Beast of the Sea - WARRIOR CATS

Epilogue

Epilogue

Two years later

~Wolfstar~

"I caught this for you!"

Wolfstar glanced up to see Flickerpaw bolting towards her across the rolling hills of StarClan. A few warriors the dark grey and silver she-cat didn't know looked up in amusement at the young apprentice's eagerness to deliver her catch. Wolfstar was simply surprised.

"Here-" Flickerpaw was gasping for breath, the stars in her ginger and black pelt shimmering around her. "I-caught it. Thought you'd-like-to-share-it."

Wolfstar blinked several moments before responding. She hadn't seen the former ShoreClan apprentice in a long time. Part of her was confused about why Flickerpaw suddenly wanted to talk to her. Has she decided that I am a monster and deserve the dark forest?

Two years later, and the scars Dewstar's had inflicted on her were still taking their time to heal. Some days were worse than others. While most of StarClan seemed to have welcomed her, there were several cats (Sunpaw among them) who refused to talk to her.

But Flickerpaw's eyes were shining as she dropped her prey, a brown speckled trout, at Wolfstar's paws. She grinned.

"I remembered trout was your favourite!"

"You're a very good hunter," Wolfstar commented on the size of the fish. But she glanced up at Flickerpaw doubtfully. "What did you really come to talk to me about?"

Flickerpaw sat down beside her. For a moment, the apprentice didn't speak, merely stared off into the distance. Then, she gave her shoulders a little shake and turned back to Wolfstar.

"I just wanted to chat," she explained in a mild tone. "You know, since we haven't...in a while."

Wolfstar blinked. "Okay," she meowed, still confused. "What did you want to talk about."

Flickerpaw once again fiddled with her paws, as though she wasn't entirely sure what to say. At last, she meowed, "what was it like for you, to be a warrior and then a leader in ShoreClan? I mean," she added hurriedly, "did you feel like other cats respected you and stuff?"

Wolfstar saw a hint of longing and then guilt flash across Flickerpaw's expression. She wondered what it must have been like for the apprentice, to never fully grow up, while cats who hadn't even been born yet were Senior Warriors, with kits of their own.

Flickerpaw took a bite of trout, waiting for Wolfstar to respond.

"It was...complicated," Wolfstar admitted, instinctively unsheathing her claws and digging them into the earth. "Cats feared me, and in some ways that can be seen as respect, but they never liked me. Not until the end, anyway."

Flickerpaw gagged on her trout.

"You think you deserve the friendship of other cats?" A taunting voice broke through Wolfstar's thoughts. Suddenly, she was in ShoreClan, a little cave off the coast of ShoreClan.

A cream she-cat sat beside her, eyes brimming with cold amusement as Wolfstar stared blankly out to sea. Very slowly, she brought her paws into the stream to her left, allowing the blood which coated her paws to run away.

"They think I killed him!" Wolfwhisper meowed coldly, not looking up even as Dewocean brushed her fluffy cream tail along her back. "And you're encouraging it. Our friendship is over."

"You are a monster, you know," Dewocean laughed. "You don't even know where the blood on your paws came from, do you? What will ShoreClan think when they realise poor little baby Flickerpaw is missing?"