Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Pebble woke up, her vision dark and blurry. She had a massive headache and she groaned, trying to remember the last thing she remembered. And then, the memories came flooding back...

Her head shot up, trying to observe everything around her. She was in a dark, stone-cold cave, and she could tell it was almost midnight. The two toms that had attacked them and knocked them out were guarding the entrance. She could hear cats moving and talking outside, minding their own business. Pebble looked to her right, seeing Wolfstream, still out cold. She quickly stood up and prodded his fuzzy gray pelt. "Wolfstream!" she hissed. "Please wake up!"

The two guards heard Pebble. They turned around with sudden movements.

Wolfbreeze turned over and groaned. "W-Whaa...?"

The the black tom mumbled something to the orange tom. The orange tom nodded curtly and scampered off. The black tom kept an eye on them, making sure they wouldn't get away.

Wolfstream slowly gained consciousness and groaned once more as he lifted his head with ease. "Where are we?" he said painfully.

Pebble looked around nervously. "I'm almost positive we're in FireClan camp," she whispered straight into his ear.

By these words, Wolfstream jumped up immediately, ignoring the pain in his head. He then noticed the black tom watching them. "Oh StarClan, that tom is huge. No way we could get past him, even with the two of us," he mewed quietly. Pebble looked out the entrance, past the black tom, trying to see what was outside the cave. It was definitely nighttime, and she could see cats moving outside, including one solid gray tom coming closer towards the cave. She noticed the orange tom right beside the gray cat, almost as if the fiery tabby was escorting him.

Soon, the solid gray tom was at the entrance, walking right towards them. Pebble shuffled close to Wolfstream so their flanks were brushing against each other.

The tom stopped in front of them. He smiled just slightly. "Come with me," he muttered, his voice menacing.

Pebble thought this tom looked sort of familiar, but not in a good way. The thought was immediately shoved over by more important thoughts, like panic and wonder. They began to follow the tom out of the cave, and immediately cats around them began to hiss and flatten their ears. They were obviously not welcome here.

The tom led them up a rock that was elevated a few fox-lengths off the ground. The cats slowly gathered around them, looking at Pebble and Woldstream suspiciously. She realized then that this was the leader of their clan.

"Tell me why you two are here," he stated sternly.

"We were just passing through," Pebble stammered. "We are very sorry, we didn't know-"

"No excuses for passing through FireClan territory!" he screeched, his face only inches away from Pebble. She could see every detail of his wide, yellow-green eyes. Wolfstream hissed, flattening his ears.

Suddenly, Pebble saw the gray tom's eyes brighten slightly. "Wait..." he muttered, backing away from her and studying her brown dappled coat, the walked a few pawsteps over to Wolfstream.

He grinned horribly. "You are a WaterClan cat, aren't you?"

Cats in the crowd around them gasped. They murmured around him quietly, but when their leader flicked his long, ash-colored tail, the murmuring ceased.

"You bet I am!" Wolfstream spat, puffing out his light gray chest proudly.

The leader chuckled. "Cowards," he muttered. Wolfstream did not hear this remark, but Pebble heard it loud and clear. She hissed at the yellow-eyed leader.

He turned his head towards the brown she-cat. "And who do we have here...?" He studied her closely. Pebble could tell from his eyes that he was confused.

"You look so familiar..." he said with a serious voice. "But by your scent I can tell you are not a clan cat."

Pebble was about to answer when Wolfbreeze chimed in, changing the subject completely. Pebble wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not, she couldn't tell. "It is your clan's fault! Everything! You drove us out because you were afraid of some stupid prophecy! How would you know if the prophecy was bad?" He turned to the crowd. "You are all horrible cats. We suffered for a long time trying to find a new camp, and it's all your fault."

"Howlstar! Shut this cat up!" said one of the cats in the crowd. Everyone agreed with enthusiastic shouts and yowls.

The gray leader, whose name was apparently Howlstar, flicked his tail once more to silence the crowd. He narrowed his eyes at Wolfstream. "We couldn't take our chances. We had to do what was right for everyone!"

Wolfstream scoffed. "And driving us out of our own clan was the answer to doing that?!"

Howlstar sighed. "Your wretched leader killed our leader, my own father. He lost his life to that horrible white she-cat. He did everyone a favor by killing one of the twins and stopping the prophecy, and he died doing it. You should be grateful, you wretched piece of mouse-dung!"

Pebble froze. She turned her head towards Howlstar. "Wait. You all think that I'm dead?"

She immediately realized that was the worst possible thing she could say in this situation. She slowly shut her emerald eyes. Why... Why did I have to open my mouth... She thought. She also realized how she rcognized the leader- he was almost the spitting image of his horrid father, Ashstar, the cat that flung her to the ground and had scarred her back, and also her nightmares, forever. The only difference between them was that Howlstar's eyes were much more yellow, whereas Ashstar's were very much green. She shuddered at the memory of the murderous leader once more.

Howlstar stared at her in shock. "Of course, no wonder I recognized you... You're one of the twins!"

There was an uproar in the crowd. A small white she-cat with ginger paws and markings suddenly raced up to the rock. Her pelt smelled strongly of herbs- she was obviously the medicine cat. Her pale yellow eyes were wide, her expression showing a great deal of shock and amazement.

"I told you, Howlstar!" She hissed. "You can't get away from the destiny of a prophecy! Your father tried, but once StarClan says it will happen, it will happen!"

"Hush, Sparkstone," he said to the tiny medicine cat. "I understand the ways of StarClan."

"Apparently not," Sparkstone remarked softly, almost inaudible.

Howlstar turned his attention away from the she-cat and towards Pebble, flicking one gray ear. "Well," he meowed, grinning a toothy, disgusting grin.

"Let's see how this prophecy is going to work once I follow in my father's pawsteps and kill you."