Warriors: Battle of the Elements ~Series 1 Book 3~

Chapter 16

Clearlight's P.O.V:

The sun was about to set and Silverstar and Stormflame had not yet arrived. Clearlight sat by the warriors den and watched as cats headed to their dens to sleep. Bigstep and Slowsky followed Poppyfire into the elders den, leaving a half-eaten pigeon for the kits to munch at. Fernpelt had just left with the sunset border patrol. Clearlight decided to have a bite to eat so he padded to the fresh kill pile. It was still full from the morning's hunting patrol. Greenleaf was still holding strong in the forest and prey was plentiful.

Clearlight heard the shuffling of paws at the camp entrance. He raised his head to see Silverstar pad into camp followed closely by Stormflame. The young black tom seemed slightly disconnected from everything and he had a deep scratch on his side and chest. Silverstar seemed untouched but her eyes were wild.

The cats who had remained in the clearing ran up to Silverstar and Stormflame, asking questions. Clearlight trotted up to join them. He sniffed Stormflame's wounds and muttered, "How did this happen?"

Silverstar meowed, "I will hold a clan meeting tomorrow and tell you everything then but now we must rest. Demonpaw, take Stormflame to the medicine den and then sleep in the apprentices den."

Demonpaw nodded reluctantly and nudged Stormflame to the medicine den. Clearlight watched them go before turning to Silverstar, "What happened?"

Silverstar barely glanced in Clearlight's direction, let alone slow down to answer him. She just kept walking and muttered, "I'll tell you in the clan meeting tomorrow with the rest of the clan. Now go sleep."

Clearlight sighed and left Silverstar's side. He veered off to the warriors den, food completely forgotten, and got into his nest. He settled down and closed his eyes. Sleep came quickly, thankfully, but Clearlight woke up to find himself in a dream. He stood in an empty misty clearing. Then a cat appeared, she had white fur and lush green eyes. "Skystar!" Clearlight gasped and rushed for her.

Skystar smiled and embraced Clearlight when he reached her, "I missed you too, Clearlight." She pulled back slightly and touched Clearlight's cheek with her nose, "But first, look at this twig. Take a while to study it and then tell me what you see."

Clearlight glanced down at the twig and Skystar gave to him. He examined it closely. There were little scratches on it. He looked even closer and noticed that the scratches were all unique, some were different lengths, some were deeper than the others and so on. But even with all of their differences, they were all conected by an extremely thin line that passed through the entire twig.

Clearlight looked up at Skystar and explained, "The twig had millions of little scratches on it and each scratch is unique. But even though they are all different, they are all connected by a thin line that passes through each and every on of them."

Clearlight's mate purred, "Correct." Skystar smiled, "I have news for you Clearlight. You are the new earth elemental."

Clearlight looked up at Skystar shocked, "B-but how?!" He stared at Skystar, eyes wide.

Skystar chuckled lightly, "I gave Waterfly this very same twig but all she could see were the scratches. She could not define the detail and meaning of this twig. You can see the detail, Clearlight. That means that you are the new earth elemental."

"But... don't you still have your earth powers?" Clearlight tilted his head to the side, still quite confused.

Once again, Skystar let out a chuckle, "Yes I do but I am in Starclan. I cannot complete the circle of elementals from up here." She smiled and licked Clearlight's nose, "Do not worry anymore, my love. Lie down here, I still have some time left to stay with you."