Hi guys! I'm back! I love my reviewers so much, so thanks to all of you for reviewing! Well, congrats to Liliana Dragonshard for being the 120th reviewer! And Guest for being the 130th reviewer! I won't be able to answer to all of your reviews, but I can say something: Thank you for your wonderful reviews, and criticism. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the newest installation of Different!
Chapter 14:
"Fernpaw!" A loud voice intruded the brown she-cat's lonely dreams. Fernpaw padded into the mist, confusion shrouding her thoughts.
"Sunfeather?" she whimpered. "Moonpaw? Rockflame?" She looked around. Mist swirled around her paws and opened up every time she walked, breaking the cloudy barrier around her legs. The croaking of frogs hummed in her ears as Fernpaw stepped nervously forward.
"Fernpaw!" the voice yowled again. Fernpaw whipped around, fear slicing her heart as cold, dry pads pressed on her shoulder. Fernpaw squirmed away.
"Who are you?" she whispered, making out luminous eyes glowing in the misty darkness. She reached out her paw, feeling the urge to touch the mysterious cat. Suddenly, she blinked and the eyes vanished.
"Fernpaw!" the voice yowled again, and Fernpaw bristled at the familiarity of the voice. The brown and white apprentice padded forward, unsure of what to do. She made out a familiar ginger pelt, bristling and yowling.
"Mother?" she whispered. "Mother?" Sunfeather turned around and engulfed Fernpaw in her fur, smothering the she-cat. Fernpaw coughed, hardly daring to breathe as she felt the closeness of her mother, the gentle thud of the ginger warrior's heart. Wait. Fernpaw backed away, eyes wide.
That was not Sunfeather's heartbeat she was hearing, that was her own. "Sunfeather?" she scarcely whispered, not daring to pad back and see her mother again. The ginger she-cat padded out of the gloom. Icy claws gripped Fernpaw's belly, for her mother's once pretty face was half black, half white.
"Well, my dear Fernpaw," the cold sneer Fernpaw knew so well turned darker by the heartbeat. "It seems you can finally see what I dream of every night since you killed Moonpaw." Sunfeather's eyes were an odd, dimly lit murky brown. Fernpaw stepped back.
"No, you're wrong," Fernpaw gasped. "I tried to save Moonpaw, not kill her! Why would I kill the only cat besides my father that treated me like an equal." Her mew turned hard and bitter. "Not like you treated me." Sunfeather sneered.
"Then why is she so cold, and distant from you now?" the ginger warrior snickered. Fernpaw gaped, and struggled for breath as she felt cold, cracked pads slide into place around her throat.
"Moon..Moonpaw?" she choked out. "Moonpaw! It's me, Fernpaw! Let me go!" she gasped, thrashing around wildly until she was out of the pretty creamy white she-cat's steely grip. "Moonpaw…you know that I didn't kill you, don't you?"
Moonpaw remained motionless, her eyes clear. The voice she used was icy with hate and malice. "No." The creamy apprentice padded around her sister, voice bitter and as cold as the freezing leaf-bare wind. "You killed me on purpose, because I stole the light from you." Fernpaw took a step back, amazed.
"Moonpaw!" she gasped. "You know that no matter how hard I try to be like you, it would never happen. No matter what, you would still be the star of the Clan." The two sisters finished the sentence together.
"But I never was," she hissed. "You stole it partly from me with your personality and strong will." Fernpaw shook her head, not believing this was happening.
"Wait…you would never say that to me," she meowed. "My sister would never say that to me." Moonpaw padded around her sister again.
"Oh, but it is me," she meowed smoothly. "I've just changed for the better." Fernpaw bristled.
"For what better?" she snapped. "The only better I know was when you were nice to me back home!" Moonpaw turned around to share a glance with Sunfeather, contempt clear in her eyes.
"This is my home," she hissed. Fernpaw looked around, startled.
"You mean this horrible forest? Where light never reaches this dank, horrid place? Where it stinks of decay and crowfood in your marshes? This is not what the Moonpaw I know would have wanted!"
"The Moonpaw you know has changed for the better," Moonpaw replied. Fernpaw bared her teeth.
"This is the place she imagined as better?!" she snapped. Moonpaw nodded. Fernpaw turned around, refusing to believe.
"The Moonpaw you knew was a coward who believed in lies, an old, weak fool," Moonpaw meowed. "The Moonpaw you knew wanted nothing but daisies and sunshine and butterflies."
"Then why is the new Moonpaw so cold…so distant…so mean?" Fernpaw meowed. Suddenly, Fernpaw felt a cool tail rest on her shoulder, and Moonpaw's pad press against her other shoulder. She raised her head to stare at Sunfeather, then the clouded, starless sky.
"Because that's what she is," Moonpaw's mew barely reached her ear, a soft sigh that was whisked away by a cold freezing wind. Sunfeather wound around Fernpaw.
"I don't understand," Fernpaw spluttered, stepping away from Sunfeather's grasp. "Why would she want to live here?" Moonpaw raised her eyes to look at the sky.
"Because this is StarClan."
Oooh! Not as long as my other chapters, I'm very sorry, my dear reviewers, but still my favorite chapter yet! Can we make it to 150 reviews?! 160?! 170?! Let's wait and see, my dear readers!
Review!
~Wish (and Amberflower)