Warriors #3: Shifting Shadows

Chapter 21

Goldenshine's POV

It was hard to sleep as the sadness from the previous day was engrained into my head. It seemed that every few heartbeats I had to shut my eyes as they welled up with sadness all over again.

Snowflight's vigil had just ended, and Longtail and Mousefur had taken out Snowflight's body to be buried. As much as I hadn't wanted to, Firestar had insisted to Thornclaw, Lilypetal, Jayfeather and I that we had to return to our dens and get some sleep.

And I had complied with the ThunderClan leader of course, but I certainly didn't have to like it.

So now, I was lying in the nursery with Swiftkit curled up beside me. He wasn't aware of what had happened at all, and that his kin was dead. I figured that my son was just a bit too young to understand what was going on, and anyways, I was too pained and overwhelmed with grief to be able to say a single word to him.

It wasn't until many heartbeats after I had settled down in the nursery that I finally felt myself beginning to drift off into sleep.

Maybe you'll wake up tomorrow and feel just a bit better, I told myself in my half-sleepiness.

Almost immediately as darkness took a hold of me, I realized that I could suddenly hear several whispers. I almost wanted to pull myself into consciousness once again to tell the other queens that they needed to be a little quieter. But it didn't take me long to figure out that these whispers were getting louder and louder as I feel deeper and deeper into sleep. Soon enough, they were coming from all sides of me, and I couldn't pick out just one place anymore.

What's happening?

When I then opened my eyes out of fear, I knew instantly that I wasn't in the nursery anymore. Actually, I was surrounded by many, many tall oak trees. They were so bright and radiant-looking that they almost seemed to be sparkling. A small stream quietly flowed near me, the sounds of the soft ripples calming me just a bit. And eventually, it was all that I could hear as the whispering around me suddenly faded.

I stood up and began to look around. I clearly wasn't in any place that actually existed. No place was this perfect.

Am I in StarClan? I wondered, looking at my surroundings in awe. Why am I here?

As I continued to scan my surroundings in disbelief and confusion, I then jumped in alarm as I noticed that another cat was beside me.

It was Jayfeather, glancing around and looking just as confused as I was.

"Jayfeather?" I blurted out as soon as I had noticed him.

Jayfeather jumped at my voice before turning to face me. "Goldenshine?" He exclaimed. I then tilted my head as the medicine cat peered past me. "Lilypetal? Thornclaw?"

I gasped, feeling a new mix of surprise and happiness. Thornclaw and Lilypetal are here too?

I turned around, following Jayfeather's gaze, to see Lilypetal and Thornclaw standing beside the stream.

I watched as both of my parents whipped their heads around at Jayfeather's call before padding up to join the two of us. I ran up to meet them, greeting them and touching my nose to theirs as if I hadn't seen them in a while.

As I pulled away from Thornclaw, I let my gaze flit from one parent to another. "What are you two doing here?"

Lilypetal exchanged a baffled glance with Thornclaw before shrugging, her hazel eyes wide. "I could ask you the same question!" I admitted, shaking her head. I then watched as my mother padded up to Jayfeather. "You're a medicine cat - do you know what is going on?"