Warriors: Shadows Incoming ~Series 2 Book 5~

Prologue

Stormstar's POV:

Stormstar sat atop the ledge that overlooked the crashing waves before him. The salty air made Stormstar's fur prickle nervously and he was thrown back into the memory of when the wave hit. He had been swept to the very edge of Lightclan territory and lost two lives. He only had a certain amount of lives remaining, but he couldn't clearly remember. His mind was still cloudy, disconnected.

"Stormstar?" Sagestar glanced at Stormstar, her grey tail flicking. "Are you alright?"

Stormstar looked at the new Smallclan leader and he didn't reply. Instead, his mind wandered to Petalstar. He hated her, but still loved her all the same. The knowledge that the she cat he loved and her- their- kits had died left a wide hole in his heart. He hated NoName for giving him such horrid nightmares of Rosegaze and Silverstar. He had finally come to realise that the nightmare's weren't real, but it was too late. The one act that he wanted so desperately to do had been done for him. Petalstar was dead. And now he regretted ever hating her or wanting her dead.

There was a heavy silence in the rocky clearing and Stormstar felt many pairs of eyes on him. He slowly looked down at the four clans below him, his ice blue gaze travelling over the faces of his clan mates. They were strangers to him.

Stormstar wanted nothing more than to hide away in his den for the rest of his miserable existence. He was no leader of Lightclan. He couldn't lead his clan mates. He wondered why they had even bothered to drag him along to this Starclan-forsaken gathering. He was an entire waste of space. He had had his good days and they were long gone, fading from his memory more rapid than a hawk swooping down to catch an unsuspecting mouse.

The stares continued to fix on his unmoving body, burning a gaping hole in his chest. At last, his new deputy, Autumnpool raised her voice. "Stormstar, it's your time to speak."

Stormstar gave a stiff nod at Autumnpool, who sat with the other three deputies at the base of the Great Ledge. Autumnpool was his deputy now. He hadn't even chosen her, Starclan had. He was so disconnected from his clan that he didn't even know who his deputy was.

Before he spoke, he caught Nutwhisker's sympathetic gaze. Ice blue met emerald green as leader and medicine cat stared at each other. They had both been slaves to NoName's nightmares, except Nutwhisker had pulled through and Stormstar was still spiralling into madness.

Madness. Stormstar let out a snort, which earned him a few weird looks. Madness was not what he had. He was not mad or crazy. The nightmares were showing him the true horrors of the world. The darkness that lay right under everyone's noses. He saw the burning fire dancing in the eyes of every warrior, apprentice, deputy and medicine cat below him. The flickering flames of darkness, just waiting to be let out. Every cat had the potential to be evil, to feed the dark flames.

What surprised Stormstar was that when he looked into NoName's pure white eyes, he saw nothing. There were no black flames in her eyes; just glowing white nothingness. That was what scared him most about the red furred she cat. The way her eyes reflected her soul- cold and empty. She held no regret for the cats she had killed. She didn't care that she enslaved so many cats with her shadows. She would happily end Stormstar's life, taking his soul to use as another of her shadows. Why was she holding onto him but not killing him? Did she have a plan to use him?

Stormstar felt a nudge and looked up into the expecting eyes of Sagestar. Her green eyes bore into him and for a heartbeat he realised her eyes were the exact same shade as Nutwhisker's. Odd..

Finally, Stormstar opened his jaws to announce Lightclan's events from the past moon.

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