{{ I'm back with a surprise! Chapter eight of DaN! II'm glad for the break, as it has refreshed me and my passion for this story. I thank you all so much for sticking theough this, and hope you enjoy this chapter! I believe the time off let me have a chance to improve, and I think it shows here! But whether you think this style is an improvement is really up toyou. Xp. So enjoy! And remember to leave a comment if you liked this;the more comments to keep me motivated, the faster the next chapter will come out! Thank you all for reading! Fyre is back in action. }}

I snapped awake, feeling a cat's hard eyes on my fur. Instinctively, my fur bristled and my claws unsheathed, seemingly of their own will. I dropped to a crouch, spinning slowly around to face the cat -for I had the feeling that was who the eyes belonged to, even if I couldn't see it.

The bushes rustled. I darted my eyes over, peering inside from my hidden cove in the long grass. I was intent on my prey. I didn't notice the mostly-dead trees. I didn't notice the flickering lights, the glowing toadstools, the starless skies.

A paw. Then the eyes. The chilling, ice-cold blue eyes. I relaxed, realizing who they belonged to. The images I missed now crowded around my head as the dark brown tom revealed himself fully.

I felt like a kit, letting such a small thing scare me so much. I should have tried scenting first. I should have considered my surroundings. It could have been an ambush, and then I would have been dead.

I should have, I could have, I would have... but I didn't. I made mistakes. A cat like me couldn't make mistakes. Not if she wanted to stay alive. I couldn't. I shouldn't.

And there's those words again.

"Welcome to my home."

I looked around, finally letting the images in my head sink in, have meaning. This wasn't StarClan. At least, I didn't think so.

It must be the Place of No Stars: the Dark Forest, I concluded. It surprised me; the way this news didn't surprise me. I felt I had known before, the first time I had met this mystery cat. He didn't have the air of perfection around him the way I imagined a StarClan cat would feel. He felt more rugged, like a mountain instead of a cloud.

But mountains were sturdy, reliable, unbudging. Powerful. A cloud was just mist. An illusion of mass, but intangible and distant, unable to move even the smallest pebble.

Maybe I needed the help of a mountain.

I looked up into the tabby's icy eyes again as he continued speaking. "I can see inside you a passion of raging fire. Here I can train you, make you unstoppable. You'll get your revenge." His mew was dark, but filled with promises yet unspoken. I greedily held them close. Each word was a new claw scratch against a WindClan rabbit-muncher in my mind.

"Come," he said sharply, turning and bounding through the dead forest with remarkable ease. I started before regaining my thoughts and bolting after him.

I thought the deadness of the forest would make it easier to see through the bare branches, but I was sorely tom's dark pelt blended in with the shadows so well, I had to follow using small flashes of movement that were only slightly out of place, or the faint crackle of leaves underpaw.

Even then, I lost his trail several times over during the trip. Only a single pawprint in the mud or a couple clumps of fur saved my pelt from completely loosing him each of those times.

I noticed the moon had moved from being directly overhead to hovering just over the treetops in front of me. I began to tire, and my paws no longer felt agile as I tripped and stumbled through the wood. But I still continued on. If this was a challenge, then by the stars I wasn't going to lose.

I was strong. I was capable.

I had to be.

In what felt like moons later (although looking back, it couldn't have been more than an hour), I shoved my way through a particularly thick patch of brambles to find my paws wet with a dark sludge. It didn't feel like water, yet it flowed like a river did.

I licked my lips, my tongue and throat dry from the long travel. I didn't know what this... stuff would do to me if I drank it, but right then, I didn't really care. I was thirsty, and this stuff seemed to be a liquid. Just as I bent my head down to drink the foul stuff, I heard a splash of paws beside me. Where they disrupted the current, fresh water, pure and blue, flowed out. "Drink. You deserve it."

I sighed and eagerly lapped up the water, grateful as the cold water flowed down my throat. "You are determined; a good trait in a warrior. It lets you keep your eyes on the end and gives you strength to push through all obstacles in order to get there." My mind subconsciously registered his words as I drank, and, later, splashed back out of the water onto the riverbank.

My thoughts were dull, flattened by a growing fatigue. Now that I had reached the end, nothing was there to keep me going. I hadn't realized how tired I actually was, making my way through the woods. I blinked slowly, realizing the tabby had said something.

Instead of repeating the words -for I knew he noticed I hadn't the strength to decipher them- he reached his tail out to my back. "Rest. You still have almost half the night before you must wake up again. We can start training tomorrow. Just call me and I'll come."

"Your name?" I slurred, unable to speak properly even when the water had soothed my parched throat. Inwardly, I gathered together the feelings that I thought made up embarrassment over my weakness. Maybe some anger mixed in?

He smiled. "Any cat would be just as weak as you right now, Mosspaw. Seeing that you made it all the way here speaks multitudes of your endurance. Sleep, and you will be rested in the morning. My name. My name is Hawkfrost."

Hawkfrost, I thought, the label having little meaning in my tired mind. The name echoed around in my head, bouncing to and fro until my mind went blank and I collapsed.