Written by Cloudysky

The world around Mudwhisker was dark. Fortunately, it didn't stay that way for long; before Mudwhisker had much time to think about what had happened, the world was growing light again. But he wasn't in the familiar forest of ThunderClan, or anywhere in StarClan, or anywhere he knew, for that matter.

It was what appeared to Mudwhisker to be a grassy area in the middle of a Twoleg-infested area.

"Jazzstar, what is -" he began to say, but he was interrupted as Jazzstar fiercely slapped him in the mouth with her tail. When Mudwhisker had finished attempting to speak, Jazzstar pointed with her tail toward a pond in the middle of the grassy area. Mudwhisker first thought she was gesturing toward the young Twoleg female laying by the edge of the pond, but then he saw movement a few tail-lengths away, and saw what Jazzstar saw - it was Nightpaw, padding up the grass by the pond. She stopped next to the human and exchanged words with her for a moment - how?thought Mudwhisker, no cat is able to communicate with a Twoleg - and then walked away. She was heading toward an area with more Twolegs.

Jazzstar leaned over to Mudwhisker. "She thinks she is a Twoleg," she explained to Mudwhisker. "That's what's going on here."

Mudwhisker, appalled, simply watched as Nightpaw padded away toward the more crowded area. She was completely unfazed by the Twolegs walking around her. When she reached the crowded area she jumped on a small wooden Twoleg thing and ... to Mudwhisker it looked like she was simply sitting there, but she must have been doing - or imagined she was doing - something, for some Twolegs stopped around where she was sitting and began to observe.

"She sees this," Jazzstar said, and her blue eyes flashed. The scene changed again, and Mudwhisker saw that instead of Nightpaw sitting on the Twoleg thing, there was a Twoleg sitting there, holding some sort of wooden Twoleg object that was producing sound. This was what the other Twolegs had gathered around to witness. Some stood and listened; some moved around a little bit, and a few dropped what looked like leaves and rocks into a black object that seemed to be the same shape as the object Nightpaw was holding.

Mudwhisker was completely bewildered at this - but it wasn't the most interesting thing to happen, either. From across the area came storming an old Twoleg with gray hair on his head and on his face, waving around some sort of rectangular Twoleg object. He started yelling at Nightpaw - or rather, the Nightpaw human - and, surprisingly, Mudwhisker found that he was able to understand the Twoleg.

"Quit playin' that rock and roll music!" yelled the old Twoleg. "Don'tchu know that music is the work of the devil? It's not Christian!"

"I am playing Christian rock!" shouted back Nightpaw-the-human. "This can't be music from the devil!"

That was all Mudwhisker heard - not that it would have mattered, because the words made absolutely no sense to him. He turned to Jazzstar, seeking an explanation.

"Dreams about being a Twoleg," Jazzstar explained, not turning to look at Mudwhisker. She seemed lost in thought. "Every night. From the time she was old enough to remember anything at all to the day she died, she had these dreams. Sometimes they were completely mundane, like this one... though sometimes, the dreams had more of a ...lasting impact on her." Mudwhisker was silent, expecting Jazzstar to elaborate further on that last statement, but she didn't; rather, the ginger she-cat sighed wearily and closed her eyes. "It's... not a stretch to say that the contrast between what she dreamt and what her reality was like was the reason for... her." She didn't have to say any more; Mudwhisker knew what she meant by that. "She never told anyone about these dreams, either," Jazzstar added. "There were indications sometimes, but none of us could have guessed that... this was the truth."

Mudwhisker was speechless. He hadn't expected this. Nightblaze was clearly somehow off when she spoke to him in StarClan, but never in an infinity of seasons would he have expected that she - no - thatany cat could have such bizarre dreams - ones that literally led to her life going in a direction no cat could understand.

"Now that you know why she is the way she is," Jazzstar said, snapping Mudwhisker out of his thoughts, "we should return... and witness the true story of the rest of Nightpaw's life... the life that, as she put it, is called 'Starkit's Prophecy'."

Before Mudwhisker could say anything else, the scene shifted. Suddenly, he and Jazzstar were back in the ThunderClan camp. It appeared that they had come to ThunderClan just after Nightpaw, Flamepaw, and Lakepaw's apprenticeship ceremony had finished; Flamepaw and Lakepaw were walking off with their mentors. Nightpaw, who had run off to the apprentices' den, turned just as Flamepaw and Lakepaw left camp. Inexplicably - and suddenly enough that Mudwhisker jumped - Nightpaw let out a fierce hiss directed in their direction. Mudwhisker followed their gaze, and found that Nightpaw was staring after the yellow tabby tom who had been made Lakepaw's mentor -Bumbleflight, he recalled. Looking back at Nightpaw, he saw that the dark she-cat was glaring at him with open hostility. Just as quickly as she had started her anger, though, it faded, and Nightpaw, with a happy expression that indicated nothing bad was happening, turned and marched triumphantly into the apprentices' den.

"Jazzpaw!" she said, authoritatively. "Get up."

Looking around the den, Mudwhisker noticed the form of Jazzpaw sitting on one side of the den - or what he assumed to be Jazzpaw, at least. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable now that he was looking at Jazzpaw while simultaneously standing next to Jazzstar, Mudwhisker shuffled his paws a bit.

"Don't," Jazzstar said, startling Mudwhisker. "I'm involved everywhere in Nightblaze's story. I wouldn't have brought you here if I wanted to keep that part of my life hidden." Her black tail, twitching nervously, seemed to indicate otherwise, however.

Turning back to Nightpaw and Jazzpaw, Mudwhisker found that Nightpaw had turned and was addressing two other cats, a reddish-brown tom and a cream-colored she-cat. "Oh, hello, Foxdaisypaw!" she said, looking chipper. "How are you doing today?"

The two cats looked at each other in exasperation, and then back at Nightpaw. "... You know I'm Foxpaw," right?" asked the reddish tom.

"And I'm Daisypaw. We're not... we're not the same cat," added the she-cat. Nightpaw, however, didn't even seem to acknowledge that they had spoken; she was turning back to Jazzpaw, who was looking at Nightpaw with a worried expression.

"Do you want to go on patrol with me?" she asked Jazzpaw, who was licking her paw.

"Pat- Nightpaw, you know we can't do that!" she meowed. "We're only apprentices! We can't go on patrol together, alone, and we certainly can't go without checking with Whiteflower first." She sighed in annoyance, and Mudwhisker caught a sense of the same sort of weary spirit that he sensed Jazzstar from StarClan possessing in the current time.Nightblaze's... issues... must have really taken a lot out of her. "... I mean, congrats on becoming an apprentice, but... that doesn't mean you can just wander out of camp!"

Nightpaw pouted. "I know that!" she said indignantly. Jazzpaw looked taken aback, her expression reflecting how Mudwhisker felt.

"I told you, sometimes she could have a normal conversation," Jazzstar murmured from beside Mudwhisker. "Just... rarely. And it would come at random times, even if what she had just said made no sense."

"W-well... all right," said Jazzpaw, clearly not sure how to respond to this. "Um... why don't you go find Beechstar and ask to train with him? That's... usually the first thing apprentices do..."

Before she had finished the sentence, Nightpaw had already rushed out of the den, with a cry of, "Oh, yeah! Thanks, Jazzpaw!"

"... after becoming apprentices," Jazzpaw finished, and sighed again.

Mudwhisker and Jazzstar found themselves outside of the den, in the middle of camp. Nightpaw was approaching Beechstar, who was still talking to Sunstripe. "Beechstar! We should go train!"

She didn't even seem to notice she'd interrupted him talking to Sunstripe. But Beechstar patiently turned and meowed to Nightpaw, "In a moment, Nightpaw. Go ahead and wait for me by the entrance to the camp."

So Nightpaw took off again, and Mudwhisker and Jazzstar followed her. Before they had reached Nightpaw at the tunnel leading out of the camp, an anguished shriek startled Mudwhisker, and he stopped. He felt a nudge at his side, and turned to see Jazzstar, pushing him with her nose. "It's all right," she meowed. "Go." Mudwhisker approached the source of the shriek - only to see Nightpaw, standing near the tunnel, her fur completely on end.

"ShadowClan are attacking!" she shrieked. Mudwhisker padded forward, into the tunnel, to see what was happening - it was an unfamiliar she-cat, but one who bore the scent of ShadowClan, standing in the tunnel, with two warriors. She didn't look like she was attacking anything. In fact, she didn't look like she was a threat at all; even as Nightpaw was taking a battle stance - or something resembling one - she was standing there, looking confused and slightly annoyed at Nightpaw.

"I'm here to speak to Beechstar about important Clan matters," she said calmly. "Can you take me there?"

"ShadowClan thieves aren't ever going to get away with anything!" Nightpaw hissed, her eyes glazed over, and she ran forward and scratched the ShadowClan leader's foreleg with one paw.

Mudwhisker tensed. Has Nightpaw just caused a war between the Clans? he thought, but relaxed as he witnessed what happened next: Sunstripe and Beechstar came running over. "Nightpaw! Don't bother Ivystar like that! She's not attacking anything!" He stopped next to her and shooed her away as Beechstar began to apologize profusely to the ShadowClan leader - Ivystar. As Mudwhisker watched, Sunstripe sent Nightpaw running off toward the apprentices' den; rather than follow her, he stood with Beechstar as the ThunderClan leader began to converse - in a completely friendly, peaceful way, Mudwhisker noticed - with Ivystar.

Nightpaw, on the other hand, was frantic; her fur was still standing on end, but her eyes were bright as she ran back to the apprentices' den. "Jazzpaw! Foxdaisypaw!" she called as she ran toward the den. All two (no, three, Mudwhisker had to remind himself; Foxdaisypaw was not a single entity) cats turned to look at her as she entered, eyes wide.

"I beat Blackstar!" she meowed triumphantly. "I beat Blackstar and ran ShadowClan off all by myself!"

"Blacks... Do you mean Ivystar?" asked Foxpaw. "Ivystar is the leader of ShadowClan. Not Blackstar. Blackstar wasn't even a she-cat."

"I did, Foxdaisypaw!" Nightpaw insisted. "I clawed him once and he ran off. I'm the best fighter in the entire Clan!"

Foxpaw and Daisypaw looked to Jazzpaw helplessly; Mudwhisker got the impression that this was something she had to do a lot. She's already established herself as being the closest cat to Nightpaw that's not family, hasn't she, he realized with a pang. And now it's too late for her to turn back.

"Nightpaw," Jazzpaw muttered with an edge in her voice, "You didn't fight anyone."

"But I did!" Nightpaw protested, and she stuck out her paw. "See? You can see the blood and the white fur!"

The fur was pale gray, thought Mudwhisker, but he didn't say anything - and it wouldn't have mattered if he had. Jazzpaw, however, tensed up. The blood was certainly real.

"What did you do?!" she shouted, leaping to her paws. "You attacked Ivystar?! You know we are at peace with ShadowClan!"

"They were here to attack!" Nightpaw defended herself. "I had to defend the rest of the Clan!... I had to defend you."

Both Jazzpaw and Jazzstar simultaneously hissed, taking Mudwhisker by surprise; when he turned, Jazzstar had her shoulders hunch and her claws were digging into the ground. Before he could say anything to her, though, Nightpaw's voice caught his attention again.

"Maybe I'm a great fighter! Maybe that's what the prophecy means!"

This again, thought Mudwhisker. I can't understand how she got the idea she is part of some prophecy.

Jazzpaw sighed and looked down. "Nightpaw, there is no prophecy. You're not - you're not Starkit, or Starpaw, or - None of that is real, okay?" Nightpaw, however, wasn't listening.

"I'm going to go train with Beechstar!" she meowed happily, and left the den. Jazzpaw stared after her, and the anguish in her face suggested to Mudwhisker that dealing with Nightpaw was an extraordinarily problematic process - one he was going to have to witness far more of.