You get two!=)
Chapter Three
Snow lightly covers the ground. The first snowfall of leafbare. I think snow is pretty and all, but when your paws become numb every day, you really start to hate it. The trees have no leaves for me to hide in… I liked to sit up in a tree and look out at the lake just when the sun was setting.
"Echosong!" Mother sings from ahead of me. "Don't fall behind!"
"I'm coming! Mother," I snap, ever since Nightwhisper and I have started to grow apart Mom thought it would be nice to gather up the whole family every month for a family time. Cinderheart and Poppyfrost are also with us, along with their kits. Lionstar and Berrynose somehow wriggled themselves out of it, lucky them. Nightwhisper walks ahead with dad. I stay behind, not wanting any of this.
You want to see your love… Smokefoot? Zola somehow has the telecommunication gift. Well, all of them do, they must be the ones with powers in their Clans.
Yes! I reply vigorously.
You will see him, I can sense it. She replies, her voice calming.
How long will you stay here?
Not long, but we must rest, the trip is very long. She replies wearily.
I wish I could go with you, me and Smokefoot… I think, wistfully imaging a place where we could be together, with nothing to hold us back.
No. You must stay here. Your destiny… And you will not survive with us. Zola thinks firmly, and then the connection ends.
"Okay, let's start with the game!" Sorreltail squeaks excitedly. The game. Oh joy. Who can win at a fake battle. It's like training all over again.
"How about Nightwhisper and Echosong go first?" Cinderheart mews.
"No." I mew, wanting to leave and get away.
"What?" Mom exclaims voice thick with emotion.
"I said no. I don't want to! I don't even want to be here!" I snap, everything suddenly bursting out.
"Echosong!" Dad growls.
All of their emotions hit me. Dad angry, very angry. Mom hurt, Cinderheart and Poppyfrost uncomfortable and shocked. Nightwhisper's put up a wall – he's glaring at the ground.
"Leave." Mom says anger clearly conceived in her voice.
"What?"
"Just leave," She whispers.
"Mom," I whine and take a step toward her, already feeling guilty.
"LEAVE!" She screeches, fur fluffed out and fury blazing in her eyes.
I turn and start off in some random direction. My tail drags behind me, ears are pulled back, and my head is dropped. My family just rejected me.
I wander around the territory, trying to get my mind off things. I end up catching two scrawny mice before my paws turn numb from the cold. Stupid snow.
As I'm walking back to camp, I hear someone following me. It's Nightwhisper. His emotions are definitely clear now. He's fuming.
"What do you want?" I ask bracing myself for his harsh words.
"I want you to be out of my –"
"Don't even go there!" I hiss, spinning around to face him. "Why are you so freaking angry? What the hell did I do?"
"What did you do? Well, I know about your forbidden love…" He sneers, those eyes once so bright and kind unrecognizable.
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. My body is frozen.
"Thought so." He jeers with a hard glare.
"So you just want me to be unhappy?" I ask bitterly, and something flits across his face.
"No I –"
"Don't. Just stay out of my business!" I yell, deciding I'm done with him for tonight.
"I'm your brother! And you promised!" He snaps anger blazing in his eyes.
"Yeah and I'm your sister, I don't go around getting mad at all the she-cats you flirt with now do I? And… maybe I was wrong."
And with that I turn and continue walking to camp.
Today has been really boring. Well, after all that happened earlier. I pad out of the thorn tunnel, marking my usual path to the ShadowClan border. I've been here so many times it's almost automatic every night.
Smokefoot is already sitting by the border, waiting for me.
"Smokefoot!" I purr running over to where he sits. When I reach him I wrap around him, burying my face into his long fur. I look into his eyes but they look tired and lifeless. I frown, "What's wrong?"
"I'm glad you're here," He says changing the subject.
"No." I hiss, I've had a bad enough day as it is he's not going to keep secrets.
"What's wrong?" he asks bewildered.
"I've had a bad day and I want the truth."
"It's just… things have gotten really bad, I thought maybe the battle would make Blackstar see… but it hasn't. Everything's just gotten worse." He mews heavily, his head dropping.
"Oh…" I don't know what to say. I'd expected many things, but not this.
"Not your fault." He turns away and snow starts to fall again. Guilt consumes me, everywhere I turn it seems like I hurt someone.
"Things are hard for us too." I mew, hoping he'll realize I understand and he can confide in me.
"Oh really?" he asks his voice filled with disbelief.
"Yes!" I snap my temper flaring again. "We lost our bloody leader if you forgot, almost half our Clan was injured and oh on the same day we lost Firestar Mousefur decided to die!"
Shock fills his face and he gasps, "Oh I'm so sorry."
"Yeah," I mutter not ready to let him off the hook, "And on top of that Midnightstorm's deputy."
"How's that bad?" He asks I have to fight rolling my eyes.
"She was breaking the code when she kept our secret as a warrior, she won't be able to keep it now. It's treason!"
"Well then maybe we should just stop seeing each other!" Smokefoot mews his eyes hard, hurt and angry.
"Well maybe we should!" I hiss back feeling my fury overflow. He stares at me for a moment and the temperature between us drops.
"Fine." His voice is expressionless but I can feel his hurt.
He turns away as I scream, "No wait I didn't mean it!" he doesn't come back. I yowl loudly in frustration causing birds to take off in alarm.
"UGH!" regret blinds my vision as I stumble back to camp.
What the bloody Dark Forest did I just do?
All couples fight right? It's not over right? I didn't just ruin the best thing that's ever happened to me right?
Right….
Well at least now I know what Midnightstorm feels like. Yay.
I hear a pawstep in the woods and I turn to see Ravenclaw slipping through the trees.
"Where were you?" I ask.
"Nowhere." She replies coolly. Apparently I'm not the only one who keeps secrets.
"I just haven't seen you in a while…." I mew, trying to keep my voice from sounding wounded.
She turns away but not before I see her hurt. She, like me, bears the scars of the battle. But it makes her look gaunter almost older, no not older, haunted. It shows what she feels, how her visions, and the part she plays in the war haunts her. Stuck in the shadows, just a tool not the grand architect, while her best friend reaps the rewards, quite literally in some cases. Our lives just suck.
"I miss it." Ravenclaw mews suddenly, her voice loud in the silence, "I miss us, how carefree we used to be. Just running through these woods, happy." Her gray eyes look a million years old, "When did it change Echo?" her voice brakes on my old nick-name.
"I don't know…" I mew my own voice cracking as I relive the memories.
"Have you seen her lately?" I know who she means, "How sad she looks? I mean she's hanging around her sisters. Her sisters."
"There not that bad." I mew, earning a shocked look, "Really, it's in the past."
"I should have been there for her. I should be there for her." Ravenclaw whispers.
"So why aren't you?" I'm not playing bad guy, good guy because I'm as much to blame, I just want to know.
"I –" she stutters looking away, "We should go back to camp before this gets nasty."
"Do I have to?" I ask sounding like a winy kit.
"Well if you want to freeze to death."
"Not the best way to go." I mutter she snorts and turns away her black pelt dusted with snow. She walks hunched, so unlike the cat I once knew. The sight breaks my already broken heart.
No. I don't want this to happen. I'm so tired of pain. I've seen it my whole life, I just want… I want to be free.
I blink away my tears and follow, my heart screaming for all I've lost.
Okay so Echo wrote half of that and I wrote the end and please don't kill me for making them fight! They had to fight they couldn't just be all happy and in love all the time that's not realistic! So no killing me=) Hope you guys enjoyed, and as always
REVIEW!
~Midnight
