As the cats around the lake settled down for the first peaceful sleep they had known in a moon, the black lake rippled under its blanket of ice. The ripples came with a rhythm, like that of the wing beats of a lazily drifting bird. A long-eared owl perching in a lakeside tree turned its luminous yellow eyes upon the lake. One ear tuft twitched as a pulse rippled across the water. It shifted its vice-like grip on the branch and shuffled its feathers.
Another pulse disturbed the water, this time accompanied by a faint sound that echoed across the ice. The sound of something heavy hitting the ice from underneath.
The owl took off in a flurry of wings. A moment later the ice at the center of the lake caved upward in a burst of frozen shards and a shower of water. A huge, dark, sodden shape dragged its way out of the newly formed cavity. Thick, yellow claws gripped the slushy sides of the crevice. With an effort that strained the beast's rippling shoulders, it hauled itself out of the water and onto its side. There it lay, flanks heaving, for a time.
The body of the cougar was too much. It demanded strength that had been sapped away by the frigid, airless water. The muscles began to shrink, the skin tightening in on itself. The creature let out a final gasping moan before its muzzle shrank away to something smaller, more delicate. The brown, bristly fur of the mountain cat fell away and was replaced with a smooth, black pelt. Back paws dessicated to the almost skeletal clawed feet of a bird of prey. The thick tail of a snake grew scaly and long, with bright patterns along the slick length.
As the false body fell away, strength returned. With some effort, the new creature got to its mismatched feet. It staggered. The hours spent trapped in the water had had more of an effect than anticipated.
With a grunt, the final change took place. Two horns blossomed from the top of the skull and split, branching into a five pointed crown of sleek, white bone. A second pair of ears grew just below the first, drooping and long. Two green eyes opened and took in their restored form. One yellow eye opened at her forehead, but it did not see the world around her.
She had always been fondest of this body. Beautiful. Sleek. Terrifying. She rolled her neck and shoulders and felt the satisfying crack of her joints as things settled into place. Then came the far less satisfying feelings.
Rage. Frustration. At these stupid little creatures. At herself. At her brothers.
She poured her anger into action. She began to move. She didn't have far to go, but her weakened state made the journey feel daunting. She hated that she felt this weak, like she was one of them. She made herself move faster.
She skimmed the frozen ground, annoyed that she had to walk to get to her destination. It was much easier flitting in and out of thoughts and dreams. No matter. This had to be done. She was tired of doing things on her own.
Her rage drove her to the mouth of the cave. By the time she could taste the familiar scents of the Tree of Dreams, however, her emotions had cooled and her limbs had lost their stride. She was still so tired.
She forced herself to move forward. Now was no time for weakness. As the chamber of stone came into view, the familiar sights and scents breathed new life into her. The cool water, never freezing, and the ever-blossoming Tree of Dreams welcomed her like long-lost friends. She met them gratefully.
She stepped down into the water and relished the feel of it lapping against her real skin. It was pleasantly warm compared to the icy lake. She remembered to duck so her antlers would not disturb the fruit-laden boughs of the tree. With gentle precision, she reached up and plucked a single white berry from the closest branch. She relished the taste as she bit into the tiny fruit. It warmed her throat and felt at home in her belly.
She waded out to the deepest part of the pool and waited. A cloud covering the moon shifted far above, and a stream of moonlight cascaded down onto her back, turning it silver. The light came from above and below. It called to her. With a quick intake of breath, she let herself drop into the abyss.
. . .
Her third eye was the first to open. Pale mist obscured its vision. Begrudgingly she opened her other two.
A lush forest greeted her. The pale mist solidified into a wall of churning lavender smoke a few tree-lengths into the foliage. The trees were huge and disappeared into the obscuring smoke far beyond what she could see. Ferns sprawled across the mossy, stony ground, and the smell of red peat made her shiver with joy.
She got to her feet and looked around. Tiny motes of light flitted around in the mist, spinning and dancing with glee. A deep sound rumbled in her chest. She silenced it at once. Spending so much time among the cat-creatures had instilled her with a few bad habits.
Still, she did not silence the joy she felt. She was home. How long had it been? Half a century? At least. She had forgotten how time seemed to drench the air here, how life itself seemed to breathe.
She took a moment to drink it in, then she set off.
She was not here to stay. She was here for one reason. To convince the others to join her.
The plants parted before her feet as she marched the well-worn path towards her siblings' resting place. Good, she thought. The land remembered her well.
She made for the great gnarled oak first. If she made herself known there, she would gain the attention she desired.
The forest steadily grew darker as she walked. The motes of light became less frequent. This concerned her. She hurried her gait.
In time she approached a great fiend of a tree. In her opinion, it hardly counted as a tree anymore. It was slumped and knotted, its knobbly branches hanging limply over the many rolls of ancient bark. The sparse leaves fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. Near the top of the trunk gaped a maw of blackness that seemed to suck at the air around it.
She approached cautiously. This was something that required great care. She stood her ground and struck what she imagined was a confident pose.
"Aawѐ." she called out in a firm voice.
There was an immediate sound from the deep black mouth of the tree. Something shifted in the depths. A voice emanated from the deepest recesses of the ancient tree, deep as an echoing gorge and as low as the mountain's heart.
"Why do you disturb me, Baatїl?"
Baatїl shivered at the sound of her name. It had been so long since any sentient thing had spoken it. Even now, she could feel herself gain a little strength from the one utterance.
"I need to speak with you." She said firmly.
The voice rumbled its displeasure. "There is nothing to speak of. Away with you."
Baatїl bit back an angry retort. She couldn't use the same tactics that she had used against the cat creatures. This was an equal. She needed to be more tactful.
"There is something deeply wrong with the forest." she said.
"There is nothing wrong with the forest." Aawѐ retorted in his slow way. "The Clan of Stars assured us of this."
Baatїl showed her fangs. "StarClan has not kept their promises."
"What evidence have you of this?" Aawѐ growled.
"She has none." a new voice spoke from the shadows. "Just like last time she came to us with this story."
Baatїl flinched slightly despite herself. She had been expecting him, but his sudden appearance had unnerved her all the same. She turned to face the huge, shaggy wolf that had stepped from the gloom.
He looked as he had always looked. Unkempt. Wild. Intimidating. The fur along his upper spine and shoulders was raised in a hostile mane of brownish gray. His yellow eyes glared at Baatїl from his long dark face. His third eye, normally a deep blue, was rolled back in his head, clearly focusing on something behind him.
Baatїl forced her neck into a short bow of respect. "Laqtal."
Laqtal snorted and padded over sit by one of the gnarled roots of the tree.
"I do have evidence." Baatїl said pointedly. "I would have you hear it."
Laqtal rolled his eyes but stayed where he was. There were more shuffling sounds from Aawѐ's den.
"I will hear you." Aawѐ said eventually.
Baatїl bowed her head and relaxed slightly. This was all going as she had expected.
"The spirits of StarClan promised us that they would watch over the forest and give us the rest we desired." she began.
"We know that." Laqtal interrupted.
Baatїl shot him a glare. Aawѐ rumbled disapprovingly. Laqtal fell silent.
"They promised that they would use their powers to bring prosperity to all life in the forest. They promised that they would keep our memory alive while we took our long deserved respite. They have failed on all accounts."
Laqtal had nothing to say to this, so Baatїl went on.
"The spirits of StarClan have only their own in their interests. The only clans, tribes, and kins that thrive are the ones they brought here. No Clan cat alive knows of us. Our names have been lost to the forest, and it is StarClan's doing."
Baatїl paused, waiting to see if Laqtal or Aawѐ would cry foul. Neither said a word.
Baatїl jumped on the opportunity. "Surely you have felt your powers waning. Surely you have felt the distance of the faithful."
"We have no need for our powers." Aawѐ rumbled. "The forest is alive. It has no need of our gifts."
Laqtal nodded. "So they have forgotten us, so what? The forest no longer needs us."
Baatїl fought back her bubbling anger. Didn't they care? All that they had done for the land was forgotten and they were still content to sit and drift without purpose or power. But no matter. She had expected this from them. They were not her final target.
"The forest would die without our gifts." Baatїl snarled.
Laqtal bore his teeth at her. "I don't know about you, but it has been centuries since I last bestowed any gift upon a sentient creature."
"Oh yes, you haven't." Baatїl shot back. "But bestowed they have been."
Laqtal opened his mouth but nothing came out.
"What do you mean by this?" Aawѐ said.
Baatїl kept her face impassive but her tail twitched with satisfaction. "StarClan has stolen our gifts and are using them as their own."
A loud, rushing sound preceded the appearance of an immense great horned owl at the mouth of the tree. He was ancient and worn, but still exuded the same majesty as a great redwood tree or a rugged mountain peak.
Awe turned his sightless eyes onto Baatїl and clacked his cracked beak at her. His third eye, steely gray, penetrated hers.
"Explain." Aawѐ demanded.
Baatїl obliged. "StarClan has been giving their cat creatures our gifts. Gifts of Instinct." she nodded at Laqtal. He narrowed his eyes. "Gifts of the Seasons." she bowed her head at Awe. The great owl ruffled his feathers. "Gifts of Form." she waved her scaly tail for emphasis. "And most egregious of all, gifts of Life."
Laqtal drew in a hissing breath.
Aawѐ fixed Baatїl with a stifling stare. "Have you seen this?"
Baatїl faced him and looked directly into his third eye. "With my own eyes." she said.
"What evidence do you have?" Laqtal burst out. He began to pace angrily. "You have never liked the Clan of Stars. Ever since the beginning you have fought against our alliance. Why should we believe you, and risk damaging this arrangement?"
Aawѐ gave a pensive nod. "He is right, Baatїl. We need more than your word."
Fighting back the urge to gore Laqtal with her antlers, Baatїl set her jaw. "Read my seasons, Aawѐ." she said.
Laqtal's eyes grew large. His third eye whipped around and landed on her. She finally had his whole attention.
Aawѐ turned his head this way and that in the strange way only owls could, before he fixed her again with his steely sight.
"Are you sure?" he said.
Baatїl nodded firmly.
"Wait a moment." Laqtal cut in. "It has been centuries since we have used our powers on one another. This is foolishness!"
Baatїl turned to him and stared him down. "This is the only way I can prove what I know." she said.
She turned back to Aawѐ and nodded. "Do it."
She had forgotten how thoroughly violating it was to have one's seasons read. She felt exposed in every sense of the word. She laid, helpless, as Aawѐ read her memories one after the other in painful detail. Every one of her failures. Every angry tirade and outburst. Every humiliation and heartbreak.
As quickly as it had come it was over. Aawѐ released her and she fell to the ground, exhausted.
"Well?" Laqtal demanded.
Aawѐ blinked slowly. "I saw a cat creature using the gift of re-breath." he said. His voice actually shook.
Baatїl was still shaken but she forced herself to get up, panting.
"I was a fool." she said. "I was driven by anger and jealousy at first. I resented that they had no knowledge of me, or of us. I wanted to punish them for their ignorance, so I tried to take them down." she was breathing heavily, but both Laqtal and Aawѐ were fixated on her words. She couldn't help but curl her tail in delight.
"I underestimated how the decades of irrelevance had weakened me. I could only do minimal damage, and even in that I faced great resistance." she shuddered as she remembered Thunderstrike and how he had broken her, even as she had shattered him.
"I was weak." she admitted through gritted teeth. "Once I had my wits about me, I began to sow seeds of destruction among the Clans, hoping that they would take themselves down from within. Little did I know that StarClan had been working against me for generations."
"Usurpers!" Aawѐ's great voice was a clap of thunder.
Laqtal was showing his formidable teeth in a grimace of anger. "They took us for fools." he snarled.
"Yes." Baatїl said, excited. "They must pay. But we cannot do this ourselves. We need to bring this to them."
The energy in the clearing changed almost immediately. Aawѐ shrank back, his feathers pressing into his body. Laqtal clamped his mouth shut and seemed to melt a little into the shadows.
Baatїl cursed herself. She had gone too far.
"Qa need not hear of this." Aawѐ said bluntly.
Baatїl could feel their resolve dying. She grasped at the fading strands like cobwebs. "They must. You saw the gift of re-breath yourself, Aawѐ!"
"Qa could have given that gift willingly. I have no evidence to suggest otherwise." Aawѐ said with a dismissive wave of his wing.
Baatїl turned to Laqtal. "Surely you see the wisdom in what I say." she pleaded.
Laqtal fixed her with his yellow stare. His third eye wasn't looking at her anymore. "I'm sure if Qa had sensed anything amiss they would have warned us."
Baatїl fought back the rage building like acid in her throat. "Don't be a fool!" she hissed.
Laqtal lifted his lip in a snarl. "Just because you have been scorned by the cat creatures doesn't mean the rest of us have to be involved." He took a step back into the gloom and was swallowed by the darkness.
"Laqtal!" Baatїl howled after him. This was going wrong. All wrong!
"Perhaps you should take some time to reflect on your failures, Baatїl." Aawѐ began to shuffle backwards into his den.
"Aawѐ, you saw what I saw!" Baatїl growled. "You can't ignore this because you're afraid!"
Aawѐ shot her a final glare and melted out of sight. "Perhaps you should reconsider which of us is afraid."
Baatїl's anger filled her until she was shaking with rage. "Cowards!" she screeched into the still air. The few motes of light that remained shot out of sight.
"Cowards and traitors!" The roughness of the words cut her throat. She turned on the spot, letting her anger lead her heart beat in a raucous pounding surge. Her talons ripped at the ground.
Those stupid pitiful creatures would pay. She had brought about her own failure by underestimating the depth of StarClan's treachery.
The answer came to her like the bite of a snake. Sharp, sudden, but oh so clarifying.
She turned and headed out of Aawѐ 's forest. The motes of light had started to come back. They bounced beside her feet as her spirits began to lift.
She had been a fool to believe that the fall of the Clans lay within their own twisted hearts. They were too unified in their pagan ways. No, she had to go back to a source she had carefully cultivated for moons now. No longer were they a simple tool to get to the Clans. Now they were the fangs that would leave the Clan's throats bloodied and drained.
She needed her true followers.