This Is What We Know ✔️

BONUS: soothsayer

bonus chapter
soothsayer

a s h e n w i n g

Ashenwing was late, again, not that she ever wasn't late. Hailstar minded little, preoccupied with a set of new paws in her den by her side, and her deputy was often too set on leading border patrols with their nonexistent enemies to pay any attention to a medic late to her meeting. Still, she pushed through the leader's den as though she wasn't, white fur painted a light gray, and swiped her tongue over the lithe kit's, who was staunchly waiting at the entrance, head.

"Mornin, Ashenwing! You're late," she squeaked, voice high pitch. The molly couldn't wait until it mellowed to a softer lilt like her mother's... ah! her mother! "Are you here to see Hailstar again?"

Ashenwing let out a laugh before giving an extra lick to the kit's cheek. "When am I not here for her? Have you been treating your milk giver with care, little junco?"

The kit, Sparrowkit, named after her father and nicknamed after the junco she hogged from the fresh kill before she could even bite into it, nodded her head. "Oh yes! I don't even drink milk anymore!"

Another chuckle from the medic, her eyes warm and sparkling. "I see, well I'm proud you've joined the many mouths to feed," Ashenwing teased, bumping her hips with the kit's before approaching a much larger version of Sparrowkit. Hailstar's litter of one took off from the den as soon as she figured Ashenwing would offer her no more attention, and the leader finally looked up.

She's weaker than before, the feline sighed inwardly, nosing a couple herbs her way. "I know you don't feel like it, but we have a meeting now and I don't think this one can be missed like the last three."

"I don't want to hear about how Im failing my clan," the leader replied, even but fair, sharp gaze pricking the medic's. "If you've come to tell me just that, I simply do not want to hear it anymore, Ashenwing."

Exasperation set in, but she paused in her encouragement to observer the crumbling den. Was Hailstar just choosing to watch everything fall apart around her? Her huff made clear her resentment, and the leader's gaze hardened impossibly more. "Three prophecies in less than a moon following Sparrowkit's birth. Five total in the last six moons. You cannot tell me that it is a coincidence."

"There is nothing wrong with my kit," Hailstar defended, and Ashenwing felt inclined to agree. The lithe molly was, in essence, just a sweet kit with hopes of becoming as much of a legacy as her milk giver was. The medic had helped her breathe when Hailstar grieved her other five kits, and by StarClan was she equally adoring of her. Though the litter itself- one alive and five born dead- was peculiar to the molly. With the leader's wails having echoed around the den, she didn't bother questioning it aloud.

"Every prophecy, there is blood on your paws. Every prophecy, there is a storm that washes away both us and The Red Sky." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Every prophecy, it is Sparrowkit's eyes behind the flood. It is her voice leading cats deeper into the waters."

Hailstar sighed, though it was the first time in six moons the medicine cat saw her composure fracture. Perhaps just another crumbling thing in AlpineClan, soon to be swept away. "Fine, take care of it."

Ashenwing nodded once and left the den.

_______________________________

20 moons later

This time, it wasn't Ashenwing who was late. In fact the white splotched molly, a new pink scar running across her chest, was right on time. Every part of her body seemed to twitch and move with a restlessness unfolding in her stomach. She tried to keep track of the past twenty moons, but her den that had held tics and herbs that kept her history marked down had been swept away that sunrise. The flood was rising, and pine needles from the forest now swam with the hungry river.

"You have a lot of audacity actually showing up here," a cool voice greeted, and Ashenwing noted sullenly that her voice had grown in to a lilt, just like her milk giver's. "What do you want, oh teller of tales?"

The medic flinched, recalling prophecies after prophecies haunting her pawsteps. She had indeed told many stories, but not one was not delivered by StarClan themselves. "I've come to see you for the last time, apologize for my actions," Ashenwing whispered, lowering herself to the ground as though to escape the molly's burning glare.

"Apologize for attempting to drown me, prophet?" Sparrowfire hummed, quirking her head. Her words were soft but tasted like malice in Ashenwing's maw. "Isn't it quite a while too late? The flood has come. You have no home. The rest of your clan will perish, but mine? It will survive."

Anger swirled with doubt in the medic's stomach. There would be no flood if you had died, she wanted to cry out, there would be no flood because you would not have been alive to destroy the dams and bring the water rushing over the dry river bed once more.

Instead, she swallowed a lump in her throat. "StarClan has spoken-"

"They always do, fortune teller."

"-and even when we die, we will pass as their highest court. Your cats, your AlpineClan, will have to pass a trial to even get into the afterlife. Your fight is not over and you haven't won," Ashenwing said, breezing over her sarcastic interjection. "I'm sorry for what I've done, but if you died that night I was authorized to kill you, at least you would be among the stars. Now you'll never join us. You can never see your milk giver again."

Coldly. "As if that would be a bad thing. You've forgotten your place, soothsayer. It was not up to you to decide who lives and who dies. If an after life is what I am refused when my only offense has been surviving, then so be it."

With that, she turned on her paws and went to leave. Ashenwing, who had been listening avidly, spoke up before she could. "Why a soothsayer? I cannot tell the future. I only interpret what StarClan gives me."

Sparrowfire laughed, though for a moment she sounded defeated. "You sure do act like it. Maybe with a title such as one, you'll be more mindful of how the past can impact our future. Goodbye, Ashenwing. Swim well, and may StarClan take you down with the red sky."

The soothsayer watched her leave, her heart pounding against her chest.

Within a moon, the medic was overcome by the rising river. Within five moons, there was no sign of the past AlpineClan.

Warrior upon warrior was subjected to their past in an attempt to make them see what their future held- safety or limbo. Ashenwing oversaw all of it. And when she first spotted Heronpaw, her heart crumbled and she wept as she waited for him to approach that big redwood tree. Was this her own torture? His orange pelt, blue eyes, short face...

He was a spitting reflection of Sparrowfire.