Ice Unbroken

THUNDERCLAN

Leader- Nightstar – sleek white tom

Deputy- Windfang- large sandy tom

Medicine Cat- Speckledwing – speckled tabby tom

Warriors- Brownwhisker – brown tabby tom, yellow eyes

Moonfeather – large, fluffy dark gray tom, apprentice, Robinpaw

Blackstripe – smoky black tom

Apprentices- Sunpaw – dark ginger tom

Robinpaw – black and white tom, missing a paw

Fatepaw – small calico she-cat

SHADOWCLAN

Deputy- Iceblaze– pure white tom

Warriors – Sandfrost – sandy brown tom

Greenwhisker – ginger tom, bright green eyes

Apprentices- Dustpaw – dusty gray tom

WINDCLAN

Leader- Heatherstar – gray tabby tom

Deputy- Marshfall – very dark gray tom

Medicine cat- Fernclaw – tabby tom

Warriors- Mouseface – brown tabby tom

Marshfall – very dark gray tom

Clovertail – gray tom

Apprentices- Dawnpaw – pale ginger tom

Graypaw – smoky black tom

RIVERCLAN

Leader- Fallenstar – ginger tom

Deputy- Brackenflood – dark brown and gray tabby tom

Warriors- Streamclaw – silver gray tom

Sagewind – pale tabby tom

Apprentices- Hailpaw- small silver tom

Mudpaw – pale brown tom

Flamepaw – brilliant ginger tom

CHAPTER ONE

It had always been so difficult to make friends.

Fatepaw spent most of her day in camp watching the warriors go in and out, watching the way they guarded the border of it like someone might intrude. Like someone might escape. It hadn't always been like that, the guarding, at least when she was a kit. But it was different back then, that was back when there were other she-cats around and it wasn't just Fatepaw by herself all day.

As she sat in front of her den, she watched two warriors enter, Blackstripe, and his apprentice, Sunpaw. They both looked right at her, but as soon as her gaze matched theirs, their heads turned away and they hastened from sight.

Fatepaw wanted to think she was used to it by now, but every time she saw her Clanmates do this to her, it was like a thorn in her pad. Then she was left alone, the way she always was, to pick a vole from her personal fresh-kill pile and disappear with it into her den.

She was discouraged from leaving the den.

"You're not to go out of the den," Windfang, the deputy, had said the first day she attempted a stroll across camp, chasing a sunbeam.

They had built her her own den, around the time the last she-cat died, which was when Fatepaw had been only two moons old. She remembered it, the way they left the body out in the center of camp for three days, like life might return to it if they did that. The she-cat was also her mother. Her calico pelt, identical to Fatepaw's, turned dull and colorless by that third day. Then they took her body away somewhere.

After that there was just Fatepaw. Nightstar, the newly-elected leader after the previous leader, a she-cat, had died, decided it was best that Fatepaw remain in one spot.

She had only left the camp twice in her life.

There were a lot of toms around. Everyone was a tom. Maybe that was why they didn't want to be friends with her. Fatepaw didn't know, but what she did know was that she wished somebody would talk to her because it got so lonely stuck by herself, in her own den, with her own food, day in and day out. She hadn't even been assigned a mentor. Windfang had told her that warrior training wasn't in her future.

Everyone said it was because she was smaller, but she knew it was because they didn't want anything to happen to her because she was the only she-cat left.

There was one apprentice who was different. He kept to the sides of camp, more out of sight, probably because he was missing half of one of his front legs. His name was Robinpaw. However, Fatepaw had been watching him. She liked his hopping gait, the confident way he embraced his handicap. It made him different. There was a look in his eyes like he knew something the rest of the forest didn't.

Whenever he went by her den, Robinpaw's golden eyes looked right at Fatepaw's. Sometimes he said something, like "hello", but other times it was just that look with his big gold eyes, held for a heartbeat too long. Whenever his eyes looked at hers like that, Fatepaw felt like she could feel it all the way through her body.

But she also liked when he said hello, because nobody else wanted to.

It was growing dark one evening when he returned to camp with an adder in his mouth. He gave Fatepaw one of his looks. "I found that in a cave," he said.

"Where?"

"It's pretty far from here. There're a bunch of them."

"You should take me," Fatepaw said.

Robinpaw looked around like she'd asked something illegal. Two warriors watched them from under the Highledge. "Are you allowed to leave?"

"No," she said, "but I want to go."

"Maybe," said Robinpaw. Those two warriors were still watching them.

Later that night, Fatepaw was nudged awake by a paw. Robinpaw stood in her den, propped on his three working legs. She was surprised. She had thought his "Maybe" meant "No." Her heart beat a little quicker when she saw his face.

"Follow me," he said.

There was no way for them to cross camp in the open moonlight and exit through the thorn tunnel. There were always cats awake and walking around the perimeter. The main reason Fatepaw never tried to go anywhere was because of the way the toms patrolled the place now. It got worse every year. Even in camp, cats didn't talk very much. They kept to the edges of camp, shadowed from immediate view. It was difficult to make friends when you knew someone was watching you.

Robinpaw was tricky. Instead of exiting her den, he flattened to his belly and scrabbled under the bush that cradled it. She followed him through a long, winding tunnel of briars. Then they had to jump up three levels of rock to a flatter area overlooking camp.

"Wow," Fatepaw said. "How did you know this was here?"

"I like to go on adventures," he said. "But there's no way to do that the way things are now, with Nightstar and Windfang keeping an eye on everybody. That's how I found my own way. Plus, I think they watch me less carefully because of my leg." He stuck his half-leg out and wiggled it. "But I can do anything that any other cat can do."

"How did you get that?" Fatepaw asked. She thought maybe it was a battle scar. Toms loved to talk about their battle scars.

"I was born with it," Robinpaw said. "Come on. Let's look at the caves."

He charged into the dark forest. Fatepaw was faster than him, because she had four working legs. But she got winded quickly. Never being allowed to go anywhere really kept her out of shape. But she kept up with Robinpaw until they reached a fault of jagged boulders strewn across a long slope.

"In here," Robinpaw said. They picked their way down the boulders. He was amazingly agile and quick on his feet, hopping from boulder to boulder as if he didn't have a limp at all.

"You're really graceful," Fatepaw told him.

"Thanks. How do you stay in camp all day without going crazy?"

"Why do you think I asked you to take me out?"

"They shouldn't do that to you. I always see you sitting there, and I wish I could help you."

They both slipped into a cave that opened behind the slitted entrance between two boulders. It was dark, but there was enough light coming from the cracks between the rocks around them for Fatepaw to see Robinpaw's golden eyes.

"Do you wish there were other she-cats to talk to?" she asked him.

"Sometimes. I was really close with my sister, but then she died from the disease." He looked away like he didn't want Fatepaw seeing his face. "Anyway, do you like this spot?"

"Yeah. Where did you find the adder?"

He nodded to a darker area. "Over there."

"When did your sister die?"

"When everyone else was dying." He was quiet for a moment, like he was deciding what to say next. His eyes were enormous in the darkness. "It must be really hard knowing you're the only she-cat."

"I don't really think about that," Fatepaw said. "I just want to get out of the camp sometimes and make a few friends."

"Well, we're friends now." Robinpaw softened his silver ears. "We should go back before someone realizes you're missing."

Fatepaw noticed how he said "You're" missing, and not "We're". They both knew she was the important one. They wiggled from the cave and darted up the rocks in the moonlight. There was a certain spot on Robinpaw's fur that she couldn't stop looking at. It was like she wanted to look at him all the time.

When they reached the crest, there was a "oomph" noise, and Robinpaw collided with another cat. Fatepaw was able to stop herself just in time. It was a large, long-haired tom, with lumpy fur and a scar on his muzzle that showed his fang all the time. One ear was ripped in a clean, papery V. It was Moonfeather, Robinpaw's mentor.

He glowered down at both of the apprentices, but mostly Robinpaw. "What do you think you're doing? Stupid mousebrain. I could smell you halfway through the forest."

"You could smell me?" Robinpaw flattened his ears back.

"Yes. And her." Moonfeather looked directly at Fatepaw. He was the best remaining hunter in the Clan, but he was always grouchy. He was the sort of warrior that didn't have any friends, but in a way like he didn't want them. He had lost his mate when the disease passed through. They had been hunting partners together for many sweeps. "You need to be much more careful. Don't you ever sneak out in the middle of the night like that again. You have no idea how dangerous it is out here right now." She couldn't tell if he was talking to her or Robinpaw. "Get back to camp. Now."

"We never left ThunderClan territory or anything," Robinpaw objected.

"It doesn't matter. You need to treat all territory like enemy territory. Got it?"

As they scrambled back into Fatepaw's den, Robinpaw winced, giving her a long look. "Sorry," he whispered.

The next day, Robinpaw returned after training with another adder, which he gave to Fatepaw this time. "That's for you," he said. "I thought about you."

"You did?" Her heart started beating like that again.

"Yeah," he said. "I think about you sometimes."

"I wish I could have gone with you."

"Well, maybe I could start giving you some hunting lessons."

The thorn tunnel shook and all of a sudden the scent of RiverClan overwhelmed the camp. The RiverClan leader, Fallenstar, strode into camp with two heavy warriors in tow. Two ThunderClan warriors flanked behind them.

A pall fell over the camp, like the sun had dropped behind a heavy ribbon of clouds. Warriors remaining in the clearing ducked out of sight. The three RiverClan toms looked across camp and laid their eyes on Fatepaw.

"Come on," Robinpaw whispered in Fatepaw's ear. "You should get out of sight." He helped her into her den, and together they crouched low in the moss.

From what Fatepaw understood, ThunderClan and RiverClan were in a rivalry, although she didn't know about what. No blood had been shed yet, but the tension could be felt throughout the forest. She couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with her.

Robinpaw told her it was better if she stayed inn her den the rest of the night, even after the RiverClan cats left. But the following day, he came back to find her and lead her from her den once more. This time, the sun was just setting, so the forest was a crisscross of the long shadows cast by the trees. Fatepaw darted after him, hopping over decaying logs, mossy rocks, soft, spongy grass. The air was cold and fresh. The ground bruised her pawpads in the best way. She'd never felt so happy.

He showed her how to catch the scent of a squirrel passing through, demonstrating how to drop into a crouch. It was different for him, he explained, with only three legs. He really had to make a pounce count. Fatepaw caught sight of the squirrel, rattling through some dead leaves, but it scattered as soon as she lunged.

"Just keep trying!" Robinpaw encouraged her. "I'll come out here with you every day until you're able to catch something."

He stopped and pointed with his tail to a lighter area between two trees. "Down there's the lake," he said. "I would show you, but I think it's too exposed. I feel like it's better if we stay concealed."

"What's going on?" Fatepaw asked. "What was that visit from RiverClan all about?"

Robinpaw looked right at her, his silver fur gold in the setting sunlight. "You."

"Me?"

"You're the only she-cat in the forest."

"But maybe not forever," Fatepaw said. "I heard Windfang say ThunderClan, RiverClan, and WindClan are sending out scouts every single day to look for any she-cats beyond the territories." She had also seen a scout return yesterday, after a full moon of travel, and solemnly tell Windfang he had come up empty.

"You're the only one who can save the Clans," Robinpaw said. "Without you, we'll all be wiped out within a generation."

"You really think that's my fate? You really think that's my burden to bear?" For some reason, it really upset her. She'd known her whole life that's what her Clanmates and every other cat remaining in the forest thought of her. She was the one remaining hope. It all hinged on her. She knew when they looked at her, they didn't see her, but a cat that was a she-cat, responsible for saving the Clans from extinction. Robinpaw was the first cat to really make her think maybe that didn't matter, maybe she was just Fatepaw, and that was enough.

"No," he said. "But the future is going to be very hard for you. You have to stay true to yourself and what you really want."

She climbed over a mossy log to get closer to him. "But what if I don't know what I want?"

"You knew you wanted to get out of your den, didn't you?"

"Well, when I was a kit, my mother used to tell me stories about all the greatest warriors in the past. I always wanted to be like the cats in the stories she told. And even her – she had fought battles and hunted and survived hunger and drought and I wanted to be just like her."

Robinpaw stared at her for a long time. "Do you miss her?"

"Of course I do. Do you miss your sister?"

"I miss everyone." He hopped onto the mossy log and limped up its length. "I always think about what it was like before the disease and I had friends that were she-cats, and my sister, and my mother. Everything feels so dark and empty now. I wish I hadn't had to see everyone die like that."

Fatepaw remembered it too, the way the disease swept across the forest, claiming a Clan at a time. She remembered the way the she-cats affected would grow more and more fatigued, and then the green-tinted bile they'd be hacking up, the yellowed tint to their eyes, the purpling of their mouths as their spit dried up. Within six moons, every she-cat – elder, warrior, or kit— was gone.

Except for Fatepaw.

"What about you?" she asked. "What do you want?"

He looked down at his handicapped leg. "I want to be just like everyone else. I don't like how the first thing any cat thinks when they look at me is that I'm crippled, because I'm not. I just have to work a little harder."

"I think it just makes you unique," Fatepaw said.

"Unique?"

"Yeah. It makes you special."

Robinpaw looked like he was about to burst open.

They were out until it got dark, but not as late as last time to be sure they didn't run into Moonfeather again. Then they snuck back into camp and this time, instead of leaving for the apprentice's den, Robinpaw lay down beside Fatepaw. At some point in the night, when the moon was at its highest, she felt a paw land softly on top of hers.

In the morning she almost thought he would be there. But he'd left early for training, so the day slid past and Fatepaw was alone. She was noticing how Nightstar and Windfang would do this thing where they looked right at her every time they went in and out of the leader's den. She noticed it all day long. She noticed it from the other cats, too, the way she felt the prickling of Sunpaw's eyes on her neck, but he looked away when she turned around. Even the medicine cat, Speckledwing, did this to her.

She was used to being stared at. As the only remaining she-at, she was now an other. But there was more to it than that. They weren't just staring at her because she was different. They were staring at her because she was a she-cat.

She thought Robinpaw would join her after training the way he had the last several days. But he never showed up. She even saw his mentor, Moonfeather, wandering across camp with an enormous bird clasped in his teeth, but no Robinpaw. Had they not returned together? Where could they be?

She wanted to ask Moonfeather if she knew where Robinpaw was, but he was twice her size and looked like he'd spit that bird at her if she tried. Instead, she hunkered near the entrance of her den so she could doze and watch for Robinpaw. But all night came, and the morning too, and another full day after that, and he never returned.