.Eye of the Tiger. {{ALL RIVERLCAN ASAP}}

[Dreamstar♫]

As soon as Crystalstar's body hit the floor, the scene changed drastically. The Moonpool area quickly came into focus in the RiverClan leader's mind. Everything looked the same except for a soft light came from the top of the pool. It was the same time of day - late afternoon - but now, the light from the sun above seemed oddly dimmed, almost like someone had put a thin blanket over the world. This made the soft, silvery light from the pool stand out more. It's surface rippled and pulled against an unknown current. There was no breeze, and everything was unnaturally still. Then, a head appeared from the water.

Sapphire eyes stared out to the other cat across the pool, her gaze filled with a sense of an inevitable outcome. The body quickly followed the head, and the cat perched herself on the water's surface as if it were land. It all seemed so natural the way she did it- like emerging from a vast pool of water like that was something she did every day. "Hello Crystalstar." She called, her tone somber. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to visit you this soon." Her tone was reflected in the way she held herself. The she-cat's silver body was slumped at the shoulders, something you usually didn't think of when you thought of a StarClan cat.

[>))*~.:Crystalstar:.~*((<]

<sup>Her earthly body remained as still as stone, but her spirit had travelled to StarClan. It was the smell of the lake that 'woke' Crystalstar up, her silver pelt rippling as she opened her silver eyes. Flicking her tufted ears in confusion, she let out a silent moan as the feminine struggled upright, sensing something important about to happen. With dull, glazed eyes, she took in her surroundings, and panic began to set in. Her Clan! No.. no! She COULDN'T be here! Her Clan was losing, the badgers... they'd kill everyone. Dragging herself to her paws, she looked wildly around for anywhere out. Too fast, in fact, and she stumbled down, not recovered from her death yet.

Shock freezing her, the lynx met the ethereal cat head on, literally, backing up slightly as she appeared in the middle of the pool. The leader watched, frozen, although her haunches lowered to the ground, bowing her head in respect. "Greetings, Dreamstar." She mewed, tone matching the celestial leader's. Lifting her head, in doing so she lifted her tone, matching the grey-and-white cat's eyes. Crystalstar's optics filled with grief as she replied, telling her leader without words that she would rather be anywhere but here. "Dreamstar, RiverClan is under attack by badgers - and we are losing! We aren't enough to fend them off... I sent help to ShadowClan but you know how they are! I need to get back down, I need to help my Clan!" Silently, the leader panicked. Will we have to flee?</sup>

[/sup][/color]

[Splitshadow]

A tri-colored cat slunk nearby in the shadows of the unearthly world. He was just out for a stroll. But, as he heard voices, he crouched down and moved his tiny body lithely towards them. He stopped at the edge of the ferns behind the lynx-looking cat. He hid quite well in the shadows considering he was nearly all-black, but his bright yellow eyes glowed like two suns. He heard his leader speak. 'Hello, Crystalstar. I was hoping I wouldn't have to visit you this soon.' So this cat's Crystalstar, the current leader of my previous Clan, he thought to himself. She seems like a strong leader; just what RiverClan needs.

Splitshadow's ears pricked when Crystalstar spoke. 'Greetings, Dreamstar,' she mewed, tone even with Dreamstar's. Brave, too, he thought before the she-cat spoke again, her voice slightly louder than before. 'Dreamstar, RiverClan is under attack by badgers - and we are losing! We aren't enough to fend them off... I sent help to ShadowClan but you know how they are! I need to get back down, I need to help my Clan!' She sounded on the edge of hysterias. Hm... I wonder what ShadowClan'll deside to do. Probably not help, but you never know. He shut his eyes for a moment, thnking to himself. If only I was down there and not here, then maybe they would stand a bit more of a chance. But at that thought, he opened his eyes, stood, and padded out into the open.

"Dreamstar," the tom acknowledged his leader. "Must hurry and heal Crystalstar, less we fear they must leave." His words sounded choppy, as if he had a speaking problem. Really, he did have a bit of one, but he'd grown used to how he's spoken. He only hoped the other cats could translate his words into some that made more sense.

[ooc]If you all need any help figuring out his words, just tell me and I'll translate 'em. ^^'[/ooc]

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[Dreamstar♫]

The silver she-cat's gaze broke away from Crystalstar as a familiar set of paw steps came near. By then, the RiverClan leader was finished with her last sentence and a burning gray fire seemed to light her wild eyes. "I know Splitshadow, I know." She replied, looking to the speech impaired tom. "But first, I need to make sure this young one has a calm head. One full of good judgment and reason." RiverClan wouldn't last long if its leader couldn't make the right choices. And in a situation like this, everything depends on the choices. The weight of that must finally be occurring to the wild looking she-cat across the water; that everything depended on her decisions, and if they were the right ones.

Dreamstar's sapphire gaze finally turned back to the panicking cat across the water. She let a faint encouraging smile falling onto her face as she beckoned the RiverClan leader forward with her tail. "Come sit with me, Crystalstar, so we can clear your mind. You're clan is strong, but they need a leader with a plan- a leader with a sensible head."

[>))*~.:Crystalstar:.~*((<]

<sup>As Splitshadow came into sight, Crystalstar nodded her head, full of respect for this cat. She felt like she knew him, however, she couldn't put her paw on it. Maybe after the badgers are out... The lynx mused to herself, struggling to put this aside. She was curious about the ethereal cat, but had to focus now - RiverClan was in danger. Waiting for Dreamstar to respond, the petite feline began prodding the ground beneath her in an absent-minded pattern, while masking her distress. This was only displayed in her tufted ears, which swiveled left and right in an almost untraceable pattern. Looking up, her silver pools met Splitshadow's eyes, and his funny manner of speech caused her some confusion, but she got the gist of it.

As Dreamstar's melodic voice caressed her ears, the leader couldn't help but calm down. Sighing, she stopped kneading the ground, turning her eyes to both StarClan cats. She instantly felt calmed by the sapphire gaze that stared her down, and the heavenly smile that lit her face. Attempting to return the favor, she gave a small sheepish smile, apologizing in her own way for panicking this way. She had to be stronger - her Clan was counting on her to lead them out of the DarkForest that the badgers had put them in! She had to be calm.

Ears turned to Dreamstar now, the leader blinked her wide eyes a few times as the leader's request danced around her. But... the water... I can't stand on it! Even as her mind struggled with the logic, Crystalstar nodded, agreeing with Dreamstar. "Thank you." Inwardly, she knew that the spirit was right - she needed to have faith in herself, just as she would have to have faith in StarClan, both for stepping onto the water and into the battle. Hesitating slightly, Crystalstar lifted a massive paw, her own eyes concentrated on the paw. Her mind was racing, her heart was thudding, but, slowly, she lowered her paw onto the water, and was met by cool, wet solid water. Testing her weight on it, Crystalstar barely concealed a gasp, before padding forward, eyes still on the lake. Everything that she had learned had demanded that she respect the river, that she worship it and accept it's laws. Breaking them here felt wrong, weird... but somehow safe, as if Dreamstar was controlling it. Padding as silently as she could, she met the other grey cat on the water, and sat down on the other side of Dreamstar, waiting for something to happen and praying, ironically, to StarClan that the water would not break, needlessly.</sup>

[/sup][/color]

[Splitshadow]

Splitshadow's eyes gazed wonderously at Crystalstar as Dreamstar invited her forward to sit next to her. Wonder how she'll react to the solidity of the water; not something a RiverClan cat would be used to, no doubt, he thought. He stayed where he was as his eyes followed the lynx's movements. Paw down, small, stifled gasp, then reassurance and awkwardness as she padded forward and sat in front of the silver StarClan leader. He didn't dare move to sit next to them; he hadn't been invited, and he certainly didn't want to be rude.

Eyes wandering, he turned his head slightly the look downwards at the pool. Through it, he could make out a sillohouette of the world below. He focused on the area where the RiverClan camp was and saw darker shapes racing back and forth. With an exasperated sigh, he layed down at the edge of the water and focused his vision on the cats below.
---
Ribbonkit landed dead-center of the badger's back and dug his claws into its' hide. You can do this, Ribbonkit.. You're a strong cat; you can do this, he told himself before clawing his way up the beast's back towards its' head. Once he reached it, he dug in his hind claws as deep as he could then repeatedly slashed at the badger's eyes. With a feroucious growl, the badger below him tried to shake him off by thrusting its head back and forth. Ribbonkit just dug in his foreclaws and tried to cling on, only to be thrown off with a squeak.

Snapping his body around to land on his paws, Ribbonkit bunched up his muscles to take most of the impact. Gasping sharply, the smoke-colored tom turned to Ivorykit. "Are you alright?" he asked, his gray eyes locking with hers.

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[Arrowheart]

[/b] Arrowheart wailed, dashing out amidst the badgers. In her hurry she made it past the badgers without noticing when she was scratched, they were just scratches.

She heard her kit's cry from somewhere past a huge badger, so the queen yowled in fury and leapt over the gigantic being, landing directly over Horizonkit and scooping her up lovingly. The queen's eyes searched frantically for a way out, as she rushed past the badger, stumbling and scraping her right foreleg on the pebbles as she tried to find the nursery.

The queen stifled a cry through a mouthful of Horizonkit's fur as a badger shouldered past her, hitting her cheekbone and making it throb. There! The nursery! Arrowheart broke into a sprint and collapsed into the nursery panting. No badger had made it over to this side of camp yet, so they were safe for a little while.

The young queen's first movement after sliding into the nursery was to drop her kit and immediately scold her sternly. "Be careful, and don't you ever attempt such a thing again!" She hissed, swiping her rough tongue over Horizonkit's ruffled fur on her forehead. The queen let out a breath of exhaustion and curled around the terrified little one. "I'm sorry for snapping at you, but I could never. . ." Arrowheart trailed off and whispered into Horizonkit's ear, "I couldn't lose you."[/size][/ul][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Ivorykit]

Ivorykit looked at Ribbonkit. "Of course I'm fine." Ivorkkit meowed in a stubbornly manner. Then she looked around. "Thanks." She whispered. Then she saw the badger coming back. "It's coming! Run!" Ivorykit turned and ran as fast as her little legs could take her. "Come on Ribbonkit!" She remembered what her mother told her. "Badgers are not fast so if you ever encounter one, make sure you remember that." Ivorykit ran into the nursery. "Help! A badger is coming!"

[*~\[Ribbonkit]/~*]

Ribbonkit pelted after Ivorykit into the nursery. He heard the yowl out, 'Help! A badger is coming!' He added his own cries, "It's really close to here, too!" He skidded to a stop behind Ivorykit and looked around. He saw Arrowheart with Horizonkit, and he saw the other kits as well. His fur stood up on end as he thought of the badger behind them. They hadn't run a very long distance, so it must be close now.

[/size]

[Arrowheart]

[/i][/b] The queen's thoughts raced. "Holy mother of the stars." The queen swore in her own flavorful manner as she leaped over to the nursery entrance to see if this was true. Seeing it was she swore again, though under her breath.
"Alright, follow me." The queen herded Horizonkit, Ribbonkit, and Ivorykit into the medicine cat's den, knowing it was one of the most protected dens in camp.

But for how long will that be a fact? Until a badger follows us there, no doubt. The queen stifled a groan and shoved each kit into the fragrant den. Then she scooted them as far back as possible and looked each one in the eye. "Now all of you listen here, there will be no fooling around and don't. Touch. Anything." She warned. The fluffy queen knew that if the kits messed up any piles of herbs there would be trouble when the medicine cat went to heal people.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote][/ul]

((HEY HEADS UP, CHERRY, HORIZON HAS BEEN CARRIED INTO THE MEDICINE CAT'S DEN ALONG WITH RIBBONKIT AND IVORYKIT. ))

[Horizonkit]

Horizonkit was still shaken up from the badger encounter as her mother moved her into Stormfrost's den with the other two kits. Panicked, multicolored eyes stared up at Arrowheart, a small whimper passing through her lips. "I-I-I sworrr--" She attempted to apologize, but it came out in a jumble of incomprehensible words. The small orange and white kit moved forward and buried her face in her mother's fur, fear still scorching her pelt. What were these things? Why were they here? And why were they so mean? She hadn't done anything to them... had she?


Her mind wasn't clear enough to answer the questions that floated around unconsciously in her head. Right now, all she wanted was to go back to sleep and pretend none of this had ever happened- that it was all just a bad dream... Tears started to spill over the small kit's cheeks as she began her silent cry of confusion and fear. Horizonkit cried easily, and she was extremely self conscious. And, for once, she couldn't concentrate enough to worry about what everyone else was thinking about her little episode.

[Dreamstar♫]

Sapphire orbs stared deeply into the RiverClan leader's eyes, suddenly giving the simple task more purpose then it once held. "Do you know why I asked you to do this?," She asked. The she-cat's silky, honey-smooth voice instantly smoothing out the tension that had filled the air. It was so subtle that if you hadn't been paying attention, you wouldn't have noticed the difference at all. Quietly, Dreamstar got to her paws and gracefully padded around Crystalstar in a full circle, her paw steps light but meaningful. "It's because you needed to learn the difference between fear and reality." She meowed softly, answering her own question.

She stopped in front of the RiverClan she-cat and sat down again, her eyes staring into Crystalstar's once more. The water moved freely below the two cat's bodies, barely seeming to notice any change at all. It was some calm, so natural, it was like they were not even there. "Fear is an emotion made by the mind. If you take a tom that can feel no emotions, he will do whatever you ask without a second thought; because to him, fear has no meaning." Dreamstar's eyes continued to probe the RiverClan leader's mind as she let her soothing words of reason sink in. Then, very genitally, the she-cat lifted her right paw and placed it back on the water. Instead of stopping at the invisible barrier, her paw went straight through into the depths of the Moonpool. "If you set your mind to it, you can over come anything- including fear. Now, I'm not saying your super cat. What I am saying is that you yourself are bound by so many barriers by just this one emotion. If you can over come this emotion, you can truly help your clan."

The gray she-cat's eyes flickered back up to Crystalstar's face as she pulled her paw out of the water and placed it back on the invisible surface. "I asked you to do this because you needed to over come a barrier before you could help your clan. You needed to stop worrying about self preservation and take action. Have faith and trust in yourself, and your clan, to pull through." A real smile appeared on her face as she gave a small nod. "That is all you needed to know."


[Kind of crappy... I was going for the all-knowing thing and I fell short. Sorry xD]

[>))*~.:Crystalstar:.~*((<]

<sup>Looking at the brave and beautiful leader in front of her, doubt shook her to the core as she perched perilously on the waters. Silver eyes couldn't focus on the sapphire optics which stared at her wordlessly; they always flickered to where her paws rested. The laws of the water were broken here - everything she had learned since she was Crystalkit was being tested. The one thing she knew would never change was changed, which frightened Crystalstar more than simply sitting on the heavenly waters. A voice inside of her tried to calm her down - tell her that this was StarClan, anything was possible, but, essentially, the river was Crystalstar, it created her base.

As the melodic mews mystifyingly moved in the air towards the lynx's ears, her heart settled, her mind ceased racing. Her breath became more steady, and she was physically calmer. It was then that she could focus on the words that Dreamstar had asked her, and she could finally look up. Locking onto Dreamstar's sapphire eyes for a brief second of electricity, Crystalstar looked down again, at her paws, like an apprentice caught red-pawed doing something naughty. The feminine knew without looking that her friend had risen, hearing the rustle of the air as she moved. Flicking her ears as the words floated around her, it was as if a key unlocked meaning in her, and the cat couldn't help but accept it.

As she stopped in front of the suddenly exposed leader, Crystalstar gathered up some remains of courage to stare her leader and comrade in the eye, watching, understanding. Listening to Dreamstar's meaning, she nodded, remembering her times as an apprentice and how her mentor's best friend, Goldenfire always showed no fear, and was thought of to be hot-headed and dull. Almost an audible click resounded in the forest, and Crystalstar nodded again, reduced to Crystalpool in her presence. Movement caught the silver optics, and the feline watched as the sapphire-eyed cat's paw sank into the water, showing no fear. Crystalstar felt Dreamstar's eyes on her, searching for her reaction, and, as Dreamstar had mentioned, she absorbed the leader's words into her heart, fighting back the flinch that threatened to take over her body.

The last words seemed to echo in Crystalstar's mind, closing her silver eyes gently. Now's your time, Crystalstar. Rise up to it - fight the badgers like a true leader, a true follower of StarClan, and don't let Dreamstar down. "You were right, Dreamstar, as always." Smiling a smile that belonged on a cat that had been caught misbehaving better than a leader, she sighed, building up energy and reserve. "And I thank you."</sup>

[/color]

[Dreamstar♫]

Despite her position, Dreamstar couldn't help but laugh. "You're not the first to say that." She replied, her dazzling smile lighting up her face. However, the silver she-cat shook her head and sighed deeply. "However, you are going to learn that sometimes even StarClan doesn't have all of the right answers." How much this she-cat still had to learn... All of them still thinking that StarClan was the answer. One day, she will figure it all out. That much, Dreamstar was sure of.

Her sapphire eyes looked back up to the RiverClan leader, the moment of doubt and worry washed away from her expression. "Now, I will send you back to your clan." She meowed, saying the words that she knew Crystalstar had been dying to hear ever since her arrival. "Use your information wisely to guide your clan." It was during this time that the wind began to blow very harshly, stirring up the current below their paws and making the cats' fur twist wildly. Getting to her paws, the silver she-cat took a couple steps back and gave the lynx she-cat a final farewell smile. "Guide them well, Crystalstar." With those final words, Crystalstar's body plummeted through the icy waters of the Moonpool, leaving the final vision of Dreamstar and Splitshadow on the pool's surface.

To::StarClan::

[Arrowheart]

The queen let out a small mewing sound as she coiled her tail around Horizonkit and pulled her closer. "My darling, my sweet baby. . ." she cooed, beginning to groom her kit's ruffled long fur. Her tongue swiping over the beautiful amber patches.
She sat back a little to admire Horizonkit. Her face was a perfect mirror of her father's in shape. "Isn't Horizon a beautiful name? If I could name something. . . anything. . . it would be called Horizon." He had said, the day before he left her.

Arrowheart felt a stab of pain at her heart. No matter how she moved on, a part of herself would always belong to him. She purred, bringing herself back to the moment and nudged Horizonkit gently over to one of the patient nests in the corner of the medicine den.

"Rest, love. I'm here."