I just realized I forgot to explain how Faithpaw was eating up in the cylinder for four moons! OOPS! Just pretend the Clan came by once a week to give him a pile of prey. Sorry.

Chapter 11

Faithpaw froze. His glazed eyes watched as Siftpaw spinning body fell, and fell and fell. He stayed there, staring. Unmoving. Not breathing.

"Faithpaw?" Moonfeather padded to his side. "Um...was she close to you?"

He didn't look at her face. He stared at the frothing blue river so far below. Then he nodded.

"Well come on then, she'll be on the path a little lower."

Instantly he was hopeful and began to pad after Moonfeather, glancing over the path edge as much as he could. There was no sign of anything, and that infuriated him. He strained his eyes to see. And he couldn't.

Slowly, piercingly slowly, they descended the cliff wall. Down...down...down. Each step seemed to bring him no closer until Moonfeather stopped ahead of him. HE looked past her and saw the path went right into the river, and water lapped at it thirstily.

"Are you sure you didn't see where she landed?" Moonfeather asked him.

"Yes!" He snapped. He turned quickly, leaving Moonfeather behind. Then he hurried up the path, up and up and up, turn by turn, sure he had missed something. She had to be here somewhere, slumped in a bush...stuck on a branch...Up and up and up...

And there was a little bush on the wall in front of him. Siftpaw was sitting on it, smiling. He looked into her silver face and she blinked calmly. Then he moved foreword. He didn't care what anybody said...he was going to spend this moment with her...

He blinked.

She was gone.

It had all been a daydream. He gave an inward growl and hurried on up, his paws shaking. He became more panicky with every step.

"Siftpaw!"

Faithpaw finally forced himself to call out. There was no answer, not a sound. Even the birds were silent, and the sun sunk silently, darkening the gorge.

"Siftpaw!"

He stopped, staring over the edge of the path. This was where she had fallen. Maybe she was in that bush a little below the path...? Faithpaw leaned over. The bush was empty.

"Siftpaw!"

There wasn't a trace of anything, no blood, no body, no scored up earth of plants. She had just vanished.

But no...she couldn't have...

He hurried back down the path, bumping into Moonfeather on the way. He flicked past her and moved on down, down until he met the place where the path ended. He rushed and stopped when his paws became submerged in water.

He looked into the river. The rocks on the floor of it were shiny and fine. Nothing.

He searched longer. There was nothing.

Faithpaw looked up. The world spun for a moment as he saw how high the top of the gorge was.

Then he turned around and hurried back up the winding path. Moonfeather was sitting in the middle of it, and she turned to face him as he appeared.

"I'll look tonight," She said, "But now you need to get somewhere safe, somewhere hidden. And I said I knew where. MidnightClan's going to be coming in a second, I'm sure."

She turned and stared away, not waiting for him to follow. Unwillingly he forced his paws to move and began hurrying down the twisty path after the silver and black she-cat.

Moonfeather didn't glance at him. She stood at the end of the path, her paws in the water. He looked up at her. "So we're stuck," he hissed.

"We'll have to wade a bit, and it gets deep, that's all," She said. She started into the water, Faithpaw after her. They moved deeper into the water until it was tugging at Faithpaw's belly fur. "Moonfeather?" He called warily, "I'm not sure this is safe."

"It's alright." She glanced back to him. "See that little moss island up there? We've got to jump onto that." He watched her grow still in the water ahead of him, then she jumped from it and landed clumsily on the tiny moss island, gripping it with her claws. It was probably only a foot in diameter.

"Can you jump now?" She called.

"I think." He stared, then stopped. "But you have to get off if it for me to get on."

"That's true." Moonfeather turned around and jumped. She disappeared into the darkness.

"Moonfeather?" He called, "Where'd you go?"

"I'm in here! Just jump to the moss ball!"

Faithpaw tried to brace his muscles through the water. Then, keeping his dark brown eyes fixed on the squelchy moss island, he sprang foreword with a mighty splash. His claws hooked into the moss ball and he hauled his body onto the island. He turned around until he was positioned on it, then stared into the darkness where Moonfeather had vanished.

But darkness? That didn't make sense. He was standing pretty near the cliff wall, he should just see the solid rock of it. But instead he saw a large strip of darkness going from the top of the cliff wall all the way down to the bottom, where he was. It was almost like there was a crack in the wall, and he was looking into it.

He jumped off the moss ball. The water was not as deep here, so he sloshed foreword, into the crack.

It was a crack! A big crack in the side of the cliff wall that a cat could easily fit through. He began walking along, splashing through a few inches of water.

But then the crack ended. Or, most of it ended, because at the very bottom it went on- a tunnel. A cave.

Carefully, Faithpaw ventured into it. The water was still beneath him, but the whole dark room was empty and bugs flew into his face. Dripping water could be heard from ahead, echoing off the stone walls of the cave.

"Moonfeather?" he called.

There was no answer, so he continued on. The dripping sound got louder. He turned a corner and saw light-light glistening on water.

He quickened his step, then froze.

Faithpaw had emerged from the tight tunnel into a huge cavern. His eyes widened and his mouth fell down as he saw that the water in the tunnel ran into a big pool of water in the center of the floor of the cave, but for two yards all around it, there was solid, damp ground. He stared up. There was a hole, a small round hole about a foot in diameter going all the way from the ground far above him, to here. Light poured from it.

But all around him, there was water- dripping water. It ran from the walls and splattered onto the ground or into the pool. The whole room was alive with the sound of water.

"Where are we, Moonfeather?" He asked, awed. His voice echoed around the huge cave.

There was no answer. He turned around, looking for her, squinting through the shaft of sunlight coming from the top of the cave. He saw eyes ahead and moved foreword, around the pool.

Moonfeather stood beside a large cat. Behind the large cat were two others.

The large cat stepped into view.

"Greetings," he said, "You must be Faithpaw. My name is Akando. I'm leader of The Ambush."

OMG! Anyone notice I wrote "'he' said?" Review, review, review!!