Oh. My. Gods. This is my fifth completed story! Or did I count wrong? I probably counted wrong.

I gazed at the Forestclan cats, eyeing Goldenbranch warily. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Don't worry about her," one of them murmured. I still wasn't entirely sure, but nodded briefly and turned away. "Then I shall go back to my clan. They need me."

"We understand," they all said in unison. "From now on, you will be no longer be called Icetalon, but known as Icestar. We look upon your progress to come."

"Thank you," I muttered, and the world became a blur, faster and faster, and even though somehow I wasn't dizzy, not in the least bit, it turned darker and darker still until it all faded away... "I will be the best leader I can be..."

There was a glint in my eye as I said the words.

Many, many moons later, there was a prophecy. There was a dark shape, the whispering of leaves on the breeze, and a tawny she-cat came out of the shadows. "Forestclan, I have come," she says. "What do you have to tell me?"

There was a murmur, and a whisper. "The fierce heat of the fire may melt the ice, but only the howls of the winter breeze can calm down the raging storm."

The tawny she-cat stared. "I... I don't understand. We need to defeat Icestar, don't we?"

The voice laughed, almost tauntingly. "Well, who do you trust? Which cat can you trust to follow you and obey you, yet be themselves at the same time?"

"Emberstrike," she said slowly, then remembered the prophecy. "You mean, he will defeat Icestar?"

"There are no certainties..."

The tom sank his claws in deeper. "You will never lay a claw on me," he growled.

The small, gray-blue she-cat struggled under his weight. "Maybe not, but I will never give up."

She was losing a life.

Not struggling, not fighting. She lay there, defeated but not defeated. "Do you remember, Emberstrike, what we used to do, in the meadow by the lake? What you took away from me?"

"Stop it! Stop it, I said!"

There was another voice, and Icestar turned around to see the bony shape of a black tom. "We can settle this in other ways."

Emberstrike pretended not to hear him. "This will be the death of her!"

The black tom glared at him. "Icestar. Do you remember me?"

"No," she croaked firmly. "I know no one in this clearing."

"What about the games we played under the sun?" He whispered. "Those memories you threw away. Our mother was right about you."

"I chose to be myself," she whispered, but he placed a paw on her muzzle. "Sleep."

and so she will awaken

never again

to see the sun

never again

to feel the stars rise

the moon shine

never to have

what she always wanted

to have someone

someone that cares

but she knows what her mother said

and will never forget:

I love you