Twisted

Chapter One

The half-moon floated in the night sky above, wreathed in the millions of tiny stars that the cats who made their home by the lake called Silverpelt. Tonight being the night of the half-moon, the medicine cats from each of the four Clans, RiverClan, ThunderClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan, plus their apprentices, had come together to share tongues with their warrior ancestors, StarClan, at the Moonpool.

Plodding along behind her mentor and the other medicine cats along the worn trail to the Moonpool, tail trailing and head drooping, the RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, Willowpaw, gave a long, rather drawn-out sigh. Her pale gray fur practically hung off of her pelt like the leaves on the trees, and she was noticably thinner than usual. Her eyes staring at the ground, though they really didn't see it, and her thoughts were elsewhere, though not necessarily far away.

Pausing, she forced her eyes away from the ground and stared almost hopelessly up at the stars. As she looked at them, twinkling gently way up above, she wondered if her ancestors would visit her in her dreams tonight, and she feared that they wouldn't. She hadn't had a dream from them in so long, and what would become of RiverClan if both their medicine cats were cut off from StarClan? Willowpaw supressed a shudder at such a terrifying thought. She couldn't let that happen!

She was brought back to reality by the sound of her mentor's voice calling her, "Willowpaw! Hurry up!"

Willowpaw whipped around to see her mentor, Mothwing, and the other medicine cats waiting for her a little further up the path. Grinning sheepishly, she hastned to catch up to them, and heard Jaypaw, the ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice, mutter under his breath, "What a stupid furball! Holding all of us up with her silly fantasies!" His words cut through her, and as the cats continued up the path, she resumed her place at the back of the group.

When they got up to the Moonpool the seven cats carefully made their way down the spiral path, their paws slipping easily into the paw marks left so long ago by the cats that had, presumably, once lived by the lake, that led down to the pool. Once they reached the pool, the cats took a drink of the cold, clear water and then settled by the shore for a long sleep.

As soon as the water touched her, Willowpaw froze and immediately felt sleepy. As she sunk into the warm darkness of sleep and felt her consciousness slipping away as she relinquished her hold on the waking world, she briefly wondered if StarClan would, in fact, visit her in her sleep. Then the world went black.

When Willowpaw opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in a hollow she had never seen before, one with four huge oaks surrounding it and an enormous rock with four cats seated upon it. As she looked around she was startled to find herself in the middle of a sea of cats, cats with the scent of all four different Clans. She looked up at the sky to see a full moon, and realized that this must be a Gathering, and the place where she was must be Fourtrees, the place where the Clans used to come to gather back in the forest.

Willowpaw scented an approaching ThunderClan she-cat and had to remind herself that this was a Gathering, not a border patrol. Almost immediately afterwards she scented a RiverClan tom.

The tom was meowing, "My name is Oakfur. What's yours?"

"Bluefur," The blue-gray she-cat meowed. "I can tell you're from RiverClan. Weren't you a part of that recent attempt to try and steal Sunningrocks?"

The scene faded before Willowpaw could catch his reply, and she found herself at the bank of a large, iced over river. Four cats, all ThunderClan, were hunting along the river. She recognized three of them, much younger versions of Firestar, Graystripe, and Brackenfur. But the fourth, a dark gray little she-cat, she had never recalled seeing before.

A vole had appeared on the bank of the river, and Graystripe tore off after it. Firestar tried to call him back, but the large gray tabby tom was too intent upon his hunting to hear. She watched in silent horror as he skidded out onto the ice and it cracked beneath him, dragging him in. However, a silver tabby she-cat, smelling of RiverClan, raced over to the spot he had fallen in and pulled him to the surface, dragging him over to the ThunderClan bank.

The scene faded to be replaced by darkness, and out of this darkness the starry figure of Feathertail appeared. Desperate to speak to someone from StarClan, Willowpaw burst out, "Feathertail! Why was I shown this?"

"We can't help who we fall in love with," said Feathertail sadly, "only what we choose to do about it. Make a wise choise, Willowpaw." With these parting words she faded away, and Willowpaw awoke.

We can't help who we fall in love with, only what we choose to do about it. Feathertail's words echoed in Willowpaw's head as the other medicine cats and their apprentices awoke and they prepared to leave. The cats walked slowly up the slope, Willowpaw and Jaypaw at the end of the line. She glanced at Jaypaw, then up at the other cats. Making a quick decision, she stopped and hissed, "Hey, Jaypaw!"

The prickly ThunderClan apprentice stopped and turned around, his voice loud and rather annoyed, "What do you want?"

Her voice still a whisper, Willowpaw said, "Shh! I want to talk to you about something. Alone," she added hurriedly when he turned toward the leaving cats.

Interest piqued by her secretive manner, Jaypaw sat down and, curling his tail neatly over his forepaws, asked, "Okay, what is it?"

"I-" Willowpaw's mouth suddenly went dry and her throat started to close, stopping and more words from escaping. She took a huge gasp of air and began again. "I-"

"Would you hurry up?!" interrupted Jaypaw impatiently. "I haven't got all night you know."

Angry and chagrined by his impatience, Willowpaw burst out angrily, "I love you!" Immediately she clamped her mouth shut and fearfully awaited his outburst.

There was none. Instead he just sat there, stunned, for a few seconds, then suddenly he got up and charged away, leaving Willowpaw sitting there all alone. She looked after him, then rejectedly got up and followed him, wishing to StarClan that she had never opened her big mouth.

When she caught up with the others, Leafpool and Jaypaw were gone.