Broken Reflection

Chapter 4

"Twilightfoot, is it your wish to give up the name of a warrior and go to join the elders?" Eveningstar asked the senior tom.

Hailstorm widened his eyes at this. Twilightfoot was joining the elders?

Well,  Hailstorm realized, he  is getting old. The battle with DayClan must have proven to him that he's not cut out to be a warrior anymore.

Twilightfoot nodded. "It is."

"Then your Clan honors you and all the service you have given. I call upon StarClan to give you many moons of rest. You've earned it," Eveningstar nodded to the black and white tom.

"Thank you, Eveningstar," Twilightfoot meowed, dipping his head to his leader.

Eveningstar jumped down from the High-stone, joining Sunfur and Rustypelt by the fresh-kill log, staring into the clearing. Hailstorm followed Eveningstar's gaze. Moonshine was crouched stiffly over Twigfoot's body, grief and anger filling her green eyes. When the elders passed the DawnClan leader on their way to their den, he beckoned them over. "We need to bury him, tonight."

Hailstorm looked at Clovertail, who'd heard it, too. "We should get Moonshine to her nest," Hailstorm suggested, his own heart breaking with the thought of seeing his father buried. "She doesn't need to watch it. She... she'll get hysterical."

Clovertail nodded mutely, then cautiously padded over to their mother, who was hunched over, staring at her paws. She looked up as her two kits reached her, pale green eyes flashing in the darkness. "What do you want?" she asked warily.

Hailstorm's heart throbbed. Did his own mother no longer trust him? He took a deep breath and meowed quietly, "You need to get some rest." He looked up at the sky; the moon was shining brightly in the trees. "Tomorrow night is the full moon, and you need to have full energy if you're going to the Gathering."

Moonshine's eyes flicked between Hailstorm and Clovertail, and she looked like she was about to protest. But then she sighed, eyes heavy with exhaustion. "Fine."

Clovertail looked relieved, then nudged Moonshine to her paws. Hailstorm followed the two across the clearing, watching as they disappeared inside the warriors' den. Hailstorm glanced over his shoulder at Twigfoot's body; Spruceclaw, Copperleaf, and Twilightfoot were moving it outside the camp. Sunfur supervised them, and she turned and nodded at Hailstorm gratefully for taking Moonshine away. Hailstorm nodded briskly, grief tugging sharply at his heart, then turned back to the warriors' den, seeing the last glimpse of his father's body as the three elders carried him out of the camp.

Hailstorm sighed shakily, his heart feeling clawed. Goodbye, Father.

He turned back and entered the den, blinking away the darkness. He curled up on his nest beside Clovertail, who was washing their mother's ragged fur. Her eyes were closed, and snores rumbled in her chest. Hailstorm sighed. She looked better, but Hailstorm knew that when she found out about Twigfoot being buried without her knowing, she'd be furious.

Hailstorm blinked. What was happening to his mother? Moonshine was never like this; she never had been. Worry crept through Hailstorm's body. What if she never got better? What if she couldn't be a proper warrior anymore because of it?

Hailstorm sighed again, breath uneven.

Had Twigfoot's death really changed her that much?

* * *

"Twigfoot!"

Hailstorm flitted his eyes quickly at the sound of his mother's voice, filled with fury. He scrambled to his paws, Clovertail just behind him. Moonshine was pacing in the clearing, her ears flattened and her tail lashing. She looked up at Hailstorm and Clovertail as they stood in the entrance to the warriors' den. Her eyes narrowed and filled with smoldering green fire. Moonshine's white and gray-flecked fur bristled and she stalked forward, right toward Hailstorm and Clovertail.