Green Revelation

This is book two of the Poisonous Perfection series. Enjoy!

~Chapter One~

Ivystar

I woke up to the beautiful sunset of a SnowClan leaf-fall. Yes, sunset. I had been asleep all day, preparing for I and Spiritsky's journey. Nothing can go wrong now.

A black head pokes in the den. "Here's your squirrel Ivystar."

"Thank you Thornfur. Put it down; I'll eat in a minute." The tom nods and drops it, but lingers, probably waiting for an invitation to eat with me. I dismiss him with a quick flick of my tail. I'm in no mood to play games tonight. After he's gone, I call Beetlefur, my guard for the night, inside. "Get Snowheart for me."

He dips his head hastily. "Right away Ivystar." Turning, he scampers down into the camp. I curl my lip into a sneering smile. Let's see if my puppet of a sister has anything useful to say.

When Snowheart enters, well... maybe I was wrong to call her a puppet. Her navy eyes blaze with as much spirit and vivacity as they ever did. The silly fool. I get right to business. "What did you find out about Blackstorm?" She flushes. Her emotions are so plain to read; I almost feel sorry for her. She doesn't stand a chance against me. Almost, but not quite.

"Not much," she says, careful to evade my gaze. I turn on my snake-gaze, almost able to picture the murky green of my eyes light up with a hypnotizing light. She cannot escape. It's like playing with cornered prey. "Well..." she stammers awkwardly, "She thinks that SnowClan is doing very well under your reign." I allow myself one blissful moment of believing her. Then I'm on top of her, pinning her against the ground so fast she doesn't know what hit her.

"Don't lie to me," I hiss, pressing my nose against hers threateningly. Slowly, keeping a smile on my face, I unsheathe my claws and let them press against her throat. "Try that again Snowheart. What did you find out?" She gulps. I drink in her fear. It's something to keep me going tonight; the knowledge that I have control over her. Over the entire SnowClan.

"She..." Snowheart looks so lost it's hard to keep from laughing with glee. "She wishes you would give us more prey," she blurts. I can see from the look on her face that she's slipped. The corners of my mouth twitch sadistically. This is so much fun!

"Oh really?" I loosen my grip and then get off her, but block her escape out of my den. "Tell me more."

"There's nothing more really." She looks uncomfortable. "That's it. Since leaf-bare's coming up and all..."

"I'll see to it," I cut her off shortly. I would dearly love to play more games, but Spiritsky has appeared in the entrance to my den. "Get out of here." Looking take aback, she hurries out of my den. I poke my head out. "See that we're not disturbed," I tell Beetlefur. He nods.

"Ivystar-" Spiritsky begins.

"Are you ready?" I hiss. Her ears flatten against her head and she nods, looking scared.

"This isn't right," she trys again.

"This isn't about what you think Spiritsky. You agreed to help me, didn't you?" She opens her mouth, but I interrupt, anticipating what she's going to say. "No matter the reason, whether I forced you to or not, you said you would. You can't lie to me."

She drops her gaze, her blue eyes filling with hopelessness. "Okay."

"Good. Now let's go." I lead the way out of my den. Beetlefur glances at me, but with a single glare I silence him. I head out of camp. Snowheart, who is sharing a tiny squirrel with, who else, Blackstorm, looks up at me. For a second as our gazes meet I feel a thrill of fear. But I quickly shake it off. She's helpless, and not nearly as talented as me. She poses no threat. She's just... annoying.

Rocks skitter under our paws and bounce down the slope ahead of us, echoing through the valley. I freeze for a second. I thought I heard a kit's cry, far off in the night. It came from behind me, but farther back than the camp, and anyway, there are no kits in SnowClan anymore. Not since I got rid of that pack of worthless she-cats. For a second I let my imagination run away with me. Suppose Pinecloud and the others found a way to stay on our territory? Then I roll my eyes. I've hightened security to a peak around here. Nothing gets past my patrols.

Spiritsky reaches the bottom of the hill and waits for me. I slow my pace. If you're not faster than someone, make slow the new cool. Waving my tail airly, enjoying the way the silver-white wisps look blowing in the night breeze, I finally join her. The medicine cat takes a deep breath. "What exactly do you want me to do Ivystar?"

I glare at her. "We'll figure that out when we get there." She nods and looks away. As we walk into the pine forest, towards Lily Pond, I study her. If Spiritsky wasn't a medicine cat, I would've killed her a long time ago. She's very pretty, I'm willing to admit that. Beauty does nothing for my enemies once they're dead. Except cause their death. When Spiritsky fulfills her purpose, I'll kill her too. But for now, I analyze whether her soft blue eyes and gleaming silver-tabby-and-white coat is enough to lure a tom despite the fact that she is a medicine cat.

Then there's Snowheart. I've bested her at everything, but I can't be comfortable that she's completely submitted to me. No matter what I do, I feel like something about her... I can't explain it. The way Honeywind and Beepelt, I refuse to call them my parents, doted over her like she was an angel from StarClan. The way that even though I did better than her in hunting, training, and popularity, she never seemed to doubt herself. She was always ready to stand out, no matter what it meant.

Stop it! I say it to myself so loudly that I half expect Spiritsky to hear me, but she doesn't look up; her head continues to droop as she trudges onwards. I have no time for sentiment today. Today, everything changes.

"Is this it?" I hiss. We're at the outskirts of the pine forest, a bit out of SnowClan's territory. A crumbled pile of rocks stands in front of us, overgrown with lichen and moss, clumps of browned grass peeping out from various cracks and crevices. Spiritsky says nothing. She appears to be in some kind of trance.

"Can't you feel it?" she breathes. I glance at her. Her face, bathed in silver moonlight, seems so ethereal it unnerves me.

"So this is it," I growl. "Nothing wrong with speaking in regular terms."

"Yes there is," she whispers, as if trying to shush me. "Tonight, we speak the language of the stars." Then her reverie fades and a haunted look comes into her eyes. She gazes at me. I fidget uneasily. I can't believe how much damage one she-cat can do. After this, she's got to go. "We shouldn't be doing this. It's wrong Ivystar."

I snap. "I don't care!" I yell, my voice shattering the stillness. Even I feel the wrongness of anger and volume in this silent realm. But I won't let that stop me. Nothing can stop me. Not StarClan themselves. "Now do your job before I slit your worthless throat." I press my face into hers, smirking as I watch her pale and shrink beneath my gaze.

"Okay," she quavers. One unsteady legs, she walks over to the rock-pile and investigates. A frown appears on her face.

"What?" I hiss.

"I don't know..." She squints. "It's not what I expected. I thought we were supposed to find a cave. But there's no sign of one here."

I pad over slowly. My fur prickles the closer I get. "This place isn't right." She ignores me, scraping and rummaging among the rocks intently. "What are you searching for?"

She shrugs. "Something. Anything to let us know how to get in. It won't be out here. We need to find it." I sigh. Do all medicine cats have to be so annoying? I peer at the rocks, and a wave of anger washes over me.

"You liar! This isn't it at all!" I begin advancing on her, the hair along my spine raising. My lips peel back from my teeth threateningly. Spiritsky lets out a small gasp and backs up, brushing against a small green stone embedded between two boulders. Suddenly the ground starts to tremble.

I'm thrown off my paws as dust fills the air. The sound of crumbling rock wrenches through my ears, and bits and shards of stone rain down on me. What's going on?

When the dusty air clears, I stagger to my feet, eyes watering and coughing hard. Then I gasp. The two massive boulders have wrenched apart, revealing a small opening in the ground. A cave.

~Chapter Two~

Spiritsky gets to her paws and stares at the opening dumbly. I shoulder her out of the way and stand over it, grinning. "Perfect."

Turning to her, I say, "You go in first." Before she can reply, I shove her in.

There's a muffled thump, then she calls up, "It's safe."

I scramble in after her, wincing as the dirt clumps to my coat. How will I look after this? I've got to give myself a good grooming, that's for sure. The cave is like a long, narrow passage. There's only space to go single-file, so Spiritsky leads me through it. The ground is sloping gently downward, and I can barely see the earthen walls on either side of me. Then, suddenly, without warning, it opens up into a large chamber. A rock-studded ceiling arches over our heads, but the main stunner is a giant pearly blue rock that juts out of the ground. "We've found it." I'm sure of it.

But what now? The unspoken question lingers in the air between us. Then I drop something from my jaws. I had a feeling we'd need it. The green stone. The round, smooth emerald surface sparkles even in the darkness. I blink hard. Am I just imagining the ray of blue-white light emitting from the larger blue rock to the pebble? I glance atSpiritsky and see that she sees it too. The jewel gives out its own green light, and the two collide, sending a panorama of rainbows across the cave. The ground begins to quake again, but no rocks fall. Instead, silver forms emerge, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere. Gradually, as the light dims once more, they take on the shapes and colors of cats, with pelts ranging from silver-white to ginger-gold.

With one voice they chant, "We have been Summoned."

A large ginger tom steps forward, his green eyes matching the shade of the emerald pebble perfectly. "You are the Caller." He doesn't say it as a question, but I'm still confused. Still, I raise my chin to a proud angle, ignoring my dusty, matted coat, and glare at him. That's all I have for now.

A lovely, lithe she-cat with a dense coat the color of light hazelnut steps forward. "Yes, she is." Her gaze, which is the same hue as the blue StarStone, is calm yet questioning. "What do you need help with?"

"No-"

"I'll ask the questions," I say, cutting off Spiritsky with a flick of my tail. "StarClan, I presume?"

They exchange rueful glances. "What's left of it," snorts the ginger tom. The she-cat, his mate probably, flicks him on the shoulder disapprovingly.

"Why have you Summoned us?" she says in a soft voice. She looks tired. They all do. Though the silver shimmer around them is bright and captivating, closer observation reveals that their eyes are dulled and weary.

"One reason. I want more power."

I think I detect the corners of the tom's mouth twitching, and I shoot him a scornful glare. The she-cat looks surprised and saddened. "Why?" she says softly, as if she's talking to a kit, telling me something she's told me a thousand times before. It annoys me. "What do you think it will bring you?"

"That's for me to know," I snap. "And you to get me."

"How do you think we can get you power?" snaps the ginger tom. "Look around you. We're all that's left! We can barely-" His mate clamps her tail in his mouth to silence him.

"We're sorry. StarClan cannot help you, and even if we could, you aren't asking us for the right things. Good bye, and I hope you change your ways before it's too late."

"You little- Come back!" But one by one, the silvery cats are dissapating into misty vapor, then are gone altogether. Except for one. A black tom at the back. He pads forward slowly, his yellow eyes gleaming.

"I can give you what you want." I notice a look of dismay cross Spiritsky's face. I smile cunningly.

"Is that so?"

"Yes. If you are willing to pay the price. I must warn you, it is not cheap. What you are asking goes against a lot of fundamental rules that make us warriors. It won't be easy."

"I am willing. I will do anything for this. Anything." The ferocity of my hiss echoing around the chamber seems to surprise him.

"Okay. See the blue of the StarStone?" I nod. "Did you see the green of Fireblast's eyes?" I nod again, realizing that must be the ginger tom. "Now look," he says, gesturing toward a clear puddle on the floor. I peer inside and gasp. My own reflection stares back at me, green eyes glowing, but beside me is Snowheart. Her normally navy eyes are pale and ghostly, the color of the StarStone. My head jerks around. Nothing.

"H-how'd you do that?" I stammer, then immediately berate myself for sounding like a kit. Composing myself, I snap in a harsher tone, "And what does the color of my eyes have to do with power?"

"Everything," he says in a hushed voice. "First, what do I get out of this?"

"What do you want?"

"When you acquire the power, you must make me a Vessel as well."

"A what?"

He sighs dramatically. "I can see I have a lot to teach you. When you are a Vessel, you hold the power. You are invincible and immortal. Do you understand?"

"Why would I give you all that power then?" I hiss, flattening my ears against my head. Does he really think he can trick me?

"Because," he says impatiently. "You can't possibly hold all that power at once. You would explode."

I was about to explode with anger right then and there. "The power of what? What are you talking about?"

He is aggravatingly calm. "The power of the White Ivy."

For a few seconds I remained silent, a chill running down my spine inexplicably. Somehow, those two words seemed to hold a lot of power. I shake myself. Of course they didn't. It was just my imagination. "The White Ivy?"

"Yes," he said, his tone growing mysterious and eerie. "Some say it is a spirit, or an actual cat, others say it is a jewel or a stone. Still others say it's an actual plant. One thing everyone agrees on is: no one will ever find it, nor truly harness the power of the White Ivy."

I peel my lips back in a snarl. "That's what you think And it's probably true. Until now."

"You really want this?" he asks. I nod fiercely. The corners of his mouth tug into a smile. "Then I'll help you get it. I'll find something out and visit you in your dreams. Deal?"

I nod once more. Our eyes narrow, sizing each other up. We both know there is no honesty or honor in this promise. We're both in it for ourselves. And I'll make sure I come out on top in this deal of deciet. No matter what.

Just at the brink of the pine forest, when we're almost home, I turn on Spiritsky. She stops and gives me a small, sad smile. "I won't tell."

The evil inside me is rising like a green cloud, filling me. I know what I have to do. Unsheathing my claws, I press my face against hers. "No," I promise. "You won't." In one smooth motion, before she knows what's happening, I raise my front paw and slice open her throat.

Her blue eyes widen in shock for a split second before she topples backwards into the pines. I kick branches over her body, but not before kneeling beside her and whispering into her lifeless ear, "And that's one promise I will keep."

~Chapter Three~

"Ivystar? Here's your prey." Thornfur drops a squirrel at my paws.

I grin alluringly up at him, and am rewarded by a dreamy look in his eyes. Running my tail along the ground, back and forth, I meow, "Good. Thank you Thornfur. Now, please call together the Council. I have some things we need to discuss."

He nods. "Right away Ivystar."

They arrive quickly. Beetlefur sits closest to me, Thornfur on my other side, and Weaselclaw trying to edge nearer as well. Blackfire saunters in last, and sits at the edge of the den, his golden eyes cool and calculating. I almost feel sorry for him.? No one can defy me for long. Absolutely no one.

"What do you want?" Blackfire says. The others boggle at him. It is an unspoken rule that I always speak first at Council meetings. It is also a rule that anyone who talks to me doesn't use words or tones like his.

"Excuse me?" I say in a clipped tone, fighting to keep control. Had it been any other cat, I would've plotted their death instantly. But I have plans for Blackfire. Visions. He would make a great coruler once I acquire the power of the White Ivy. Tonight, I will meet with my StarClan ally. And we shall decide what to do.

"Will there be any more interruptions?" I inquire, scanning the faces around me. The other toms shake their heads. Blackfire doesn't react. Gritting my teeth, I remind myself that he'll do anything for me once I am finally in my most-deserved throne. 

"Good. Now let's get on with this. You see, there will have to be some changes very soon. Once I acquire a certain power, I will be doing something with SnowClan. Each of you has a chance to rule with me." I slowly lock gazes with each tom. In the first three I see all I want: passion, adoration, and devotion. The fourth pair... not so much. Copper-gold eyes as cool as stone, regarding me critically. Blackfire sure can mask his emotions, I'll give him that.

"What kind of changes?" he asks. 

I narrow my eyes and speak through gritted teeth again. "We'll talk about when we get to that point. The point is, I want some of you to scout for possible 'captains.' You four will obviously be my ruling four, but we need disposable minions to do our dirty work. I'll tell you more when the time comes, but for now, just know that we want the best cats possible, besides you guys." I smile sweetly. "Feel free to use flattery." Like I am on you mousebrains.

"So... we just find the right cat?" Beetlefur says eagerly. I nod and he grins. "Cool."

"Except for Blackfire. I want you to watch Snowheart." He blinks at me.

"What?"

I frown. Why does he suddenly look nervous? Relaxed, composed Blackfire? Nervous? Something's up here. I had thought that he being my smartest member of the Council, he could watch over my ragtag sister and make sure she doesn't cause any trouble.(I'd never make her a leader) But now, I'm not so sure. And I hate being unsure of myself. It's horrible, and the only thing worse is to show it. Throwing my shoulders back I say, "Yeah. I want you to watch her and make sure she's good material." And I'll be watching you, I add silently. 

The Council breaks up, and I sit down in my nest. Oh, how much they don't know.