Lost Hope: Book 6: Future of Hope

Chapter 13

Forestpaw was still in a bit of shock as she, Sparrowfeather, Burrowpelt, who was in fact not dead, and Aster who came along to visit his kits, made their way back to the makeshift camp of exiles. Foxflame was sitting at the edge of their little clearing and when he saw them, his mouth fell to the ground so fast Forestpaw laughed.

"Burrowpelt!" Foxflame bounded forward when he seemed to have recovered from his shock. "You're alive!"

"I am aware of that, yes," Burrowpelt said, touching her nose with his. "Good to see you doing well."

"And you're alive too!" Aster said to his son. "That's amazing! Darkmoon told me that you and your sister had been killed by rogues."

"Er, not quite, but pretty close," Foxflame said with a small shake of his head. "Wow! Come in, I have to show Lilacsnow!"

The four cats followed Foxflame past the bushes into the more cleared out section they had made between a couple trees. There were a few nests of scattered moss and some prey items sitting on a stump in the middle. They had chosen this spot purely for the stump.

"What? I like it," Foxflame had said.

"Me too," Forestpaw had said, standing close to him. "I am in favor of the stump."

"Me three," Amberclaw had agreed.

Lilacsnow and Sparrowfeather had shared a glance, then shrugged and agreed to the spot with the stump. Foxflame's sister was now standing next to the stump, although her back was facing them as they approached. Her ears flicked and she did a double take when she saw Burrowpelt and Aster.

"Lilacsnow!" Aster said, leaping forward and rubbing up against her with a purr. Lilacsnow almost fell over which made Forestpaw and Foxflame both laugh. The look on her face was truly priceless.

Lilacsnow gave her father a smile and a small lick on the cheek. She then turned to Burrowpelt and said. "Where have you been?"

Burrowpelt nodded to Aster. "I've been staying with him. I suppose I have to explain it all again to you two." And so she told Foxflame and Lilacsnow about how she had been seemingly fatally wounded by her own daughter, taken to Aster by Fogbreeze and basically brought back to life, from the brink of death, by Aster's housefolk.

"Wow," Foxflame said when she had finished. "That's truly the stuff of legends. I'll have to remember that when I'm old and crusty." He put on a croaky voice and hunched his shoulders. "See here, young 'uns, when my mentor was killed, StarClan saw fit to bring her back to life—"

Burrowpelt swatted him with her tail, but she was grinning. "Well it's good to be back, but I think I'm going to need the rundown on what's happened since I was last here. It seems I've missed a lot."

Foxflame nodded. "Forestpaw? Why don't you start? You can tell her about Viperfang."

"Viperfang?" Burrowpelt echoed.

"Yeah, so here's the thing. . . ." And Forestpaw told her about the night of her capture and how she had been able to visit her brother. Amberclaw jumped in, recounting their thrilling escape and then running in on the Gathering. Lilacsnow took over from their, explaining how her and Foxflame had been captured by rogues, how Phoenixwing had been killed. Aster flinched at that and Foxflame put his tail on his father's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"Then Violetshadow showed up one day with two other cats—one from BrookClan and one from FernClan—to 'rescue' us," she said. "We both thought it was suspicious though how there were no other rogues expect the one that was guarding us. They had all just disappeared. Now I'm convinced it was a setup to win Stonestar's favor."