Omen of the Sun Book Three: Dusk

Chapter Ten

Cinderstorm

Cinderstorm froze. "W-what?"

"You just... materialized into the camp," Briarkit announced loudly. "I saw you."

"Eh-" Lightningfeather began, his voice catching. "Well, we-"

"Briarkit!" A cat called from behind. Briarkit turned, and all three cats glanced at each other.

Briarkit turned back. "I-"

"Briarkit," the cat called again. "Come drink with us!"

It was Rainkit. Cinderstorm squinted and saw Peonystorm lying on her side. Her two kits, plus Fernkit and Emberkit, were already suckling. Briarkit cast a last, suspicious look over her shoulder at Sunpool, Cinderstorm, and Lightningfeather, but she ran off to go and suckle.

"We have to be more careful," Sunpool reprimanded immediately. Her voice was very quiet. "If a kit saw, who knows who else might have seen?"

Cinderstorm nodded, but her mind was a million miles away, still with the conversation with Brambleflower. "I don't like it," she said out loud. When Sunpool twitched her ears in surprise at her statement, she quickly amended her words: "I mean, I don't like Brambleflower. She doesn't seem very... trustworthy."

Sunpool laughed bitterly. "You're kidding."

She turned and stalked away, her silver tabby pelt half-blending in to the snow that still cloaked the ground. A little confused, Cinderstorm turned to Lightningfeather. "I-"

But he had turned too, and was disappearing into the snow. Cinderstorm knew that he was especially sure-footed in the snow, which was a little ironic, but he had been born at the very start of leaf-bare, had learned to walk in the snow that leaf-bare brought, and his mentor had made him run over snow every day when it was snowing out. Cinderstorm didn't want to follow.

She just felt... alone.

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Later that evening, Sunpool padded over to Cinderstorm as she nibbled half-heartedly on a scrawny mouse. She would rather die than admit it, but she needed friends to rely on. They made her feel whole. Without them...

"I'm sorry," Sunpool said, sitting down across from Cinderstorm.

Cinderstorm raised her eyes from the mouse and looked at Sunpool skeptically. She largely suspected that Sunpool was just saying sorry because she wanted Cinderstorm to talk to her again, but she didn't really mean it. However, Sunpool's bright green eyes were locked on hers, a sort of pleading in them.

"For what?" Cinderstorm inquired, twitching her ears theatrically. Just because she wanted Sunpool to apologize, it would be fun to make her squirm a bit.

Sunpool bit her lip. "For being mean earlier."

"And?"

"And," Sunpool meowed, "I'll never do it again as long as I live."

Cinderstorm twitched her whiskers in amusement. "Apology accepted."

"Awesome," Sunpool said, dipping her head to take a bite out of the mouse. "Anyway," she continued, swallowing, "on patrol today, I was thinking. Brambleflower didn't really tell us all of the truth. I think that we should appeal to StarClan."

"What?" Cinderstorm asked, truly shocked. "Why- why StarClan?" It was common knowledge that not just any cat could appeal to StarClan.

"Because," Sunpool mewed impatiently, keeping her voice down, "they're the only ones who can really tell us what Brambleflower meant."

Oh, yeah, Cinderstorm reminded herself, Sunpool was born a rogue. She doesn't know all those rules about StarClan. It was hard to remember, sometimes, that Sunpool's mother had been a rogue, and that Sunpool herself had lived as a rogue for the first few moons of her life.

"Well," Cinderstorm said, "not just any cat can appeal to StarClan. It'd take a medicine cat, or a leader." The words unspoken hung between them. Really, we have neither.

The thought fairly scared her.

Sunpool screwed up her face in concentration; apparently, she had noticed the issue as well. "Hmm..." she said, glancing towards the medicine den. "I suppose the best we can hope for in that vein is that one of Applestar's kits, or maybe one of Peonystorm's kits decides they want to be a medicine cat. But even Peonystorm's kits are only three-and-a-half moons old. They won't become apprentices for some time."

"Yeah," Cinderstorm agreed.

"So..." Sunpool said, finally seeming to have an idea. "Idea. The Gathering is in a few sunrises, right?"

"Yes," Cinderstorm confirmed, staring at her in a slight bit of confusion. What does the Gathering have to do with anything?

"Well, we can just talk to some of the other Clans," Sunpool said smoothly. She was still keeping her voice down - a good thing, Cinderstorm thought - even though she seemed very excited about her idea. "And ask if their medicine cat would bring us to talk to StarClan with them. I think HollyClan has an apprentice medicine cat who we might be able to persuade to help us. How about it?"

Cinderstorm gaped. How were they going to convince a medicine cat from another Clan to help them? The plan was crazy, and it would never work.

But...

The worst the other Clans could do was say no. Or ask why they needed communiation with StarClan, and why couldn't they just use their own medicine cat. But maybe the apprentice medicine cat would understand cats their own age. And at best, they would get communication with StarClan. Maybe Cinderstorm would find an explanation for her powers, and what they meant.

She took a deep breath.

"Okay."

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

YAAAAAY

:) So. Um. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Lol I had chocolate.

BANANA

BYE

~RAINFEATHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR