After running from a life of tragedy and loss, Dunepaw seeks guidance from a forgotten clan leader while the cats of the territories solve an unseen threat has already taken hold on them all.
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Written by: Jace Hays
Lore, Organ...
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Otterstar felt humid wind coursing around him, its thickness forcing heavy breaths from his throat. The tom analyzed his surroundings: a thick forest tinted in gray by the heavy storm that heaved between the trunks of oak trees. Otterstar's confused steps were wet underfoot, as if the woodlands were recovering from heavy rainfall.
Something recognizable came from the forest: a wail calling Otterstar's name.
"I'm here!" the brown tom called. "Where are you?"
Another wail, more distant.
Otterstar kicked his legs to action, shooting through the forest, narrowly dodging trees as they appeared from the clouds. His dash ended abruptly when he slammed into the side of another cat. The collision threw his heavy body into a tumble.
"Thank the stars!" cried the pounded cat between recovering gasps of breath.
Otterstar looked at the cat, confirming his suspicions of the voice's identity. A lithe tom lifted from the grass, water dripping from his black pelt that bore symmetrical streams of orange that coursed from his eyes to his thighs, looking like strips of sunset clouds with no star in sight.
"Eelstar! What brings you to my dreams?"
Eelstar shook water droplets from his thin pelt. "This isn't your dream, this is StarClan."
"StarClan?" Otterstar questioned, knowing that cats being taken from dreams into the stars was only used in dire times.
"Yes, I need to ask you..." Eelstar pressed, stress contorting his narrow face. "Where is Hickorystar?"
Otterstar lifted his head in confusion. "We... We sent him away with that strange cat: the ally of StarClan. Like you told us to."
"Eelstar, what is it?" Otterstar asserted, ducking around and leaning against a drenched pelt to support his deceased leader to stability.
"It wasn't us who judged Hickorystar and Dunepaw!"
"I don't understand. You told me to bring them to StarClan!"
Eelstar pushed himself from Otterstar's assistance, lowering his head to send the current leader a cementing grimace. "As soon as Hickorystar entered the territories, all of StarClan became concealed in dark clouds- a disastrous storm fell right from the sky!" Eelstar took a few harrowing breaths. "We couldn't see or communicate with the clans- barely with each other!"
Otterstar stepped up to his ancestor. "Then who judged those two? Who took Hickorystar?"
"It's too late... oh no..."
"Eelstar!"
Eelstar raised his head to face his predecessor. Shock wracked his face. Thin pupils quivered inside his yellow eyes. "That was no ally of StarClan..."
Otterstar's jaw dropped and his blue eyes broadened in realization. He knew what had just happened to the clans; Eelstar needed not to say more, but the StarClan warrior reached for words to conclude his grave warning.
