Chapter Eight

I stared with disbelief into her fierce green eyes, wondering at first how she could have known that I had once been human – but then it came to me that Flamestorm had probably told her.

Iciclestar grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pulled me up safely. I panted for a moment before gasping,

"You were human?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Flamestorm convinced me, through dreams, that I could have a better life as a cat – but all I had to do was defeat a certain cat."

"Me," I mewed.

"Yes," replied Iciclestar. "I don't think she'll be pleased that I failed her."

"She has another plan," I told her. "I don't know what it is, but it'll probably be awfully tough. Will you help me defeat Flamestorm?"

Iciclestar hesitated. "I could try," she replied finally.

"How did Flamestorm send you the dreams?"

"She had to use a medicine cat," answered Iciclestar. "A medicine cat who had recently become in contact with StarClan."

"Flowertail." I knew the answer immediately.

Iciclestar looked surprised, and nodded. "Yes, her. She was a rogue, and didn't trust the Clans immediately."

My ears pricked as I heard the sound of the foxes running away. "You'd best go," I mewed quietly. "My Clan is coming."

The silver-pelted she-cat nodded and bolted away, toward RiverClan territory. I rushed back to my Clan and Dragonheart padded up to me.

"Are you all right?" she asked. "I saw you tumbling away, I thought you'd fallen over the cliff…"

I shook my head. "I'm fine, Dragonheart." I realized that Dragonheart had a right to know what was going on with Flamestorm. After all, Flamestorm and Dragonheart were sisters, and my deputy had killed the ambitious warrior so many seasons ago. I'll tell her when we get back, I decided.

"Leafstorm." I called over to the medicine cat. "Is anyone injured?"

The brown tabby shook her head. "We were all lucky," she murmured.

"Good," I mewed, and yowled to my Clan. "ThunderClan, let's go home."

The other cats exhaustedly rose to their paws and headed back into ThunderClan territory. I stopped when Creampaw padded up to me. I had almost forgotten that that had been his first Gathering.

"Did you see me take on those foxes, Glacierstar?" he asked me, his fur still bristling and his amber eyes glittering. "I sent one running!"

"Good," I mewed, a little distracted as we headed home.

"I think he's almost ready to become a warrior," added Glitterpaw. "Actually, we both are!"

I chuckled. "You only became apprentices about two moons ago," I pointed out. "You'll probably be apprentices for a bit longer."

The two apprentices looked a bit downcast as we came through the tunnel leading into our camp. As soon as we arrived, Ebonypaw, his eyes very wide and his fur bristling out, came rushing up to me.

"It's Mistypaw!" he cried frantically. "She's getting worse."

"Leafstorm!" I yowled, and the she-cat hurried to me. "Come on!"

The three of us bolted into the medicine cat's den, where a frightened, weak, gasping Mistypaw was fighting for her life.

"It's infected," mewed Leafstorm, bending over the wound on Mistypaw's side. "With a cut that large, I don't know what we'll be able to do…"

"Mistypaw!" cried Ebonypaw, knocking Leafstorm aside. "Come on, Mistypaw, fight it!"

"Ebonypaw…" she whispered, her voice barely audible, "don't forget to be the best warrior you can be. Brother…"

The dark gray tom moaned as he realized what she meant. "Mistypaw, no!"

It was too late. Mistypaw's eyes closed, and she was dead. Ebonypaw let out a wail of utter sadness and laid himself down next to Mistypaw's body. My heart was aching with sympathy for him. Ebonypaw had lost his entire family now. The sympathy turned to anger toward Nightcloud – if he hadn't been going to see Snowfrost, none of this would have happened…

"She hunts with StarClan now," whispered our medicine cat. She looked at me. "We have to tell the Clan," mewed Leafstorm. I nodded silently and padded outside, where ThunderClan was waiting anxiously.

I stopped next to Spiderpelt, and told them all, "She's dead."

Hollytail murmured sad words and nudged her friend Squirreltail. Even Graytail seemed sympathetic. Skyfoot, Mistypaw's mentor, just stared emptily into space.

I turned my head and looked directly into Nightcloud's eyes. He looked positively terrified already, and turned around and bolted away. I began to walk after him, thinking, this time, he is not getting away.

"I'll be back," I told them. "I'll sit vigil with Mistypaw in a moment."

I rushed into the outside forest, picking up Nightcloud's scent. Yes, he had gone to WindClan. Typical. I raced after him, leaping over a fallen log. He was going awfully fast, because I was running at top speed. I paused when I reached the river, which was still slightly swollen, and sniffed the air cautiously for the foxes. They weren't there, so I continued toward WindClan territory.

I winced as the small rocks clawed at the pads on my feet. I wasn't so sure I liked this territory, but I still wanted to stop Nightcloud from seeing Snowfrost once and for all. I could just see his dark fur from inside a patch of tall grass, and crept slowly toward it. As I expected, Snowfrost was already padding to Nightcloud, her tail swishing happily, but her face darkened when she saw Nightcloud's expression.

"What's happened?" she asked.

"Remember the apprentice who was attacked a while ago?" mewed Nightcloud bitterly, and Snowfrost's eyes narrowed. "She's dead."

Snowfrost gasped and rubbed herself against Nightcloud's fur. "I know how it feels to lose an apprentice," she murmured.

"Well, she wasn't my apprentice," mewed Nightcloud, and the white she-cat jerked back in shock.

"What? But I thought that you had a descendant of Ravenfur!"

Nightcloud looked stunned. "Yes. I had his son, Ebonypaw. Skyfrost had the daughter, Mistypaw."

"So one of them's still alive?" demanded Snowfrost furiously. I blinked in confusion.

My son looked the same way. "Well…yes. Ebonypaw, my apprentice. I guess I should have stopped bragging about having a descendant of Ravenfur as an apprentice and tell you the name of –"

"I don't care!" snapped Snowfrost, and turned her head up and yowled a war cry-like scream that alerted several cats around her. They closed in a circle around Nightcloud. Snowfrost put her face in his and whispered, "You know those five cats who attacked that stupid apprentice?" A gleam appeared in her eyes. "One of them was me."

I almost let out a yowl of pure rage, but I was still utterly confused. Why would Snowfrost want to harm one of Ravenfur's kits on purpose and set it up so carefully that Nightcloud wouldn't guess it was she who did it?

Nightcloud's mouth worked noiselessly, he was so shocked. I didn't blame him. I'd never thought either that Snowfrost was capable of being so evil.

"You tricked me!" he finally cried. "You wanted to attack Mistypaw on purpose!" He glared at her. "But why were you so shocked when you learned that Ravenfur had two descendants?"

Snowfrost sat down calmly. "I can't tell you that." She nodded to the cats around her. "Attack!" she commanded.

They leaped out of the grass. I was stunned to see that Stonyfoot was among them. I had always thought that he was a good warrior, but I guess all cats can change. Nightcloud was soon buried under the WindClan cats. I circled around the clearing until I was right behind him, and pounced, locked my jaws around a warrior named Bearheart's neck, and threw him to the side. I dragged Nightcloud out and hissed at him to follow me back to camp.

"What the…Glacierstar?" he mewed in surprise as we ran to ThunderClan territory.

"The same," I grunted, paws pounding on the ground. I glanced behind me and saw that all of the cats were still chasing us. "Hurry on back to camp," I told Nightcloud. "Give the warning that they have enemies. I have to do something first."

"I – okay," muttered Nightcloud and ran faster. I veered to one side and two of the cats followed me – the others continued chasing Nightcloud.

I threw the first one to the side and gave him a nasty bite to the neck. The other one leapt at me, but I kicked him backward. Yes! I was free to chase Snowfrost. I jumped to my feet and hurried into the forest, fast as a rabbit. I could see her white fur just ahead of me, and shot forward, faster than I've ever gone before. My teeth nipped her tail and she yowled out, glaring at me and then tripping. I leapt on her tumbling body and managed to pin her down safely. She leered at me with angry green eyes.

"Let me go, Glacierstar!" snarled Snowfrost.

"I don't think so," I snapped, pressing harder. "Now, what is your goal?" I already had part of an idea.

Snowfrost glared at me. "I'll suppose you already know," she growled. "It's about Flamestorm, okay?"

"Ah," I mewed. "So she's been sending you dreams, too."

"She told us we could be the most powerful Clan in the forest," snapped Snowfrost, still trying to get free, but I was the bigger cat. "Crowstar didn't want any part of it at first, but then I told him about Nightcloud and I, and I thought there might have been a chance."

I was so shocked I almost let her go. "You really were in love with him," I whispered, "but you chose power over your love."

"Crowstar agreed after that," replied Snowfrost, ignoring me. "Nightcloud told me that he had an apprentice who was a descendant of Ravenfur, and I thought that that she-cat, Mistypaw, was the only descendant, so…I had her eliminated."

"Why do you want Ravenfur's kits destroyed?" I demanded.

Snowfrost narrowed her eyes menacingly and didn't answer. At that moment, the WindClan invaders who had come into ThunderClan territory were being chased away, with several of my cats right behind them. I jumped aside and let Snowfrost go; the cats were going to claw me anyway if I didn't.

Barkstorm stopped in front of me, panting and bleeding slightly. "What happened?" he asked.

"What were you doing with that warrior?" inquired Fangmouth, looking very excited about his first battle as a warrior.

"I…I was fighting her," I lied. "I need to get to camp." I started to run, but then realized how exhausted I was from all the running I had already done. I allowed my warriors to take me back to camp, realizing that there was no need to rush.

As soon as I entered the familiar camp, I got Dragonheart from the warriors' den and made her come to my leader's den.

"What's this about?" she asked curiously.

I took a deep breath and mewed, "Flamestorm's back."

Dragonheart's tail bristled out and her fangs were bared. "Back? How? I killed her!"

"I know you did. But…" I told her about the dreams she had given everyone, and about Iciclestar and Nightcloud. When I was finished, she did look pretty stumped.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she asked finally.

"Because it was my problem," I replied. "Flamestorm wanted revenge on me because I didn't die when she killed me."

"So what about the Snowfrost thing? Why did she want a descendant of Ravenfur?"

I shook my head, confused. "I have no idea." An idea suddenly occurred to me. "There's another cat I can talk to," I realized, and padded hurriedly out of the den, almost forgetting about Dragonheart.

I was looking for Dovekit. As soon as I headed toward the nursery, the little white she-cat was coming out, her green eyes already focused on me. I rushed up to her. "Dovekit!" I whispered. "Do you –"

"She wants him dead because the descendants of the five cats who were apprentices during Firestar's time as an apprentice are the ones who will defeat Flamestorm if Glacierstar falls," mewed Dovekit, and padded away, as though nothing had happened.

That chapter was kind of sad…poor Mistypaw…