Summary: When a prophecy comes to all the medicine cats of the clans telling of a lightness and darkness coming, the clans start to split and bicker about what it means. These high tensions may tear the clans apart, especially as odd disasters keep leaving cats injured or killed and everyone is terrified. Amidst all this, two loners seek shelter with the clans. However, these two loners may have more to do with this chaos than even they know.
Author: Cutekaboo
Notes: The clans are the four canon clans, but all characters are ocs and the territories are different.
Prologue- Many Lifetimes Ago[]
"Nightflower!" there was a gasp below that the large black she-cat almost didn't hear. There was a pounding in her ears as her heart raced and she was frozen with shock. She tried to force herself to move, or respond to the voice, but none of her muscles were listening to her. Her mind seemed to have shut off and she was somewhere else, recognizing what was happening but not properly processing it.
"Nightflower, what happened?" the voice spoke again, closer now. The speaker must have climbed. The black she-cat couldn't move her head. She just stared down at her paws. Her claws were still out and her fur was sticky with blood.
This wasn't supposed to happen. She thought. I never meant... She realized she had started to shiver.
"What have you done?" Nightflower finally dragged her eyes up from her paws and instantly regretted it. She felt sick when her eyes landed on the unmoving mound of bloody fur in front of her. She finally snapped out of her frozen state and leaped up, walking backwards away from the body so fast she nearly fell off the ledge behind her. The voice belonged to a pure white she-cat who was standing next to the unmoving fur, golden eyes giving away that she was in nearly as much shock as Nightflower was.
"I d-didn't... Dawnbreak, I swear I- is he dead?" Nightflower stuttered. She now sat at the very edge of the rock, the long fall behind her unnoticed.
"He's dead, Nightflower." Dawnbreak's eyes flickered back and forth between the black she-cat and the dead cat before her. "What happened?" she repeated.
"He... I needed to be deputy... Dawnbreak, please understand." Nightflower pleaded. "Sandstar is dying! Foxspots couldn't lead the clan!"
Dawnbreak tensed and her gaze fixed on Nightflower. Her eyes were filled with horror and betrayal. "You killed Foxspots for his position? You- you killed him to become deputy?"
"That's not- I didn't mean to!" Nightflower desperately searched for the right words. "I... I met him here to ask him to retire! I didn't mean to, Dawnbreak, I didn't mean to!"
"How do you just accidentally kill someone?" Dawnbreak stepped forward now, accusing and angry. "You knew what you were doing! You told your claws to cut him!" Her fur bristled and she kept stepping closer and closer.
"Please, no, I... Dawnbreak, you're my best friend, you have to believe me." Nightflower begged. "This was a big accident, but we can still recover from this. We can just push him into the gorge and let someone else find him."
"And then what, a murderer becomes our new leader?" Dawnbreak hissed. She was standing less than a tail-length away now. "You've changed, Nightflower. I didn't want to believe it, but this proves it. You can't lead our clan, and I can't let you." Suddenly, she leapt forward and shoved with her forepaws, sending the surprised Nightflower tumbling backwards and into the gorge.
Nearly a day later, Nightflower woke up. She was injured, barely alive, and stuck at the bottom of a gorge. By now, Dawnbreak had probably told the whole clan that she was Foxspots were dead. Her return would raise many questions, most likely leading to her clan figuring out she'd killed and exiling her.
Nightflower had nothing left, and cats with nothing left are the most dangerous.
Chapter 1- Present, ThunderClan Territory[]
"Loststar refused to let me treat him." a light tan tom with short fur sighed, curling his long tail around his paws. "But even with me focusing on everyone else, we still lost Milkspot and Mistdrop."
"I'm sorry for WindClan's loss, Drypool." an orange tabby she-cat dipped her head respectfully. "I'd be happy to lend some herbs to help you treat the rest."
"Are you sure you don't need them, Violetpetal?" Drypool blinked with surprise at the offer. "All the clans have been hit by that storm. Didn't trees fall in ThunderClan territory?"
"Not many, and no warriors were hurt. We can spare some herbs." Violetpetal nodded at a young dark tabby she-cat sitting beside her. "You just found a big supply of horsetail, didn't you, Mintpaw?"
"I can go fetch the herbs, we're not far from camp." Mintpaw suggested.
"If you don't mind." Drypool meowed. Mintpaw glanced at Violetpetal for confirmation of the order then ran off through the undergrowth.
"Is Loststar going to be okay?" Violetpetal asked.
"He'll recover, he has lives left. I'm just concerned about his mind." Drypool sighed again. "He's getting older and he's not dealing with all the death he's seen well."
"Smart, just tell go ahead and tell cats from other clans that your leader is losing his mind." a black she-cat meowed sarcastically.
"Oh, no one's going to start a war right now, Dewpoppy." a white and brown tom, who was pacing back and forth worriedly, said. "That's why we're meeting."
"All the clans are suffering after that storm." Drypool pointed out. "We need to stick together."
"And help each other out where we can." Violetpetal agreed.
"Why did we have to meet in ThunderClan territory?" Dewpoppy grumbled.
"You know what, maybe next time we'll meet in the bottom of Star Fall's Gorge!" a young white and gray tom snapped.
"Cloudpaw, enough." Drypool scolded, but didn't miss how the white and brown tom flinched. "Something wrong, Swiftflight?"
The tom stopped in his pacing and his eyes flickered around nervously. It was only now that the others noticed he seemed very scared of something. "Th-there's... it's nothing, really, but... there's something going on with Star Fall's Gorge. Specklestar didn't want me to say, he says that it's in RiverClan territory and it should stay RiverClan business, but... has StarClan spoken to any of you about the gorge?"
Violetpetal frowned and shook her head. "They haven't said anything to me. What do you mean that something's going on?"
Swiftflight's tail flicked back and forth nervously. "No one else has noticed anything, but really i'm the only one that goes near it. Sometimes I'll hear snarling, or cats arguing about something, or sounds of battle when I'm there. But... no one's there. It's like I'm hearing ghosts. They're not StarClan, if they were they'd say something, like a prophecy, wouldn't they?"
"That is weird." Drypool looked past Swiftflight and through the trees, in the direction of Star Fall's Gorge. It wasn't far away; it was just within the RiverClan border and could be seen from ThunderClan territory. Many seasons ago, the borders had been moved and the gorge went into RiverClan ownership, though before it had been on ThunderClan territory. "But I don't see what it has to do with medicine cats trying to save the clans."
"Yes... yes, I know. that's why I said it was nothing, forget about it." Swiftflight didn't sit down or relax, though.
Mintpaw returned, carrying herbs wrapped up in a leaf. She silently padded over to Drypool and dropped them in front of him before returning to Violetpetal's side.
Suddenly, everything went dark. It was already nighttime and trees blocked most of the stars, but now it was pitch black. Violetpetal, Drypool, and Mintpaw made soft sounds of alarm, Swiftflight and Cloudpaw squeaked with fear, and Dewpoppy just tensed. It wasn't dark for long, though as the source of the sudden blackness was a cloud that had covered the moon. The cloud drifted just enough for half the moon to become visible, and all the medicine cats relaxed.
"Look!" Swiftflight gasped, and everyone's attention was drawn to the patch of clear grass they had all been sitting in. The small area was now split cleanly in half, with one side completely dark and the other brightly lit by the moon.
"It's a sign." Violetpetal breathed in surprise.
"Dark and light?" Dewpoppy meowed. "That's it? A storm destroys half the territories and all StarClan has to say is 'dark and light'?"
"Maybe we should all go back to our clans and discuss this with our leaders." Violetpetal suggested.
"Good idea, let's just stop the meeting now so i run home and go, 'Hey, Silverstar, StarClan says there's both a dark and a light! who knew?" Dewpoppy muttered, standing and stalking off in the direction of ShadowClan territory.
"Goodbye, Violetpetal, Mintpaw, Drypool, and Cloudpaw." Swiftflight nodded to each of them as he said their name, then ran off in the direction of RiverClan territory.
"Thank you for the herbs. See you, Violetpetal." Drypool picked up the herbs and motioned with his tail for Cloudpaw to follow him to WindClan territory.
"Come on, Mintpaw, let's get home and tell Honeystar about the message." Violetpetal stood and started through the undergrowth.
"But what did it mean?" Mintpaw asked. "It was just... well, what Dewpoppy said, it was just light and dark. Are you sure it's a message?"
"Of course I'm sure, medicine cats always know when it's from StarClan, Mintpaw. You'll learn how to recognize them."
"But what did it mean?"
Violetpetal stared ahead as she weaved her way past some brambles. "Not a clue."
Chapter 2- Two Moons Later, ThunderClan Territory[]
Golden eyes peered out suspiciously from behind a bramble. Rounded, pure white ears stuck up behind the brambles and swiveled in the direction of some soft crunching. "Spirit, I think someone's coming."
"Let's go around. We can pick up his scent trail on the other side." a she-cat whispered.
"No, they'll catch us!" the golden eyes disappeared, only for the owner of the eyes to poke her pure white face around the brambles for a better view.
"Meadow, if we we wait any longer his scent trail will be gone."
"But you know how these wild cats are, if they find us they'll kill us!" Meadow turned and was already heading back the way they had come.
"No, come on." the black she-cat chased after her and bit into her tail to stop her. Meadow flipped around and batted her ears until she let go. "Meadow, let's just go along this way. They'll miss us. We have to find Snowpatch!"
"Spirit-!" Meadow was cut off when she heard raised voices in the distance.
"Flareglow, do you hear something?"
"Rogues?"
"This way!" Spirit took off north, further into the wild cats' territory but away from the voices. Meadow hissed with frustration and followed her. The two raced through the undergrowth, easily hopping over tree roots and dodging brambles. Soon, and entirely new scent hit them and they stopped.
"I think this is the border." Spirit crossed and disappeared behind a rock. Meadow followed her, ears swiveling to hear behind her.
"I think they followed us." Meadow crouched behind the rock and peeked out across the border.
"Don't worry, remember Snowpatch telling us about borders? They can't cross."
Meadow frowned and glanced sideways at Spirit. "Sis, since when do you call him 'Snowpatch' anyway?"
Spirit tensed and ignored her, staring over the border and waiting for their pursuers. The pounding of running paws got louder, then the undergrowth was swiqushed as three muscled cats burst through it. They came to a halt right before the border. The cat in front, a dappled tom, hissed in frustration.
"Did they go over the border, Hazelthicket?" a young orange tabby she-cat with a white belly and paws asked.
"Yep, and I smell some RiverClan cats coming." Hazelthicket sighed and turned to a tortiseshell she-cat beside him. "Let's get out of here before they accuse us of chasing the rogues here on purpose." He and the tortoiseshell padded back the way they came, but the orange tabby stayed behind.
"Hello?" she called over the border. "I know you're there. Behind that rock. Please come out, I won't chase you away."
"Why wouldn't you?" Spirit called out, peeking from behind the rock.
"I don't think I can." she padded calmly right up to the border and stopped there. "I've never scented you in this territory before, but you seem to know how the borders work. Who are you?"
"Meadow, and this is my sister Spirit." Meadow padded out from behind the rock and walked to right behind the border.
"What are you doing, Meadow?" Spirit hissed. "You're getting too close!"
"She was telling the truth, she can't chase us. Or hurt us." Meadow meowed over her shoulder. "Look at her eyes, sis."
Spirit walked out from behind the rock to get a better look at the clan cat. Her green eyes were foggy and out of focus. "Yes, I'm blind." the orange she-cat nodded. "Can you tell me what you're doing in clan territory?"
"We're looking for our father, Snowpatch." Spirit meowed.
The orange she-cat tensed. "Come over the border, we need to talk. I have to tell you what happened two moons ago."