CHAPTER NINETEEN:

With a screech, Skypaw hurled herself at Scarstorm. The tom hissed and struggled, letting go of Cloverpaw in his efforts to shake off the furious feline on his shoulders. "Justice!" he spat.

"It's not justice if we did not kill Redpaw," Skypaw snarled back, jumping away as he rolled.

A flicker of doubt cooled the anger in his eyes for a moment. But just then, two battle cries sounded - one from the gorse, and one from the hills.

WindClan and ThunderClan charged into battle, claws extended and teeth bared.

"Oh, StarClan, what have I done?" Scarstorm's haze of fury seemed to lift. His eyes stretched wide in dismay as Galestar leaped at Thunderpelt with a bloodcurdling howl.

"We need to stop this!" Skypaw wheeled around to face Cloverpaw. "Go back to camp and stay there! You must stay safe!" Then, praying that Cloverpaw did not choose this time to stop obeying orders, she once again faced Scarstorm. This time, however, it wasn't with animosity. "We need to tell our Clans this is a mistake. Call off the battle!"

With a curt nod, Scarstorm wove his way into the clawing mass of cats. Skypaw ran towards Whitewhisker, who was fighting the young WindClan warrior Gingernose. "Stop! It was all a mistake!"

Both cats hesitated, perplexed. "What?" Whitewhisker meowed. "Skypaw, I thought - "

"Tell the others!" Skypaw dove back into the crowd, searching for Thunderpelt.

A claw caught her ear. She turned to see an apprentice bristling with forced aggression, looking like it expected to be scolded for touching her. "Y-you s-sh-sh - " The poor she-cat stuttered. "You sh-shouldn't have ata-attacked R-redpaw."

Skypaw cuffed her ears. "This battle was unnecessary; you shouldn't be here," she growled, then darted away to find the ThunderClan deputy. Unable to find him, she headed instead towards Coldtail, who was sending a black and white WindClan warrior running for home. "Coldtail!" she called.

Coldtail turned to look at her, his eyes narrowing. "What are you - Skypaw, watch out!"

Skypaw turned around just in time to be slammed to the forest floor. Her head hit something hard, and everything went black.

"Oh, Skypaw, I've been such a fool."

Skypaw drifted into consciousness, but she kept still. She was only aware of a pleasant warmth beside her, and a familiar voice. In the back of her mind, she recognized Coldtail, but mostly she just relaxed and let herself be thoughtless.

"I've been a fool, and I regret it. I'll tell you why now, but... never again. You've moved on, and it's my fault that I lost the chance to say all of these things moons ago, so I'm not going to make your life harder than it already is."

What's his fault? Skypaw wondered sleepily.

"I should have told you that I wasn't mad at you when you didn't congratulate me at my apprentice ceremony. As a kit, I thought you knew how I felt - and I thought you felt the same way about me. So when you didn't stick around, it hit me then that maybe that wasn't true. I was mad at myself, and took it out on you. Ashpaw helped you after we stopped talking, and after Rosecloud died. I became jealous; I was rude to both you and him. I regret that now, too, but it's true: I couldn't figure out why you liked him more than me."

A brief pause, like he was waiting for an answer.

"And then he died; Lightfeather too. And I couldn't bring myself to tell you. I convinced myself that this was because I didn't want to hurt you anymore, but, really, it was purely selfish. I didn't want to be rejected, to be hurt. But... maybe that would have been easier. You've haunted me in my dreams every night, every memory of you replaying itself a thousand times over. Over and over." Coldtail's voice shook, dropping down to an agonized whisper. "I've seen you with Thunderpelt. I know he loves you, and I think you love him too. But I have to say this, just once, before you're totally lost to me forever..."

What? What's wrong?

"Skypaw, I love you." Coldtail softly licked her cheek. "I'll always wish deep inside that things might've turned out differently. But now perhaps I'll be able to find some happiness with another cat. So sweet dreams, dear one. And StarClan pray that you remember none of this when you wake up."

Even after he'd moved away, something unknown to her warmed Skypaw's heart as she fell back to sleep.

Author's Note

Sorry that this chapter was so short, but I promised you two chapters and so I needed to divide it up somehow. Although this chapter had enough drama to last a few chapters. So what did you think of Coldtail's monologue? I almost wanted to both laugh and cry when I was writing it, because it seems so unlike him to talk about his feelings, but it was so sad as well... :'( See, Scarstorm isn't really bad. Just... irrational at times. And somehow I don't think he would have actually killed Cloverpaw... Ah, anyway.

So, next chapter = last chapter. Please review for things you'd like to see in the upcoming story! Ideas are very welcome. (: And thank you all for the names. They are very helpful.