OKAY, LISTEN UP EVERYONE! I HAVE REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF TO SAY! AND NO, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RANDOM WORDS. WE ARE ALMOST AT 100 REVIEWS! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? IT MEANS THAT ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE BEEN READING ARE ALL INCREDIBLY AWESOME AND SUPPORTIVE! WE'LL DEFINITELY MAKE IT TO 100 BEFORE THE NEXT CHAPTER, SO GO LOOK ON MY PROFILE AND LOOK TO SEE WHAT THE PRIZE IS FOR THE 100TH REVIEWER AFTER READING (and reviewing) THIS CHAPTER!

Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors

Frozenpaw walked towards the fresh-kill pile, her belly rumbling with hunger. Hailblaze said that she had done a really good job and deserved a big meal. Her tongue smacked over her whiskers at the thought of devouring a plump squirrel.

Suddenly, Snowshine bounded up to the prey, just as Frozenpaw made it. Se reached for the largest piece, the squirrel, Frozenpaw had been craving. She glared into her mothe r's eyes and realized something.

When was the last time she had spoken to Snowshine?

The white warrior made no notice that Frozenpaw was even there, so she just took her squirrel and padded off to the middle of the camp, where everyone else was sharing their meals. Frozenpaw sluggishly trailed behind, feeling uncomfortable, but knowing that it was the mature thing to do.

As Snowshine settled down, Frozenpaw padded to her front and smiled.

The white she-cat looked up. "Well, if it isn't my daughter. It's been quite a while since we've had a proper conversation, now hasn't it? What made you finally decide to stop hiding like a turtle in its shell?"

Frozenpaw was surprised that that was the way Snowshine had chose to greet her. Her mother matched her smile, but hers held cruelty, just like the cat in her dream a few moons ago. She swallowed. "Hello, to you too, mother."

Snowshine laughed softly. "You haven't changed a bit have you? I guess that doesn't matter. Sit, sit. I'm not going to be able to finish this whole squirrel, and Oakshade is out watching Lionpaw's training, so why don't you share it with me?"

She felt uneasy, but Frozenpaw nodded and sat down across the prey from her mother, who eyed her as she took the first bite.

Frozenpaw chewed the prey slowly, wary of her mother's hard gaze. But then she stopped. Mother didn't fit well. Clanmate was just as wrong in her head. As the realizations came to her, anger rose higher and higher in her body, and watching Snowshine look Frozenpaw over like she knew everything about her made her fur bristle. She forced it to lie flat as she tore another piece of meat from the squirrel.

"You don't, you know," she murmured.

"I don't what?" Snowshine asked, still holding her fake grin. Her voice was light and high, a way to make herself sound innocent, but Frozenpaw wasn't buying it.

"You don't know me."

That's when her face fell.

"Don't even try anymore."

Snowshine looked at the squirrel, averting Frozenpaw's accusing stare. One side of her lip lifted, revealing a tooth. "I think I'd know my daughter pretty well."

"Name one thing you know about me," growled Frozenpaw.

Snowshine looked up, clearly not fond of the situation. "You are a gifted healer."

"Doesn't count. Anyone could tell that."

The white she-cat then grunted and flexed her claws, watching how the sunlight reflected off them. Suddenly, her expression changed, and instead of her scowl, she plastered a dark smirk over her lips. "You had feelings for Nettlepaw."

Frozenpaw jerked her shoulders back. Her claws unsheathed over the grass and her heart beat faster as Snowshine waited for a reply.

"I guess you'd think that. Considering I'm the only one who actually cares that he just vanished without a trace. So apparently I like him just because I have the feelings any normal cat would have when their Clanmate went missing."

Snowshine sighed. "Don't be like that, Frozenpaw. Even you know he was a weakling. Why is he worth bringing back to the Clan when he wasn't meant for it in the first place?"

Frozenpaw didn't want to turn it into an argument about her lost friend. The Feeling was starting to crawl up her fur so she quickly changed the subject. "Let's get back to me. Is that all you know? Obvious and false things, just said to protect your reputation? How about some real facts? Because right now, I know a lot of things about you."

Snowshine widened her eyes, but didn't say anything. Her intense glare was daring Frozenpaw to say more, and she was certainly going to.

"Actually," she mewed sourly, "everything I know about you can tie together into one big idea. You-" Frozenpaw stopped herself when she saw out of the corner of her eye, Mousewhisper, Oakshade and Lionpaw returning from training. Her brother was wearing a simple smile. She looked back and forth at Snowshine's face and his. While Snowshine looked falsely innocent, and Lionpaw was really, truly a naive apprentice. He was naturaly the way he was, perfect in everything he did. How could anyone not admire that? She was a shadow in the back round, one who preferred to stay there, but thought she didn't.

Lionpaw stood out. He was effortlessly amazing at what he did, but he still tried to stay there at the top. She was waiting for something to take her there, like being perfect was as simple as breathing, but it wasn't. And now, she was medicine cat apprentice, on the path she didn't want to take because real-life wasn't a fantasy, and it had taken her so long to realize it.

"I, what?" Snowshine asked, voice hard.

Frozenpaw turned back to her. "Nothing. Never mind. I'm sorry for...being so stupid." She stood up and turned. "You can finish the squirrel. I'm not hungry anymore."

She left her mother behind, padding off into the darkness of the medicine cat den, where a shadow like her belonged.

Hailblaze looked up from his work- something he seemed to be doing even when it wasn't necessary. He blinked when he noticed the pain on Frozenpaw's face and abandoned his sorting to talk to her. She quickly looked away, trying agonizingly hard to do something she couldn't: keep him away.

"What happened out there?" he asked firmly. "I thought I told you to go eat something." When she didn't reply, his voice softened. "Who was it this time?"

Frozenpaw looked up at his green gaze with her own, cursing that she had. Because if she had continued to avoid his stare, she wouldn't have been spilling all her feelings to the cat it began with.

Her voice was broken, uneven shaken by sobs as she spoke. "I never thought much of it until you came it that one day for Lionkit." She paused abruptly to take a long, choppy breath. "You thought I had potential as a medicine cat, I heard it in your praise. That's when it really stood out. That I'd be more useful as a healer than a warrior. But a warrior is all I really wanted to be." She continued on through the story, moving through Oakshade's comment to her decision to her ceremony. But she left out the haunting dream she had at the Moonstone, fearing now more than ever on what her mentor had to say about it.

"Frozenpaw," he sighed. "Don't let things like a mouse-brained remark from a mouse-brained cat bring you down. I know you were a kit back then, but you were wise enough to know that Oakshade is an arrogent fox-heart not worth anyone's time."

She held back a sob. "I wanted him to like me the way he liked Lionkit. I was his daughter." She dug her claws into the ground. "But it's too late now. I'm your apprentice, Lionpaw is the stellar littermate, and I'll just have to live with it." She inhaled deeply. "I had a chance to make things right, but I never took it. Things won't be right because I was a little too late."

Hailblaze brushed his tail along her shoulder. "Frozenpaw, I'm not the best cat at cheering others up, but that one night when we were heading for the Moonstone, you fought well."

"I can't exactly use my talent," she whispered.

Hailblaze opened his mouth to respond but was cut off when Talonfoot entered the den. He was holding one paw up, and his face was twisted with pain. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?" asked Hailblaze, turning to look at him. "Can I help you?"

"I got a thorn in my pad," he said, holding up his forepaw. "It stings."

Hailblaze walked over to him, suddenly in work mode, like he and Frozenpaw had never had their conversation. "Frozenpaw can you get the poultice ready?"

She nodded sharply, really annoyed that he had just left their discussion for a little thorn. As she mixed some marigold and made it into a soft ointment, Hailblaze grabbed the thorn with his teeth and pulled it out of Talonfoot's pad. A squirt of blood erupted from the cut and Talonfoot bent over to lick it clean. Frozenpaw went over and applied the poultice.

"There," she said dully, "Stay off of it for the rest of the day. Let us know if it starts to hurt or throb."

"Thanks," the warrior replied. "You're pretty good at this...Frostpaw?"

"Close enough," she muttered. And he limped away.

She expected Hailblaze to them, return to sorting herbs across the den, but he turned right back to Frozenpaw and immediately said, "Talent? Frozenpaw, you're gifted at everything you do. You'd make this Clan proud if you were warrior or medicine cat. Every Clan-cat is meant for something great. Just be glad you didn't have the same fate as Nettlepaw."

Frozenpaw felt her our prickle. "Could we stop bringing him up? It's bringing back memories I'd rather leave behind."

He looked at her for a moment, then made the same smirk Snowshine did before she accused Frozenpaw of liking the dark gray tom. "Of course. It's for the better anyway. Medicine cats aren't allowed to have mates."

I DO NOT KNOW IF WE ALREADY HAD ONE, BUT IF YOU ARE THE FIRST REVIEWER, YOU GET THE PRIZE NAMED ON MY PROFILE AS THE ONE HUNDRETH REVIEWER, SO REVIEW! RIGHT NOW! BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

Anyway, WAFFLES!

~Destiny