salt in the wound || warrior cats

chapter 2

murder mystery

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VIOLETDUST KEPT HER STEPS QUIET AS she padded out of ThunderClan's camp. There was no sign of Stormbird, but his scent was fresh; and that was what she followed, tracking it all the way to the edge of ThunderClan's territory.

She felt like an absolute hypocrite, having questioned why her friends had snuck around when she was doing the same thing. Well, she wasn't doing it completely just for the fun of it.

Her parents had reacted badly to when Sunbounce and Whitebird became mates - something mixed with grief in the fact that Honeykit would never have such an experience - and so Violetdust wasn't ready to tell them about Stormbird yet. They were already annoyed enough with her over her opinions on StarClan; there was no need to throw this into the mix.

"Stormbird?" Violetdust called softly as she left the forest and padded onto the beach, watching the water lap gently on the sand. "Where are you?"

When the black tom was nowhere in sight, she decided to try again further down the beach, and this time louder.

"Stormbird?"

By now, she'd reached the edge of ThunderClan's territory, and the Gathering Island, sitting tall and proud in the lake, was in sight. Without thinking about it, Violetdust's tail-tip twitched in disapproval. It wasn't the island that brought her that agitation, but rather the meaning it held; although she liked the four Clans sharing news, she found it mousebrained that they agreed on peace on account of StarClan.

Just as she was about to turn and head down the beach in search of Stormbird, something peculiar happened. She suddenly lost all feeling in her paws, and before she could react, her vision blacked out. It was like she'd fainted, but without pain and out of nowhere.

The only way Violetdust could truly describe it was that it was like falling asleep, but wide awake.

When her vision cleared, the first thing Violetdust saw was a pair of worried, blue eyes. The next thing she saw was a muzzle, so close to her own's that they were nearly touching - and obviously much too near for her comfort.

Yelping, the ginger-and-white warrior scrambled backwards to a respectable distance from the muzzle and blue eyes.

Once she got further away, she noticed the cat in front of her - a small, white she-cat - had starts that rippled in her pelt. Quickly, Violetdust figured she'd been pulled into a dream by those she hated the most: StarClan.

As her mouth opened to demand this StarClan cat send her back, she realized the white she-cat looked none too pleased either. In fact, as this cat recognized her, the anxiety in her blue eyes had turned into specks of annoyance. "Really?" she snapped to nobody in particular before Violetdust could say a thing. "This is who I'm brought to?"

The ginger-and-white she-cat's face twisted with offense, and her tail-tip twitched. "It's not like I want to be here either," she retorted.

"Fine," the white she-cat muttered, but it felt more like she was speaking to some higher power - the mainland of StarClan, perhaps - rather than Violetdust. And that surmise was proven correct when moments later, she turned to address the ThunderClan warrior. "Violetdust, as I understand it, you don't trust StarClan-"

"Don't trust StarClan?" Violetdust lashed her tail. "You've never proven that you can be trusted!"

The white feline ignored her interruption, "-but I need you to listen to me now."

"As if!" Violetdust snorted.

The StarClan cat's eyes hardened. "Violetdust," she meowed firmly. "I'm Brightstar, and many moons ago, I was leader of ThunderClan. All I want is the best for the Clan. And if you refuse to trust me, then at the very least, listen to me."