Chapter 35

Ok so I'm sorry I was away for a while, I had to deal with some stuff. *Tears up* sadly, UTSD will be ending soon, but let's be happy! My very best friend, Keeper helped me write this chapter! Thank you K! LOVE YA! BYE BYE LOVES! Sadly, I'm not having a contest for the next book, but I do love art! CYA LATER DUDES! POV: MOONFIRE:

Moonfire scowled at the prey pile by the reeds. She was in charge of her group, and she was going to take care of these cats. The she-cat padded into the protected area where the medicine cat's stayed. It had been three days since Fluffytail's accident, and Lightningfall never left her side. He made sure to be affectionate to the young warrior, but only when no other warrior saw them.

The white she-cat was sadly pretty quiet since her accident, since everyone was unaware of what caused it. Whiskershadow swears by Starclan that it was something to do with Sanguis, but must denied it.

Her brother was snuggled up with Vitapool, trying to warm his pelt in the chilled sunlight. "Fluffytail healed correctly, am I right?" Both medicine cats nodded.

"I swear; she was attacked by the evil monsters that killed most of our clan!" Whiskershadow snapped. Vitapool licked his ears, trying to calm him down. Moonfire rolled her eyes, trying her best not to freak out. If the young warrior was attacked by the demon, they were in a lot of trouble.

That night, while her group slept in their nests with half full bellies, and bitter tempers, Moonfire looked out into the starless sky, hoping her ancestors were watching and protecting them.

Shellkit was sleeping at her mother's paws, whimpering slightly. Her young daughter wasn't the same without her brother. Nightkit, please Starclan protect him, his father, and Sunpelt. The white and silver kit whined and wrapped her tiny tail over her pink nose, and started to cry silently.

"Shellkit, please. I'm so sorry about Nightkit. Baby, he's alive with Zeldastar. Your father is fine with Sunpelt," she promised. Guilt overwhelmed her as she knew she was making empty promises to her young daughter.

As Moonfire settled into her nest of dry reeds and muddy grass, she nuzzled her daughter. "Goodnight my love," she whispered.

Soon sleep over came her, and the black and white she-cat entered her dream.

"Hello?" she called out. Nothing. She started to run as the fear grew in her belly. "Hello?!" Suddenly a scream pierced the through the air, deafening Moonfire. The scream brought so much pain to her, like a claw scratching open her belly.

"Who are you?" She cried. Suddenly she jolted awake, startling Shellkit.

"Momma? W-What happened?" she whimpered.

"Nothing baby," she whispered, wrapping her tail around the kit. "I-I'm alright." Convincing herself she was fine, the she-cat left her nest to start organizing patrols. I'm ok…

no you aren't.

Freezing as the unknown voice filled her head, the StarClan-born she-cat narrowed her eyes, piercing gaze scanning the camp for the source. Seeing none, she shook her head and continued organizing patrols. "Just my subconscious." She assured herself.

Liar. I'm not your subconscious. you know that. Moonfire, daughter of Pouncer and Keeper of the Starry Night, you know as well as I do that I

am much more than your subconscious.

"What are you, then?" Moonfire murmured, claws digging into the earth at the mention of her mother.

Oh, you'll find out soon enough.

"Is that a threat?"

If you want it to be. And stop speaking aloud. Transmit your thoughts to me. Concentrate.

Warily, Moonfire took a deep breath, before mentally willing her thoughts to go out to whoever was speaking. Okay. Done. Now what do you want?

That's for me to know, not you. come to the rock which heralds the night at moon high. I'll be waiting...

Slowly, almost like water trickling through rocks, the voice left her head.

Green eyes stared into space, a thousand possibilities running through her head. My subconscious? Possible, but unlikely. Message from Starclan? Hm... Probably not, I got chills from hearing it. Dark Forest...? I suppose it could be... Either way, it needs investigating, but privately.

"Moonfire!"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she saw Vitapool's pale blue eyes, the right one (which was blind, if she remembered correctly), clouded and dull. "You zoned out," she said simply, in that wispy, far-away voice of hers, before drifting away.

The black and white she-cat cleared her throat. "Right," she said, noticing the crowd around her. "Iceheart, take Grayfur, Leopardheart, and Reedfur out to the..."

…

The moon cast dark shadows on the ground as clouds scurried across it, moving swiftly with the wind, which whipped through the air, making the tree branches sway back and forth. A lone shape darted from shadow to shadow, taking care not to be seen.

Moonfire didn't actually know why she was taking such care, it just seemed right.

I'm waiting.

"Yeah, yeah, and I'm on my way. Have some patience!"

As you wish.

"...What did you even mean by 'Rock which heralds the night?"

Think. You know.

Rock which heralds the night... Hmm. Wait... Wasn't there an old story Regnantstorm (Because that was his name, whatever Zeldastar might say, it was the name she knew him by.) had told her? A rock, perpetually draped in darkness? And a pool, a pool around it with shining white stones like stars. And... Something else, something about the stone... Ah, yes! It was white, despite being in shadow, and shaped like a crescent.

And it was called the Herald's Stone...

Crescent. Crescent moon. Pool which appears to have stars in it. Stars.

Moon, stars, night. Herald's stone. Herald. Night Herald.

Green eyes snapping open, the she-cat threw all caution too the wind and began racing through the woods, wind whistling in her ears, following a path that she knew yet she didn't know at the same time. Finally, she reached the rock, white with a pool of stars around it.

"Hello?" She called.

A shape suddenly uncoiled itself from atop the rock. Moonfire sucked in a breath as she saw a huge green shake, dark green leathery wings raised up, pointed at the tip just like its barbed tail.

"Hello." The creature spoke. "I am Bartholomew. i was called upon to summon you here. I am sorry."

And then there was blackness, deep, penetrating blackness, and wind whipping around her and she couldn't see, oh, Starclan, what was going on-

And then the darkness was gone and Moonfire sucked in a breath.

The Sunpelt, her darling daughter, was being pinned down on the Herald's Stone by none other than Terror himself. Bartholomew was off the the side, wings having suddenly dissolved into nothingness, frills along his spine lowered and being stroked by the hand of a two-leg with pitch black hair, eyes, wings, and horns. (The two-leg, as she would later find out, was more focused on comforting his friend than he was on the scene at hand.) Various other shapes surrounded the clearing, and Moonfire recognized the shape of some of them similar to, or the exact replica of, the creatures that had stormed the camp. She was suddenly reminded of the day Zeldastar went on a rampage and stormed out... And then a word, unbidden, came into her mind: demon.

And then she was lunging forward, trying to stop that sadistic creature from harming her daughter, but two of the demons glided forward and help her down, preventing her from reaching Sunpelt.

Oh, Sunpelt. Her light blue eyes stared into Moonfire's green orbs with fear and pleading, the unspoken message of "Please help me, mama."

And then Terror laughed. "Bring in the Pains," he cackled.

Five of the demons detached themselves from the ring, gliding towards her daughter. There was a glowing red stone in-between their eyes, Moonfire noted. It was this stone that red light suddenly burst through, the individual strands surrounding her daughter and raising her up.

And then an unearthly scream was torn from Sunpelt, a scream that told of pain unimaginable, and Moonfire's heart cracked in two. She surged forward again, but the demons holding her down were much too strong.

Moonfire's screams joined her daughter's, but she was screaming at Terror, screaming at them to stop, screaming because she just couldn't take it.

Finally, Terror called off the "Pains" as he called them, and Moonfire thought, for a fleeting second, that her daughter would be set free. But instead, Terror muttered something, and a dark shadow with green growths on it slipped forward, and suddenly Sunpelt went rigid, blue eyes filled with fear. Before she knew what was happening, Moonfire's heart, too, was gripped with an unearthly feat beyond her worst nightmares.

Grinning like a physcopath, Terror unsheathed his claws and stalked forward. Raising the blood-soaked talons in the air, he drew them across Sunpelt's face. Her daughter let out a cry of pain, and Moonfire's heart ached like no other.

"Stop," she whispered. "Just stop, please, stop."

Cackling, the leader of Sanguis leapt forward, knocking Sunpelt onto the ground, and raked his claws along her belly. The warrior howled in pain, blood spilling out of the wound. Terror sliced the soft flesh repeatedly, each cry piercing into Moonfire's heart like a thousand Pain Demons.

Slinking back into the shadows, Terror nodded at a demon behind her. Fire suddenly surged past her, before compressing into a shape- A giant wolf, made up of the fierce flames, with empty black pits for eyes.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the fire demon turned to face her beloved daughter. Sunpelt's eyes scanned the bright orange, flickering pelt of the wolf, blue gazing into red.

Then the fire demon launched forward, wrapping around her daughter, flames licking her skin. Sunpelt let out an agonizing scream as the fire consumed her, wrapping around her. She screamed of pain, pain as the fire scorched her skin, hurt as her mother couldn't do anything to help her, and fear, fear as the effects of the Fear Demon ripped through her mind. Moonfire screamed with her, screamed of pain as her heart was ripped into shreds, screamed of hurt as she couldn't do anything, screamed of fear that she was losing her daughter.

Blue eyes met green for the last time, and Moonfire whispered one thing: "I'm sorry."

The flames covered her daughter again, and Sunpelt took her last breath that she would ever take in this lifetime.

As the fire receded, showing the charred corpse of her daughter, mangled beyond recognition, Moonfire wailed, wailed an agonizing howl that didn't come close to describing the pain in her soul.

Far away, Regnantstorm (Or Regnant, if you asked his sister.) stared into the night, heart aching for his beloved mate as he heard the cry.

Nightkit jolted awake as the cry reached his hears. Somehow, the young kit knew it was his mother, despite not being able to see her.

Whimpering, he felt Zeldastar's tail pull him closer, the leader's green eyes haunted as her keen ears picked up on it.

Back at the stone, Moonfire struggled against the demons holding her, insanity rolling through her eyes. "THIS IS WAR," she roared. "YOU WILL PAY, TERROR. THIS. IS. WAR."

Terror's red eyes gleamed. "So be it," he purred, before darkness overtook her vision and wind swirled around her, just as before.

When the darkness dies out, she found herself alone in the clearing. Letting out a choked sob, she bounded forward to Sunpelt's corpse. Sniffling, tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto her daughter's body.

"I'll get revenge, Sunpelt," she gasped. "I swear on it, I. Will. Have. My. Revenge. For. You."

A/N: Anybody remember when Zelda went all crazy and nearly killed everyone? I'm going to give you that explanation now. Zelda had an encounter with the demons earlier that day; they were affecting her, which is why her battle skills were superhuman.

So yeah. This is Keeper of the Starry Night (the person). Hope you enjoyed the chapter~