?" Swift asked the sky.
"Do not fear, Swift," Came a deep voice, achingly familiar.
She turned slowly to find an elderly badger watching her, stars in her fur.
"Midnight!" She cried softly. "I was worried about you..." She looked at her paws.
"Why?" Midnight asked.
"Well... Badgers don't have anything like SkyPack, or StarClan, so-"
"Worry not," Midnight assured her. "Fear you should not have for me."
"What?" The wolf-dog's tail went up in alert. "Then... who should I fear for?"
"Fear for ones who have done much," Midnight urged her. "Enemies are friends. Torn they will be. The rest I cannot tell you."
Swift closed her eyes slowly with annoyance. "I had a feeling that you would say that." She sighed.
"You have gift," Midnight told her. "Walk with other ancestors, you can. Help."
Slowly, the badger began to fade, leaving just a wolf-dog, looking up at the sky.
(AN: And that concludes my little Yoda Midnight portion)
xxx
Midnight lumbered up to the pale tabby she-cat, who looked into the pond with amber eyes.
"Crowfeather..." She murmured sadly. Her nose twitched, and she looked up sharply at the sight of the badger. "Midnight?"
"She is told," Midnight said solemnly, then gazed off into the distance, beginning to wander off...
"Midnight!" Leafpool called suddenly. "Can you perhaps tell Swift to give Crowfeather a message from me...?"
Sadly, Midnight shook her head. "That I cannot do," She admitted. "Feared is Swift; it will take a while before accepted. Walked in his dreams, you once did; perhaps you can again."
Without another word, she walked off into the darkness, disappearing.
Leafpool sighed. Why had StarClan taken her so soon? Why had so many medicine cats been killed so soon?
"Do you think Calicofur will be able to handle it?" She asked the cat limping to her side. Cinderpelt gave her former apprentice a quick lick on the ear.
"Of course she will," She soothed. "If Calicofur could get a queen through that hard a kitting, she can do anything."
Leafpool tilted her head from side to side. "I just... it's hard, you know?" She murmured. "Leaving your family behind so soon. My father, my mother, my sister... my niece."
"You get used to it," Cinderpelt mewed. "One cat I thought I'd never see again was my mother, Frostfur. But I did."
"It is nice to see you again," Leafpool admitted. "But I'll miss my other friends, like Mothwing and Sorreltail..."
Her voice became very soft.
"Crowfeather."
"You'll still be able to watch over him," Cinderpelt reasoned. "All of them."
"But I won't be able to be with them. And isn't that what matters?"
Cinderpelt's blue eyes glowed in the eternal starlight.
"What matters is that we do all we can."
xxx
"We should really tell Firestar about Leafpool," Spiderleg murmured, watching as Calicofur sorted through her herbs.
"She's his daughter!" The medicine cat protested.
"Yes," He admitted. "But you need to be recognized by StarClan as an official, full medicine cat. Honestly."
Calicofur looked up. "Oh, all right," She muttered. "I'll tell him."
Right as she said this, Robinpelt called to Spiderleg, "Come on, the patrol needs to start? Are you just going to chat with she-cats all day?"
Spiderleg shrugged as he stood. "Wonder what's got him like a furball," He wondered. "He should be pretty happy."
As the black tom padded over to the middle of the camp, Brambleclaw muttered something in Robinpelt's ear. The younger tom got an annoyed expression on his face and stalked away.
Calicofur could see the burning jealousy in his eyes. Of course the Clan couldn't know what was really bothering her brother. No one knew that the kits weren't his.
Calicofur had watched moons ago when her brother began to fall in love with the beautiful young apprentice named Dreampaw...
Robinpelt gazed mournfully as the pale ginger she-cat placed a mouse at the fresh-kill pile, then looked eager for her mentor and grandfather's response. Calicofur shook her head. Her brother had been infatuated with Brambleclaw and Squirrellflight's kit-Dreampaw-for suns now.
"Why don't you just ask her if she wants to eat with you?" She asked.
Robinpelt shook his head with vigor. "She won't want to."
"Oh, Robinpelt having she-cat problems?" Leafpool asked as she padded to the mouth of the den. "Calicofur, what are these?"
"Nettle seeds," The apprentice answered quickly, then turned back to her brother. "You'll never know if you don't take a chance," She urged him. Robinpelt gazed at his sister for a moment, then dipped his head.
"I will."
Calicofur shook her head. So much had changed since then. Robinpelt had confessed his love, Dreamcloud had rejected him for Windstar, the kits had been born.
Spiderleg...
The image of Robinpelt acting so angry disturbed Calicofur. He wasn't hiding his true feelings well... No, the thought of her brother doing something terribly wrong was impossible.
When they were kits, Robinpelt and Calicofur had been close. They had been the same as apprentices, but once Calicofur decided to be Leafpool's apprentice, everything changed. It was as if they weren't in the same universe anymore.
"When it comes down to it," Calicofur whispered to herself. "Who will I choose to be loyal to? My best friend, or my brother? My calling, or my love?"
xxx
"They've already spent the night here," Windstar reasoned.
"They're wretched creatures!" Nightwing declared. "They don't deserve to be on lands ruled by the Clans."
"'Oh, yeah, it'll be fine, you'll be accepted,'" Swift muttered to Blizzard in a mocking, grumpy tone. The sarcastic young wolf-dog's amber eyes were annoyed.
"It'll be fine," Blizzard assured her, giving her ear a lick. "As long as..." He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
"The fact is," Windstar yowled to his Clan. "Swift and Blizzard saved me. I think they deserve to be in our territory, to have a home."
"I agree!" Applebird voice her thoughts. Her hazel eyes were lighter than usual, and Windstar suspected that she had made up with her former mate.
"Tawnypelt?" He asked his deputy. Her green eyes showed that she was mulling things over, but she raised her head slowly...
"You're right," She called. "They deserve it!"
"Finally!" Swift and Blizzard said together. Windstar rolled his eyes.
Yowls of agreement came. It seemed like very few cats were worried about the pair staying, and Windstar closed his eyes, content. Life would be perfect if his kits were in the Clan right now.
Besides the Twoleg thing, but he highly doubted they were coming back.
Little did he know, there were bigger problems ahead.
xxx
Dreamcloud winced as she heard the thin wailing coming from Firestar's den; her mother's voice. It was joined by Sandstorm's, and she knew what was going on. Slowly, she stood and padded into the den.
"She told you too, right?" She asked her family. Firestar, numb with shock, simply nodded. Dreamcloud pressed her pelt up close to his; they had always been closer than most grandparents and grandkits.
"You should go back to the nursery," Firestar whispered. "Don't want your kits to get cold."
Dreamcloud nodded, licked both her mother and grandmother, and walked back to the den to curl around her kits. The dream couldn't have been true...
Could it?
"They are blessed and cursed, you know," And all-too-familiar voice whispered in her ear, and she winced.
Leafpool's voice.
"Blessed because they are the kits of the Chosen, and cursed because of their heritage as well. The other side of it. Blackstar and Tigerstar's blood has merged..."
Dreamcloud shook her head, clearing the voice away. "If you're implying that the nightmare is coming true," She hissed under her breath, gazing at her kits. "Then you're wrong." A hard glint came into her amber eyes.
"If anybody wants to harm my kits, they'll have to go through me first. And that isn't happening."
xxx
Since she's no longer pregnant, even though she's nursing kits, Dreamcloud's starting to go back to hard-core warrior mode. Except, at the same time, she's a mama, which makes her worse...
Btw, which has been better in your opinion? Sunlit Snowdrift, or Invasion?