A.N: Yay! That's three chapters in four days 8D This marks the end of that though, back to school tomorrow and such. Enjoy!
'"StarClan…" She murmured, her breath stirring ripples on the water, which warred with the splashes of the waterfall, "Please accept me."And with that, she craned her neck to touch the water.
Hollyleaf woke to a mourning howl, and jumped to her feet, frightened. She would've always thought that StarClan would be… a paradise; with trees in eternal bloom and bountiful prey everywhere. Cats that died in the cold clutches of Leaf-bare would grow fat on the starry creatures that had as well. But what she was met with reminded her more of the Dark Forest… maybe not even a forest.
The scene the soon-to-be-leader was met with was burnt and dead; there were four trees that seemed dead, their trunks scarred by flames and the branches bare of leaves and smaller twigs. The forest beyond seemed black and deserted, with a blanket of ash along the forest floor where the leaves would be. There were no starry warriors, no sign of life anywhere really. She glanced down at herself, and only saw her regular black fur. She was not dead, but she wasn't dreaming… was she? Wasn't visiting StarClan always a dream? Squirrelflight always told her that she could do anything in a dream…
The green-eyed cat hesitated, then closed her eyes and imagined a bird. A Magpie to be exact, and just its wings. She wanted the wings on herself, she wanted to fly. When she opened her eyes again, she looked over her shoulders. They sank when she saw that nothing had changed, and then lashed her tail at her own foolish behavior. It was unnatural that she would even be able to do that, she did not have special powers. But there was probably someplace in her that still wished that she was one of the Three…
"Hello?" A tiny voice called. Hollyleaf turned quickly in the direction of it. From among the piles of ash, there came a small noise, and a pair of ears vanished. She slid down into a hunters crouch and silently prowled forward, ears pricked for another sound.
"Shhh!" Another voice mewled. "Yellowfang said we'd be in trouble if we started talking."
"Well I could take a Dark Forest Warrior any day!" The first voice boasted quietly, and the sound of a scuffled followed.
"You would be dead before you could unsheathe your claws," Another kit said; Hollyleaf could guess that they were all female by their voices. "Mosskit, you haven't been here for as long as Nightkit and I have." The stern voice whispered again.
"Hello?" Hollyleaf meowed, standing up to look over the pile of ash that was hiding the three kits.
Squeals followed by a cloud of ash were the only signs they had heard her. When she got closer, she noticed that the kits were gone. "…Hello?" She tried again, "I'm not a Dark Forest cat. I'm from ThunderClan. I…I'm going to be leader."
"ThunderClan!" A voice spoke quietly, from above her. She looked up as three little starry kits leapt off a high branch above her. She bit back a yowl as they fell downward, only to be surprised when they seemed to jump and land on surfaces that… just weren't there. Stardust fell from their paws where it seemed they jumped off, and Hollyleaf blinked to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"We're from ThunderClan!" The white-and-gray kit mewled proudly, standing on the air in front of her, just at eye level. "I'm Mosskit, and these are Nightkit and Mistkit!" She blinked warmly, her blue eyes eager. "Normally we have Snowkit with us too, but he went off somewhere with Swiftpaw and Shrewpaw. They're ThunderClan too! There're a lot of ThunderClan cats here." She mewled happily, glancing around. The little she-kit continued to list many other cats- both kits and apprentices- that Hollyleaf had never heard of, but could assume were long-dead ThunderClan cats… maybe all the way back into the Old Forest and beyond. A thought struck her as she continued to ignore the excited kitten by her feet. Was Firestar here?
"Mosskit," She interrupted softly, attempting not to offend the little she-kit, "Where are all the warriors? I need to get back to the Clan… they're in danger."
"Well StarClan's in danger too." The kit pouted, not too enthusiastic when she realized that the older cat wasn't paying attention. "They've been fighting the Dark Forest cats. The oldest ones. Mom said that they could break through the inter-dimensional pathways and transport through to the other side using these weird kinds of gamma rays that can move atoms and place them all back in the same order that they were found in. But they really need a spot of gamma rays like that, a portal if you will, in order to move from one to the other." The white and gray kit cocked her head adorably, staring up at the black warrior.
Hollyleaf just stared back at the kit. "What…? But how…? They did…" She sputtered, green eyes closing to slits. What was this kit spouting? Well the middle part couldn't be important, it just sounded made-up. A kit story, right! She backtracked to some of the things that made sense. "When did this whole thing start?"
The simple question implied a simple answer, but the kit cocked her head again, whiskers twitching. "There is no time here. Nor is there really time anywhere. You see, most cats believe that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but really, from up here, you look at it from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint… it's like a big ball of wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey… stuff"
Hollyleaf just blinked, her brain running in circles that never seemed to make sense. She ignored the answer… and tried another, even simpler question. "Who's your mother, Mosskit?"
"Bluestar," She mewed, blue eyes innocent and wide. "She was the leader before your granddad. He was her apprentice." She giggled, and Mistkit did too. The two darker cats seemed younger, but they had more stars in their pelt. Did that mean they had died young? Younger than even Mosskit?
"Okay, can you tell me where Bluestar is?" The black cat was never very good with kits, and as it turned out, especially now with this one. "Mosskit glanced up silently, staring for a while. Hollyleaf was just about to ask her question again when all the kits' ears pricked and they scampered back into the shadows of the burnt trees.
"Here she comes, but I don't think she will want to talk…" Mosskit murmured, and rolled in a cloud of ash until her pelt was camouflaged perfectly. Hollyleaf backed away from where the kits were hiding, staring up into the star-speckled sky that was hazy with smoke. She couldn't see anything and squinted to maybe make out what the kits saw. "Mosskit…"
A flare lit the sky suddenly, and a sonic wave was literally visible as two shapes appeared against the dark backdrop. One with a white outline, clear through the middle and glowing blue eyes; the other was dark, more of a shadow with mists rolling around them and red eyes. Hollyleaf reeled back as the figures flew across the sky, trailing sparking and smoke like shooting stars themselves, leaping and bounding off invisible surfaces where they fought with claws and teeth. Wounds opened and instead of blood, white and black fire poured onto the ground. It rained around the black cat and she flinched back from the flames. They fell right on her, but didn't burn; yet the ground beneath her smoldered and burst into flame as well, dark sapphire flames born of the blood of the angels and demons that fought above it. They spat and snarled quietly, yet the sounds reverated like thunder and their forms flickered like flames in a wind. It was otherworldly to witness the fight between pure good and evil, the way that no mortal cat would see their ancestor. Yet the cat that stood on Firestar's shoulder and ruled the Clan in the darkest time of the old Forest, was an outline of pure, scorching energy that battled quite physically in the air above her. Eventually the white cat struck through the dark one and it died with a flash of light and a whisper of sound. The cat stared around with its burning eyes, trying to spot its next enemy in the sky.
"..B-bluestar?" Hollyleaf choked out, staring at the apparition. It reacted with lightening speed, streaking down like a comet to the ground where Hollyleaf stood.
"That was once my name, yes." She murmured, the white form filling out with a hue of gray-blue, the blue eyes darkened and developed a vertical pupil. The general glow around the figure dulled and spread to act as stars in the elder she-cat's pelt, though she looked no older than Hollyleaf herself, maybe even younger. "Hollyleaf?" She blinked, surprised. "What are you doing here? Only Medicine Cats and Leaders meet with StarClan… and right now we're in the middle of some… trouble."
It struck a chord in the black cat that the StarClan leader didn't know what was going on in the forest… below? "Bluestar, there's a war going on at the Lake." She prompted, worried. "Cats have been dying everywhere. Firestar…" She choked slightly, and the blue leader tipped her head to the side, her eyes glowing wisely. "We are aware of the trouble below us, don't worry. But StarClan requires protection as well. The Dark Forest cats have invaded us everywhere, on every level of the Clan."
A lonely wind seemed to whistle through the treetops, and it was unnervingly silent in the wood as Hollyleaf's fur fluffed in fear. "I thought StarClan was untouchable. That you were safe!"
"Far from it, my friend. We are under attack just as the Clans below. You didn't wonder why there are stars in the home of StarClan themselves? There is a place where the dead and forgotten go. We do not know where, yet we fight for your way of life. Without us, the Clans would perish."
Hollyleaf nodded slowly. "Then you know why I'm here?" She watched the past leader gaze at her, turning her head slowly to look off into the distance again. "It is not yet your time."
"What?!" The black cat bristled, the tension inside her blowing outward with her fur. "Bluestar, I need to get back to my Clan. I need to lead them, Brambleclaw appointed me himself in the crowd when Tigerstar had killed Firestar. When I was born, all I could think of was leading my Clan. This is why I didn't take a mate for this long, why I didn't stay in the tunnels! I left my responsibility and heart with ThunderClan when I left, and I couldn't live without that feeling. But I'm here now, I'm ready to serve them until I die, and you're telling me that you aren't going to let me?"
"You think that this war revolves around you?" The spirit snapped, eyes blazing as it seemed as if it was slowly transforming back into the silhouette she had seen flying through the sky, delivering divine justice. "Without the gods of your world, us, you will truly not last long in this battle. We stand by and guide you, we are the reason your leaders have nine lives; we predict the future and brace you for what is to come."
"You can't claim that much power over us, you cannot walk in our dreams, teach us to fight. Even now you let your own kin be slaughtered below! If you have the power to give us nine lives, why are you dying, here in the stars? Why couldn't you stop this war before it began?!" Hollyleaf hissed, on her feet and staring heatedly at the dead cat now. "Without us to believe in you, how do you have any power in the first place? You can't predict the future, and it seems that half of your prophecies are too vague or too easy to misunderstand. You couldn't help the Clans in the mountains, you couldn't even stop my mother from mating. You think you have power? Let the Clans perish, let us see how much power you have then, milling about in this wasteland with no one to believe in you. Let the cats that died ask you why you couldn't come down and help, why you couldn't save them, their kits or their friends, when they see the Dark Forest cats doing what you cannot." Her black tail lashed back and forth, ears flat against her head. How could the cats that she had believed in her entire life be so cold? Letting the cats that she loved die below them was just as bad as going down and slitting their throats themselves.
Bluestar hesitated, staring at the rebellious black she-cat before gazing upward again. "It is true that our prophecies regarding this battle have been… quite…" The cat trailed off, her tail tip twitching with agitation. "We believed that the powers of the Three would be enough to save the Clans. But yet without us, and the rules that we laid down for the Clans at the beginning of our time, the Clans would be a group of rogues, eternally fighting each other without a Code. "Her eyes flickered to the black cat. "We are extremely mindful of how you love the Warrior Code, Hollyleaf." It seemed that the spirit smirked before becoming serious again. "But, as our prophecies seemed to be false… I'm afraid you have to fend for yourselves." She sighed, her gaze sharpening. "We could award you your nine lives, but as you can see, we don't have enough cats here to award you them. I'm sorry, but you'll have to return to your Clan without them. There is only darkness here, no hope."
The cat looked ready to jump off into the sky again, and Hollyleaf blinked, astounded that her ancestors had given up so quickly. If this was who her future was in the paws of…
"Mom, why would you tell her that?" A small voice mewed, and a shadow moved. Out came Mosskit, her eyes the only thing that weren't covered in gray-white ash. The little kit sniffled and then sneezed, sending a cloud of the stuff floating in the air around her, revealing some of the white splashes on her pelt. "We… we can give her lives." She revealed, glancing between her mother and Hollyleaf, who gained a new respect for the little she-cat. "She wants to save ThunderClan, Mom. She's one of us."
Bluestar's pelt had faded, her eyes blazing once more as she looked back to her kitten. "Mosskit…"
"I can do it, Mom!" She sprang forward, rushing past Hollyleaf's paws to address the old leader. "Just let me try, I gave one to Firestar, why can't I give one to Hollyleaf? We have three cats here, and you make four. Swiftpaw and Snowkit will be back soon, and… and…" The kit spun, looking through the carnage of what had to used to be a giant forest, searching for anyone to help her.
"We can help." A soft voice whispered across the wind and it picked up suddenly. The cats' eyes were drawn to the sky as the stars above swirled and brightened, until they formed into three cats padding down the air toward the group of she-cats. Who should appear but Firestar himself, his faint orange pelt looking like flame itself; following him were other cats Hollyleaf knew- Squirrelflight, Leafpool, Millie, Brackenfur, and Brambleclaw. Each pelt made her heart ache a little bit more, but she welcomed the cats that walked down a trail of stardust to her.
Firestar looked at his mentor with quiet assurance. "Bluestar, we can give her her lives, you return to the battle. And take these cats with you, teach them." He motioned to Spiderleg, Icecloud, Graystripe, Birchfall and Dustpelt. Hollyleaf briefly stepped forward to touch noses with Birchfall, who had been missing in the Two-leg nest, but now it was obvious what his fate had been. She also took the time to catch the eye of Millie, who had also been missing, and Squirrelflight.
The group with Bluestar moved off, leaping into the sky to vanish into a brightness that appeared in the sky. When Hollyleaf turned back to her friends, she noticed they had formed a circle, and she faced her grandfather, sitting with her tail drawn around her paws. The tom had been revitalized to a younger form of himself, and he opened his bright green eyes, the same that Hollyleaf had, and said, "Let's begin."
A.N: So... that's two dead. Not bloody, yea. Sorry ^^ So thanks to Tonto for the reviews, I'm sorry that Firestar was your favorite, and I will do a chapter by Jayfeather later, as well as Dovewing.