Thanks to Iceshadow911247 and Badgerclaw ThunderClan Warrior! P.S. It's not over until I say it is! I have more! For their location in the second part and third part, it's the stream in Chapter 15, Belonging. Also I tie in a thread from Chapter 4, Executioner of Dreams.
Chapter 28, Where Lives Meet
The strange scent was in his nostrils when he woke early the next morning. He was still in Sleetflash's den. As he rose slowly, sleep still clinging to his limbs, he saw the ShadowClan medicine cat before him. Slowly, he realized, how much she had changed. He remembered her as an experienced medicine cat, but not caring for her patients. She would go through the motions, but her heart hadn't been in it. Not... not until Iceshadow came.
Worry shone through her dark blue eyes as she surveyed the scene before both of them. Six ThunderClan cats stood before them, in the very heart of ShadowClan territory.
The two hurried out, to see Sweetsnow also struggling out of her den. Snakeclaw felt a pang and a rush of shame when he remembered how he and Icepaw had visited her when they were apprentices. They had stopped after they became warriors; not intentionally, they just... forgot. Will people forget Iceshadow too? When all's said and done, will she have meant anything to this world?
"Why are you here?" Sleetflash asked slowly.
Maskface stepped out from behind the rest. Snakeclaw's eyes widened. He recognized Nightrose, Wolfsong, Snowblossom, Forestshadow, Swiftwing, and had seen the black tom with blue eyes at a gathering before. Maskface was a different matter. He had disappeared after being sent to go after Sleetflash, and no search parties had found him.
"We are here about Iceshadow," he said without expression.
"She's dead," Snakeclaw spat.
"We know," Wolfsong stepped forward as Snowblossom and Forestshadow huddled together. Her voice was gentle, but full of compassion. "This will be hard for you to hear, but please... just try to understand."
Sweetsnow's blue eyes narrowed at this. Snakeclaw briefly wondered how she had coped with Iceshadow's death. He hadn't visited her, so how would he know? Did he even have a right to know?
"Iceshadow is alive."
In that moment, the world stood still. Then, it all came crashing in. The noise of the gentle breeze rustling through the pine needles because like a hurricane. Wolfsong's amber eyes became a raging fire that was all he saw.
She was alive. She was alive. Disbelief echoed through him. She couldn't be alive. He felt weak, like the world was drifting away from him.
"She's lost her mind."
In a flash, Snakeclaw knew why. He knew it was all his fault.
He'd run from her. He hadn't been able to come back, because Sleetflash wouldn't let him. Forestshadow had dragged him away. But he could have fought, fought to go back to her. He hadn't even told her he loved her.
*.*
Moonshine, Silverheart, Briarrush, Sleetflash, and Snakeclaw were travelling with the ThunderClan cats and Maskface. In the gray morning light, they were searching ShadowClan territory first, the pine needles gathering in drifts around the bases of the trees when the wind blew.
In the distance, they heard a voice in the distance.
"StarClan, forgive me... StarClan, give me peace at last..."
Snakeclaw was crashing through the pines, in front of everyone else when he heard that voice. Even as his lungs burned with the cold air he drew in, his breath coming in ragged gasps and the pines rushing past him all in a blur, his movement seemed tortuously slow as he ran as fast as he could. Amber eyes were on fire as he saw her in the clearing.
In a circle of pines, casting dark lacing shadows on the ground, a fox growled as it moved slowly towards Iceshadow. She was on the ground, white fur full of pine needles, crouching beneath the wild animal with eyes full of a misery he could not have imagined before.
"Iceshadow!" he yowled, springing into action, jumping and swiping at the fox.
As Moonshine, Silverheart, Briarrush and Wolfsong readily raced to help him, Briarrush hissed a command to stay and wait.
The three young warriors were no match for the fox, even with their ferocity and loyalty to their fallen Clanmate. Quickly Moonshine was injured and Silverheart was covered with scratches. Despite that, they kept fighting for what they knew might be a lost cause.
The reason for Briarrush's order quickly became evident as a second fox emerged from the pines. Maskface realized they were near a stream which was between them and RiverClan territory, as he also began to battle the second fox.
*.*
They were now back at the stream, still fighting the foxes. The two were starving, and determined.
At last, the first fox sank to the ground, dead. The second, however, continued to battle the band of tired warriors, swiping with its razor sharp claws and holding its ground. All in a sickly moment, its claws caught Briarrush by the throat, hurling her into the stream.
The blood continued to flow out of her throat as her eyes widened. StarClan, she thought as the clear, cold, gray waters began to cover the sky, help them. In one moment, her eyes were empty of any spirit or soul she had once posessed.
"Leave them!" A loud, clear voice rang out through the forest. Iceshadow stepped out of the clearing, blue eyes like daggers.
The fox could not understand her speech, but the meaning and threat was clear enough.
She stalked slowly through the pines until she came to the long stalks of grass which were starting to become wet from rain. With one swipe by the throat - where it killed Briarrush - it too fell to the water.
In a time of clarity, Maskface looked at his daughter. Executioner of Dreams, he remembered. She would change them all, for better or worse.
"I-iceshadow?" Snakeclaw's eyes widened as he saw her.
"I'm back," was all she could manage looking into his eyes, full of pain.
*.*
Sweetsnow sat in the darkness of dusk, all the soft sounds closing in around her as she sat before Iceshadow. That night, there was no one but them in the forest, it seemed.
"I have something to tell you, young one." Sweetsnow's voice was gentle, her eyes kind.
"I have longed for blood, I have been betrayed by one I love - what more is there to learn or be told?" Iceshadow said bitterly.
"Something which you do not know, which you will only come to know is true when you have lived out your years. Your mentor Wolfsong will tell you the same." She said slowly.
"Wolfsong," Iceshadow murmured. "I will see her after all of this is done."
"You will see all of them again. While you may be part of ShadowClan - they will always be a part of you, forever. This is what I have to teach you. Tragedy Binds - Tragedy bind all of us together tighter than love, tighter than friendship, tighter than joy - because it is all of these things, in truth. It is the longing for them, the destruction of them - but it binds us together and we will find all of these things again. You will find happiness, you will find friendship - and you will find your love again, if you look with the eyes of truth. Where lives meet, they change, for better or worse."
When Iceshadow looked up again, Sweetsnow was gone. "Someday, I will understand what you tell me." She whispered into the night, making a promise to herself. "Until that day I will strive to find the understanding you seek to teach me. Thank you."
But fate weaves a crooked tapestry, taking from you what you hold dearest.
