Yay for ending of wolf chappie. I hate writing those chapters. But I have to put them in every so often. They'll get more exciting in the future. Hopefully. Anyway this chapter isn't even planned. The gears in my head will be turning trying to think of the next sentence throughout this entire thing. That's basically how the past few chappies have been.
Jayfeather: She has gears in her head?
Me: Of course. Everyone does. It's how we think.
JayFeather: You think? You shouldn't do that. The gears might start smoking.
Dani: That's cold.
Me: Ignoring that comment. Just disclaim.
JayFeather: *rolls eyes* Must we do this EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER?!
Me: Yes.
Jay And Dani: Warriors is not hers. Neither is Danny Phantom.
The sun was shining brightly over IceClan territory. DarkCloud sat beside the warriors den, thinking about the previous night. That encounter with Phantom. Some of the things he said bothered her. 'Bye DarkCloud.' That was the one thing he had said that had bothered her the most. Everything else he said was mostly nonsense. 'I did scare away a couple of invading cats.' That one bothered her as well, but not as much as him calling her by name. Was he spying on the clan, or did he have an inside source. The only possible inside sources she could think of were VampVixen and Danny, but they never left a warrior's sight. Hmm...
OceanBreeze was walking back into camp after a hunting trip and noticed DarkCloud lost in thought. 'That's unlike her' he thought. He walked over to her and poked her with his paw. "DarkCloud, you okay?" She didn't give a response. He pushed her this time and said a little louder "DarkCloud!"
She jumped at the sound and looked at OceanBreeze with a shocked expression. "You scared me!" she hissed.
He laughed. "Sorry. You seem distracted. Something wrong?"
"No I'm fine."
"You're lieing."
"I said I'm fine!" she hissed before walking towards SnowStar's Den. Why did she lie? Oh well. This was a matter more for SnowStar than for OceanBreeze.
OceanBreeze stared after her in confusion. "Okay then."
SnowStar was just exiting the den to go look for DarkCloud when she spotted her heading towards her. Noticing troubled expression, she asked "are you okay?"
"We need to talk" DarkCloud told her.
"Okay" SnowStar replied with a confused look. "What about?"
"I went out last night and came upon a cat that didn't belong to our clan."
"What?!" SnowStar exclaimed with a panicked look.
"Calm down. I don't think he was with the enemy. But there were others here. He said he scared them off."
SnowStar was silent for a moment. "Are we going to start to have nightly patrols as well.." she said silently.
"We might have to. There's something else though."
SnowStar looked at her. "What is it?"
"This was no ordinary cat. He had a bright white glow around him and his eyes glowed bright green."
"He... glowed? Almost like a StarClan cat. But, how is this possible? Is it possible he could have been a StarClan cat himself?"
"I don't know. He called himself Phantom. He had an object around his neck as well with a strange symbol on it. Can you think of any StarClan cats like this?"
SnowStar looked down again. "None. Strange.."
"Also, there is one other thing about him. It's been bothering me."
"What else could there possibly be?"
"He knew my name. I don't know if he meant to say it, but he called me by name. How could he know my name SnowStar?"
"I don't know. But that's the least of our worries. If you see him again, bring him here."
DarkCloud got a hard look. It may not matter to SnowStar, but it mattered to her. "Yes SnowStar" was her only reply. Without a word she left. She'd have to see if she could find this cat again. Then, somehow, convince him to join her and come into the clan. Actually, that shouldn't be too hard. But she wanted to know more about them. Maybe... maybe VampVixen and Danny did know something about them. It couldn't hurt to ask. She looked over and saw SandPath talking to the two with AzurePaw by his side. She walked over to them and asked "forgive me SandPath but may I borrow these two a moment?"
"Umm, okay..." he said before stepping away with his apprentice.
Danny already knew what this was about. He figured DarkCloud would root them out, asking about his ghost form. "What is it?"
"I wanted to know if you two know anything about a cat named Phantom" she told them.
VampVixen, having not been told about the encounter, looked over to Danny. "I don't know anyone by that name" she said, turning back to DarkCloud. It wasn't technically a lie.
'Why'd she look at Danny like that?' DarkCloud mentally asked herself. She looked towards him and asked "what about you?"
"Nope nothing" he replied. Hiding his secret from his parents gave him experience in lieing. He had gotten quite good at it.
"Are you sure?" DarkCloud asked, narrowing her eyes. She wasn't about to instantly agree to cats she didn't trust. She didn't expect them to tell the truth.
Danny waved his paw and said "of course we're sure. Right Vamp?"
She nodded her head. "Right."
DarkCloud looked at the two suspiciously. 'They're keeping something from us. And I think it involves Phantom.'
Danny sat there, waiting for the dark she-cat's response. She seemed to be thinking their answers over. Why was she so concerned about his ghost form anyway? Was it something he mentioned. He knew Phantom was strange in the fact he was a ghost, but something else had DarkCloud concerned, and he doubted it was the mention of the rogue intruders. He thought back to the conversation. He joked with her as to what he was doing. He informed her of the intruders. He corrected her view of loners and rouges. What had he said to set her off? He went over the conversation in his head when it hit him. He had made a mistake. How could he have been so stupid? 'Bye DarkCloud.' He mentally smacked himself in the face. 'Danny you idiot!' he said in his head.
DarkCloud studied Danny. He seemed distracted, much like she had been earlier. She saw VampVixen looking at him in the same fashion, without the suspicious look in her eyes. Except VampVixen knew more than she did of the thoughts going through his head. She wished she knew more. Maybe, dare she say it, the two weren't the enemy after all. But they were still hiding things from the clan. Secrets she didn't know would affect the clan in a positive or negative way if they were known. Or maybe they kept them because some things are just better left unsaid. Who knows the motivation behind any secrets.
VampVixen saw Danny get a look of realization. Something in his head clicked. She would have to ask him about it later.
"Very well" DarkCloud told them. That probably wasn't the definite end of the conversation, but she was satisfied with the answers for now.
As soon as DarkCloud was far enough away, Vamp glared at Danny and asked "what the hell was that all about?"
He looked the other way and said "I kinda sorta may have gone out of the camp for a bit last night in ghost form and DarkCloud kinda sorta may have found me." He looked towards her, but not right at her and added "and I kinda sorta may have accidentally called her by name."
"You idiot!" she hissed at him.
"Why is Danny an idiot?" they heard from behind them, and turned around to see SandPath headed back towards them.
"He just did something stupid" Vamp said.
"Very stupid" Danny laughed.
"Oh okay. So what did DarkCloud want with you guys?"
"She came across a strange cat last night when she went for a walk and was just wondering if we knew anything about him" Danny explained.
"Really? And she didn't bring him back here? How unlike her" SandPath replied.
'Now that I think about it, I'm surprised as well she didn't try to abduct me as Phantom' he thought. "So am I" he replied.
"So are you?" they heard from behind them. They all looked in that direction to see OceanBreeze headed for them.
"Keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong" Vamp told him sharply.
Sighing and shaking his head, SandPath said "DarkCloud found a loner in the territory last night and we were just surprised she didn't try to bring him here."
"Really? What cat did she find?" OceanBreeze asked curiously. SandPath looked at Danny, since he had more information.
"His name is Phantom. We don't know much more than that" Danny told him.
"Yeah DarkCloud didn't give us much to go on" Vamp added.
"And why would DarkCloud tell you guys of all cats?"
"Because she suspected us of knowing him stupid" Vamp said.
"Hey!" OceanBreeze hissed. "How was I supposed to know that?"
"I would think it'd be obvious" she replied. "DarkCloud meets new cat. DarkCloud is suspicious of new cat. DarkCloud asks suspected enemy if they know new cat."
"Oh. Yeah you're right I guess."
"OceanBreeze agrees with Vamp! The world is ending!" SandPath exclaimed, wildly waving his paws.
Danny and Vamp laughed. They didn't know what was funnier. The annoyed look on OceanBreeze's face or SandPath wildly waving his paws with a stupid look on his face.
AzurePaw approached them, accompanied by RedFur and DewPaw. AzurePaw looked at OceanBreeze first, SandPath second, and then VampVixen and Danny laughing at the two. "SandPath, what are you doing?"
SandPath stopped waving his paws around and looked at AzurePaw, leaving his paws in the air where he had paused them. He looked around at the stares he was getting from his clan-mates, and then to Danny and VampVixen, who were still laughing at him. Returning his gaze to AzurePaw, he started laughing and said "nothing."
"I don't get what's so funny" DewPaw said, sitting down.
RedFur sighed and said "They were probably laughing at SandPath waving his paws around like the mouse brain he is." He didn't mean anything rude by the comment. He was grinning at SandPath, who was still in the same position.
SandPath blinked twice before returning his paws to the ground and laughing. "You wouldn't understand DewPaw."
"Apparently" she said.
SandPath stopped laughing and asked "Did you need something RedFur?"
"Yeah I wanted you to come with us. On a little patrol, since I have both of our apprentices with me."
"Sure. OceanBreeze, watch the prisoners" he said before heading off with RedFur.
"You can't leave us with him!" Vamp said, glaring towards SandPath.
SandPath looked back at her, grinned, then looked back foward, following the cats out of the camp.
"He did that on purpose!"
"Oh come on Vamp, it isn't that bad" Danny said. He looked at OceanBreeze, who had gone from annoyed to smug. "You are way too dramatic when it comes to OceanBreeze."
"Of course I am. He's the most annoying blue cat in the world."
"Vamp, I'm pretty sure he's the only blue cat in the world."
"If that were true, then how did he get blue?"
This had Danny pause to think of the answer to that question. Unable to come up with a logical answer, he looked to OceanBreeze and asked "how did you get to be blue?"
"Well, there is a very obvious answer to that question" he said. Vamp and Danny looked at him waiting for an answer. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Vamp asked. "Well were you clan-born?"
OceanBreeze looked at them with a look that said he didn't wanna answer that. He HATED that question. He hated the truth of that question. "No" he forcefully pushed himself to say.
"Wow. Someone who hates loners, and even more-so kittypets, wasn't even clan-born himself" Danny mused. "Oh the irony. So how'd you get into IceClan?"
"I was found as a kit."
"Abandoned?" Danny asked curiously.
"I don't know! And it's none of your business!" He hissed.
Danny flinched, and realized he had entered the off-limits zone for information on the blue tom's past. "Okay, sorry, calm down." 'Sheesh, if looks could kill.'
Re-directing the conversation, he asked Vamp "so how did you get to be red?" Quite honestly, as much as he hated to admit it, he was happy to finally find another abnormally colored cat. Even if he didn't trust her.
Oh how to answer that question. 'I was a two-leg called a vampire and this other vampire made me have red and black cat ears and tail and then I got turned into a cat and the red and black stayed' she thought. She laughed at the truth. What if she told OceanBreeze that as a joke? Probably wouldn't be a good idea. Still it could be funny to see his reaction. Instead of the ridiculous truth, she replied "I don't know."
"Were you separated from your parents as well?" he asked.
She thought for a moment. She decided she could tell some truth of the matter in this. "I don't know" she said again. It actually wasn't a lie.
"How do you not know?" OceanBreeze asked.
"I just don't know. I had a serious case of memory loss. I only remember half my life" she said, this time getting a sad tone to her voice. She always got upset with this subject.
Well this wasn't the answer he expected. Or the reaction. Just like Danny had, he had reached a touchy subject. Swallowing, he decided to try to pry more. This might be more information than SandPath is usually able to get out of the mysterious cats. "Do you know how that happened?"
She looked up at him, before replying "I think I had a hard hit to the head. If it's hard enough, it can affect your head and cause various problems.. I think that's how it happened. But I can't remember clearly... I only know what I've been told. And that's not much..."
"Didn't you try and ask someone who might have known what you forgot?"
Her look instantly shifted from sad to angry. "I have! And the only person I know who knew wouldn't tell me!" 'And now he can't' she subconsciously added. She was upset, and now her stupid mind was reminding her of stuff she tried to push away.
OceanBreeze flinched a little at her bitter tone, but pressed on anyway, despite the look he was receiving from Danny to shut up. "Why won't he tell you? That seems to be kind of a dumb thing to keep from someone."
She was silent, and stayed that way for a couple of minutes. OceanBreeze thought she wasn't gonna reply. Then she looked at OceanBreeze with the same sad look she had before her outburst and said "he said I was better off not knowing. Over and over again. Every time I asked him, it was the same response. I couldn't get why he wouldn't tell me!" She was on the verge of tears. "Was that part of my life really that bad? So bad I'm better off not knowing? Sometimes I don't even care how horrible it could possibly be! I feel I still have a right to know! And what's worse, now I'll never know because he's dead!" she exclaimed, falling down and finally letting the tears flow.
Danny shot OceanBreeze an accusing look. She had only JUST recently gotten over Lucian's death, and now OceanBreeze had un-intentionally reminded her of it. What's more, the blue cat had managed to bring back other bad memories.
For the first time since he'd met her, OceanBreeze felt sympathy for VampVixen. He didn't know what to say to make her stop crying. He should have stopped when he had the chance, but he had to keep prying. He looked at the sobbing she-cat in front of him.
SandPath was happily chatting with RedFur, AzurePaw, and DewPaw as they entered the camp when he spotted Danny, OceanBreeze, and VampVixen. Instantly he noticed her crying, Danny with an accusing glare, and OceanBreeze with a guilty look. Angry with his blue friend, he rushed over to them and demanded "what happened OceanBreeze?!"
Avoiding SandPath's gaze, he said "I reached a touchy subject..."
"And didn't shut up when he should have" Danny hissed.
SandPath looked down at his crying, mysterious friend and nudged her. "VampVixen?" No response. She didn't seem to acknowledge anyone or anything around her. What subject could OceanBreeze have brought up that would bring her to tears? He figured this was not the time to ask. He nudged her again. Still no response. Either she really was tuning everything out, or she was flat-out ignoring him. He didn't know what to do in this situation. He looked to Danny for help, but it was obvious he didn't know what to do either.
SnowStar approached the scene and demanded to know the same thing SandPath wanted to know. "What happened here?"
"Apparently, OceanBreeze reached an extremely touchy subject with her" SandPath explained, with a look that pleaded for help from his leader.
"Look, I'm sorry! I didn't realize this would happen!" OceanBreeze said, glaring at his clan-mates and Danny.
SnowStar nodded and prodded Vamp as SandPath had. "VampVixen." Same results as SandPath. No response. She gave a frustrated sigh and pushed Vamp's side. "VampVixen!"
Vamp looked up at the cats around her. When had SandPath and SnowStar gotten there? She looked down and asked "what?"
A response! Finally! "VampVixen, are you okay?" asked a worried SandPath, before mentally smacking himself. Of course she wasn't.
She looked at SandPath and blinked a couple of times, before quietly replying "I'll be fine."
"Why don't you go back to the den" SnowStar told her. Vamp nodded in response and stood up, and slowly walked towards the den with her head down, barely paying attention to her surroundings. She bumped into the side of the den. After rubbing her head where it was hit, she padded inside the den and lay down, trying to fall asleep.
All three cats looked back at OceanBreeze, who flinched at SandPath and Danny's looks. "What did you say to her?!" SandPath demanded. SnowStar was interested as well.
"We were asking each other how we came to have strange colors, and I asked about what happened to make her have red fur, and she said she didn't know."
"And that made her cry?" asked a confused SnowStar.
He shook his head. "No. I asked her if she was separated from her parents like I was, and she, again, said she didn't know. I asked her why and she revealed she doesn't remember half her life."
"Interesting..." SnowStar mumbled, but returned to the subject at hand. "I can see how someone would be upset, but not enough to cry like she was."
OceanBreeze swallowed, before continuing. "I asked how it happened, and if there was anyone she could have asked about the life she doesn't remember. She told me she took a serious hit to the head, most likely, and the only person she knew who knew about it told her she was better off not knowing." SnowStar went to speak again, but OceanBreeze stopped her. "She was really upset by this point, and I know I should have shut up when I had the chance." He sighed, and said "She started getting more and more upset. She was ranting by this point, asking if her life was that bad. She started crying after she said the only one who could tell her was dead."
"I see now" SnowStar said, obviously thinking about the situation. "When did she start getting upset?"
"When she mentioned her memory loss."
"And that's when you should have left well-enough alone" Danny hissed.
SandPath agreed with Danny. He knew they weren't the enemy, even if the rest of the clan thought otherwise, and both were becoming good friends. He didn't like seeing any of his friends upset. "So why did you press on?"
OceanBreeze looked at his paws, avoiding everyone else's gaze. "More information on her..."
"I figured that was it" Danny said.
"While it's good to know this information, I think you still owe her an apology" SnowStar said. Yes, she still didn't fully trust the two, but they were being very cooperative with the clan cats. She turned around and walked away from the group.
Danny and SandPath headed to the warriors den, and OceanBreeze silently walked to the fresh kill pile. "I saw what happened" DarkCloud said from behind him.
"Great, not you too" OceanBreeze almost hissed. "How long were you listening?"
"Since VampVixen's little outburst" she said.
"Are you going to yell at me about it too?"
"Yes, I do believe what you did wasn't right, but you did gather more information than anyone else has been able to get out of her."
"Yeah but I still feel awful about it" he grumbled.
DarkCloud laughed and said "I'd be worried if you didn't feel bad" before walking off and leaving the blue tom to do whatever he wanted.
OceanBreeze thought about the conversation. He had gathered a good amount of information, even if he did go about it in the wrong way. How could someone suffer half a life's worth of memory loss though? There had to be more truth than that, but he didn't dare ask VampVixen about it again.
Yet another oddity about the mysterious cats.
Alright I'm just gonna explain some things. I feel some of the ways I type are confusing.
'Thinking'
"Talking"
Note the difference? Good. I'll also use ' ' to word flashback phrases like I did up near the top.
When casual or in Danny, Vamp, or Luna's point of view, I simply type her name as Vamp. If it's another cat's turn, I'll type out her name. That's my reasoning for not always typing her full name.
Oh and sorry for another boring chappie : To all who are wondering. YES Vamp's past really was THAT BAD! Now I'll just leave you all here wondering what it was like since I won't be finishing that little story any time soon.
