Disclaimer: I do not own the Warriors world. The characters are all my own, and any similarities to any cats living, dead, fictional, and/or undead are purely coincidental.
"So, how do you like it?" asked Ice, finishing her scribble on the floor with a flourish.
Rip looked at what she had drawn: A bundle of sticks over a zigzag line. "What is it?"
"It's a snowflake over some waves! It's our symbol!"
Rip gave a tiny groan. She was so enthusiastic about this. Pick your battles. "I'm not sure it's recognizable enough. Maybe try a single wave and a simpler snowflake."
"Okay!" Ice went happily back to work, carving lines into the dusty ground with a claw. She was having trouble with the wave; she hadn't seen that many. Rip watched her working with slightly glazed eyes. The ex-apprentice had been working on their "symbol" for a long time, too long in his opinion. He should have let her go with "Ice wuz here" and save everyone involved a world of trouble.
"Well, you seem to have this under control," Rip said, rising to his paws. "I'll go out and catch some fish." He hurried out of the fox den before she could object. Once out of earshot from the entrance, he took a deep breath of fresh air, sniffing the breeze for signs of enemies. Only the scent of rain-dampened earth and the stale smell of ThunderClan met his nose.
Reassured, Rip approached the river in a spot where he was used to catching fish by, back when he had a Clan. He settled in to wait.
Ice rubbed out her latest snowflake. It didn't look like anything, really. She knew Rip thought she was being silly, and maybe she was, but ThunderClan needed to know why their fresh kill was going missing and who was taking it. No way would Rip let her show herself or talk to Ravenstar, and this was the next best thing. Ice couldn't quite place a claw on why it was so important to her to be recognized. Maybe it was because of what had happened to her Clan. Maybe she wanted Ravenstar to know that his actions had consequences, and one of them was named Ice.
Maybe she just wanted to be remembered and feared.
Whatever it was that made Ice want to be recognized, she felt like she needed to leave a signature, a mark to show that it had been Ice and Riptide who had wreaked havoc upon ThunderClan. Hence the symbol.
Ice sighed as she looked down at the mess of a snowflake on the floor. She swept it away with a paw and began again. Maybe Rip had a point. Maybe this was hopeless. She remembered what he had said about making the snowflake simpler and scuffed out a few lines. Now if she added a couple of branches on the end…
Soon, she wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. She was thinking about her life in RiverClan, especially her youngest memories.
It had been when she stole one of the little silver fish from the fresh kill pile as a kit. Her mother found her behind the nursery, playing with it and poking it with her claws. Snowfall had scolded and berated Mistkit, taking away the fish and returning it to the pile in the center of camp. "Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for its life."
The white queen had looked her kit over, then carried her back into the nursery. "I think it's time for you to learn the Warrior Code. Don't worry-you won't have to memorize it until you are apprenticed." Settling the curious Mistkit down in a bed of soft moss, Snowfall had proceeded to teach her daughter how a proper warrior acts.
"The Warrior Code is something all cats of the forest must obey."
"Why must they obey? Can't they do what they want?"
"They could, but it would unbalance the power in the forest. Then things would dissolve into chaos, battle fought after battle fought, deaths from all Clans, and eventually, even if a single leader took over the forest, they would have an empty title. For StarClan would turn their faces from any cat who broke the Warrior Code. Our ancestors decided that the Code would be the laws of the forest, and the law must be respected if there is to be any order. Now hush while I tell you of the fifteen commands left to us by the four Great Leaders."
"Thunder, Shadow, Wind, and River, right?"
"Yes, but I said not to interrupt. Now, the first command is as follows: Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet those friends in battle. The second command…"
And so Mistkit heard the Warrior Code for the first time, all the way down to "A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet".
Ice looked down at her scrawlings and saw a perfect line drawing of a snowflake. Her whiskers twitched. Now for the wave.
She recited the Warrior Code as she drew, reminding herself of why she was fighting ThunderClan. Just because she was a loner (or something) now didn't mean she should ignore the laws laid down by her ancestors. In fact, she was following the Code better than Ravenstar! Never had a Clan driven another from its territory. It wasn't allowed. Hopefully ShadowClan and WindClan could work together to bring ThunderClan back into its rightful place, and then perhaps Ice and Rip could go in search of RiverClan.
Ice stared at her wave. It didn't look quite right…Maybe Rip could help her with it when he got back from fishing. She stretched, working cramped muscles, then padded quietly out of the fox den. Since they were on ThunderClan territory, the two loners tried to stay out of sight as much as possible in their hole, but it got extremely tedious and dull, not to mention stuffy. Ice made a mental note to enlarge the burrow as soon as possible, and maybe scatter some sweet-smelling herbs on the floor.
The young loner sniffed the air and her blood ran as cold as her name. Fresh ThunderClan scent, not an hour old. Rip had been away for a while…Where would he have gone to fish? Ice was panicking now, scenting the air at a furious rate, trying to locate her friend.
That place where they had met, just yesterday. Where he pounced on her and tried to claim she was a fish. Would he have gone back there? Ice broke into a run. The ThunderClan scent was getting stronger.
Rip was reasonably good at fishing. There wasn't all that much to it, really. You just waited on the banks until you saw a fish or two, then scooped them out of the water if they were close and pounced on them if they weren't. Within the first several minutes, he caught two small fish and a half hour later had spotted a large one downstream. Getting as close as he could, Rip coiled his muscles and-WHAM! A large, furry force collided with him, nearly sending him into the river. Flailing his tail to regain his balance, Rip spun around to face-
"Ice, why would you do that?!"
"I'm so sorry!" she cried, her voice gaining an octave in nervousness. "I didn't see you until you were right there and then I couldn't stop and then I-"
Rip couldn't help it. He started to laugh. She made such an amusing picture, fur all fluffed up and eyes wide with unnecessary worry. "You should hear yourself. You'd put a blackbird to shame. What's the rush, anyways?"
"ThunderClan scent!" Ice said hurriedly. "It's fresh! I came to find you because they're really close."
"Got that right," came a low growl from behind them.
Rip sighed audibly. "Why, oh why does this keep happening to us?"
"We need to start looking over our shoulders more often," agreed Ice, turning around.
The ThunderClan patrol was made up of five cats: three warriors and two apprentices. None of them looked very happy.
"Hi," said Ice, praying to StarClan that they wouldn't attack. "We were…standing here. All done with that now. We'll be going." She began to edge away from the patrol, hoping to make it to the river.
"And I suppose it's a coincidence that you were standing next to a pile of recently deceased fish?" asked the cat who looked to be the patrol leader.
There were any number of responses Ice could have given to that, from "Oh, I didn't see those there!" to "Yeah, you caught us" to "Fish? What fish?" Her brain, however, seemed to snap under the strain of the situation, and instead she screamed, "MULBERRIES! FALLING FROM THE SKY!" and fled.
Rip was a step behind her, but luckily the patrol seemed to be somewhat dazedly confused by Ice's outburst, and didn't give chase until a split second later. One of the apprentices even looked up at the sky with a befuddled expression, tripping the warrior behind him.
Rip was running flat out just behind her. "WindClan!" he shouted, and Ice nodded in agreement. They changed course slightly, heading for the border.
Ice recalled the last time she had been chased by ThunderClan into WindClan territory. Hopefully, this episode would end just as well.
Zoom! Past the Owl Tree!
Zoom! Past Fourtrees!
Zoom! Into WindClan territoy!
Zoom! Past a startled patrol of WindClan warriors!
Wait, what?
"Stop!" shouted Rip. They both skidded to a halt and turned. The two patrols were going at it fire and lightning, screeching and slashing.
"Here," Rip told Ice with the tone of a mentor, "you have your typical border skirmish. It would be good practice for us to join in. What do you say?"
Ice looked fearfully at the horde of fighting cats. "Um…"
"Excellent! Come on, then!" Rip said happily, leaping into the fray. Ice followed reluctantly.
She dodged beneath an apprentice of an unidentified Clan and slashed at the ThunderClan patrol leader. He snarled and turned to face her, tossing aside a WindClan warrior like a leaf.
Oops.
Ice leaped away from his first blow and raked her claws across his face. He swept her paws out from underneath her with a powerful foreleg and lunged toward her unprotected belly. The ThunderClan warrior landed a vicious bite before Ice could kick him away. Squirming back to her feet, the loner darted under the larger cat's stomach and slashed him twice with her claws before backing away hurriedly to avoid the swipe aimed at her shoulder. Ice nearly tripped over a prone ThunderClan apprentice, allowing her opponent to leap forward again, jaws gleaming.
He never reached her.
There was a hoarse battle cry off to Ice's right and Rip streaked past her, no over her, landing on the ThunderClan warrior's back. Their enemy's legs buckled and his fangs sank into the damp soil beneath him. Rip scrabbled with his claws to regain his footing, leaving deep scores across the larger warrior's flank.
Before Ice could engage him again, another ThunderClan cat, this one an apprentice, slashed her side. The loner swept both paws around smashed them into her new opponent. The she-cat's head snapped to one side and she fell into a dazed heap. Ice's belly wound throbbed as she backed away from her fallen foe.
"Hah!" came Rip's voice, then a deeper voice yowling, "ThunderClan, retreat!"
The patrol leader sprinted away from the few remaining combatants, half of which detached themselves from the fight to follow. Ice's apprentice pal staggered to her feet and ran after her Clan mates. Soon, only WindClan warriors remained, jeering and yowling insults at the fleeing cats. Ice and Rip found each other quickly and exited the scene before the victors could notice them, swimming across the river and lying low in the reeds on the opposite bank. When the WindClan patrol turned to leave, Ice and Rip made their way quietly and quickly back to the Sunning Rocks.
"That was too close," Ice sighed as she ducked inside the fox den.
"But it was a good start, at least," Rip said, licking a slice in his shoulder. "Oh, and we should get some medicinal supplies soon. Cobwebs at the very least."
"It can be our first raid!" Ice said eagerly. She was anxious to leave the first mark.
"We can't steal things from a medicine cat! That's just…That's playing at their level!"
"Fine, it can be a quick, anonymous little scavenge. We'll just take a little bit of whatever we need. I won't even leave our symbol behind, so they'll never know it happened." Ice was disappointed about this, but she agreed with RIp-at least partly. Taking away a Clan's supply of herbs and remedies was wrong, even if it wasn't in the Warrior Code anywhere.
"Oh, and I never did show you the final results! See what you think of it!" Ice scrabbled about on the floor for a moment, then said, "Here it is! Do you like it?"
Rip looked down at "their" symbol. It was much more recognizable than the previous attempts. The snowflake was good, resting inside the curve of the wave, which could use a bit of work. He smudged out a line and redrew it. "There. Perfect. Now you can start scratching into trees and whatever."
"Great! I just need to practice it so I can do it as we're fleeing the crime scene…" Ice looked down at her sluggishly bleeding belly, which flared with pain at being noticed. "Ah…"
"Forget the raid, you need something for that now," said Rip, looking concerned. "I'll go find some cobwebs, you stay here. I might be awhile."
Ice began to protest, but he left before she could get the first word out. With a sigh, she flopped down next to the Official Logo of Ice & Rip and began to lick the bite mark on her stomach. That's what you were supposed to do, right? Lick the wound to clean it out? Or were you supposed to leave it alone? Ice couldn't remember, and now she wished she had attempted to learn more about the ways of a medicine cat. In hindsight, she realized that a Clan should probably teach all their apprentices some first aid so that a warrior on the battlefield could safe his or her friend's life instead of helplessly watching them die because they didn't know which herbs were good for wound treatment. Someday, Ice would learn about herbs and that stuff. Maybe WindClan would allow her to speak with a medicine cat sometime…maybe at the Gathering! That was coming up soon, right? She couldn't remember what the phase of the moon had been before this whole ordeal had come about, and last night it had been raining. Tonight she would see how close the moon was to being full. And then convince Rip that she needed to go to the Gathering. Speaking of Rip…
He squirmed inside the den awkwardly, one paw wrapped in white gauzy spider webs. Small bits of leaves and dirt clung to the mess. "Do you know if we're supposed to, like, clean these or something?" he asked Ice. "Because the webs our medicine cat used were always fresh and unsoiled."
"I'm sure Leaffoot took all of his cobwebs to the Moonstone to be purified in StarClan's light," Ice said seriously. "Now get over here and stick your unholy spider gunk on me. Wow, that sounded so wrong."
Rip stepped up beside her and hesitated, tugging the cobwebs with a claw. "Is there some way to do this properly, or-"
Ice rolled her eyes, snatched a chunk of spider silk, and smoothed it over her wound in a rough approximation of a bandage. "There. All better."
She settle down again, Rip beside her. She paused for a moment, listening to the sound of the breeze through the bushes outside, before saying, "I had another crazy idea."
"Crazier than mulberries falling from the sky?"
"No! Well, maybe." Ice began to explain to Rip about how she wanted to go to the Gathering.
He listened without saying a word as she laid out her reasons. Finally, he said, "I thought we were trying to stay low, out of sight."
"It's a Gathering! What's ThunderClan going to do, attack me?"
"They would probably claim that as a loner, the sacred peace agreement didn't extend to you."
"But with the other two Clans there, they wouldn't-"
"It's risky, foolish, and you'll probably end up in a fight," Rip said flatly.
Ice deflated. He was right, of course. It was a silly and ridiculous idea.
"Which is why I'll be coming with you."
She was speechless afor a moment, then squealed in excitement. "My second Gathering ever! This is going to be so much fun!"
"There's the Mistpaw we know," laughed Rip.
"It's Ice now, thank you very much," she sniffed.
The den was silent for a moment, but then someone's stomach gurgled, reminding them that they hadn't had breakfast yet. "Well, I suppose that's us told," muttered Rip.
"Hmm," said Ice, "I wonder if those mul-I mean, fish are still there."
Nim here-Another chapter! I don't know what it says about me that I have time for multiple chapters in a week, but I'm willing to bet it's not very flattering. Anyways, a big thank you to the people who have reviewed so far! I'd love to hear any ideas you guys might have! Also, please let me know if I make a mistake with something (besides grammar! Although I suppose you could let me know about that as well). I usually have to write these chapters with half of my screen showing TextEdit, the other half showing the Warriors Wiki.
Hope this chapter didn't ramble too much. Thanks for reading!
EDIT: Bit of updating! Not much, but some. Also, Ice and Rip now has 100 views! Thanks for reading everyone!