It was difficult to reach the new base. The boulder in the way of the path wasn't a problem once Ice had chiseled paw-holds into it with her new Moonclaws, but the long bit of gorge they had to walk or swim down to reach the point where they could begin to climb was annoying. Still, there was no question of whether or not the place was suitable. It was large, well-camouflaged, and in an area that most cats saw no point in venturing to. There were fish in the river and hunger was suddenly a thing of the past.
The next day, Ice woke from a beautifully dreamless sleep to find Rip still flopped next to the cave entrance. She nosed past him and padded out into the sunlight.
Blinking the spots out of her eyes, Ice saw it.
She wheeled around and dashed back into the cave. "Rip!" she cried, shaking him with a paw. "Wake up!"
"Whas happen?" he mumbled, then leaped to his feet. "Are we under attack? Did someone fall into the gorge? Are you injured?"
"No, no, and yes, but it's healing, remember? Oh, and there is a whole legion of ThunderClan warriors on the other side of the gorge! They're heading into WindClan territory!"
"Bad," Rip decided. He scurried past Ice to look for himself. "I can only see the tail end of their force. "How many are there? Twenty?"
"About two dozen," Ice corrected. "It's hopeless, isn't it?"
"No," Rip muttered. He ducked back inside and began to pace. "One of us could go to ShadowClan and tell them that Ravenstar's pulled out the stops. If they come, ThunderClan could be driven back."
"And the other?" Ice asked. "Would they run ahead to warn WindClan?"
"Something like that," Rip said.
Ice knew which role he wanted her to take. "Rip. We're in the gorge. We'd have to go all the way back out and around and then ThunderClan will already have arrived."
"No. They were moving slowly. They had a lot of cats with them; there might be time. But we should start moving now."
Ice scowled but followed him out of the cave, down the rocks, and into the river. They began to swim like mad cats, which Ice supposed they were. Everyone is, she thought without humor.
The rocky walls around them began to angle downwards, and soon they vanished into the ground. Ice and Rip swum ashore and, without pausing to shake themselves, began to run.
"You take Starstar, I'll go to WindClan!" Rip shouted, angling back up the way the ThunderClan cats had gone.
Ice growled in response. Sneaky little...! He had done this on purpose, knowing full well that she wanted to be part of the battle. And also knowing full well that once they were running, she wouldn't waste time arguing. With a sigh, she changed course for the Thunderpath.
She was a fast runner, despite her small size. It took her a short time to reach the border, but it felt like hours. She waited impatiently at the edge of the Thunderpath and darted across fearlessly when she spotted a gap. The hot black stone seemed to pull at her paws and slow her down.
Ice broke free of the path and kept running, keeping a sharp eye out for holes and marshy areas. She had never been in ShadowClan territory before, and everything smelled strange and sour, like freshkill turned to crowfood. Even though the sun was out, she shivered. She could see why all the Clans were prejudiced against the ShadowClan cats.
She had only a vague idea of where the camp was, so her lungs were bursting and her paws were sore and shaking when she stumbled through a thicket of brambles and found herself staring into the eyes of a very surprised dark-colored warrior. Ice collected her wits faster and began to say, "I come with-" but was interrupted when the cat lunged for her throat.
Rip was gasping for breath. He had never run so far or so fast in his short life. His whole body shuddered with each heartbeat and trembled with each step. But he could see his quarry coming up fast. He would need to go around somehow, and since the two parties were now racing along the moors, this would be a challenge.
As he came up behind the ThunderClan warriors, he slowed his pace, dropped into a hunting crouch, and navigated his way through the heather and bracken in as low of a stance as he could. Encouraged by the lack of yowls and cries, he picked up the pace until he was running again, slower, but still faster than the main body of the enemy warriors. They were walking to conserve strength and even stopping on occasion to spray their scent.
That was easy, Rip thought. He remained in his low-slung position, contemplating the fact that their might have been a dozen other cats sneaking along in the scruffy brush a few feet from him and he'd never know.
Rip knew exactly where to find the WindClan camp. Unfortunately, so did Ravenstar's warriors. He risked poking his nose up above the level of scrub, satisfied that ThunderClan remained quite a ways behind him now. WindClan wouldn't have much of a warning, but they wouldn't be caught completely unprepared. Rip could see the camp now, and he briefly considered breaking cover to make a final sprint and then dismissed the idea. If ThunderClan didn't know they were expected, so much the better.
The gorse tunnel engulfed him suddenly and the smell of cut heather followed shortly. Then, he burst into open space again, within the camp.
Most cats were just waking up. Firestar was organizing patrols near the center and a low murmur prevailed throughout the camp. All noise and motion ceased as Rip staggered into the light. They stared at him. He drew himself up and spoke loudly and clearly to all gathered. "ThunderClan. They're coming, twenty strong at least." His muscles shook and his breath came too fast, but still he stood and waited for a reaction.
"You're that crazy apprentice from the Gathering!" someone yowled.
"My name is Riptide," Rip growled.
Firestar took a good look at Rip, then glanced over his shoulder at another cat, sleek and cream-colored. She looked at Rip and nodded. "Prepare for battle," the leader ordered.
A sense of purpose settled over Rip. He walked towards the gathered cats, some of whom were protesting their leader's decision, others rushing in and out of dens leading sleepy warriors and apprentices to their stations.
"Riptide," Firestar said to him, "for your sake I hope you tell the truth, but really I'd prefer it if you were lying. We cannot withstand twenty warriors."
"My friend went to ask Starstar for assistance," Rip said. "If we hold out until they arrive, we can still win."
"I have maybe eight warriors and six apprentices in fighting condition, not including you and me. We'll be overrun." Firestar studied the small cat. "Station yourself near the entrance if you're a good fighter and towards the back of camp if you're as young as you look."
Rip nodded and walked to a position by a side wall where he stood catching his breath. He listened in amazement as the level of noise in the camp went from chaotic screech-fest to battle-ready silence in several seconds. RiverClan had never been this organized.
The queens, kits, and elders all grouped together in a hollow log with a guard or two at each end. The rest of the cats spread out through the camp and ringed the perimeter with a large clump by the entrance.
"Normally we block that up for a battle," an apprentice next to Rip whispered, gesturing towards the gorse tunnel, "but we haven't the time, so they're putting some brambles in there as a deterrent."
Rip appreciated the chatter. It helped take his mind off the battle that was sure to go badly wrong in a few minutes. He had pretended for Ice, making it seem like he had been in a lot of battles. He was an older apprentice after all. But the truth of the matter was he had only ever fought in two border skirmishes, and one of those he had been a participant in a "tactical retreat" shortly thereafter. He was having to breathe very slowly in order to keep from hyperventilating.
"My camp was on an island," Rip said. "Usually that was all the fortification we needed."
They both fell silent as a chorus of yowls and battle cries were issued from outside the wall. There was a yelp and a shhhka-shhhhka noise. Apparently someone had discovered the brambles wedged in the gorse tunnel.
The first cat to enter the camp came over the wall, crashing through a bit at the top and landing with a thump among a group of apprentices, who cheerfully mobbed him into submission.
Then there were shouts and wails from the entrance and a pair of cats burst free of the bottleneck and raced into the camp. Three more came over the walls. Rip leaped forward to engage the one closest to him, ducking under a swing and ramming full-tilt into the larger cat's stomach.
Something crashed into his back half and pinned him, but before the first cat could recover his wind, Rip's new apprentice pal charged with a howl and sank his teeth into the second warrior's ear. The loner wriggled free and lunged at the cat he had rammed. The black-and-white tom was recovered, though, and raked his claws across Rip's face. The tom blinked. "You're that one cat! The one who was in our camp the other night and stole our freshkill!"
Rip looked at his opponent warily, trying to ignore the stinging pain and the blood dripping into his eye. "And you're that wussy kittypet that I knocked out cold with one good swing. I remember now."
The ThunderClan warrior howled in outrage and lunged, stretching out his claws.
Rip was ready. He crouched, waited until the other cat had just landed on his back, then pushed upwards with all his might, as if jumping to a far-away stepping stone. The larger cat's own momentum added to that was enough to send him flying. He landed awkwardly and by that time, the smaller loner was on top of him, clawing and biting for all he was worth. Once he was thrown, he sprang back to his feet and commenced circling his opponent.
"You don't give up easily, do you?" Rip said, keeping an eye out for anyone coming up behind him. Most of the fighting was in the front of camp, but it was slowly working its way back.
"Where's your prissy little accomplice?" snarled the ThunderClan cat, flicking blood from his torn ear. "She ditch you for a kittypet yet?"
Rip looked suddenly beyond his foe. His green eyes went wide and his whiskers twitched. "She's doing a nice job flanking. Look behind you."
The tom whipped around, and then Rip was on top of him again.
"Great StarClan!" Rip growled, delivering a kick or bite with each word. "That is the oldest trick in the history of the world, and you, my friend, are the biggest sucker in twice that time."
The tom shook him off again, this time running straight at and then through the camp wall, trailing blood.
Rip double-teamed a ThunderClan apprentice with a WindClan warrior, then took a good look around. WindClan was losing warriors at an alarming rate and were being pushed back towards the far wall of the camp.
He was just about to dash back into the fray when a paw came out of nowhere and smashed into his already-injured face. Rip staggered, shook blood out of his eyes, and tried without success to ward off a second blow, which took him to the ground. He lashed out blindly with his claws, managed to elicit a howl, but then something large and heavy landed on top of him, pinning Rip to the ground.
He struggled, but another blow made him dazed and before he could recover another cat came to help hold him down.
Finally, he managed to shake the blood out of his eyes. He went limp, then began to struggle with a fierce desperation, yowling Ice's favorite curses at his captors.
A black cat with one white paw approached slowly and deliberately. Rip recognized him. He had seen Ravenstar on three occasions before. He redoubled his curses.
Ravenstar halted by the three cats, two of which held down the raving loner. "You're much smaller than I thought," the leader said, sounding disappointed. "I thought we might actually have something to be concerned about. Certainly you made me quite angry, warning WindClan of my impeding attack not once but twice. How did you know, I wonder? And then you had the wherewithal to actually steal from my camp."
Ravenstar leaned closer. "And where's your...friend? She's not here; we know that much."
"Behind you," Rip growled, jerking his head in that direction, then spat blood in the leader's face.
Ravenstar hissed softly and wiped it away. "Do you know what we do to spies and thieves in ThunderClan, Riptide?"
And without warning, he laid Rip open from shoulder to hip.
Ice ducked and the ShadowClan cat stumbled past. "Stop!" she yowled. "I'm a messenger! Don't kill the messenger!"
The warrior hesitated. The other cats in camp glared at her suspiciously. "Well?" someone yowled.
"WindClan is under attack," Ice said, searching out Starstar and staring him in the eye. "They can't possibly win alone and they need your help." Her breath was coming in short gasps.
"Well, gee, I guess we should just run off and lend them a paw like good neighbors," drawled an ash-gray tom near the front.
"Shut up, Stormclaw," growled Starstar. He turned back to Ice. "You're one of the two Clanless apprentices that spat on Ravenstar last Gathering, right?"
Ice nodded, hoping this was a good development.
Starstar thought about this. "I suppose we could go help with the battle. Help WindClan, I mean."
"She might be lying," offered Stormclaw. "Getting us to leave our camp undefended."
"Without WindClan at our side, ThunderClan doesn't need clever ruses to defeat us. All they have to do is show up," pointed out a calico she-cat.
"Alright," said Starstar, sounding bored, "I suppose we go. ShadowClan, assemble! Lionfang, Spottedpaw, Dapplepath, stay behind in camp. Everyone else without kits and with full use of all limbs and eyes, you're with me. Move on!"
ShadowClan warriors and apprentices streamed past Ice, heading out into the swampy marsh. She stood amazed at the speed at which they had moved, staring openly at the rapidness they had shown.
"Coming, loner?" yowled Stormclaw. Ice shook herself out of her daze and ran after the procession.
The patrol moved swiftly, but Ice could feel each and every moment slipping past like water. She kept wondering what would happen if they were too late. Could ShadowClan's force defeat Ravenstar's weakened army without WindClan's help? What would they do next?
What if Rip was dead?
Ice shook her head until the thought drained out. Running. Focus on running. This was taking too long. She needed to get there now, not after she wasted all this time sprinting around the forest.
They were on the moor now. She could see the camp coming up. Faint battle-cries and screeches issued from within the battered heather and gorse walls. Hope surged within Ice. They weren't too late. They could still win.
Starstar was issuing orders, instructing some cats to go around and find holes in the wall and others to go straight through the tunnel into the fray. If any commands were directed at the gray loner, she chose not to hear them. She didn't lessen her pace at all as she aimed for the entrance. She scraped one side on some brambles (who lines their camp entrance with brambles?!) and burst into the camp.
For a moment, she thought, Oh, it is too late. There were maybe nine warriors and apprentices in a half-circle near the back of camp, fending off at least twice as many ThunderClan cats. Ice gave a whoop and charged the nearest enemy.
The she-cat Ice aimed for had no time to turn around. One minute she was slicing up an apprentice and the next she had a mouthful of dust. Ice tested her new Moonclaws by shredding the warrior's back and shoulders like a dry leaf. The she-cat howled in pain and wrenched free, running as fast as she could out of camp through a hole in the wall. Ice let her go.
ShadowClan warriors poured into the tattered clearing. A few ThunderClan cats fled outright. WindClan's battered forces cheered and attacked with renewed enthusiasm, driving the enemy back a few steps.
Now Ice could see it. The clump of four cats in the back of camp, unnoticed by most. One cat was Ravenstar, sleek and black and regarding everything with perfectly controlled anger. His claws gleamed red.
Rip was pinned to the ground beneath the other two. He was unmoving, blood matting his whole left side, thick and pooling on the dusty ground.
She became her own name.
She could see every fur on Ravenstar's pelt.
She could see his heartbeat as the very faint tremble in his chest.
She could see everything around her in minute detail, but all she heard was her own pulse, a steady thrum in her ears.
She locked eyes with Ravenstar and leaped.
The leader could see her coming. He sprang to meet her, but she put her claws out in front and let momentum tear deep gouges on his face and neck. They tumbled to the ground, and Ice came out on top. She was absolutely cold.
There was only a one-in-nine chance what she was about to do would cause her guilt.
The perfect white Moonclaws turned red.
The two cats sitting on Rip sprang to their paws with a cry, but Ice lifted her head and looked them both in in eye. She was absolutely cold.
They ran.
Ravenstar's eyes were blank and empty. His flank no longer rose and fell, the faint tremble in his chest was gone.
The blood stopped flowing. New skin and fur grew over the cut, and suddenly the eyes blinked; the chest rose, fell, and trembled.
"How many lives do you have, dear Ravenstar?" Ice asked sweetly. "And how many are you willing to bet that you can beat me in a fight?"
Ravenstar rose to his feet. "This isn't over, loner," he hissed. "You will never-"
Ice headbutted him between the eyes as hard as she could. "Less swearing revenge, more leaving. Now."
Ravenstar turned tail and ran, calling his warriors after him. ShadowClan and WindClan cheered and taunted and cat-called after them, then fell to laughing and talking amongst each other.
The moment she identified the medicine cat, Ice was at her side and dragging her by the ear over to Rip. The cold anger drained away, leaving only a gaping black abyss of fear.
Nim here- Yes! Update is only three days late! SUCCESS!
So, getting a bit darker. I tried not to make it too graphic, especially when Ice kills Ravenstar. How many lives does he have left? Mwahahaha, I'll never tell! And now, a cliff-hanger! Except, well, you pretty much know what's going to happen. Or do you? I bet you don't. But trust me, this will lead to one thing, and then another, and then BOOM! you have like half the rest of the plot laid out.
And yeah, I'll try to keep up with updates (I mean it this time!) I'm just sooo busy, and it's hard to line up "Free Time" with "Time I Feel Like Writing". And sometimes I feel like writing but I feel like writing something besides Ice and Rip. Which means I stay up really late and you get bizarre, half-formed ideas like Moonclaws. Seriously, about 50% of my writing process takes place when I'm half asleep.
Review Replies:
Jaysong- Glad you liked the Moonclaws! You never know with RIp, but what he got from his StarClan visit was probably just a huge sense of self-importance :) Hope I updated fast enough!
Saturn in the Shadows of Space- Glad you like it! Thanks for the review, and I hope you keep enjoying the random stuff I come up with like the Moonclaws :)
Fading Shadows- O.o I had the EXACT SAME IDEAS! I thought, OK, so everyone is expecting an Ice/Rip romance. Rip falls in love with ThunderClan cat! Thank you sooo much for your thoughts! Now everyone is expecting it, yes, but I hope to surprise them a little...Won't say any more!
