Chapter Eight

Tide slowly floated up to the surface of wherever she was. But the weird thing was that she couldn't breathe. Her gills weren't working. No, not gills. Fur. Wait, where are the others? Tide wondered.

She saw other cats that looked suspiciously like the bodies she saw while going through the waterfall. "Is this a dream?" A voice behind her mumbled. Behind her was a brown cat with amber eyes. "Because whoever you are, you look beautiful."

"Quail?!" Tide exclaimed, taking a step back.

Quail blushed. "Oh, I didn't mean to say that…" An explosion of water appeared behind them, and out came two more cats. One was a white she-cat with heterochromia eyes. The other was a ginger tabby she-cat with turquoise eyes. This must be Danger and Glacier, Tide thought.

"Is this the afterlife?!" Danger cried, getting out of the lake. A brown cat with blue eyes stared at them.

"This must be hell." He murmured. "I deserve it." his tail was dropped, and his head was looking at his paws.

"Well, I don't think anyone else here deserves the afterlife!" Glacier snapped, looking around. Tide suddenly became aware of her surroundings, and realized they weren't alone.

A pretty white she cat stared at them, bristling. "Who are you? Rouges!?" Danger blinked at the cat.

"What's a rouges?" Quail .

"We're not rouges," Glacier hissed. "You're the rouge, accusing us of being rouges."
A black tom next to the white cat laughed. "Do you even know who we are?" He snarled, unsheathing his claws.

"No, and I don't care!" Glacier yowled.

"Glacier…" Tide mewed, trying to calm Glacier down.

"You're coming back with us." A golden brown tom padded up to them.

"Oh no you aren't," Glacier warned. With lightning speed, Glacier jumped over the tom, growling.

The golden brown tom hissed at her. Glacier's attack seemed to give the entire group energy, and they charged forward, fighting. Danger joined Glacier, yowling, and leaping at some nearby cats.

"WindClan! Attack!" The golden brown tom yowled. From behind him, more cats rushed out, snarling.

"Creeknut!" A black and white tom padded out. "We've talked about this."

The cats stopped fighting, and so did Glacier, which made the others stop as well.

"Swiftstar…they attacked first!" Creeknut yowled.

"Silence, Creeknut." Swiftstar ordered. "I told you not to bother ThunderClan, and now you're having the entire clan attack rouges?" Swiftstar turned his gaze to Tide and the other 'rouges', gaze softening. "So, who are you? I don't think you're normal rouges, judging by…"

Glacier held her chin up. "We're not rouges," Glacier snarled, raking the ground with her claws. Swiftstar looked at the ragtag group straight in the eye. "We're dragons."

"Dragons! What a joke!" Creeknut let out a laugh.

"Silence!" Swiftstar looked at them, padding around them with his eyes widened. "You WILL come to our camp, no matter what."

"Um…why the sudden change of personality?" Beech asked. "I guess I deserve it…"

Quail shut Beech up with his tail. "Shut up," Quail snarled.

Creeknut sent them a smug smile, and Glacier let out a growl. "Don't," Tide warned Glacier. "It'll only lead to trouble."

"Fine," Glacier growled, pawing the dirt, glaring at the strange cats. The group of dragons were herded to a strange sort of camp.

Swiftstar looked extremely disturbed. "Swiftstar…" Creeknut went up to Swiftstar.

"Let me rest!" Swiftstar snapped. Swiftstar padded to what Tide suspected was a special den, since nobody else went near there.

Creeknut scowled at them, and shoved them into a small, cramped hole. Surprisingly, Glacier seemed to look calm. When Creeknut padded away from them, Glacier let out a whisper.

"Listen," Glacier whispered to them. "This leader, Swifstar, is acting suspicious. I'm going to go to his den and check it out."

"Glacier, that's too dangerous!" Tide warned, at the same time Danger let out a growl.

"I'm going with you," Danger mewed.

"So am I," Quail added, sending a sympathetic look at Tide.

"Fine, I'm coming to keep an eye on you all," Tide sighed.

"I'm not coming," Beech whispered, curling into a ball as all eyes were turned to him.

"Alright, let's do this." Glacier meowed confidently. The four slinked past the guards outside the cave, who were sleeping.

They padded up to Swiftstar's den, quiet as a mouse, listening to Swiftstar talking.

"He warned me they would come…" Swiftstar said, in some sort of familiar voice. It sounded somewhat familiar, but Tide couldn't place where she had heard it. It was a very crisp accent, like the ones Icewings have, yet deep, like NightWing.

A sweet feminine voice replied, "Father, you and your brother haven't seen each other in years. Are you sure these are 'the ones'?"

"Yes, Rushcry. You're one-fourth of a dragon, haven't you been visited by my brother yet?"

Rushcry bit her lip. "No, Father." She sighed. "I don't think uncle even knows who I am."

"Rushcry, I want to admit something. Although I haven't seen my brother in physical form recently, he's been appearing in my dreams, in what seems to be StarClan. But I'm sure he's alive." Swiftstar scowled. "Are you sure no one from StarClan appeared in your dream recently?"

"No Father. It's disturbing." Rushcry said, seeming to get the bravery to say something else. "When did Abbyswing start appearing in StarClan?"

Tide gasped as Rushcry said the name Abysswing. "Who's there?' Swiftstar demanded. Tide started to move a paw, but stopped when she saw a cat rushing up towards Swiftstar's den.

"Go, go, go!" Danger whispered urgently. The four hurriedly rushed out of the den, in quiet desperation they wouldn't get caught. They slinked back into the prisoner's den, after Quail reminded them they couldn't leave Beech there. The two guards jerked themselves awake, glaring at them.

"If we find out you did something, you'll be in very big trouble." A blue she-cat with black forepaws growled. Danger matched the she-cat's gaze, staring intensely at her.

"We're being perfect angels." Glacier snapped back.

"What did you four find out?" Beech whispered once the guard's attention was away. Quail's tail quivered, as his breathing became shaky.

"It was… more stressful than it should have been." He paused to flatten his fur.

"Cats here are related to dragons," Danger butted in. Beech blinked as he processed the new information.

"WHAT!?" Beech exclaimed.

"Quiet!" The blue she-cat hissed. "Cats are trying to sleep! Don't speak unless spoken to, or you'll have a nasty souvenir to take back to your so-called 'dragon world'." She flicked her claw ominously.

"And that souvenir will be your dead body," The other guard added.

"Not if I kill you first," Glacier hissed.

"You can try." The blue cat mews.

Suddenly they heard a cat coming towards them. "Were you five snooping outside my den?" Swiftstar growled. The blue cat sent them a smug smile.

"I knew you were up to no good," The blue cat smirked.

"Four of us, actually." Quail chuckled nervously, tracing a line in the dirt. He flicked his ears towards Beech. "He stayed behind."

"So? What can you do to us?" Glacier asked Swifstar. "I bet I could out-run you."

"I have an entire Clan which could attack you. What about your other friends? Leaving them behind while you run away like a coward?" Swiftstar asked. Glacier and Danger bristled. Though Glacier was right about out-running every cat here.

"Wait one second, friends." Danger mewed, bumping into someone. "Testing, testing. Ohwaitnevermindthatdidnotwork."

Swiftstar turned to leave. "Wait!" Tide yowled. He turned around, his eyes glittering with annoyance. "I have a proposition." Tide took a deep breath. "If one of us can out-run you, you release us." One of the cats titled their heads .

"And we'll be able to interview you," Quail piped up. "We heard some strange things."

"I'm the fastest cat here," Swifstar mused. "And I haven't had a good race in a while. But, if you lose, the penalty is death." Beech quivered nervously at Swiftstar's words.

"What if you lose," Beech mewed. "I think it's better staying here than dying." he glanced around, in hopes of support.

"Glacier was enchanted, remember?" Tide whispered. "And Danger has firescales, in case Glacier messes up."

"No, my firescales don't work anymore," Danger mewed, voice faltering for the first time. "I-I don't know why they don't work."

"Then what if Glacier loses her powers too?" Beech asked, almost in a relieved tone.

"Then we can also escape Death," Beech mewed. "And Glacier wouldn't humiliate herself if she doesn't have powers."

"Oh, shut up." Glacier meowed. Swiftstar sat there, waiting.
"Glacier, I don't think you should do-" Tide mewed.

"I'm up for the challenge." Glacier meowed confidently.

Tide got a sinking feeling Glacier would lose. "Glacier." Tide meowed. Glacier whipped her head around, lashing her tail. "Be careful." Tide meowing urgently, as Glacier turned back to follow Swiftstar.