Hawkfrost's tongue rasped over Leopardstar's dappled flank. The strokes were meant to be soothing, but Hawkfrost himself felt far from calm. Her scent has changed, he realised with a pang. How long before the rest of the Clan finds out? He let out a huffing sigh, his icy eyes clouded.

Leopardstar swung her head up. "Don't worry about me," she growled. He'd thought she was asleep. "I can take whatever this throws at me." Hawkfrost smiled slightly. Such was Leopardstar - proud, pitiless, and practical. "I know you can," he meowed quietly. "It - it's not you I'm worried about."

They sat in silence for a while until Leopardstar finally meowed, "Well?" Hawkfrost sighed.

"It's... I mean..." He growled softly, angry with himself for even showing stammering, blustering weakness in front of Leopardstar. "...I'm not sure about myself."

Leopardstar narrowed her emerald-shard eyes. "Hawkfrost, you mousebrain," she growled, not entirely teasingly. "You can cope with anything. I know you can." The dark tabby warrior nodded, his eyes regaining some of their clear, icy arrogance.

"Shall we wake the Clan, then?" he asked. Leopardstar nodded and the two cats stood up, Hawkfrost letting out a yowl - "Cats of HawkClan! It's time for us to be going!"

Slowly, the warriors began to pull themselves to their paws. Ashfur moved to the front of the crowd, and mewed, "Hawkfrost... How... How do you know where we're going?" He was obviously trying hard to stop himself from flinching, Hawkfrost reflected.

When on another time, in another mood, Hawkfrost would have clawed Ashfur's ears, he simply nodded. "I just know," he growled. "Trust me."

Ashfur looked surprised, but hurried back to the rest of the Clan. Hawkfrost led them out of the half-cave, and they began the long walk up the mountain.

Gray stone, sky, clouds, gray stone, sky, clouds, the occasional tree - even Hawkfrost, with his mind focused on what he would achieve, began to get bored of the scenery. At least it isn't snowing, he thought.

By now, HawkClan had reached around the top of the first peak. Looking back, Hawkfrost saw two mountains seperated them from the territories around the lake. "We're doing well!" he yowled to the rest of the Clan, his flank brushing Leopardstar's. "If we keep going like this, we'll reach the Tribe's cave in less than three sunrises!"

This cheered the Clan up immensely, and as they began to move down the mountainside the cats were chatting, talking, and being altogether a lot more Clan-like. Hawkfrost and Leopardstar walked together, not speaking, but simply enjoying each other's company.

The cats padded further downward, pausing briefly to drink from a small, trickling stream that burbled down the mountain.

The walk seemed to take forever before the sun began to set, and Leopardstar suggested they find somewhere to shelter. Reluctantly, Hawkfrost agreed, and they moved into a large gulley between two tall, towering cliffs.

Preoccupied with ambitious thoughts about what would happen when they found the Tribe, Hawkfrost didn't notice the huge, precarious boulder perched on top of one of the cliffs. Neither did the rest of HawkClan.

"This'll be a good place to spend the night," called Hawkfrost. The HawkClan cats let out mews of agreement, and moved under rocks for shelter. Hawkfrost himself began clawing out pebbles and rocks from the side of the cliff to make a softer sleeping place, disgusted with himself for missing his soft reed nest in RiverClan.

The pebbles clattered to the hard rocky ground, and Hawkfrost was surprised when larger rocks fell down with them. He was merely annoyed when a rock landed next to him, nearly squashing his tail.

Hawkfrost's ice-blue eyes narrowed angrily, and he called, "We'll have to get out! Too many falling rocks!" His Clan began to heave themselves reluctantly up from where they'd got to sleep, and Hawkfrost opened his mouth to yowl more orders.
He never managed it.

Hawkfrost's call was cut off as he swung his head up to see an unimaginably huge boulder crashing down the mountainside, its rugged side aimed for him.

Lights out.