The next morning was nothing interesting.

Yet.

Fernstalk was still thinking about stepping down, because she knew that one day she would have to become leader if she didn't step down. Or at least act as leader. She knew that there were some cats who really didn't like her, like Ficklepaws and Driftrain, and she was pretty sure that they wouldn't like her to be their leader.

The gray tabby sighed restlessly from sleep loss. She had stayed awake that night from the fear that Dreamkit would come back and then leave without her. But he didn't show up.

The deputy grabbed a magpie and devoured it in a matter of time.

She immediately after that went to see Snowykit, the kit of Treeleaper's who was the best at meowing so far.

"Uh, hi, Snowykit..." she meowed politely.

"Hello, Frrrrerntalk!" Snowykit mewed as politely as she could.

"It's Fernstalk, but that's okay..."

"Oh! Sorry, F....Fernstalk!" Snowykit jumped happily.

Fernstalk smiled an uneasy smile, but she didn't really care. This kit was her friend, and that was all that mattered.

"What is new, uh, Fernstalk?"

"Oh, nothing really. Thank you for asking, Snowykit."

Apparently I'm being used as a polite-manner teacher...

"Well, goobye, Fernstalk. I'm gonna -yawn- have a nap." Snowykit didn't wait for a reply, because she curled up in a ball and fell fast asleep.

Fernstalk padded out of the nursery after nodding to Treeleaper. She looked out side of the camp, and saw some darkness in the form of something gooey coming closer.

She held her breath for a second, but let it out again. She thought that it was her mind playing tricks on her. But when she looked closer, she saw that it actually was moving closer.

She fearfully stepped closer to the goo and looked down. It was almost at the gray deputy's white-but-stained-with-dirt paws.

Fernstalk stood on her hind legs for a second as she bounced backwards to get away from the goo-stuff.

She turned her head, wondering if she should alarm the clan, or not. She saw Skykit, Birdkit, and Cloudkit playing moss-ball outside of the nursery while her sister watched them.

Maybe I should... or maybe not.

The gray deputy turned her head back to the goo and decided to wait for a little bit.

It had passed an hour. It was almost sun-high, and the heat was terrible.

If any cat had been able to leave camp and go to the water to cool off, the would have done so. But there was no way off of the island.

The goo was now very close.

All the cats huddled in the elder-tree, the biggest tree of them all, and watched the goo slowly coming up the bark of the wood.

All of the sudden, Fernstalk saw a flashing light.

"Fernstalk, you need to jump! Take all of the darkness back inside your body!"

She didn't stop to look at who it was, but hesitated before jumping.

She jumped into the goo, and her eyes glazed over with darkness, putting her unconscious in the heap of darkness.

"Fernstalk? Fernstalk! FEEEEEERRNNNSTTALLLLLLKK!"

The words could have deafened the poor gray cat, since they were being yowled as loudly as possible into her ear.

Fernstalk groaned and opened her eyes a little bit, which stung so much that she had to close them.

"Fernstalk..." meowed a familiar voice that Fernstalk recognized as Dove. "You did it. The darkness is gone from the island."

The gray tabby sighed, and watched the goo wash away from her paws. It was a wonderful feeling to get rid of the darkness.

But was the darkness inside of her gone yet?

Did it go with the rest of the darkness?

Fernstalk didn't think so, since she felt slightly disappointed in herself for feeling wonderful.

Fernstalk shrugged it off, and went to go fish for some carp and hopefully some salmon or herring.

The water was cool and lovely on Fernstalk's dirty paws. The water seemed to have started washing away the dirt and revealing the beautiful white paws underneath.

Fernstalk snapped out of it when she felt a fish nibbling at her paw pads.

She looked at it.

She waited for the herring to feel comfortable before grabbing it.

It was a sad battle; the herring fought to protect itself. What animal wouldn't try to protect itself from invaders or attackers?

Exactly.

No animal would.

Except for the dumb ones.

Not too many of those.

...hopefully.

Fernstalk gladly brought the herring back to camp and shared it with other warriors.

The kits were in the clearing--and Fernstalk didn't go to them--and the apprentices were gossiping to each other about the crazy things that had happened that day.

Elders were trying to tell kits a story, but the kits were being straight up rude so they stopped and decided to eat some squirrels.

Falconprowl wasn't there, but Fernstalk assumed that he was full or asleep or probably didn't want to talk to any dog because they might bully him for having a daughter that went crazy and got filled with darkness but in the end had become the hero.

Fernstalk just sat there, wondering about life and her purpose. She must have a purpose, otherwise she didn't deserve life.

Fernstalk smiled back down at her little white furball of a brother.

"Goodbye, Dreamkit." Fernstalk chuckled. "Have fun playing with your friends up in StarClan! And tell them I said hi."

Dreamkit blushed a little bit, making Fernstalk think that he has a crush.

"I will have fun, and I will tell them that you said hi!"

They exchanged happy smiles, and then Fernstalk watched Dreamkit travel back to StarClan to play with his friends forever.