EOTW: Code of the Forest: Chapter Eighteen

Warriors Series 5.5: Echoes of the War
Book 5: Code of the Forest
Chapter Eighteen

     As Silentstorm followed Rock through the city, the stone fell away under their paws, replaced with soft grass. Silentstorm could feel something else in the air too, some change. It was no longer night, but day, the sun's warmth on her back. She quickly realized that she was in ThunderClan's forest, but something was wrong. The undergrowth was sparser, and the trees seemed smaller.

     She was quickly distracted from these thoughts by the sounds of paws thundering towards her. A pelt tore past hers, a tom hurtling through the forest with a she-cat and two kits. Silentstorm barely had time to comprehend that before she heard vicious yowling, and the pounding of paws behind her. Sudden fear filled her. She took off at a run, falling in behind the tom and she-cat. They pelted through the forest together, fleeing from their pursuers. Silentstorm felt a rush of horror as she caught the scent of their pursuers, an awful, rotting stench. Dark Forest cats! she realized.

     The tom, she-cat, and kits continued to flee, but as they ran, one of the kits tripped and went sprawling onto the forest floor. Silentstorm felt a burst of fear. She rushed back, reaching the kit's side quickly as their pursuers bore down on them. She tried to grasp the kit's scruff between her teeth, only to feel her jaws pass through the kit's pelt, as though the kit were made of mist. The rest of the kit's family had turned back for it, and the Dark Forest cats were soon upon them, shrieking with delight as they threw themselves into battle. Silentstorm gasped as one Dark Forest cat passed through her as he leaped at the tom, the tom's paw passing through her neck as he swiped at the Dark Forest cat.

     I'm not really here, she realized. I can't change what is happening to these cats. She had no idea what was happening, who these cats were, whether this was a vision of things to come or something simply imagined. She could no longer sense Rock nearby, so she couldn't question him about what she was being shown. All she could do was listen in horror as the Dark Forest spirits savaged the couple and their kits.

     Silentstorm thought the shrieks and screams would never end. But finally, the tom managed to chase away the few Dark Forest spirits that had not been slain. He was heavily injured, panting and shaking with the effort of the battle. The she-cat and kits were eerily silent.

     The tom finally seemed to notice their silence. “No!” He limped heavily to the side of the she-cat, nuzzling her cheek desperately. “Eliza! Eliza please, you can't be dead! Eliza!” Even as he nuzzled her and begged her, Silentstorm could tell it was no use. The stench of death was heavy over Eliza – she was already gone.

     More horrifying still was the tom's shriek as his gaze fell onto his kits. The kit that Silentstorm had tried to help had been slain first, his throat torn open by the rogues as soon as they had fallen upon him.  The she-cat was lying a few paces away, neck twisted at an odd angled and bleeding out into the grass.

     “No!” The tom's desperate wailing and grown in pitch. “Lavender! Thunderclap! Oh, my kits! He tried to limp to his kits, but his wounds were too much for him, and he stumbled, sprawling out onto the grass. Too weak to get up again, he stayed where he was, shaking with grief and wailing his despair. Silentstorm was rooted to the spot, every hair on her pelt shaking with horror. She was powerless to comfort the tom, or let him know she was there. All she could do was listen to him wail and shriek for his loss.

     She had no idea how long she stood there, listening to the tom's cries. At some point, they had died down from wails into exhausted moans. Pawsteps sounded behind them. Silentstorm pricked her ears, sniffing curiously, only to be hit with a scent of stars and ice, almost like Hollyleaf's StarClan scent. The tom barely seemed to notice, still curled in on himself and moaning in grief.

     “Hawthorn.” Silentstorm froze, shock nearly sweeping her off of her paws. The tom approached the moaning tom, his paws barely making a sound against the grass. “Hawthorn, I am so sorry.” The tom came to stand before the moaning tom, right next to Silentstorm, his starry scent heavy in the air. But she no longer needed to recognize him through his scent; she knew his voice. It's Rock!

     Rock didn't seem to realize she was there. As he stood next to her, the pelt that brushed against hers was full and sleek, not the furless, wrinkled skin that covered the Rock she knew. A sense of awe started to come over her. This is Rock when he was young, she realized with wonder. I'm in the past. He's brought me to the past.

     The moaning tom, Hawthorn, looked up at the young Rock. His voice was cracked with grief, raw from wailing. “I know you,” he rasped, sounding dazed. “You're Rock, aren't you? You're the Spirit of Light.”

     Rock dipped his head. “I am,” he murmured.

     Sudden anger seemed to spark in Hawthorn. He lashed out with one paw, his claws nearly slicing through Rock's pelt, but Rock seemed to pull away too quickly. “This is your fault!” he roared, grief making his pelt shake. “You're supposed to protect us from Shade! You were supposed to stop this! But now her spirits roam around free, killing and savaging as they please. And now my family...” His voice broke again, grief overwhelming him.

     Rock watched the tom, something sorrowful in the slow wave of his tail. “I hadn't realized how bad things had gotten,” he mewed quietly. “I didn't see... I should have stopped this. I thought that Shade knew better than to cross the line like this.” He sighed, a determined edge creeping into his tone. “Enough is enough. I have to stop Shade, for good.”

     Hawthorn looked up at Rock again, something challenging in the lash of his tail. “Can you?” he challenged in a low growl.

     “I don't know,” Rock admitted. “But I have to try.” There was a sudden change in the air, something shimmery as more star-scent filled the air. “I will lead the spirits of your family to safety. Then, I'll confront Shade. This ends today.”

     Hawthorn said nothing, simply keeping his gaze towards Rock, his tail lashing. Without another word, Rock turned and began to pad away. His pawsteps fell suddenly silent, the sound of something flapping taking of, the rustle of feathers. To Silentstorm's shock, Rock rose from the ground, the scent of a hawk replacing his cat-scent, as he scooped the air with his new wings in order to rise into the sky.

     He said that he and Shade could take on any form at their full power, Silentstorm recalled shakily. I guess he wasn't kidding.

     The scene around Silentstorm began to change again. It was night now, a light rain falling and covering the forest in a layer of mist. She was near the tunnels now, and she could tell there were other cats around her, muttering and crying out in excitement and fear. A fearsome yowling and shrieking was sounding just a few fox-lengths from her. She could recognize the deep battle yowl of Rock, and the furious shriek of Shade. With a rush of shock, she realized she was witnessing the battle between Rock and Shade.

     Eventually, the shrieks died down. There was a thunderous sound like trees cracking, and a final shriek from Shade. Then, she was gone, and all that was left was the sound of the cats watched. He's banished her to the Dark Forest, Silentstorm thought.

     For a long time, none of the gathered cats spoke. The sounds of the battle must have attracted them there, Silentstorm realized, and they had been helpless to do anything but watch the battle between the two powerful opponents. Now, they just stared at Rock. Silentstorm knew he had been badly hurt in the battle from what he'd told her, but she couldn't hear him panting or gasping in pain now, or any sound from him at all.

     Finally, a cat stepped forward from the crowd. “What happened?” she rasped, sounding both awed and fearful. “What are you?”

     Something passed near Silentstorm, a misty presence that was cool and light, but also somehow felt alive. “I banished her,” came the voice of Rock, though she could not figure out where it came from. “I have taken as much of her power as I can, and now she is trapped in her own dark realms, wounded and greatly weakened.” He sighed, a soft, airy sound. “But I have been weakened too. And for that, I have lost the power to command any form.”

     Silentstorm froze in shock. She remembered how Rock had told that that he had weakened Shade to the point that she couldn't take on any form anymore, and was nothing more than mist. But Rock still had a body; she'd thought it was still his own, and that it was simply old and withered from the passage of time. But now she understood just how wrong she'd been. He's just mist now, like Shade, she realized, her mind reeling. But why does he have a body in my time?

     There was a pause from the crowd. “Will... will she ever come back?” another cat finally asked.

     “Not the way she is now,” Rock answered in his airy voice. “She is formless, like me, and cannot leave her dark realms. But...” he trailed off, suddenly sounding exhausted. “But if a cat willingly gives her their own body to control, she would be able to come back and roam free. And then, she could try to take my power.”

     Worried murmurs and cries came from the crowd. “Could she really do that?” another she-cat asked.

     “While I'm like this, she cannot harm me,” Rock answered wearily. “But I cannot do anything to her like this, either. If she came back, I would be powerless to stop her.”

     The brief relief the cats had felt seemed to be over, replaced once more by fear. Silentstorm could hear wails from the crowd, as cats realized the danger they were still in.

     Then, suddenly, a new voice spoke. “What if one of us gave you a body?”

     Every cat turned to face the cat who had spoken. Silentstorm stiffened in surprise as she recognized the voice of Hawthorn. The tom limped forward, clearly still injured, but with his head held high and his tone clear.

     “What are you talking about?” one she-cat asked him.

     Hawthorn didn't seem to even notice the cats in the crowd. From what Silentstorm could tell, he was still turned towards Rock, not looking away from him for a moment. “You said that if a cat willingly gave Shade their body, she could use it to come back,” he meowed clearly. “And that if you don't have a body, you can't stop her. But if she can be willingly given a body, so can you, right? And you need a body in order to stop her if she comes back.”

     There was a long pause. Then, finally, came Rock's reply. “Yes,” he sighed, sounding almost resigned.

     “Then take mine,” Hawthorn growled immediately.

     Gasps came from the gathered cats. “Hawthorn, what are you doing?” one cat asked him.

     “If he takes your body, who knows if you'll ever be free again!” another cat exclaimed.

     Hawthorn was still looking straight at Rock, something defiant in the lash of his tail. “My family is gone,” he meowed clearly. “They were taken by the monsters that Shade set loose on all of us. If she comes back, she'll do it again. And I can't let that happen to someone else's family. I can't let her take the spirits of my family and doom them to her dark realms.” He limped forward, a certain dignity to his stance even as injured as he was, coming to stand before Rock. “Do what you have to,” he said clearly. “I'll do whatever it takes to stop Shade from coming back.”

     “Hawthorn...” one cat mewed behind him, sounding pained.

     Hawthorn turned back to the other cats, his tone softening for a moment. “This is something that has to be done,” he explained gently. “Someone has to stop Shade from coming back. We can't just do nothing and wait for her to come back.” He turned back to Rock, giving a shuddering breath. “I'm ready,” he said simply.

     There was a long pause. “Very well,” Rock finally said. “Your sacrifice will always be honored.” He paused again. Then, in a softer tone, “Thank you.”

     Without another word, the misty form of Rock moved closer to Hawthorn. There was a sudden burst of icy wind from the two creatures, the scent of starlight getting stronger. Hawthorn stiffened, digging his claws into the ground as the mist surrounded him. Silentstorm bristled in shock as she witnessed Rock taking over Hawthorn's body.

     The scene around her faded again. She was at the same spot, but Rock and Hawthorn were gone. Cats were gathered nearby, muttering together. “Hawthorn was right,” one she-cat was saying. “We can't just sit around and wait for her to come back. We need to do something.”

     “Like what?” another cat asked.

     The she-cat paused, thoughtful for a few moments. Finally, she mewed, “We have to guard this place. A lot of rogues already live around here. We'll come live together, and work together to keep an eye on this place. Rock said that Shade would be trapped in the place where the battle happened as well as her dark realms – we'll guard this place, and make sure she never comes back.”

     “Cats don't live together,” one tom growled. “It isn't natural.”

     The she-cat lashed her tail, seeming annoyed. “Would you rather Shade come back?” she demanded in an icy tone. The tom still seemed annoyed, but he didn't object again.

     After a brief pause, one cat spoke. “We would need someone to be a leader,” she mewed quietly. She looked at the she-cat who had first spoken, asking, “Will you lead us, Honeysuckle?”

     Honeysuckle seemed to hesitate, then gave a slow nod. “Very well,” she said quietly. “I will be your leader.”

     The scene began to change again. The undergrowth had grown thicker, and the scents had changed; more time had passed. Cats were gathering at the edge of one of the tunnels. A tom was walking ahead of the rest, a she-cat keeping pace with him. “Are you sure you are ready for this?” she asked him.

     “I'm ready,” the tom replied. He sounded younger than her – a son of the she-cat's, perhaps.

     Silentstorm's guess was confirmed when the she-cat murmured, “You're my eldest, Fallen Leaves. The first of mine to face the ordeal.”

     Ordeal? Silentstorm wondered. Then, a memory sparked, an old conversation with Rock, about the group of cats that had formed after his defeat of Shade. “They developed a practice of sending their young cats into the tunnels, to check that Shade was still imprisoned there and to test their courage.” She felt a shiver through her pelt. It seemed that Fallen Leaves' ordeal was to check if the dark spirit of Shade was still trapped under the lake.

     The cats came to stand at the edge of a tunnel entrance. “Good luck, softpaw,” one cat called.

     After his final farewells, Fallen Leaves descended into the tunnel, his tail waving behind him. The scene began to shift again. Now she was standing in a glade, with many cats gathered. A young she-cat stood next to her. One cat was addressing the rest. “And a moon ago,” he said as his voice shook, “Fallen Leaves went into the tunnels and never came out.” She heard a soft wail from Fallen Leaves' mother.

     Silentstorm stiffened. The ordeal had killed Fallen Leaves? The tom continued, “The trial in the caves isn't supposed to take sharpclaws away from us,” he went on. “It's supposed to be the making of them, the sign that they're full grown and the equal of any other cat.”

     But what about Shade? Silentstorm wondered. She remembered more of what Rock had said about these cats. “Unfortunately, over the generations, they forgot about Shade, the spirits, or why they sent their softpaws into the tunnels to begin with.”

     The tom turned to another tom in the crowd. “Jay's Wing has had a dream,” he told the other cats. “He saw a place where we can live: stone hills teeming with prey and shelter, and free from any enemies.” The scent of the tom Jay's Wing was almost familiar to Silentstorm, but she pushed that thought away, too distracted by what the first tom had said. Stone hills, she repeated internally. Does... does he mean the mountains? Rock had told her that the group by the lake had left to go somewhere else. Had they gone to the mountains? Were these cats the ancestors of the Tribe of Rushing Water?

     No sooner had the thought occurred to her before the scene changed again, this time taking her to an unfamiliar cave. She could hear the roar of a waterfall nearby, and cats were moving through the cave, murmuring to each other. Somehow, without being told, she knew she was in the Cave of Rushing Water, home to the Tribe of Rushing Water.

     One elderly she-cat was standing on a boulder next to a larger tom, speaking to the rest of the cats. She sounded and smelled somehow familiar. It took a few moments for Silentstorm to realized she was the young she-cat who had stood next to Silentstorm while the lake cats talked about leaving. So they did go to the mountains! she realized. The cats who protected the lake became the Tribe of Rushing Water!

     The elderly she-cat was saying, “Our home cannot support us all. But there is another place for some of us, full of sunlight and warmth and prey for all seasons. I have seen it... in my dreams.” Silentstorm stiffened in surprise, and a nearby tom gave a surprised lash of his tail. Some of them are leaving? But where will they go?

     The scene changed again, leaving Silentstorm now standing atop stony peaks, cats standing all around her. She could hear the tom who had lashed his tail in the Cave of Rushing Water, and realized that she had followed the cats who had left the Cave for a new home. “We made it!” one she-cat called triumphantly.

     The tom she'd heard in the cave was looking curiously at the land beyond. “Is that where the other 'rogues' live?” he asked curiously. “Those all look like places where cats would settle.”

     “I think this could be our new home,” another she-cat murmured.

     Suddenly, the cat's voices fell away as the scene shifted again. The sun's warmth was gone, and it was night. There were still cats on top of the peak with her, but they were new cats now. Silentstorm listened, curious what she would learn this time, only to stiffen in shock as she recognized the voice of one of the cats. “Do you think our ancestors have abandoned us?”

     Tawnypelt! She had only met the she-cat once at her first Gathering, but she recognized her pine-scent, and the sound of her mew. Her amazement only grew as she recognized the voice of Bramblestar next. “Well, they haven't sent the sign Midnight promised,” he was saying, his voice full of uncertainty. “Have any of you seen a dying warrior?” He sounded and smelled so much younger than when Silentstorm knew him – he was still Brambleclaw here, a young warrior, not the noble leader she knew.

     “Perhaps it was Mudfur?” This voice she didn't know, but from the scent of reeds and water coming from the tom who'd spoke, she thought she could guess who had was. He was Stormfur, and these were the cats who had been sent on the sun-drown quest, to find a new home for their Clans.

     “He was a medicine cat.” Silentstorm was shocked by just how young Squirrelflight's mew sounded. She didn't even sound old enough to be a warrior yet. Silentstorm recalled that Squirrelflight and Crowfeather had both been apprentices during the journey. She could scent Crowpaw now, lashing his tail as the others argued, while Squirrelpaw was near Brambleclaw.

     As they continued to speak, a new realization came over Silentstorm. If these were the questing cats, and they were already talking about where to lead the Clans, then it probably meant they were back home, in the old Clan territories. And if this place where the Tribe cats had journeyed to was the old Clan territories...

     Then the lake cats, the Tribe of Rushing Water, and the Clans are all descended from the same cats, Silentstorm realized with a shock.

     The moment the realization hit her, the peaks disappeared, and for a few moments, she was nowhere at all. Then, the feeling of hard stone returned under her paws, and she could scent the familiar stench of twolegs. She was back in the city, and Rock was standing in front of her, regarding her thoughtfully.

     “Do you see now?” he mewed quietly. “You are descended from the cats who swore to guard Shade, and made sure she never returned to the world of the living. They are the reason that your Clans exist. And now, their promise must be upheld. You must uphold it.”

     Silentstorm was lost for words for several moment. She was still overcome with amazement and horror by all she had seen, and how quickly everything had happened. “Hawthorn... is that still his body you're using?” she finally managed to rasp.

     Rock nodded. “Yes,” he mewed solemnly. “If I were not using his body, I would be mist, like Shade is now.”

     Horror washed over Silentstorm. “Is his spirit... is it still trapped in there?” she gasped.

     “No.” Silentstorm felt shaky with relief. “His spirit remained with me for some time, when I wasn't sure how soon Shade might try to escape. But after seaons passed, and Shade remained in her prison, I let Hawthorn's spirit free. He runs with his mate and kits now, in the stars.”

     Silentstorm was lost for words again. Rock padded closer to Silentstorm, using Hawthorn's paws to draw closer, Hawthorn's hairless tail lashing behind him. “Once, this body was strong,” Rock told Silentstorm, something urgent in his tone. “But I have worn it for seasons and seasons and seaons beyond count. It is old now. It is weak. If Shade comes back with a fresh body, she will cut me down in a heartbeat.” Silentstorm's pelt bristled in shock as he said, “I need a new body, Silentstorm.”

     “M-me?” Silentstorm gasped as the truth finally hit her. “That's how I'm supposed to beat Shade? By letting you... what, possess me?”

     “By working together,” Rock said firmly. “I learned a lot from Hawthorn while he and I were together. Your courage, and your skill, together with my knowledge and power. It is the only hope we have to defeat Shade. We can fight as one.”

     Silentstorm's mind was reeling, horror making every hair on her pelt bristle. Every time she had tried to imagine how she would defeat Shade, and she had never even come close to dreaming of this. “So what happens if we win?” she managed to rasp. “Do I... die?”

     “If your body is injured enough, yes,” Rock answered grimly. Silentstorm's tail was quivering now. “If not, you will be freed. When we defeat Shade, I will take her power, and I will be strong enough to make a body of my own, and to undo the damage she has done. The dark realms will be closed off forever, and those spirits will never be able to harm the living again.”

     Dark times are coming. Only blind loyalty and silent sacrifice will save the Clans. Now she finally understood. Blind loyalty, trusting Rock with no guarantee that she would be freed when this was over, that they would work together, that it would be enough to defeat Shade, that any of this was true. And to sacrifice her freedom and control, her body, possibly her life, to defeat Shade. In order to defeat the darkness, she would have to let Rock possess her, and together they would confront the spirit of darkness for one last fight, the fight to end them all.

     She took a step back, sudden anger flaring up. “You should have told me this before!” she spat. “You should have... how can you ask this of me? I never knew!”

     Rock didn't react, standing stoic and unmoved before her. “You wouldn't have understood the stakes before,” he said, not without sympathy in his voice. “Now you know. Shade will destroy everything if she wins. If she kills me.”

     Silentstorm ducked her head, her entire pelt shaking. “But why me?” she rasped, her tail quivering and paws trembling. “Why does it have to be me?”

     “Because I saw you, in a vision,” Rock murmured. “I saw a cat who would be willing to shatter boundaries to do what was right, who spoke her mind and stood up for what she believed, and who had the strength and power to win this fight. Shade saw you too. You are the one we have been waiting for, for countless seasons.”

     A new thought occurred to the she-cat. Silentstorm took another step back, lashing her tail. “I'm carrying my kits right now,” she reminded Rock with a snarl. “I won't let you possess me while I have to protect them!”

     Rock sighed. “I wouldn't ask that,” he said in a softer tone. “This doesn't have to happen yet. We cannot do anything to Shade while she is in the form of mist, not with the power I have now – otherwise, I would have disposed of her seasons ago. But the time will come when she gets a body of her own, and then, there will be battle.” He took step back, giving the queen her space. “It's your choice,” he reminded Silentstorm. “This will not be forced on you. When the time comes, it will be your decision to make.”

     Silentstorm's mind was still reeling as the city began to fade around her, her mind being pulled into other dreams. As she began to slip back into her usual dreams, she heard Rock's voice one last time. “We will meet again, Silent One.”