BraveClan's touching story/(3): Rediscovering Wonders from Darkness/14

## Part 14: Void from Below

DarkClan's menacing story, few moons before BraveClan and SunClan's timeline: Darkstar talked to the other three prophecy cats in secret about the dark prophecy.

"I need you to tell me what your powers are so we can slay BraveClan fully, with absolutely no chance of cats escaping," Darkstar had said. Oakbush and Longfang had already told him.

Auburnfur wasn't sure what her power was, though, so she didn't say anything. Darkstar understood and asked her to tell him once she figured it out.

Auburnfur, while walking in the forest to hunt for any secret places that cats would be, saw a cat watching her. Out of instinct, Auburnfur pounced on it, and it suddenly disappeared. She blinked and looked around to see if it dodged. But it seemed like it never existed. She blinked again and wondered if she was seeing ghosts or hallucinating, but she noticed the cat right behind her. It was just smiling.

Auburnfur turned around and hissed at it, but the cat smiled even more. The red-colored she-cat didn't recall cats acting like this, or even being able to teleport as both, especially the latter, were against nature.

Auburnfur finally decided to speak to it, but in a menacing tone. "Do you think DarkClan is weak? If so, you have never traversed in this forest before. But that probably means you're a so very weak kittypet."

Then the cat also spoke for the first time, and it was a she-cat. "I am afraid your claim is false. I used to be a Clan cat, a Clan leader! But somehow, darkness seeped into our Clan and I joined StarClan after greencough took me. This never happened before in BraveClan, except with what happened with Nightscar, Kestrelstar's daughter, after she happened to disappear. The sun warmed our Clan, light shone on BraveClan for a very long time.

"The only bad instance was Nightscar when she disappeared, leaving her kit, Puzzlepaw, later Puzzlegleam, my great-grandmother through my grandfather, Yellowstar. But we later saw Nightscar in StarClan and we were so relieved that she was with us again. But we were especially sad that she had to die early.

"But then... the next really bad instance was the severe greencough. Tremblesplash, our only medicine cat, had never been through this before and due to his inexperience, half our Clan died, including me, but I laid down apple seeds right before my death so that my former apprentice could be my successor."

Auburnfur listened to her monologue in surprise. She had no idea about the history of BraveClan since she didn't care anyway. But she had no idea who this cat could be. "If you are a StarClan leader then why are you here? To kill me?"

The cat shook her head. "I came to warn you about your destiny. It won't be a good one, I am afraid, with all the darkness you have given to your fellow SunClan cats."

Auburnfur snorted. "I left SunClan a time longer than SunClan's disbanding. They are no fellow cats to me."

"And that is why, your destiny will be dark," said the cat, still smiling.

"I don't have a reason to believe you," was all Auburnfur said, and started to walk away. Then she looked behind her and the StarClan cat was gone.

*Maybe I really am hallucinating,* she figured. She was a prophecy cat but she had nothing to do with *StarClan* of all afterlives, she was pretty sure.

She decided she needed to tell Darkstar, though. It could possibly be bad if the cat was real, and what she was saying was true.

Darkstar was alarmed as he had also witnessed Warmtail being "attacked" by StarClan. Only after he got the prophecy he knew StarClan was favoring Warmtail for a prophecy, but he thought that if a StarClan cat was stalking a dark prophecy cat, it was bad news.

So he just told Auburnfur to watch out if any bad things happen, and she nodded.

Later on, she was with her kits, Brownpaw, Lightkit and Airkit with her mate, Goldjaw. They were all playing with each other, since Brownpaw had downtime from her mentor, Dapplethorn. Lightkit leaped on Brownpaw but Brownpaw dodged and told Airkit to pounce on Lightkit. Of course, the game DarkClan kits and apprentices usually played was a early form of training, and Brownpaw was teaching her younger sisters what Dapplethorn taught her.

Goldjaw came back from fighting training with his new apprentice, Eaglepaw, to be with Auburnfur and watch their daughters.

"Should we have another litter soon? We will have more kits to watch and the Clan will have more warriors," Goldjaw suggested. Auburnfur shrugged. "I guess we can wait for Lightkit and Airkit to become apprentices. I am still a queen, and I want Lightkit and Airkit to be able to teach their younger siblings. I also want to do warrior duties. After all, I am a dark prophecy cat."

Goldjaw shrugged. "I guess that is fine. But they will be apprentices soon."

Auburnfur nodded. "Should we do something else? Why don't we go on patrol?"

Her mate agreed and they set out together after telling Darkstar. Auburnfur caught a mouse and ate it immediately. Goldjaw asked her if she saw any cats, and Auburnfur thought about that StarClan leader again. Then she shook her head no. After all, she wasn't sure if that BraveClan leader counted as a cat.

Auburnfur flicked her tail towards some more forest, saying, "We should go somewhere we haven't checked before."

Goldjaw also flicked his tail and joked, "To do that, we would need to travel into another forest. Our territory is really vast, as you know."

Auburnfur smirked at his joke. "I obviously know that. But some cats may have unknowingly ventured into our forest. We can fight those cats and kill them."

Her mate nodded and replied, "Yes, but if they're kittypets, they may not have any real loot, except for their bones."

"We should check for rogues, then," Auburnfur said, looking around the forest she knew very well.

They travelled much farther until they saw a lake. "Ooh, we can drink water from here. If only we had some moss to take it back to camp," Auburnfur said.

Goldjaw didn't reply as he already started gulping water from the lake. "Refreshing. This lake is an excellent source of water. I always come here when I feel hot, such as now, especially in green-leaf."

Auburnfur asked, "Maybe we can spend time here. No rush since the Clan has a ton of surplus anyway. And we have a ton of time to learn more fighting techniques." DarkClan was a Clan where you could become a stronger warrior without having to be asleep to be in the Dark Forest, which is why Auburnfur came here. Otherwise, she was training in the Dark Forest ever since she became Auburnpaw in SunClan.

Goldjaw agreed and insisted on the litter idea again but Auburnfur just said that they can talk about BraveClan, and Goldjaw didn't argue with her as he thought that they can get to talk about the dark prophecy.

"So we have to squish those BraveClan cats like we did last time, especially using our powers. We will slaughter every cat we think is there and check StarClan to see if they are there."

"We don't know exactly which cats are there, though," Goldjaw said, making a good point. "We only know about Destinyflower, your nephew, Warmtail, Fierylight and your sister, also the SunClan leader, Marigoldstar. But we don't know about those other cats."

Auburnfur shrugged. "Good point. But DarkClan owns this entire forest. After the battle we will search far and wide for any runaway BraveClan cats and slaughter them and erase every trace and use their bones for decoration and training!" She was already grinning at the thought of blood spilling out of Marigoldstar's neck, and her choking as she loses all her lives, as Auburnfur had tore her entire internal parts. Nothing would save Marigoldstar, not even dumb StarClan.

Then she heard choking which didn't come from her thoughts. It sounded real. Then she looked down and saw real blood. Alarmed, she looked at Goldjaw. Blood was oozing out of every part of his body, especially his ears.

*"Aghah!"* she yelped, lurching away from his body immediately and it stopped. *"What happened?!"*

Goldjaw was still coughing out blood and looked like he was about to fall over until Auburnfur held him and he was still coughing.

Auburnfur had immediately flushed those bloody thoughts out of her brain and apologized to Goldjaw over and over again.

Goldjaw shook his head and said with an idea, "It is your power, Auburnfur, I am pretty sure. It can't do that by itself, and StarClan wouldn't do that either."

Auburnfur flushed. "I didn't do it on purpose, I was just thinking of killing Marigold-"

"No, no, that isn't what I meant," Goldjaw replied reassuringly, recovering from the blood loss temporarily. "I meant that you should tell Darkstar. This is a power that can kill Marigoldstar in real life. It's not your fault that you thought of it, since you didn't even know."

Auburnfur blinked for a moment. Then she nodded. But she was really worried about what would happen if she was cuddling her kits. Goldjaw could survive and emotionally handle some blood loss with ease. But young kits and apprentices... that made her nauseous. She didn't normally think of killing cats while hanging out with Clanmates, especially her mate and her kits, but as the prophecy was looming closer to BraveClan and the inevitable battle... she shuddered.

Goldjaw got up and told her that he needed to wash up in the lake, and then he would follow her, but Auburnfur told him that she needed to show Darkstar the proof, and he agreed. Auburnfur wondered if he liked being the mate of a leader's sister and prophecy cat, even if what happened to him was negative.

When coming back, all of the apprentices and kits were shocked at the blood, especially Brownpaw, Airkit and Lightkit, and even warriors such as Highjump, Longfang and Darkstar at the fact that he had blood on him. The medicine cats took one look and immediately stopped treating other cats to tend to him. DarkClan cats usually got their claws dirty, but not their entire body. If they did, it usually meant that *they* were the ones severely injured, not the cat they were fighting.

But Auburnfur and Goldjaw ignored them and went directly to Darkstar and explained what happened. The entire Clan was surprised, but this made Darkstar convinced about one thing. *BraveClan will never escape our grip with this power,* he thought sadistically and mirthfully.

He still wondered about his power, and what it would be. He looked at his daughter, Oakbush, who hated plants because her both her mentor and mate got killed from eating yew, which was a plant. And a rotting tree also fell on one of her friends. She wasn't too sad about her mentor, but when her mate and friend died, that done it for her.

Then he looked at Longfang, who was an exceptional warrior, which Darkstar thought was because his mentor was Highjump, and also because he had good warrior genes. After all, his father was Lynxmoor, Darkstar's son.

Then he looked at Auburnfur, who wasn't Darkstar's kin by blood, but still counted. She was a good mother and mate, but definitely a good warrior, too, even not being in her birth Clan. He knew why she was chosen for the prophecy, because of her loyalty and formidability. Not to mention her power.

He wondered about Highjump and why she wasn't chosen even though she was a good warrior. *Maybe she was going to be chosen for something else,* he thought. *Like deputy.* Though deputy didn't have too much of a position in the afterlife. Being a prophecy cat would be much better.

### ~~Couple of moons later~~

A couple of moons passed and Frozenbreeze asked Darkstar if he could go on patrol with Airpaw. Darkstar agreed, of course, and asked him and Airpaw to try and search for BraveClan. Frozenbreeze accepted, of course.

Auburnfur watched Frozenbreeze and her daughter leave the Clan and she wished she could, too. But she was expecting again. She hoped the power didn't work on herself. *But we will certainly be bigger and better than ever,* she knew.

Frozenbreeze told his apprentice, Airpaw to hunt for any scent of cats, and she nodded. They travelled for some time until they caught a scent of something.

But then it leaped onto Airpaw. It wasn't a cat. It was a dog. It bit Airpaw's hind leg and she yelped in pain. She had no knowledge of fighting dogs, and she had never even known the existence of one. Frozenbreeze was wide-eyed and tried to blind the dog by slashing its forehead.

But then it pounced onto Frozenbreeze. Airpaw already started limping away, leaving Frozenbreeze to fend it off himself. *Understandable, since she doesn't know how to fight one,* he figured, much to his dismay. Then the dog bit Frozenbreeze's front leg and Frozenbreeze bit his teeth to prevent him from yowling in extreme pain.

"Help!" he screamed, but he thought it may be too late. He tried to slash the stomach of the dog but it was too far away, so he scratched its chest instead. Then suddenly he heard a whine. It came from the dog as it went off of him and started to limp away, but another cat slashed its neck and it fell over and died. It was Longfang. Frozenbreeze took in a big breath of air in relief and was about to thank Longfang for saving him until Longfang growled, "Your apprentice was about to fall down, you bird-brain!"

Frozenbreeze blinked and looked at his leg, then back at Longfang. "But I got attacked by that *dog!* I did save *Airpaw,* otherwise she would have died!"

Longfang just nodded slowly. "I know that, obviously. I was watching Airpaw running away and she told me very simply that you were hurt and you saved her. But she almost fell into a daze."

Frozenbreeze stared at him. "But I couldn't do anything."

Longfang sighed. "You do realize your apprentice is the daughter of a dark prophecy cat like me? Not to mention one with a power that can kill cats easily, like *me, again."*

Frozenbreeze was about to protest until Longfang continued brashly, "And even if you *did* save her, DarkClan isn't the type to listen to reason. You make a mistake, you pay. Auburnfur will chew you out whatever you do since you were with her."

Frozenbreeze was intimidated by Longfang's words, and he had no idea why he was saying this. "So are you going to tell them or *what?"*

"If not me, then Airpaw will. She is the apprentice brags about her training the most, even more than me, so she will certainly tell about that dog," Longfang explained solemnly. "I have nothing personal with you. She isn't badly injured, but unconscious from that dog bite. But it may get infected soon."

Frozenbreeze blinked. "Where is she, then? Didn't you help her?"

"Right over there," Longfang said, gesturing over to an unconscious Airpaw. Her leg was bleeding.

*"Oh no!"* Frozenbreeze yelped in alarm. "Who will *treat* her? We need to bring her back!" He was about to run towards her but he fell down due to his injured leg.

Longfang just shook his head. "I will send for a medicine cat and a warrior."

*"What if another dog comes?!"* Frozenbreeze shrieked in worry.

Longfang just growled, "Then defend *Airpaw!* You will certainly be rewarded in the Dark Forest if you die."

Frozenbreeze was surprised at his answer. "So her position is stronger than mine, apparently?" he challenged him a bit angrily.

Longfang shrugged. "She is the daughter of Auburnfur. What about you?"

"I am also a warrior!" Frozenbreeze growled. "You know what, you are wasting time, *go!"*

"You were the one who was challenging *me,* fox-dung!" Longfang growled back and started running back to camp.

Frozenbreeze said nothing in response but wondered why Airpaw was more important than him. He was a warrior, and she only an apprentice. Then he silently hoped that Darkstar or Auburnfur or Goldjaw wouldn't kill him because that would be the waste of a loyal warrior.

Then he limped towards Airpaw and whispered into her ear, "Don't fall for the trap of DarkClan or the power," but he wasn't sure if she heard those words.

When Lynxmoor and Longfang came to them, the former treated them immediately, Airpaw first, and the latter was helping stabilize them. Then Airpaw woke up and looked confused, but Longfang told her what happened and she replied that she already knew about the dog.

When they got carried back to camp, Brownpaw, Lightpaw, Auburnfur, Goldjaw and Darkstar were all surprised. Auburnfur was still in the nursery but the other four went up to Frozenbreeze, Longfang and Airpaw and asked what happened. Goldjaw glared at Frozenbreeze, and it made him uncomfortable.

Airpaw told them about the dog and how it secretly jumped out from a bush and bit her leg. She said that her mentor lured the dog away from her, making him relieved that she said the truth.

But Brownpaw yowled at her sister's mentor, "Why didn't you kill it like Longfang did! He is so strong unlike you! Why wasn't Airpaw *his* apprentice?!" Then she sobbed. Airpaw just said, "But he did help me, though. And he isn't a prophecy cat."

Brownpaw was confused but Longfang just nodded in agreement. "She is right, he isn't as powerful as me, as you must know."

Frozenbreeze knew that Airpaw meant no harm but he wasn't sure about Longfang. Then Auburnfur rushed into the medicine cat's den in a frantic way. Oakbush, Purpleslash, Dapplethorn and Highjump also entered the den to see what was happening.

*"Airpaw! Airpaw!"* she screeched when she saw her daughter's bit leg. Then her eyes shot towards Frozenbreeze like a gun pointing to a cat would.

The mentor of Airpaw said nothing else and just sighed. Airpaw stared at her mother as she was confused why everyone was freaking out. Then she told the same thing she said to everyone else to Auburnfur, and her mother was confused.

Darkstar was listening to this and figured that since Frozenbreeze brought Airpaw with him, but she wasn't that injured, he didn't have to punish him that much. So he said, "Frozenbreeze, your leg being injured is punishment enough. But I order the medicine cats to tend to Airpaw first as she is an apprentice and the daughter of a prophecy cat."

Frozenbreeze just nodded but he secretly wished that it was equal. The other cats agreed with this punishment and they left.

Auburnfur was allowed to stay with her daughter in the medicine cat's den for some time. She was shooting daggers at Frozenbreeze every once in a while and he wondered why they couldn't just thank him for even saving Airpaw from getting killed. Longfang didn't even see them originally so he may have not saved Airpaw in time. Airpaw was still acting normal, though, as if she was never injured.

Finally, after some time, Auburnfur left. It was nighttime and everyone was sleeping except for him and Airpaw. Airpaw was looking at the ceiling of medicine cat's den, and he decided to ask her, "Are you okay?"

"Yup, this is nothing," Airpaw replied casually. "I heard that once, the entire chest of a cat's body got bit off by that creature. This is nothing."

Frozenbreeze thought that was good news. Then he decided to thank Airpaw for defending him.

Airpaw shook her head. "Why wouldn't I? It is the truth after all. The cats in the Clan usually get angsty if something bad happens like this since they think they are the Dark Forest cats of this world and shouldn't be injured, like Brownpaw and Auburnfur. But I know better."

Her mentor was pleasantly surprised by her wisdom, and wondered if he taught her something good.

"I also heard what you said, Frozenbreeze," said Airpaw. "'Don't fall for the trap of DarkClan or the power,' and I think... I may understand what you mean."

Frozenbreeze was even more surprised but in a good way. He replied, "That is good. When DarkClan tries to rise over other cats, don't follow as they could rise up to their doom." Airpaw just nodded and told him, "Good night," then fell asleep.

Frozenbreeze murmured the same back to her and fell asleep as well. He wondered if Fierylight, Destinyflower and Warmtail also felt trapped which is why they ran away.

Auburnfur was shocked that this had happened. *Did that StarClan leader say the truth? That her destiny would be dark?* she thought frantically. She was shocked that it would be Airpaw of all cats that had to be hit but she couldn't believe why. She shook her head and hoped nothing like this would happen.

When she fell asleep, however, she found herself in a dark forest. She remembered this place when she first trained. Then she saw her mentor, Bloodkiller, who wasn't actually a Clan cat, but still powerful and fearsome like her and Darkstar.

"Welcome back to the Dark Forest, Auburnfur," the red tom greeted her. "I know you are wondering about Goldstar's dastardly words."

Auburnfur was puzzled. She wondered if this was why she was here, but she remembered the StarClan leader. *Is her name Goldstar?* she wondered.

Bloodkiller seemed to read her mind and said, "That leader you saw is a BraveClan leader during the time of their greencough era. She succumbed to it, making her apprentice and one of the prophecy cats the leader, Fallstar. Alas, she was too weak to fight it off and so was the deputy, even with such a plentiful supply of herbs, especially catmint. But let me tell you something, who I thought I could only tell my former apprentice..."

Auburnfur was surprised at this. *So Goldstar chose Fallstar as the leader, before she died...* She also wondered what was so secret that Bloodkiller only trusted her.

He continued, "My mate, Starlight, had a litter of three kits, but they turned out to be weak and she was also weak from the pregnancy and birth, so I abandoned them, not wishing for such kits. But then they grew up. Their mother died to the same cause as Goldstar. Then they joined that very same Clan, BraveClan."

Auburnfur was very shocked, indeed. *Bloodkiller's kits joined BraveClan?!* she internally screamed. She was lost for words as she didn't know how it was even real.

"Ah... there was only one tom in the litter. He mated with one of Bravestar's descendants, and he was the father of a leader. But when the greencough hit, he died, too. The other two were she-cats who mated with other cats... most of their kits died, too."

Auburnfur blinked. "Who were they?"

Bloodkiller just sighed. "I do not care about them since I never knew them, they never knew me. I only figured out when I went to this place, the Dark Forest. But one of the she-cats also mated with another one of Bravestar's descendants... one of their kits was the only medicine cat at the time. And the other kit had more kits of her own. And the other she-cat of Starlight's litter was the mother of a leader, too."

Auburnfur just blinked as she didn't know anything about BraveClan. "So... what do I do about this? Do I tell Darkstar?"

Bloodkiller smiled. "The darkness comes from the way that I have treated them. After watching from the Dark Forest to see where my kits have gone, I decided to poison the catmint... and there... started the decline and demise of BraveClan. I trained Darkstar. I wanted it to be destroyed, especially by DarkClan." But then he grimaced. "But there were three descendants left. No, five. Fierylight and Destinyflower, too. Those five descendants were the descendants of the Legacy Prophecy cats... and my kits. When I watched them grow substantially again, I was disgusted. I could tell you the location where they are, but StarClan is blocking me somehow, especially the cats who died from my deeds done to BraveClan... Goldstar and Reedstar especially. You can only find out by travelling a day to them, as the forest that it stretches across is wider than both afterlives' resting places."

Auburnfur blinked a few times to see if he said was true. "Don't worry, now that I know BraveClan is more special than we thought, we will use our acquired powers to destroy them all!"

Bloodkiller was delighted to hear this. "Very well, old apprentice. I knew I can count on you, which is why I chose you as part of this prophecy, even though you weren't kin to Darkstar."

Auburnfur nodded and was about to reply until she noticed the Dark Forest and Bloodkiller bending on themselves and she fell into a mist. She saw something strange. She saw her brother, Silversun, in front of her, smiling like Goldstar did. Then he started to speak.

"I will never forgive you in my wildest dreams. Only then when I died I learned about what you did, and I was furious, especially with what you did with my children."

Auburnfur never imagined that she'd see Silversun speaking to her from StarClan, but it was happening now and she was irritated. "So?"

"So I was one of the cats who made this prophecy to fight DarkClan off, specifically you, as you brought demise to SunClan. I chose my son and sister as two of them, and Swiftsand, Destinyflower's mother, chose Fierylight and Destinyflower as the other two. But the Dark Forest argued that it wasn't fair and they chose their own cats."

Auburnfur just shrugged. She remembered spilling secrets about SunClan to Bloodkiller and Bloodkiller told DarkClan those secrets. She was so annoyed by the warrior code which is why she started training with him.

"Light always wins," said Silversun, and he slowly started to disappear. "And oh, I am afraid your destiny will go downhill... into a ditch... you will never be forgiven... by everyone."

Auburnfur was confused by what he meant, but she was worried that he meant she or her kits or DarkClan would die. *Hopefully it doesn't... and light never wins all the time,* she hoped. Then she suddenly felt like she was falling again and saw she fell onto a huge puddle of blood. She was really perplexed at this point so she decided to see whose blood it was.

But then she stopped at a carcass. Then she froze when she saw who it was. Then she screamed in horror. *"NO!"*

Then she saw more carcasses oozing out blood. None of them were enemy cats. They were her family, DarkClan. Her kits, mate, and all the prophecy cats were dead. Then she saw the tiny carcass she saw originally and it looked like her unborn kit.

*"NO! NO! I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS DESTINY!"* she yowled in a ton of horror and fright.

Then someone tapped her shoulders. She turned around and saw Goldstar and Silversun smiling at her in that same eerie way they did while speaking.

She let out a huge yowl of terror and fright as they both pounced on her.

Then she woke up in a sweat and other queens and kits stared at her. Then she saw blood coming out of her kitting area.

"Your kits will die," she thought she heard those two smiling cats say, as she found it impossible to ever recover from the pain.