Lionblaze flattened his ears and dug his claws into the dry ground as a monster rushed by on the thunderpath. The five cats standing on the edge waited a moment before crossing into the forest.
"What happened to all the trees?" Lionblaze asked looking around. This forest wasn't much of a forest. Trees were scattered about but they were thin and dead looking and there weren't a lot of them. Very, very few. The forest was more of a clearing than a forest.
"Strange monsters came and ate them," Barley told him. He was leading the group. Dovewing was right behind him. Jayfeather and Crane's Wing walked side by side while Lionblaze took up the rear.
"What kind of monsters eat trees?" Dovewing asked with wide eyes as she looked around.
"I think clan cats called them tree eaters," Barley said. "I think some of them killed a few clan cats when they came 'round but I'm not totally sure who."
Lionblaze nodded absentmindedly as he tried to imagine what a tree eater looked like. How did anything eat trees? What kind of teeth did that kind of monster have? How big was it? He'd seen dead monsters crushed by trees. This had to be a stunning creature. He looked into the distance worriedly. Were there still tree eaters around?
"Why did the tree eaters come?" Jayfeather asked.
Barley shrugged. "I don't know. I think twolegs tame monsters. I used to think that monsters ate twolegs whenever I saw them riding in their bellies but they always seem fine. I think that the twolegs want to expand the twoleg place so they use the tree eaters to eat all the trees that are in the way."
"That's unfair!" Dovewing protested. "Didn't they know the clans lived here?"
Barley shrugged again. "Twolegs don't care. Now watch out. There's a ravine up ahead."
Lionblaze was about to take a step forward to stand at Jayfeather's side but Crane's Wing beat him to it. The grey toms flanks pressed lightly against each other. Lionblaze gave a small smile. Crane's Wing was a quick learner. He knew to stand beside the blind cat to keep him from straying but also knew to not stand close enough to where it seemed like he was trying to control him.
Barley lead them on a tight path down the ravine into a sandy clearing. "This is ThunderClan's old camp."
"This?" Lionblaze questioned. He looked around. It didn't look like much but the more he looked, the more he saw the signs of a clan. A curtain of grass, brambles and ferns surrounded the camp, protecting it. He saw ancient moss beneath large bushes, those easily could've been dens. A tall rock jutted out, that must've been the Highrock. There was a fallen tree like in the ThunderClan camp by the lake that could've been a den too.
Lionblaze found himself in drawn to a large rock with a crack in it. Without saying anything to his companions, he wandered towards it. He curiously poked his nose into the crack. He smelled a very, very old scent that was similar to Jayfeather and Leafpool's den back home. This must've been the medicine cat's den.
"That was the medicine den, I think," Barley said, padding up to him, confirming his suspicions.
Jayfeather weaved between the two. He ran his whiskers across the rock and took a sniff and nodded. "Definitely. It smells of herbs and it feels just like Leafpool described to me."
Lionblaze's thoughts drifted. He tried to picture Cinderheart working here but couldn't. He could, however, picture the camp filled with cats. Firestar up on the Highrock, Longtail in the elder's den with elders that Lionblaze had never met, Spiderleg squabbling with his brother as an apprentice like he'd described to him once, Graystripe organizing the patrols, Cloudtail and Brightheart sharing fresk kill, Cinderpelt instructed a young Leafpool on… wait. I can't picture Cinderheart because she was never here. It was Cinderpelt.
"Are you finished here?" Jayfeather asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. Lionblaze nodded. "Good. I want to see Mothermouth."
"And I want to see the Fourtrees," Dovewing said.
"The fourtrees aren't far," Barley told them. "But the Highstones are far, clancats would often rest at my barn when they were making the journey."
"What are the Highstones? And Mothermouth? And the Fourtrees?" Crane's Wing asked excitedly.
Lionblaze blinked, realizing he'd never told his friend about the clans' old home on their way here. He purred and beckoned him over. "Walk with me so you don't annoy Jayfeather with all your questions."
Visiting the fourtrees was fun, Lionblaze had to admit. For a cat old enough to be an elder, Barley was surprisingly tolerant and had a good sense of fun. When they climbed up on the Great Rock, Barley told them how the clan leaders would perch up on the Great Oaks.
While pretending to be a clan leader for the first time since being an apprentice was fun, the group was back to more serious business. It was the next morning and they were traveling to the Highstones.
"What's the Mothermouth like?" Crane's Wing asked, breaking the silence that had lingered since the cats left the barn. There wasn't even a bird cry on this open stretch of land. The old forest seemed so… lifeless.
"I'm think it's like the Moonpool and the Cave of Pointed Stones," Jayfeather said.
"I've never seen either of those."
"Mothermouth supposedly is a really dark tunnel in a mountain called the Highstones," Jayfeather explained. "The cave opens up like a mouth in the stone. The tunnel leads down to a bigger cave where the Moonstone is. There's a big opening that lets starlight in. It hits the stone and it glows like the stars."
"The Moonpool does the same thing," Lionblaze added. Crane's Wing nodded.
"I'm not sure where the Mothermouth is exactly," Barley spoke. "But it should just be a hole in the mountain."
"I guess we'll know when we get there."
"Have you found it?" Lionblaze asked Crane's Wing. The grey cat shook his head. The five cats reached the Highstones at sunhigh but saw no opening in the mountain so they split up to search for it.
"Let's find the others," Crane's Wing suggested. "Maybe they found something."
The pair made their way back to where the five had split. Jayfeather was already waiting there and Dovewing was padding up as they arrived. Barley showed up soon after.
"Did anyone find it?" Jayfeather asked.
Dovewing looked troubled. "I think so."
"You think so?"
"It's… just come, I'll show you."
Dovewing turned back to the Highstones. The four toms fell in step behind her and they eventually made their way to the side of the side of the mountain. Dovewing suddenly stopped and looked at the mountain uneasily then back at her companions.
"What is is?" Jayfeather asked.
"I don't see anything," Crane's Wing said.
Lionblaze was about to nod in agreement but something caught his eye. A piece of wood cut like the ones in the barn. Wood cut by twoleg. It was sticking out from a pile of large loose stones. "Is that… Did it…?"
Barley looked sad and slightly horrified. But mostly sad. Lionblaze didn't know why. The black and white tom dipped his head and looked at his paws. "It collapsed…"
"What?" Jayfeather said in surprise. "Are you sure?"
"It looks like some twolegs were trying to do something then there was a rockslide or something," Dovewing told him. Jayfeather sighed. "Don't worry, you can make up for missing the half-moon meeting when we get back home."
"I don't care about that," Jayfeather said. "We traveled to the mountains so I could visit the Cave of Pointed Stones, we traveled here for Lionblaze. I thought it might do him some good to visit the Moonstone."
Lionblaze felt warmed at his brother's concern for him. "Thanks but I think I got what I needed when I visited the medicine den."
"Thought so," Jayfeather said. "But it's still a shame that the Mothermouth is gone. The cats of a few generations after Lion's Roar traveled here and found the Moonstone. Medicine cats have been coming here ever since, at least until the clans moved to the lake. This is medicine cat history right here and it's gone."
Lionblaze's gaze drifted back to the pile of stones with a new feeling in his heart but there wasn't anything he could do about it. "Let's head back to the farm."
"Yeah. Let's."
Author's Note: Mothermouth is a mine. Humans came by and tried mining again but the mine collapsed. Sad.
Btw, new chapter up for my story called The Wrong Pawsteps today. I left a question about the story in the author's note. If you're interested, please go check it out.