Hey! sorry about the slight delay, I don't have a good excuse other then I've been playing the new Mario 3-D world game(it has cat suits!) on my Wii-U.
REVIEWS!
"xXBlizzardNinjaXx"- In my mind, the patrol took Gorsepaw out of the way then went back for Blueshadow, but it was a legitimate question, so thanks.
"Bookworm45699"- Oh, she lives, I wouldn't waste months of thoughts of what happens after this, and the apprenticing thing is going to come up again. And about Graycloud, I guess she's got us both stumped, I'll put some more thought into it, or maybe she just won't have kits.
"Song of falling feathers"- Gorsepaw will be fine, and Blueshadow will be okay, theoretically. But thanks!
"FoxXxOfTheNight"- Okay, and I really love the Blueshadow that you made!
"warriorcatsrock"- yeah, Fogeye is like that, Mudfoot just hates all enemy cats, and actually Leaftail had a crush on Blackwillow first, remember the first few chapters? but yes, they love each other now.
scarpath2001- yeah, Mudfoot hates all cats that aren't in his clan, and yes, you can give a cat if you want, whether or not it will be Blueshadow's apprentice, I'll decide after you give me the cat.
Moonblaze- Okay, whatever, and thank you.
And now for the chapter!
Chapter 35
Blueshadow lunged for Mudfoot, she grabbed him by the scruff and churned her paws through the water, struggling upward to the surface. Blueshadow gasped in a breath of air as she emerged from the water, Mudfoot was limp and heavy in her jaws. Part of her wanted to just let go of him, but she knew she couldn't kill a cat in her senses.
She stared around the wind blown river, the water splashed against her and the steep sides of the gorge loomed around her, to steep to climb. She looked at the rocks that pocked out of the river, but all of the rocks were wet and slippery and stood up abruptly. My best chance is to wait until we come out of the gorge.
Blueshadow panted, it was almost impossible to swim in the swirling water while holding onto a huge unconscious cat, and not get bumped into one of the rocks. She was rammed into one and then got swept into another, one after another until she felt like she was covered in bruises.
She stiffened as the current grew stronger and rammed her hard into a particularly sharp rock, she let out a cry of pain as she was squished into it by Mudfoot's limp body. Her shoulder twisted painfully and she tasted the salty tang of blood.
After a while of tumbling, twisting, and going under water multiple times she was starting to feel dizzy. The current finally loosened it's whirling grasp on her, she heaved a sigh of exhausted relief and churned her paws through the water and kicked out for the shoreline closest to her. She wasn't even sure which clan it belonged to, or if it was even in clan territory at all.
She felt her paws scrape against stone and she pulled herself up, panting, she dropped Mudfoot and flopped down to get her breath back. She pricked her ears and lifted her weary head to see a small white cat with silver speckles on her haunches, Irispaw.
She strained her muscles to sit up, but couldn't find the strength, so she rasp an inaudible greeting in her throat. Irispaw skittered backward and then turned around and raced away yowling, probably for her mentor.
Blueshadow closed her eyes tight and pulled her self up, her muscles screamed in protest, and pain, but she ignored it. She forced herself to stand up, but immediately sat back down, the shoulder she had wrenched against the rock wouldn't hold any weight. And her sprained paw, on the same leg as her wrenched shoulder, felt like it was burning and being twisted all over when she tried to stand on it.
Blueshadow's eyes dropped, it was past sun-high now, and she was worn-out and wanted to curl up in a warm nest and sleep for the rest of the day. She pricked her ears slightly at the sound of fast approaching paw-steps, but could hardly keep her head up as they appeared.
Irispaw was leading her mentor, Stormfeather, toward them, Blueshadow glanced at Mudfoot. The dark brown tom was faintly breathing and was unconscious. Though Blueshadow thought he had a look of relief on his face, as if he knew he had survived.
"Wa apend?" Stormfeather mewed, but Blueshadow could hardly understand her, it was to foggy and disoriented to understand. Shaking her weary head, she unclogged some of the water that had been in her ears, though the movement almost made her fall over.
"What?" Blueshadow's mew rasped painfully in her throat and sounded rough and hoarse even to herself. "I said, what happened?" Stormfeather mewed impatiently, "there was a scuffle next to the gorge," she answered curtly, gaining some strength with her defensiveness.
"Who started the scuffle?" Irispaw mewed, Stormfeather glared at her apprentice, but Blueshadow answered anyway, "Mudfoot started it by threatening to blind a new apprentice." Stormfeather looked at her in shook for a long time before mewing, "I do not believe that, I think that's just an excuse," which caused Blueshadow hissed in exasperation.
"Look," Blueshadow started in a dangerous voice, "I am cold, wet, tired, my shoulder and paw are injured, I just saved your clan-mate, and you think that it's my fault!" Her voice turned to a yowl and she started to shake in exhaustion.
"I'm still not convinced," Stormfeather mewed coldly, her amber eyes cold, but they held a burning fear. She's afraid that I'm right, Blueshadow realized, well I am right, so she better get used to it, Stormfeather continued to glare at her, and Blueshadow met it coldly, not letting anything into her eyes other then iciness.
Stormfeather finally broke her gaze away, "we'll let Troutstar decide," the smoky she-cat announced. Blueshadow snarled, but she didn't really have any choice, if I wasn't injured and tired, I'd give them a fight they would feel for many moons.
Stormfeather grabbed Mudfoot and started dragging the tom back toward the RiverClan camp, and Irispaw took up a position behind her and nudged her, trying to get her to her paws. "I will move when I want to," Blueshadow growled at the apprentice, Irispaw looked confused for a moment. Stormfeather is out of sight already, and there is no way Irispaw can make me move if I don't want to.
"Please, just move!" Irispaw begged, Blueshadow glared at her, but sighed, if she goes and gets more warriors, I'll just be in more trouble, and there's no way I can get across the river by myself. She thought with a wistful glance at the territory across the river. She strained her muscles to stand up, and tried to balance on three, exhausted, and numb legs.
She winced as she tried to walk forward and stumbled, how am I going to do this? looking around her gaze rested on Irispaw who was looking at her with a mixture of emotions that she couldn't read. She willed Irispaw to realize what she needed, and thankfully, Irispaw seemed to figure it out fairly quickly.
With a small sigh, the little cat placed herself on Blueshadow's side, and allowed her to lean on the small shoulder as she limped forward. They padded slowly along a trail lined with reeds and an occasional shrub or tree. After what seemed like moons, they reached the crest of a hill, below them was an island in the middle of a small, shallow pool surrounded by marshland.
She flinched at the idea of getting her paws wet again, she was already frozen from her swim earlier that day, and didn't really think it was worth it to get wet and be even more cold. But Irispaw didn't look like she cared about getting wet in the chilly breeze, and helped her down the sloping hill and into the water, but Blueshadow hesitated at the edge.
Finally she limped forward indifferently, ignoring the cold water that sloshed against her and sank into her thick fur. She shook herself gently at the edge of the camp, trying not to hurt her leg, but her fur was still dripping as she limped into camp with Irispaw.
The clearing was full of cats, murmuring anxiously and shooting glancing toward a den that had the scent of herbs wafting from it, the medicine-cat den, Mudfoot is probably there. Some of the cats had spotted her, and a steady rumbling growl rose from the clan as Irispaw led her to the center of the clearing.
Fawnleap met them there and dismissed Irispaw with a flick of her tail, "Blueshadow, what did you do to Mudfoot?" Fawnleap's voice was carefully neutral, though her eyes betrayed her hostility. "I didn't do anything but save the cat's life!" she spat angrily.
Fawnleap responded carefully, "and how did you save his life?" BLueshadow sighed, I won't get anywhere if I tell the truth and say that Mudfoot was going to blind an apprentice. "Well," she began, choosing her words carefully, "I was on the dawn patrol, and we met Mudfoot at the border along the gorge, one of our new apprentices was clumsy and stood half over the border. So Mudfoot attacked him and I defended the apprentice, and we ended up falling over the edge into the gorge," she mewed.
"Well how did you save his life?" Fawnleap questioned again, "when we fell into the gorge Mudfoot was knocked unconscious and I saved him by grabbing him and pulling him onto shore," she mewed irritably.
"And since when does a ThunderClan cat know how to swim?" mewed Troutstar, who had just appeared with Greyear. Greyear's eyes flashed in panic, and she bet he was thinking back to when he had taught her how to swim. "Just because most ThunderClan cats don't know how, and don't like swimming, doesn't mean every cat doesn't like to swim," she mewed coldly.
"Well how did you learn to swim?" Troutstar mewed, "I had a habit of always getting wet and falling into streams and the river when I was younger, so I figured out how to swim on my own," she mewed.
Troutstar nodded, excepting her word, "fine, you may return to your clan," he mewed commandingly. "Troutstar, wait," a new voice spoke up, Blueshadow turned to see a dark golden she-cat with white paws and underbelly and amber eyes, Petalwish, the medicine-cat.
"Yes Petalwish?" Troutstar mewed, "this cat is injured, there's no way she can make it across the river and back to her clan alone," Petalwish mewed with a sympathetic glance at her. But Blueshadow bristled in offence, is she saying I'm weak?!
But looking back at the kind amber eyes, full of concern, she guessed that Petalwish was just worried about her, like all good medicine-cats would be. Troutstar seemed to consider the words, then looked back at her again. His gaze resting on her wrenched shoulder that lay at an awkward angle and her sprained paw that was swollen and twisted.
"Blueshadow, Greyear and Rippleleaf will escort you out of our territory, but when you are in your own territory again, you're on your own," Troutstar mewed finally. Then flicked his tail, telling his cats to go to their duties. Petalwish stayed where she was outside the medicine-cat den and looked at Troutstar as if she wanted to argue.
But when Troutstar looked at her, she dropped her head and turned back into her den. Then reappeared a few moments later with a few herbs in her jaws and padded lightly over to her. "Traveling herbs, they will keep your strength up, and some comfrey for you paw," Petalwish murmured as she wrapped her paw with the herb then secured it in place with cobwebs.
Blueshadow hid her annoyance, it's just going to be washed away when we cross the river, but she knew the cat was trying and she held her tongue. She then obediently licked up the herbs and felt them take effect by stopping her legs from wobbling and allowing her to stand up. "Thank you," she mewed dipping her head, Petalwish nodded, then padded back to her den.
"Come on, let's go," Greyear mewed gruffly as he padded up to her with Rippleleaf, the dark dappled grey she-cat observed her with dark amber eyes, just like her sister Stormfeather. She thought irritably, but said nothing and just nodded curtly to Greyear.
Rippleleaf supported her gently on her injured side, while Greyear hardly allowed her to be supported by him on the other as if he wanted nothing to do with helping her. Rolling her eyes she struggled to keep up as Greyear quickened his pace and Rippleleaf matched it, pushing her and hurting her shoulder even more.
She gasped in pain as she stumbled over a sharp rock that cut her pad, but made no complaint as the RiverClan cats pushed her quickly over the brown trail with her exhausted legs. She stared coldly ahead as they neared the river, feeling her heart silently breaking all over again being with Greyear and seeing how cold and superior he looked as he stared, unblinking, ahead.
She gasped in shock at the icy chill of the water as she waded into the river, "you would have to be mouse-brained to go swimming in this for fun," she muttered quietly. Greyear seemed not to hear her, but Rippleleaf did, and growled and shoved her forward roughly.
Blueshadow stumbled forward, slipping on a loose stone and then letting out a cry of pain as she used her injured leg to keep herself above the lapping waves. Glaring at Rippleleaf, Blueshadow limped forward and started swimming, choppily, but steadily, to the ThunderClan shore.
She limped onto the bank, and looked back at the two RiverClan cats who stood in the water on the opposite side of the river. She turned and limped into a fern bush, then sat down once she was out of the site of the RiverClan cats.
She licked at her sprained paw, trying to soothe the burning heat and pain that came from it, and winced as she strained her wrenched shoulder. She whimpered a little in pain, she knew she would never do that in camp, but out here, no cat would hear her.
She sighed and rolled carefully on her back, the overcast sky was a thick mass of light grey clouds, it might snow later. She thought as she waited for her strength to return, I would like it to snow, it might help my paw to stick it in some snow.
She rolled over onto her side and looked through the fern bush to the river, I don't think I would mind if I never went swimming again. But she knew it wasn't true, I'll be happy for it in the hot Green-leaf, but not until then!
She shook herself and lurched to her paws, trying not to flinch as pain lanced up from her paw. She turned toward camp and started limping slowly along an old bunny track that would eventually lead back to a more worn trail used often for hunting.
She was panting by the time she reached the track, and her shoulder and paw hurt so much she was practically hopping on three tired legs. She plodded along until her head was spinning and things sounded disoriented and colors flashed around the edges of her visions.
She flopped down on a patch of moss and waited until her dizziness went away, but it didn't fade away like she wanted it to. And she eventually fell asleep.
...
Blueshadow yawned as she opened her eyes, it was dark, to dark, I can't see anything! she realized with a jolt of fear, it was just like her eyes were closed. Then she realized that she was also very cold, and that there was a faint light. Sitting up, the snow that had been covering her fell off and she was able to see where she was again.
She was close to the little stream that ran by the training hollow, good, I won't have to go far, she thought, the sky was black with hardly any light at all, it's probably covered with clouds, she guessed. The snow came down heavily so that she could only see a few paw-steps ahead of her in the night.
It's kind of early for a blizzard, but I guess that's good, the creatures will have to come out for food because they haven't finished gathering food for the season. She stood up, her paw felt better in the snow, and her shoulder didn't ache so much anymore.
She limped quickly around the training hollow but paused at the top of the ravine, how am I going to get down that? Then something flickered in her mind from memory, the first time I went out of camp I was much to small to jump up the rocks. And I found a hole that ran through the rock, I may still be able to get in there, let's see, the entrance was covered with moss, over… there!
Blueshadow limped over to a patch of moss on the side of the rock, it was about the height of her paws to her shoulder, I can probably get through it, she thought confidently. But she shivered a little with doubt, along with the cold snow and breeze blowing through her warm fur
She pushed her way through the moss and into the small tunnel, wriggling carefully so that she didn't hurt herself any more then she already was. She half crawled, half slid, down the tunnel and came out at the bottom of the largest boulder.
Looking down, she thought she could jump and land on just three legs, making the careful leap, she landed on her one good front paw and it crumpled with a sharp twinge and she fell into the soft snow. Sitting up, she shook the paw she had landed on and set it down on the ground to test it. And felt a wave of relief that it only hurt a little.
Limping forward she felt a flicker of annoyance that no cat was on guard duty, but it faded as she padded into camp and saw many cats sitting in the clearing with their heads bowed in grief. Did some cat die? she thought with alarm as she recognized the grieving position for a lost clan-mate. But there was no motionless body in the center.
Then she noticed her kits together whimpering and their eyes full of grief as they stared at the black sky, uneasiness filled her and she quietly limped over to them, ignoring the pain in her leg. It could wait until she had found out what had happened.
"What's wrong?" she hissed quietly to them, they made no answer to her which made her fear grow even more. "Mosspaw! What happened?" she hissed sharply to the most calm looking of her kits, Mosspaw looked straight at her, though her eyes were distant and unfocused.
"My mother died this morning," the tortoiseshell answered, her voice no more then a whisper, exasperation filled Blueshadow, did my clan-mates just assume I had died and didn't even bother to look for me? Rolling her eyes, Blueshadow leaned into her kits and whispered, "Blueshadow isn't dead."
Her kits spun around and stared at her with relief and immense happiness tingling in their gaze, "Blueshadow! You're alive!" they yowled as they bounced around her. The other cats were alerted by the commotion and realized that she was alive and bounded over to her.
The mewing of relief and excitement buzzed in her ears and she swayed on her paws every time she was bumped. Eventually Darkflower told every cat to leave her alone and led her to the medicine-cat den.
"Okay Blueshadow, what hurts?" Darkflower asked commandingly, "my shoulder and paw really hurt," Blueshadow answered in a tired voice. Darkflower shuffled around to her right, then came back and felt along her shoulder. Blueshadow flinched as Darkflower pressed on her shoulder and pain shot through her.
"Sorry, its to dark to see anything," Darkflower murmured, as she continued to feel along her leg, Blueshadow refrained a hiss as Darkflower bumped her paw. "I can't do this!" Darkflower hissed angrily, "I'm hurting you more then helping you! We are just going to have to wait untill morning," Darkflower mewed.
Blueshadow mewed in agreement and stood up on three legs, "wait, I haven't taken your nest out yet, so you can sleep there until morning and I have a better look at you injuries. Until then I'll get you some poppy seeds to help you sleep," Darkflower mewed.
Blueshadow limped to the nest she had used when recovering from her belly wound, it was under an overhanging fern bush which gave her some coverage. But snow still fell on her fur as she carefully curled into it.
Darkflower's paw-steps were muffled from the snow as she gave her three poppy seeds and nosed her shoulder again. Blueshadow yawned, her eyes drooping from tiredness and the poppy seeds, the pain in her shoulder easing as the poppy seeds numbed it.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have me drag the nest into the den? You'd be much warmer," Darkflower mewed worriedly. "No, I'm fine," Blueshadow mewed tiredly, curling her tail around her front paws.
"This reminds me of when you and your littermates were born," Darkflower mewed quietly, Blueshadow's ears pricked in interest in spite of her exhaustion. "Why?" she asked through a yawn, "you were born during the first Leaf-Bare blizzard, it was the strangest night I've ever seen," Darkflower's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Why was it strange?" Blueshadow mewed curiously, no cat ever talked about when I was born, could this be why? Darkflower hesitated for a moment before answering, "it was strange because there was thunder in Leaf-Bare. Some cats said it was a bad omen from StarClan, others thought it was a good omen, saying you and your littermates would be strong and skillful because we are ThunderClan."
Blueshadow thought for a moment, "it was both," she mewed finally, "what do you mean both?" Darkflower mewed sharply. Blueshadow hesitated, she hadn't really meant to say that out loud, but now she needed to think. I said both as in me and Pricklenose, but I don't really know why, I know Pricklenose is bad, but I'm not that good either! I have ignored the warrior code and gone behind my clan's back many times.
"I don't know exactly, but I know that it was both," Blueshadow responded finally, keeping her voice to a faint whisper. Darkflower didn't respond as she got to her paws and padded to her own nest, but Blueshadow could tell she was upset and confused.
I wonder what I said that she didn't like? Was it about my comment on how the thunder was both a good and bad omen? Wait! What if she knows about the prophecy and what it means! Excitement tingled through Blueshadow. She didn't think about the prophecy during the day, but almost every night when she slept she heard the prophecy in her dreams.
Closing her eyes, she felt happy for the first time all day, and her aches and pains faded away into the soft moss. She watched the snow fall on her for a while, she loved the snow, it was so soft and clean, and now it helped her by keeping the hot swelling of her leg down.
I am happy, tomorrow I will find out what Darkflower knows about the prophecy!
So how was that? Sorry if you think there was a lack of detail like I did, anyway, I hope I'll be able to update quickly next time, but I'm not sure, I have to help paint the basement(ugg!)
And if you take the two-three minutes to read this chapter, could you take the time to write a review? it's really not to much to ask, I got over 70 views on this chapter, and only 7 reviews. Let's try to do a little better then that!