Moonstripe's Prophecy

Chapter 1

Moonkit felt himself being prodded in the side. Was it feeding time already? He slowly opened his clear, blue eyes and looked up to see a tiny, silver face staring down at him. "Moonkit! You're awake!" shrieked Larkkit. "Come on, come on, come on, you HAVE to see this!" Moonkit groggily stood up. He glanced at his mother, who was still sleeping soundly.
"Shouldn't I wake Echoheart and tell her first?" asked Moonkit. He wouldn't want her to worry.
"There's no time!" answered Larkkit, and, without waiting for Moonkit, shot out of the nursery.
"Come on, Tigerkit, we might as well check it out," Moonkit called to his quieter, gentler littermate.
"Okay," said Tigerkit and followed his brother out of the nursery. It was a warm day, and the gorge where SkyClan had their camp was bathed in sunlight.
As Moonkit lay eyes on the huge, black and white shape on the stone floor of the camp, he understood why Larkkit was so excited. Tigerkit stared at it with huge eyes.
"GREAT STARCLAN! IT'S A BADGER!" exclaimed Tigerkit. Echoheart had told them many stories about the huge, lumbering creatures, but Moonkit had never thought he'd get to see one before he was apprenticed.
"Is it...alive?" asked Lilacpaw, the medicine cat apprentice.
"Of course it's not, stupid! Why would it be lying on the floor if it was alive?" said Lavenderpaw, Lilacpaw's sister.
"Can I see too?" asked Moonkit's denmate Featherkit, her blue eyes shining with curiosity. Her sister, Tansykit, and her brother, Blizzardkit, were a few paces behind her.
"What if it's NOT dead!?" fretted Quailpaw. After this, many anxious whispers followed.
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" yowled Stormstar. "It's dead, and if you all stay quiet for a few moments, maybe the patrol will tell you why," he continued his fur bristling with annoyance.
"Yeah," muttered Blizzardkit, the white tom just as annoyed as their leader.
Badgerfur stepped forward and Moonkit puffed out his chest with pride. His father, the Clan deputy, was going to speak.
"Well, we were patrolling the forest border, when out of nowhere, the badger burst through the undergrowth," Badgerfur started dramatically. Everyone knew he was one of the best storytellers in the Clan. "We immediately started attacking it, but we could see it was already weakened. It didn't take long before it finally collapsed and bled to death. We couldn't see any wounds on it, and it didn't smell of sickness. So we decided we'd take it back to camp, so Treepool could see what was wrong with it," he finished.
"I've never seen anything like it," remarked Sandfeather, who had been on the patrol as well. She was always kind to Moonkit and his littermates, so he nodded his head to show agreement.
Then, Treepool stepped out of the crowd. Moonkit's mother had once told him that Treepool has been a warrior before she was a medicine cat. When Moonkit had asked why she became a medicine cat, Echoheart had stayed silent. Later that day, he had went to ask Treepool himself, but she had just looked sad and said nothing.
As Treepool examined the badger, Moonkit could see her getting more and more anxious. This was very unlike the calm, gentle she-cat the SkyClan cats knew.
Eventually, she looked up, and said,"StarClan has sent us an omen: Badgerf- I mean, a cat... will die suddenly and without warning." Moonkit could see she wasn't telling them something, something important, but he quickly brushed it off. There was silence for a few heartbeats before the entire camp errupted in chaos.