Sun's Flame

☾ SUN'S FLAME ☽

A fanfic by Mistleheart ♥

The moon lasts forever, but the flame of the sun may not...

Sun's Flame is an adventure - themed short story about a young ShadowClan medicine cat apprentice named Sunpaw and his sister Flamepaw. They were once a regular Clan cats, but when faced with a devastating prophecy that foretells of terrible futures and lost friends to come, Sunpaw and Flamepaw set off for a journey no warrior or apprentice alike has ever taken...the path to the sun.

MISTSTAR

*Miststar hadn't announced it to the Clan that* there was a new prophecy worst than the one before. She hadn't ever told her deputy and mate, a tom named Robinflight, or her kits: Featherfall and Birchfire. In truth, it wasn't fear that was holding her back. It was the concern that her Clanmates might distrust her after she told the Clan. Of course, Robinflight, Featherfall, or Birchfire probably wouldn't blame her for not being able to prevent her, but she doubted the rest of the Clan would understand.

The prophecy still rang ominously in her ears. The first time she had heard those terrible words had been from her deceased sister, Thrushstep, who had admitted that StarClan didn't feel like revealing it yet.

*One shall rise from the cinders of doom,*

*Who will destroy your home; take your friends into the stars,*

*Until the sun's flame burn.*

*The flock of the raven's,*

*Shall arouse the First war*

*Between shades and shadows,*

*Will the Clans fall,*

*Doomed to an early destruction.*

Miststar couldn't help but confess that she tried hard to think that the prophecy was nonsense.

It was a greenleaf night. The air was hot and humid, sticky like a spider's web. There was a warm breeze billowing through the pine forest and ShadowClan's camp. Mist lolled lazily around the earth; ferns swayed gently with a swishing sound. The camp was strangely silent, but Miststar was awake, pacing across the ShadowClan camp. She hardly dared to sleep.

*One shall rise from the cinders of doom,*

*Who will destroy your home; take your friends into the stars...*

Miststar flattened her ears and tried to push the prophecy's warning away, but the lines kept coming. Miststar's ice blue eyes scanned the camp. She had to be imagining it.

A shadow was prowling at the edge of the camp. Huge, hooked fangs were visible in the shadow of what looked like a huge bulky cat. For a moment, pure black eyes seemed to glare at Miststar from the shade. Then, the strange shadow vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. A cold chill crept up Miststar's spine, reaching all the way to her muzzle. *No, it can't be!* she mentally gasped. *It can't be the* one *in the prophecy...*

For a long moment she was frozen in shock and horror. Her fur was tingling. She felt the prescence of danger, as if the shadow *were* the prophecy's foretold cat.

Cold with dread, the striped silver she-cat returned to the leader's den underneath the largest bramble thicket. She pressed herself against a corner of the den, thinking hard. *It wasn't the one! I was hallucinating or something.* She began to groom her fluffy tail to clear her fears from her mind. She breathed in deeply. *Everything's okay. No one's dead. Yet...* She pushed away the thought and instead tried to focus on more important matters.

She recalled the mention of 'the sun's flame'. What had that been all about? If she guessed right, the sun's flame was the cat - or someone - who *might* be able to stop the danger. But how would a burning fire help anyhow? Fire was her worst fear; even worse than the warning in the prophecy. She sighed. All the prophecies the Clan had dealed in the past few moons were settling on her shoulders like an overweightened morsel of prey. She herself had been the center of the last prophecy. She hated thinking about it. That was the prophecy revolving around young Mistmask and Thrushstep, and it had killed Miststar's sister in the end.

What if one of her most loved cats died because of this new prophecy?

Maybe she was the leader of a troubled Clan right now, but she needed her rest as much as any elder did. The next morning, she had to be in the state to lead a Clan, or else her Clanmates swould become suspicious.

Another one of her worst fears, although she wasn't scared of distrust as much as she was of a single flickering flame.

Miststar curled up in her mossy nest. It used to be warm, but ever since she had heard the prophecy first, she felt that her nest every night was as cold as ice. The ShadowClan leader had no struggle falling asleep, but her nightmares were as vivid as ever.

She was used to having terrible dreams, but this one she couldn't control.

At first, the dream didn't seem to bad. She was galloping across the pine forest, the wind whipping around her long coat, the breeze combing through her fur. For the first time in a moon or so, she felt *happy* and *safe*. She sniffed the air with her tongue and tasted the fresh scent of squirrel and lizard mingled with soft grass. She let in a contented sigh, breathing in the crisp air. Her pace quickened as she smelled finch, her favorite bird.

Before she could resume her hunt, the vision shifted. Instead of strolling in the pine forest of ShadowClan, Miststar had ended up in unknown territory.

The pine trees were taller, spikier, and thinner than in ShadowClan, and the soil was too dark and the mist too heavy for this territory to belong to ThunderClan. The pine boughs hung low to the ground where murky blankets of white mist strolled along the ground. Huge snake-shaped roots slithered out from the frosted soil.

Miststar instinctively shuddered. A chill lingered here, seeming to freeze her insides with such terror she was too frightened to move. When she drew a breath, she noticed that the ominously still air was sharp with a metallic scent. Blood. Someone was certainly hurt, Miststar decided.

Then the shrieking began.

Miststar froze; the caterwauling seemed to be somewhere nearby. She stared through the dense mist and made out several dark silhouettes with pale, translucent outlines through the fog. She heard another horrified shriek, but no words from the other figures stationed close.

She stretched out her nose and tasted the still, cold air. The smell of blood had grown stronger within the few moments she had hesitated. Fear made her legs shake. Her ears flattened instinctively. Miststar was a *ShadowClan* leader. She despised feeling frightened; it was against her own will at most times. But she couldn't help but think, sometimes being scared would help.

A pained scream echoed through the forest, repeating in Miststar's mind.

The striped silver she-cat rushed forwards, her fear melting into dizziness as she noticed the ground darkening. "Who is it?" she called out.

The figures stayed silent. As Miststar approached them, she made out a dark ginger tabby she-cat, a flecked silvery-gray she-cat with green eyes, a night-black tom, and a light golden-and-white patched tom with a torn ear. None of the cats seemed terribly wounded.

"Who was screaming so harshly like that?" Miststar demanded, whipping around to face them.

The cats ignored her. The dark ginger tabby murmured in a dark tone to the golden-and-white tom, who shook his head and frowned with concern. Miststar turned in a circle, her tail lashing furiously, her mind unsettled and uncertain.

She padded forwards, trying to nudge the flecked silver she-cat closer to her, but still, no one payed attention to the ShadowClan leader. They acted as if she didn't exist, which was probably the case in this strange environment.

The ShadowClan leader abruptly sprang backwards, alarmed. Something wet and dark soaked her paws, curling the sleek, glossy fur into clumps. She crashed into the low branch of a pine tree and collapsed on the ground, her heard whirling. Stars spun in her vision, and she could see dark spots swimming steadily as she attempted to regain her balance. When she finally managed to glance up, she saw a pale red river of blood roaring towards her.

Miststar turned and fled, her tail streaming out behind her in her haste to leave the dream at once. The still air stank of the river's blood. She heard a shriek of fear behind her that rang in her ears and she halted, turning to stare at the vision.

Her Clanmates were surging out of the stream of blood, howling as they tried to escape its neverending torrent of fury and rage. She recognized Robinflight at the lead of the cats, helping Featherfall scrabble across the ground. The youngest nursery queen Silvershine struggled to carry all three of her kits at once. Shadekit tumbled to the ground, his tiny paws waving in the air as she wailed for her mother, and Silvershine's mate, Mouseleap, stumbled over and picked up the kit by his teeth.

She recognized her son, Birchfire, urging a group of ragged-looking, scared elders to run away from the river of blood, and she saw Featherfall breaking away from Robinflight to help her brother. Pride swelled in Miststar's chest. *They know to work together,* she thought, pleasure growing warm in her chest. But there was no time to relish on the sight, as her Clanmates were in trouble.

Miststar took a deep breath and hurtled towards them, careening directly towards the swelling tide of blood.

She reached to take another of Silvershine's 3-moon-old kits, but her paw passed through the young tabby queen as if Silvershine were a ghost. A strange, cold tingle spread up Miststar's paw, reaching all the way to her shoulder. *I'm not here!* The striped silver she-cat could only helplessly watch as her Clanmates shrugged, calling for help through the cold, clammy forest, but to no avail.

Clovershade, one of the elder warriors, stumbled backwards as she tripped over a huge root and sank headfirst into the river of blood.

"Clovershade!" Miststar yowled, springing forwards to grab the light brown tabby she-cat and haul her out, but the warrior was by far gone. Miststar stopped at the edge of the river of blood, staring down in horror.

Another huge wave swept up and would have knocked her in if not for Miststar's elegant speed. She bounded out of the way before the blood could splatter her face and shock her so greatly she would be frozen, rooted to the spot.

"Run!" Miststar screeched to her terrified Clanmates, all staring at the exact spot that Clovershade had vanished.

No one reacted until Robinflight yowled something inaudible over the roaring of the great river of blood. Like a tide of colorful pelts, mottled, dappled, tabby, plain...all the cats surged upwards, quicker now and dodging around the trees.

A young dark reddish-ginger tabby tom was at the lead of a circle of cowering apprentices. *Sunpaw*, Miststar thought with satisfication, recognizing the handsome medicine cat apprentice. A black she-cat with white tips on the torn ears and a white chest stood proudly at his side, her long legs and icy blue eyes seemingly regal. It was Flamepaw, Sunpaw's sister.

*To be continued!*