CHAPTER 4

Firestar padded out of his den and walked out into the forest. The owls hooted far above him in the trees and he walked in the scarce moonlight. Finally he stopped in front of a wall of ferns. Not hesitating he walked through them, driven by a unknown impulse.

"Ah there you are!" a voice said as he stepped through the ferns. Firestar looked up and saw Bluestar sitting in the middle of the clearing.

"Bluestar! Is something wrong?" Firestar asked anxiously.

"No, no, I am here just to talk."

Firestar padded over to her and sat a tail length away, "What would you like to talk about?"

"You," she meowed innocently. Firestar looked up and saw a strange gleam in her eyes.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked confused, "What about me?"

"I would like to talk about your heart, and where it lies," she said looking up at him.

"Um, okay. What do you want me to tell you that you don't already know about me and Sandstorm?"

"No, not about her, about me." she meowed putting slight emphasis on the word, me.

Firestar was taken aback. He didn't answer for a moment and Bluestar took a step closer to him. He was deep in thought and didn't notice. Bluestar took another step and brushed his muzzle with her tail.

Firestar snapped out of his thoughts and realized how close she was to him. He could feel heat coming off her in waves, did StarClan she-cats go into heat?

"Firestar, I love you. I loved you since you became an apprentice," she whispered. "Now, do you love me, or will you love me?"

She didn't give Firestar a chance to answer because she pushed him over with her paw, and laid on top of him. He grunted in surprise, and looked at her questioningly.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to love you, Firestar!"

"But I have a mate. I can't help you!"

Bluestar slashed at him with her claws, and pain clouded his vision.

Firestar's eyes snapped open, and he felt Sandstorm stir beside him. What a strange dream! He felt a strange felling along his stomach and looked down to see that his hind-legs and stomach were red with blood! Was his dream with Bluestar actually a dream? He got up slowly, making sure not to wake Sandstorm and went out of the dirt-place tunnel to clean himself. Firestar walked to his den and found Sandstorm getting up and stretching. She looked sad about something.

"Hey wanna go hunting?" he asked, hoping to make her feel better.

"Sure," she said, perking up immediately.

They walked out of the camp, and he followed her until she flicked her ears, signaling for him to stop. She got into the hunter's crouch and stalked toward some ferns several tail-lengths away. Firestar sniffed the air and realized that there was a vole in the ferns. Sandstorm pounced, flying through the air for a split second, before landing on the vole.

"Got it!" she mumbled through a mouthful of fur.

"Good, do you want to take it back to camp or bury it and we will get it on our way back," he asked, unsure of what she wanted to do.

"I will get it later." She buried it and took the lead again.

"What's wrong?" Firestar asked, worried that something was indeed wrong.

"Oh, nothing," she grumbled.

"You can tell me," Firestar assured her.

"I will tell you at the gathering. We'll take a walk, and Graystripe will lead them back."

"Okay," Firestar agreed anxious to please Sandstorm in any way possible.

They finished hunting, and brought back the prey. Firestar waited anxiously for the gathering to come. When the sun finally went down and the moon shown high in the sky, Firestar picked Sandstorm, Ashfur, Brambleclaw, Dustpelt, Sorrelpaw, and Cinderpelt. The cats walked toward the Fourtrees in silence. Only an occasional meow every once and awhile. When they arrived they found RiverClan already there. WindClan was just arriving, and ShadowClan was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello, Firestar, Tallstar, how are you this evening?" Leopardstar meowed neutrally. The leaders exchanged similar small talk as they waited for ShadowClan.

Finally, Blackstar and his small group of clan members walked into the Fourtrees clearing.

"About time you showed up!" Tallstar meowed sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, lets get this over with!" Blackstar growled.

"Fine, everybody settle down." Firestar meow soothingly.

The leaders took their place on the rock and RiverClan went first, "Prey runs well in RiverClan during this green-leaf. Our warriors are strong and we have a new deputy, Mistyfoot."

Mistyfoot stepped forward and bowed her head.

WindClan went next, "Prey runs well in WindClan as well. We are enjoying a smooth green-leaf."

ShadowClan went next, "Our prey is not running well. We are not enjoying anything except a hard green-leaf and are not looking forward to leaf-bare."

Firestar explained the general news of his clan and they all went their separate ways. As they walked, Firestar asked Graystripe to keep going, and stayed behind with Sandstorm.

"Now will you tell me what is bothering you?" Firestar asked.

Sandstorm sighed, "I am worried."

"About...?"

"I am worried that you love someone else," she blurted out before she could stop herself.

"Why should you think that?" Firestar asked, pretty sure that he knew the answer already.

"I think that you are sneaking out at night to see someone else," she said looking at him closely.

Firestar sighed and looked at his paws, how could he explain this dream to her?

"How? You sleep with me all the time in my den," he argued weakly.

She looked at him and was obviously offended, but in her eyes he only saw prevailing sadness. It was so strong that it almost made him cry.

"You weren't in the den when I woke up last night, I was looking forward to the comforting warmth of your body, but I woke up stiff, and cold! Who is it that you are seeing? Is she that much better than me?" her tears spilled over out of her eyes and fell to the ground.

Firestar licked the tears off of her face and meowed softly, "Sandstorm, I can't think of anyone that I love more than you, the reason I wasn't there was because...because..." he trailed off, not wanting to tell her of his dream.

"Because...?"

Before Firestar could answer, a growl sounded behind him. He spun around, claws unsheathed, and saw a terrifying sight. A great black tom stood in the bushes. It had glowing red eyes, and its muscles bulged beneath the sleek black fur that covered it from head to toe.

"Mmmmm, wild cat! My favorite!" it rasped while circling Firestar and Sandstorm. "Foolish foolish cats, you should have stayed with the larger group."

It looked at them hungrily and bunched its muscles to pounce. Firestar, looking tiny compared to the monster that was twice his size screamed for Sandstorm to run, but she was rooted in place as the huge monster pounced at her, jaws open. She saw a flash of ginger fur as Firestar jumped in the way and clawed its muzzle. The huge cat, if it could be called that reared up and tried to smash Firestar with a massive paw. This time when Firestar screamed for her to run, more desperately, she ran, but only so far, before turning back to make sure her love stayed alive. She crouched in the bushes as the two toms dashed back and forth clawing and biting furiously, the larger tom was winning, she saw. The black tom struck Firestar in the side as he reared up to strike, and the ginger tom flew farther than Sandstorm thought possible, before slamming into a tree near her. With a despairing and painful squeak his eyes closed and he fell to the ground, barely breathing.

"Nooo!" Sandstorm screamed and charged out of the bushes and clawed the black tom viciously across the neck. Recoiling from the unexpected attack it tried to dislodge her, but she was driven by rage and despite her growing number of injuries she held on until the massive tom fell to the ground scrambling away as she fell off its neck. Barely able to make it to Firestar's side she nudged him with her nose. She remembered the story of how Tigerstar had been so mortally wounded that he couldn't enter the healing trance that StarClan uses to heal the thing that killed the leader. She feared that this was the case for Firestar.

"Don't leave me Firestar. Come back," she whispered before collapsing in a heap next to him, her injuries spilling her blood onto the ground, staining it red

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Is my friend evil or what! Cliffhanger! HAHAHAHAHAhAHAhA! Review If you want another chapter!