Warriors: Skytail's Reckoning (COMPLETED)

Prologue

The moon glowed over Softear's head as she padded up the hill toward the Moonpool. Beside her, Shadepaw's head drooped with exhaustion and she inwardly purred. He's only been an apprentice for a few moons, she thought to herself, and yet he's not used to going to the Moonpool. She nudged him his shoulder with her nose and his head jerked up, eyes wide.

"It's too cold for this, Softear," grumbled Graystep as the older she-cat limped to her side. "What if the Moonpool is frozen over? We can't share tongues with StarClan if we freeze to death." Her voice was bothered and Softear twitched her curled ear at the grumpy she-cat.

"Don't worry, Graystep." She replied, trying to keep her voice light and friendly. "We'll get there, share tongues with StarClan, and get out as quickly as possible."

The older medicine cat grunted. "We shouldn't be here in the first place," she growled, glaring at Softear. "We should be preparing for leafbare back at our camps."

A voice piped up from ahead of them. "But if we don't share tongues with StarClan," Poppypaw said. "We could miss something. Don't you want to know if something will happen soon?"

Graystep snorted, her fluffy ragged tail flicking. "You're unbearably naive, Poppypaw." She meowed, her voice rough. She shook her head. "If we missed anything, StarClan could send one of their warriors to us in our sleep."

"Don't call my apprentice naive, Graystep." Growled Squirrelspots as he turned around, glaring at the ThunderClan medicine cat. "You might be older than dirt, but you should respect the younger generation."

Softear felt mildly surprised at the tom's words. He knows how to fight, she reminded herself with a glance at Graystep. He's been a warrior and seen battle. But would he provoke Graystep into fighting?

Graystep's fur bristled. "Why don't you come say that to my face, ShadowClan mouse-dung?" She retorted hotly, her voice rising with anger. "Or are you too scared to fight the oldest medicine cat?"

Shadepaw groaned and bounded between the two arguing cats. "Will the two of you shut your mouths?" He meowed rudely. Softear's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to reprimand him before he cut her off. "Honestly, are you both kits? Of course, we have to come here, Graystep. If we didn't, what would our Clans think? That we've lost faith in StarClan?"

Graystep looked ready to shred Shadepaw's ears into stubs but she didn't reply. Softear felt relieved as the elderly medicine cat trudged on, her ragged tail lashing behind her.

She fixed Shadepaw with a stern look as she fell into step beside her apprentice. "You need to watch your tongue when speaking to older cats," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "Especially when it's a medicine cat. Graystep might be snappy and irritable, but you need to respect her as she knows more than we do."

Shadepaw's ear twitched in acknowledgment of her words and stalked on without speaking until they reached the top of the hill that overlooked the lake territories below. Shadepaw turned and gazed across the starlit land that stretched on seemingly forever. Softear wondered what was going on in her apprentice's dark tabby head but decided against questioning.

Instead, she nosed him on and took the lead in front of the other medicine cats. Standing beside the SkyClan medicine cat, Pearfoot, she stared at the dappled Moonpool. Stars reflected off the pool as the soft cascading water from the small waterfall as it fell, filling the large pond.

"It's beautiful," breathed Ryeflight as he strode to Softear's side. His green eyes were wide with awe as he stared at the water, the stars reflecting in his eyes.

Softear nodded. "Come on; we should get this done with quickly." She meowed and headed down the small decline and circled the pool of water. Her fluffy tail swished behind her as she waited for Shadepaw to catch up before crouching in front of the water. Leaning forward, she lapped gingerly at the water's surface and closed her eyes.