Warriors: Frosted Leaves

Chapter 11: Vengeance

Icepaw awoke the next day with stiff muscles, after having stayed with his mother and Onyxkit until dawn. He remembered that his other siblings and Leafpaw had also stayed with him that night, and licked Leafpaw on the head to rouse her out of sleep.

She groaned and stretched her stiff muscles, and nuzzled Icepaw. "I'm so sorry Icepaw…"

He shook his head, and started shaking Snowkit, Coalkit, and Blizzardkit to wake them. They all looked up to him with sad looks, their young minds most likely still not completely comprehending what had just happened to their mother and brother. Icepaw curled his tail around them and drew them closer, "there there, let's get you back to the Nursery, and Leafpaw and I will fetch us some breakfast, okay?"

The kits nodded, and the two older cats led them back to the Nursery, and then made their way to the fresh-kill pile. When Icepaw reached the pile, he grabbed the nearest mouse and tore it to shreds, "why?! Why did she have to die like that?! And Onyxkit…he was just a couple moons away from joining me in the Apprentice Den, along with all of my siblings! WHY?!" He treated the mouse as if it was responsible for his problems, blood and scraps of fur littering the area around the Warrior's food.

"Icepaw, calm down!" Leafpaw started licking his shoulder rhythmically to calm him, and he eventually took a breath and laid down. "I know you're feeling terrible, but…" She couldn't find the words, and instead just set her head against his shoulder. They sat in silence for what seemed like a good while before a familiar Warrior came over.

Icepaw tensed when he saw Nightfur, expecting to have to fight him again, but something in the Warrior's expression made him confused. "I thought you would betray us after I saw you bring this ca-er, Leafpaw into the camp." He sighed and looked away, "then I watched you stand vigil over Whitetail. Both of you. I owe you an apology, now's not the time for infighting, we all haveta grow up and work together to keep FireClan at bay."

Icepaw's eyes widened at the sudden kindness Nightfur was showing. Even when Icepaw was a kit and Nightfur was an Apprentice he would give everyone a hard time and be generally unpleasant. "Um…" Icepaw struggled to find words after this display, "thank you?"

Nightfur nodded and walked away, and the young Apprentice could nearly feel Leafpaw's hope coming off of her pelt. "Wow, maybe we can get through this…" The two silently snatched up a few pieces of fresh-kill and headed back to the Nursery. Dovewing was also there, checking each of the kits.

"They seem alright, now where is…?" She started, and then stopped short when Icepaw and Leafpaw entered, "oh, there you are. I need to check that bump on your head, and I need to make sure you're not suffering from shock." Before he could protest, the she-cat was already giving him a check-up, so Leafpaw carried the food over to his siblings.

"Uh, hi, I'm Leafpaw." She gave a small smile, hoping that the kits wouldn't find it too strange her coat marked her as a FireClan cat. The kits seemed to young to know about this, because they just said hi back and each took a bite out of a vole. Leafpaw sighed with relief, and felt fur brushing against hers.

"Whitetail never cared about this dispute between our Clans…she always believed that one day, we could work together, and stop this fighting…" Icepaw heaved a sigh, "let's share that mouse we got." The morning meal between all of the cats was deathly quiet, with only the sound of a soft morning breeze blowing along the leaves to break the silence.

Morning passed by uneventfully, with all of the cats settling for a hopefully more restful sleep. The Deputy, Silentriver, was going to send someone to get Icepaw for a mid-morning patrol, but she decided he needed some space, and left him alone until dusk.

Icepaw opened his eyes to the pale orange light pouring into the Nursery, and stepping out, it looked more than ever that fire was in their camp. He knew that wasn't the case without the smell of smoke, but he could smell traces of FireClan. Leafpaw padded up behind him, "Icepaw, how're you feeling?" There was concern heavy in her eyes for her partner, who just heaved a great sigh.

"I'm going to FireClan. I want to know who did this and make them pay." Icepaw meowed darkly. Leafpaw just sat stunned for a moment before she found her voice again.

"WHAT?! Icepaw, that's insane, they'd-mmph!" Icepaw rammed his tail into her mouth forcefully, earning a bite.

"Not so loud, I want you to come with me…you know their territory…and…I want you to be there with me…" Leafpaw spat out his tail and gave a sigh of her own. None of the other cats seemed to be paying attention, but she whispered back to be safe.

"Okay."

A bit of a short chapter today kiddies, but don't worry, I have a big event planned for the infiltration of FireClan. So yeah, until then! Though, between then and now, I'm also gonna have a new story, if anyone's a fan of SAO, you should check it out! Yes.