[TB] STARLIGHT -- Chapter 26 (Patreon)

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Crowflight trudged his way back into camp, dragging with him a large rabbit. He had honestly not expected to be able to catch anything, not after his conversation with Mudclaw had spun his mind out into the lake – but this rabbit had been so oblivious, Crowflight had nearly tripped over it on his wandering. It felt almost like an apology for the one he and Duskwhisker had lost yesterday.

It was a fantastic piece of prey for the Clan, but it didn’t soothe Crowflight’s worry for long. As he tucked it into the freshly-cleaned fresh-kill pile, Crowflight knew that rabbit wouldn’t solve WindClan’s problems – problems that were looming closer than he’d thought.

He pulled his head out of the bush and found himself nose to nose with Whitetail.

“You went off with Mudclaw,” Whitetail began immediately, saying the former deputy’s name like it made her mouth taste of mouse bile. “What did you two do? Why didn’t he come back, too?”

Crowflight must’ve looked like a gaping frog for a moment, he was so caught off guard by Whitetail’s directness.

“We just went on patrol,” he managed. “Nothing special.”

Whitetail was incredibly dissatisfied with that. “Mudclaw wasn’t ordered to go on any patrols,” she growled back, “and he didn’t come back with you. Where is he?” The fur along her spine lifted. “Don’t make me keep asking, Crowflight!”

Crowflight’s neck fur bristled. “How am I supposed to know what patrols Mudclaw’s been assigned?” he snapped. “And what business is it of yours?”

“Yeah, Whitetail, what business is it of yours?” growled Duskwhisker.

Crowflight hadn’t noticed her sidling close, but she was suddenly there, by his side. He was comforted by her presence, but that didn’t make this situation any less hostile – or discreet. Duskwhisker’s presence was turning what might’ve been two cats chatting by the fresh-kill pile into a disturbance, one that was worth watching.

“Stay out of this,” Whitetail hissed, glaring at the black she-cat. Her eyes flickered across the clearing, as if she were conscious of the eyes gathering on them. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Well, you are now,” Duskwhisker decided. “You think you can get away with interrogating your own Clanmate like you’re the deputy or something? Last I checked, Ashfoot was the WindClan deputy, not you...”

“Ashfoot is injured,” Whitetail countered. “Onewhisker took over her duties, and I didn’t hear Mudclaw being assigned to a patrol this morning. I was just asking why!”

Duskwhisker’s whiskers twitched. “Well, maybe if you took your tail out of Onewhisker’s backside you’d learn to mind your own business!”

Whitetail’s eyes flew wide to their whites, and Crowflight saw her tail bush. The white she-cat hissed, “Watch your tongue, you-”

Duskwhisker took a step forward, teeth bared. “Make me,” she challenged.

“Stop it, both of you!” Crowflight demanded, the fur along his spine trembling. “This is hare-brained!” He forced his way between the two she-cats, trying desperately to squash his own fear. His nightmare played in his head, and he saw Duskwhisker still on the ground.

He glared at Whitetail. “I don’t know where Mudclaw went,” he stated. Quickly, he explained, “We separated on our way back to have a better chance at bringing back more prey.” It wasn’t quite a lie, but Crowflight wanted to believe that Mudclaw had gone off to hunt after their conversation more than anything in the world right now.

Whitetail’s lip curled. She didn’t believe him – but it was clear she didn’t want to start a fight. She backed down, lowering her hackles and stalking off towards Poppyfoot and Webfoot, who had gathered to watch things over by the rain dens.

“Great StarClan, what a hare-brain,” Duskwhisker complained loudly, sheathing her claws.

Crowflight turned to his friend, heart still thudding in his ears. “You’re both hare-brains!” he hissed. His legs trembled, and he slid onto his haunches. “What was that for? Do you really want to cause a problem with Whitetail?”

Tornear had shuffled closer to them now that the confrontation was over. “She’s been glaring at us all day,” he reasoned. “Like she’s just waiting for an excuse to start a fight.”

Crowflight swung his muzzle over to the senior warrior. “That doesn’t mean you have to give her one!” he snapped, fighting to keep his voice lowered. “I could’ve handled it!”

Tornear twitched an ear at Crowflight’s tone. “Yeah, well,” he mumbled, “we’re in this together, aren’t we?”

Crowflight’s mouth went dry. He glanced around the camp and realized that no matter what he said or did, every cat seemed to know what side he stood on now. Smokewillow was throwing him a glare from where he sat by the nursery with Robinwing and Bramblefur, and he saw Softbreeze narrowing her gaze at Whitetail as if she were waiting for the white she-cat's next move.

As if destined to make things worse, Onewhisker stepped into camp. He had Emberstep with him, and both were carrying mice. Whitetail approached him immediately once Emberstep was sent away with the prey. Their heads were bent close, and Onewhisker’s eyes hardened.

As Emberstep set their catch on the pile, Duskwhisker asked, “Ember, how’d it go?”

Emberstep pulled her head out of the fresh-kill pile. “He tried to ditch me near ThunderClan,” she reported, disguising her words as she washed her paws. “He probably wanted to go see Tinystar, but I didn’t let him.”

“Good,” Tornear decided. He glanced at Onewhisker. “Mudclaw was right; he probably wants ThunderClan’s help...”

Bile rose in Crowflight’s throat, and he wished he weren’t here anymore.

“You cannot ignore what lies in front of you.”

Crowflight’s ears twitched. There, flickering in the middle of the camp, was Deadfoot.

Father? What was he doing here? How was he here? Quickly, glancing around, it seemed like Crowflight was the only cat to notice the old deputy’s presence – not even Barkface, who had taken Webfoot aside to look at his wound, noticed.

Crowflight wasn’t sure what to do about it. He wasn’t a medicine cat; he wasn’t in the habit of seeing dead cats all over the place. He wished that Shadepaw were here to tell him what to do.

Deadfoot’s form flickered, and he limped over towards the camp entrance. There, he glanced back at Crowflight, and then twisted his tail. His body faltered, and then he disappeared.

“Crowflight, you okay?” Duskwhisker asked.

Crowflight started. He had almost forgotten entirely what was happening around him. He glanced at Duskwhisker, and from her reaction realized he must look manic.

“I just need some air,” Crowflight managed.

Duskwhisker frowned, her gaze turning doubtful. Crowflight longed to explain to her what was happening, but they weren’t alone – Tornear and Emberfoot would think him hare-brained, even if Duskwhisker didn’t already.

“Go on,” Duskwhisker offered. “We’ll cover for you.”

Crowflight touched his nose to her cheek, unable to express his gratitude.

He didn’t want to cross Onewhisker’s path, so he slipped out through the hunter’s entrance that Poppyfoot had built into the camp boundary near the fresh-kill pile. Tornear and Emberstep both voiced questions, but Duskwhisker pulled them aside and kept them from going after him. He thanked StarClan for his friend once more as he hared out into the moors.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, until he spotted a dark shape at the top of one of the hills. Deadfoot was there, waiting for him.

Crowflight put on speed, and attempted to reach him – but Deadfoot disappeared before Crowflight drew close.

Panting, Crowflight cursed himself for thinking that a StarClan cat would be willing to sit still. At the top of the hill, he paused, looking for any signs of Deadfoot’s presence. It was growing harder to see as leafbare ate the sunlight, but he spotted his father near a patch of heather and headed for him there.

Like before, Deadfoot disappeared as Crowflight drew near. As red light began to swallow the world, he followed Deadfoot like this – from one hill to the next, one patch of gorse to another patch of heather, Crowflight chased but his quarry refused to be caught. As the sky grew darker, he saw that his father was leaving patches of starlight behind to mark his place, as his form was beginning to disappear in the growing blackness.

He followed this starlight trail all the way into the woods, and right up to the tree-bridge that spanned the Divide.

It was here that the starlight ended, and no matter where Crowflight looked, he found no more. It didn’t help that his father had left no scent trail behind. The sky was a deep, dark purple, shot with red on the farthest horizon, and the stars were beginning to peek out.

Tired, Crowflight flopped down beside the tree-bridge. “Figures,” he panted, annoyance creeping up his pelt. “You would do this to me... Hang over my head forever, and then just disappear when I need you...”

“Who are you talking to?”

The voice made Crowflight flinch in shock. It was Shadepaw. The she-cat was barely visible in the darkness, her dark splotches blending her into the night as she crouched atop the tree-bridge.

Crowflight sighed. “Don’t worry about it,” he grumbled. He got to his paws and hopped onto the tree-bridge to meet her. “What are you doing here, anyway? ThunderClan thinks the border’s been compromised...”

Shadepaw faltered, as if she had forgotten all about that. She stared at her paws. “I... I’ve had a sign.”

Crowflight’s ears pricked. “What about?” Please don’t say it has to do with WindClan...

“I saw a cat from StarClan in my dreams, and they told me to follow the starlight,” Shadepaw explained. “When I woke, there was a trail of stars leading out of camp. I followed it, and it led me...”

“Here,” Crowflight guessed.

Shadepaw nodded. “I should’ve told Brackenfur, but he doesn’t think I can interpret my own signs,” she admitted, her mew touched with bitterness. “So, I went on my own – but now... I’m not sure... oh!”

As she spoke, the water beneath them splashed. Both she and Crowflight bent down as low as they dared, staring at the surface of the river as dozens of small splashes made their way upstream, a trail of stars following in their wake.

“It’s like pawprints,” Crowflight whispered.

“You see it, too?” Shadepaw breathed. Her voice pitched in excitement. “Oh, StarClan! Come on - hurry!”

She turned back, leaping off of the tree-bridge onto the ThunderClan side. Crowflight, startled, followed her, his pelt bristling. He didn’t have time to worry about a ThunderClan patrol finding or following them – he had a feeling that Shadepaw wouldn’t allow for it, that they would lose this starry trail if he brought it up.

ThunderClan territory was very unlike WindClan’s - even the woods on his side didn’t have such steep, rocky slopes or sudden, jagged drops. The terrain that ran beside the river seemed even worse, too, thanks to the water cutting away at the earth. Crowflight could just barely concentrate on not stubbing his paws on roots and rocks for trying to keep Shadepaw in his sights.

He caught up to Shadepaw, who had her gaze fixed on the starlight in the water. Even when they passed over ThunderClan’s border markers and it disappeared into the steep walls of a gorge, she still ran along the edge as if dogs were at her heels.

They followed the cut of the gorge until it rose up high, the water cutting out a sheer, steep drop that Crowflight couldn’t even imagine anyone surviving if they fell. A waterfall broke through the center of that ravine, not nearly as powerful as the one beside the Tribe of Rushing Water’s cavern, but strong enough to churn the water beneath into a strong current.

The river went on, curving off deep into the empty moorlands beyond, but it was here where Shadepaw stopped – Crowflight didn’t think they could jump the chasm over the waterfall, anyway.

Panting, he glanced back. The forest of ThunderClan seemed so far away, and the high elevation here almost made the trees look like bushes. From here he could even see the moorland – but the rowan tree that marked WindClan’s camp was lost in the hills and the half-light of the moon. He could see the lake, too, a flat disc shining with starlight. They were both far out of Clan territory, now, that much was for certain.

Crowflight asked, “Is this it?” How much further must we go? Both he and Shadepaw were surely being missed by their Clanmates by now.

“It must be.” Shadepaw seemed to be struggling for breath, but her exhaustion did not hide her excitement.

She peered down the chasm, and Crowflight, panicked, set his jaws in her scruff and pulled her back. She protested, flailing at him in the dark, but when Crowflight let her go, he spat, “You’d fall in! After everything, do you think I could bear that?”

Shadepaw closed her jaws. “Sorry,” she breathed. “I just...”

“I get it,” Crowflight told her, gentling his voice. “C’mon. The stars want us to follow the water, right? We can do that without falling in...”

Shadepaw nodded, looking bashful. She got to her paws and led the way, picking her pawsteps carefully in the dark. Crowflight followed.

The terrain here, despite the sharp drop of the gorge, seemed to be more level. There was little grass, the ground mainly cold, hardened earth with the occasional tree, bush, or boulder sticking out of it. They followed the water for a few more pawsteps until Shadepaw made a noise of surprise.

“Look!”

Crowflight moved up to her side. There, between two large thickets of hawthorn, was a gap large enough for a cat to slip through. Before he could caution Shadepaw against running into strange places, the sleek she-cat had already pushed her way between the bushes and disappeared.

Fur prickling with alarm, Crowflight followed, the hawthorn pulling at his pelt as if it were protecting what lay beyond it.

He was shocked at what was on the other side. Past the hawthorn was a narrow path, one that sloped all along the edges of a large pool of water. Its size was nowhere near that of the lake’s immensity, but its water was just as still, and it captured not just the starlight but the moonlight as well, almost glowing as it flowed down several different stony steps, creating other little pools as it ran down and out towards the gorge.

Crowflight felt as if his lungs had suddenly emptied. The fur along his spine prickled from some chill beyond the usual leafbare cold. I shouldn’t be here. Was this...?

Shadepaw was picking her way down the path, her breathing quick and excited, her tail bushed out to its ends. “I’m here,” she was panting, though Crowflight had no idea who she was talking to. “I’m here!”

Crowflight followed, his paws trembling. The path was thin, but thankfully dimpled with thousands of little paw-prints that his claws had no trouble gripping onto. The sight of them made his fur lift. Who had left these? StarClan?

There was a small strip of land along the sides of the main hollow that seemed to act like its own little shoreline. Shadepaw had stopped there, her tail trembling. Crowflight looked behind him and then down, catching his reflection in the smaller pools below – but there was no way of getting to them safely. Each was connected by a little waterfall of their own, until ultimately they met with the one he and Shadepaw had found first, the one that fed into the Divide.

Crowflight turned his attention back to the main pool, and Shadepaw. For a while, he saw nothing in the still water – but eventually, he saw shapes moving along its surface. They were faint, barely there – but he recognized them as cats, and the more of them he noticed, the more of them he realized were there. Their paws left starry sparkles on the water’s surface, like the ones they had followed here, and all their eyes were pinned on Shadepaw and Crowflight, brimming with joy.

“We did it,” Shadepaw breathed.

There are so many! He thought, breathless as he stared at his ancestors. Their forms were so faint, he could barely recognize them as they were now. He guessed Shadepaw probably had a much better view. Their presence filled him with warmth and comfort and, he had to admit, a little fear – he pressed closer to Shadepaw, his eyes fixed on these starry warriors.

She leaned against him, as if she needed help standing – Crowflight obliged, nearly knocked off his own paws himself as he spotted Deadfoot standing beside Tallstar. The two shared a solemn glance before staring down at Crowflight, each dipping their head to him in turn.

Something about the gesture stirred Crowflight’s heart, humility crashing down on him like a wave of water. He wasn’t sure what it meant, the two of them looking at him so. He doubted he ever would.

“Oh, Crowflight... we found it,” Shadepaw mewed, her voice shivering. “We found the Moonpool!”