“My paaawwws ache,” Streamsplash moaned. Hello, it’s me again, Airstreak. This is book four, so if you haven’t read Wind, Water, and Fire, this wont make any sense. “All of our paws ache, Mighty and new warrior,” said Ember fire sharply. “Stop moaning,” I said. We were going to the “Mountain of Thunderstones.” Starclan wanted us to find a cat for the prophesy there. “Yep,” Emberfire purred. “Even Airstreak agrees, and he’s a grumpy old turtle.” “You’d be grumpy too if you trained Streamsplash,” I said waspishly. Streamsplash made a humphing noise. But the truth was, our paws did ache. We’d been walking through the twoleg place for a while now, and we’d been attacked by roges six times, and counting. “But we can rest here,” I hastily added. We were following a dirty old creek. It was dirty, and old, but Streamsplash didn’t care. He walked right through it. I watched Emberfire through silted eyes. I’d been falling in love with her, I was sure. I didn’t care. She didn’t know, and I’m pretty sure she didn’t have feelings for me, but I couldn’t stop myself from falling for her, and trust me, I tried. And now I don’t know what to do, because I just can’t admit it to her. Emberfire is a strong cat. Falling and love- she might think of it as a weakness. I decided to move on soon. Although it wasn’t working very well. “You cats stay here,” I said. “I’m sick of this. SICK OF IT. We cannot walk that far. I’m flying there. I’ll be back.” I launched into the sky. Why does Emberfire hate love? I needed her. There was no other mate I wanted. I needed her. She filled my thoughts forever. I needed her. I needed her. I needed her. I needed her. I watched some cats for a while. And watched. And circled lower and lower so when I went limp and collapsed I wouldn’t hurt myself. I was thinking so hard about Emberfire, devising plots in my head to love her secretly, my eyes passed over a strange and beautify colored she cat. She was brown, and all shades of brown. Rich, tree bark, sandy, dead wood, dust, and otter brown at least. I went limp. And I fell on my side. And rolled a few paces. And stood up and shook myself. The brown she-cat stared for a while before gasping out: “W-who are you?” “I’m Airstreak,” I said. “I’m part of a prophecy, and I think you are to.” “I’m supposed to go with the birdcat,” said the brown she-cat. “That must be you. My name is Leaves.” “Ok, “ I said, grabbing her. “Hold on. We’re going for a ride!” I took off, making the wind aid my flight. Even with Leaves, it was easy with a big swell of air doing all the flying for me. Leaves was obviously enjoying herself. She squeaked and purred and pressed herself nearer to me. I think she may be in love with me. And that won’t work, because I like Emberfire. I couldn’t love anyone else. I couldn’t! I touched down with my friends. “Let’s go home,” I gasped. I skipped the journey again. Leaves got named “Leaftree” which is a stupid name to me, but she loves it. We took her to the Shining Stones, and she ran up and jammed her nose against the green crystal with out listening to us. She fainted with a gasp of pain. When she woke up, she showed us her tail with a shriek. It had a hook on the end. She followed up by running around in circles. “Soooo cooool!” she squealed. “Sooooo awesome!” We heard leaves falling ridiculously fast. “Plants!” Emberfire yelled. “She controls plants!” “No, life,” said Leaftree. “Animal life a lot less.” “Wuw,” said Streamsplash. “This could get interesting,” I moaned. By interesting, I meant scary. By scary, I meant utterly horrifying. I was right. It killed someone. Zoomstrike. It happened like this. I was on patrol with Leaftree and Zoomstrike. I was leading. When we reached the WindClan border, a fox leaped out of the bushes and attacked. I snapped a harsh wind in its face. It yowled and ran at me. I didn’t stand a chance, but I wasn’t normal. I figured if I needed to, I could fly. But nooooooooo.. Leaftree had to try out her new power. She ran right in front of the fox and said: “You’re gonna leave him alone now.” And the fox did. It whipped around and killed Zoomstrike. I leaped forwards, unfurled my wings fast and hard, and hit that fox like a whirlwind. Get it? Whirlwind? You don’t get it. I broke the fox’s neck, but the damage was done-Zoomstrike was gone. I knew it would kill Streamsplash (not literally). Zoomstrke was his sister. Streamsplash was crushed, but he understood that Zoomstrike had given her life for her clan. “StarClan,” he muttered to me. “Stop acting all guilty. Waterheart will probably say hi to her for me.” Snowburn took it worse. She avoided me constantly, never meeting my eyes, always muttering and talking about how she would have died for her sister, but then, almost the next day, the one of the happiest things in my life happened. I was sitting on the cliff top at night. I just had to fly, I hadn’t in a quarter moon. My wings were slack and my sides and I was taking one last scan of the area to make sure I wasn’t seen. I launched myself into the sky, dropping six feet and snapping my wings open. And StarClan, it felt good. I felt like I had extra energy form being cooped up to long. I felt myself flying with more speed and grace and power then ever before. I powered right up into the black starry sky. I trimmed one wing and swooped to the side, then I righted myself and watched the river go by on its shimmering path to who-knows-where. Grinning like an idiot, I slapped my wings down and went higher then I had in days. HA! I was ruler of this land. That’s how it felt, anyway. My wings had all the kinks worked out of them now, and it. Was. Bliss. I could see everything, I could see those sad, sad earthbound cats on land, in my camp and, from this high up, ThunderClan camp too. ShadowClan and WindClan camps are too well concealed for sky-high viewing. I looked n the river and saw my own reflection, silver wings stretched in joy. I the stars, and with a jolt, another cat! I folded my wings and fell, even though it was probably too late. I smashed into the river, which felt like rocks. I felt the breath woosh from my lungs, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I paddled to the surface and stared right into… Emberfire’s eyes. “Panic reaction?” she asked. “Maybeeeee,” I said. “Airstreak I really have to talk,” said Emberfire, as usual showing no emotion. “About what?” I said. “Leaftree,” said Emberfire. “Are you falling for her? I know, it’s just stupid, but Airstreak… I… I love you! And if your falling for that rash little control freak.” “Emberfire,” I whispered. “I’m falling for you.” “Air-Air,” she said. Then she leaped into the water and licked me. And then we were laughing and running as fast as we could, and I was flying in my heart too. Guess what? It’s really good. One guess. Okay, the answer is: The gooky part is over! Hurray! The next day I was exausted from my night out with Emberfire, and I was burning up with love, and Emberfire was acting normal. Like there was nothing between us, even if there was. What ever. She’s Emberfire! I was hunting with my friends as a pastime. Streamsplash was swimming like a nut job, doing water ballet, and catching fish at the same time. Lifetree’s catch was literally coming to sit at her paws. Creep-ee. “You know,” I said. “Do you think WindClan will stop attacking us now?” “No,” spat Emberfire, grinding her claws into the ground. “WindClan is attacking us?” asked Leaftree. “How horrible!” “Indeed,” said Streamsplash. “it is utterly horrible that WindClan wants a stretch of territory useless to them because it is across the twoleg bridge.” “Indeed” is Streamsplash’s new word. He says it in a really funny way, and he knows it. He says it constantly, and occasionally incorrectly. Emberfire rolled her eyes. “WindClan can all burn, if you ask me, the scrawny rabbit eaters.” “One Clan cannot survive without the others,” said Leaftree peacefully. “If ThunderClan didn’t survive, we could have the Sunning Rocks,” said Streamsplash wistfully. I rolled my eyes. “Right now, Streamsplash, we can already have the Sunning Rocks. They are currently ours.” “Indeed,” said Streamsplash. Leaftree made a noise like gafwa it made me want to gafwa, too. “Still,” said Streamsplash. “I kind of wish WindClan would leave us alone and go chase rabbits across someone else’s border. He had a point. WindClan was always hunting in big patrols, in order to find food on our territory, as well as too fight us. Suddenly, something seemed to snap in my head. “It’s going to happen soon!” I gasped. Somehow, I knew. WindClan would engage us in a fatal battle, that would change the course of RiverClan. It would happen soon. My eyes rolled, and I saw a vision. I was standing alone on the top of a huge rock. All the cats of any clan, I could see Fallenstorm from RiverClan, Nightstrike of WindClan, Silverstar of Thunderclan, Foxfoot of ShadowClan. I looked to the side of the rock and started. One side was dark and dead. Nothing lived. The ground was scarlet with blood, and stained and bleached bones littered the ground. The other side… well, I guess that’s how StarClan territory looked like. I head Silverstar’s voice: “Airstreak? Which way?” Then everything was black… End of Book Four
