Chapter 4: Interrogation

I approached the leader's den with a bit of hesitation. Firestar never took too kindly to being woken up late at night. My throat felt tight as I got closer. I froze for a moment, looking at the dark maw of the Leader's den. It was not silent like I expected. Instead, I could hear voices coming from within. I forced myself one step closer before a cat appeared from the entrance. I say appeared because the cat did not push through the lichen layer that mostly obscured the insides of the den. This cat walked through it, the greenery phasing through their body. It was Mapleshade and she looked pretty smug about something.

"Better not keep Smudgefoot waiting. I already gave him a bit of a hint on your little outing, and I'm dying to see how he'll react to this." The phantom molly mewed, brushing past me leaving an eerie chill.

There was no more point in holding back. They already knew we were coming. I pushed through the entrance with Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw right behind. Firestar and Smudgefoot were waiting, their eyes stern as they looked upon us all. I knew that by the end of the night, at least one of us would be receiving an earful. Though, it was not Firestar who I feared, but rather my father. My eyes met his. I tried to read them, understand what he was thinking and wanted, but they were unreadable. I hunched slightly under their gaze, noting that Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw looked equally uneasy.

"So, I heard you three decided to sneak out tonight. Care to enlighten me as to why?" Father commanded.

"We were just tracking Brambleclaw." Squirrelpaw blurted out.

The leader's and the deputy's eyes fixated on Brambleclaw, near pushing him to the floor. Then Father's eyes drifted to me. "Darkpaw, I know you would never lie to me without purpose. Please explain to me what happened and why you and Squirrelpaw took it upon yourselves to follow Brambleclaw out to a potentially dangerous meeting?"

I cleared my throat, settling my nerves. "Well, it went a bit like this. Squirrelpaw overheard Brambleclaw muttering about some kind of meeting at Fourtrees tonight. She watched Brambleclaw, and he never said anything to either of you two, so she thought it was suspicious. I know Brambleclaw was mentored by you Firestar, so there was little chance that our words would sway you to investigate. Thus, we took it upon ourselves. We followed Brambleclaw to the meeting. Squirrelpaw and I didn't manage to hear all of it, but we did catch that the meeting was the work of Starclan. One cat from every clan was present, and they mentioned a shared dream of coming destruction. Unfortunately, the meeting ended rather quickly. Squirrelpaw accidentally spooked me while we were in earshot, and it alerted Brambleclaw to our presence. I may have smudged him to get him to come here."

A bit of amusement appeared in Firestar's eyes at the word smudged, but Father shot him a quieting look. Firestar coughed, trying to suppress a chuckle. Father then turned to Firestar to speak his thoughts. "I did not detect deception in my son's testimony. I believe he speaks the truth. If this meeting was as Darkpaw described, then we need to hear out Brambleclaw completely."

Firestar nodded in response. "I agree. While I'm disconcerted that Brambleclaw never felt it important to alert us to this Starclan event, I'll withhold judgement for now." Firestar's eyes locked back onto Brambleclaw. "I'd like to hear your side of the story. What was the purpose of this meeting, and did you plan to tell us about it eventually?"

Brambleclaw was frozen, clearly trying to figure out how to word his answer. Finally, he spoke. "This dream Starclan sent us, it was vague. There wasn't much that I could really figure out about it besides one cat from every clan was chosen, there is some kind of coming overwhelming destruction, and the last vague phrase, 'You must seek Midnight.' I didn't even really know if the dream was real. The meeting was more to confirm it. Yes, one cat from every clan appeared, Feathertail of Riverclan, Crowpaw of Windclan, and Tawnypelt of Shadowclan. These were the other selected cats. Besides confirming that the dream was not a delusion, we gained no new information from the meeting. No individual had a variation of the dream besides which cat selected them. We believe that Starclan will send us another sign, but we don't know how soon. I didn't want to startle the clan. We've had a good few moons of peace, but I still remember the age of Tigerstar. I didn't want to repeat it."

Firestar's eyes softened at Brambleclaw's answer. I'd heard stories about the uncertainty and fear that came during Tigerstar's reign. I remember the rage in Father's eyes as he described the atrocities Tigerstar committed. I remember how Dad took me aside to describe his experience as Tigerstar's apprentice, the fear of death, and how Father protected him during such a dangerous time. I may only know of it, but Brambleclaw was born into it as the son of the tyrant. I could understand why he was hesitant to speak of what was roughly described as an apocalypse. It meant the peace he'd grown to love was crumbling apart, and denying it was a defense mechanism to keep himself from reliving his unhappy youth.

Father signaled for me to follow him. Squirrelpaw made to follow me, but Firestar cut her off, likely wanting to have his own little chat with his daughter. Father led me to an isolated part of the camp, clearly not wanting to be overheard. He sat first and signaled to me to do so as well. He stared at me with an unreadable expression before finally speaking. "A certain entertainment seeking molly recently was bragging to me about conning a certain apprentice. Would you mind telling me how she could accomplish such a feat?"

Mapleshade, seemingly summoned at the mention of her deed, appeared beside Father. "Yeah Darkpaw, tell Smudgefoot all about how you let me bind myself to you. I crave to see the look on his face."

Father noticed my eyes darting to Mapleshade. He appeared to see her as well and let out a sigh. "I suppose all the proof I need is here. Mapleshade, while I appreciate all the help you've given me over these many moons, I do not appreciate what you did to my son."

Mapleshade, with a cheerful expression, answered. "Oh, come on. Did you really think a cat as entertaining as him would just slip by me? I'm honestly insulted. His soul is fascinating, second only to yours in oddities. With how similar they are, I can't believe he isn't your actual kit. He's just like you, keen, possessive, loyal, but most important of all, he obscures. I can't peek into his future like I could with other cats, and that means he'll never do something I can predict. Isn't that just exhilarating? Unlike you, he isn't bound by the deputy position, and he seems to have gotten himself involved in some kind of grand prophecy. How could you not expect me to tag along?"

Father sighed again before turning to me. "I did not mean to put you on the spot like that, but I want you to realize the risk of what you are getting into. Mapleshade is not the type of cat who just settles for watching your life. She wants to do things, explore. She desires purpose. I thought I'd been giving her enough by having her watch the Twoleg place, but it has settled down there. Somehow I can just sense you'll be heavily involved in whatever is to come with this prophecy. Mapleshade will be an invaluable ally during this time, but you need to remember that she is not a good cat. She craves entertainment. She will never actively seek your death, but she may willingly omit information to instigate a fight. She is also quite chatty. I hope you can manage her because as far as I can tell, there's no way to stop this link."

I nodded at his words. "I'll be careful Father."

"I trust you Darkpaw. Get some rest. Firestar and I will call for an emergency meeting of the clans soon to address this prophecy. I want you there for what's to come." Father mewed before escorting me to the apprentices den. Squirrelpaw was waiting for me inside.

"How'd you talk go?" I asked.

"Dad chewed me out for taking that risk, but he was proud of me for doing what I thought was right. How about you?" She answered.

"Father just warned me about the family ghost." I dismissed, giving her the real answer without giving her a real answer.

"Your father is crazy superstitious if he's bringing that up after that meeting." Squirrelpaw meowed with amusement.

"Well, Father always told me he had a ghost ear after Scourge took it. Says the rogues of the Twoleg place had a legend that the claws of Scourge killed any cat they touched. Since Father survived a fight with Scourge and only lost an ear, the ear must have died and become a ghost." I replied with equal kittishness.

We settled into our nests, with a mixture of curiosity, nervousness, fear, and excitement for what is to come.