Chapter Seven.
Ghost - Safe Place.
The rain won't stop coming.
It started raining before the sun set, sometime between him falling asleep and waking up to Tawny attempting to pester him once again. She keeps asking questions, no matter how much Scotch tries to make her stop, or sleep, or do anything productive.
He can recognize the signs of pent-up energy when he sees it. Scotch probably doesn't let her do anything ever, and that's why she seem so bad now. Almost all apprentices have this kind of energy, until it's funneled into the right direction. Or at least they did. If any of them have survived, it's likely that it's all been driven out by now.
Ghost rises to his feet, accepting that between the talking he can hear and the rain pounding against the roof he's not going to sleep any time soon. There's a small pile of prey sitting by the door, a few sparrows and a mouse or two. As he watches Jasper grabs one of the mice and drops it at Cricket's feet, who looks like he's doing his best to sink in the floor instead of be interacted with.
Scotch seems to be in the middle of an attempt at glaring at everything in the room, Tawny laying by his side, tucking into a sparrow of her own.
Jasper returns to the prey just as Ghost gets there. He shoves something towards him and Ghost takes it without comment. All they've been doing is feeding him and expecting nothing in return, it seems.
"Nyla and I took Storm out with us when we went hunting. He's actually pretty good. We tried to make Scotch come but he didn't want to leave the other two with you and Ari, even though you were both sleeping." Jasper doesn't sound exasperated, even though most others would expect him to be. Everyone looks well-fed and there's still prey to spare.
"Where is Storm? And Nyla and Ari?"
"Storm's asleep, now. Ari's up on the roof and Nyla's making sure she doesn't slip and fall off."
"It's raining."
"Hadn't noticed," Jasper deadpans. "She wanted to keep a watch. Something about that group wandering around. Don't think she's seen them yet."
He nods appreciatively. It's not like he wouldn't stay up on the roof if they were in danger, he would, but the idea doesn't necessarily appeal to him. Not with how the thunder's practically shaking the foundation of the building.
"You still good to leave in the morning?" Jasper asks. He nods.
It's happening, at daybreak. They're getting out of here. Storm called it The Skulk, not that that helped him any, but the rest of them seem to know what exactly that is and how to get there. As far as he was told it's abandoned, small section of twoleg place a ways into the forest. A nasty place, Nyla had said. Not a place where many outsiders head, unless they're looking for trouble. The cats who grow up there aren't friendly, and the ones who choose to reside there even less so.
It's also the last place that group would think to look for them, so he's all for it. It's just the question of getting there. Nyla insists it's not all that far, maybe a day if they travel fast, but someone's going to carry Cricket the whole way there and make sure Tawny doesn't run away and instigate something. Scotch doesn't seem to have any desire to go with them, something about how he's been there before and it's not exactly pleasant, but he'll go. Because of the kids, not anyone else.
"Not like we have a choice," Ghost says in lieu of answering, and Jasper shrugs.
"Might as well eat something and then try to keep sleeping. Gonna be a long walk tomorrow." He sets off to his own corner after that, a sparrow in his jaws, but Tawny bounces up to him before he can even settle down. Tawny says something, and Jasper shakes his head, but there's a bemused smile on his face. It seems he's gotten used to them already.
Ghost takes the remaining mouse and is about to return to his own spot when Ari appears out of seemingly nowhere, bounding down a series of crates until she hits the floor, Nyla on her tail. They're both soaked to the bone, looking more like drowned rats than cats, but it's the panic in Ari's eyes that concerns him.
"We just saw them. All six of them. They're headed this way. I don't know if they're just still searching, or if they're looking for shelter, but—"
"Hiding," Jasper interrupts. "Hiding sounds great."
"What? There's only six of them!" Tawny says incredulously. "There's eight of us! We could totally take them."
"Your brother is injured and couldn't fight off a wasp even if he wasn't," Scotch interrupts. "And you are not fighting anything. You are hiding. We all are."
It's one of the first sensible things that Scotch has said since Ghost has met him, and he agrees with it whole-heartedly. He bounds forward, prey forgotten, and scoops Cricket off the floor before he can even make a noise. Jasper was right, the kid really isn't heavy at all, and just hangs there, eyes wide and terrified as he stares at the door like he's expecting them to burst in any second now.
Ghost places him as gently as he can behind a crate at the back of the building just as Tawny squeezes in beside him.
"Stay put until we tell you to move," he tells her, and she nods, seemingly obedient for once. She presses her nose to Cricket's side, trying to comfort him, but he's still shaking. Nyla appears, and then Jasper, and he catches sight of Ari crouching behind a crate one over, just barely peeking around the corner towards the door. Scotch bundles Storm in and then they're all pressed together in the darkness, completely helpless but to just wait.
"The prey," Nyla whispers. "We just left it there, they're going to see it."
It takes Ghost a second to remember the fact that there's a pile of prey just sitting by the half-open door, waiting to be stumbled upon.
Before he can think of anything rational, Storm takes off. Scotch just barely misses him, landing on the spot he had been standing a second too late like he was planning on flattening him to the floor to stop him. Storm streaks across the room, pelt so dark he's almost a blur, and practically skids into the pile of prey, scattering it into the corner of the room. He grabs one last piece and flings it away. It might not be enough to erase the smell, but with the rain pounding just outside it must be enough.
A shadow falls across the door, and he shakes his head at Storm, who freezes. He presses himself back into the shadows, going completely still, and Ghost holds his breath. Prays to whoever's listening. Jaytalon's not here right now, and StarClan isn't going to save them from this.
Another shadow appears, and then disappears in a matter of seconds. They're moving. He waits for another, and no one appears.
"They're still looking," Nyla says quietly, her soaked fur pressed against his side, and he lets out an exhale. They're not stopping, even for the rain, and they clearly don't think anyone would be stupid enough to be lying in wait this close.
Ari is the first one to move to the door, standing between Storm and the entrance like she's certain they're going to come back. He pads carefully to her side, leaving the rest of the group still in hiding.
"They just went down the alleyway to the right," Ari hums under her breath. "Don't think they're coming back."
His head has already made the dumbest decision he's possibly ever made, and he steps outside into the rain. Ari makes a surprised noise behind him, but he stops her.
"You don't need to give your brother two heart attacks in one day. Stay here. You'll defend the rest of the group if they do come back. I won't be gone long."
"And what if you are?" She asks apprehensively. He wasn't wrong. She'll defend them better than anyone else here possibly can, and he trusts that. But he's dumb, and he's not done making irrational decisions quite yet. What he does know is he needs to stop involving her, and all of them, in said decisions.
"Head to The Skulk anyway. If they find you and they find out you've been helping me, it won't end well."
"Yeah right. If you don't come back we're coming after you."
He lets out a low, bitter laugh. The noise surprises him. "Don't bother. There won't be anything left of me to come for."
It's freezing.
The snow is almost all melted, but the rain isn't much better, and it's clinging to his thick fur like it doesn't plan on letting go. He crosses over to the alleyway Ari pointed out, wondering if the others are contemplating how crazy he is at this very moment. Probably. He is crazy, or at least borderline.
He wasn't done talking with Frozenkit last night. He hardly talked at all, still with shock and disbelief. His nephew ran before he could say anything of importance, and he's not leaving it like that.
They alleyway is empty as he steps into it. The towering walls provide some shelter from the rain, but not much. The group must be moving faster than he thought, because there's no sign of them. He's half-tempted to crawl under a dumpster for a few seconds, just to give himself a break from the rain, when someone jumps down from the roof behind him, so close he nearly jumps out of his fur.
"You really have a death wish, don't you?"
Frozenkit. Again.
"And you have a thing for appearing out of nowhere. Don't the rest of them ever get suspicious that you keep running off?"
Frozenkit — whoever, blinks in surprise, and then smiles grimly. "Don't think they care about me much. There's not a lot of cats around that still do. The four of them, they're messengers. I don't know if they care about anyone other than themselves. Don't even get me started on Azra."
"Frozenkit—"
"Ripper. Not Frozenkit. Tempest's idea. She's got a flair for the dramatics. But you probably knew that."
Hearing the name Ripper doesn't make him feel any better about the situation. Neither does hearing Tempest. It brings up all of those things he'd rather forget but can't because his brain won't let him.
"So she's still alive."
"Did you think she wouldn't be? It's not that easy," Ripper laughs. "You want her dead, you're gonna have to kill all of MountainClan to get her."
"MountainClan?" He asks, his head reeling. It hasn't even been that long, and nothing makes sense.
"You've missed a lot, Iceheart. Or should I say Icestar," is all his nephew says, ignoring his question. "Makes sense you've got a death wish. You've got a lot of lives to waste, don't you?"
This cat, the one named Ripper who's speaking to him right now, is completely different from the Frozenkit he talked to on the mountain. The one who told him to hide, to run before he got caught. Maybe he was too shocked to really process it too.
"I never got the lives," he tells him. "I got ripped out of the dream before I could. The Clan was more important."
Ripper looks surprised for a moment, but then ducks his head, and he's laughing. "And yet it still fell, and we got taken. No lives for you, none for us!"
Ghost doesn't know how to respond to that. Doesn't know how to respond to any of this. Ripper's angry, and he has every right to be, but he didn't expect it to sting this bad. If he ever found someone, he expected it to be joyous. To have someone back in his life. This couldn't be further.
"Who's still alive?" He forces out, trying to ignore everything else going on. "You can't be the only one."
"Do you want the full list, or just the ones that are still prisoners?"
Ghost waits, and says nothing. If Ripper defected to Tempest's side, then others did too. It's only logical.
"Besides me, Badgerfang. Reedblaze and Fawnstep of SlopeClan. All with different names, of course. I'm not the only one who got that treatment. Goldenleaf, Starlingpaw and Flintpaw are still alive. Couldn't tell you for how much longer. Minnowstream gave birth to her kit, Shiera, before she died, too."
It's seven names. Seven names, and Ghost waits for him to continue. Waits for him to say anything else. But he doesn't, and then Ghost realizes that's the list in it's entirety. Seven names. Eight, including Ripper. The only ones who are still alive up there.
"That can't be right—"
"Well you wouldn't know, would you?" Ripper asks. "You haven't seen any of it first-hand. You've been too busy off on your own for the past ten moons to save us. Not everybody's up there. Some escaped, like you. Good luck finding them. We haven't had any so far, doubt you will."
There's others. He squeezes his eyes shut, willing himself to calm down. Just breathe. He can do this, he can process it.
"Come with us," he tries weakly, already knowing that it won't work. "You don't have to side with Tempest. None of this has to happen."
"I didn't side with her willingly. I only did that after I watched my mother and sister die when we tried to escape. Goldenleaf pushed me to their side because she was sick and tired of watching us all die. We knew there was no one coming to save us."
"I tried—"
"Not hard enough, clearly. It's not that simple. I have a mate and kits, you know. Nothing's ever this simple. I can't run. If I run, they'll kill me. They'll kill all of us. I'm not risking that."
His brain chooses to ignore mate and kits, because he can't quite figure out how to wrap his brain around that yet. "I won't let them hurt you."
"You already did," Ripper laughs, a vicious sound. "You haven't realized that. A lot of good that prophecy did us, right?"
"I didn't think you knew about that," he whispers weakly. The fight's practically drained out of him. Ripper's right. It's his fault they're all dead, and he couldn't find them to save them anyway. He did try, but not hard enough. He spent so long doing it that he gave up. Now Ripper's standing here in front of him, blaming him for it all, and he can't find himself to argue.
He's right. He's never going to be wrong.
"I didn't want to side with her, you know," Ripper says. "I didn't have a choice. Not all of us can be a part of a prophecy, okay, some of us have to make mistakes! You think I like who I am? I have a mate, and kits, and they're going to be raised into this. I never wanted any of this. Blossomcreek died a few days ago, and I did nothing. There's hardly any of us left."
"There doesn't have to be," Ghost says, and for the first time he thinks of Ari saying it's not impossible. A new Clan. Of Tawny's eagerness to learn. Of Jasper and Nyla, and how they don't seem opposed to it. "We can fix this. I'll fix this."
Ripper stares at him a moment, eyes completely hollow. He remembers, all those moons ago, when he had first seen Frozenkit's eyes. Yellow and blue. Wrensong had laughed, saying that it just made him unique, and Jaytalon had smiled, looking so impossibly happy it made his chest ache.
"You're still trying to be Icestar. And you're not. Clan or no Clan, this isn't something that can just be patched up and put back together. I'm not running from what I am now, from what I've done. Maybe you should try it."
He flinches at the words, but doesn't move. Doesn't move as Ripper walks away, leaves again. Headed after the group from MountainClan, the Clan that Tempest created, like she was laughing in his face that she stole his Clan and made her own. Ghost just stands there, completely numb, and stares at the spot where his nephew had been standing.
Ghost doesn't know how long he stands there, but he goes back eventually. The rain has almost tapered off into a stop by the time he reaches the door, paws dragging across the soaked pavement. Nyla springs to her feet, clearly waiting for him to come back, and he can't make himself say anything.
They all try to talk to him. Ask him what happened.
All he does is go back to his corner, lay down, and try to erase everything that just happened.
He can't, though.
And he doesn't sleep for the rest of the night.
The thing is, he wishes he could say it got better the next day.
They left at daybreak, like they planned. Started heading in the same direction Nyla took him that first day, when they went to find Ari and Jasper, but further. Deeper into the woods. Water drips off the branches high below and splatter on his shoulders. Or rather Cricket's, but he's not complaining.
He took him off Jasper's back fifteen minutes ago. Jasper had been carrying him for the past three hours and deserved a break, but now Cricket is plastered against his back, still not talking, and he can feel his eyes practically staring at the back of his head.
Ari and Jasper are up together at the front of the group, now, shoulders brushing together every time they take a step forward. Tawny is darting back and forth across the path, examining things that she can reach without Scotch yelling at her for straying too far. Storm is staring around curiously, eyes a little wide, but almost as quiet as his brother. By the looks of it, these three have never spent much time away from twoleg place. Or any, really.
He tells Nyla what happened last night, not long after they set out. She's still padding by his side, interjecting every few minutes with some wise piece of information or other. It is making him feel a bit better, if he's being honest. After the initial panic of last night, they've all calmed down. Relaxed a bit. Even Scotch seems to be in a better mood, although he's still not happy about where they're going.
"He's just angry," Nyla says. "I mean, it has to be a bit of a shock to him. Ten moons is a long time. For you to just come back like this, it probably freaked him out as much as it did you."
"I just wish he'd hear me out," he sighs. "And for all I know, I'll never see him again. Something could happen to him and I'd never know."
"Don't say that," she insists. "He's survived this long. He knows you're alive. He has a mate and kits. Things to fight for. He's not going anywhere."
He certainly seems strong enough to survive. More like a warrior than the kit he last saw. Old enough to be one, definitely. It's still boggling his mind a bit that Ripper went from being a kit to having some of his own in the time he left him.
"He's young, and he's scared," Ghost says, and Nyla hums, bumping her shoulder against his, careful to avoid nudging Cricket off.
"Yeah, he is. Maybe he'll come around. We'll find him again, and you can talk. Like actual adults, instead of just arguing in the rain."
Cricket lets out the smallest of amused noises from his back. He feels the rush of air against his fur, and twists to look at him over his shoulder.
"You got something to say up there? Some more input would be nice. Nyla can't give me advice forever."
Cricket doesn't say anything but smiles, his chin resting between Ghost's shoulders.
"Let me know if your leg's bothering you, or if you need something. We'll stop." Cricket nods, and Ghost considers that a resounding success considering he hasn't gotten the kid to have a conversation with him yet. It's kind of hard to avoid having one when he's sitting on his back. At least he doesn't look so terrified anymore, resounding himself to being carried around by a bunch of strangers.
"How long do you think it'll take us to get there?"
"Hopefully by nightfall. The storm didn't do as much damage as I thought. Probably not a good idea to be wandering around that place in the dark, though. Might just have to wait at the edge until morning."
"What's it like?" Cricket asks out of the blue, in the smallest voice Ghost thinks he's ever heard. Nyla smiles, looking pleased with the development.
"I've only ever been to the edge myself. There's lots of abandoned twoleg nests. All of the thunderpaths are cracked and broken, but there are no monsters there anyway. Everything's overgrown. There used to be more cats living there, when I was younger, but not so much anymore. Most cats don't willingly choose to live in a place like that."
"What about those who do?" He asks himself, genuinely curious.
"Never known anyone from there. Only heard stories. No one nice ever comes out of there, from what I've heard. They're all hostile and mistrustful. Kinda have to be, growing up surrounded by others who are the same." Cricket looks nervous at that, and Ghost feels him tense against his back, but Nyla smiles again, easy and reassuring. He finds it's easy to smile back, despite everything.
"Don't worry. All we have to do is find a place to lie low. It'll be easy," she reassures him, and she even goes so far as to run her tail long his back. It's the first time that someone's touched Cricket other than picking him up or just moving him around, and he doesn't flinch at it.
"Besides," Ghost adds. "Your sister will protect you if anything bad happens."
"Yeah, I will!" Tawny pipes up, skidding to a halt and turning around to meet them. "Ari said she'd teach me how to fight!"
He catches sight of Ari turning around, eyes bordering on incredulous. No I didn't, she mouths at him, a little helplessly, and he snorts.
"She can be my mentor, right?" Tawny asks. "That's what you said, if I was Tawnypaw I'd get a mentor."
It wasn't that long ago, but he told Ari it wasn't that simple. But the thing is, yesterday he'd told Ripper that he would fix it. And he wants to, even if it's impossible. Maybe it is.
"You'll have to ask her," he says simply, and Tawny bounces around for a moment before hurtling back towards Ari and Jasper at the front of the group. He can't hear what goes on, but he's assuming Tawny is getting a head-start on asking.
"You were serious?" Nyla asks quietly. "You really wanna do this?"
"Yeah," he says quietly. "I think I do."
Nyla falls silent, but he watches her, sees the wheels turning in her head. Finally, she looks back, and when she does she's smiling again.
"Good. 'Cause I'm with you all the way."
Something I've discovered: I care less and less about editing these the more I post.
