Warning!: will contain blood. Not for the weak or the faint of heart warriors.
Chapter 13: The Prophecy
Lunaclaw padded slowly, Russet at her side. Her paws ached, and her stomach gnawed at itself out of hunger. She approached the tall cliffs that loomed before her. She looked up at the top, where the dark grey edge of a cave merged with the night sky, filled with twinkling stars.
"What do you think it will be like, Russet?"
He shrugged. "No clue. Darkshard said I was just supposed to guard you. That it's just between a medicine cat and the Dark Forest." He started to bound up the narrow cliff edges. A few pebbles tumbled down the ledge after being knocked around by his paws.
Sighing, Lunaclaw followed, watching her step to avoid taking the same path as the pebbles. Sharp edges poked into her paw pads. After picking her way up the cliff and up to the cave, she picked rocks that had pierced her paws. Sighing, she looked up into the cave. It was pitch black. Not even the moonlight could pierce the shadows that swirled around just inside. Lunaclaw swallowed loudly as Russet sat on the side of the mouth.
"Well," he said, "you going? Or maybe you're a Thundie?" He snickered.
She growled in his face. "I am not a Thundie! Stuff it, you mouse-brain!" She, then, cuffed him sternly to make her point, leaving a blood trail where her paw ran against his fur, turning it a darker shade of red. He simply and silently flicked his ear, looking off into the distance. She stalked into the cave, the shadows consuming her.
She walked by feel as her whiskers brushed against the sides of the cave as it narrowed. She could barely squeeze through a tight part. After a while, it widened, and then she came into a smaller cavern. Inside was a black stone. It had a slight dark glow as it stood perched on a rock. Lunaclaw admired it with wide eyes before exhaling. She padded slowly up to the rock, unsheathing her claws.
Her paws had stopped bleeding by then. She slashed one of her claws across her paw pad, reopening the wounds and making them deeper. A steady trickle of blood flowed down her paw, and she stretched her paw out and away from her body. The dark red liquid fell, splashing onto the stone.
She suddenly felt sleepy. She curled up, placing her bloodied paw on the black piece of obsidian as she felt her eyelids close and the blackness, seeming infinite, took over.
She felt a cold wind ruffle her fur. She frowned, looking around at the dark, empty clearing. Crickets could be heard as they sung for the night sky. Stars flashed at twinkled. Suddenly, a bright slash scored across the sky. She noticed her shadow stretch and bend, as if alive. The sky turned a dark red. Her fur felt hot, as if it was on fire. The smell of singed fur and burnt skin filled her nose, which, in protest, wrinkled in disgust. As her face contorted with pain and fear, the cry of some bird in the distance sounded.
Then something wet lapped at her paws. She looked down and yelped, jumping back as she stood in a puddle of blood. She ran away, shaking the horrid substance off her paws. The cries of cat's surprised yowls agonizingly echoed in her ears. She dropped to the ground, pawing at them, desperately trying to claw them off. Make it stop! Please! she screeched.
Then, suddenly it did. Opening a soft-blue eye, she looks around cautiously. She gets to her paws, back in the cavern. There is no fire fur, no yowls. No nothing, except the eerie darkness. She sat up, brushing off the debris that stuck to her fur. She cleaned her paw off, watching the stone with wary eyes. It had no blood on it at all.
After navigating back through the cavern, she thought about what she saw. As she emerged from the cave, Russet turned. He blinked, frowning. "What did you see?"
She shook her head no, hiding her trembling paws. She was too tired to explain. The red-brown tom shrugged, flicking his tail to beckon her to follow as he trotted down the side of the cliff. Lunaclaw stayed behind, looking up at what she once heard Colddusk refer to as 'Silverpelt'. Her eyes swept over the starry sky. After dawn, the trees will turn red. More of the Innocent Blood will be spilt, and the bird will cry once more. The moon will reunite with the stars.
She mulled it over in her mind, trying to find the hidden meaning. She couldn't. Sighing, she looked at her paw. Better get some cobwebs on that. She started down the trail after Russet, leaving bloody paw-prints behind her.
