Warriors AU: The Darkest Hour

Chapter 5

Author's Note: Hey everyone! A little update about the schedule: today is my last day of work before I go on break. I return to work on January 4th so until then, uploads will be once a day every day except on Christmas! I will not upload a chapter since I will be with family. Once I return to work, we will go back to daily uploads with Tuesdays and Thursdays being 2 chapters. Happy holidays everyone!

Sandstar jolted awake in terror. He was lying in the cavern beneath Highstones with his nose pressed against the Moonstone. The shaft of moonlight had vanished, and only the faintest glimmer of starshine lit the cave. But there was no relief in waking up, for the stench of blood was still all around him and his fur felt hot and sticky.

Heart thudding wildly, Sandstar scrambled to his paws. Across the cave he could just make out Cinderpelt. He had risen too, and was signaling urgently to him with his tail. Sandstar's first impulse was to pour out to him all that he had seen, but he remembered his instructions to keep silent until they had left Mothermouth. Paws skidding on the cave floor in his haste, he pushed past the medicine cat and bolted into the tunnel.

As he stumbled upward toward the open air, following his own scent trail along the dark passage, the way seemed twice as long as before. Sandstar's fur scraped against the tunnel walls and he was filled with horror at the thought of being buried alive. The air felt too thick to breathe, and as his panic grew in the unbroken blackness of the tunnel he began to imagine that it would never end, that he would be trapped forever in blood and darkness.

Then he saw the pale outline of the tunnel entrance, and burst out into the still night air, where the moon was sinking behind thin clouds. Sandstar dug his claws into the loose earth of the hillside while shudders passed through his body from nose to tail.

A few moments later, Cinderpelt emerged behind him and pressed himself against his side until he managed to control his dreadful shivering and his breathing steadied.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

"Don't you know?"

Cinderpelt shook his head. "I know that the ritual was interrupted—the scent of blood told me that. But I don't know why." He looked deep into his eyes; his own were burning with concern. "Tell me... did you receive your nine lives and your name?"

Sandstar nodded, and the medicine cat relaxed slightly. "Then the rest can wait. Let's go."

For a moment Sandstar felt too exhausted to move. But he did not want to stay anywhere near Mothermouth and the terrible things that he had seen in the cave. Shakily, pawstep by pawstep, he began to descend the hill. Cinderpelt padded beside him, sometimes nudging him toward an easier route, and Sandstar was grateful for his unquestioning presence.

As they drew farther away from the tunnel, the stench of blood faded from his mouth and nostrils. Still, Sandstar felt that even if he washed for a moon he would never get rid of the last traces from his fur. He began to feel stronger, but he was still very tired, and as soon as the rocky hillside gave way to grass he flopped down in the shelter of a hawthorn bush.

"I've got to rest," he meowed.

Cinderpelt tucked himself into the grass beside him and for a few moments the two cats shared tongues in silence. Sandstar wanted to tell the medicine cat what he had seen, but something kept him silent. Partly he wanted to protect her from the dreadful fear he had felt—even if he could explain what Oakstar's prophecy meant, would it help to have another cat look forward to the future with the dread that he now felt? And partly he hoped that if he never spoke of the dreadful vision, it might not come true. Or was there a curse on his leadership that nothing could avert? Oakstar had told him before she died that he was the sand storm who would save the Clan. How could that be true, if the sand was drowned in the tidal wave of blood he had just seen? Sandstar had experienced prophetic dreams before, and he had learned to take them seriously. He could not ignore this, especially when it came at such a significant moment, while he was receiving his nine lives and his new name.