A/N Nice job, reader! You have reached the last chapter of this book. Yes, I already have started on the next book, so please and go check it out! What am I planning for it, you ask? Well, first I want longer chapters. I feel like these chapters are getting a little too short, so that will be a definite. Secondly, the actual story will be longer, probably twenty or twenty five chapters long, not fifteen. And lastly, I am planning to put a little more effort into it, because I have finished a full book and feel like I need to make it better than the first somehow. This is going to be a series, actually, three books long. I hope you won't miss Curl too much when the series finishes. Anyways, I just wanted to thank ALL of you guys for voting and reading and commenting, it helps me SOO much. I wish you all good reading! Curl, out.
~Curl

I looked up. Nothing. Or was it nothing?

I was in a white . . . what do you even call it? A box? A room? It was nothing. But in the distance, a tiny fleck of silver glinted. I looked behind me to see if there was any others of them, and when I turned back, a cat was in front of me. I jumped.

"Hollypaw? Oh thank StarClan you're here! Where are we?" Her image seemed to flicker for a second. "Hollypaw?"

Her eyes trained onto mine, and suddenly, I felt my heart stop. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. I was choking. My legs buckled beneath me, and pain enveloped me. But when I opened my eyes again, what seemed only a second later, I was in a forest.

A dark forest.

I was getting scared by now. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. First I was in a battle . . . then I was in the white place, and now suddenly, I'm in a forest. What is happening to me? I got up, determined to put an end to this dream thing. A thought occurred.

I padded around the thick foliage and underbrush as I looked for what I wanted. After some time, I found what I was searching for. A river flowed beyond me, though I wasn't so sure if it was actually a river. The water was black and sluggish and dirty. In fact, it didn't even look like water. I took a deep breath and was about to step in, intending to wake up from the dream by killing myself - surely it would work? - when a tail was laid on my shoulder.

I started and whipped my head aside to see a cat. She looked vaguely familiar, and her scent stirred something inside me. She had dark ginger fur and shining green eyes, reminding me of Firestar. It struck me. This was Squirrelflight, the cat who had been deputy before Lionblaze, the cat who had been killed in a border scuffle. I faintly remember her body lying in the middle of the clearing, my littermates and I being the first discoverers.

"Squirrelflight?"

Her eyes glinted sadly. "Curl - I mean Curlpaw, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here yet." I opened my mouth to protest that I wasn't exactly happy to be here either when the she-cat shook her head. "Never mind that, we need to get you out of here before they find you."

I was tempted to find out who "they" were, but deep down I had a feeling of dread. This was the Dark Forest. I had figured that much out, at least. This was the place where your worst nightmares came to life, and innocent cats that had died in the Clans were being sent here. I shivered, hoping that when I die, someday, I won't have to go to this terrible place.

Squirrelflight led me around a grove of trees, past the sluggish river, and up a group of boulders to the edge of the forest. Beyond the treeline, or what looked like a treeline, was a forest. But this forest was the ThunderClan forest, with its bright green undergrowth, tall trees, and sweet crisp air. Relieved, I passed the line, expecting Squirrelflight to follow. When I looked back though, she was still standing at the border between the Dark Forest and ThunderClan territory.

"Come on," I told her. She gave a sad shake of her head and opened her mouth to say something when a dark black shadow ascended upon her back. Squirrelflight started to shiver and whimper in fear, and looked to the ground. I had a feeling she knew what was going to happen next.

But before it happened, she whimpered out the prophecy that destined me to save the clans. "Battles will rage, cats will die, but in the end, curled silence will-"

The shadow interrupted her. "Die."

***

My eyelids flew open. The dream was already fluttering away, as all dreams do, but the ominous re-written prophecy still lingered in the air. It still echoed through my head as I stood up and stretched, then looked around. I realized I was not in the apprentice den, I had slept in Jayfeather's den. I spotted dried blood on my pelt, covered with a layer of salve from Jayfeather's herbs and berries.

Now I recalled what had happened. The battle. The she-cat. The fight. I shivered at how strong she was for her size, nine or so moons I guessed. The nursery tales about ShadowClan's viciousness must be true then.

"Curlpaw!" I cocked my head over to where the excited meow had come from, to see Stormpaw and a lingering Hollypaw at the entrance to the cave. My brother rushed up to me and nuzzled my flank. "You've been asleep for two sunrises," he explained. "Our warrior ceremony is taking place at the half-moon, at least that is if you can take the assessment and pass. Bramblestar wasn't so sure that you would be up and going by then." I thought I detected Stormpaw's whiskers drop a little, presumably at the thought of me delaying the whole ceremony. Bramblestar would want all of us promoted as one.

I glanced at the waxing moon, and to my disappointment, found it a large crescent. The half-moon would be only a few sunrises away. A silence quieter than the early morning camp passed between us, before Stormpaw broke the tenuous silence. "It's okay, I don't want you to re-open your wounds-"

"No, Stormpaw, no. I will train and I will not let my stupid injuries keep us from becoming warriors."

My brother's gray pelt turned to silver as the rays of the growing morning sun stretched across my home. The moon still floated in its place, forever taunting me of how much time I had left. Tediously, I stretched out my back leg, testing the strength in it. It protested a bit, but after two days of staying curled up in a ball, the air hitting it felt nice, and I felt I could run to RiverClan with the new strength pulsing through my veins.

Stormpaw left the cave with a farewell, leaving Hollypaw still hovering three tail-lengths away, scowling as usual. I had forgotten about her.

Slowly, I inched toward, before I stopped. This was my sister. Who did I think she was? It's not like she's going to hurt me. Or is she?

I shook the thoughts away and bounded to the silvery pelt, my muscles starting to throb again, and pressed my muzzle to her's. Instantly Hollypaw shrunk away, a glint of fear shining in her eyes. Quickly, I stole a few glances around the camp, then turned back to her. "What's your problem? I wake up from a possibly life-threatening sleep that I had been in for two days, and all you give me this?" I spat the last word in her face. Hollypaw let out a growl that rumbled deep in her throat. Before she could so on, I continued. "You used to be fun to play with when we were kits, but now all you ever do is skulk around the camp, hiding in the shadows. What have you been doing? I saw you almost murder Birchfall, all those moons ago. I see you sneak out of camp sometimes, when you think everyone is asleep. What happened to you?"

My sister opened her mouth as if she wanted to speak, but closed it again, her face remaining blank.

Anger stronger than I had ever felt before bubbled up inside me, threatening to blow. And then it did. "I don't even consider you family! You're not my sister you used to be, or will ever be. StarClan sent me a dream long ago. I knew all along what you were doing to us." Tears welled up in my eyes, but I ignored them, not knowing if they were from anger or from what I knew. "I knew that the Dark Forest was sending cats that died, that deserved to go to StarClan, to the Dark Forest. Recruiting them. Training them. Torturing them until they were afraid of their own shadows. But the one thing I didn't know was who was leading them. Tigerstar was dead.

"But then one night, StarClan came to me. They sent me to a battlefield where all of the Clans as one Clan were charging toward the Dark Forest cats. They clashed and fought, but it was over in seconds. The Dark Forets cats had brutally murdered every single one of the Clan cats, down to the smallest kit. All of the Dark Forest cats survived, of course. But that wasn't the important message StarClan had in mind. They may destroy the Clans, but you know who was leading them into and out of the battle?" She didn't answer. "Do you?" Hollypaw stayed silent.

"It was you, Hollypaw. You were leading the Dark Forest cats to destroy the Clans. You are the new Tigerstar."

***

I could never look at my sister the same way. She continued to slink around the camp walls, unfazed by my knowledge that she was leader of the Dark Forest. How did that happen anyways? She was still an apprentice. The Dark Forest must have been as desperate as ShadowClan was when Nightstar became leader. A small fizz of pride spread throughout me, that my Clan had defeated the Dark Forest. But it quickly dissolved. We would have to beat them again if the Clans expected to last to future generations.

I hadn't decided yet if I should tell my mentor about Hollypaw. I highly doubted he would believe an apprentice. He thought that everyone was safe from the enemy, and had dispersed when the Clans had beaten it. He thought wrong.

If only I could convince him to taking a journey to the Moonpool. I had heard that StarClan visits leaders there in times of difficulties when the leader needed starry guidance, but Bramblestar didn't think he needed it. That was the problem.

Finally, I had made a decsicion. I got to my paws and limped over to Highledge. Slowly, I dragged myself up the ledge to Bramblestar's den. It was sunhigh. The clearing was buzzing was activity and the dull hum of voices. It was so peaceful. If only I could be normal, and lift the burden of knowledge off my shoulders. I turned to Bramblestar's den and called to him.

"Come in, Curlpaw." I padded through the doorway, and was surprised to see Lionblaze and Jayfeather there. I looked at my leader's amber eyes, so relaxed. I told him everything about Hollypaw, and my dreams from StarClan, from Firestar coming to me to Squirrelflight saving me. In the end, his eyes had become ipa bit more determined now, but not surprised. I figured he had expected this. I asked if he believed me.

"Oh Curlpaw. I expect you think I don't believe you. I do, in fact. But you need not to worry, this is what you were born for. The Dark Forest will rise again, and we will defeat them again."

"Really?"

He sighed. "I cannot tell the future of the Clans, Curlpaw. But if we really are destined to go down, then we're not going down without a fight."