Okay...this chapter is a bit shorter than the last few, but I absolutely love it. I think it's some of the best writing I've ever done. As usual, I appreciate in-depth comments more than anything...keep that in mind! Thanks to everybody regardless, especially my long-time reviewers/fans and new ones.
Chapter 11
HeartstoppingMy heart was racing out of control, trying desperately to remind me that I didn’t have to do this. Icepath had already pledged herself to the fate, but it would be unbearably cruel to separate her forever from her brother, Darkstorm, and her parents in StarClan. Me? I had no one else I was terribly close to save Crystalpaw, my parents, and Sunpaw. If anyone could find a way out of StarClan, Sunpaw could. And he would take my family with him. And Crystalpaw would be with me forever too—double guardians of the Moonpool stream, immortally young, waiting for the next Fire-hosts to take our place.The trees were flying by me, blurring into a mess of brown and pine green and sable shadows and white snow that flew up around my paws. Then there was the pale fur of Crystalpaw, just behind me, refusing to stay behind, her eyes shards of peridot in the fading sunset. Flickerpaw’s woods weren’t far. I had left the lake forever.
“Eaglepaw—Eaglepaw—” Crystalpaw panted, increasing her speed to run beside me. “It’s there.”
She pointed to the right with her tail, and I could see the glimmer of immortal gold.
“Yes,” I breathed, “it’s there.” I altered my course and headed for the trees. As soon as I stepped onto the lush grass, the cold around me vanished and my breath flowed back into my lungs. There were the fire flowers, and I paused to stare at them, thinking about the first time I’d seen the orange and yellow petals that had bloomed for a hundred years. I’d been different. Still the worrying middle-cat.
Impulsively, I halted beside them, reaching down to sink my teeth into their stem. I bit off a single blossom, holding it firmly.
“Come on,” murmured Crystalpaw, pressing her side to mine lightly. I raised my head and padded swiftly through the woods, following the streambed laden with glittering pebbles. My heart still beat firmly, sternly beseeching me to change my mind. We passed out-of-season flowers of every hue save fire, and tall and slender trees, and ferns of emerald. Then we came to the opening of Flickerpaw’s cavern, and the Firelight inside was visible.
Cautiously, Crystalpaw slid down into the stone-walled cavern. “Come on,” she called softly. “He’s not here.”
I leaped down into the cavern, my paws slipping on the floor. I scrambled for a pawhold, and nearly tripped over my own paws. Crystalpaw chuckled, nosing me to my feet. I left the flame-bloom lying by the tunnel.
It was just as beautiful as ever, the walls darkened in the approaching night, a patch of the pale gray sky visible through the opening, wreathed in ferns. A new patch of the wall near the roof had transformed into rose-colored, semitransparent stone.
And there was the stone basin, and the Fire that lived in it.
I inhaled and exhaled deeply, knowing that I soon would not need to. The Fire would sustain our every need. Beside me, Crystalpaw drew closer.
“There it is,” she whispered.
I stepped closer. In what seemed like seconds I stood just before it, barely a tail-length away. My thoughts went wild—would everything work well and would Flickerpaw die and would he make it to StarClan and how would Sunpaw and Moonpaw and Tigerflame and Gorsethorn and Icepath and everyone else I’d ever known cope—?
But I shoved them aside, and then looked a final time into Crystalpaw’s eyes, the color of newleaf and laughter. She twined her tail with mine.
“Goodbye,” she meowed, so softly it was almost impossible to hear.
“No,” I replied. “Good
night. This is not the end.” And I bent toward the flames with her, praying it would work.
“
No!”
I opened my eyes, startled. Then I turned and saw Flickerpaw, silhouetted impressively against the dusky sky, his face a mask of pain and horror and anger.
“What are you doing?” He all but screeched, flinging himself at us. I was knocked aside by him, but Crystalpaw stood her ground, baring her teeth defensively before circling around the brown-flame tom to stand close to me.
“We’re freeing
you!” She cried. “We’re sacrificing ourselves
willingly to set
you free! You’ll be free to go to StarClan, to meet again with Rainpaw…”
“You can’t,” he spat. “You can’t and I won’t let you. I alone can bear this burden.”
“Oh,
stop being to tragic and noble!” Crystalpaw yowled. Her voice echoed impressively in the cavern. I could see her sides shivering with fury. “You think this is heroic? It isn’t. Do you
want to be trapped here for all eternity, until all the world is consumed in darkness and oblivion? Or will you give it to us? Will you let us fill ourselves with Fire and let your spirit rest at last?”
Flickerpaw didn’t say anything. There was such terrible sadness in his silver eyes. “I can’t let you,” he whispered. “I can’t make you suffer as I did.”
“We’re
ready to!” Meowed Crystalpaw. “And we’re both just as ready as we’ll ever be. And you can’t stop us from doing this, Flickerpaw.”
“We were meant to,” I added quietly.
And the Moonpool shall be renewed in the glory of white fire and death. I understood it for the first time. Crystalpaw was the white fire, and I was the death, for I was named for the birds that had slain my mother’s father.
Flickerpaw hung his head and dropped down to sit on his belly. Sobs shook his flanks.
“Oh no,” Crystalpaw murmured, padding over to sit beside him. He lifted his ageless face to her, and it was a visage of strangled happiness.
“I can never, ever thank you enough,” he choked.
A pause. “What will happen to you?” I asked. “I mean, after we’ve taken the Fire?”
“I will become as old as I should be,” he mewed, fear in his tone. “It happened to the rogue whose place Mistpaw, Duskstar’s daughter, took. And all that has become bright and immortal will fade with me, and become mortal once more.”
I shuddered to think of how the young tom would look.
“Are you ready?” Crystalpaw asked gently. Flickerpaw blinked.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything we need to know?”
He drew a shaky breath. “Of course. The Fire works in strange ways, and you must be cautious around others. Do not let them touch you for too long, or the Fire will be transferred to them.
“You see, a little bit of Fire is lost every time you touch something, but it constantly renews itself somehow. I don’t know its full power. Plants and leaves change quickly: their intelligence is lower than that of cats. You only need to brush against a leaf for it to transform, and the power lost is too insignificant to matter much. But for a cat…? It would rip the Fire out of you if they stayed in contact with you for too long.”
Flickerpaw sighed, then looked up once more. “That is all.”
A tremor ran through me. This was it. My heart was thumping again, loudly, filling up my ears. Some wild emotion coursed through me—sadness and fear and readiness and determination and adrenaline all at once. With a stab, I wondered if this would be the last thrill of adrenaline in my blood I’d ever experience.
Not enough time! A part of me was shouting.
Nine moons isn’t long enough to live as a mortal! My mind spoke back:
But I’ll have all the time in the world now. Crystalpaw moved up beside me, Flickerpaw at her right, me on her left. “You have to touch the Fire at exactly the same time for it to work on both of you, I would guess,” the immortal tom meowed.
Crystalpaw touched her forepaw to his. “You will be safe. Rainpaw will take you into the sky.”
Flickerpaw nodded, and trembled. He was afraid. I took a step forward, facing the Fire again.
“Rainpaw.” I glanced around. That look of soft happiness stole across Flickerpaw’s strained features once again, and all his muscles relaxed. “She stands where I do,” he whispered. “She’s always been with me.”
“No one could ever give more,” Crystalpaw meowed. And then she looked at me, and my heart, whose beats were numbered, broke into song.
“On three, then,” I whispered. A smile flickered on her face.
“One,” she mewed.
“Two,” I continued, not once looking away from her.
She breathed deeply. “I’ll race you to immortality, Eaglepaw of RiverClan.”
“You can try, Crystalpaw of ThunderClan.”
And then we lunged.
My sight went dark—I saw nothing. I could feel Crystalpaw’s shuddering body beside me, but the floor was gone. All the world was wiped of color, light, and scent. Only the bright gold of the Fire roared in my dream-vision, and now it crackled and sparked with enormous power, like a wildfire tearing through an ancient forest of dry wood and ample undergrowth, and I couldn’t flee from its greatness. It was agony and warmth, power and song. And it went on and on and on and the Fire grew and screamed and I thought I must burst or die—
And then a breeze washed over me…and I felt like dewdrops at dawn…or maybe a sparkle of sun on lake water…
I opened my eyes.
Crystalpaw was there, her eyes firmly closed. I blinked hard, and then extended a paw to tap her shoulder, watching her face intently. Her eyes opened at my touch.
Silver eyes.
There was a feeble moan from behind us, and we turned together. Flickerpaw lay on the floor of the earthen cave, yet he was no longer Flickerpaw. His frame was terrifyingly thin and skinny, his skin hung about him, and his feathery white fur was missing in long patches. He raised baggy, translucent eyelids on an ancient face and looked at us with shining blue eyes filled with joy.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Then a breeze blew softly into the cave, and he was carried away on it as white dust in the wind. I thought I heard a voice singing, a high, clear, beautiful voice that stole my soul away.
“Wind song, wind song, bear us away on your weightless wings,
Wind song, wind song, tell us a tale of the darkest things…”
“Eaglepaw?” Crystalpaw meowed. I moved my gaze to her, and saw that her fur was changed. It was white, still, but infused like Flickerpaw’s had been with subtle flame. And her eyes were a liquid shade of silver. I looked down at my own body, and caught the flash of fire amongst my golden-brown pelt.
“You look a bit like Flickerpaw did,” she told me quietly.
I suddenly realized something. Flickerpaw’s eyes had turned blue, their natural hue, when the Fire had left him.
Silver will be blue again. Part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. With another shock, I remembered the first part:
A traitor can be the bravest warrior. That cat stood before me.
I smiled at her, and then dropped my gaze to the floor. All the colored stone had vanished, to be replaced with natural dirt, except for around our paws. A circle of light violet stone had grown beneath us. Crystalpaw cast me a sly grin, then jumped, landing about a fox-length away. Instantly, a pool of white spread out from beneath her. I walked over, bridging the gap with white and violet.
“That,” she meowed, “is incredibly awesome.”
I laughed despite the sadness I felt at Flickerpaw’s end. Then I suddenly remembered a little detail that had plagued my thoughts before the change—I had no heartbeat. There was no familiar, gentle pumping in my chest anymore, and I realized that I hadn’t been breathing.
Immortality. Flickerpaw had called it the most terrible fate to bestow upon the living. But I could feel the Fire flowing through my veins now instead of blood, literally living inside of me.
The fire-flower still lay at the cavern’s entrance, but it had faded now to a dull brownish ginger. I leaned over, touched my nose to it, and felt the tiny bit of Fire slip out of me and into the petals. Swirls of color spread out through the blossom, turning it into a little curl of flame once more.
Another thing inside me snapped. “The Moonpool,” I gasped. “The stream—it’ll be free now!”
Crystalpaw nodded. “But it will need us to start it up again.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“Race you.” Crystalpaw shot out of the cavern, blazing a pattern of crystalline stone behind her, and gold dust showered down like spray from the stars. I sprang after her, amazed as energy came to me unbidden, and I found I could run faster than anyone I’d seen run. I sprinted after her, following the trail of newly immortalized foliage and gold dust that swayed in the air like an unearthly fog. Everything Crystalpaw had touched had become beautiful. Experimentally, I flicked out my tail and brushed it against a fallen leaf. It instantly curled into a perfect shape, and color spread throughout it from the stem, making it look as if it was fashioned by warriors of StarClan.
“Amazing,” I murmured. I swiftly followed the streambed until I spied the two pointed boulders stretching toward the twilit sky. Between them was a quivering dam of now-mortal branches that barely withheld the stream’s water. Crystalpaw sat just beside them, careful not to touch the weak barrier.
“Ready?” She asked as I stopped beside her. I touched my nose to her cheek.
“As always,” I meowed.
“I want to say something first,” she told me, and I tilted my head expectantly.
“You’re so good with words, Crystalpaw. You aren’t afraid to say anything to anybody.”
“Well, you’re good too, just shy. And you’re completely good inside.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Nobody’s all good, really,” I meowed without really thinking about it. “It’s like we’re all born filled up with darkness, but only the good know how to fight against it.”
Crystalpaw smiled at me, and pressed herself to my flank. “That doesn’t really apply to us anymore, you know. We’ve got Fire within us.”
My turn to smile. “Yes we do. Now, what were you going to say before I interrupted?”
“Oh, yeah. We have to be careful when we go back. Nobody can touch us for more than a few seconds, and we’ll have to stay by the Moonpool or we’ll destroy the total ecosystem of the forest. Icepath, Sunpaw, and Moonpaw will understand.” Crystalpaw took a deep breath.
“What about you?” I asked. “You don’t want to go back to ThunderClan, I take it.”
“No,” she answered instantly. “But maybe I could get Sunpaw to go get a couple of cats I’d like to talk to. I never said that every single cat of ThunderClan was bad.”
“You might have,” I pointed out.
“Well, I didn’t mean it. I want to see Cindersnow, Brackenfur, and Sorreltail. They went on the Journey to the Mountains with your parents, I believe, and they’re, like, the only ones who’ve retained some sense of honor and personality.”
I snorted with quiet laughter. A branch broke away from the barrier, and a trickle of water slithered out onto the parched soil of the streambed. The rest of the gathered branches were quivering hard now. Crystalpaw twined her tail with mine. “Ready?”
Nodding, I led her over to the streambed, climbing carefully down. It was disconcerting to see the grass and dirt change beneath my paws, and the pebbles I touched rolled over as glittering gems. We positioned ourselves in front of the barrier, about a fox-length away, facing downstream to where we knew the forest and the lake lay. Crystalpaw twined her tail with mine.
“Here it comes,” she meowed, and behind us, the dam burst. A stick struck the back of my leg, making me cringe, but then a torrent of dark water exploded beneath us, lifting us off our paws and tossing us about. I gasped as the water came over my head, but I couldn’t breathe, and didn’t drown. Swimming underwater! Grinning madly, I propelled myself to the surface, delighted in discovering the new talent. My head broke the surface, and Crystalpaw was already swimming strongly to my left; and we were roaring down the path of the streambed atop a wave of rolling water into the gathering darkness before us.
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Since I'm going on vacation and won't be back till next Wednesday, February 20th, there won't be an update till then. I'll post the next chapter,
Chapter 12: Moonlight, on that very day.
Thanks again, and please REVIEW!
~Sunny