She awoke, blinking a few times. She could hear voices and see a blur of one or two, maybe even more, big figures.
On her sixth blink, her vision cleared, but she had a pounding head-ache. "Ugh..." She moaned.
She looked and noticed the dark blue sky, and the moon starting to come out.
As she stared at the dusk sky, she heard murmurs of relief besides her. She then had realized what she was doing, she crashed earlier! She was okay though, how? That was such a high drop, she thought she would have died. Blueberry! Oh no, will he forgive me? It's not exactly night yet... I still got time. She thought to herself.
"Cherrypaw?" A voice asked.
The apprentice stiffly moved her head over to the voice, and realized, it was Blueberry. "Wha-what are you doing here?" She asked, her voice slow and soft.
"I-I-well, I was watching your assessment. I wanted to see how great of a fighter you were, so I sneaked out of camp. I watched the terrible incident of both of you, so I immediately went to get Shadowstar, and she got Cloverpaw and Riverstar." Blueberry explained.
"Thank-you," Cherrypaw told him, her eyes gleaming. He smiled back.
She then thought of what he just said, I watched the terrible incident of both of you...
The apprentice let out a gasp. "Thunderstar!" She yelled, then rapidly swung her head over to her side, ignoring the discomfort from her quick turn.
She viewed the laid out gray tom at the side of her, wrapped in cobwebs, and a bunch of herbs placed around him, and around her. "Is he okay?!" She gasped, sitting up. She let out a yowl due to the pain.
"Cherrypaw, please, relax," Riverstar said. The RiverClan apprentice nodded. "It's not a good idea to move quickly when you have a bunch of cobwebs and herbs on you. Both of you will be alright though."
The ThunderClan apprentice sighed, and saw a mourning Shadowstar lay by his side. "Is Shadowstar okay?" She asked.
Cloverpaw nodded. "She's just upset. You're okay though, right Shadowstar?"
The weak brown she-cat looked up and nodded. "Cherrypaw," She tried to smile. "I'm glad you are okay."
Cherrypaw looked at the tom. He looked...lifeless.
She took a big breath and gulped as she asked, "Is he..he...d-d-dead?"
The cats fell silent for a few moments.
"He's not dead forever. Just for a little. Remember, he has nine lives, well, now eight, but still." Cloverpaw explained.
Cherrypaw felt herself shaking. She was about to have a panic attack, she was so afraid and worried. "It's my fault... he used one of his lives on me..."
Shadowstar gave the troubled apprentice a small grin, "It's okay. He'll be better soon..." The she-cat slowly stood up and walked over to Cherrypaw, thinking, why didn't Silverpelt come visit? She always guided the cats through horrible moments, but, she didn't come this time. Was she just busy, or did she think that we could handle this?
"He loves you, you know." Shadowstar added, as she sat next to Cherrypaw. "So much. He thinks of you as his own daughter. Whenever we talk, he'll always mention how proud he is of you, maybe because you learned a new move, you caught prey, something. He cares about you so much."
Cherrypaw looked over at Thunderstar, and whispered a very quiet, "Thanks Thunderstar."
She looked up at Blueberry, "I'm so sorry about-" She got interrupted by a kind smile and a response of, "It's okay. I am so glad that you are okay."
The apprentice blushed. "Thanks Blueberry."
Soon, all of the cats fell into a deep sleep.
Thunderstar blinked, waking up in an unfamiliar place. The area looked beautiful, enchanted, exquisite. He stood up, starting to walk, faintly remembering just a little bit of this area. As he walked, he started to feel cold and painful. He then looked below him, and saw a few cats running over to two cats, one on top of the other. The bottom one looked like him.
Thunderstar gasped as the memories came back to him. He was that cat. He started to feel the pain of that cat, yelling as loud as he could.
"Oh no!" He heard several cats cry, running over to him. "You lost a life," The strongest one responded.
Thunderstar nodded and started to yell in pain once again. Silverpelt, the strongest cat, and her brother, Moon, walked over to the tom. Silverpelt pressed her nose to her, and a small wind ran through him. As the breeze passed, he felt fine. He took a big breath and responded, "Thank-you."
Thunderstar realized, he was in StarClan. He looked below him once again, and saw Cherrypaw's body being separated from his, and Cherrypaw waking me up. He then looked back up at Silverpelt. "Bring me back! They don't deserve this! Bring me back!" He demanded in a roaring tone.
Silverpelt shook her head. "I am so sorry, Thunderstar. I cannot bring you back until you fully heal."
Thunderstar growled as he walked away. I am fully healed! Now, I have to be forced to look at them! He looked below him once again, then looked up as he continued walking away, until he saw a translucent gray tom near a tree.
"Who are you?" Thunderstar asked the tom.
He turned over to Thunderstar. The ThunderClan leader gasped, it was his self! Was that one of his lives?
"I wonder what I would have named her, tomorrow, when she becomes a warrior," The dead life of Thunderstar said.
Thunderstar started to shake. "Wha-" He whispered.
The gray tom smiled at Thunderstar. "Sorry, I must be scaring myself."
Ugh! Can he leave me alone! Thunderstar thought to himself.
The gray tom snorted with a little grin. "You know, I'm not supposed to talk until you are fully dead. But hey, it's myself, I can talk, right?"
Thunderstar gulped. "Uh, yeah."
"I found one of your friends today. We didn't talk though." Thunderstar's life said to him.
Thunderstar gave the tom a weird look. "Who?"
"One of Windstar's lives." The tom grimaced.
Thunderstar's claws flexed. "He's not my friend." The tom started to walk away.
The life walked with him. "Call me... Thunder. Nah, call me T." He said.
Thunderstar glanced over at T. "Look, me, Thunder, T, whoever you are, I don't want to talk to you!" He shouted as he ran off.
T shouted, "Wait, Thunderstar, wait!" but gave up, he didn't want to anger himself.
After a little bit of running, Thunderstar stopped as he noticed a rock. He took it in his mouth and let go of it, letting it fall to the ground, hoping the ground would crack, and he could go home. He hated this place, well, he didn't necessarily hate it, it was just that he wanted to go back to the real world. Where he belonged. Away from Silverpelt, away from Moon, away from T, away from everyone.
Thunderstar decided to lay down, and shut his eyes. During his rest, he thought about how T wouldn't even exist once he was completely dead. He sighed and rolled over, and started to slowly walk over to T, ready to apologize.
"Are you ready?" A few voices called. Thunderstar looked to the side, noticing Silverpelt, Moon, and Jinx.
"Ready for what?" Thunderstar asked.
"To go home. Here, it may have only seemed like it was a few minutes, only because you do not belong here yet. It is almost morning down below. Time here goes rapid for you, and for us, it goes as slow as it does for you when you are in your homeland." Silverpelt explained.
Thunderstar shook his head. "I can't go home!" He said. He wanted to, but he needed to apologize to T.
"Sorry Thunderstar, I am sure you'll be back one day." Silverpelt said. The she-cat tried to walk over to him to touch noses, but Thunderstar started to run away from her.
Silverpelt growled as she quickly placed rocks on all sides of him, so he couldn't escape. "Trying to underestimate me doesn't work," Silverpelt called as she climbed over to him. "I can do everything." She told him. "It seems, scary, for one cat to have all of this power, but as long as they put it to good use, it's fine, right?" She smiled.
Thunderstar sighed and nodded. He knew if he told Silverpelt to tell T he was sorry, T would get in trouble for talking. Thunderstar stepped over to the she-cat, placing his nose against hers. "Good-bye, Thunderstar." She said calmly as she had him go back down to the Clans.
Thunderstar awoke, right as the sun started to come up. He silently sat up, and glanced to both sides of him. All the cats were asleep, good.
He stood up and began to walk around a little. It was nice to be back, but he knew he had to make his apology. Thunderstar walked away from the cats, and sat down next to a rock. "T, I am so sorry for yelling at you, I hope you can forgive me. You were really brave on saving Cherrypaw, and I hope you have a nice life in StarClan before I come up there. Thank you."
He saw a few fading stars, but the certain one he was looking at shined before it disappeared into the daylight. Thunderstar smiled. "Thanks T," He whispered, as he walked back to his friends.