(The long awaited) Forbidden Shadows Chapter 15 Part 2!

There was a piercing agony in Stormcloud's head. She wanted to see who was murmuring above her in hushed and concerned voices; however, she didn't dare open her eyes for fear that the sudden bright light would pain her head more.

So she stayed still. This worried Bluejay to the brink of mental destruction.

He stared down at her with prying eyes that wanted desperately to see that she was okay. Suddenly his ears pricked. "Was I imagining her paw twitching?"

A cat - Bluejay couldn't tell who - answered, "I think I saw it too."

"Yeah, I saw it."

"My eyes don't lie."

The chorus of quiet voices soothed Bluejay because of the fact that they were all reassuring. His exhausted eyes finally rose to re-explore his surroundings. The shady sky's grey clouds had covered the meek sun. This resulted in the formerly golden stalks of wheat to seem a gray-yellow color. The trees on the very far side of the field were bare of leaves as autumn settled in to take over. Everything seemed bleak, cold and barren. Bluejay shivered.

When Stormcloud had tripped and landed in the heat of the battle, Bluejay had heard her terrified scream. It had made his heart shiver, and still did at the mere thought of it. After that paralyzing scream, the fighting cats had stopped their huge quarrel in surprise. Their leader was back! And they'd injured her blindly, not knowing she wasn't an enemy.

 Bluejay had taken advantage of the pause and rushed forward to reunite his travelers. They had explained they'd all had dreams that convinced them to crazily attempt to take over and lead in Bluejay and Stormcloud's absence. They were so convincing that every last one of them - even the kittens and their mothers - began an argument that became a full-blown war.

Then, Bluejay calmed them to peace and they forgot all about their strange power-seeking dreams. The lot of them were so concerned for Stormcloud that they gathered around her in order to wait to see if she'd wake from her unconsciousness.

It now seemed Stormcloud was doing so. Slowly, her eyes opened and saw all the happy faces around her. The herbs that had healed her during her unconsciousness made all pain she had (save for the headache) diminish. And finally, she was perfectly okay.

"Stormcloud! I'm so glad you're alive!" exclaimed Bluejay, purring uncontrollably.

Stormcloud stood to her feet, purring also, and accidentally touched noses with Bluejay. She jerked backwards awkwardly, blushing. He did the same, and neither of them spoke for a minute. But none of the other cats had really noticed.

~1 hour later~

Stormcloud kept stealing glances at Bluejay beside her as they continued traveling to the Forest of Forbidden Shadows. Bluejay stole glances at Stormcloud as well, and when their eyes met, they quickly averted their gazes back ahead of them again, embarrassed.

They had no idea who was behind them, but when they all sensed they were being followed, they turned and saw a blurry image of a cat on the horizon. They all sighed in relief when the cat moved closer. It didn't have the dark tawny striped pelt that Hawkscreech had. In fact, it was a silvery cat. Both the omen leaders recognized her instantly.

"What in the world is Moon doing here?" asked Bluejay. In reply, Stormcloud shrugged.

They waited patiently until Moon had fully made her way to the cats. Bluejay greeted her, "Hello, Moon. What brings you here?" But Moon gave no reply, just kept walking forward until she stood face to face with Stormcloud.

And then she leaped.