Warriors: FlowerClan's War #1 - A Clan's Choice

Chapter 12 - Silverstar

Silverstar woke up as the cave was lit up with sunlight. She hadn't had any dreams. Why hadn't StarClan spoken to her?

She mumbled a few things to herself, the padded out of the cave. Her bushed up tail swished behind her as she climbed over the large rocks that led down the mountain.

Silverstar admired the rolling hills and beautiful trees of her territory. It was clear to her why Mousestar had chosen this part of the forest for StoneClan. There was plenty of shade, but still, a few sunny patches, plus the large rocks scattered across the land were perfect for cats bathing in the sunlight.

Silverstar got lost in her thoughts as she walked along the well-worn path, calmed by the chirping of the birds and the soft splashing of fish in PondClan's streams.

As soon as she walked into camp her calmness dissolved into chaos.

Her Clanmates were running around the camp, obviously frightened by something. Ivyshade was shuffling her kits into the nursery, while the younger apprentices tried their best to quickly strengthen the nursery walls. Warriors were guarding every possible entrance to the camp, though some of them seemed to be missing.

"What happened?" Silverstar asked Leafpelt, the first warrior who approached her.

"We spotted a fox just outside camp, it smelled really strongly of cat blood. We think the cat scent on it smelled like RainClan, but we don't know."

"How close was it to the camp?" Silverstar asked, walking with the she-cat to the main entrance

"It could have destroyed the camp walls without stretching its foreleg out at all." Leafpelt mewed, her fur spiking up.

A few of the warriors greeted Silverstar quietly as she walked up to the entrance, and then a fearful silence fell over the camp. Clouds began to cover the sky and rain sprinkled over the cats.

Silverstar jumped slightly as the missing cats emerged from the forest. The group consisted of Mouseclaw, Stormheart, Russetblaze, and Flowershine.

"We couldn't find the fox," Mouseclaw said, causing most of the cats to cast nervous glances into the forest.

Though the fox scent was starting to fade, StoneClan went through the rest of the day in a very paranoid state. Silverstar felt slightly disconnected from her Clan because she hadn't seen the creature. She wasn't filled with fear at the mention of it like her clanmates. And so she was able to go through her day more normally than the others.

She padded into the medicine den, eager to discuss StarClan's silence with Berryfall.

The tabby looked up nervously as Silverstar walked in, clearly on edge from the threat of the fox like the rest of the Clan.

"Hello, Silverstar. How are you today?" Berryfall said, sweeping dried herbs into a hole in the cave wall.

"Well, I'm haven't been that well since I found out that our camp was almost attacked by a fox."

"Oh, yeah..."

"Other than that, when I went to the Moonstone nobody appeared to speak to me. StarClan was completely silent." Silverstar mewed, examining the herbs stored in the cave. When she was a kit she had wanted to be a medicine cat, but after spending a moon in the medicine den after her accident she had decided against it.

"That's strange...they've been talking to all the medicine cats. Didn't you just have a vision a moon ago?"

"Oh, yeah!" Silverstar said, thinking back to said vision.

"Before you say anything, FlowerClan is NOT the problem."

"Ok, but who was that she-cat? Have you ever seen a red cat with white paws and a black back in any of the clans?" Silverstar had scanned the crowd at the gathering but had seen no sign of the cat from her vision.

"The forest you described sounds like the Dark Forest, you know, from the elder's tales." Silverstar hadn't thought of that. In fact, she hadn't thought about any of the elder's tales for seasons.

"The only cat the elders talked about that was actually in the Dark Forest was One-Eye. How did this cat end up here?" Silverstar flicked her tail, sensing that the answer was so close and yet she was being so stupid.

"The description sounds vaguely familiar, maybe you should check with Milkbreeze and see what they know?"

"That's a good idea. Thanks, Berryfall!" Silverstar walked out of the den and made her way to where Milkbreeze was telling a story to a group of cats.

"Hello, Silverstar. What brings you to my part of the camp?" Milkbreeze said after he had finished his story and the cats had walked away.

"Do you know of any cats that have dark red fur, white paws, and I think a black back?" Silverstar's memory of her vision was starting to fade and she wasn't sure about some of the details anymore.

"That lines up with what I was told of Redstar, but why do you ask?"

"It was just a random memory of the elder's tales from my childhood, nothing that interesting." Milkbreeze nodded, then padded over to the fresh-kill pile to select his dinner. Silverstar walked back to the medicine den and was greeted by a slightly less nervous Berryfall.

"So what did you find out?"

"Well, he told me that the description reminded him of Redstar-"

"Redstar?!" Berryfall's eyes widened and he raised one eyebrow. "But she went to StarClan!"

"That's what I thought, too. I don't think she ever did anything to warrant being in the Dark Forest. I mean, she founded PondClan AND RainClan."

"...What did she do to get kicked out of the other Clans?"

"...I don't believe I know. One version was murder, the other was not believing in StarClan, there was even one where she had a half clan relationship! Wow, we really don't have her story straight." Berryfall's face was growing increasingly worried, which only made Silverstar's fears of her vision stronger. How could she have not recognized the founder of two Clans?! Why was Redstar in the Dark Forest? Was she really there?

Silverstar didn't even know if the vision was from StarClan or something much eviler.