#chestnutsprout

“Oh,” Sagetooth said simply. 

“Yeah,” Poppyblaze grimaced. “I’m sorry old friend. I wasn’t expecting to come for you for a while.” 

Sagetooth’s gaze drifted down to the apprentice laying beside her own body, over which she now stood. “She died to protect me,” she said. “Poor kit.” 

“She gave quite the fight for her age,” hummed Poppyblaze. “Are you alright if I wake her now? We really should be going.” 

“Of course,” Sagetooth said, then inhaled sharply with memory. “Wait, I have to check on something!” She quickly hopped over the flowers woven around her feet and headed for the healers’ den at a brisk pace. 

“Don’t go far!” Poppyblaze hissed worriedly. “It’s not safe!” Sagetooth twitched an ear dismissively and continued into the den. There was nothing that would hurt her here and she had important things to do. 

As she stepped into the den, the blood that covered the floor made her pause. Even though every scent felt like it was miles away, she could pick up on the pungent odor of blood and urine -- and not just the expected amount of urine that came with the dead. Stepping further in, she found the herb stores in disaster, every herb tossed to the floor, shredded, and sprayed by the rogues. She curled her lip in disgust.

“Honorless brutes,” she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. Turning away from that mess, she marched purposefully around the corner to Oddstripe’s empty nest and sighed in relief when she saw the small lump underneath the back corner. The horsetail and juniper she had hidden there was safe. She had no doubt Oddstripe would find it eventually. There wouldn’t be another death like Nightfrosts. 

Set at ease, she turned back and padded out into the clearing where Poppyblaze was standing with Lakepaw’s spirit in the middle of the circle of mourners. Poor Lakepaw was softly weeping into the guide’s starry fur. 

Sagetooth padded over and said, “There, there, Lakepaw. It’s going to be alright.” 

Lakepaw looked up at the sound of her voice and sniffled. “I’m so sorry, Sagetooth,” she whined. “I promise I tried my best.” 

“I know,” Sagetooth smiled. “You were a brave warrior.” Lakepaw sniffled again and rubbed a paw over her face, managing to return her smile, just a bit. 

“Alright, now, let’s be quick,” said Poppyblaze. “This place isn’t safe.”

“How so?” Sagetooth scowled. “I’ve never heard of anything dangerous in StarClan.” 

“We’re not in StarClan,” Poppyblaze explained, leading they over to the Stoneperch. “We’re in a place called the Parallel. It’s the place where the spirit and the physical meet, and right now, Razor’s ghost is prowling around it somewhere.” 

“What?” Sagetooth couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How is that possible?! Only Clan cats move on to the afterlife.” 

“Oh, Sage,” Poppyblaze shook her head. “There’s so much you don’t know about the universe.” Sagetooth bristled indignantly. If there was knowledge out there, why hadn’t StarClan shared it with her? Why hadn’t Poppyblaze told her about it before? 

With a flick of her tail, Poppyblaze sent a shower of stars into the sky, leading up in a series of platforms, and said, “This way! Let’s get climbing.” 

“Wowzers,” breathed Lakepaw and Poppyblaze chuckled. 

“I like you, kid,” she purred. “Now, come on.” She gave Lakepaw’s rump a nudge with her nose and the apprentice hopped up, easily leaping from platform to platform into the sky. Sagetooth hesitated, shifting her weight. 

“You can’t make a slope of some kind?” she asked. 

Poppyblaze laughed and said, “Just give me one jump, yeah?” 

Sagetooth sighed, grumbling under her breath, and bunched her legs beneath her. It had been a long time since she’d properly jumped and she was not looking forward to it. Still, if Razor was loose somewhere around here, she’d be much better suited to jumping than fighting him. She leapt and was amazed to find herself easily and painlessly landing on the first platform. Her eyes sparkled in wonder and she glanced down at Poppyblaze who laughed again.

“See? You don’t have a body anymore so no more joint pain! Pretty cool, huh?” 

“It’s very nice, yes,” Sagetooth purred to herself, stretching out each leg experimentally. 

“Great, now let's go, go, go,” urged Poppyblaze, hopping up beside her. Sagetooth nodded and started ascending. She was buzzing giddily at the freedom in her movements, in the way she could coordinate her limbs and move them without the aching resistance she had grown used to for the last few years. 

Over their heads, Lakepaw cried out, “Wowzers! Look at the world from up here!” 

“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” grinned Poppyblaze. The higher they climbed, the more Sagetooth had to agree. The world was a stunning mess of mauves rustling in the breeze. A hint of orange had just started to peek over the eastern horizon and the contrast took Sagetooth’s breath away. 

“Hey, what’s that?” Lakepaw asked. 

“Hm?” Poppyblaze perked her ears. She and Sagetooth followed the apprentice’s gaze to the south. Standing in the grass, not too far from camp, several smudges of glowing red broke up the peaceful purple landscape. 

“Oh, that’s not good,” Poppyblaze swallowed. 

“Razor?” Sagetooth asked. 

“Yeah, I think so. I’m going to check it out. I need you to stay here, okay?” She looked at both of them sternly and said, “Don’t go up without me and don’t try to go down under any circumstances, understood?” 

“Yeah,” Lakepaw’s fur was standing on end as she nodded.

“Absolutely not,” Sagetooth huffed. “I’m coming with you.” 

“Oh, Sage, my stubborn, stubborn friend,” Poppyblaze’s expression was some mixture of distress and admiration. “Now really isn’t the time for this.” 

“If it isn’t safe for me to go along then you shouldn’t be going, you reckless fool,” Sagetooth stood her ground.

Poppyblaze sighed. “I guess that’s a fair point. Alright, fine. Stay here, Lakepaw, we’ll be back soon.” 

“Okay,” Lakepaw’s voice was shaky. “Please be safe.” 

“We will be,” Sagetooth assured her, then looked at Poppyblaze and gestured for her to lead the way. Poppyblaze took a careful step forward into the open air and when her paws moved away, there were starry platforms in their wake. Sagetooth fell into step behind her and they set out over the fields towards the red shapes. 

As they drew closer, Sagetooth started to make out the silhouettes of cats. A tall grey tabby stood in the center of the group, flanked by a cream tabby she-cat, a black-furred tom with white paws, and a pair of blue and white cats with notches in their ears. All five of them had the same shimmery pelts as StarClan but the stars were red tinged or dull and grey. 

“What are so many cats doing in the Parallel?” Poppyblaze whispered to herself, halting to observe them from a short distance behind and a tree’s length above. 

“That big one, is Razor, yes?” Sagetooth asked in the same hushed tone. She’d never seen the rogue’s body, too busy with healing the wounded, but she had heard the stories. She could see the gaping wound in his throat dripping ichor as he hunched over in the grass. He looked like stories of Dark Forest ghosts but that didn’t make any sense to her.

“Mhm,” nodded Poppyblaze. “He destroyed Darkmoon and EarthClan’s guide and tried to destroy me.” 

“What’s he doing?” asked Sagetooth. Both she and Poppyblaze squinted at Razor who was doing something with his paws over a space of fresh churned earth. He hooked his claws into something and pulled up dragging a new glowing red shape up from the dirt. In horror, Sagetooth watched the face of a cat burst from the ground, choking and gasping for air as Razor hoisted his spirit up by the scruff. The cat scrambled to his feet and stared around, eyes wide, chest heaving, and Razor smiled with a deep rumbling purr that Sagetooth could just barely hear. 

“Welcome to the land of the not quite living, Harry, ” he said, slapping the new cat on the back. 

“Oh, no,” Poppyblaze swallowed. “This is bad. This is very bad. Where’s Bakari?” 

“Who?” Sagetooth couldn’t help but ask. 

“What’s going on? Where are we?” the newly dead cat panted. “Who are they?” Sagetooth’s stomach dropped as he looked directly up at her and Poppyblaze. Razor cocked his head and turned in their direction. When he saw them, a terrible smile spread across his face, made all the more gruesome by the ichor seeping between his teeth. 

“Oh, look,” he purred and the whole group of cats turned to look at them, “It’s my little friend. I never did catch your name, sweetheart.” 

Poppyblaze bristled and twitched her tail against Sagetooth’s flank. “We’re leaving,” she whispered. “Now.” Sagetooth didn’t need any further prompting, quickly, she twisted on the starry platforms and started bounding back to where they had left Lakepaw waiting. Poppyblaze was close on her tail.

“Come now, don’t be like that!” Razor jeered after them and a couple of the other cats laughed. “Come on down so we can get friendly!” 

“This is very bad,” Poppyblaze hissed under her breath. “Worse than I thought.” 

“How so?” Sagetooth tilted her ears backward in curiosity. 

“How to explain…” Poppyblaze hummed thoughtfully. “So, when a creature dies, their soul is trapped inside their body. If left there, it rots and disappears, just like the rest of them, but if someone disconnects them from their body, they can live for effectively eternity, given the right conditions.” 

“Right, as long as they’re remembered, they resist fading away,” Sagetooth nodded. 

“Not exactly,” Poppyblaze said, “but that’s not really important right now.” Sagetooth twitched an ear in irritation, wishing Poppyblaze would stop saying confusing and ambiguous new things, but held her tongue so the guide could continue. “Separating a soul from a body is a tricky process, one that guides have been teaching each other for countless millennia. It looks like, somehow, Razor has figured out how to do it, or how to brute force it at least.” 

“Alright,” Sagetooth frowned, trying to put the pieces together. “So now, instead of wasting away, the kittypets’ spirits will be stuck on the Parallel with Razor where they can harass spirits waiting to go to StarClan?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” Poppyblaze said to Sagetooth’s frustration. “Usually, Bakari comes and collects the non-Clan cats in this area, but for some reason, he hasn’t been doing that.” 

“Who is this Bakari you keep talking about?” Sagetooth grumbled. 

“The guide for feline souls,” Poppyblaze’s tail began to twitch, “exempting Clan cats who have their own guides.” 

“But that’s not-” Sagetooth grit her teeth. “That doesn’t make any sense! Only Clan cats persist after death. That’s how it’s always been!” 

“Sorry, Sage, but that’s just not true,” Poppyblaze shook her head. “Everything has its own guide -- cats, dogs, mice, birds, beetles, twolegs. Everything! There’s even a guide who collects the plants! He’s a big ol’ thing with a prehensile nose and the shaggiest fur you’ve ever seen. Name’s Frost. Lovely guy, excellent conversationalist.” 

“Poppyblaze!” Sagetooth snapped, lashing her tail. They were almost back to Lakepaw now and she turned around to glare at the old spirit. “Enough about the plants! I still don’t understand what’s going on!” 

“It’s a lot to understand,” said Poppyblaze sympathetically, “but I’ll try to summarize.” She shifted her posture, collecting her thoughts, and said, “Alright, so Bakari usually collects the spirits of cats from outside the Clan. Every so often, a creature with a particularly strong will can separate themself on their own -- that’s how the first guides were created and it's what I assumed Razor had done. When I ran into him the first time, he said that he’d already destroyed two other cats and since EarthClan’s guide had never returned from gathering Darkmoon, I assumed they were the cats he’d destroyed.

“But this is so much worse. I think he destroyed Bakari when he tried to take Razor to the next life. He’s obsessed with getting back to his body like Goldenstar did and said he was going to keep killing cats until someone showed him how.”

“Oh,” Sagetooth swallowed. “That’s definitely not good.” 

“And that’s not all,” continued Poppyblaze. “If he’s only killed two cats and they were Bakari and Chestnutsprout, then Darkmoon is missing. He could be here on the parallel or he might be lost in the Clouds! Who knows!” 

“Then we need to get back to StarClan,” Sagetooth said. “They have to know.” 

“Agreed,” Poppyblaze chewed her lip. “Come on, let’s grab Lakepaw and get moving.” They padded quickly over the remaining distance to where Lakepaw was waiting dutifully for them. 

“Is everything okay?” she called as they approached. 

“Everything’s fine, dear,” said Sagetooth.

“Not really,” smiled Poppyblaze, “but we’re all safe for now. Let’s keep climbing, okay?” 

“Okay,” nodded Lakepaw and they all started up the platforms again. 

Sagetooth glared at Poppyblaze. “You didn’t have to worry the kit like that.” 

“She deserves to hear the truth,” Poppyblaze shrugged. “Or would you prefer I hide things from her like StarClan hid things from you?” Sagetooth’s anger fizzled immediately. 

“I suppose I’d rather not lie to her,” she sighed. After a moment she asked, “Why did StarClan keep the nature of things a secret? What harm is there in knowing other creatures have spirits that linger just like we do?” She trusted that there was some explanation, that StarClan had made the choice with good reason, but she couldn’t think of what it could be.

“A lot of them don’t know,” Poppyblaze admitted, “not any more at least. And the cats who do, well, you’d have to ask them, but I suspect they thought it would keep the Clans in line.” 

“In line?” Sagetooth sputtered. “What are you talking about?” 

“Well,” Poppyblaze hummed, “if you think that leaving the Clan means you lose your chance at the afterlife, you’re a lot more inclined to stay in the Clan, aren’t you?”

Sagetooth scowled. “I suppose.” This was very troubling. Wasn’t that for the best though? Leaving the Clan was tantamount to death. The poor young cats who were seduced by the lives of kittypets or rogue lovers were abandoning their homes, their traditions, their families. But still, even if their spirits existed after death, they didn’t get to hunt in StarClan’s forests so why lie? Wasn’t the outcome the same either way? The whole situation didn’t sit right with her at all. 

“Alright,” Poppyblaze said, as they neared the lower reaches of cloud cover. “We’re about to head into the Clouds, alright? It’s pretty maze-like in there and easy to get lost so make sure you stay where you can see me and let me know if you need to stop or slow down, got it?” 

“Yes ma’am,” Lakepaw said, eyes wide with awe. 

She wandered closer to the battlefield, listening to the rustling leaves and letting intuition guide her. If I were a lost spirit, where would I go? she thought. Often, spirits lingered around the place where they died, drawn to it even if their bodies were moved afterwards. Perhaps Darkmoon, the proud and determined deputy, was refusing to leave. Chestnutsprout had been even younger than she was when he died and had retained a very youthful personality. Poppyblaze could see him struggling to assert himself over a stubborn soul. 

The battlefield was empty now, blood soaked but empty. Luckily, mortal blood had no scent in the Parallel so, when Poppyblaze opened her mouth to scent, all she picked up on was the sharp smell of a soul. 

She padded towards it, sing-songing, “Hello?” A small voice squeaked frightfully from the bushes and she cocked her head towards it. 

A spectral squirrel poked its head out of the greenery and said in chitteri, “Oh, it’s you.” 

“Evening, Climber,” purred Poppyblaze, flopping down on her side to appear less threatening. 

The squirrel, Climber, twitched his glittering tail in annoyance and looked back into the undergrowth to say, “It’s alright, little one, this one’s harmless.” 

“A-are you sure?” said a faint little voice. 

“Harmless as a leaf,” Poppyblaze said in chitteri, “I guide the cat spirits, I don’t hunt.” 

“She’s in more danger of talking your ear off or smirking so hard she passes out,” grumbled Climber, clicking his teeth. A tiny little squirrel spirit emerged from the foliage, eyes wide, tail trembling. The poor thing couldn’t have been more than a few months old. Poppyblaze smiled but that didn’t seem to help at all.

“Do you need something,” asked Climber, squinting at her, “or are you terrifying my charge because you’re bored?” 

“Right, sorry,” chittered Poppyblaze. “I’m looking for a charge of mine who seems to have gone missing. You seen him?” 

“No,” Climber frowned. “I don’t loiter around in the Parallel like you hunters do.” 

“I don’t loiter,” laughed Poppyblaze, rolling onto her back. “I lounge.” 

Climber rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m quite busy so-”

“Did you hear that?” squealed the soul next to him, twisting around to look off into the trees. Poppyblaze perked her own ears and rolled back onto her belly to sit up, alert. Climber scrambled a few tail-lengths up the nearby tree trunk and scowled into the darkness, starry tail gleaming. 

“There’s definitely something,” he squawked, “It’s here, in the Parallel with us. I don’t like it.” He scrambled down and circled his charge protectively before scooping them up in his teeth and darting up a tiny, starry trail into the sky. 

Poppyblaze stood up and perked her ears but whatever was approaching had gone very quiet except for its wet, ragged breath. The fur on the back of her neck prickled nervously and she edged backward, away from the trees, just in case.

A moment later, a dark shape loomed out of the trees, treading straight through the foliage as if it weren’t there, something which any dead cat could do but which few did because the sensation was akin to walking through mud that could touch your insides as well as your outsides. The cat was a large and thickly furred blue tabby with ghostly pale eyes and an enormous, bloody gash in his throat that oozed thick, black blood and bile. Every so often a fat drop splattered onto the ground as he lumbered in her direction. 

“How,” the tom rasped and then coughed, black liquid seeping out from between the teeth on his lower jaw, “do I go back?” 

Poppyblaze narrowed her eyes and lunged at him with claws drawn. The spirit laughed, a mean, wet sound that sent blood pattering onto the ground, and surged forward to try and catch her in his teeth. His movements were sluggish and she easily danced around behind him to tear her claws through his form. Unlike flesh, a soul was easy to tear and she dragged her claws from his shoulder to his tail. The wound bled dark fog into the air. 

“There you go,” she smirked. “I think it’s time you dispersed.” 

“I killed the last two spirits,” hacked the tom as he turned to her, “but I’ll spare you if you tell me,” another wet cough, this one shaking loose some bile from the hole in his throat, “how to get back. If she did it, so can I.”

Poppyblaze’s smile died immediately. “Sorry. Cats like you don’t get to go back.” 

“I’m not supposed to survive a wound like this either, right?” he chuckled darkly. Poppyblaze glanced over at the wound and realized in horror that it had already started stitching itself back together. That definitely wasn’t normal. 

“Well aren’t you a special boy,” she said, backing up a few steps. “What’s your name?”

He trudged after her, laughing to himself. “This doesn’t have to get nasty, sweetheart. Just tell me what I want to know.” 

“Not my area of expertise,” she shrugged. “I deal with the cats who stay dead.” Crouching down, she waggled her hips to get ready for a sprint. 

“Then I guess I’ll have to kill you and see who comes looking,” snarled the spirit. 

Poppyblaze wasn’t going to let that happen. She sprang towards him and he reared up, teeth ready, but she flicked her tail and a barrier of starlight appeared before his face. He slammed into it just before she leapt off of it and onto another, higher platform. 

“Good luck with that!” she cried as she hurried upwards, making sure to dismiss the lower barriers before he could follow. The tom roared furiously and prowled beneath her, pale eyes burning with rage. She slipped into the Clouds, leaving the Parallel behind, and paused to catch her breath.