"Now, what did you see?" Birdsong asked, looking at Northstar and Ozzy. All of her clanmates were in a ring around her, Birdsong standing in the ring right infront of her and Ozzy sitting beside her. Her deputy was talking to her like a kit, but she was still to frightened to care.
"Ozzy and I were hunting," She began, her voice shaking slightly. "And I wasn't catching much."
"I found her after catching a seagull. It's wing had been litterally torn to shreds. I suggested we go to the drop off." He explained. "Northstar was worried it was some sort of sign Talonclaw had sent us."
"I asked him where he though Talonclaw was, and apparently, he was at the drop-off," Northstar meowed.
"He looked like he had been mauled. He had scratches on his belly, his haunches, his shoulder, down his face, and in an X on his chest. The fur on his neck was ripped off and was clawed badly too. His ear was torn, his left eye was swollen shut, and he only had half his tail left." Northstar really wished Ozzy hadn't reminded her.
"He told us to run, and then a young, lithe black she-cat with ice blue eyes leapt out, barreled him over, and...and killed him." Northstar meowed.
"She said her name was Bless, and she wasn't afraid to give it away," Ozzy added.
"She said we should take his advice, and then I ran." Northstar finished.
"But that's not all that happened," Ozzy said, turning his yellow gaze on her. "She looked at my seagull and asked if she had finished off the hunt she'd started. She stepped forward, and I didn't want to hear what else she had to say, so I went after you."
Birdsong nodded. "Did anyone ever see this Bless cat or Talonclaw?" Northstar was glad her deputy was taking over for her. She was still shaking and she didn't really think she could address the Clan like that.
After a long pause, someone spoke up. "I have..." Everyone turned to look at Heatherfur.
"Really?" Birdsong asked.
The medicine cat nodded. "When we were at the island, she came. She was only about 6 moons old. She appeared out of no where and mauled Meadowflower. I came out to see what was going on, but by then, Meadowflower was dead and Bless was tearing Thrushfeather apart." She meowed.
"Cloudshadow came and started pushing me towards the edge of the island, but I was fighting, trying to find out what was going on. He pushed me into the water, and that's when I got a good look at her. She leaped out from behind Cloudshadow, and in his fear and surprise, he let her shove her to the ground. I started swimming desperately towards the other side, and when I pulled myself onto the bank and turned around, Cloudshadow was dead, and she had disappeared."
"Heatherfur, why did you never say so?" Birdsong asked.
"Because...because I was trying to tell myself it wasn't real," The ginger-and-white she-cat whispered, her voice shaking.
"She did tell me," Cinderpaw meowed. "But she had to explain the nightmares that always woke both of us up."
"We have to do something," Snaketalon meowed.
"Obviously, we have to kill this cat!" Larkpaw exclaimed.
"It won't be that simple," Cactuspelt pointed out.
"Because she'll come and kill us all!" Heatherfur wailed.
Northstar felt ice freeze over her pelt, because like Heatherfur, she believed that to be true. "Heatherfur, you're overreacting," Ozzy meowed. Then he added in a hushed voice, "You know as well as I do that Northstar is unstable. We can't go around saying Bless will come to kill us."
Northstar didn't want to hear anymore of this. She turned tail and ran, shoving past the gathered cats and disappeared in her nest. She heard cats murmuring in the clearing, but she did her best to shut it out. She circled in her nest then plopped down in the moss, curling up into a tight ball. Something poked into her side, but she didn't flinch.
She looked up when she heard pawsteps, and was surprised to see Ozzy. He leaned down and pciekd up a large bramble trendil. "Did you not feel it, because it was stabbing into your side. It looks like it was from the den wall. I'll patch that up tomorrow for you, if you like." He meowed, clearly trying to take her mind off Bless, though it wasn't working.
When Northstar didn't respond he asked, "Northstar, are you ok?"
Northstar thought through everything that had happened to her, and the anwser was simple.
"No,"