Meanwhile at the castle:

"Try to get some rest..." Leafpool murmured as she padded away from the bed. She stopped a few feet away by the others, Sandstorm and Squirrelflight on their little cart, Greystripe and Silverstream near the foot of the bed, and Ravenpaw next to them.

"Thank you, Leafpool." Sandstorm meowed.

"We are eternally grateful." Greystripe added.

"Why do you care about him so much?" Leafpool asked.

"We've looked after him all his life." Sandstorm said simply.

"But he's cursed you somehow? Why? You did nothing?" Leafpool still felt that same confused feeling, and she was quite tempted to ask about the painting she'd seen in the West Wing.

"Oh you're quite right there deary." Sandstorm's eye began to fill with tears. "You see, when Crowfeather lost his mother Ashfoot, and his cruel father took that sweet, innocent kit, and twisted him up to be just like him, we did nothing. The only cat who really did anything was his best friend, my daughter. But it was no use. Oh he was only six moons old!"

Leafpool looked at Squirrelflight, but the tea cup just glanced off to the side, avoiding eye contact.

"Let him sleep." Silverstream whispered, and the group exited the room.

...

It was a dark night, and little six month old Crowfeather stood beside his sick mother's bed, praying for her to wake up, but the grey she-cat's eyes remained closed, as Crowfeather felt a sob in his little throat.

"🎶 Days in the sun, when my life's just barely begun, not until my whole life is done, will I ever leave you... 🎶" Crow sang the old lullaby his mother would sing to him every night before bed, hoping she would hear and wake up. But he got no response.

Soon his father came in and brought him out and to his empty bedroom, where he collapsed onto his bed and sobbed.

Leafpool padded up to the doorway, poking her light brown head inside the room and looking at her friend.

"Blackbird?" She whispered, and he looked up and his jaw was shaking.

Leafpool padded over and hopped onto his bed, pulling him into a hug as he sobbed into her chest.

She sat and cried with him, no words needed to be spoken to know the pain they both shared for the deceased queen. She was dead, and now they both sat together and grieved, holding each other, and feeling a sense of comfort at each other's scents.

They sat like that for the rest of the night, eventually falling asleep and dreaming of beautiful, sunny days when life was good.

...

Now in the present time, Brakenfur played the beautiful melody of that very same lullaby, Silverstream and Greystripe dancing along as he sang;

"🎶 Will I tremble again, to my dear one's gorgeous refrain? 🎶"

Silverstream and Greystripe began adding their vocals. "🎶 Will you now, forever remain, out of reach of my arms? 🎶"

Soon Sandstorm began singing along.

"🎶 All those days in the sun, what I'd give to relive just one! Undo what's done, and bring back, the light! 🎶"

Soon even Sorreltail awoke from her seemingly endless slumber and partook in the group's passionate singing.

"🎶 Oh, I could sing, of the pain these dark days bring. The spell we're under, but still it's the wonder of us, I sing off tonight! 🎶"

"🎶 How in the midst of all this sorrow, can so much hope and love endure? 🎶" Leafpool soon partook in all of the beautiful singing happening throughout the castle. "🎶 I was innocent, but certain. Now I'm wiser, but unsure! I can't go back into my childhood, one that my father made secure... oh I can feel a change in me, I'm stronger now, but still not free! 🎶"

"🎶 Days in the sun, will return, we must believe! As lovers do, days in the sun, will come shining through! 🎶"

Leafpool looked at the bell jar with the rose inside it, and asked; "What happens when the last petal falls?"

"Crowfeather will remain a beast forever." Greystripe meowed sadly. "And we become..."

"Antiques." Sandstorm said.

"Knick knacks." Greystripe shrugs.

"Lightly used houseware." Silverstream sighs.

"Oh just call it what it is!" Ravenpaw grumbled. "Rubbish, we become rubbish."

Leafpool felt her eyes prick with tears at the thought of these sweet innocent cats becoming forgotten objects, barely ever used.

"That's horrible." Leafpool choked out.

"Life, can be horrible dear." Sandstorm sighed. "Sometimes we just have to deal with it."

"Well I want to help you!" Leafpool meowed. "There has to be some way to break the curse!"

"Well there is one way-" but Greystripe was cut off by Ravenpaw elbowing him, as if to say that it was not the time or place.

"It's not something you need to worry about darling, we've made our bed, and we must lie in it." Sandstorm says as her cart rolls out of the room.

And then, yet another petal fell, and the castle shook.

839 words, sorry this was so short but I really wanted to get this out!

Bye! And thanks for reading!

-Vaeh