The Light that Failed

Dewstar paced about her large and empty den, somewhat distraught. It had been a few moons since the arrival of "SkyClan," and she had tried to be patient, but StarClan hadn't spoken a single word. Not to her, and not to her medicine cat. Unless he failed to mention something. If he did, Nightfire would have his own reasons for that. And so for moons, Dewstar was wandering in the dark and second-guessing her actions. SkyClan had attacked, but they hadn't done very much harm. Elea had claimed herself a prophet, a goddess, and spewed blasphemy against StarClan for moons without any response from the starry beings. Dewstar was frustrated with their inaction, and decided it was time she shared tongues with her ancestors. The mid-day sun warmed her scarred pelt when she padded from her lonely den, heading for the camp entrance. She paused, looked about her, and caught sight of Sunface. Wordlessly, Dewstar flicked her tail at the warrior in a command to follow and looked once more around the camp in search of her deputy.

Dewstar was in distraught, and Spottedfeather was also. The stress that was being put on her leader, slightly affected her also. Just seeing so much happen in the few moons, and she couldn't do anything. Finally emerging from the warriors den, she gave a sad look at Dewstars pacing, before picking up her head and squaring her shoulders. She padded over and gave Dewstar and Sunfur a quick nod. Ready to depart.

The entire journey to Highstones was silent. Dewstar didn't even grunt as she jumped over fallen logs or splashed through puddles of recent rainstorms that signaled the soon arrival of leaf-fall. She just wanted to get to the Moonstone as fast as she could, determined to know why StarClan was letting such lowly creatures denounce them. She drove on through the moorland with her trusted warriors behind.

Sunface, the very last cat, was having a hard time of it. Dewstar had made this long trip several times, and this time she had completely forgotten to get traveling herbs from Nightfire in her haste. Sunface wasn't used to running this much, especially with such urgency and on an empty stomach. She wondered what could possibly have sparked a sudden alarm in her leader, but didn't have much time to think about it because her thoughts were crowded with complaints. She prayed that a WindClan patrol might stop them, but no cats were seen.

They finally reached the looming cave of Mothermouth at almost moonhigh, and Sunface laid down outside the cave to catch her breath. Dewstar turned to face the two warriors and said, "We got here in good time. You two should rest while I go inside; I don't know how long this will take." Sunface dipped her head to the gray she-cat who turned around to face the cave and fearlessly padded inside.

Spottedfeather panted from the long run, laying down as signaled from her leader. Hopefully Starclan would give her guidance. The lack of food in her stomach was getting to her, and the lost tireless run. Watching her leaders form disappear into the Mothermouth, she gave a sigh. "I hope all goes well"

Sunface nodded in agreement with her deputy. She settled into a more comfortable position, laying her head on the cold stone ground and closed her eyes for just a moment.

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Many hours had passed since Dewstar disappeared into the cave. When Sunface opened her eyes again, the brightness of the early morning sun was blinding and the emptiness of her stomach was gut wrenching. She stood up and stretched, ignoring the loud grumbling of her belly. The sound of rapid pawsteps echoed from the cave and Dewstar, looking more alarmed than before, came out almost running. "StarClan has spoken to me," She explained, looking between Spottedfeather and Sunface, "and they have shared something very serious. A terrible thing is going to happen, but I don't know what. We must return to camp as soon as possible! We don't have time to go around the twoleg fields, we have to cut through them."

She set off immediately, dread filling the leader's stomach with each step she took towards camp.

Spottedfeather startled awake from her leader franticness. Danger. She sprung up and immediately went after her leader. If camp was in danger they had to hurry. She went into the fields, trying to hurry towards camp.

The fields were a dangerous place to be. Every leader who passed by knew that. But Dewstar, hasty as ever, wanted to get home and protect her Clan, her family, from whatever ominous thing StarClan was trying to warn her about. She dreaded the thought of cats being hurt or killed because she wasn't there to protect them. But it had never occurred to her that StarClan was trying to warn her about herself. The moment that her ancestors had tried to tell her about was suddenly upon her-- hidden behind the swaying stalks of the growing plants were vicious rats, angry enraged at the cats intruding upon their territory. Dewstar was running as fast as her old and weary limbs could carry her when suddenly she stumbled. Rats had tripped her up, huge rats that had thrived off of the growing field plants that were bigger than dogs' paws. She screeched in surprise in terror before she was smothered in wriggling and biting rats that seemed to be coming out of nowhere.

Sunface gasped, her eyes wide, when she saw Dewstar go down in the pile of rats with a horrified screech. She yowled a battle cry of her own and charged at the rats, nipping at their necks and tossing them to the side in a desperate attempt to rescue her leader who was flailing violently under the rat bodies. Every time Sunface killed a rat and threw it to the side, more seemed to replace it.

She watched Dewstar stumble, and rats swarm over her. She gave a hiss of surprise, and dove after Sunfur, ripping the rats off her leader. She killed one after, clawing more off of her leader, but more kept flooding her. Why were they not all over them? She hovered close to Dewstars face, trying to keep the rats away, ripping more off all over her.

The pile of rats was visibly thinning, but Sunface was having some trouble defending herself. A group of rats had turned on her, and it was a struggle to rip the squirming rats that clung to her skin and ripped out her fur with their wickedly sharp teeth. It wasn't long before she had a pile of dead rats about her, and the rest of them were fleeing back through the long stalks into their hidden nests.

Sunface was left panting and bleeding, cuts on her forehead dripping blood into her eyes. She blindly made her way to Dewstar's side, crouching down to listen to her shallow breathing. "Dewstar? Please be ok!" She wondered why her leader had seemed so paralyzed when she was suddenly attacked. She had been thrashing around, certainly, but it was like she wasn't trying to get up.

"I'm not ok." The old she-cat was having trouble speaking, with blood dribbling from her mouth. It had suddenly become so clear when she realized what was happening. The warning wasn't for her, it was about her. And now she was dying because of her carelessness. "I-I'm not ok, because I've been lying to you. All of you." She tried to clear her throat of blood, and lifted her head to stare directly at Spottedfeather. "I-I didn't th-think I could tell you so s-soon." It was getting harder and harder to speak, but she wanted to get it off her chest before the two of them found out the hard way. "I-I'm going to d-die for the last t-time. Right now." Dewstar took a sharp intake of breath and gave a little shudder. "You've been a g-good deputy. Y-you'll be a great l-leader. I know you w-will." Her head sunk to the ground and her eyes rolled back into her head, and finally Dewstar stopped breathing for the last time. Sunface closed her eyes, nosing them shut, and then stared hopelessly at the deputy. This had taken a turn for the worst, and now she was lost and didn't know what to do.

Spottedfeather stood in shock, slowly shaking her head. "No no no no" she repeated, getting louder. "No Dewstar no!" as Sunface closed her eyes, she sunk her head and buried her nose into her leaders fur. Sorrow tore through her body, it all happened so fast. "Dewstar...." she murmured into her fur. Siting their until her fur started to grow cold. Siting up, she turn to Sunface. "Lets get her back to camp"

Sunface's ears flattened, and a hollow feeling seemed to overtake her. It was hard to watch her leader die and her deputy fall apart. She nodded silently to the command and gently took hold of Dewstar's scruff, doing her best to keep her body from dragging on the ground. They'd have a long way to go, and several bites and scratch marks were stinging very painfully on her body, making it hard to walk.