Chapter 4, Executioner of Dreams

Maskface twitched in his disturbing dream.
Petalstar was leaping up onto the high rock. Maskface stepped from the warriors den, seeing his brown paws and the ground in front of them. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the high rock!" She called. Her gaze found Maskface and he flinched away. When he looked into her eyes he saw fire engulfing him. He saw the fire of madness devouring him. The ground seemed to shake as Petalstar swept her gaze of fire around the clearing. Something was very wrong with Petalstar.
"Maskface has broken the warrior code, and has lied to me. He blamed an innocent clanmate for his disloyalty to our Clan. Sleetflash is innocent! Maskface lied to me to protect himself against my wrath, blaming our loyal medicine cat. Maskface fell in love with a ThunderClan cat, and he will pay the price." Petalstar stopped speaking, stepped aside, and gestured with her tail to Nightrose. Nightrose was in a ring of brown briars with red stains all over her. There were wicked gleaming eyes in the dark gaps of the pine trees, ready to slit her throat with their claws. Their claws were long, and curved. They glinted in the sunlight. The eyes also glinted, promising Nightrose's death. "His punishment will begin now," Petalstar announced.
The warriors stepped forward. Maskface flinched back in surprise. All the warriors were exactly the same. Maskface flinched as he recognized Shadefrost, the ThunderClan warrior that had lied to ThunderClan and said he was the father of Nightrose's kits. The sun suddenly shot down in the sky and all was black. The moon began to rise in the indigo sky with no stars.
Suddenly, Shadefrost was cut down from behind. His black pelt crumpled to the floor cluttered with pine needles. Blood burbled out of the back of his mouth. From behind Shadefrost, another cat stepped. Maskface's heart leapt into his mouth, and his head pounded. He knew the she-cat.
It was one of his kits, Icekit. He had wanted to see his kits even after he had said 'No' to Nightrose. He had snuck into the very heart of ThunderClan camp. He recognized the white she-cat with flashing blue eyes and a black splotch on her left hindleg. He tried to scream, "No!" but it was no use. In the dream his voice wouldn't work. Icekit's eyes were cold, and she wasn't a kit any more. She was a warrior, and... even more different. When Maskface had seen her in the warm nursery, she had been a soft, fluffy, innocent kit. No more. She was a proud, fierce, warrior. Blue eyes flashed with cold promise - death.
His kit was going to kill her mother. What had happened?

An icy chill hit him as he realized.
Her parents lies had done this.
Just as he was about to awake, a dark gray she-cat with deep blue eyes stepped from the shadow of a small pine tree. It was Sleetflash. Her eyes were wide and frightened. "Only me!" she muttered. "Why only me? It's not true! It can't be true! And the only other is destined to die... oh StarClan, why?"
Maskface didn't get a chance to ask what she meant as he suddenly awoke with a gasp.

Maskface was licking his rumpled tabby fur when Petalstar raced onto the sandy high rock. Maskface's amber eyes widened. It couldn't be happening in real life!
Petalstar shifted her paws anxiously against the rock, barely noticing the pain as her claws flexed against the rock and scraped into the shallow that she had carved out over time. The shallow was where she always scraped her paw. Grains of sand settled around the white paw as she looked around for the one face she wanted yet didn't want to see. Finally, Sleetflash emerged from the medicine cat den, her eyes betraying her hurt. Petalstar couldn't bear to look at Sleetflash. Sleetflash had lied to her. Sleetflash had betrayed ShadowClan. Sleetflash had also been her best friend since they had been born. She opened her amber eyes wide to the sky and sent a silent prayer to StarClan. Give me strength, please. "Sleetflash has lied to me," she began in a croaking voice. "Sleetflash told me that Maskface had been meeting with a ThunderClan cat on our territory. She lied. Maskface is a loyal warrior-"
Sleetflash broke in. "It's not true! I have proof, more than my word or Maskface's! StarClan gave me a prophecy... Thunder to Shadow, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, ice to shadow. Daughter of Thunder and Son of Shadow bring upon themselves the greatest pain the Clans have known. Bloom of the Night cannot hide it, but the face that shows nothing will be the undoing of both.See? The face that shows nothing is Maskface!"
Petalstar stiffened. Sleetflash had just made things harder. "You kept this prophecy from me?"
Sleetflash's tail stiffened, realizing she had made a mistake.
"You are exiled, Sleetflash! ShadowClan will find a new medicine cat! If you are seen after dawn tomorrow, you... you will be killed." Petalstar's voice drained away like rain through sand. She could say no more. But she didn't have to.
In a whirlwind of hurt and pain, Sleetflash raced away from camp. Everything had gone wrong. No one would heed her warning now, they would interpret it as excuses. She had done the right thing, but no one would listen! Please, StarClan, save the forest from the evil that is the Shadow on Ice. She stopped as a though occurred to her. She had done wrong, and played a part in the prophecy just by not telling it - now no one would heed it. Would the Shadow on the ice, whoever it was, make the same mistake while trying to do the right thing?
Ooh, cliffie! OMG 16 reviews... In response to reviews:
Amber342: Agh, sorry about that! It's so hard to remember I haven't gotten there yet... Thank you! It was a hard choice deciding, but I did.
SnowstarX: Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions! I will try to follow hints, as they have helped me a lot, but at the moment I'm trying to stream line descriptions. Once I can do it without thinking about it, it should improve and then I'll work on sentence flow! It means a lot to me that you help me like this... :D
Mintfrost29: I know, but it makes an interesting story, at least!
TabbyCat47: Thank you! I will continue, don't worry. Sleetflash will become more likable, promise! If every one was perfect, no one would develop, as I'm sure you can agree...
Hawkpath of RiverClan: Oh no... *groans* But thanks for the compliment!
~Iceshadow of ShadowClan