Chapter 26

"Oh, no!" A pale silvery tom said, recoiling, as if a badger was just inches from his face. His eyes were closed and a faint hiss arose from his mouth. Despite the cold and the snow, no clouds arose from his mouth and there were no paw prints to signal how he got there. His pelt glittered brilliantly and when he opened his eyes they too glittered, though a shadow of horror was there, too.

"What is it, Dark? What have you seen?" A more sturdily built cat with a silver pelt padded into the hilly clearing, as if out of nowhere, his paws floating atop the white surface.

"Highstar! HopeClan is in danger." Darkest Corner of a Cave said.

"They have been in danger ever since they left here." Highstar said, motioning with his tail around the clearing and the four prominent hills.

"You don't understand!" The slighter built cat shuddered and his tail lashed. "I should have seen it before, I should have known, I didn't think—"

"What?" Highstar said, concern now edging his voice.

"They're heading straight for the Jagged Peaks, where the Firetribe lives."

"Firetribe? What in the—wait, where did Ghostface go when he came here then?"

"He went around their territory, but it was just by luck. It took him much, much longer, though, but it paid off. He would have been…" Another shudder.

"How long would it take if they crossed through the Jagged Peaks?" Highstar asked, touching the other cats glittering shoulder with his tail, trying to calm him.

"It would cut their time in half or more, but the consequences would be… horrible. The Firetribe is large, just as large as his group, and deadly."

"Is there any way we could stop him, warn him, turn him the other direction?"

Dark looked up, "Highest Sparrow on the Wind, you must speak to him, go to him, now."

"But what's so bad about the FireTribe? What would they do?" Highstar asked, standing up, one paw raised, about to dash off.

"Go, go now!" Dark said, urging him with his tail.

Highstar nodded and dashed off, the sparkles seemed to stream off his fur as he ran with uncat-like speed. Time seemed to blur together as he reached a cave in impossible time. He entered, padding in with a still sparkling pelt, his presence lighting the cave as he went. He reached a stream and dove in without hesitating, jaw clenched and eyes burning with a desire to protect his kin and the future of his clan.

He suddenly found himself in a parched meadow, ice and snow covering everything. On the landscape he spotted a patched smudge. Ghostface.

Highstar ran towards him, powerful limbs carrying him with surprising grace.

Ghostface seemed lost, though Highstar knew why. It was his dream, and the barren landscape of it was frightening and it seemed to suck the heart of any cat out. A gust began to blow, smearing Ghostface's shape in and out of the background of the landscape.

"Ghostface!" Highstar said, his jaws parted widely, desperate for the cat to hear him.

After a moment of struggling over the land the patched and weary looking tom looked up.

"All hope… is scorched north… patience and endurance must carry you east…!" Highstar said, his voice a panicked wail now as the winds whipped and blurred his message. The powerful draining that the dream forced upon him was too much. He had to remind himself that he was a StarClan cat, and that the elements of this dream couldn't hurt him. He turned and stared north a bit and saw a jagged outline on the horizon, though it came in and out of focus as he was battered by the wind. He saw that Ghostface followed his gaze for a second. Highstar couldn't take it and turned and fled.

"HIGHSTAAAAAR!" Ghostface's voice followed him out, but he couldn't respond as his stout legs carried him away, out of the dream, out of the cold, deafening, blinding, life-sucking dream.

The cat leapt out of the stream, shaking the glittering drops off of his pelt. A glowing shape sat before him.

"Dark, I warned him, I—" Highstar said, trying to explain. He hadn't realized how hard it would be, how painful it would be.

"You did all you could, Highstar." Dark pressed his muzzle against the toms' now-dry flank. "StarClan has done all they could."

"Clan of Stars has done all they could." Highstar said, returning the gesture.

(Yay, StarClan and Clan of Stars! This was an especially fun chappie to write!)