Look, here she comes now.

Bow down and stare in wonder.

Oh, how we love you.

No flaws when you're pretending.

Everybody's Fool, Evenescence

So, now that I have come back from vacation I can publish again, thought I have very little motivation for various reasons, and yes the lack of reveiws is one of them, I will still publish this story and intend to finish it.

Shadow was hungry, she had ignored it for the fist day but now the beast refused to back down. As she dragged herselft through the frozen rocks the constant rumbling of her stomach lulled her. She was very tired too but closing her eyes here meant never awaking again, and even in her state the will to survive kept her going. At first her torn up pads had hurt but now, despite the frozen blood caked around them, she didn't feel them anymore. One of her ears had turned black and hung pitously, wich meant bad news, but she didn't really care, it all seemed dulled next to the hunger.

Frostbite (when parts of your body turn black and floppy from the cold and loss of blood circulation) is a common thing in the mountains, that doesn't mean she has lost her ear (yet) because with proper care and warmth, if it hasn't been there for too long, it can recover.

But despite all that she needed food and quick. She had tried to eat snow and had filed her stomach with it, but all she gained was a burning sensation and the emptyness returned too soon.

You can actually go up to three weeks without food but you won't be fine and pracing around and you have to drink, no water means death in five days.

But just when she felt too tired, too hurt and too hungry to continue, the jagged rocks and frozen ground left place to a large field of powdery snow. She knew it was dangerous but there she could find food, and shelter. Not hesitating any longer she wriggled her hanches and launched herself on the thin crust of melted snow, who gae way. She didn't panic because the moment she began to sink she knew she had been right; the dark mouth of the tunnel swallowed her.

There was of course no reason to panic, once she hit the ice she realised the snow allowed enough sunlight to pass so she couls see. But even in the dark it would have been difficult, the stench of rabbit was overhelming. She cleched her jaws to stop herself from screaming out in joy. Instead she crawled rapidly down the frozen tunnel.

After yet another sharp turn she noticed that the smell was getting stronger, if that was even possible. She sniffed the air greedily and sped up, her prey was close. She suddently leapt forwards and burst into a small chamber in a shower of ice and gravel, ending nose to nose with a stupefied rabbit. An insanely wide grin appeared on her face as she cut the only escape the poor creature had, hunger was making her loose her remaining sanity. She stepped forwards, her small yer thorn sharp claws sliding out and saliva dripping from her now open jaws. The rabbit stood no chance against her hunger driven frenzy and she was enjoying every second of this. Then she stopped her taunting, the smell of prey and fear making her leap into the air, claws extended towards the creature she was hunting. It resisted a few seconds, small paws scoching her nose and sides, then she tore into it with incredible strengh, lashing out and burying her fangs into the still living flesh.

Look at that, it's so fresh that it doesn't even realise it's dead, look at how it squirms, do you want some Frosty?

A piece of meat has still hanging from her jaws, and she swallowed it. The beady eye of the rabbit screwed into hers as it seemed to mock her.

"Look at you, eating like an animal, are you forgetting that you're nothing more than a coward, that you let him die? Yes he's dead, Frosty is D-E-A-D!"

It was too much for her, the world was spinning at the same rythm than the twitching paws of the rabbit and she bent over and retched. She looked shamefully at the still agonizing carcass in front of her, she felt very heavy all of a sudden and her head was throbbing.

The floor wouldn't be such a bad place to sleep she decided. Ignoring the smelly mess she made and the shredded carcass she curled up on the spot and left blackness take over.

Frosty was standing in a hite room, he would have thought it to be ice but it was too warm to the touch. He was so absorbed in discovering what strange material the walls where made of that he didn't notice the other cat in the room.

"Hello my dear Frosty."

The voice was a mere whisper and he whipped around in shock. In front of him was standing a pure black she-cat, her pale blue eyes cold and emotionless.

"What are you doing here, Crackled Ice Of The Frozen Plains?" he snarled.

Her eyes twinkled with malice and she laughed, it was not a pretty sound.

"Why so cold my dear?" she gasped in fake hurt.

"Stop the bullshit, we both know you never cared about me so now awnser my question; why are you here?" he snapped.

She cracked with laugher once more, the sound was beginning to fray his nerves. He couldn't remember why he hated her so much but he did, and what she had done was unforgivable even if she ended up dying.

Wait... dying?

The thought sent panic shooting up his nerves, it couldn't be, he couldn't be dead!

"But you are dear." she whispered once more.

The fact that she was reading his thoughts didn't disturb him as much than the fact that it was her who welcomed him into the realms of death, so the stories where just fairytales?No matter how he looked at it he couldn't put any sense in his reasoning. There was felines he loved more than her, but also people he hated more, even if there was few. Of all the cats who went to their death before him why did it have to be her to greet him. But the most important question was where he would end up. Surely the Great Spirits wouldn't want him to join them, but did he do deeds evil enough to be thrown into the Black Ice chasm?

"That, my dear, is a very good question. If you don't mind I shall show you."

Before he had any time to protest the ground beneath his feet became black and as it whithered and twisted beneath him. As his mouth opened into a wordless scream he was thrown into an endless pool of black.

Above him a pair of ice blue eyes shone with glee.

Flight was worried, and she had every reason to do so. The small kit she carried in her jaws had since long stopped squirming and it's pathetic squeaks had faded, the only proof she had that it was alive where the kit's incessant shivering. Herself suffered a bit from the cold and the sharp rubble under her paws but she shook it off, she had to prove her toughtness to her father. To be honest she was tired of caring, of worrying about the others and thowing her chances away for them. By following her father she just proved that she was ready to let her morals go and change. It wasn't easy to ignore the nagging feeling of guilt as she thought of the bloody corpse they had left behind, but the urge to prove she could be more than this, more than just a measy and mouse hearted molly, kept her going. She glanced at her father, he was steadily jogging in front of her, seemingly unbothered by the harsh conditions. How could he be so cold towards her, she had told him she would follow him to the end of the world and that was how she was rewarded? How cruel of him, but that was what she had decided to embrace after all.

If she didn't know better, if this overhelming will to change didn't blossom in her heart she would have begged him to stop, to warm up the kit and rest her battered body, but she didn't. Instead she ignored the clenching of her heart and sniffed the air in the small hope of catching the snow white kit's scent. Even the thing's name was odd, who named a white cat Shadow of all things? She had talked about a Master, and by the looks of it where she came from wasn't a kind place. But who was she to judge, now she was just a tool, something her father could use to his heart's contempt, nothing more.

But nothing less, said a little voice in her mind. She just shook it off, would she go mad that she wouldn't care more.

Then Spider stopped, his forepaws buried in immaculate, fresh and powdery snow. But it wasn't that who caused him to stop, neither as it the dark hole reeching of rabbit a few tail-lenghts forwards.

It was the tiny pawprints that linked the two.

Not as long as I thought but it's still a chapter so there's nothing to complain about I guess. I was way to lazy to make it to 2000 words. I'd also like to thanks jazara evergreen for reviewing, as he (or she?) was the only one.

To awnser your question they swear like that because they have obviously no morals or decent cats to correct them, yes Spider just attacked Frosty but that was because he was intrusing their den and threatening them, the rant about the names seemed in the right place to me, I prefer to see it there so you can actually understand the how and why immeadiately, I don't mind you pointng out my mistakes as I have no beta reader and don't worry I don't mind constructive criticism as long that it's polite.

Also i'll maybe make Frosty a story of his own or just cram it into here, I don't know yet.

If you guess what the title means you have the right to choose a reward (try not to google it, books don't damage your brain) and I'll try to give it to you. Ex: a one shot about one of the characters, a double update...