The Ferns of Night |
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Author: Nightfern
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Status: Moonlight Series
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Series: None
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Allegiances: The Beginning (NOTE: THIS TAKES PLACE DECADES AFTER THE FIRESTAR SERIES)
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Preceding: A prequel to The Beginning, this carefully-written story tells the life of Nightfern, an honorable ThunderClan warrior, before she became one of the Clan's most loved and honored she-cats. Born a loner kit, hated by many, and despised by the one who she loves, Nightfern struggles through loner life before joining ThunderClan and hearing a prophecy that will never leave the Clans the same.
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Succeeding: {{{6}}}
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Spellcheckers: {{{7}}}
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Prologue
A slender she-cat quietly walked into the dark, stone room, and placed her pink nose on a glowing rock, breathing hard. She was secretly here. No one knew where she was... they wouldn't have let her.
She was here why? She had a dream that night. A silver StarClan tom had told her she needed to come. They had an important message for her.
So she snuck out, avoiding night patrol and guards, and ran all the way here. She closed her eyes as the coolness of the stone relaxed her sore body.
A moment later, she opened her eyes, and gasped. A thick forest surrounded her all ways, and eight cats, including the silver tom who had appeared in her dream, watched her. Something was strange about the cats. All were silver cats, different and unique in their own way, yet the handsomest and most beautiful she had ever laid eyes on. They were all young, about her age.
"We've been waiting for you, she-cat of the Clan of noise and light."
"Why?" whispered the ThunderClan she-cat, her voice cracked with fear. A she-cat in the middle of the eight stepped out, gazing at white she-cat. The ThunderClan warrior stared at this she-cat, her voice dying in her throat.
She was beyond beauty, beyond a cat's imagination of prettiness. It was not normal. It was like StarClan had granted this she-cat eternal beauty. The she-cat had short, sleek silver fur, the marble tabby swirls covering across her glossy coat in a pattern. She studied the she-cat from "the Clan of noise and light" with amazing blue eyes flecked with forest green. Her white-tipped ears were alert, and her beautiful, soft-featured expression was kind. The silver tabby was slender and fit, and stars sparkled in her coat. A aura of silver light radiated from her in death. But something told the ThunderClan she-cat she radiated in life, too- literally.
Cats have always told the ThunderClan she-cat she was amazingly beautiful, but she didn't hold a paw to this creation. She was young, too.
"My name is The Ferns of Night." she whispered. Her voice was enchanting, soft and sweet. "I am not a Clan cat. But I am your ancestor. I walk in StarClan, but also in greater heavens."
The she-cat choked. This splendid she-cat was her ancestor? And what was better than StarClan?
"Why do you need me?" she asked. The handsome silver tom who had appeared to her stood alongside the she-cat. His green eyes trailed over the ThunderClan she-cat. "Darkfern, explain the first part, please." said The Ferns of Night.
Darkfern looked at her and sighed. "ThunderClan she-cat, The Ferns of Night is a very very very old she-cat. She was the ancestor of Thunder, Shadow, River, and Wind. But you realize, ThunderClan warrior, that the Clans go far more back then when you settled in the forest, then the lake, and now the forest and lake. They were not called what they are now, but they were there. In fact, they go more than moons... for centuries, hundreds of thousands of moons." The she-cat stared. How old was this young she-cat?
"The four founders are related. The Ferns of Night gave birth to four kits, who in turn had more kits, eventually having the four founders. They didn't know they were related. Before her kits were born, The Ferns of Night won a great battle and did a great deed. A heaven greater than StarClan, who I will not name, granted her eternal beauty, strength, and youth."
A striking silver tom, with black patches and blue eyes took up the story next.
"My name is Darknight. Anyway, since The Fern's of Night's blood runs in every Clan cat, every century, a kit is born. It cycles from Clan to Clan. It is always a silver kit, with stripes or without, it does not matter. Any gender. But the kit is special. For reasons we shall never know, sometimes a kit with a destiny is chosen... they inherit the traits The Ferns of Night was given. Eternal beauty, strength, and youth. But they age. And when the die, they are restored as young cats."
The pale silver she-cat, Lightfern, next to Darkfern flicked her tail. "And the kit has a destiny. There is always a great battle when this special kit, which we call the maji buu, or the blood of The Fern's of Night's blood, reaches warrior hood. The battle is always horrible, against other cats or creatures, and the only way the Clan is saved is if the maji buu stamps out the source. Otherwise, the Clan is wiped out. And in honor of their ancestor, the kit always has fern or night in its warrior name. The leader gets a message from StarClan, though he doesn't know what it means."
"And we, the eight cats here, are the maji buu."
"But it's never happened before. I mean, a Clan wiped out."
A silver-and-black tortoiseshell growled. "Have you ever heard or FireClan or EarthClan? No. It was because the chosen cat failed to save them. And eventually, over the centuries, the Clans forgot." The warrior studied the golden-eyed tom carefully. His eyes were full of grief, and a yellow-eyed dark silver tabby's were too.
"You failed your Clans...", whispered the she-cat. The tom snapped his head up. "I couldn't do anything to save FireClan! And Sunfern did her best. Obviously it wasn't good enough, but my effort wasn't either." he snarled.
That explains the young appearances. "But why do I need to know this?"
A amber-eyed silver she-cat spoke up. "Because you will bear the next maji buu. And you must name her Nightfern."
Two weeks later the ThunderClan she-cat was captured by Twolegs.
Prologue 2~ Icefur
A stunning white she-cat slunk through the thick white-barked trees, carefully trying not to stand out as much as she usually did. She was running away from some Twolegs that had captured her a week ago, and she was scared that StarClan's message was going to come true.
She was going to bear the maji buu.
Thankfully, it was leaf-bare, and thick snow, whiter than her fur, was laid out on the forest floor. Behind her galloped a large gray tomcat, his black-tipped ears flicking as he stumbled over logs and crashed through ferns like a lovesick rat.
"Hey! Wait up! Who are you!?" called the tom, his dark blue eyes flicking with awe at the sight of this splendid specimen of felis catus. The white she-cat ignored him, her forest-green eyes flicking with fear. She had been traveling through this strange forest, unnoticed, until this idiot of a tomcat had found her and followed her.
The she-cat picked up the speed, her slender paws skimming across the ground. She had hoped this stupid tom would give up.
He didn't.
He actually only chased her with more ambition. Frustrated, the she-cat whirled around and hissed. The dark tom crashed into her, and they tumbled into the snow, spitting and snarling. Until the she-cat noticed she was the only one spitting and snarling. The stupid tom was looking at her with wonder in his eyes, like she was a pretty little kit who everyone admired. She scrambled over his muscular body and stood on his chest, unsheathing her claws. Putting them against his throat, just to make a point, she quietly whispered,
"Leave me alone." Her voice was full of pure hatred that the tomcat snapped his head back, stunned. She sheathed her claws again.
"I... I... I just wanted to...." he stammered, unable to say a sentence.
The white she-cat hissed in annoyance. When she was around toms, they usually responded like this one.
"Well?" she challenged. The white she-cat's fiery attitude got the tom's coherent thoughts back. "You were in my territory, and I saw you. Then I chased you out and you ran away. But you seemed... different, so I chased you."
He struggled to get up, and the white she-cat jumped off of him. He sat on his rump, flicking his tail and staring at her.
The she-cat was loosing patience with this fluff-brained tom that only seemed to care about her beauty. Her eyes danced with green flames, and she unsheathed her sharp claws again.
Sensing her fury, the dark grey tom hurried to explain. "Please! I just wanted to say hello. And maybe I can help you. I have food, shelter."
"Fine." Icefur sighed. "And thank you." she added curtly.
And to think that I'd fall in love with this dumb tom and bear the maji buu as his... though Icefur.
And that's exactly what happened.