The Bird's Fall

Chapter Twenty Nine

The sun was shining, gently watching over all the beings in the world. She blinked her golden eyes once. What is this? she thought. What is that cat doing, dressed just like me?

One of her golden, delicate locks floated towards the golden cat.

"Silverstar, do you mean Ivypelt is dead?"

The sun tipped her head. Why did he sound gleeful?

"Yes. They say so." A silver tabby next to the golden cat blinked. "I can't believe Dapplestar."

"Dapplestar proved to be a cruel leader," sighed Sparrowheart. He blinked. "I heard Tansyflight was going to retire."

The silver she-cat frowned. "Yes. I don't like it, but I have to respect his wishes. He's leaving us vulnerable at a bad time... But still. He's worked hard and deserves his rest."

The sun frowned. A ray of sunlight whispered in Silverstar's ear. Everything will be fine, don't worry.

Silverstar managed a small smile as she mewed, "Don't worry now, Sparrowheart. You know I'm thinking Eagleshade will be fit for the job. He knows about our enemy Clan, after all."

"You mean because of his ShadowClan heritage?"

The sun listened silently.

"Yes. He'll be great help to us."

The sun could see the golden tabby muster a smile. She could see that he was squeezing it out. The silver tabby noticed it too, and she raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I was just worrying about him. He... has kits. Maybe it will be distracting."

Silverstar shrugged. "My brother never was. Your father wasn't. I'm sure it's okay."

"But you see him so... distracted by Snowykit and Splashykit."

Silverstar frowned. "You act like you don't want him to be deputy, Sparrowheart. Is that it?"

Sparrowheart opened his mouth, and stopped. "I should not say." He blinked remorsefully. "Forget what I said, please."

Silverstar scowled. "Tell me."

"I can't, Silverstar."

The sun glanced back. The blue sky was doing nothing. Hmm. If the sky is doing nothing... She blinked. I'll just have to watch for now.

She retreated, with her golden lock of sunlight trailing behind her.

The moon sighed. She was beautiful, wasn't she? She glanced down at the lake, seeing her white face and elegant smile. She gave a small laugh, and thought, They are so lucky to have me in their world.

Moon, the sun always said. You shouldn't be like that.

She always wasted the one second they crossed, when day and night met, to scold the moon.

Privately, the moon thought the sun was simply jealous. She didn't like people who had 'sun' in their names.

She spotted a golden cat, and scowled. That was a golden she-cat she hated. Sundawn, she thought, repeating the name to herself. Horrid!

But as her pale ivory light reached the cat, she found this was not Sundawn. It was a short-furred tabby tom. Hmm? she thought, narrowing her eyes. What's he doing here?

She knew his name... yes, Sparrowheart.

"Everything's going as planned."

"Is it?" A white-and-gray she-cat frowned.

"Ivypelt is dead."

A brown cat inched forward. "Truly?"

"Truly."

"Did the sickness did it?"

"I have no idea."

"I did."

The moon gasped. Surely now Sparrowheart would attack? But the golden tabby just smiled. "I knew it. How did it go?"

"She claimed she never killed Cherry," the dark brown cat growled.

The she-cat laughed. "Lies," she whispered.

"Hush, Ice."

"Shut your mouth, Sparrowheart, or I'll shut it for you."

The dark brown cat shrugged. "Ivypelt said she never heard of anyone named Cherry. I told her how Cherry looked, and, well, realization dawned upon her, that's it. She insisted she didn't kill her, but..."

"You're quite a criminal," purred Ice.

The moon shivered. Her delicate hearings weren't fit to hear this nonsense! Frantically she pulled herself away, trying to block out the terrible noise.

Something is happening here.

"Then things are happening," concluded Ice. "Good."

The moon shivered, and twisted away. She wasn't going to let her beautiful eyes see this horrible sight. Her bright moonlight faded a little, letting darkness drape upon those dark beings.

Clouds didn't like the night sky. They just didn't. This particular cloud hated night. As he was forced through float through the dark sky, he hated that he seemed so dark. He was scared of the dark, too.

Gibberish, he thought, recalling when the sky had ordered the clouds to float around. You need to watch them? Gibberish! The sun, the moon, the breeze, everyone already is. Why do you need me?

But it was what nature did. The sky was simply following Nature's orders.

"What do you mean?" the cloud heard a dark brown cat exclaim. He rolled his eyes. He had just seen a human say the same thing. But this was different. That human was full of despair, while this cat was full of hope and joy.

"I mean what I mean," breathed a cream she-cat.

The cloud scowled. He hated seeing people happy. He turned away from the sight and glanced down.

There was nothing.

The cloud shrugged to himself, and let himself float away to watch other tormented things.

It was a rainy day. The dens fell and flooded and RiverClan's leader had to assign cats to fix it.

A rain droplet fell to the ground. Oof, he thought. He could see a silver tom scowling. "What do you mean, Roseleap?"

"It means we have to fix Ottersnow's den with Mistshade," grunted a dark ginger she-cat.

The raindrop watched interestedly. "Darn," muttered the silver cat. "But I guess that'll have to do."

Roseleap snorted. "You're so forgiving. But all right." She shrugged. "Let's go and get some moss over Ottersnow's head. I hope Rainingsky'll be okay. I think she's gotten better. But who knows what the rain will do?" Her blue gaze landed on the raindrop, and he flinched as she glared at him.

The raindrop sighed. Was he a nuisance? Despairingly he dug into the grass, feeling ever so lonely.

Yes, so many beings were watching over the many accidents in RiverClan. But were they accidents?

Let me tell you want happened in RiverClan for the two moons we've missed. Let's see. Rainingsky's okay now. She's not entirely okay, but her sickness has gone. Tansyflight hasn't retired yet. Sorrelfrost and Acornsquirrel are sick. Featherkit, Stonekit, and Larchkit has been apprenticed half a moon early.

Many things have happened. But no one is satisfied with what's going on.