Mothwing padded out of the den and stretched. Last night had been very strange…Oakheart had come to her and sent her a message that, as Oakheart had told her, was from StarClan. Whatever, she thought irritably. She blinked the sunlight out of her eyes and was glad for the day, with all of her fellow Clanmates. From StarClan or not, the dream had kind of scared her. She was happy to finally wake up, as if it was a nasty bad dream.

But it wasn't. It had meant something. A forbidden love for somebody… It couldn't possibly mean anything important, Mothwing thought as she shook the thought of StarClan and prophecies out of her head. It was a terrible feeling, one of just having a dream. She rolled in the dew-covered grass, cooling herself off from all the sweating she had done in her sleep. That was the last time that she ate a frog before bed.

She was about to pad over to the fresh kill pile when Mistyfoot bounded up with two voles in her mouth. "Hey, Mothwing! What happened to you, ticks in your fur? To think you would be the one to know what to put on that," she teased through the prey she was holding.

"Hey, you big furball!" Cried Mothwing jokingly. "No, it's not that. Just a dream, that's all." She wasn't the one to tell her friend about her dreams, but this was an emergency. She needed the deputy's help to find out what it meant. Oh, if only Mudfur were here to help her interpret it. He had died a few seasons ago, when they had teamed up with the other three Clans to move out of their old forest home, which was being torn up by the Twolegs. Who knows, maybe by now it was a new Thunderpath. Twolegs always needed to expand their territory for some reason.

The blue-gray she-cat leaned forward with interest. "Oh, yes? What dream is that, the one about the dancing mouse?" She giggled and flopped down on the ground, starting on her first vole. "I haven't eaten since sunhigh yesterday," She explained before the golden tabby could comment.

"No Mistyfoot, this is serious. I know that you can help me with it. Can you?" She asked, flicking her tail with annoyance at the deputy.

"Okay, okay, lighten up," Mistyfoot growled through mouthfuls of prey. She pushed the other vole towards Mothwing. "Here, have it. I'm not really that hungry. Besides, I don't want to get fat, overfeeding myself!" She laughed.

Mothwing nodded. "Um, are you sure you'll understand? I don't think…you won't make fun of me?" She asked, nervously kneading her paws.

Mistyfoot dipped her head. "Yes, I promise. I won't tell anybody, I'll understand!" She mewed, trying to sound as less interrogating as possible. Mothwing was very sensitive when it came to dreams.

Shifting her paws, Mothwing explained the dream with a guilty feeling pitting up inside her. She wasn't supposed to explain her dreams, but this one was an emergency; it was confusing and had frightened her. "And Oakheart came and he said…" She shook her head, clearing it away.

Mistyfoot nodded, goading her companion on. "Go on. What did Oakheart say?" She mewed serenely,

Mothwing shook her head. Hesitating, she slowly said, "Well, he said that hard times were coming. He didn't say they were bad, but he said hard. He said…Dark times come, when you will glow... it just was so confusing to me." She finished rapidly, getting it over with. "I mean, I wouldn't glow or be happy in dark times. Does StarClan presume that I will turn evil because of my brother and father?"

The gray she-cat was silent for several moments, then finally mewed, "Did I ever tell you that Oakheart was my father?" As Mothwing shook her head, she went on. "Well, he had a forbidden love with the ThunderClan leader, Bluestar. I don't know entirely what the prophecy means, but it I think it means something like this: Something will happen that is good for you, bad for the Clan. It will make you happy, but the Clan angry."

The golden tabby nervously moaned. "But that means that I will have…"

"A forbidden love," the two she-cats miserably meowed together. Suddenly Mothwing didn't feel like eating right this minute.