Yay! Chapter Two's up. :D Of course, technically it's the fourth chapter in this story, but it's titled Chapter Two. I will never refer to a chapter by its technical name; I will always refer to a chapter by its title. So this chapter is Chapter Two, not Chapter Four.
Anywayy. This chapter is from the perspectives of two RiverClan she-cats. Did you guess who they were correctly? Or did you just read the preview on my profile? xD Well, either way, good job! Enjoy reading.
FYI - every chosen cat is around the same age as Snowflower, give or take a moon or so. Some were just made a warrior, er, sooner - and some were made warriors later. Can you guess why? :P
This chapter may be confusing because it alternates between the POVs of both cats; it starts out with one, and then it abruptly switches to the other, and then back again. It was intended to be that way, because I was too lazy and uninspired to write two chapters, one focusing on one of the chosen RiverClanners, and the other focusing on the perspective of the other cat. Sorry! T-T
Special thanks to Grassy Leaves, as usual. You're a great beta and an equally fantastic, if not better, author! :D
"I love you, Silvermist."
The young she-cat tilted her head to gaze at the tom beside her. "You love me," was all she said. His face was bathed in shadows as they sat side-by-side on the cliff watching the full moon and the twinkling stars glow magnificently in the deep blue sky.
"Yes."
Her dark green eyes narrowed into slits. "You betrayed me…you left me for—for her." The last words were spat in disdain.
The tomcat didn't deny it, merely hung his head dejectedly. Begging her to forgive him. "I'm sorry," he whispered, tone so despondent that Silvermist dazedly forgot why she was angry at him. "I ran from you, tried to hide from the truth…but I came back to you as soon as I realized my mistake. I'll run a thousand pawsteps if you wish it so, catch as many fish as you want, defeat the whole of ShadowClan for you…because I love you and only you, Silvermist. She is nothing compared to you—your every feature outshines hers. You are my shining star, my light in the dark. I love you."
The moment he began speaking she was his. Each one of his words was like a petal from a rose, so soft and poignant that her heart melted into a puddle. Dripping at her paws was the remains of her heart, a pool of whatever-hearts-are-made-of fluttering with joy, as though it were still embedded in her chest.
Oh! Oh! He loves me, he really does! She tentatively entwined her tail with his. Silvermist thought she would explode from the love when he purred, wrapping his own tail tightly around hers.
And now, the final task…finding out who my love is…The RiverClan warrior leaned closer towards the tom beside her whose face was still shadowed in the dark. Her true love…soon she would know his true identity. And then they would be mates forevermore, never again separated…
"Silvermist! Get up, you lazy furball!"
In a heartbeat, the tom vanished. As did the beautiful moonlit scenery.
No! No! Silvermist wanted to yowl out loud as she realized that it had just been a dream. I've had that dream for a whole moon now! I need to know who he is! No!
Teeth bared viciously, the pale gray she-cat leapt to her paws, eyes blazing with anger as she searched for the one who had disturbed her dreams. They will pay for this. I was at the good part, and they interrupted me! And besides being annoying, that's just plain rude! Didn't their mother ever teach them manners?
"Silvermist," the voice came again, sounding amused rather than irritated this time. The RiverClan she-cat blinked curiously. That sounded like her sister…
"Oh, hi, Icecloud!" exclaimed Silvermist, doing her best not to blush with embarrassment as she saw the blue-silver she-cat standing to the side watching her lazily. Icecloud knew all about her sister's dreams. She knew every detail; from the full moon, to the tenor of Mystery Tom's meow (that was Silvermist's name for him). But that hadn't stopped the warrior's deep blue eyes from flashing in disdain, from shaking her head sympathetically. Silvermist had been affronted at first at her sister's lack of interest, but, then, Icecloud was always like that. Had always been like that…ever since their father had died. Now she knew better than to mention her encounters with Mystery Tom to Icecloud, who would merely yawn and pad off to fish.
The blue-gray warrior rolled her eyes. She knew her sister had been dreaming about "Mystery Tom" again from the way she had been swooning—in her sleep! StarClan, sometimes Silvermist could be so mousebrained…they were hardly warriors, and already Silvermist was padding after some tom. Whom she'd never even met in real life before!
"Splashstream assigned us to a hunting patrol," Icecloud meowed casually. "Hurry up before he gets mad at your lateness." Without another word, she spun around and trotted out of the warriors' den.
Silvermist sighed. Icecloud would never understand. She had never been in love; never felt her heartbeat stutter before it raced off again twice as quickly as before. And from her sister's gruff, barbed exterior, she probably would never be, too.
"You're late," Splashstream said coldly as Silvermist came darting out of the den. The dark gray deputy narrowed his amber eyes at his Clanmate, clearly ticked off. "You've been delaying all of us. Let's go hunt now, and have no more of this rubbish."
"Wh—but I haven't even had any fresh-kill!" protested the silver warrior, pine-green eyes widening with horror. Icecloud rolled her eyes, changing her mind. Silvermist wasn't mousebrained sometimes—she was always acting as though she had thistledown for brains.
Splashstream glared at her, snapping, "Tough luck. I guess you'll have to wait until we come back, then."
From Silvermist's appalled expression, this idea clearly didn't appeal to her at all. Before she could object anymore and land herself into some kind of trouble, however, Icecloud switched her tail across her sister's mouth. "Let's go now, please."
Shaking his head and sighing, the smoke-gray tomcat strode out of the RiverClan camp, his apprentice Pondpaw struggling to keep up. Icecloud flashed her sister a look before padding off to catch up with Splashstream and Pondpaw. Sometimes she and Silvermist were so different it was hard to believe they were actually kin.
As soon as a small stream came into sight, Splashstream turned around to issue orders. "Go ahead and split up now, if you'd like," he said. "But meet back here by this bush when you've caught a few pieces of fresh-kill. And don't take too long." As he spoke, Icecloud noticed his ocher gaze lingering on Silvermist. The slender she-cat squirmed, not meeting the senior warrior's eyes. "All right—go ahead now." The deputy turned and padded off to the undergrowth around the stream, clearly aiming for some mice. Pondpaw sat down by the stream to fish.
Silvermist began edging away to the left. Icecloud's eyes narrowed as she realized her sister was trying to get away from the rest of the patrol. Oh no—you're not going to dream about "Mystery Tom" right now! So she bounded after Silvermist. "I'm coming with you."
Silvermist shot her an angry look but said nothing. As the sisters padded next to each other, Icecloud could feel the tension quivering in the air. "Silvermist," she began.
Abruptly, the newly-made warrior swung around to glare at her with eyes so frigid that Icecloud nearly stumbled with surprise. "Let it go, will you?" she hissed angrily. "I know your heart is too icy to love, but that doesn't mean mine is!" Without waiting for Icecloud's response, the silvery she-cat sprung forward startlingly swiftly.
"Silvermist, wait!" yowled her sister, taking one pawstep after the disappearing blur of silver before heaving a sigh and rolling her eyes. "Let the mousebrain go off and waste her time obsessing over some tom that doesn't even exist," she grumbled. "If she wants Splashstream to assign her to fetch moss for the elders, then let her. I'll do as I'm supposed to."
The blue she-cat surveyed her surroundings with clear cerulean eyes. She didn't even know where she was now, thanks to a certain moonstruck she-cat confused about the line that separated dreams from reality. Oh well, Icecloud reasoned at last, sitting down on the bank of the stream, I might as well catch some fish anyway, even if Silvermist doesn't.
A rustling of ferns behind her caused the young warrior to spin around, claws unsheathed and muscles tense. At last a gray cat with a face that looked like it had been trampled roughly upon by Twolegs emerged from the bushes, muttering to himself and narrowing his eyes at the ground. "Water mint…tansy leaves…hmm…"
"Oh, hello, Smokewhisker," mewed Icecloud politely, inclining her head towards the RiverClan medicine cat.
"Where could that tansy be…?"
"Hello, Smokewhisker," Icecloud said, raising her voice. She'd forgotten that the medicine cat was partly deaf, though one could get along just fine with him if they talked loudly enough.
The gray tom jumped. "Wha—attack! Graarr! Oh, hi, Icecloud. You startled me there, appearing out of nowhere…" He nodded to her and continued glaring at the ground, chanting the name of various herbs under his breath: "Tansy…water mint…celandine…rush…"
It was well-known throughout the Clan that Smokewhisker could go slightly crazy sometimes, though usually this only occurred when he couldn't save a patient (which, thankfully, didn't happen too often). But right now he seemed to be calm, so Icecloud meowed loudly, "Do you need help looking for those herbs?" As the words floated out of her mouth, Icecloud couldn't help but think that there was something wrong with that sentence. She immediately checked it for courtesy in her head, but it seemed to be polite enough…
The medicine cat's pale olive eyes stretched wide. "Sure, but aren't you on a hunting patrol?"
Icecloud shrugged dismissively. "Hey, I don't really want to fish anyway. And I'm kind of lost, so this is a good excuse to use when I talk to Splashstream again…now what herbs were you looking for again?"
Blinking, Smokewhisker hesitated before replying, "Er…well, we're by a stream, so I'd like to catch me some water mint. It's got big green leaves and pale purple flowers. Water mint usually grows around…water, though it can also grow in damp earth if the soil has enough moisture in it. Think you can find me some?"
"Way ahead of you." Icecloud had already turned around and was scanning the small stream for any signs of water mint. Sure enough, there was a clump of something that resembled Smokewhisker's description of water mint just floating in the water. So she dropped into the stream, feeling a tingly sensation as startled minnows swerved around her legs, grabbed the herb, and waded her way back onto land. "Enough?"
"Plenty," purred Smokewhisker. "Now if you'd help like to help me search for some celandine, that'd be great."
The two RiverClan cats worked at finding herbs for several more minutes until at last, Smokewhisker had accumulated a pile of water mint, celandine, rush, poppy seeds, and dock leaves. "Great!" Smokewhisker was tying the herbs up in a large green leaf. "Thanks, Icecloud. This would have taken me a sunrise to collect without your help."
"No problem." Icecloud watched the smoky-gray medicine cat bustle about with all the herbs. Again, something didn't look right with that picture…and then she remembered what it was. "Why are you collecting so many herbs now, anyway?"
Smokewhisker froze just as he had finished bundling the plants together. He stared at her warily. "Why do you ask?"
"Ah, out of curiosity," the blue-furred she-cat returned lazily. "After all, don't you usually just collect one herb at a time? Got a special reason for this?"
The tom's mouth began working as it opened and closed several times, similar to a fish's as it swims underwater. He seemed about to answer when a loud call rang out: "Icecloud!"
"There's Splashstream," mewed Smokewhisker quickly, "bye!" In a burst of speed, he darted into the bushes, herbs dangling from his mouth.
Icecloud let out a snarl of annoyance, sinking her claws into the ground. She had just begun to mull over Smokewhisker's odd behavior when another yowl, this time louder and angrier, screeched through the forest. "Icecloud! Come back now!"
Brooding over Smokewhisker's reluctance to answer her question, Icecloud padded back to the original meeting spot, not even noticing that she now remembered the way there. At last Splashstream's irritated face came into view, and the RiverClan deputy's anger was…legendarily fearsome, for lack of a better phrase. "What took you so long? And—" Shock glinted in his yellow-brown eyes as he realized Icecloud was carrying no prey—"where's your fresh-kill?"
Pondpaw and Silvermist watched as her sister blinked innocently at the furious tomcat. "Oh; I saw Smokewhisker out collecting herbs and helped him out." Silvermist winced as Splashstream drew in a single breath. Her sister was about to receive one of the RiverClan deputy's famous scoldings.
But his next words were a shock to every cat, even Icecloud: "Oh…I see. Well…let's go back to camp now, then."
Silvermist's dark, pine-green eyes widened. Pondpaw just blinked, tawny-orange gaze slightly confused, before the pale gray she-cat darted ahead after her mentor. What the—I thought Splashstream was going to explode at Icecloud and plunge into a loud, furious lecture no one listens to for sure!
Glancing at Icecloud, she saw that her sister shared the same thoughts: The gray she-cat wore a look of bewilderment…but thoughtfulness as well. "Did you hypnotize him or something?"
Icecloud blinked at the sudden query. "No…but it's weird. I get let off the hook for helping Smokewhisker collect lots of herbs? That's not like Splashstream at all."
"No," agreed Silvermist. The two she-cats began trotting back to camp. Hunger momentarily forgotten, Silvermist asked her sister, "What do you mean 'lots of herbs?' I thought Smokewhisker usually only collects one at a time. Didn't he say it's 'fresh, clean, and easy-to-eat' that way?" Smokewhisker was well-known for his unusual habits, such as singing or chanting to himself the name of the herb he was hunting for, but he was best-known for refusing to collect more than one herb at a time.
Icecloud shrugged. "Yeah, I don't know…but when I asked him why he was collecting so many, he stalled for time and darted off when Splashstream called me. Weird, huh?"
"Definitely," Silvermist mused.
As the fresh-kill pile came into sight, Icecloud promptly forgot about the medicine cat and deputy's strange behaviors and headed straight towards the prey. But Silvermist hung back. A thought struck her—Smokewhisker had a specific reason for collecting herbs, all right. Did Splashstream know this reason? And since he was only the deputy…Blizzardstar must know as well!
Silvermist looked around the camp for the light-gray tabby leader. Spotting her sitting alone underneath the shade of an apple tree, the young warrior instantly trotted towards her. "Blizzardstar," called Silvermist.
Elegantly-shaped ears swiveled in the air as the dainty she-cat paused from chewing her plump fish. Blizzardstar started in surprise as she saw none other than Silvermist stepping towards her. "Yes?"
"Blizzardstar," began Silvermist, "why is Smokewhisker collecting more than one herb at a time?"
The pale gray tabby froze. Startled azure eyes stared into pine-green slits. "I—" Blizzardstar paused, looking down at her freshly-caught fish to play for time. "I can't answer you that, Silvermist. I'm sorry."
"So you know why, then," Silvermist said carefully.
Another pause. "Yes," Blizzardstar meowed at last, sounding equally guarded.
The dark emerald gaze had grown icier. "I should have expected as much." Before Blizzardstar could reply, Silvermist padded off to join Icecloud.
"Welcome back," greeted the blue-gray cat. "I got you a fish before old Fishtail took it all." She swiped a paw at a passing ginger cat. The tom stared at her and paused, light orange fur fluffing up briefly, before shaking his head and resuming his journey to the nursery.
Silvermist purred with amusement. "At least there's one cat I can trust here." As she took a bite of the shimmering fish, she felt Icecloud stiffen beside her. "I asked Blizzardstar. She didn't tell me anything."
Icecloud looked like she wanted to say "Big surprise" very much, but she refrained from speaking as usual.
"Should we ask together? Maybe that will—"
"No."
Silvermist opened her eyes in mock surprise. "Hey, at least I got you to say something."
Silence greeted her words.
The silver she-cat sighed, frustrated. She wanted to continue badgering her sister, but she knew Icecloud would just keep silent or go eat with some other cat. So she changed the subject, intending to nail Icecloud when she wasn't expecting it. "There's a Gathering in a few sunrises…looking forward to going?"
"Yeah. I want to see other cats for a change; I'm tired of this boring old camp," complained Icecloud, rolling over onto her back dramatically. "I'm going to get all the gossip from ThunderClan, WindClan, ShadowClan, and RiverClan…"
"We are RiverClan, mousebrain," Silvermist retorted. "And, you know, Blizzardstar might not even choose you to go."
All playfulness was lost as Icecloud clammed up once more. The lithe blue-gray cat merely glared as Silvermist mewed doggedly, "You know you can't avoid it forever. You'll have to face it someday, Icecloud. You can't keep running from the truth."
"I'll stop running when you stop fawning over your stupid 'Mystery Tom,'" Icecloud retorted.
Silvermist was instantaneously stung, forgetting about her initial objective. "Hey! He is not stupid—he's brave, touching, handsome, smart, a good fighter and hunter, fast…" She trailed off, staring dreamily into the sky. "He's my dream tom."
Icecloud snorted. "How can you know he's brave, smart, a good fighter and hunter, and fast if you've never even met him? And you've never even seen his face, so how can you tell he's handsome? What if he's as ugly as…as…" she stared around the camp, searching for an ugly tom, "…as…Swiftbrook!"
"Swiftbrook isn't that ugly."
"Well, he'd make a prettier she-cat than a tom." Icecloud stared critically at the gray tabby tom, sharing tongues with Ambereyes. "He's got lovely blue eyes with divinely long eyelashes, yes, but they'd look much nicer on a female cat. He's prettier than Ambereyes, mind you, but then again…that's not much of an achievement."
Chuckling, Silvermist batted a sheathed paw at Icecloud. "Well, anyway, I guess there's no use trying to persuade you into facing the facts, eh?"
"No use at all," agreed Icecloud cheerfully.
"Then I guess we'll just have to figure it out ourselves. But it would be so much easier if—"
Once again, Icecloud cut Silvermist off. "Pathetic. It's definitely not as fun. We'll just have to resort to the old-fashioned method of figuring stuff out: Spying, stalking, and lying! Doesn't that sound much better?"
"Not really."
Ignoring Silvermist's pessimism (which per se was odd, seeing as Icecloud was usually the pessimist, whilst Silvermist was the optimist), the sleek gray she-cat exclaimed, "I knew you would think so! We can do it, don't worry—after all, we're sisters. Sisters stick together." Silvermist winced at the sudden harshness of Icecloud's tone. "Sisters work together. We can do it."
Looking into Icecloud's determined blue eyes, Silvermist almost believed it. Almost. But something held her back from accepting it as true.
Common sense.
A bit of a wry ending, wouldn't you say? Befits Icecloud though x].
Silvermist and Icecloud - aren't they just the dynamic duo? One's a hopeless romantic who tends to mix up Dreamworld with reality, and one's a sarcastic, rather acid-tongued pessimist. Needless to say, they're both pretty interesting to write about! Though I must admit, I think I prefer writing 'bout Icecloud a little more. ^^ It's just so fun writing from her POV! xD
R&R please. Concrit is wonderful, flames are acceptable, and praise is appreciated as well. I'll be updating soon; around...early to mid next week, shall we say? I may publish before or after that, so...yeah. I should have Chapter Three up by next Friday at the absolute latest though. :D
ThunderClan is next! Keep on guessing who the ThunderClan chosen cat is - who knows, maybe you'll actually get it right!