AN: OK, I've decided to keep going without the rouge, but I'll need one for next chapter. If you want your female cat to be the rouge next chapter, leave her name, look and personality in a review. Last chapter Silverclaw and Winterheart spent a quiet moment together during their vigil, and it looks like their future together is coming into focus. Silverclaw is worried about her nest-mate Copperpaw, who may be taking after his unkind mentor. But while hunting, Silverclaw and Winterheart fall into Sparkling Gorge! Will they be saved, and by whom?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Silverclaw shivered despite the warm sunlight on her fur. She felt waves crashing gently against her body, and she knew she had to get up. Silverclaw weakly rose, sharp pain shooting up her right paw. She looked around, her eyes still blurred and unfocused. She could barely remember the fall, where she and Winterheart had fallen into Sparkling Gorge….
But where was Winterheart? This thought caused Silverclaw to shoot up, ignoring the sting in her leg. Her head cleared, and she could finally get a hold of her surroundings. She was still in Sparkling Gorge, but not any part she'd seen before. But she wasn't interested in where SHE was, but in where Winterheart was.
She felt someone press up against her back, and a familiar smell reached her nose.
"About time you woke up," Winterheart said, his voice a bit hoarse. She turned around and saw her gray friend looking at her with comforted green eyes. He nuzzled her head, purring with relief. Silverclaw pressed her head back against his, exhausted from her struggle.
"Do you know where we are?" she asked softly, supporting herself on Winterheart's side. Her paw was throbbing uncomfortably. Winterheart pulled back and shook his head gravely.
"We got washed very far downstream," he mewed. "I wanted to take a look around, but I didn't want to leave you alone. Silverclaw blinked at him gratefully, the familiar heat prickling in her chest.
"We need to get back to camp," Silverclaw said, looking up at the rocky walls. They were on a small riverbank, which sloped dangerously up to the forest… or wherever they were.
"How will we get up?" Winterheart asked. Silverclaw looked around, spotting a branch hanging down.
"If we could jump high enough," she commented, indicating the branch, "we could climb up that."
"It's awfully high," Winterheart remarked ruefully. But Silverclaw had already limped towards it. "Can you make it?" Winterheart asked when he had caught up, looking down at her paw. Silverclaw nodded uncertainly.
"I'll try first," she said, bracing herself for the pain. She coiled up, tensing her back legs up for the leap. She refrained from crying out as she released, launching herself with her injured paw. But she pulled through, even clinging to the branch with it.
It took less time for Winterheart to climb up. Silverclaw lay down all the same, grateful for any rest. She guessed that the river had taken them south, because the ground underneath was the same sand as the Mountain Base. The trees were closer together, and the sunlight streaming down with tinge with the leaves' green. The underbrush was dense except for the clearing she was in. A purple flower spurred a memory in her. If she could just find the place where she'd found Frostfire, she could make it back to camp.
"Do you want to rest?" Winterheart asked as he clambered up and sat beside her. Part of her wanted to say no, we need to get home, but her prickling paw overpowered her.
"Only for a while," she said stubbornly. Winterheart nodded silently and lay down beside her, his flank pressed against his. This time she did not feel the tingling heat in her chest, only a pleasant warm wave. Silverclaw intertwined her tail with Winterheart's, her eyes growing heavy with sleep. She felt his head resting against hers, felt his soft purring vibrating throughout his body and into hers. She wished she could stay like this, laying side-by-side with him in the dream-like forest, but she was soon asleep.
The old dream returned. The familiar mist was swirling, so cold that for a second she thought she would wake up and find it was leaf-bare. But the sun above her was warm, and she could feel sweat trickling down her face. She recounted the dream, different from last time. She was sure she'd seen Bristlestar, his black, scraggly fur and his uneven tail. But had she just imagined the arrow on his back? No, she mournfully assured herself.
Was he really her father? Then who was her mother? Silverclaw looked over at Winterheart, lain peacefully beside her, his head still propped up against hers. Still weary from her rest, Silverclaw looked out again at the dense foliage around them.
At the edge of the clearing, Silverclaw saw a streak of rusty-colored fur. Silverclaw started, waking Winterheart up.
"Wha-what is it?" he asked, his eyes wide. Silverclaw jerked her head towards the flash, and the two ForestClan cats padded over towards it. They crouched low, becoming as silent as possible. Silverclaw peered over a newly-grown bush, making out two figures in the dark shadows thrown over the forest. There was no mistaking Copperpaw's shining orange pelt or his smell.
But the cat he was with… it was too dark to see the other cat. It was a female, but her scent… Silverclaw looked around. This was where she had found Frostfire, and the strange she-cat had the same smell as the rouges. Copperpaw… was in love with a rouge that had attacked ForestClan?
