Warriors | A Prophecy Reborn: Book 4. (Hidden In Darkness)

~Hidden In Darkness: Chapter 10~

A day had passed since Fernstar had had her fit. Reedtail returned with a plentiful amount of prey to add to Tigerfur's and Mossgaze's stack on the pile.
Frostpaw had been acting strangely after her return. Russetfire suspected she was still set on becoming Russetfire's apprentice, but as it was, Fernstar wasn't well and Ashpelt, despite being absent most of the time, still wanted to teach her what he could.
Besides, she had barely continued her first full moon as a warrior apprentice.
Russetfire longed to meet Crowwatcher or any of the other medicine cats at the Moonpool, but WindClan and RiverClan would be risking everything if they sent their medicine cats to continue duties that seemed impossible at this time.
She missed talking to the few friends she'd had outside of ThunderClan; she missed talking to the other medicine cats or medicine cat apprentices. She wished Webstar and Half-Sight would just leave the other Clans alone.
Hadn't they taken enough of their territory? Hadn't they murdered enough of their Clanmates, or what would've been considered their close friends? Hadn't they already destroyed their final hopes of escaping the lake?
Webstar doesn't care, Russetfire thought as rage flooded through her. She sat in her den. It was nighttime and the only sound she could hear was crickets chirping and brief snoring from the elders' den.
Webstar only cares about himself, Russetfire thought bitterly. He only cares about the power he has and how to maintain it. He wouldn't even know what to do with such power other than flaunt it like a piece of prey! To him, we are all merely pawns, and Half-Sight is the monster who started this game.
If Fernstar doesn't get her act together soon and get us out of here, I'll find a way out myself! She can stay and defend what she feels necessary, not that it'll do her any good.
She normally wouldn't disagree with Fernstar, or any leader, aloud, but she was still allowed to think of ways to escape and to help her friends do the same. So long as her mother was safe, she didn't care what happened to herself. Specklefern was her only living known relative now. Specklefern was old, but she didn't deserve to die, not at this time. It wasn't right.
She had failed in curing Willowleaf's kit, Ivykit. The poor she-kit had caught a cold during the everlasting leaf-bare, but Russetfire had failed in helping her. Ivykit died not long after Russetfire found out she had a cold.
She wasn't going to let more cats, more warriors, die if she could help it.
"Every medicine cat's dilemma, I suspect," Firpaw's voice interjected. Her dead brother appeared in front of the medicine den entrance and padded toward Russetfire.
"When can I talk to Russetwhisker?" Russetfire asked. She had been wanting to see her kin for a long while, even if it were for a brief moment.
After a pause, Firpaw looked down. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "She's gone missing. We don't know where she's gone or when she'll be back."
"Why are you the only one I can talk to?" Russetfire asked finally. "Why can't I talk to Redpelt or Burlytalon?" She remembered hearing of, and briefly seeing, Burlytalon before, when she was a young kit. Burlytalon was Specklefern's brother. He had been born into ThunderClan but decided ThunderClan's lifestyle wasn't for him, and ended up living as a WindClan cat.
According to Crookedfire, though she didn't like to believe it, Burlytalon had apparently died along with the other half of WindClan. The only time Russetfire had actually seen Burlytalon was when she could barely speak properly, so she hadn't known him as well as others may have.
"Redpelt is trapped on the other side of the dead world. Burlytalon's disappearance is concerning..." Firpaw flicked his tail thoughtfully as he began to explain. "I've run into him a few times, but since Ashpelt and Whitestripe found the Clans' Refuge, we haven't heard from him."
"Something's not right," Russetfire whispered, moving to the other inner-den opposite Fernstar's.
"What?"
"I said, something isn't right," Russetfire said, raising her voice slightly. "The disappearances in StarClan, the good cats trapped on the other side..."
"You're worried something might happen to someone close?" Firpaw guessed.
"Lots of things have already happened to close friends and family members," Russetfire mumbled.
"I can't be the cause of your worries," Firpaw said with a smirk. "I'm... already dead. Whatever's worrying you must be more recent."
"Can anybody else see you?" Russetfire asked after a brief pause. "Can anyone else hear you?"
"As far as I'm aware, only you can see and hear me," Firpaw reassured. "Don't worry. Any cats looking for information from StarClan won't be able to get it."
Russetfire sensed a heavy tone of doubt in his voice. That both frustrated her and pushed her anxiety level up even higher.
"I can't stay long," Firpaw commented in the following silence. "I need to meet with the others."
"Others?" Russetfire said curiously, her ears pricked. "What do you mean? What others?"
"The other cats in StarClan are planning something, but we believe it may benefit the living Clans and their remaining members."
"What are they planning?" Russetfire inquired.
"I can't say yet," Firpaw told her. "And I don't think this would be the right place to tell you anyway. If some other living cats can hear me and they possess evil intentions, it would be too much of a risk for both the living world and the dead."
Russetfire hated having secrets kept from her, but she understood what he meant. If, for example, Spidertail or Tigerfur were evil and found out what the good cats in StarClan were preparing for, all hope of their plan succeeding would be lost.
But aren't there also evil cats in StarClan now? she thought. What's the point of keeping it from the living if the dead know about it too?
The dead make the orders. The living can do something about it, whispered a part of her brain.
After a long pause, and Firpaw staring at the wall behind her, her dead brother finally nodded as though acknowledging something someone said. He turned to Russetfire and said, "I need to go for now. If I'm able to, I'll share what I know with you tomorrow night. You'll need a lot of rest for tomorrow though..."
"Wait!" Russetfire said, standing up to try and stop her brother, but Firpaw had already disappeared before her eyes.
What does he mean? Russetfire wondered. Is... someone going to die?