I entered the den, walking down the ramp like entrance. Inside was very cool and shady and less stuffy than the burrow dens would normally be as it had the holes at the top, letting in fresh air.
It was very large and spacious, and in the middle stood two she-cats.

The one on the left was a bit bigger and older looking. She was a white fluffy cat with grey patches including her ears and a vertical line down both her sky blue eyes. She had what appeared to be a flower crown over her left ear. She seemed to be around three years old.

The she-cat on the right was younger and a bit smaller, and though she was fluffy it wasn't as noticeable as the cat on the left. She was a shiny white and looked extremely clean and healthy, her fur having a healthy shine to it. She had hazel eyes and a flower crown that sat in the middle of her head and carried half way down her neck.

Both she-cats were very pretty and clean. But something far back in my memory came back to me as I looked at their flower crowns. I had remembered my mother telling me stories of her clan in HomeValley, and how the tradition was if the Master of the Home Clan was a female she would wear a flower crown and the daughter and mother of the Master would also wear one. I remember mother telling me sadly how she always wished she could wear one, and she still thought till this day that if my father had become Master as he would've if the Home Clan hadn't left, she'd have been able to wear one. I remembered being around three months old when she told me. I had then busied myself for the next few days making her a flower crown. It was very frail, delicate and messy but she wore it every day even after the flowers died. She only stopped wearing it when the flowers had all fallen off and all that remained was the two twisted vines that I used as the base of the crown.

So the older she-cat must've been the Master, or Mistress, while the younger was her daughter.
"Mistress, Young Mistress." Honey said in greeting.
"Who's this Honey?" the younger she-cat asked looking in my direction.
The older she-cat, the Mistress, looked at me curiously. She was frowning slightly as if trying to remember something she had forgotten a long time ago.
"You look like.." She began to mumble.
"What's that mother?" her daughter asked and the Mistress shrugged.
"Oh nothing.. Who's this Honey?"

"My name is BlueWhiskers" I replied.
"She's Flamingheart and Pounce's daughter." Honey added.
That's when the Mistress's face changed to recognition. "So you are! I knew you looked like your father!" she exclaimed.
"I am Mistress of the Peace Clan. My name is GoldenLotus."
But why? Where was my uncle? Uncle Smoketail had said he was Master of the Peace Clan. I had to assume my grandfather had to have passed away or passed his job of Master down to his son.

"My name is Medallion, I'm the Young Mistress, or daughter of the Mistress. I guess this is the first time either of us has met our cousin before." she said with a warm smile. Cousin?! I had a cousin? So she must be my Uncle Ashfur's daughter, and the Mistress is his mate. That'd make sense.
"Cousin... Oh, I didn't realise I had one. Nice meeting you." I replied nervously.

"So what are you doing here BlueWhiskers? Where's your brother? Where's your mother?" the Mistress, GoldenLotus asked.
"Oh uh, I left them at HomeValley to save it from the dogs." I said.
"The dogs?! So they're gone? HomeValley is safe again?" she asked and I shrugged.
"I think so."
"And you came all this way on your own?" Medallion asked. "Uh... Well no.." I sighed sadly. "I actually was travelling with my best friend.. He was a dog from the intruders in HomeValley. He helped me get rid of them. He didn't really want to be there you see. I can't have gotten this far without him.." I sighed.
"So a dog from the intruders helped you?" GoldenLotus asked.
"That's right. I stayed in the Horizon Clan with him for awhile before... Well I... I was accused of doing something I didn't.. Me and a few other kittens.. We were banished and he left the pack so he could stay with me. Then we stayed together at Uncle Smoketail's den. But once I decided to come here... Well he couldn't come.. " I said sadly. Guilt was creeping up inside me. He came all this way, just for me...
"Why couldn't he come?" GoldenLotus asked. "Oh well.. Because this is a cats only clan." I replied. "Well we couldn't deny a dog that went through so much just to get you here! We aren't that strict! This is the Peace Clan after all." GoldenLotus said.

"Wait what!? You'd let him stay?" I asked, my heart filling up with excitement and hope. "Just because he's your friend" she replied. I smiled, excited and nervous.
What if he had left Uncle Smoketail's already?
"Where is your friend? I can send my Patrollers to find him if you like." GoldenLotus said and I nodded quickly, lost for words. He had to have still been there right?

"Honey, could you get the Patrollers please?" GoldenLotus asked Honey nodded and padded out of the den.
"So does that mean... I can stay?" I asked. "Well of course, I can't reject family." GoldenLotus said, smiling.
"But um.. Can I ask something please?" I started cautiously.
"Fire away."
"Um.. Where's Uncle Ashfur..? Uncle Smoketail told me he was Master here.." I asked, hoping beyond hope that there would be a positive answer, but I was met by the two she-cats pretty faces turning dark and sad.

"He..he.." GoldenLotus started but Medallion continued for her.
"He's gone." she said and my heart felt as if it had been stabbed. Gone?! I hadn't even got to meet him yet!
"What? How? It must've been recently, Uncle Smoketail didn't know about this!" I said in shock.
"No he didn't... It wasn't long ago.. Maybe a few weeks ago.. You see, strange things have been happening lately, and they had been getting worse.. Father started acting weird and then strange things started happening afterwards.." Medallion said with a look of discomfort and she looked a bit afraid too.
"Strange things... Like what?" I asked. It can't have been like what was happening in the Horizon Clan right?
"Well.. First we were finding prey killed but not eaten, it was terrible. Then our Patrollers started to go missing, all that was left of them was a trail of blood. Their fellow Patrollers said they had seen something coming out of the darkness, what looked like a shadow. All they could see was its yellow eyes. It was fast and powerful and would pick them off, and they could barely see it, so there was no fighting back. Only few would return alive. Some of them had seen their fellow Patrollers killed before their eyes, but when we returned next day to find the body it was gone. Just the trail of blood. After that we stopped sending out Patrollers. But it started to get our Scouts after that, and our Hunters. So many of us had died. We found a body once, it was shredded by what must've been an animal with razor sharp teeth and claws. When we thought it couldn't get any worse, my father started acting even more strange, the whole ordeal was really distressing him. He was always deep in thought, he never ate, never slept. Then one day he hugged me and told me everything would be okay, I thought he was just taking this situation the worst because it was his responsibility to keep us safe, so I didn't think an awful lot about this at the time, I just added it to the list of his strange behaviours lately. But the next day I decided I should encourage him to talk to me, to get some weight off his chest. But when we went to find him.. He.. Well.. Some witnesses said they saw him enter the forest the night that night with a rope vine.. Well, when we went in the forest looking for him we found..blood..and the rope hanging from a tree.. "
No...
"He.. He must've killed himself.. Or sacrificed himself to whatever that thing was.. Because, after that, it stopped coming.."
My heart was beating fast. It was Shadow. The Black Ghost. It had been here too. And my uncle had hung himself in the midst of the forest as a sacrifice to the Black Ghost..

"But like I said, there's no need to worry.. After father died the killing stopped...we started sending out our Patrollers, Hunters and Scouts again and nothing has happened. I don't know what that was, but I think it is gone.." Medallion said with a sad smile.

"How..how many died?" I asked.
"fifteen if I remember correctly", Medallion replied. Fifteen? This was worse than the Horizon Clan, it must've been going on for far longer..

"But we shouldn't be worrying about any of this dark nonsense now" said the Mistress, GoldenLotus.
"Ah..yes of course" I said, shuffling my paws, "I'm sorry to bring up such a sensitive topic."
But Mistress GoldenLotus was shaking her head before I could even finish my sentence. "Don't feel sorry, you may not have known him, but he was your uncle after all, you had the right to know."
"what about Uncle Smoketail?" I asked, with a slight edge of accusation in my tone that I hadn't intended for, but didn't apologise for either.
Mistress GoldenLotus sighed, a sigh that seemed full of sadness and guilt. "I should tell him, I know I should, but I just can't bring myself to tell him his own brother died in such a gruesome way. I can't bring myself to see his happiness fade. I know it's selfish, but I'm trying to delay it for the longest I possibly can, to save us both the pain."

April Bluebird/BlueWhiskers1.
BlueWhiskers 2; Awakening Shadows.
Chapter 14
21.Nov.2021
1744 words.