The Sky Is Falling: Part One

"I here you crying softly for the way it was before."

It was a cloudy, dark, and eerie night. The clouds covered the moon and a light drizzled lightly to the ground. Drops of water clung to the blade of dying grass like a newborn kit clinging to its mother. The rain was freezing cold, almost a thin layer of ice. It would have frozen any living animal to the bone, however, the cats slithering through the reeds were no breathing creature. In fact, one would have to strain their eyes to see their pelts. They had a slight shimmer clinging to them, and the air around them was zapped with electricity. Their footsteps made no noise against the dried plants, or the waving reeds. In fact, the group of three even passed straight through a bush of thorns blocking their path.

The leader was a beautiful, sleek female tabby. Her green eyes were piercing, almost shining with an unidentified light. She was small and lean, but not tiny. Her back legs looked strong, and her well groomed fur was filled out correctly. Her head was down, her eyes slightly squinted. She stopped next to the swift moving river belonging to RiverClan. The other two cats stopped beside her, all three of their eyes looking into the current. On one side of the brown tabby was a larger grey tabby. She too, was shimmering, and she too was the perfect example of a cat. On her other side was a flame orange tabby complete with a white chest and stomach. White also tipped her legs, the color encasing her paws like socks. The trio stood in silence for many heartbeats... if they were to have one.

"I can't believe this, Kestrelflight. What will we do?" The ginger tabby murmured, turning to the brown tabby now identified as Kestrelflight. Silence still rung in the air. Not even the crickets or frogs that usually graced the night with their racket. The rain had stopped, but the current still raged on.

"I don't know, Larchcloud." Kestrelflight said finally. Her voice displayed clearly how defeated she was. She sat down on her haunches, curling her tails around her paws. Her green gaze looked up to the non-existent stars. Her chest heaved with a sigh.

"When we were living, we were promised peace and love in death. I feel none of that now, and I don't think it is fair to us. Our died out in the forest. Was that really-" Larchcloud ranted, her claws digging in the ground, leaving no mark. Her fur bristled with pent up anger to their apparently bad treatment. However, she was cut off by the dark grey tabby who had started pacing behind the other's back. The feline looked like a shimmering shadow.

"Quiet, Larchcloud. There is no use lamenting about it now." she whispered hoarsely. Kestrelflight's ears pricked, however she said nothing. Larchcloud's ears flattened to her head. Her teeth bared but she said nothing.

"I hear something, Coldheart. Stop moving." Kestrelflight whispered. The other female did as she was asked and they all stood still. They knew it wasn't the dead cat's paws making the sound they all heard now.

"Silvercloud, I am quite disappointed there is no sta-" Began a tom. But as he pushed through a thing of reeds, his voice stopped and his paws froze like they were suddenly heavy boulders. "W-w-who are you?" stammered Lichencloud. The three spirits looked at each other but said nothing as a silver tabby joined next to the large and fluffy tom.

Listening to Lichencloud in soft conversation, Silvercloud perked her ears at Lichencloud's sentence of dismay, but stared confusingly at the three cats, and saw the stars shimmering at their paws. "StarClan members. But, why are they here?" Silvercloud spoke softly, her eyes wide with amazement. She couldn't take her eyes off the beautiful cats, and she wished everyone had suh a perfection.




The seeming leader, Kestrelflight, straightened up at the good news it was only other cats, as did the others. "That information is something not of your concern for the time being."
The brown tabby muttered, her eyes deeply sheilded from emotion.

Coldheart flicked her tail in agitation at her adopted dauhter's rudeness. "Lighten up, Kestrelflight." She scowled,  turning to the ginger and white warrior. The former medicine cat muttered something rude in return, but the other tabby ignored her.

"I'm Larchcloud, and those two are Kestrelflight and Co- wait, your Riverclan!" The ginger-red feline started slightly cheerful, but ended in a harsh, threatening tone. The obvious disliking towards that clan was shown, and she flexed her claws. But her impulsive actions would threaten her not being able to continue.

After a few more small quarrels between the StarClan cats, Silvercloud was sitting there, puzzled greatly. She turned to Lichencloud, and shrunk up beside him like a mewling kit. "I think something terrible is up..."

Indeed, something terrible was happening.

Finally, the StarClan cat's quarrels died down. Kestrelflight moved forward, clearly agitated by the decision. "We need to speak to your medicine cat." Her voice polite, but firm. It was not a question. It was a demand. The other StarClan cats nodded, yet their voices remained silent. Lichencloud took a deep breath and stepped to the group, but his tail still brushed his beloved's shoulder.

"I am, actually. I am Lichencloud, the RiverClan medicine cat. This is Silvercloud, a RiverClan warrior. We promise to help you in any way you can. What do you need, my dear warrior ancestors." He bowed his head, his deep voice going into the ground. It was a respectful murmur, but not too quiet that he could not be heard. Sastisfied looks seemed to cross each of the three cats faces. Larchcloud still seemed uneasy that the two were RiverClan, but said nothing.

"We... We do need help." Coldheart said, joining her adopted daughter's side. "StarClan has banned us from their hunting grounds. They claimed that since our clan, SkyClan, no longer lives in these woods, we are not allowed to stay their. However, we commited no evil, and do not even wish to join the Dark Forest. This leaves us to... here."

"We are no longer StarClan cats..." Kestrelflight moaned mournfully, hanging her head. "We are just... Ground Walkers now..."

Silvercloud had a baffled gaze at the term of Ground Walkers. She had heard of lost cats whom roamed earth in death, but she always felt of it as folklore. Yet her gaze was more of a shocked one than confused. "But, so... StarClan has cast SkyClan's deepest ranks of the passed to here? Yet... They always have seemed so bright..." Her stomach turned slghtly with a gnawing pain about StarClan casting away others. She kept herself in a respectful bow, and was comforted by Lichencloud. Otherwise, the silver tabby would have ran for her precious life.

That answer was returned with a nod from Coldheart, and sorrow was clearly amungst the group. "Starclan forbade the glow of Silverpelt from the clans as to shun us from their communications." The starry feline's glow dimmed at the mention of sacred notions, but brightened slowly. To the dismay of Larchcloud, she was unhappy at sharing information with RiverClan. If it had been the ginger one's way, WindClan would have been trusted more. But the persuasion from the other two forced her to speak with Riverclan.

Kestrelflight mourned still, and small beads formed from her eyes. The stern glance was easily removed at the knowledge of being shunned by the afterlife, something even the greatest leader feared in secret.

But, Larchcloud stepped up to comfort her adopted sister, and the kinhood they kept together was strong. The only one remaining to speak was the former deputy and queen. 

Silvercloud watched as SkyClan's Ground Walkers, as she was told to call them, mourned. She turned to Lichencloud, her hopes slightly crushed to believe StarClan held their beloved ancestry of mixed blood hostage, until casting them away because they did not live as a clan with the others.

"You... you can stay on this territory, Kestrelflight, Larchcloud, and Coldheart." Lichencloud said suddely. He stood straight. These cats were once StarClan members, and were unfairly blocked from the promised afterlife. Anger at his other acestors surged through him, but then faded away to the longing to help these ground walkers. "It is almost morning, however." he said, looking up at the rising sun. "But tomorrow night I and Silvercloud, or at least I, may try and help you further." he glanced back to Silvercloud with his pale green gaze. The three Ground Walkers whispered quietly, their pelts fading by the second. Finally, Kestrelflight turned back to the living pair.

"Thank you. We will meet you here tomorrow night." As she spoke, her voice became softer and their appearance became dimmer. Within a breath, they were gone. A stream of weak light gleamed in the very spot the three cats had been only moments before. Lichencloud let the morning air remain voice free for a few seconds. Turning back around, his gaze was serious.

"Silvercloud, do you wish to join me? It is my duty to help them, but it is not yours, unless you wish it to be." he broke the distance between him and the female and nuzzled her shoulder softly, his love for the beautiful cat growing.

Silvercloud was almost unhappy to see the StarClan ancestors fade away, but was happy at Lichencloud's will to keep them safe in the territory. The groups' promise to be at this place tonight was fine with her, and she would be around eiher way. But she focused mainly on Kestrelflight, because she had the feeling the brown tabby had either been once deputy or a medicine cat by her posture.

But Silvercloud let out a soft purr at Lichencloud's growing affection, her own passion for him was expanding as well. She returned his affection by digging her pink nose into his neck, but she kept her muzzle in his soft fur for a while, and she nodded to his question. "I do want nothing more than to help them and keep my silent vow to help you, because stress is the last thing you need, my friend." She purred softly upwards towards his ear, as she was smaller than the tom. But her thoughts went back to their ancestors who now walked the ground, and she still had a painful knot in her stomach. Why would the promised, perfect afterlife have a twisted path for the three?