This is the Frozen Challenge from the Flames of Destiny forum! Enjoy.

Coughs echoed through camp, hollow coughs that bounced off the walls. Thunder rumbled in the skies as snow rained down in sheets. Bright flashes shot through the clouded sky. The harsh snow turned into a hail soon, thunking down onto the ground. The ice chunks tore holes into the dens, and buried themselves into piles of snow.

Quickly, a patrol darted into camp. To the warriors den they went, and all shivered and shuddered from the cold. One tom stood up, a broad-shouldered golden cat. He padded over to the returned patrol. "Are you alright? Did anyone catch the Frost?" His blue eyes gleamed with worry. The cats began to check themselves for symptoms.

A orange cat, body temperature rising, turned to a small, black cat. The cat laid on the floor, soft shivers running through her body. She muttered and mumbled. Her breath rose shallowly with small breaths.

"Nightpaw?" The she-cat asked quietly, dipping down to the ground. She touched her nose to the smaller cats neck and pulled back. "Her heart's hardly beating." Her voice was filled with fear, and she raised her green gaze to the golden tom. "Goldenthorn, do something!" She whimpered.

"J-just calm down." He quickly grabbed one of the nearby, unused nests. He draped it over the she-cat's body. "Get in close, we need to warm her up." Goldenthorn told the nearest cats, and they inched closer, sharing body heat.

The cat mumbled, flailing a little. "My... my paws... They.. sting." She let her paws flop, and after a few minutes of quiet uttering, she mewed, "It's so cold... but I can't feel my legs,"

The tom shuddered. "She's caught it, she's going to die." He heard one of the warriors say. Another replied, "We should put her out of misery. Remember Graystone? He suffered for hours before he died." A different one meowed, "She should join StarClan." They mumbled in agreement. Death was now a common thing. They were not fazed by the agonizing death Nightpaw was going through.

"W-what? We can't just give up!" Goldenthorn raised his voice to gain the attention if the cats. A few others glanced over as well.

They all gave him a blank, hollow stare, even the orange she-cat, who had given up. "Well, you're the medicine cat. Do something." A black cat said, unfazed.

He frowned as another joined in, "You gave up on Wolfstar. And on Raincry."

"Yeah. He was the first one to catch it and you didn't care. The deputy was even your brother and you didn't care."

Goldenthorn shrunk under the harsh words, "B-but I didn't know what to do! StarClan didn't tell me anything about this!"

Murmuring again. "StarClan, what are they doing now?"

"Are they even trying to help?"

"Do they care?"

"StarClan has forsaken us." A brown tabby she-cat stepped up and concluded.

"That must be it."

"Indeed, they'd never do this to us if they cared."

"They only care about FernClan. They always favored them more."

Goldenthorn watched CinderClan's warriors agree to the ridiculous idea that StarClan left them. He frowned, "StarClan can't control everything."

Another blank stare. "They would give us a cure for the Frost though."

"They wouldn't have let all our kittens die."

"They wouldn't have let elders starve."

"They wouldn't have let our apprentices get greencough and die."

The golden tom flattened his ears. He took a glance at the brown tabby cat, and noticed the gleam in her eyes. Desperately, he exclaimed, "The Dark Forest must be behind this!"

They all went silent. They exchanged looks. "But the Dark Forest wants what's best for the forest. Adderstar was sent there just because he wanted to make us stronger." The brown she-cat gave Goldenthorn a threatening glare.

He frowned, "But his actions got three apprentices and a warrior killed!" He objected, spiky tail flicking worriedly. He didn't want to loose this battle.

"But look how much stronger we are. We are surviving this storm when FernClan would have been wiped out."

"And," She cut off Goldenthorn. "Timberleap would never abandon the Clan. Neither would Adderstar, or Lilydapple. None of them! They were trying to make CinderClan better than FernClan and StarClan got rid of them!"

Goldenthorn flattened his ears further as they murmured with approval.

"This blizzard has been going on for a week now," The she-cat began to preach to them, a confident yet dangerous grin on her face. Her voice rose over the howling of the storm, "But we've only lost a quarter of our lives! FernClan would have been a dead wasteland by now! StarClan is protecting them though. Are they protecting us? No!"

Goldenthorn winced at the meows and shouts of agreement. "Tawnyflight!" They began to cheer for their new leader.

Soon, most of the cats in the den had joined to listen to her speech, except for the one or two apprentices who didn't know what to do.

Goldenthorn gave up, a thing he was notorious for. He sat in a nest, head hanging in defeat. I've followed StarClan all my life. Has it been the wrong path?

He stood up and wandered over. He watched and listened quietly as Tawnyflight gained the love and approval of CinderClan. Goldenthorn was passive, a go-with-the-flow kind of cat. He would do whatever the Clan would do.

Tawnyflight spotted him, and glowered. Her green eyes shone dangerously. "So, Goldenthorn," All attention was brought to the medicine cat. It was eerily silent except for the raging storm.

"Have you changed your mind?" She said with a bitterness colder than leaf-bare itself. The spiky-tail tom gulped, nervously shuffling under the weight of the stares.

"Y-yes, I have." He spoke after a spell of silence. The Clan began to cheer again. "Good to have you on the right side." The orange she-cat from earlier smiled, tail tip twitching.

"Yeah, it is good." Goldenthorn managed a small smile. He felt guilty, but also right too, as if he belonged this way. He raised his head to Tawnyflight, "We'll have to get your name after the storm ends."

"I wouldn't be surprised if StarClan gives her nine lives." Someone commented.

"She doesn't need them, she is stronger than a cat with nine lives. She'll make us the same way too!"

"Yeah!"

They're desperate. Goldenthorn observed quietly. They are desperate for a leader of any kind.

Let's let this play out. He stepped up next to the orange cat, and joined in with the roars and chants. The wind wished around outside and storm clouds billowed, and the storm finally began to cease as a new one was rising.