The sun was just setting as the group set off from the Moonfalls. Blizzardstar hadn't spoken a word since his visit with StarClan, and Starlingpaw thought she understood. If his vision was as appalling as hers, he was probably busy calming himself down, something that Starlingpaw didn't do a great job of.
Her talk with Tawnypaw had mostly shoved the horrifying scene out of her mind, but now that they were traveling in total silence, it returned. It replayed again and again in her head- her different colored paws, the blood that soaked them, the clearing piled with bodies and flooded with death. The thing that disturbed her most was the moment that her claws pierced Blizzardstar's throat; she had felt no remorse, only numbing anger. The rage had filled her so much that she felt empty. Starlingpaw couldn't begin to imagine what could cause that kind of hatred.
"Hey, so what do you think will happen when we get back to camp?" Larkpaw meowed from beside her, saving her from her thoughts.
Starlingpaw shrugged. "I don't know. We'll probably eat and take a rest?"
"No, not like that! I mean… Do you think we'll be made warriors?"
Starlingpaw gave her brother an incredulous look. "For what? Walking across the territory and back? I don't think so."
Larkpaw sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I just…" He cast a longing glance at Tawnypaw, who was walking ahead of them.
Starlingpaw flinched. She could guess what Larkpaw was thinking, and it only made things more difficult for Tawnypaw. He probably thought that he would mate with Tawnypaw soon after becoming a warrior, since they were so inseparable, which was painfully wrong. Starlingpaw hoped that the ginger she-cat would tell him already instead of dangling it over his head. Of course, she knew how difficult it would be for Tawnypaw to crush all of Larkpaw's dreams at once, but Starlingpaw figured that it would be easier the sooner she did it.
Starlingpaw took a deep breath and quickened her pace to catch up with Tawnypaw, which was difficult. Though her legs had gotten stronger through training, the huge amount of walking was beginning to weigh on her and her legs grew stiffer and harder to move.
As she caught up with the older apprentice, she noticed that Tawnypaw was staring at the ground, her eyes unfocused. Starlingpaw figured she was thinking about the best way to tell Larkpaw, or maybe daydreaming about Mosspetal.
Starlingpaw flicked Tawnypaw's side with her tail, rousing her from her thoughts, and looked directly into her eyes as the other she-cat turned her head to face her.
"Tawnypaw, you've got to tell him," Starlingpaw hissed quietly, trying to keep Larkpaw from hearing them. "If you wait any longer, it'll be impossible."
Tawnypaw sighed, her tail dragging on the ground as she walked. "Okay. Yeah. I'll do it."
Starlingpaw watched in surprise as Tawnypaw turned around, landing face-to-face with Larkpaw. She hadn't actually expected her to listen; Starlingpaw assumed that Tawnypaw would just argue with her and refuse.
Tawnypaw's face was stern, devoid of any light-hearted emotion. Larkpaw was surprised by her sudden appearance and took a step back, his ears flat with confusion, but brightened after a moment.
"Hey, Tawnypaw! It's nice to talk to see your face," he meowed cheerfully, taking a step forward. Starlingpaw glanced uncomfortably ahead of them, where Blizzardstar was padding along at a snail's pace, deep in contemplation.
"Yours too," Tawnypaw replied, her tone high and thin. She sounded annoyed. "I need to tell you something very important. Crucial, even."
Larkpaw laughed genuinely, not grasping the situation. "You can trust me with whatever it is."
"Good, because-" Tawnypaw started, but she was cut off as a loud screech came from ahead of them. The three apprentices turned immediately to face it, and all at once, they recognized a disgusting scent.
"Fox," Starlingpaw breathed.
Blizzardstar burst through the bushes he had passed through just moments ago, wailing loudly, his pupils so wide that they covered the blue of his eyes. The fox followed just a tail-length behind him, bursting through the bush an instant after he had. Blizzardstar dashed across the small clearing that the apprentices sat in and scrambled up the trunk of a nearby tree, his white fur disappearing behind the leaves.
Starlingpaw had no time to contemplate her leader's flight, as the fox turned immediately on the younger cats, baring its ugly fangs and lowering itself to the ground as it ran. Before any of them could react, the fox had launched itself at Tawnypaw, pinning her to the ground.
Tawnypaw kicked at it viciously, clawing off clumps of its belly fur and pushing it off of her enough that she could slither away from its grasp. Suddenly confident, Starlingpaw rushed forward to attack and leaped at the creature, clumsily scurrying onto its back using her claws. The fox reared up to shake her off, but she held on tightly with her front paws, clawing at its spine with her hind legs. Just as the fox started to fall backward, planning on crushing Starlingpaw beneath it, she leaped off and landed neatly on the ground. She congratulated herself for an instant, happy that she could be of some use in battle, though she was panting hard from the effort it had taken to climb onto the thrashing beast.
Before she could make another move Larkpaw had rammed into its side, knocking it onto the ground, as it had been standing on its back legs. He jumped onto the fox to pin it to the ground, but he didn't have enough weight to hold it, and the fox turned Larkpaw's move on him, flipping Larkpaw onto his back and holding him there.
The reddish-brown creature lowered its face swiftly to Larkpaw's neck and tried to clamp down, but Larkpaw moved his head out of the way just in time. It tried again, and this time it didn't miss.
"Larkpaw!" Starlingpaw yowled, filled with terror as she watched the fox's teeth connect with her brother's throat. She launched forward, leaping further than she thought she had to, and landed squarely on top of the fox's shoulders, tearing at its neck with her claws. An image flashed in front of her as she dug in with her claws, and she couldn't help but imagine the fox's fur as bright white. But then she recovered, remembering that Blizzardstar was cowering in a tree, not dying beneath her paws.
The fox screeched in pain as she left a deep gouge on the side of its face and jumped backward off of Larkpaw and tried desperately to shake Starlingpaw off. The effort of maintaining her hold was much too difficult with the added struggle of her stiffened legs, and Starlingpaw was thrown off of the fox's back, slamming into the dusty ground facing away from the battle. She heard the creature running toward her, and she attempted to get up from the ground, but before she could, a burning pain filled her.
The fox's jaws had clamped down hard on her tail, the closest part of her that it could reach, and she felt a fang reach her bone. She shrieked at the blinding pain and felt the fox tug hard at her tail, pulling her across the ground.
Starlingpaw thought she might pass out from the pain. For what seemed like moons, it pulled at the part of her tail that it had a grip on, and each time she felt like her tail was going to be torn off. In reality, it was just a few moments before she heard a loud hiss, a thud of impact, and the sharp howl of the fox as it released her tail.
Finally able to move as she was free from the fox's jaws, Starlingpaw struggled to her feet and looked behind her to where Tawnypaw's teeth clamped viciously down on the fox's neck, her hind legs digging into its chest. The beast yelped in agony and shook itself wildly, knocking Tawnypaw off of its neck. Starlingpaw watched, her eyes clouded with pain, as Tawnypaw braced herself for a blow from the fox, but it turned away from the cats and crashed through the foliage, blood dripping from its scruff.
Starlingpaw almost laughed at the irony, but she was too injured to move that much. The same kind of animal that had torn Birchpaw's scruff when he was a kit had been injured in the same way.
She heard rapid pawsteps and soon Tawnypaw and Larkpaw stood on either side of her to give her support.
"Are you okay?" Larkpaw asked worriedly, his eyes darting around her face to look for a reaction.
"Obviously not, mouse-brain," Tawnypaw hissed, her ears flattened against her head. "Her tail was torn in half!"
A wave of nausea crashed into Starlingpaw at the thought of her injury, imagining the thousand different ways it might look. Her head dropped low to the ground and she vomited on the forest floor, making Tawnypaw cringe away from her for a moment.
"Come on, let's get you to Honeypool," Larkpaw meowed, and Starlingpaw realized at that moment how far they were from camp. It would take ages for her to get back with her weak legs, and the thought of her tail dragging across sharp undergrowth brought bile into her mouth again.
"I don't know if I can make it," she muttered, so dizzy with pain that she could barely speak. Her words came out slurred, and Larkpaw didn't seem to understand her.
"Blizzardstar!" Starlingpaw heard a sharp bark come from Tawnypaw. "What in StarClan's name were you doing up a tree while Starlingpaw was being torn to shreds?"
Starlingpaw glimpsed a flash of white fur as Blizzardstar approached, her vision blurry with delirium.
"It was an opportunity for you to prove yourselves," Blizzardstar responded, his voice shaky.
"Prove ourselves? Blizzardstar, I've been proving myself for moons longer than I needed to, and you haven't made me a warrior! Clearly you pay no attention to how well I perform in training, and you were much too busy skulking around in a tree while I helped defend my Clanmates!"
The white tom growled. "Don't you dare disrespect your leader like that. StarClan-"
Starlingpaw was weakening. The edges of her vision were turning black.
"StarClan my eye!" Tawnypaw screeched. "You've got the leadership skills of a frightened shrew! Don't try to tell me what I can and can't do!"
She could barely see now.
Larkpaw suddenly left her side to jump between Tawnypaw and Blizzardstar. "Tawnypaw, don't-"
Starlingpaw didn't hear the rest. Her legs buckled from beneath her as the black took over her vision and her ears rushed with blood.
The world went silent.
She was back in her vision, standing before the river with paws soaked in blood. Starlingpaw could tell that her body was not truly her own; it felt larger than hers ever had.
Turning around, she was surprised to see the clearing empty. She padded toward it, confused and wondering where the corpses that had previously littered the area had gone. Not that she was unhappy about it, though. The lack of blood and death was absolutely welcome.
A loud rustling noise caught her attention. A she-cat had pushed through the foliage into the clearing, her fur dark grey with faint tabby markings. Her irises were forest green, tinged yellow at their edges as if the sun was peeking out from behind them. The she-cat looked strong, muscles rippling under her stony pelt as she moved toward Starlingpaw.
The young she-cat watched in awe as the grey newcomer approached her, moving as gracefully as the flow of a river.
She stopped just before the apprentice, who stared at her through another cat's eyes.
"Young apprentice," the she-cat meowed in a gravelly tone, her voice rough from seasons of use. "The sun will not rise if it is mourning the loss of the night."
Starlingpaw's heart raced. Had she been given a prophecy? Was this a StarClan cat? Or was she simply hallucinating, delirious from the pain of injury?
She started to say something, but even as she opened her mouth, no sound came out. She could only watch as the mysterious she-cat dipped her head and turned away.
But as the gray cat's tail flashed away between the ferns, Starlingpaw picked up the sharp scent of blood. She stared in horror as a river of red rose out of the ground beneath her paws and spread out across the clearing, dying the grass crimson and thickening the air. The river rushed on until the clearing was covered in a thin coat of blood, and then suddenly she heard the roar of a waterfall behind her.
Starlingpaw whipped around to see the Moonfalls in front of her, but instead of water, blood spewed from its mouth and fell to the ground. The scarlet liquid gathered around her paws, rising swiftly to her knees and then to her shoulders until it was so deep that she was forced to swim to stay afloat. Her legs gave way beneath her and jaws widened in a silent scream as she sunk beneath the surface, falling deeper and deeper into the never-ending pool of blood.