CHAPTER 36-Jayfeather

We hurried back towards the Clan. Dewstep leaned heavily on my shoulder and his breathing was ragged. His wounds were still slightly bleeding.

"It was a Darkling," I insisted to Moleclaw. He blinked sympathetically at me.

He replied, "The forest is still pretty dark even in the early dawn light. You could have easily mistaken it for a large badger."

I sighed. Dewstep leaned heavily on my shoulder for support. He whispered, "It's fine. Not many cats outside of the Clans know of the Boneyard, and hardly any of the warriors believe it. They just dismiss it as an elder's story, a fairy tale."

As we entered the camp, many of the cats stopped and stared in surprise. Cinderheart hurried forward and asked worriedly, "What happened?"

Grasspaw replied, "A badger." Her eyes were wide with excitement. "Don't worry, though. Dewstep and Shadefrost fought it off."

Squirrelflight flicked her tail and ordered, "Shadefrost, take him immediately to the medicine cat's den. Moleclaw, go report it to Bramblestar."

Moleclaw dipped his head to the deputy and bounded off towards the leader's den.

"Hang on, Dewstep," I whispered. A heavy darkness enveloped the musty den when we entered. The smell of spicy herbs was thick in the air.

Briarlight quickly guided Dewstep towards a moss nest and began tending his wounds.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked worriedly. She nodded, and I sighed in relief.

"His wounds are deep," she mewed. "But with enough rest, he'll heal. What happened to him? A badger? A fox?"

I hesitated. "A Darkling."

Her ears perked up in interest, but she kept on applying herbs to the injuries.

"The elders told me stories of them when I was little," she said softly. "The Darklings are wicked creatures, aren't they? They scavenge in the night and reap the souls of those foolish enough to wander into their territory. That's what they say." She blinked. "Although, I've never actually seen one with my own eyes."

"You believe in them?" I asked.

She nodded slightly. "Kinda. I know they're out there, somewhere. I feel it in the strangest of moments. The back of my neck will prickle, and there will be an odd tension in the air."

A shape scuffled noisily farther back into the den, and we looked up quickly in surprise.

Jayfeather groggily gazed at us. His fur was sticking up on one side, and his eyes were still sleepy. He yawned. "What have you two been talking about?"

Briarlight shrugged. "Nothing, really." I glanced down at Dewstep. He was asleep.

Briarlight bounded up onto her paws. "We're running low on marigold. I'll go collect some more." She sprinted outside.

Now it was just me and Jayfeather, and Dewstep, who was dozing soundlessly. It was the perfect chance.

"Um, Jayfeather?" I asked hesitatingly.

"What?" His back was turned, and he was busy sorting through herbs. The dried stalks crackled under his paws like fire.

"Do you know the Ancients?"

I could imagine his blue eyes widening. He kept his back turned, although his paws became still.

"What about them?" he meowed.

I could sense the strain in his voice.

I scuffled my paws. "Well...I kind of had a dream about them. They knew what the Darklings were."

Jayfeather whirled around, his eyes narrowed into slits. My fur began to bristle.

"So what if they did?" he meowed coldly. "How do you know? How do you know about the Ancients and the shadows?"

I ducked my head. "Well...I've been to the Boneyard, Jayfeather. I know that they exist."

Jayfeather glared at me, his icy gaze so piercing that it was difficult to tell if he was really blind. What was he thinking?

I had to know what happened after that night, after the Darklings tore apart the Ancients' camp. It felt important to me, somehow. I had to know.

I continued, "I was on the dawn patrol this morning. A Darkling suddenly attacked Dewstep, and I managed to kill it. After it died, a white mist floated up from it and I was suddenly in the past, where the Ancients were."

Jayfeather snapped, "It was only a dream. Now go away so I can do my work."

I insisted, "Fallen Leaves was there, Jayfeather. He was only a kit back then."

His eyes widened and his ears perked up. I could tell that I had hooked him in.

He turned around slowly. "Why are you telling me all this?"

I scuffled my paws. "Because there's something bugging me. It's about the Darklings. I feel like I have to know more about them. And you know about the Ancients, so surely you can help..."

There was a stiff silence hanging in the air. Jayfeather's eyes widened. I snapped my head back in surprise.

His gaze softened. "You're StarClan's chosen cat, aren't you?"

My ears pricked up in shock.

I gasped, "How...did you know?"

He began sorting through the herbs again, placing them into neat little piles.

"I've been watching you," he explained. "You were odd, right from the start, but I couldn't place my paw on it. At the night of the half moon, when I went to the Moonpool, I had a dream. There was a prophecy: 'The cat will have a black pelt, dark as the night, cold as the moon, yet she will shine brighter than any sun. And on her journey, she will meet a winged lion, a snake with golden scales...' I'm sure there's more to it, but I finally realized that the cat was you, Shadefrost. Why else would a strange cat arrive at ThunderClan, a cat with a hidden past and a strange tint in her fur? StarClan sent you."

I lowered my gaze. So Jayfeather knew. But there were a lot of things I didn't know, like what I had to do and why I was in this Clan.

"The Darklings," he said, "live in the Boneyard. They steal the souls of cats, but they take their memories too. They steal everything the victims have ever loved and leave nothing but an empty shell, a hollow sheath of their former self. I only traveled with the Ancients for a little while, after Fallen Leaves had drowned in the tunnels. What happened before that, I have no idea."

It felt weird, to hear him talking about this to me, but still, I pressed on.

"There's bones underneath the Boneyard. Miles of miles of bones underneath the dusty ground. They are cats' bones, and I think I know what happened. After my dream, when the Darklings tore apart the Ancients' camp, Furled Bracken had an idea. He said that the monsters hated the light. I'm not sure what his plan was, but the cats must've agreed to it. They snuck into the Boneyard and tried to defeat the Darklings. But their plan failed horribly, and a massacre followed."

Jayfeather replied, "I see. But there's something else I haven't told you. I'm not sure if you know this already, but there's something about the Boneyard that locks the Darklings in tight, like a cage. They can't escape, so the Clans are safe. But recently, I've noticed one or two of them prowling around at midnight. The barrier around the Boneyard is weakening, and I don't know why. If more and more of them escape, then..."

I knew what would happen. My dream was still fresh in my mind. There were dead cats everywhere, cats with their bodies torn open, the blood spattered around the dens like scarlet ink. I shuddered.

"What should I do?" I asked.

He pondered for a bit. "StarClan will guide you in everything you do. Follow the prophecy."

"Yeah, but..."

StarClan's territory was fading. That's what Firestar had said a long time ago, before I journeyed to the mountains. But what did that mean? What would happen if StarClan faded away forever?

"Jayfeather!" Briarlight mewed playfully. Her voice was muffled by the clump of marigold she had in her jaws.

"Where should I put these?"

The tom flicked his tail over to the corner. "Just set them over there."

They began talking about things that I didn't understand. Medicine cat talk, probably.

After I decided that Jayfeather was done talking to me, I scooted out of the den.

Dewstep was lying still and motionless on the nest, and I halted when I noticed that his eyes were open.

He whispered, "I heard everything, Shadefrost. I couldn't help it. So you really are part of a prophecy?"

I nodded. "I guess, if that's what StarClan wants."

He closed his eyes and let out a thin, trailing breath that sounded like the faint whisper of a breeze. When he didn't say anything else, I assumed that he had fallen asleep.

As I tiptoed outside, I heard him whisper, "Don't worry, Shadefrost. The Darklings won't be able to defeat the warriors of ThunderClan. We'll win."

How did he know whether or not we'd win? He didn't see how the Darklings destroyed everything in their path. He didn't see the blood stains splattered on the grass, or how the eyes of the dead stared sightlessly into the horizon and looked at nothing. How will we win?