Broken Reflection

Chapter 1

Hailstorm opened his eyes. He tried to move, but stiffness washed over him and pain shot through his shoulder. Memories of the recent battle with DayClan flooded back to him.

"Shh, you still need to rest." Hailstorm turned and saw a silver and white tabby she-cat crouching over him. "Does it hurt?" The NightClan medicine cat, Icedapple, asked.

"A bit," he coughed, turning to lick his injured shoulder.

"No! Don't," she told him urgently. "I put herbs there. I don't want you to lick them all off."

Hailstorm turned his head and rested it back on the nest. He inhaled deeply. Then he jerked his head back up. "Where's Clovertail?"

"She's fine," Icedapple assured him.

"Where is she?"

"Outside. With Tw—" She cut herself off and turned to him, staring at him sympathetically through her pale blue eyes. "I'm so sorry, Hailstorm."

"What?" Hailstorm asked, worry creeping along his spine.

"I... I shouldn't be the one to tell you," the young medicine cat murmured, turning away. "I'm not sure if you remember last night..."

"Of course I do," Hailstorm snapped. Did she think he was that  mouse-brained? The strain during the battle with DayClan still exhausted him. How could he forget it?

"You remember everything ?" Icedapple asked quietly, her eyes full of sadness.

Hailstorm narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Then it hit him; he knew what Icedapple had been trying to tell him. His mind flashed to last night. A dusty brown shape had lain motionless in the blood-stained grass, pale green eyes glazed over. His heart lurched.

Twigfoot.

"It's t-true then? I thought that... but... I was exhausted... I was dreaming. I th—" he cut his sentence off as his eyes misted. "He's gone ?"

Icedapple's voice cracked. "I'm so sorry."

"Who... who else?" Hailstorm choked, feeling the tears pool in his eyes. Had any of his other Clanmates died? No. They couldn't have. They just couldn't.

Icedapple sighed, then began, "Ravenheart... that black queen that had been guarding the nursery," Icedapple murmured quietly.

Hailstorm's thoughts flickered to the NightClan queen in the nursery, fighting to protect her newborn kits. Now she was dead; and her kits were motherless. "Who'll take care of her kits?" he asked shakily.

"Larksong will," Icedapple meowed distantly, sighing. "Darkkit and Shadowkit will never know their mother; they'll always know Larksong as their mother and Violetkit, Larksong's kit, as their sister," Icedapple added sadly.

Hailstorm stared ahead blankly.

"Heatpool and Burningwood were killed too," Icedapple continued, and Hailstorm nodded bitterly. Those two fox-hearts deserved it. "Brownear..." Hailstorm lowered his gaze. The gentle NightClan warrior needn't have died, however. "Greenwood who was an elder..." Icedapple murmured, then she paused, and a tear dripped onto the floor. "And... and... Bushtail."

"Bushtail?" Hailstorm echoed in horror. Who would kill a medicine cat?

Icedapple nodded slowly.

"You're... you're a great medicine cat, Icedapple. He taught you lots. You'll make him proud," Hailstorm meowed, though his voice sounded hollow.

Icedapple's eyes shone with grief. "I don't know what to do without him."