Warriors: Bird of Peace

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A flash of fangs, a spurt of blood, a black tom’s life drained out on the riverbank…

Ravenfeather awoke with a jerk. He examined himself. No blood. And he was on a stone floor, not a riverbank. Well, that was good. But then he remembered the battle, and being stolen. Not so good. Where was he now?

~*~

Birdstar blinked. She could’ve sworn the forest was burned down. But no- the trees were tall, lush, and green, and the sky was a clear, sparkling blue. Fluffy white clouds floated through the endless stretch of blue, and the grass under her paws was soft and green. She got to her paws and sniffed around. The air was crisp and clean.

She was in StarClan. But how? She wasn't dead! Unless it was a dream…?

"Birdstar." murmured a soft voice. She spun around, expecting Cheetahstrike, but instead she was met by a cream-and-gray dappled she-cat. Stars twinkled around her paws, and shone clearly in her enormous blue eyes. "My name is Spiritflame, the former medicine cat of RainClan. I trust you remember them?"

Birdstar nodded. How could she forget? "But you I don't." Birdstar said bluntly. The she-cat seemed to understand her hesitance to trust her and smiled.

“I was Fawnspots' mentor." she prompted gently. Suddenly the memories came alive: When she was a kit and she caught a cold, snuggling into her mother's downy gray fur while a younger Fawnspots (Fawnpaw at the time) crouched over her, feeding her a juniper berry and gently massaging her chest, with an older creamy/gray she-cat watching. A little while before that, she was playing with her brothers and sister one day and they ran into a pair of foxes. Luckily, a RainClan border patrol heard their terrified wails as the foxes chased them and came to the rescue. Fawnspots had treated them for shock before they were brought home, and Spiritflame had been gazing into a pool outside the medicine den, muttering to herself. Birdstar, as a kit, had assumed she was mad and avoided her from then on. But now, she realized she wasn't muttering pointlessly. She had been reciting a prophecy, trying to work it out.

"My prophecy..." she murmured. She was sure of it. Staring into that pool, the medicine cat had seen her future. And she had never warned her of what was coming. "What did you see." It was more of a demand than a question.

"Everything." she whispered, closing her eyes as if the memory caused her horrible, unbearable pain.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Birdstar was a bit worried about how her voice sounded. It wasn't upset or even angry, and that was surprising considering how furious she was at the moment. It was deadly calm, without a hint of venom. "Why didn't you tell me what they would do? Why didn't you tell your Clan that BloodClan was coming?" Then her temper exploded. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT MY ENTIRE FAMILY WAS GOING TO DIE! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT THEY WOULD STEAL MY KITS AND MY MATE!"

Spiritflame sighed. This dream-visit wasn’t going as well as she hoped it would. "I saw everything. I was going to warn your parents of the danger, but I saw how everything would turn out in the end." Birdstar's eyes narrowed.

"I hope your supposed 'happy ending' comes true then, if it's worth the murder of my family that could’ve been prevented!" she snarled. Spiritflame curled her lip and stared at Birdstar in a new light.

"You'll regret your temper. As a StarClan cat, I can do my best to stop it from happening." As she spoke, shadows curled around her paws like vines. The trees turned black and dead, and grew so that they towered high above them. The twinkling starlit sky was blocked from their view by the knotted branches. The grass turned into mud, the calls of birds and the rustling of starry prey faded into silence. Shadows loomed everywhere, the air turned stale and cold with the stench of death. Suddenly, Spiritflame wasn't so pretty. Her eyes hardened and the friendly twinkle turned into an evil glint. Her long, dappled fur was matted and dirty with the occasional fleck of blood. A long, thick scar trailed from between her shoulders, down half her spine, and curled around her front leg, eventually stopping just over her heart. Spiritflame followed her stare and threw back her head with a cackle of mad laughter. "Oh, you noticed my scar? This was the cause of my death. I was mauled by a tiger. Funny, really, how this works. If you go to StarClan, all wounds and scars disappear. But traveling to the Dark Forest gives you the reward of keeping all your battle wounds. And the way of the hierarchy here makes it so any crippled cats are killed again upon arrival."

Birdstar recoiled at this new phenomenon. That was awful! All cats should be given a chance! Why, in StarClan she had heard of a medicine cat called Cinderpelt who was hit by a monster and since then walked with a limp, but later reborn without one. The medicine cat lunged at her, broken and bloody fangs bared. Her claws tore through her shoulder as Birdstar dodged into a tree. Just as her skull collided with the trunk, her eyes flew open. She was in her den; moss strewn everywhere and clinging to the walls.

“Just a dream,” she murmured. She supposed it was the noise of the camp that woke her up, or at least she hoped it was. She did not think she could take any more bad news. Ravenfeather… Her kits…Gone.

Leafshadow poked his head into her den. “Birdstar? It’s time to go.” He said softly. She nodded and got to her paws. Time to face her nightmare...

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KUWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I'M SO SORRY I ALMOST ABANDONED THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been so long and the chapter's so short... *sniffs* Anways I should probably go to bed... It's almost two in the morning...