A Rose's Thorn - Warrior Cats Fanfic

Prologue

Grass blades bent beneath Frecklestar's brown paws as she walked toward a shimmering pool ahead of her. She could see a silver tabby cat ahead of her that was just about translucent. The cat's silver fur shimmered with stars, and her familiar shape didn't bend the grass blades beneath where she sat.

"Frecklestar," the tabby she-cat spoke, her voice raspy and deep. "We've been expecting you."

"We?" Frecklestar felt the fur on her spine rise with alarm. She looked around her to see multiple pairs of eyes peering out at her from the shadows of the trees that surrounded the clearing in which she stood in. She quickly smoothed her fur. 

The silver she-cat purred with amusement. "Frecklestar, leave your fur alone. This is important."

"Then why wouldn't you speak to a medicine cat?" Frecklestar looked back at the starry she-cat. 

"Because we need to speak to you directly." The she-cat let out a sigh and nodded over toward the shadows. Frecklestar saw a starry brown she-cat with piercing yellow eyes pad out from the shadows of the trees and sit down next to the silver tabby. 

"Appleglaze," Frecklestar purred at the sight of the brown she-cat who she knew as her mother. "I haven't seen you in forever!" She leant forward to touch noses with Appleglaze, only to be returned with a growl.

"Sit down, Frecklestar," Appleglaze meowed. "Willowbranch and I have something important to say."

"That's what I was trying to say to her," Willowbranch, the silver tabby she-cat, muttered.

Frecklestar sat back down with a thump. "What do you want to say, then?"

Appleglaze looked down at the starry pool in front of Willowbranch, Frecklestar, and herself and dipped a paw into the cold water. She swirled her paw around in the pool until an image took shape before Frecklestar's eyes.

The image showed of a fluffy cat standing on a fence located by the Twolegplace behind BushClan's territory. The cat was struggling to stand on the fence and slid back down into its yard. The cat looked back at the fence before disappearing into its nest.

Frecklestar kept watching the pool as Willowbranch dipped her paw into the water and changed the scene. Another image took the place of the last one. The new image showed of cats fighting and blood spilled across their battlegrounds. Cats were collapsing under the paws of thin, wiry cats with blood-stained claws.

The longer Frecklestar stared at the pool, she could hear cries of terror and fear ringing in her ears. She finally tore her gaze away from the scene to look up at Willowbranch and Appleglaze.

"What does this all mean?" Frecklestar whispered, her paws shaking. Was this an omen, or a vision of the future? What were the two StarClan cats trying to tell her?

But Appleglaze only reply to her daughter's question was a puzzling prophecy. "The rose's thorns will need care in order to grow. The more the thorns grow, the safer the bushes are." 

"I-I don't understand," Frecklestar's ears flattened to her head. "What are you trying to tell me?"

No answer was given to the leader's question. Appleglaze only reached forward to touch noses with her daughter. 

"Don't ignore the rose," she whispered before Frecklestar closed her eyes and found herself waking from her dream in her comfortably familiar nest. 

"Don't ignore the rose..." Frecklestar looked through the entrance to her den at the quarter-moon shining in the night sky beside the twinkling white stars. "Appleglaze, what do you mean?"