Nightstrike woke up in the medicine den. He blinked. Why am I here?

Suddenly, memories of last night's ambush filled into his mind. He looked at his flank, expecting it to be full of scratches. Nothing. No sigh of blood. 

He stood up. No bones were broken.

Then Nightstrike saw Moonheart unconscious next to him. Is... she okay? His mother's ankle looked as if it had been snapped in half. A stick was tied to it to made in back straight.

Nightstrike stared at the injury in shock. Would Moonheart be able to ever heal?

"Nightstrike!" Skyflight's meow made Nightstrike's eyes light up. "Are you okay?"

Nightstrike touched Skyflight's cheek with his nose. "I'm fine. What exactly happened?"

"Oh." Skyflight's tone quieted down. "After ThunderClan won the battle against ShadowClan, we checked to see if anyone died. I found you and your mother lying in the middle of the camp, unconscious. I was so afraid that you were dead..."

"I'm here." Nightstrike meowed softly. He twined his tail with Skyflight's. "Did anyone die?"

"I don't think so." Skyflight replied. 

There's something else she wants to tell me. 

"I saw how you used your powers during the battle." Skyflight finally meowed. "And... well, I want you to promise me one thing."

Nightstrike tilted his head. "What is it?"

"I want you to promise me that you would never kill someone in your clan with it, even by accident."

Nightstrike felt hurt. Does she not trust me? Does she think that I'm that cruel? He choked back a sob. "I would never kill a cat in my clan! I swear to StarClan!"

Skyflight brushed her tail along her mate's spine. "Calm down. I know that you'll never kill a clanmate out of spite. I just don't want you to be careless. "

"I'll be very careful." Nightstrike vowed. "I promise."

~

"Smoketail! Firestorm! Lionclaw!" Nightstrike cheered out the new warriors' names. It was the second sunhigh after the 'battle. Kestrelstripe's kits just became warriors, and would sit vigil tonight.

"I can't believe that we'll have to do the apprentice's work again." Skyflight groaned.

"I thought Rainfire and Cedarfoot's kits became apprentices a moon ago?" Leafpaw, Oakpaw, Thrushpaw, and Bluepaw, Nightstrike remembered.

"Oh, right!" Skyflight exclaimed. "I forgot."

"Clan dismissed." Redstar meowed as the chants faded away. He looked down at Nightstrike, his brown eyes meeting the warrior's. "Nightstrike, we have to talk."

The cats started to paddle away, resuming what they were doing before. Lightfire began to arrange patrols.

"See you later." Skyflight meowed as Nightstrike headed towards Redstar.

The ThunderClan leader lead Nightstrike inside his den. The two toms sat next to a nest.

Redstar was constantly shifting, as if he was concealing a secret. Weird. Nightstrike thought, Redstar isn't usually the type of leader that hides information from his clan.

"So," Redstar meowed. "We should discuss about your powers. How much do you know about it?"

"Not much." Nightstrike meowed, careful to not spill out the fact that he had meetings with Skyflight.

"StarClan... " Redstar shook his head. "StarClan told us that... your fire would consume the woods."

"That...that doesn't make sense at all!" Nightstrike meowed frantically. StarClan, please don't let me burn down the forest! "My fire can't burn anything into ashes or generate heat, but only infect pain."

The red-pelted leader nodded. "Maybe there's a different meaning behind it." Redstar meowed thoughtfully.

I doubt it's going to be a good thing. 

"But that wasn't the part I'm wondering about..." The ThunderClan leader continued. "There was another part..."

Nightstrike leaned in, his ears prickled intensely.

"They said that you were born from a nightmare."

Nightstrike stiffed a gasp. No. It couldn't have meant that the nightmare is real, right?

He had to go to Moonheart. She'll tell her son that he is clan-born and everything would be fine again.

"I—I have to go ask my mother about something." Nightstrike managed to say.

"Okay then..." Redstar said uneasily.

Nightstrike stepped out of the den, dipping his head at his leader. 

The moment he was out of Redstar's sight, he turned frantically and leap down from highledge.

His paws and ankles hurt as touched the ground, but he continued to run. He ran as fast as possible, his legs flying.

I'll just have to prove myself that the dream isn't real, Nightstrike told himself.

But what if it is?