The Clans Together: Whispers in the Wind

Three generations after Ivypaw's and Dovepaw's deaths, the Clans turned their backs on StarClan and most of the old rituals. The only thing that survives is the Clan hierarchy and the names given to kits, apprentices, warriors, and leaders. But a ShadowClan Medicine Cat named Falconheart will change all that when a young kitten named Lilykit is murdered.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery

Theme: In order to keep the present thriving, the future in order, we must keep our pasts close to our hearts, no matter how boring the history lesson...

Alliances
'''Cats that have formally appeared in this fan-fiction. Those that have not won't be included.'''

ShadowClan
Leader: Pantherstar – Black she-cat with yellow eyes; scar on face Deputy: Amberpelt – Yellow tom with amber eyes Medicine Cat: Falconheart – Fluffy black tom with yellow-green eyes Medicine Cat Apprentice: Pumpkinfrost – Orange tabby she-cat with amber eyes

Warriors: Blackfire - Black she-cat with fiery yellow eyes. Apprentice: Micepaw Mouseleaf – Short-haired tortishell with golden eyes. Apprentice: Snakepaw

Mosstail – Golden she-cat with a very fluffy tail and light green eyes. Apprentice: Berrypaw

Bearclaw – Brown tom with very sharp claws.

Queens:

Whispertail – Golden she-cat with blue eyes. Kits: Lilykit, brown she-kit with dark eyes.

Prolouge
Lilykit stared at the red little orbs dangling from the bush, cocking her ears slightly. She turned to the dark she-cat in the shadows, her dazzling yellow eyes working their way into her soul. Lilykit hesitated, then mewed, “Are they good?”

“Oh, yes,” her golden eyes widened in sincerity. “They were my treat back in my youth. Now they are practically extinct…that’s why I brought you along, so you may have a taste that you will remember for a life-time.”

“But what about the other kits?”

She smiled. “They are not as special as you. StarClan told me that one day, you will be known as Lilystar.”

Lilykit gasped in surprise and glee, but then grimaced and her tail drooped. “Micepaw says StarClan isn’t real. Her mentor, Blackfire, told her so.”

The older she-cat’s tail flicked in annoyance. “Ignore those two she-cats. They do not have the skills to believe in StarClan.” She nudged the little kit. “Now eat.”

Lilykit hesitated again. She looked over her shoulder. “If I eat this,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “You won’t kill him, will you? I wish to be his apprentice’s apprentice once.”

Her eyes turned into slits. “Fine, then.”

Lilykit smiled. “Good. I don’t like killings.” She turned her head to the bush, and parted her jaw, craning her neck to take a mouthful of the scarlet berries.

Chapter I
Pumpkinfrost poked her head into the Medicine Cat’s Den. Falconheart looked over his shoulder and slowly blinked at his apprentice. “Are those the burdock roots?” She nodded. “Good. Set them in the usual place.”

Falconheart followed his apprentice, who had only obtained her true Medicine Cat name last quarter moon, to the ShadowClan herb stock, all neatly placed in cache holes beneath the fallen tree that was Falconheart’s den. “Falconheart and Pumpkinfrost?” a she-cat meowed. They both looked back at a tortishell warrior; the sun rays hitting the patches just right enough for her fur to have a golden radiance.

“What is it, Mouseleaf?” he meowed, fluffy black tail swishing back and forth.

“Stomachache. It is so bad that I cannot take Snakepaw out for battle training. He’s cleaning the Elder’s den now.”

Falconheart nodded, and turned to his apprentice. “Here’s your next test, Pumpkinfrost. You know what to do.”

The orange she-cat purred. “A test? When I have received my name?”

Falconheart frowned at her. “To this day, Pumpkinfrost, I even give myself tests when I question a patient. Now, go on.” Pumpkinfrost nodded and swiftly stuffed the burdock into the right caches. While she padded over to the tortishell, Falconheart couldn’t help but silently rummage through the new supply of burdock root for washing. He smiled proudly as his apprentice ran through all the possibilities of stomach aches, like aged food or maybe even a pregnancy. Falconheart shuddered with delight at the thought of new little kittens squealing and squirming in the nursery, especially from a good, lovely cat like Mouseleaf. But his glee rotted away as he stared at something red in the jumble of burdock roots. “Pumpkinfrost. Come here.”

The orange tabby padded up to him. Before she could respond, he batted the berry out of the cache. “What is this!?” he hissed.

Pumpkinfrost examined it for a moment. “A deathberry.”

“And what was it doing the supplies!?”

Pumpkinfrost cocked her head to one side, not looking at her mentor but keeping her eyes fixed on the scarlet plants. “Pantherstar said they were good things for a Medicine Cat to have, Falconheart.”

Falconheart opened his mouth to screech at her, maybe claw her ears off. He closed his tight as smells of blood and burning flesh wafted into his nostrils. The cries of a small apprentice calling out to him, “Just end me…please!”

Falconheart visibly shook himself, taking in deep breaths and trying to shove the memory deep into the shadows. But it was so clear and vivid Falconheart felt it had only happened a heart-beat ago, instead of many moons. “Get them out of camp…now. I don’t want to see those things ever again – I don’t care what Pantherstar says,” he hissed, the scent of ashes and blood still in his nostrils. Pumpkinfrost nodded vigorously and rolled them up in a maple leaf she had been carrying the burdock roots in. Not bothering to watch his apprentice run off, Falconheart glared at the roots, knowing how long it was going to take him to watch away all the vileness from the deathberry that had rubbed on them.

He grabbed some juniper berries and strode over to Mouseleaf, who had probably heard the whole thing, but Falconheart didn’t care. “Off you go,” he said, dropping the berries at her paws. Receiving a nod and a thank you, the ShadowClan Medicine Cat padded away from her, and joined the ShadowClan Deputy, Amberpelt, by the fresh-kill pile.

“Any sign of Lilykit?” he meowed, settling himself by the yellow tom.

Amberpelt hesitated, swallowing down a bit of his mouse, and turned to Falconheart. “No. My hopes ride with Blackfire, Micepaw, Berrypaw, and her mentor, Mosstail, today.”

They sat together in silence, Amberpelt finishing off his mouse. Falconheart stared at a squirrel, his appetite gone from both the horrible flash-back and the depressing discussion of the lost she-kit.

“I can hear them! The search party’s here!” cried Snakepaw, Mouseleaf’s optimistic apprentice. “They must’ve found her! Oh, they must’ve found her!” He was hopping up and down with excitement, scattering dust everywhere.

Lilykit’s parents, Bearclaw and Whispertail, scurried out of the Nursery. Bearclaw stopped to tell his other off-spring to stay in the Nursery, mixed-emotions playing on his face. Falconheart understood why: was his daughter found dead or alive? Whispertail skidded to a halt at the entrance, eager yet worried.

Having discovered the search party on the way back, Pumpkinfrost entered camp first; head and tail hanging low, and she went over to sit beside Falconheart. The four she-cats walked into the camp, Mosstail carrying a small brown bundle of fur in her jaws. She set it at Whispertail’s paws, and sat down, her head hanging low. Whispertail shook for a moment, and then let out a yowl of anguish. Bearclaw bounded over to be at his mate’s side, and nearly fainted. Falconheart got up and hurried over to look at Lilykit, and his heart fell. The little kitten he had prayed to StarClan everyday to return home safe and sound was dead.

“We found her by a bush of deathberries. It is destroyed now,” Mosstail meowed. Falconheart gnawed at his lip and buried his nose in Lilykit’s soft fur. He nearly screeched. She smelled of blood and burning: just like the dying ThunderClan apprentice had…He shuddered, and the average scents of the ShadowClan territory wafted into his nostrils. Falconheart suppressed a sigh of relief.

Falconheart withdrew his nose, and was surprised that Whispertail and Pumpkinfrost had done the same. Whispertail had agreed with him that they should go back to the old rituals three generations before them, but he did not think she would practice them openly. And Pumpkinfrost…she usually just shrugged at his ranting against the Clan cats of the present, who had discarded their ancestor’s rituals as stupidity, along with the prized belief in and of StarClan. Falconheart couldn’t believe Pumpkinfrost had listened to him, and he was amazed that he even agreed.

And then most of the cats in the camp were bowing down to the little bundle, trying to stick their nose into her fur in a respectable way. But cats like Amberpelt and Pantherstar, and Blackfire and Micepaw, stood up. Falconheart looked back down at the little corpse, and leaned down to press his nose into her sweet fur when her eyelids suddenly flew open. Falconheart flinched, but kept a look of calm about him otherwise.

“Falconheart,” Lilykit whispered.

“Forgive me, little one,” Falconheart whispered back. “I wish I was there to ease your death…Did your mother tell you about StarClan? Oh, I hope they accept you…”

“It was not the berries that killed me…” Lilykit interrupted his worried ramblings.

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“She did it!” Lilykit hissed.

“Who?”

''“She lurked in the shadows, but it was so obvious who she was. It was…”'' Lilykit suddenly gasped, and her eyes widened in fear. ''“She comes! She comes! She’s calling!!”''

“Elders!” called Pantherstar from the High Oak. Six highly disheveled cats stood up. “Bury her.” They exchanged glances and nodded, hurrying over to the dead kit.

Falconheart pressed his nose to the corpse. “Who killed you, Lilykit!? Who!?” he whispered urgently, but he only received silence as she squeezed her eyes tight and whimpered. Falconheart blinked, perplexed, and when he opened them Lilykit’s face was in peace, and not a noise did she emit. Falconheart wanted to yowl a protest as he backed away to let the Elders through and watched them carry her away. But what could he do?

Suddenly, Falconheart had a glorious idea. He narrowed his yellow-green eyes, and thought, Yes…what can I do?