AN: Wow! I totally forgot about this story! Sorry for not updating guys. Won't blame y'all if you forgot about it, lol. Anyway, here is chapter Eight.

Flightpaw's hackles were raised as she raced through WindClan's territory. She wasn't very keen on having Creekrunner follower her but it seemed like she wasn't going to lose him. She had to admit, he was a decent enough warrior, even if he made her want to pull her fur out and she would probably find it easier to find Brindlepaw if she wasn't alone. But she wasn't going to say it out loud to him. It would only make him more insufferable.

"So where to?" he asked.

Flightpaw huffed. She guess she did have to talk to him. "The border between ThunderClan and WindClan. Near where the tunnel entrance is. Kestrelflight says he went down the tunnel in his den as far as he was able to but I have a hunch that if we go down another, we could find her. Maybe she got lost." She didn't say what was making her belly churn. If she did get lost she probably wouldn't be alive. It'd been moons and Brindlepaw was a medicine cat. She didn't know how to hunt or fight. If she was lucky Flightpaw might find her body. But due to everything, Flightpaw was beginning not to believe in luck.

Creekrunner pressed his nose to her ear. "Hey, don't worry. You might be going through your own drama right now, but you and your sisters are the fiercest apprentices I know. If any cat could survive, it's you three."

Flightpaw shook her head, spotting the border to the two Clans up ahead. She shuddered, she hated the idea of going back into the trees and undergrowth where she felt like she was being choked alive. But she had to. "I just...I want to know why StarClan is punishing us. Why aren't they speaking to us? Why are they cutting off Onestar and Kestrelflight and Brindlepaw? We haven't done anything!" Or, well, most of us. But Breezepelt had clearly atoned for his crimes. She trusted her father when he said that and she believed he was a changed cat. But maybe StarClan didn't agree.

"What if it's not StarClan?" Creekrunner mewed, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "What if it's the Dark Forest."

"Do you even believe in StarClan and the Dark Forest?" She muttered sourly. He had a point. She remembered when Redpaw and Morningkit had been lost. The cats the surviving kid described sounded like a Dark Forest warrior to Breezepelt. But they'd beaten the Dark Forest. Surely they had no influence here anymore. Right?

Creekrunner rolled his eyes and launched himself across the border river in one full jump. The cat may have not had any warrior blood but he could leap like a cat of LeopardClan. She followed suit, enjoying the power that filled her backlegs and she sprang forward across the river. Her back paws barely brushed the side of the bank as she landed.

"I'm a Clan cat, aren't I?" he said, brushing a paw over his ear.

"You weren't always." Obviously.

"Well, you might be surprised at what I believe." Creekrunner said. "Come on, show me the tunnels."

Flightpaw muttered something incoherent under her breath but obliged, racing toward where she remembered Redpaw being.

Brindlepaw didn't know how she got where she was. All she knew was it was dark and cold, her pelt was wet and she was hungry, but no prey or sunlight dotted the shadowy landscape. She could barely move. She wasn't sure how long it'd been and sometimes she swore she could see her body-her real body-curled up on the flat stone of the underground tunnels. But she couldn't reach it from the shadowy forest. It wasn't like how Kestrelflight described visiting StarClan-when StarClan had talked to them in the first place that was. He'd said you came out of your body to run with the stars, sometimes you could see yourself sleeping, but you always were able to re-enter your sleeping form and wake without trouble. Brindlepaw couldn't enter her sleeping form no matter how hard she tried and the forest was just getting darker and darker.

She wasn't an idiot, she knew where she was even if she wasn't completely sure how she got there. The Place of No Stars. The name made her shiver. But the cats there weren't trying to train her. No, they weren't building up another army. They wanted something else.

"Have you considered my offer?" The voice of Snowtuft had her turning in a flash, soggy fur fluffed up in defiance.

"I have and I'll give you the same answer as I did last time. No." Brindlepaw hissed. Her father might've fought for these scumbags once but she knew now his allegiance to them was no longer there. That's what the cats wanted. "You're not going to bother my father anymore. You're not going to corrupt him."

Snowtuft chuckled an flicked her ear with his bushy white tail, almost fondly. "Brave little medicine cat apprentice. Your Clan is cut off from StarClan because of him, yet you still defend him. Loyalty runs deep." He unsheathed his claws and made furrows in the dirt. "Too bad you aren't a warrior. But I guess you were the easiest to reach anyways. So much easier to deal with cats whose faith wavers."

"Well, my faith isn't wavering now." Brindlepaw held back the urge to begin washing her ear obsessively where the Dark Forest tom had touched it. "And it's you who cut off the Clan from StarClan. I'm not dumb! I've been listening! You want him to return to your side because he's got it in him to be the next leader. You want a WindClan leader loyal to the Dark Forest. Because if we believe it's StarClan, we'll resent them, won't we?" She was practically snarling at this point, her own claws raking furrows in the mud.

"Smart one, aren't you?" Snowtuft said, passing her. "Well, tell me if you change your mind. Or not. I'll be back anyway. Maybe you're strong enough but sooner or later, when your Clan finally realizes they no longer can speak to StarClan they'll start to lose their own strength. How many lives does Onestar have left now? Three? Two? It'll be a shame if he dies and Sedgewhisker doesn't get her nine lives, won't it? And if she dies, she does only have a single life after all, sooner or later the cat journeying to the Moonpool will be your father. And we'll have him then, anyway."

"He'll say no." Brindlepaw growled. "He's different now."

"Oh," Snowtuft ran a paw across his ear. "I'm sure he is. But his daughter's life is at stake. That can make any cat do terrible things. I would know. It's astonishingly easy to get away with having kits if you're a tom medicine cat. The she-cats always are the ones who take the fall. I killed for my daughters, many, many times. I'm sure if it came to it, your father would do the same." The white tom ran off then, leaving Brindlepaw shivering in the Darkness.

Smokepaw sat staring at the sunset. It'd been a quarter moon since Flightpaw and Creekrunner ran off. They got their trace as far as the border between WindClan and ThunderClan before it disappeared. She was beginning to think that her family was going to fall apart, no matter what her parents told her.

A cat came up to her, his smoky pelt blending in with the coming darkness. "Have faith, Smokepaw."

Smokepaw looked up at her father. "Why is everything falling apart?"

Her father rested his tail on her shoulder. "I don't know. But every darkness has a dawn. They'll come back. They all will."

"I hope you're right," she murmured to herself. "I'm going to go see Gorsetail's and Fernshadow's kits, do you want to come?" The two queens had given birth just days after each other, with them came the beginning of Green-Leaf. She was glad there was plenty of prey to fill the Clan's new hungry mouths, though she was worried about how dry the air was. Sedgewhisker said she shouldn't worry-they were nowhere near the conditions of the drought the Clans faced when she journeyed to free the water. She supposed it would rain sooner or later.

Breezepelt shook his head. "I've already seen them." His amber eyes were guarded.

"Are you upset about your father?" Smokepaw asked.

"No," he mewed. "I'm just hoping he realizes what Nightcloud is going through. He never deserved her. I'm going to go visit her in the elder's den."

Smokepaw nodded and headed off to the nursery, taking a hare off the fresh-kill pile as she went. It reminded her of the training session she and Flightpaw had spent with Creekrunner-then Creek. The two of them looked like dancing hares as they battled. At least if they were together, they would be a formidable pair to fight against. Flightpaw's style of fighting had only gotten better. Poor Emberfoot's belly must be crying out in relief.

She ducked into the den. "Hello," she mewed to the two nursing queens. Gorsetail blinked kindly up at her and Fernshadow ran her tongue over her kits as they slept. "You two must be hungry." She dropped the hare in front of them.

"Thank you," Fernshadow said. "Hey," she nosed her kits. "Tell your cousin thank you."

Fernshadow's two kits looked up at her. Mistkit was a light gray she-kit with a feathery tail, her brother, Sootkit was nearly black with amber eyes, an almost exact copy of their father. Thankfully they had none of their father-and her grandfather's-personality.

"Thank you!" Sootkit mewed, nudging his sleeping sister.

"mmhhhh what?" Mistkit said, rolling over.

"Smokepaw brought us food! Say thanks!"

"Thank you, Smokepaw." The she-kit murmured, curling back into a ball.

Sootkit huffed. "I swear, all she does is sleep."

"Sleeping will help her grow big," Smokepaw said. "Soon she'll be bigger than you and you'll never catch up because once you become an apprentice you don't get any sleep!"

The little tomkit's tail stuck up in horror. "No way!" He turned to Gorsetail's kit, Fennelkit, and nudged him with a paw. "Did you know if we don't sleep enough we won't grow?"

"Why are you waking me up?" Fennelkit muttered.

Smokepaw mrrowed with laughter. Some things-like kits-never changed.

"Good night you guys," she said, clamoring out of the nursery. To her surprise, Oatclaw sat outside, purring.

"You're pretty good with those kits," he mewed.

Smokepaw ran a paw over her head, her fur feeling slightly hot. "Thank you." Since her sister had disappeared, she found herself spending a lot more time with the warrior. She liked him. He was funny and brave and made her cheer up in a way no other cat could. She'd never thought about it before, but she was older now, and one day she did want to have kits. Oatclaw wouldn't be a bad mate. Not at all.

But I want my sisters to be here to see them.

"Sedgewhisker wants to talk to you," Oatclaw said and Smokepaw nodded. She had a feeling she knew what it was going to be about.

She found her mentor near Onestar's den and the two of them were called in to enter. Onestar sat, his fur looking slightly frazzled. He was getting old, she knew. He'd been a warrior at the same time as Mistystar and she was ancient. "Yes, Onestar?"

"I know you're still grieving for your sisters," Onestar started and swept his tail to cover her mouth when she began to protest. "I know grieving implies that they are dead and I know you don't believe they are. I hope the same. But the matter is that life goes on."

Smokepaw nodded. "I understand, Onestar."

"We wanted to let you know if it all goes well, we'll be holding your assessment at sunhigh tomorrow." Sedgewhisker said.

Smokepaw's body quivered in excitement. Her assessment! But it soon left her. She should be having it with Flightpaw. "Alright." she said. "I'll do my best."

She headed out of the den and looked at the sky, where a single star with a reddish tint twinkled. Please let them come home soon.

Flightpaw wasn't going to admit it, but she felt hopelessly lost. She and Creekrunner had tracked through the tunnels for days. Sometimes she swore she could smell her sister's scent but it always ended up with nothing. Her eyes had gotten used to the darkness though and she had found the river in the main cave where she was able to occasionally find and catch little eyeless fish. So, at least she and Creekrunner weren't starving. Creekrunner was a much better fisher than she was-probably due to him being a rogue in the past-but she wasn't going to complain about not starving to death.

Her faith was slowly fading after all this time and she cried out in anguish when she hit another dead end. This place had been a tunnel, but it looked like the opening had caved in, maybe many moons ago, and there was nothing but a tuft of stale fur now. It wasn't even mottled brown, so she couldn't say it was Brindlepaw's.

Creekrunner sat by her side and for once she didn't shrug off his tail when it pressed against her shoulder.

She turned around sullenly, trying to retrace her steps but froze when she thought she saw a flash of green eyes. But there wasn't any other cat down there...was there? "I'll meet you back in the main cave," she said. "I need to be alone." At least she knew enough of the tunnel's system to head out alone without dying.

Creekrunner nodded and took off, trusting her words.

The green eyes flashed again. "I thought he would never leave your side." There was a snort. "It wouldn't have done you any good if he saw you talking to air."

Flightpaw froze, terror filling her as the voice of a she-cat echoed in the tunnel. "W-who are you? Am-am I the only one who can see you?"

"Of course," the she-cat spoke. "I mean, I guess he could if he really believed in StarClan, but I'm already using up too much energy to get you to see me, let alone another cat."

"W-who are you? Are you from StarClan? Why can't we contact you?" The questions spilled out of her mouth.

The green eyes gleamed. "I am from StarClan. We're currently cut off from WindClan. The Dark Forest made sure of that." She hissed. "Code-breaking crowfood eaters. But they don't have as much control down here in the tunnels and well, I know someone who does." Her voice softened and she purred. "Very well, I'd like to say. As for who I am, well, I'm your kin. My name is Hollyleaf. And I can help you find your sister."

AN: BAM. There you go.

Questions for the readers as always:

1. Who expected Hollyleaf?

2. What do you think Smokepaw's Warrior Name will be? We won't see her ceremony (sorry guys) so you'll learn it when Flightpaw learns it!

3. So, we're coming near to the end of the story, at least in my head. I do plan for there to be a sequel of sorts, though.

4. What did you think of this chapter?