Scourge now began to twist in his grasp, but there was little he could do that wouldn't hurt himself in the process. Dracma struggled to drag the squirming tom over to the gorge edge, but managed to cover a great distance.

"Someone stop him!" I screamed, still struggling to stand. Tigerstar was frozen next to me, probably just as tired as I was. He was my support, and if he left I'd be fallen, defenseless. Solitaire was somewhat away from the two dark toms, but she herself had found it hard to stand back up. Only now did it occur to me that everyone was beyond exhausted. Even Scourge was beginning to slow down.

Solitaire struggled to her paws, and dashed forward. She wasn't as fast as she normally was, and Dracma had seen this. He anticipated her as she leaped, her claws hidden to avoid spilling Scourge's blood by accident. The dark grey tom ducked, nearly rolling as she sailed past. In that moment he turned, and back kicked her away. A screech of surprised as she tumbled down a slope.

Her claws gripped the hard stone and earth as she skidded to a harsh stop, stones rolling underneath her and over to the gorge edge. She was just a few tail-lengths away. Dracma sneered at her. Then with a powerful swing, threw my mate at her. Scourge flailed, and to avoid hitting Solitaire square on, turned so his shoulder and back faced her. There was little either of them could do as they collided, and plummeted off the side.

"NO!" I screamed. I limped forward, to the edge. I had to see where they had gone. If they were gone. Tigerstar leaned up against me, supporting over half my weight. We had only taken a few paw steps when the dark leader leaped forward between us and the distance of the gorge.

"If you're so eager to join them, let me help." He hissed, bearing his blood soaked fangs. I flinched back, Tigerstar held firm. The dark tabby was undaunted. In fact, he arched his back and hissed back. Spitting, yowling but not moving from his ground.

"Felidaestar! It's okay we are alright!" I hear Solitaire's meow echo over the gorge's side. I perked my ears, and Dracma turned his head ever so slightly. His good eye still on us, but his ears facing them.

"We've landed on a ledge." I heard Scourge speak. He paused for a moment and then added "We can climb out." Dracma sniffed, uninterested and turned to me.

"If they climb back up I'll just throw them in once again." He stated, his tail thrashing from side to side. I lowered my head and hissed. I curled back my lips in a snarl and growled lowly "I'll stop you."

Dracma laughed his sadistic tune. He lifted up a paw, motioning to me.

"How so? With a broken leg?" He taunted, then added with a scornful sneer "Ah, my dear you have a little something right there…" He rubbed his paw up against his jawline as if he was washing it. I instinctively lifted my paw and brought it to my own jaws, feeling the hot sticky mess of my blood.

Solitaire's white paw flickered over the edge of the gorge- or perhaps it was Scourge. Either way, someone was coming back up. Dracma turned away from us, and in no rush began to pad over to the edge. His claws clipped the stone as he drew near, letting my companions know he was approaching.

"Stop him." I whispered to Tigerstar fearfully. The dark tabby stiffened, listening to the order. Dracma must have heard, because he lifted his tail cheerfully, back to us as he continued to walk as if he didn't have a care in the world. He taunted Tigerstar, knowing that if the former Dark Forest leader became enraged enough, it would all end. Tigerstar sniffed, and rolled his shoulders. He began to step away from me, but not in the direction of Dracma. I nearly collapsed without his support, but for a moment I was able to stand. The wind whipped up again, blowing my fur in all directions and watering my eyes. I could only watch, silent, in shock as Tigerstar padded away. Away from me, away from the gorge, and away from Dracma. He walked with his shoulders rolling, each paw step confident in his moments.

"Tigerstar!" I called, surprised. My voice seemed to echo. Dracma had even paused in his tentative movements to watch. A wicked grin spread across his face, arrogance gleaming off of him like morning rays from a sun.

"Tigerstar!" I screamed this time. He paused in moment, for a step. His tail flickering from side to side. His ears lay flat. Blocking out my calls.

"You can't just leave!" I cried out, nearly falling on my wounded side. The dark tabby huffed and answered back "This is not my battle. You're not my leader." And that's all he had to say. I was stunned, down to the core. But… should I really be?... I knew… deep inside I've always known he was not one to trust… always.

Dracma chuckled and turned back to the two climbing out of the gorge. Scourge had made it out, and was teetering on the edge, grabbing Solitaire's scruff to pull her up.

"It's a shame… Felidae…" Dracma spoke softly, mimicking a gentle tone. His muscles rippled under his pelt with word. Flickering his ears he added "You came into this world with no one on your side… and that is how you will leave it-" Thunderous paw steps interrupted Dracma as he turned around, yowling in surprise and hatred as Tigerstar landed squarely on his shoulders. The two toms where equal in size, giving Tigerstar an advantage.

"But you are my enemy." Tigerstar hissed and clamped his jaws down on the back of his scruff. He pushed down with his back paws, pulling Dracma up and forward. Dracma waved his claws in the air, disoriented by the surprise turn in events. Tigerstar held firm, pinning him to the spot. His paws wrapped around Dracma's chest and held on, crushing the air out from in him. He did not claw, he did not bite down. Instead he held Dracma in place. His amber eyes flashed to me. His tail flickering, rolling in spot. Circular. A signal.

"I...I can't." I almost whispered the words out. Tigerstar nearly toppled over as Dracma kicked, he screeched and he batted at the tabby's efforts to contain him. Tigerstar said nothing, just growled in response and kept his amber glowing eyes on me. They were taunting in their own way. Calling me weak. But for all the right reasons.

I grunted, stabilizing myself. My broken leg squirted out a stream of crimson as I attempted to put any weight on it. It is the worst pain I have ever felt. I cannot begin to fathom the words to describe it. But for my sake, it was becoming numb. Pain ebbing away. I was dying, I would lose another life. But there was no power in Starclan that could fix a wound like this. I would come back, be just as beaten and battered before. By then, the tides would have changed…. And we would have lost… I started with a gallop. A poorly done run. Disoriented, nearly tripping over my feet, I gained speed. The bone in my leg splintered, creaked and jabbed in muscles it shouldn't. I cried out in pain, running, turning into my silver blur.

Dracma, upon realizing the move before him, went up in a fury. He screeched, and thrashed all about. A wild struggle that no one was prepared for. Tigerstar nipped at his neck to try and control him, but the tabby's jaw smacked against Dracma's shoulder. Tigerstar yowled in pain, nearly sliding off the dark tom. His yowl almost covering up the 'pop' sound. Dracma's front left arm suddenly went limp, and the Forbidden Forest leader screamed in rage, his shoulder dislocated.

I leaped, starting the spin. A blur of silver as preformed my final move, my final "Battoga". But even my ability wasn't hindered by my injury. Dracma turned, his eye wide with surprise as I spun towards him. He bunched his muscles to leap away, a dive. But just as I closed the distance, I fell apart. I flailed my paws before me as my surprise disrupt broke both or focus. We collided, hard. My shoulder ramming into his chest. I flailed, turning over still spinning awkwardly. The whole world was a spinning blur, shades of black, brown, grey swirled and mixed together. Dracma was thrown, dragged against the stones and then, in the calamity of it all-

We both toppled over the gorge wall.

I screamed as we plummeted into darkness. The sandy colored wall whipped past me, some stones and ledges almost far enough to catch me, but always a whisker away from my flailing paws, my twisting body. Below me in my ever going spinning I could see a dark oozing cloud. Pulsating smog, hiding the distance behind it. I sailed right through it, and once entered my mouth and nose was clogged with that horrible disgusting stench of crow-food. Dracma yowled somewhere off in the darkness, I managed to catch the light streak of his red eye briefly before he was thrown away from my view, the smog shielding him. I twisted my body to have all legs facing down, my tail up to use as balance. Even in this free fall I knew it would have to end. As I moved myself, I watched as my blood droplets flew past my face, falling slower. Somewhere, in the echoing darkness I heard Dracma screeching a caterwaul. His voice booming like thunder, scraping the walls, reflecting off the cloud. To my fear, his yowl was cut off with a thud. And before I could see him I met the same fate.

I crashed hard onto the ground. As most cats do, I landed on my paws, right up with my legs absorbing the impact. It didn't help as I collapsed into a heap as soon as it happened. My leg crumpled under me as I lay. I could no longer stand. Leg broken, energy shattered, body battered. Too much blood gone. I lay in a mess of fur and blood at the bottom of the gorge. And in the sky.

The sky. Yes. I had my eyes closed for a moment, they had been closed just before I hit, but in the instance I opened them, I found myself standing on nothing. Well, something was there. Something like glass. Transparent, as I floated above in the sky. Stars were all around below me. For a moment they were twinkling, bright and burning in the darkness, then they faded into the forest and lake below. So far below I could have been looking at the maps on the beginning of the book. Only in color, and very much real. An incredible sight I thought I never see. The lake below gleamed, reflecting the Blood moon. It illuminated the world in red, crimson, scarlet, ruby. All shades, all colors.

"Don't move."

I turned my head ever so slightly to face Dracma's voice. I expected him to leap upon me with fangs of fury. But in my shock, across from me he lay in a similar position. His eye was facing downward to the forest below. He was heaving, wheezing. His dislocated shoulder made his left leg awkwardly hang to the side. He almost looked like he could have been sleeping, if I had not known better.

"Don't. Move." He repeated, and I detected worry and fear in his voice. I continued to look at him. Only after I allowed my eyes to wonder I noticed from where he lay, where cracks of white had formed over the 'glass'. I suspected from his impact. I stole a glance to look down, now noticing the transparent floor was beginning to crack under me. The cracks illuminated a brilliant light. One of white, gold and warm that washed over me. It felt wonderful… yet at the same time unwelcoming.

"Move, and we fall." He warned, fearfully. He carefully rotated his body to sit upright, and in doing so the cracks spread. Creaking, chipping. Like icy fingers of death spreading across, reaching for the both of us. I glanced upward, seeing the cloud of smog block my view from the world above us. No one could help us, no one could see us.

"Where are we?" I asked quietly. It came out slurred, as I lay my head on my paws. My blood was sliding all over the transparent floor, and dipping into the cracks. The blood was starting to hide the view below from me. Everything was beginning to go dark. Dracma scowled, pulling himself together in a tight ball. As he looked to me, he seemed to relax in the slightest. My death must have brought some comfort to the dark tom.

"We're on the edge of the sky. The last border between the living and the dead, the heavens and the earth. And if you move, if this breaks. Then we will fall." He explained. I looked through him with one of my eyes. The other closed and pressed against my wet matted fur. A yellow border was forming around the outline of him. My own perception, it wasn't really there. Everything was becoming blurred, changed. Color was fading and becoming brighter at the same time. I was on the verge of blacking out.

Dracma sneered a bit at me and scornfully added "At least I get to watch you die." I couldn't even manage a hiss. I just glared at him. My fading eyesight took one long look at the area around us. There was little I could do to change the situation- …

… But I could.

I could.

Save the clans. End Dracma. Stop the war, save lives at the cost of two.

I smiled, a soft small smile. But enough to catch the attention of the "Emperor of the Dead". His scornful smile faded at the site of my own. His eye seemed to be gleaming with curiosity, annoyance and rage all at the same moment. Oh, oh Dracma. If only I could explain. I didn't have the time to. I only had enough breath for one last word. A farewell. A farewell in the form of one word, such a very old word. And yet, in my time of being I have still yet to discover its meaning. Where it came from, who told me. My eyes gleamed with the last spark I held. I opened my mouth, coughing out a squirt of blood. Then with my wheezing whisper I spoke softly.

"Timesofrine."

The heavy mass of fur and muscles, even if it's an illusion, came onto me. The black as night fur covered me, everything stretched out. In my crumpled heap of a mess I doubled, then tripled in size. The added weight, even if I didn't move was just what I needed.

"What in the name of Mor-" Dracma started with a startled yowl, but a loud rumble. A scraping sound echoed throughout the cavern. The light burst, filling the dark cavern with a cold fire. A hallow warmth. Dracma's screech was drowned out with the roar of the transparent ground shattering, erupting with stars bursting through. The very fragile line between heaven and earth had been broken.

And, we started to fall.

...

Reviews very much appreciated :D

Timesofrine - a ability we haven't seen since the second story "Darkest Angels" was Felidaestar's overly mary-sue chosen power. Who wouldn't want the ability to turn into a sparkle-wolf? Ahem. Well it's faded from the stories due to it's... cheesiness but in the light of die hard fans actually requesting this power be used again (and explained) I thought I slip it in. Just briefly. Fair enough?

Now what it means is actually a reference wolves in Norse mythology. As I try to bring in other culture related supernatural. Since America has no good mythology :p Eclipse is an example of Egyptian in looks. Timesofrine is a put together use of words in another language to represent wolves and shadows. It's more so to bring in the imagination, to show that there are no limits, or weirdness to writing.

Let's see.. 1...2...3...4-ish chapters left?