"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here beneath the highbranch for a clan meeting," Hollystar called the clan together. Every warrior was already in the clearing after what happened, and Snowstorm and Dawnpaw emerged from the medicine cat's den to listen. "As all of you probably already know, Treeheart has betrayed us," Treeheart was laying below the highbranch, still badly wounded.
All the cats who were friends with him started letting their anger out by hissing threats at him.
Hollystar silenced them with a flick of her tail, "I have thought about this all morning and I have decided that we will let him go."
The clan started protesting.
"Kill him!"
"Send him back to twolegplace!"
She waited calmly for the noise to die down, "We will let him go," she repeated, "but if he is seen in our territory again, don't hesitate to kill him."
Treeheart stood up weakly and faced the clan, "Fine," he growled, "but you will pay for this!"
He made his way to the camp entrance muttering under his breath. I should send a few warriors to escort him to the border. As if reading Hollystar's mind, Nightfall and Stripefur started following him to the border.
Hollystar jumped down from the highbranch and walked over to her den to get some sleep. A few moments later, she found herself waking up in StarClan's hunting grounds. A tall orange cat appeared from the corner of her eye.
"Greetings," he meowed, "I am Flamestar."
"The leader of LightningClan before me?" Hollystar questioned.
He nodded, "Something terrible is going to happen to the forest," he warned.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know exactly what it is," he continued, "but I do know that you'll need your warriors as strong as possible."
The next thing she knew, she was standing in the forest with the sound of wailing cats as they tried to flee.
"Run for your life!"
"Help, we're trapped!"
"StarClan save us!"
Oh no! Nightfall! My kits! Snowstorm! She could see that the only two cats who didn't call out were already dead. No! She could see the cats perfectly clear, but she couldn't make out the shapes of the animals attacking them.
She woke up to Nightfall prodding her side, "Are you okay?" he asked, "You were meowing in your sleep."
She let out a sigh of relief to see that nothing in her dream had happened. She shook her head to clear it, "I'm fine," she meowed, "it was just a nightmare."
He licked her ear and she buried her muzzle in his fur, breathing in his scent as she slowly drifted back to sleep. As long as I'm leader of LightningClan, I won't let those animals destroy my clan.
