Broken Reflection

Chapter 13

"Run! Go! GO!" Star shrieked.

Echoheart didn't hesitate to follow the silver she-cat as she sprinted away from the huge black-furred creature. It lifted up its great big head from its meal with a snarl, and its beady black eyes narrowed maliciously as it heard the three cats' claws scraping over the stone in their effort to escape.

But Echoheart didn't look back.

"What... was... that?" Whispersong demanded as they skidded to a halt. 

The creature's growls sounded far away now. Echoheart's chest was heaving so much that she felt she had just run all the way from the mountains to the Clans and back again. Her heart was leaping into her throat, and her fur was spiked in terror.

Star had collapsed. She closed her eyes, her flanks rising and falling rapidly. She didn't seem to have heard Whispersong.

Echoheart looked around wildly then sighed in relief. There weren't any other animals near them.

Echoheart's mind flashed back to that creature in fear. That creature, the one they'd just run from, was the danger. The danger in StarClan's prophecy! Echoheart shook her head in terror. That animal was huge ! It was bigger than it had seemed in her vision!

And... Echoheart shuddered. That was the  danger. That's what the prophecy is warning us about.

Echoheart turned to Whispersong, whose eyes reflected Echoheart's own horror at what they'd just seen. "That was the creature in our vision," Whispersong breathed, chest heaving.

Echoheart nodded, swaying slightly. Then Echoheart turned to Star, who was beginning to sit up. "What is it?" Echoheart demanded. "The creature; what's it called?"

The silver she-cat looked up, terror in her green and blue eyes. "That... was..." she heaved for breath. "It was a... a bear."

* * *

When they reached the Tribe's cave once more, Echoheart's heart was still hammering her chest.

Bumblefrost caught sight of them wobbling and raced to Whispersong's side. "What happened?" he demanded, a worried edge to his voice.

"We saw... the... the d-danger," Whispersong stammered.

"The danger?" Bumblefrost stiffened. "The  danger? What we came here to find out about? The thing you two had dreams about?"

Whispersong nodded weakly, and Bumblefrost's eyes widened.

"Let's find somewhere quiet and we'll tell you about it," Echoheart murmured, shivering despite the warmth of the cave.

"What about her?" Bumblefrost looked at Star.

"She stays," Whispersong murmured.

They exited the cave again to find a spot where they wouldn't be overheard.

"Here's good," Star meowed, pointing with her nose at a ledge close to the waterfall; the water's roaring would block their conversation from the other cats.

Bumblefrost sat down next to Whispersong, licking her spiked fur and looking concerned. "Well? What happened?" he demanded.

Echoheart told him everything that they'd discovered in the last few days, what they hadn't told him yet. She told him about the conversation with Stoneteller, Star's strange destiny, the ties between StarClan and the Tribe of Endless Hunting, their find of what Star called the bear  today...

"Wait... are you saying that... Star is coming back with us to the forest?" Bumblefrost exclaimed when Echoheart had finished.

"We don't know yet," Star murmured, looking like she didn't want to think it could be true.