Hailfurs eyes flickered open as she rolled over onto another cats tail. Rockpelt hissed in annoyance and yanked his tail away from underneath Hailfurs light gray body.
Wait, my nest isn't next to Rockpelts? Hailfur thought and sat up to scan the warriors den. Memories flooded her as she saw the entire Clan packed into the den. It was large, but not large enough that it could fit an entire Clan and some of the cats were crammed into corners or buried underneath other warriors. It made the den uncomfortably hot and stuffy.
Something felt wrong. With this many cats it would be natural for the den to feel hot but the den opening would cool everything down even a little. Hailfur looked towards the opening and gasped. A thick wall of snow was covering the Clans way of exiting the den!
"Lightstar! Lightstar, wake up!" Hailfur prodded her leaders side and he groggily rose his head. Half of his fur was matted down and in need of some serious grooming.
"What is it?" he asked as he yawned and tried to sit up. It was still early in the morning, too early in fact to be considered morning, and Hailfur understood if Lightstar clawed off her ears for waking him up.
"The opening, we're trapped!" Hailfur said. Lightstars eyes grew wide as he raced to the entrance.
Pacing back and forth, Lightstar began to yowl in frustration. "No, no,no! This can't happen! How will we get our food?"
A few of the cats woke from their leaders anxiety and their mouths dropped from the sight of the ice wall.
"What will we do?" Furzewing cried and Stormclaw stirred beside her.
"Sh!" Iceblaze hushed and studied the ice wall. "We will not wake the others and start a panic. The few of us that are awake will do as much as possible to try to break through the wall. That means kits and elders, too."
Lightstar nodded in agreement and Hailfur searched for awake cats. It was only her, Lightstar, Furzewing, Iceblaze, and Waterkit.
"Listen up, all cats that are awake, form a line at the front of the den. Do not wake the others." Lightstar ordered and all of the cats, including Waterkit, moved silently to the front of the den. "Any idea that comes to mind to try and get through the wall, use it. We need to break through if we want to survive."
They all nodded and started using their own techniques to get through the snow and ice. Waterkit tried licking it but resorted to scratching the wall instead after she tasted how cold it was, Furzewing and Iceblaze tried pushing their way through but it only packed the snow harder, and finally Lightstar and Hailfur worked together to try and dig through the snow.
"Furzewing? What's happening?" Stormclaw asked sleepily as he got to his feet. When he saw the problem her immediately ran to the front of the den and tried clawing his way out but the ice was packed too hard and he only managed to scrape off little shards of ice.
"Listen, don't wake anyone else up. We don't want to start a panic. Just do anything you can to try and break through the wall." Hailfur whisper explained and Stormclaw nodded.
"Lightstar, I'm tired. Can I go back to sleep now?" Waterkit asked and slumped against the ice wall. She immediately jumped back. "It's wet!"
"Sh. Please Waterkit, can you just try a little more? This is really important. You're on a mission to save the Clan." Lightstar whispered and Waterkit immediately straightened up.
"A mission?" Waterkit turned heel and ran to the other side of the den opening and tried clawing at the corner of the ice.
The group of cats continued to work through the ice but it was useless. They merely made scratch marks and a tiny dentl.
"You'd think this heat would melt it a little." Furzewing panted as she slumped against the wall. More cats were beginning to stir from the uncomfortable heat. "at least the ice is cooling."
"We need more help." Iceblaze reported to the SkyClan leader. Lightstar nodded in agreement and searched the Clan for a cat that could help.
"Iceblaze, wake your apprentice. Hailfur and Stormclaw, you two do the same." the three cats nodded at Lightstars order and made their way over to the group of apprentices crammed into the corner of the cave.
Hailfur prodded at her apprentice until he stirred. "Eaglepaw, wake up. And be quiet about it."
Eaglepaw blinked his eyes opened and looked up at Hailfur "I was having an amazing dream where me and Brightpaw were chasing a rabbit-"
"Eaglepaw, now isn't the time for your weird rabbit fantasies. Just get up without making a sound." Hailfur ordered. Eaglepaw must have noticed the seriousness in Hailfurs tone for he slid out of the group of cats without waking any of them.
"Why can't I wake anyone?" he whispered.
"Because we are trapped in the den and we don't want to start a panic. Lionpaw and Graypaw are the only other apprentices awake. Now do anything you can to break through this ice wall without waking anyone." Hailfur whispered back and Eaglepaw nodded quickly before studying the ice wall.
Before Hailfur could stop him, Eaglepaw took off running in the direction of the wall. He ran head first into the snow and fell backwards into a pile of moss. Hailfur immediately raced to his side.
"What were you thinking, you bee brain! You could have been seriousely hurt!" Hailfur scolded but was hushed by Lightstar who was staring at the wall.
"Look." he pointed at a crack in the ice. "That's the most we have accomplished."
Waterkit, realizing what was going on, ran as far back as she could go without waking any cats and ran straight into the ice, exactly where Eaglepaw had hit. She fell back onto the apprentice and Hailfur pulled them both away so they could catch their breath.
"Lightstar, you can't actually be considering this? You'll give the Clan brain damage." Furzewing asked. Her eyes were wide with fear.
Before Lightstar could answer, Graypaw and Lionpaw came barreling into the wall. At the last second, they both twisted so their sides hit the wall instead of their heads. It left even larger cracks than Eaglepaw had.
"Problem solved." Lightstar purred before running full speed at the wall.
"Don't... Touch... Me..." Hailfur huffed as she limped to her nest. Moonpaw was trailing behind trying to check out Hailfurs side. They had spent an hour ramming into the wall and all it had accomplished was a lot of pain. It was true that the new technique had worked much better than scratching at the ice but the entrance was still blocked and the den was getting hotter by the second.
A few other cats had woken, including Moonpaw, Mousefoot, Rockpelt, Ashkit, and Brightpaw. Everyone had been using the same technique other than Mousefoot, who was too old to gain enough speed and the kits who didn't have enough strength to keep ramming into a wall like that, they just stood out of the way and tried clawing off clumps of ice. Even Moonpaw had surprised everyone by joining in on the mission.
"Hailfur, come on. You can't give up now!" Moonpaw encouraged and Hailfur rolled her eyes,
"I'm not giving up, I'm just taking a well deserved break. Look, even Lightstar looks like he's about to pass out." Hailfur said as she curl up beside Honeystripe and Darkear.
"Can you at least take your break by the wall so it melts it a bit? We need all the help we can get. Besides, it's not healthy for it to be this hot." Moonpaw said. Hailfur reluctantly agreed and limped to the ice wall again. She moved out of the way to a spot where no one was charging or scratching and closed her eyes for a much needed rest.
Hailfur never did manage to fall asleep because she felt something as she pressed up against the wall. It sounded like a cracking sound even though the cats were ramming the wall on the other side of the entrance.
Hailfur pressed her ear up to the wall and heard it again as Rockpelt charged the wall.
"Wait." Hailfur stopped the warriors and they all turned to stare at her. "Brightpaw, charge the wall."
The apprentice nodded and it made the same cracking sound as before. Hailfur moved to where the cats were aiming and pressed her ear against the ice, ignoring the water getting into her ear. She beckoned for Brightpaw to do it again and the golden brown cat ran at the wall again.
This time, the snow made a sort of crunching sound. Hailfur pulled her ear away from the wall.
"We're charging the wrong spot. Behind this spot is just more snow. Over there is thinner ice." Hailfur said as she moved back to the spot she was resting at moments ago. She took a few steps back and raced towards the wall. Once she gained enough momentum, the tabby jumped and twisted so her sore side hit the ice.
The ice shattered and Haifur screamed as she flew through the wall and into the cold snow. Snow caught in her pelt as she rolled down the hill and off the ledge that Rosekit had fallen off of.
Fear grasped Hailfurs heart as she plummeted over the edge but it was short lived as she fell into a pile of soft powdery snow.
"Hailfur? Are you okay?" Furzewing called.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I landed in a pile of snow!" Hailfur called back and tried pulling herself out of the snow. Her paw touched something unnatural and she struggled to see what it was.
After Hailfur finally managed to fully turn around, she lifted her paw off of the object. It was a dark red berry.
Hailfur gasped as she realized what it was. It was a deathberry. But why would one be down here? The berry looked old and dried as if it had been there for some time. It looked about a half moon old.
Hailfur racked her brain for anything that happened a half moon ago. All she could think of was Rosekits fall and Lightstars lost life. Nothing seemed to be making any sense. To top it all off, Hailfur heard a whisper in the breeze, just like she heard so many sunrises ago.
A traitor is among the Clan. Only the loyal storm will stop the cold hearted one from tearing apart SkyClan
I know, sucky ending. Keep up with the reviews though!
