A rush of sweet berry juice flooded Heronpaw's jaws and coated his tongue. He could feel the chill of the liquid race down his throat and spread from his ears to his tail-tip. He felt cold, like stone. He couldn't make his body move. A flash of panic lit up his mind as he tried to breathe deeply again and found that he couldn't make his lungs work. He felt like he was choking on nothing until…
He opened his eyes. He was not where he had been before.
A lush, green forest had replaced the tranquil, rock-lined clearing. The ferns and cedars around him were familiar. Was this CedarClan territory? He flexed his muscles, testing if he could move them again. They responded like they should and Heronpaw rose to his paws.
The air around him was thick with smells of prey and new growth. This forest, wherever it was, was in the full swing of Greenleaf. Heronpaw looked around and saw birds flitting from tree to tree. A fat squirrel shot past him and streaked up a tree trunk. Tiny motes of pale light floated about Heronpaw's head. He watched as one came close to landing on his nose but was chased away by his breath.
An unexpected voice drifted to his ears from behind him.
"Hello, Heronpaw." The voice said.
Heronpaw spun around and came face to face with a tiny white and gray she-cat. Her blue eyes shone just like her mother's as she looked the apprentice up and down. Her pelt looked soft and glowed with health. She still had tufts of kit-fur around her ears, just as he remembered her. Starlight swirled around her tiny paws and her form gave off a soft light. Heronpaw felt a lump grow in his throat at the sight of his lost littermate.
"Dovekit." He whispered. The little she-cat cocked her head to the side and purred.
"I'm glad you're here." She said. She lifted herself up on her tip-toes and stretched so she could touch her little pink nose to his. Heronpaw was shocked at how small she was. He remembered her as being little and sickly but still about his own size. Now he towered over her like a tree towered over a sapling.
"I know why you've come." Dovekit said in her tiny voice. It was still that of a kit, but it exuded a wisdom far beyond her form. Her eyes were deep and thoughtful and they reflected infinite starlight.
"You do?" Heronpaw finally managed to say. Dovekit purred.
"Of course I do. What kind of sister would I be if I didn't watch over my littermates?"
Heronpaw purred back. Dovekit's purr faded and she turned from him.
"Walk with me." She said.
Heronpaw fell into step beside the little cat. She took such tiny steps that Heronpaw had to slow his gait considerably so he didn't leave her behind. Despite her stubby legs, Dovekit walked with a grace that rivaled a full-grown she-cat's.
"What you have seen is very troubling." Dovekit said after a moment. "It forebodes something dark. Something even we in StarClan cannot see."
Heronpaw's stomach lurched.
"What do you mean? Isn't the white cat from StarClan?"
Dovekit stopped walking and looked up into her brother's face.
"She is not." She said. Heronpaw felt like he should find this news profoundly disturbing. Instead, he looked into Dovekit's wise eyes and felt calm.
"Who is she?" Heronpaw asked.
"I don't know." Dovekit said. "But you must find out." They continued walking. The forest seemed to move before their paws, allowing them to walk without fear of tripping over roots or falling into bramble bushes.
"How?" Heronpaw's anxiety was creeping back now that he couldn't look directly into Dovekit's calming face.
"She has been forgotten by those of us in StarClan, but there are some that walk with you that remember." Dovekit said.
Heronpaw was confused.
"How can a regular cat remember what StarClan has forgotten?" He asked, becoming desperate.
Dovekit paused and turned to face Heronpaw.
"Because StarClan has chosen to forget." She said quietly.
There was a moment of silence between the two cats as birdsong filled the air and the swish of the needly canopy mimicked the wind. Heronpaw was struck by a deep feeling in his gut. This was bigger than he had imagined. It was something that even StarClan wasn't willing to face.
"There is a shadow." Dovekit went on. "It is hiding in plain sight, waiting for a time to strike." Her eyes grew wide and her little ears flattened. "I wish I could see what it is for you, but I can't. It's beyond my sight, Heronpaw."
Heronpaw's chest tightened.
"What can I do?" He breathed.
"Uncover the past." Dovekit said. "Find what StarClan has locked away." Dovekit locked eyes with Heronpaw. She searched them for a moment, raw emotion spilling from their green depths. "You've grown so much." She whispered. The lump in Heronpaw's throat returned. He leaned down and delicately touched noses with the tiny cat. She closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them.
"Only those older than the blizzards themselves will remember." She said in a faraway voice. It echoed strangely in the empty forest around them.
Dovekit leaned up to Heronpaw's ear. He dropped his head so she could reach it easier.
"The lake will only freeze once again." She whispered. She pulled away and suddenly her presence was gone completely. Heronpaw blinked and opened his mouth to call for her. Instead, he found himself curled at the edge of the pool again. Dovekit's warm, milky scent was gone, replaced only by the smell of wet rock and water. A stab of grief pierced his heart.
Heronpaw made to get up but his limbs were stiff and cold. How long had he been asleep? It hadn't seemed like long but his body felt as if it had been motionless for days. He flexed his muscles in an attempt to wake them. Warm blood rushed to his limbs and Heronpaw rose to his paws. He looked to his side and found Petalpaw still asleep at the water's edge.
Heronpaw sat and began cleaning one paw as he thought. The revelation that the white cat was not from StarClan was troubling to say the least. How was that even possible? He remembered Dovekit saying that StarClan had chosen to forget. What had made them turn their backs on the white cat? Could she be the source of the darkness Dovekit could not see? And what cat in the entire forest was older than the blizzards themselves?
The questions in his mind made his stomach swirl and clench. This visit hadn't made anything clearer. In fact, it made things even more confusing. He could only hope that Petalpaw was getting the answers she needed to help the Clan. A dark and terrible future meant nothing if the Clan didn't live through leaf-bare to see it.
Petalpaw shifted. Heronpaw jumped. A heartbeat passed before Petalpaw's eyes flew open and she gasped loudly. Heronpaw took a step back, alarmed. Petalpaw looked wildly around for a moment until her eyes fell on Heronpaw. They went from wide and fearful to soft and calm almost instantly.
"Look to the dawn and follow his heart." Petalpaw said. Her voice had the same faraway quality that Dovekit's had taken on. "That's what she said." Her voice faded back to its normal tone.
"Who?" Heronpaw asked as he stepped forward to help Petalpaw to her weakened legs.
"Plumleaf's mentor, Dewberry. She came to me and gave me a prophecy." Petalpaw's voice shook with excitement. She looked at Heronpaw, her eyes shining. "It must be about Dawnheart!"
Heronpaw agreed. If only his prophecy had been so transparent.
"Come on, we need to get home." Petalpaw said. She leaned back in a long stretch. Her tail kinked high over her back. She straightened up and headed straight for the tunnel. Heronpaw bounded after her.
They left through the rocky tunnel at a much faster pace than they had entered it. Heronpaw could feel Petalpaw's impatience and he shared it. The sooner they got home the sooner they could find out what Dawnheart had to do with the catmint. Every moment that passed was a moment that any case of whitecough could worsen into deadly greencough.
Heronpaw made the conscious decision to put his own dream at the back of his mind until his Clan had the herbs they needed. Dovekit hadn't sounded that urgent and the white cat could wait until CedarClan was safe. Heronpaw put all of his thought and energy into the task at hand; get down the mountain and get home without being seen by a rival Clan.
The apprentices burst from the crack in the mountainside and began their descent. The sun was high in the sky now and CedarClan was bound to be in a frenzy looking for the missing cats. Heronpaw tried not to think about how Ferntail and Kestrelfeather must be feeling. He focused intently on jumping from stone to stone down the steep incline that led to the Moontree cave.
The climb down the mountainside was hard work. Petalpaw's herbs had worn off by now and Heronpaw could feel hunger and tiredness dragging at his paws. He managed to stop Petalpaw and convince her to hunt before they crossed into AlderClan territory.
"We need the strength." He had said as she tried to protest.
In the present moment Heronpaw was stalking a skinny snow hare that he had spotted hiding amongst snow covered boulders on a slope. He kept low, silently cursing his dark coat. It would be all too easy for the hare to spot his black fur against the snow. Luckily the hare was distracted by something else. Heronpaw grew near enough to strike.
He tucked his paws under him and sank back on his haunches ready to pounce. He opened his mouth and drew in the chill air. The hare twitched. Heronpaw bunched his muscles.
Something was wrong.
Instincts taking over, Heronpaw flattened himself to the snow instead of pouncing. A heartbeat later a huge brown shape came crashing down from the rocks above, flattening the hare under its huge front paws. Heronpaw bit back a yowl of fear and surprise.
A cougar had been stalking the same prey as him.
Heronpaw's natural urge was to flee as fast as he could, but a voice somewhere beneath the terror told him that would just draw attention to him. The cougar was intent on its prey for the moment, but what if it caught a whiff of his fear scent? Heronpaw's thoughts jumped to Petalpaw who was scouring the nearby foliage for helpful herbs. She had no idea what was happening.
Heart banging against his rib cage, Heronpaw silently crept backwards. He was partially hidden by shrubs and boulders but his coat was still so obvious.
He couldn't tear his eyes away from the huge beast. It was vaguely shaped like a cat, with the same head shape and whiskered muzzle, but its body was wide and hard with muscle. Its tail was as thick as an apprentice's body and its ears were short and close to its head. Its paws were impossibly massive.
It bent to take its prey in its mouth revealing long, thick fangs. Heronpaw imagined those fangs sinking into his body as easily as his fangs pierced the flesh of a mouse. That's all he was to this creature. Prey.
The sound of pawsteps crunching through snow behind him made his heart sink. Petalpaw.
No. Turn around. He pleaded silently. The pawsteps came closer. The cougar raised its head, whiskers twitching on its blood-stained muzzle. A low growling sound rose from its throat. Without pausing to think, Heronpaw jumped to his feet and let out a strangled yowl.
The cougar's head snapped around and its cold brown eyes fixed on Heronpaw. There was a moment during which Heronpaw finally realized what he had just done and the cougar drew its lips back in a horrible snarl.
Heronpaw turned on his heel and fled.
He ran harder than he had ever run in his life. He heard the sound of the Cougar chasing after him through the roaring of blood in his ears. Its huge paws thundered across the rocks. Each impact terrified Heronpaw to his very core. He ran without purpose, scrabbling across the dull stone and around scraggly trees. Panic began to replace the air in his lungs.
An unearthly scream split the air. The high-pitched sound ripped at Heronpaw's ears and vibrated through his body down to his bones. He jumped so violently that he almost lost his footing. Ahead he could see more trees. If he could get to them he might be able to climb one and hide.
Suddenly a new sound pierced the air. A fierce, warbling yowl seemed to come from every direction at once. Heronpaw fought the urge to run away from the sound. He kept speeding towards the safety of tree cover.
The warning yowls and shrieks grew louder and more threatening as Heronpaw reached the trees. He shot up the nearest trunk with numb paws. He gripped the bark with all twenty of his claws. His heart felt like it was going to burst. Heronpaw looked wildly around for his pursuer.
The cougar had slowed to an angry pace just outside the tree line. The challenging yowls and screams of the invisible cats in the trees seemed to irritate it. It shook its bulky head and let out one more screech before turning tail and leaping back up the slope. Heronpaw's body shook as he watched it leap ten foxlengths with ease. With a thrash of its thick tail the cougar disappeared over a boulder and out of sight.
Heronpaw clung to his branch letting waves of terror wash over him. He had just been chased by a cougar. On purpose. His thoughts snapped back to Petalpaw. Where was she? Was she safe? Desperately, Heronpaw tried to get his body to move. It refused to budge. He stared down at the ground below him. There was no cougar there. It was safe.
Safe, anyway, until an entire patrol of AlderClan warriors came into view. They gathered around the tree Heronpaw had sheltered in and were staring up at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. The leader, a black tom with one white ear, stepped forward.
"Are you insane?" He demanded.
Heronpaw's claws finally relaxed their death grip on the branch.
"Have you seen my Clanmate?" He called back in a shaky voice. The black tom's amber eyes widened and he turned to his patrol. He muttered something to them and they ran off in the direction the cougar had gone.
"Please." Heronpaw croaked. "Please, you have to find her."
The black tom looked up at Heronpaw. His hard expression softened the smallest bit.
"Why don't you come down?" he called. Heronpaw focused his eyes on the distant, lichen spattered stone. The image spun before his eyes and before he knew it, he was sliding sideways off his branch and plummeting towards the ground.
. . .
Groggily, Heronpaw came to. His head hurt. His legs hurt. His paw really hurt. He opened his eyes with a grunt. His surroundings swam into view. He was in some sort of den. The scent of herbs crowded his nose and mouth and made him cough. Light streamed in through the crisscrossing branches over his head. The ground beneath him was soft with moss and feathers.
Petalpaw! His mind screamed. His eyes snapped all the way open and he struggled to get to his paws.
"Get down." A frustrated mew snapped. Heronpaw looked around to see a pale yellow and white tom sitting on the far side of the mossy den. He was sorting herbs into piles with swift movements of his small paws. Heronpaw recognized him. It was Finchfoot the AlderClan medicine cat.
"Where's Petalpaw?" Heronpaw demanded in an embarrassingly weak voice. Finchfoot glanced up at his patient with annoyed green eyes. He sniffed.
"She's alive if that's what you mean." The older cat said. Heronpaw's stomach lurched.
"What happened?" He demanded, struggling to get up again.
Finchfoot sighed and got up. He padded over and planted a firm paw on Heronpaw's side. Finchfoot shoved the apprentice back in his nest.
"I said stay still." He hissed. Heronpaw glared at the medicine cat. "Petalpaw is fine. Snakefeather and Mudmask found her before the cougar did." Finchfoot said.
Heronpaw sank back into his nest, relief washing over him.
"You're incredibly stupid you know." Finchfoot added. Heronpaw opened his mouth, indignant, but Finchfoot continued. "Even the smallest AlderClan kit knows never to antagonize a cougar." The medicine cat sniffed again and padded back to his herbs.
"Where is Petalpaw?" Heronpaw asked again. Finchfoot looked up from his work and rolled his eyes.
"She's explaining to Eaglestar why two CedarClan apprentices were on AlderClan land."
"She's a medicine cat." Heronpaw protested. "She doesn't need to- "
"Medicine cat apprentice." Finchfoot interrupted. "She can't just go wherever she likes."
Heronpaw opened his mouth to argue more but the arrival of more cats cut him off. Petalpaw was escorted into Finchfoot's den by the black tom from earlier.
"Eaglestar wants you to look after her while we decide what to do with them." The warrior said to Finchfoot.
Petalpaw's green eyes lit up when she saw Heronpaw and she pushed past her attendant and raced to her Clanmate's side. She shoved her muzzle against Heronpaw's and purred loudly.
"You're okay!" she cried into his fur. Her voice shook. Heronpaw rubbed his jaw against hers and purred back. Petalpaw suddenly pulled away. Heronpaw looked up at her and saw that she was staring awkwardly to the side. Finchfoot was glaring at her from a corner.
"Thank you. Nighthawk. I'll take it from here." The medicine cat said between gritted teeth. The black warrior dipped his head and pulled backwards out of the den.
There was a moment of silence.
"What in StarClan's name possessed you, girl?!" Finchfoot burst out.
Petalpaw gathered herself up and stood tall under the AlderClan cat's angry stare.
"I needed to speak to StarClan." She said, raising her chin.
"Without your mentor?" Finchfoot said incredulously.
"She sent me." Petalpaw shot back. Her mew wavered with the lie. Finchfoot's eyes narrowed and he scoffed.
"You're a terrible liar." He hissed.
Petalpaw flinched but didn't reply. Heronpaw wanted to defend his Clanmate, but he couldn't find the right words.
"When can we leave?" Petalpaw said, doing her best impression of Plumleaf's commanding voice. "We need to get back to our Clan right away."
"That's not up to me." Finchfoot said, turning back to his herbs. "You endangered the Clan by leading that cougar straight at us. I doubt Eaglestar is very happy."
Petalpaw opened her mouth to reply but closed it again. Instead, she sat down with a thump. Heronpaw sat up and pressed his flank to her side.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. "It's my fault we got caught."
Petalpaw looked at him with wide eyes.
"You saved me." She said simply. "I would've walked right into that cougar if you hadn't distracted it."
Heronpaw still felt sick. Was that really true?
"Don't worry." Petalpaw said, leaning into Heronpaw's side. "Eaglestar has no right to keep us here."
Feeling nervous, Heronpaw lowered his voice even more. "What did you tell him?"
Petalpaw cast a glance at Finchfoot who still had his back to them. "Nothing about the Greencough. It doesn't make sense," Petalpaw went on with a huff, "Why would Eaglestar risk more conflict by keeping us here?"
Heronpaw shrugged. The whole situation was odd. From what Heronpaw had heard, Clan leaders usually wanted intruders off of their territory as soon as possible. What was Eaglestar playing at?
They sat in silence for a while. Petalpaw eventually started grooming Heronpaw's fur and he returned the favor. Finchfoot muttered in the corner all the while.
As the light filtering in from the ceiling of the den began to gray and fade, an apprentice arrived with fresh-kill. The sight and smell of the rabbit made Heronpaw's jaws flood with water. He had forgotten how hungry he was. Finchfoot thanked the apprentice with surprising kindness and dragged the animal into the den. He busily tore the hind legs from the catch and tossed them to the apprentices.
Heronpaw dug into the fresh-kill. It wasn't much but he hardly imagined that AlderClan had much to spare in this harsh of a leaf-bare. Petalpaw nibbled at her piece, her eyes unfocused.
It had darkened completely outside before they got any news. A silver tabby she-cat stuck her head in the den and muttered something into Finchfoot's ear. The medicine cat grimaced but nodded and the she-cat retreated.
"What did she say?" Heronpaw demanded.
Finchfoot shot him a glare.
"You're awfully snappy for a cat in so much trouble." He said dryly. Then when Heronpaw reopened his mouth he said "You're to stay here overnight."
Petalpaw's head snapped up. "We can't!" she said. "We've wasted too much time already."
"You should've thought of that before tramping through our territory then." Finchfoot growled. He gathered a mouthful of herbs and stalked out of the den. Petalpaw watched him go with hatred in her eyes.
"I can't stand him!" she hissed. She turned to Heronpaw. Her voice turned desperate. "We have to get out of here."
Heronpaw nodded. He sat up and assessed his injuries. His old injury felt sore and his paws were aching from his mad dash from the cougar. Otherwise, he seemed fine. He got to his feet.
Heronpaw snuck towards the entrance to the den and listened. He could hear the general hum of nighttime activity of a Clan; apprentices chattering, elders complaining, warriors settling down into their nests. Unfortunately, Heronpaw could also hear the two warriors standing right outside the den. They were talking softly about the day's events. Heronpaw withdrew from the entrance.
"We're being guarded." He said to Petalpaw. She worked her paws in the moss.
"I keep thinking about Morningpaw and the kits." She said. Her ears were flat to her head and her eyes shone with distress. "What if we don't get there in time? What if- "
"Plumleaf is with them." Heronpaw said. "She won't let them die."
Petalpaw gazed into his eyes and gave a shaky nod. Heronpaw settled down in the nest next to Petalpaw and leaned into her warm side. She sighed and pressed against him.
Please Dovekit, let our Clan be okay.