True leafbare had fallen hard on the clan, but with no difference from what had happened in moons before. Phoenixwing bleakly looked around the camp at almost sunset, trying to make left from right and head from tail, but it was all just white.
She was getting sick of the color.
Very sick.
Redkit, Russetkit, and Wildkit played together in the clearing, their red pelts like fire against the snow. No one knew why cats with two white-grey parents would be red, even though Ripplefoot had red-brown stripes. It was a miracle in it's own right.
With miracles always came tragedy.
The yowls of sorrow rose from the nursery, followed by silence, and then more yowling. Phoenixwing raced over, and Mistfeather's three kits peered in after her. Longclaw stood over a silent body. Heartkit, the little albino kit, was dead. Her sister, Wolfkit, pushed at her sister's corpse, begging and begging, "Wake up! You can't die now!"
No use. Phoenixwing thought to herself, One less mouth to feed, and immediately felt guilty. The little kit didn't deserve StarClan's wrath, if StarClan was still watching at all.
Were they?
Phoenixwing for once, didn't know the answer. She looked up desperately towards the bleak sun on the clear but still cold day, hoping for answers that would never come.
Moonstar was, as usual, silent, watching from the Great Tree. Phoenixwing, hoping to cheer her up, went over to her. "One more dead kit." She spat, "What do you want?!"
"Maybe... we could have ceremonies for Talonkit and Saberkit? They're seven moons old now and-"
Moonstar cut her off, "We can't have ceremonies for them if they die." She jumped off the branch to find somewhere else to sun herself.
Phoenixwing stamped her foot in the downy powder. "Shut up."
"What?!" Moonstar turned around, fangs flashing.
"Shut. Up. You can't leave me like this! It's not fair."
Moonstar ran at her, tackling her and leaning in close. Dark circles and bloodshot eyes framed her face. "You know what's not fair?"
Phoenixwing said nothing as she bled into the earth.
"WHAT'S NOT FAIR IS SEEING EVERYTHING I WAS SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR FALL UNDER MY PAWS! WHAT'S NOT FAIR IS SEEING EVERYONE I LOVE DIE AND NOT BEING ABLE TO JOIN THEM BECAUSE I'M STILL STUCK WITH YOU! WHAT'S NOT FAIR IS THAT YOU- YES, YOU- DIDN'T FULFILL THE PROPHECY! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SOLVE EVERYTHING."
Moonstar pulled away. "Shatter the moon."
Phoenixwing looked at her now completely insane leader. "What?"
"Shatter the moon. You have to fulfill the prophecy." Moonstar said with a grin.
"I'm not going to."
"Shatter the moon."
"No."
"Shatter the moon."
"MOONSTAR, STOP IT!"
Once again, Moonstar smiled at her, a huge smile, the type that a kit would have on it's face on it's apprentice day. "Let's play a game."
Now, other cats were noticing. The two or three warriors who weren't on patrol and all the queens besides Longclaw, who was still grieving, were starting to cluster, shouting at Moonstar.
"STOP IT!"
"YOU CAN'T BE THIS WAY!"
"WE LOVE YOU!"
"MOONSTAR, NO!"
Moonstar paid them no attention. "They're your problem now." she half-whispered, half-hissed, and before Phoenixwing could pounce, she fled into the forest.
Ripplefoot walked to her. "We have to save her."
Phoenixwing said nothing, tears in her eyes.
Mistfeather, her grey fluffy fur against the snow, whispered, "Before you go... we need to respect the fallen."
Heartkit was buried right in camp. Sunstrike and Wolfkit buried her together. Even a generation apart, the two worked like they had known each other their whole lives. For Wolfkit, this was true.
Ripplefoot stood by Phoenixwing's side as the first snowy flakes of a gathering storm began to blow in. "We need to go."
Phoenixwing dipped her head. "Nightsky will be in charge."
The whole camp seemed fine with it, the meows and purrs showing their approval. Nightsky gave orders to everyone, Mistfeather at her side. The grey RainClan cat had quickly become one of the main authorities in camp, even if Phoenixwing still disliked her.
Then again, thought Phoenixwing bitterly, since when have my opinions mattered anyways?
Not wanting to dwell on the general unpleasantness of it all, Phoenixwing and Ripplefoot took their first steps into the night. The setting sun stained the sky red and the snow beneath their feet reflected it, encasing the entire world in scarlet.
Phoenixwing sighed in frustration. "I can't smell anything!"
Ripplefoot pointed at a clear path of pawprints. "You don't have to."
The trail was annoyingly lopsided, going in between trees and occasionally disappearing to appear again. It led over the frozen river and up towards the mountains, and then proceded to go back down again. Moonstar had taken consideration to make it as hard as possible to follow, especially in the dead of night.
Phoenixwing tried to pretend that those growls were not wolves and especially not mountain lions, but rather Ripplefoot's endless pit of a stomach, which was probably more likely anyways.
She stopped focusing on it and snapped back to reality when the trail stopped. The growling was much louder now. Spiny undergrowth covered in blood blocked their path.
Moonstar had went right through it.
Ripplefoot, without a second thought, dove in, claws hacking at the spiky brambles.
Phoenixwing reluctantly wriggled through after him.
Two black cats circled each other in a clearing laced with blood.
Moonstar.
The other was not a cat at all, but the black fox, it's eyes shining in the moonlight.
Moonstar's already open wounds were bleeding freely onto the icy ground.
Phoenixwing panted, not sure of what to do, Ripplefoot by her side.
Paralyzed by fear.
The fox, maw wide open, pounced.
Blood sprayed the air and Phoenixwing screamed.
