Death of the stars

Ivypool's shadow darted through Fireclan camp, bearing important news.

"Squirrelstar! I need you to listen to me!"

"What is it now, Ivypool? You've visited twice this week with your stories about "how death is spreading among the stars." What do you even mean?"

Ivypool's ghost flickered into view, the stars around her silhouette visibly decreasing.

"Squirrelstar. If you don't listen to me, you'll soon be walking without the stars."

Squirrelstar's eyes widened. After Firestar's abrupt death due to sickness, tearing through his lives, and breaking his heart, her senses had heightened, always on the lookout for cures for future cats.

"H-his sickness.. It came from Starclan didn't it?" Squirrelstar's voice lowered as she brushed against the entrance to her den, pulling vines over to prevent interruptions.

"Yes, it did. The sickness Firestar caught was spread from Bluestar, on her last visit. Unfortunately, the sickness is powerful enough to consume even those who walk among the stars." She signalled to the small trail of stars she'd tracked inside, each fallen star representing a forgotten spirit.

"But Ivypool, those stars are blackened. Are they burned?" Squirrelstar quivered.

"Ah. This may require some explaining. The sickness is not one, but many. Each sickness is for a different death. When the sickness controls the cat, their soul slips away, and their spirit is left to walk without the stars. These stars are for those who died of fire. Those who drowned went first, meaning Firestar would have drowned eventually, had he been left to his own devices. The sickness cannot be stopped, and every cat in your clan will die, unless we can change their future. I know how to help you with this, but we must hurry, as I died of starvation. Bluestar and any other drowned cats now walk without the stars, and I fear the same is for those consumed by these flames. I have caught wind the next sickness will be for those who died of thirst, so make sure your cats drink well. Starvation is the second to last sickness, before sickness itself. I have sent a representative of Starclan to each clan, those who die of hunger or sickness. The problem is, you see, is the first few "waves" shall we call them, will wipe out the prey, leading to more and more dying of hunger. Then, those who's souls died of hunger will slip away, and finally any remaining cats will die of the sickness itself, due to that being the final death." Ivypool's throat became hoarse after all this speaking. "I can feel the souls of the burned slipping away. I have two solutions, however. My first is that even the most powerful in the ranks of the stars cannot see a kit's death, so if all else fails, the kits will be left to rebuild the clan. We have no knowledge, however, whether the sickness will be over by the end of six moons. One certain way of doing this is I would like you to take your best new apprentices and Daisy, the queen who's future we cannot see due to her previous kittypet status, and demote them all to kit. We cannot go against our code, and with no leader to promote them, those cats will be spared."

"B-but I-Ivypool. I do not fear death, but I fear for the good of my clan. What will become of me?" The words to walk without the stars echoed in Squirrelstar's head. Would she; COULD she save her clan?

"Squirrelstar; I fear for you. You will die first of drought, then of starvation and finally sickness. Be quick, post-haste, demote the cats, spread the news to our best warriors and have them stock prey. Prey that can feed many, and prey that can keep."

Ivypool melted away once more into the shadows, her paws leaving soft footprints that eventually faded away.

'Ivypool had talked about walking amongst the stars.' She told herself she wasn't afraid, but she could not stop herself from letting a single tear trickle down her well-groomed, fiery cheek. 'I've already died once. Do I deserve this?' She pinched herself, praying for it to be a dream, and yet it wasn't. She wiped away at her watery eyes, slicing her paw once. She would slash her paw once for every time she cried, she had decided.

Squirrelstar bounded out of her den, calling an immediate clan meeting.

"May all cats old enough to hunt their own prey, fight their own battles and win for their clan meet beneath the highrock. Apprentices over the age of eight moons, you may not come. Kits, Daisy, and apprentices below the age of 8 moons, meet me now." Squirrelstar watched as a rag-tag bunch of cats- what remained from the past two waves of sickness- gathered at the foot of the highrock. "All warriors, I wish you to go out and catch as much prey as possible. Enough to feed the clan for at least a moon!" Or at least a quarter of it- she thought to herself. "Everyone else, you now hold the rank of kit."

"What- why?" There was an uproar from the young apprentices. "Yeah, we just got apprentice rank!"

"It is for the good of the clan." Squirrelstar slunk away with Daisy.

"What is this? Squirrelstar- you seem shaken."

"Daisy, I have received news our whole clan- save for you, the young apprentices and the kits- is going to die. And we will not live on in Starclan- Ivypool has informed us we are to walk without the stars."

There was an audible gasp from Daisy, who was soon silenced by Squirrelstar.

"Hush- Daisy. Gather the kits, protect them with your life." Squirrelstar began to quiver. Daisy did as she was told, and began to leave, when all of a sudden-

"Lead the clan well, Daisy. Lead the clan well." Daisy eyes widened quickly as she darted around to see Squirrelstar plunging her claw into her chest. Daisy hadn't been told specifically, but she remembered as a kit being told, "To take one's own life, is to take one's own lives." So Squirrelstar was dead. Well and truly. Squirrelstar's ghost flitted about the camp, astounded by the fact that one star remained intact; HER star. Glowing brightly above her forehead, she saw her own star be untouched by the shadowy tendrils of the sickness. So Starclan was testing her; and she'd won. She'd done it. Changed her clan's futures, sealed their fate. Maybe she'd sealed that of Starclan, too.