(Book 1) Warriors: Separations - Six Stars

Epilogue

A wide pond glittered beautifully under the starry sky, it was almost like there was a chunk of the sky in the water itself. Reeds grew all around the pond, and pebbles scaled the perimeter.

Paw steps sounded in the large and leafy forest around the pond. They didn't sound urgent, only a little hurried.

Four cats appeared from the trees, their bodies transparent and their paws lined with stars. They looked to the edge of the pond at two small, starry kits.

A fiery orange she-cat with specks of light orange and white around her body padded up to the kits and nudged them with her muzzle. She turned to a dark blue tom with light blue eyes and black paws. She huffed. "Nightstar, how did these ones die?" she asked him.

Nightstar eyed the kit closest to him. It was a she with dark brown fur and dark brown eyes. He sighed. "Run over." he said quietly. He turned to the orange she cat. "Do you know about the other one, Pumpkinstar?" he queried. Pumpkinstar observed the second kit. This one was a light golden tabby she-cat with blue eyes. The kit twitched a bit in her sleep as Pumpkinstar leaned forward. "I think she was... thrown off of a cliff?!" she exclaimed, surprised.

One of the other cats-a platinum blonde she-cat with dark orange eyes and black speckles all over her pelt-pitched in. "I was watching from afar. She was a Riverclan kit. She had almost died from hunger up on the mountains after Riverclan camp flooded, and rather than giving her a proper burial, one of the warriors threw her off the mountainside." she sighed mournfully. Pumpkinstar's eyes widened. "That's awful! Great Starclan, have you ever met anyone like that in your time as a leader, Lilystar?" she exclaimed.

Lilystar shook her head. "Not once have I met a warrior like that."

"I wonder if Riverclan is going to hold up that well if there's a lot of warriors like that there." Pumpkinstar muttered dejectedly. Lilystar threw Pumpkinstar a hard glare, but the orange she-cat didn't seem to notice.

The last cat, a brown and beige tom with a white muzzle and underbelly as well as bright orange eyes, walked toward the kits and sniffed them. He looked at the dark brown kit and sighed. "I knew I recognized her. Violetkit, she's a Thunderclan kit." he huffed.

Nightstar shook his head sadly. "It must feel worse since that's your clan, Mosstar." he muttered. Mosstar flicked his tail dismissively. "A little bit. But it wasn't my kit, so I feel less attached." he denied. Nightstar ignored Mosstar's inability to care and moved on. "So, Pumpkinstar, why have you called the past leaders of the four clans here? Just to show us these kits?" he pressed.

Pumpkinstar shook her head. "That was part of the goal here. But, I want to focus on this one specifically," she said, pointing her tail at Violetkit.

Mosstar tipped his head to the side, confused. "Violetkit? What for?" He asked, intrigued.

"Violetkit is going to be very important here... she may be a kit, but she's in Starclan now; I've got a job for her." she told the other leaders.

Nightstar looked at her as though he was staring straight at Tigerstar himself. "It's a kit, Pumpkinstar!" he hissed. Pumpkinstar furrowed her eyebrows at him. "Here's the plan, just hear me out."

The other leaders looked at each other doubtfully, but didn't interrupt Pumpkinstar.

Once she was sure that the other leaders were paying attention, Pumpkinstar continued, "Violetkit here is going to deliver a very important message to a certain someone..."

"What are you doing here?"

Dark trees were everywhere, they had no color but black.

"Hey!"

Pitch black peet squelched underneath the paws of the cats.

"Answer me when I speak to you!"

A bright light shined at the supposed end of the black peet path.

Two cats emerged from a dark haze. One of them was a gray-ish blue color with dark purple eyes. The other was a light brown she cat with black mud covering her pelt so that she almost blended in with the dark terrain surrounding her.

She light brown she-cat was scowling at the blue gray she-cat. "Hey, you idiot! Are you mute or something? Answer me, twerp!" she hissed.

The blue-gray she-cat gave the brown she-cat a hard glare. "Beetlepaw, I don't think you're very fit to call me that. I'm older than you, you little twerp." she hit the word "twerp" pretty hard.

Beetlepaw didn't seem intimidated, she just rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

She sat down off the side of the black peet path with a groan. "Ughhhhhh! I don't wanna do this. Do I have to?"

The blue-gray she-cat narrowed her eyes at Beetlepaw. "You don't have to. I could just give you a nice, long, excruciating and painful death right here." she said threateningly.

Beetlepaw scowled. "There's only one other person here, and they're not really the best candidate for your plan... whatever." she sighed.

The blue-gray she cat smiled. "That's right. Defy me again and there will be no warning. I'll pin you down and tear you apart, limb by limb, while you shriek in piercing agony. And then you'd be gone from this entire universe."

Beetlepaw rolled her eyes. "Do what you want. There's nothing else exciting here anyways." she huffed. Beetlepaw turned around and walked into the pitch black forest, flicking her tail for the blue-gray cat to follow.

The two walked in silence until they arrived at an opening. There was no light, but there was some brightly lit, slimy moss scattered around the terrace. It was a small opening, with a large rock jutting out slantedly from the ground. There were little pebbles everywhere, and beyond the big rock, there was a river.

Beetlepaw and the she-cat padded over to it, gazing at the surface. It was pitch black too, and when the blue-gray she-cat stuck her paw in it, it was slimy and sticky. She quickly rubbed it off on the black grass.

Beetlepaw nodded to the she-cat. "Welcome to the Dark Forest."