Wild Shadows (Book Two; Series One)

Chapter 21

 The moon was now fully above the cats, and Branchstalk was trying his best to hurry up the meeting. He'd been missing these Half-moon meetings, he barely knew the others. Marshfeather started speaking of a dream he had, while Leafstorm and Twistedleg also shared the same dream. Branchstalk kept looking out the den, his lip quivering. "I had the same dream." Badgersight rasped. He blinked. What was the dream?

 The others took a lick of the water, and curled up to sleep. Branchstalk took this as a chance to leave, as he started to stalk out, he heard a stifle from the den. "Branchstalk?" The cat whispered. He turned his head around to see Bramblestorm, the big StoneClan medicine cat looked at him. "Where are you going?" He asked calmly. "I need to go back to my Clan! I think.. I think something's wrong.." Branchstalk replied anxiously. Bramblestorm pressed his nose to Branchstalk's shoulder. "Come on, this is really important.. I'm sure your Clan is fine." The medicine cat purred. Branchstalk sighed. It was probably just his anxiety. The dejected tom turned back, and took a sip of the water. 

 Darkness filled his sight. All he heard was wails of distress and pain, before blood splattered across his vision. It kept happening! Blood would splatter across cats. Branchstalk huffed, feeling himself shake. "Branchstalk save me!" A cry split the air. He saw Shinefire in the distance, before she was swooped away from his vision like a hawk. "This is your fault." Another growled. He turned around, seeing Hollyeyes motionless on the floor, Redsnow above her, "I'm sorry.." One whispered. It was Badgersight. "Stop!" Branchstalk cried.

 Awoken, Branchstalk felt his chest violently beat. He glanced around, seeing every other medicine cats confused. Leafstorm coughed violently for a moment, before waking up. "We need to go back to the Gathering." Pebbleheart meowed. "We all saw different cats die, correct?" Marshfeather asked. "Correct.. I saw Fireshine, Rosefoot, and Badgersight.." Gingerleaf muttered, sorrow drowning his tone. "Badgersight!" Branchstalk cried. "We need to go back! I saw Shinefire and Hollyeyes die! And you!" He desperately meowed. Badgersight licked his head. "Who did everyone else see?" Pebbleheart asked. "I saw Redsnow, Silvermoon, and Badgersight.." Leafstorm meowed. Everyone else said there's, but everyone had something in common. Badgersight was dead in every single one.

 Branchstalk burst through the Gathering, crying for everyone to come to AlderClan. What if his sister was dead already? What if Rosefoot, Mosscloud, and Alan were dead? What if Shinefire was? Badgersight properly explained it, and Multistar nodded, dismissing the Gathering, but he asked the leaders to come.

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  Now the attention was on Branchstalk and the other medicine cats. He took a deep breath. "We saw death." He put it simply. "Death happens! No matter what." Hawkeye hissed. "It was all in AlderClan.. and no matter what, it had Badgersight." Marshfeather replied. "I think, it means, if AlderClan continues with war with StoneClan, everyone will die." Larkpaw meowed. "End it." Toadstar meowed. Tawnystar nodded. "We had talked about it in the Gathering, since StoneClan was planning on getting us involved." She added. Multistar looked to Lionstar, the two leaders dipped their heads. "I'm.. sorry.. but we can't completely forgive you for taking the lives of Goosewing and Whitestripe." Multistar meowed. "What? That wasn't us at all!" 

 "Than who was it?" The leader asked. But the clearing fell silent. "We're sorry for your lost, but we swear to StarClan, we haven't killed anyone." Lionstar meowed. Branchstalk huffed, staring around the clearing of injured cats. "Let's get to work Badgersight and Pebbleheart." He meowed. But deep down, Branchstalk felt a sadness, a worry, a nerve. Deep down.. he felt something very bad was going to happen.