GhostClan(Closed)

Death looked around at the lot of them. "Yes. Well. I see it may be impossible for us to carry on a conversation this way. I had forgotten how intimidating my true form is to mortals." He vanished in a puff of smoke, then reappeared. Now his power felt...muted, somewhat. Calmer. Still extremely intimidating, but in a less blinding way. "There. Better?" he said impatiently.

"Oh, undoubtedly. I could kill any one of you with a flick of my tail, as a matter of fact. But why would I do that?" he asked. "I've been around since the beginning of time, Amriel. Why do you assume I would go on a mad killing spree just because some angels smashed up the natural order?"

"Angels...?" said Suriel under his breath.

"My reasons are my own." said Death simply. "You can join me, or not. I don't really care. But you should know, that at the moment I am preventing about three thousand demons and nastier things from converging on your location. Angels give off quite a beacon." He smiled smugly.

Two moons later:

CRACK.

CRACK.

CRACK.

Fernleaf stood back-to-back with Flintfoot. Marblekit, along with the others, sat huddled with them inside the salt circle in the center of camp as lightning blast after lightning blast peppered the clearing. Ghosts appeared and disappeared at random, glitching unpredictably.

Marblekit flinched, then instantly ran to her side. "She needs mallow!" he shouted, eyes wide. "We have to get some!"

"Don't leave the circle." said Fernleaf, voice loud and calm. Whether or not she was really scared would be anyone's best guess. "It'll be okay!" She reached out and clawed at a ghost which was trying to blow away the salt circle.

Four massive bolts of lightning struck down at the same time, electrifying the air and causing the cats' hair to stand on end. A dark figure, eyes glowing a deep red, appeared in the clearing, barely visible. One by one, the ghosts began to scream and catch fire, as if someone was burning their bones.

Soon, all but a few of the ghosts were gone. Marblekit, after one more glance at his sister, made a mad dash for the medicine den.

"Marblekit, no!" shouted Fernleaf. "You ha...have to st-stay in the c - circ...le." But something was wrong. As more ghosts started to vanish, the shadowy figure had turned his gaze to Fernleaf. The scar from her now two-month-old injury was bleeding again. A lot.

Fernleaf collapsed, legs splayed. She seemed confused, half-conscious. She was bleeding out, just like she almost had two moons ago.

With a sudden, ghostlike movement, the dark figure materialized in front of Fernleaf. He put a paw on her chest. She began to go limp.

Marblekit made a beeline for the salt circle, but was hit by something that sent him flying. He landed on the ground a few feet away and stayed there for a few seconds. But finally he staggered to his feet again, and started to drag the mallow towards the salt circle that was still barely intact.

Marblekit finally made it to her side and stuffed some of the crushed mallow in her mouth. "Shhhh, shhh. It's okay." he comforted her gently, running his tail over her small body. He tried to block out Flintfoot's screams...tried to block out the fact that his mother was dying a mere three feet away.

Flintfoot's claw went straight through him, rippling his form but not getting rid of him. With a hushed whisper, he closed his eyes and tightened his paw on Fernleaf's chest. She went limp. The remaining few ghosts abruptly vanished, along with the strange figure. With one more sudden crack, the storm ended and the burnt clearing returned to silence. Aside from the rustle of the breeze through the pine trees.

Marblekit positioned himself carefully, stretching himself over her to keep her warm.

Fernleaf was still and calm. If she wasn't so cold, and if you could pretend she was breathing, she could almost just be asleep.

With a small motion, several cats appeared in the middle of the clearing. They looked absolutely terrible. A few of them were dead. The bodies of Suriel, Mistystep, and Wrenkit lay on the ground. Tigertail stood very still, legs trembling in shock. He looked over at Amriel and Weaselstar, feeling too numb to see much except the fact that Belial, or any of the other angels, were nowhere to be found.

Invisible to mortals, Kaina appeared next to Ianuarius. She seemed shaken, but not as badly as the mortals and angels. "I'm sorry." she said, glancing in Mistystep's direction.

"Can you heal yourself?" said Tigertail quietly to Amriel, staring distrustfully around at the cats.

Quickstrike stepped towards the group, addressing Weaselstar. "Hey." she said gently. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"

Kaina nodded her agreement, then vanished. Back to work.

"My name is Quickstrike. I'm a medicine cat." she said. "I'm here to help you."

Marblekit crept over to Fernleaf's body, eyes wide.

Quickstrike blinked, apparently taken aback. But she recovered herself quickly. "No, you're okay." she said, tilting her head. "Your wounds are superficial. We can patch you up."

Marblekit curled his tail around his paws, not looking at her. "If I ask you something..." he began hesitantly, "will you promise to tell me the truth?"

"I know Sandstorm was Fernleaf's mate, and Marblekit's father." he said, swallowing hard. "She looks like him. Has his eyes. Sometimes I see him, remember him when I look at her. And...well...I've thought about this for a while. Put two and two together, you know? And...". He hesitated again. "I see the way Flintfoot looks at me when he thinks I'm not watching. The way he looks...looked...at Fernleaf." He looked straight into Falconstep's eyes, fear and doubt shadowing their edges. "Falconstep, who is my father? Really?"

"Not a lot." admitted Quickstrike. "But you can talk to Riverstar about that later. We need to get you patched up, come on."

Marblekit nodded slowly, glancing at his half-sister then back to his mother. Then he turned and walked back to Marblekit and curled up in a ball.

Abruptly, Raziel appeared in the clearing. His wings, or what was left of them, were visible for only a moment. He blinked, staggering back a bit.

Tigertail's eyes narrowed ominously. "You."