Chapter 6

1 hour later

Pacing back and forth in the tiny, cramped cave, Pebble growled. "Why am I so mouse-brained?" she retorted. "I just had to tell him I was the other twin."

"It's ok," Wolfstream said, trying to calm her down by brushing his soft gray tail against her flank. "We're going to find a way out of here."

Although his voice was incredibly reassuring and believable, she couldn't get herself to believe him. Just then, Pebble remembered something she wanted to tell Wolfstream, and she decided there was no other better time than to tell him now.

"Wolfstream, I need to talk to you about something..." she said, her voice trailing off at the end of the sentence.

He looked at her with warm, clear blue eyes, that almost seemed to glow it was so dark in the cave. "Of course," he mewed softly, moving a few pawsteps closer to her.

"It's about... the day that the clan left. Before the incident, I had so much faith in StarClan. I believed in the starry cats with all my heart, and I really believed they were watching over us."

Wolfstream interrupted. "Of course they are. Our loved ones and ancestors watch us from above, and make sure everything maintains balance and peace."

Pebble looked down. "I'm going to be totally honest with you. You aren't going to like it, and I apologize in advance."

Wolfstream tilted his head, looking worried. "Okay," he said.

She looked at him, straight into his glacier eyes. "The day everyone left me, it hurt. I felt more emotional, and physical, pain than I've ever felt in my life, and I wondered, if StarClan really did exist, why would they do such a horrible thing to me? Would they really be cruel enough to make a tiny kit suffer a horrible, lonely life like I did? And even if they did exist,I hated them. So..." she hesitated before she said the words. "I turned my back on them."

Wolfstream looked at her with sad eyes. He knew what she was going to say next.

"I don't believe in StarClan. I haven't since that day and I never will."

He looked down and squeezed his eyes shut. "You're right. I didn't like that."

She looked at him with sorrowful eyes. "I am so sorry, but I had to tell you."

He looked up at her. "It's okay. I'll try to understand. It is my religion and my faith, but it is obviously not yours, and that is a very hard thing to hear." He hesitated for a moment, then continued. "But for now, this doesn't matter. I'm going to see if we can find a way out of here."

Pebble nodded awkwardly. Wolfstream walked toward the back of the cave, which was incredibly dark. It took awhile for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he started to look for anything that could help them out. After looking for a while, he gave up and walked back to where Pebble was now lying down in a curled ball of thick, brown fur.

"Ok. This is what we're going to do," he told Pebble. She stood up, ears perked.

He put his muzzle close to her ear. "I'm going to make a distraction while you escape in the chaos of everything," he mewed softly so the guards at the mouth of the cave wouldn't hear. "This will be easy because it's quite dark outside. Just try not to accidentally bump into any cats or anything."

"Okay," she whispered.

He slowly snuck up on the guards, whose backs were turned to them. They were the same husky orange and black tom. Pebble became nervous; she knew he was going to pounce but these two cats were strong. Even though Wolfstream was muscular she didn't think he could take on one of these toms, let alone two.

Wolfstream waved his light gray tail on the ground just before pouncing, then attacked. He jumped on the orange tom, the slightly smaller one that he had a better chance with. The orange tabby yowled, trying to swat him off his back with his big, black paws, and then began trying to shake him off. As the black tom tried to help out his orange friend, Pebble began her way out of the cave and out of camp without anyone noticing. Once she was out of sight to everyone, she hid behind the pile of rocks, which made up the cave they were just inside, and waited for Wolfstream. He was still struggling to attack the tom near the cave entrance, but she knew this was just a distraction from when she slipped out of the cave. He'd be running over soon, to catch up with Pebble, so they could get out of there.

Cats started to look at the commotion. They all just watched with wide eyes. Howlstar came out of his den, far away on the other side of camp.

Wolfstream saw that Pebble had escaped from the cave. He jumped off the tabby and ran as fast as he could towards Pebble. Even though they weren't near the official camp entrance, this camp was just surrounded by trees and was poorly protected, and it was quite easy getting out of camp from any spot you choose.

As Wolfstream ran towards Pebble, he yelled, "Start running! NOW!"

Immediately, Pebble took off. Wolfstream caught up, then ran in front of her. "Follow me!" he said. Pebble couldn't see much because the moon was as thin as a cat's claw, so the night was incredibly dark and made it hard to see much of anything. But she used her other senses to follow him and move as fast as her paws could carry her. She heard cats behind them- they were being followed.

Pebble caught up to Wolfsteam. "We have to lose them," she meowed between breaths.

Wolfstream, without saying a word, took a sharp right. Pebble skidded and tried to turn as fast as he did, but she had to fully stop before picking up speed and running in his direction.

When she caught up with Wolfstream, she yelled, "What was that for?!"

"Sorry. I realized we were going the wrong way. We need to be running towards WaterClan, not parallel to it."

His tone had a harsh ring to it, as if it should be totally obvious to Pebble that they were going the wrong way. Pebble wondered if it had to do with the conversation about StarClan in the cave they had. She felt bad about disrespecting his beliefs like that. She wished that she believed in StarClan, but she just couldn't get herself to. They had betrayed her, and in return she turned her back on them.

She didn't have time to think about that now. For now, all she needed to concentrate on was running.

Don't look back, don't look back, don't look back. Those were the three words running through her head.

After running for a long time, she realized Wolfstream was slowing down up ahead. She began to slow down also, and eventually they both stopped. They sat there in silence, catching their breath. Finally, Wolfstream spoke.

"I think we lost them."

Pebble nodded. She couldn't hear any nearby cats. "I think so too."

The gray tom stood. "Let's get going," he mewed, flicking his fluffy tail. "We need to get to the camp before sunrise."

Pebble was exhausted, but she agreed.

As the two walked, Pebble thought about how excited she was to finally see her clan again. She couldn't believe they were on their way to WaterClan. She was going to see her brother again, brave little Bramblekit, who was probably an amazing warrior by now. He was such a warm-hearted, loyal cat, and she wondered what his warrior name was now. Pebble thought about her mother, her beautiful black coat and glowing golden eyes shimmering in Pebble's memory. She remembered the sweet little kit Spottedkit that she befriended the day of the invasion. She thought about everyone in her clan, and bursts of joy spread throughout her body.

But she was most excited to see her sister.

I wonder if we still look exactly alike, she thought. But she immediately realized this thought was silly- of course they would still look exactly alike! They were twins.

The two walked for hours. Pebble's paws were getting sore and tired. Her bloodshot, green eyes drooped. Wolfstream didn't look much better, with his medium-long fur tangled with twigs and covered with a thick layer of dirt. Never the less, his clear, blue eyes continued to radiate an icy wave of energy.

Finally, Wolfstream stopped in his tracks.

"We're here."

With these words, Pebble's blood turned to ice. Her dark fur stood on end. She realized she was incredibly nervous.

Wolfstream looked over at her, suddenly looking concerned. "Are you okay?" he murmured softly. "You look like you've seen Ashstar's ghost."

"F-fine," she stuttered. "Just a b-bit nervous. I haven't seen WaterClan since..."

"Just take a deep breath," he mewed softly. He comforted her by rubbing her back with his long tail. "Everything is going to be fine. I'm going to go get Riverbreeze before the sun comes up and every cat is awake."

Wolfstream gave her one last reassuring look, and then disappeared into the camps thick wall, made of underbrush and trees.

Minutes passed by, but to Pebble each second felt like an eternity. She swallowed, trying to calm herself.

Her ears perked when she heard rustling and voices. She could tell one of them was Wolfstream's deep, reassuring voice. As they got closer to where she was sitting, she could make out what they were saying.

"I promise, this is worth getting up early," she heard Wolfstream whisper.

"It better be."

Pebble's heart almost stopped.

The voice that said that sounded exactly like her voice. Except... with more sass.

The two cats popped out of the bushes a few feet away from her.

Pebble gasped.

Riverbreeze looked over, hearing her gasp. Seeing Pebble, she jumped, green eyes wide and fur standing on end. Wolfstream smiled.

Pebble slowly walked over. She couldn't believe her eyes. Suddenly, all of this reuniting with her clan stuff became real to her. It was actually happening. Her wish had come true after seasons and seasons of wishing.

Riverbreeze opened her mouth.

"...Pebblekit?"