Yay! Updating is fun:D Okay… Yeah. I don't own anything that Erin does… because it's theirs… and not mine, obviously xD

OoOoO

"What's so important, Pantherpaw?" Sharpclaw inquired nervously. "What happened in the past?"

"As I said when we first met, my mother and I lived by the Long Water, and she met my father there. But I had other family, you could call it. My father had an uncle, who had a kit. That kit's mate was named Gargoyle."

"What's a gargoyle?" Echosong asked.

"I don't know, but I guess he did. And he liked my mother… and me."

"Wouldn't he be too old for you?" Sharpclaw questioned.

"And didn't he already have a mate?"

"Yes and no, Echosong. He did have a mate, but she mysteriously disappeared one day. And Sharpclaw, no, he wasn't. My mother was very young when I was born—only about fifteen moons. He was that age, too, and when I was born, he was very watchful. He was frightening, and he had bad intentions. Mother and I…" I choked on my words and trailed off.

"Did he do something to you two?" Sharpclaw snarled, unsheathing his claws. "How bad was he? Did he kill cats for no reason?"

"Yes, he did. Soon…. He became fear for me. If I thought of fear, I saw his face, I heard his voice. He is the reason… the reason I can't be with my mother anymore."

"Why?" Sharpclaw inquired. "What happened?"

I shivered. It wasn't a story I wanted to tell. "Should I leave out the specific details?"

My mentor and the medicine cat shared a glance, and the ginger deputy shook his head. He gazed kindly at me and meowed, "No, you don't have to tell us now. You can tell us when the time is right for you. We won't prod, or tell any cat about this."

"But—" I protested. They had to know about the dream!

"No buts. You have to relax. That fall was pretty damaging."

"Sharpclaw…" I mewed as he began to pad out. "Sharpclaw, I have to tell you because he's coming!" My mentor stopped and whirled around.

"What do you mean?"

"We have to prepare for him."

"How do you know this?" Echosong interrogated gently.

"In a dream," I explained. "He returned with the sea of flames."

The deputy's ears pricked. "What's that?"

"Not that again," I muttered, a painful scene flashing before my eyes. "No, not again. Mom! Mother…. Not again. Not again!"

"Pantherpaw, calm down!" the dark ginger tom cried.

"Yo, I heard that— what happened here?" The mostly black tom had appeared again, but his icy eyes weren't joking this time.

"Nothing to worry about, Freezefang," Sharpclaw mewed swiftly. "Don't you have something to do?"

"Starlingpaw is covered with thorns, somehow, and Hidingpaw was freaking out," Freezefang explained bluntly. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Pull out as many thorns as you can, but bring her here," Echosong ordered. "Pantherpaw, are you alright?"

Freezefang shrugged his shoulders and padded away, most likely to get Starlingpaw and Hidingpaw.

I twitched, wishing Gargoyle's cruel laugh would disappear from my mind. I blinked, staring at Sharpclaw for a moment, but I soon recognized him as Sharpclaw and not Gargoyle.

"What is it, Pantherpaw?" he asked. "I think you should sleep."

"No!" I protested quickly. "No, I can't go back to sleep. He'll come to me again! Just stay here, please, Sharpclaw. Stay with me."

He glanced at Echosong, who nodded, and laid down next to me. "Don't worry, I won't leave. Gargoyle can't get past me."

"Thank you," I breathed. "But I forgot—you're deputy. You can't stay. Please, forget what I just said."

"Are you sure? I can always let Patchfoot take over for a little while, or something," he offered.

"No, you have your responsibilities. All I have are some bad dreams."

"If you insist."

"Sharpclaw! Aren't you deputies supposed to keep the fresh-kill pile from getting low?!" an elderly voice snapped viciously. "I'm taking some cats with me to hunt. And any rogue that we meet will be taken care of properly."

"Fangtail, don't kill anybody. If it's Tangle, bring him here. Take Shadowstalker, Mouseclaw, Blackpaw, and Spottedpaw. That should be enough. Oh, and Fangtail," Sharpclaw added, "don't do anything stupid. You're pretty old; I don't want a good warrior getting hurt unnecessarily."

"Yeah, okay." The cat yowled for the others chosen for the patrol, and they trotted out together, or that's what I guessed.

"I'm sorry about this. I'm just a weight for SkyClan, holding it back," I apologized.

"What in StarClan's name are you talking about?" Sharpclaw retorted loudly. "You don't hold SkyClan back! Who was it that found Tangle's group soon enough to keep SkyClan from being attacked? Who was an example of how a Clan takes care of all of its cats?"

"I was an example of how you take care of cats?" I murmured.

"It was nothing bad, you know," my mentor stammered. "Y-you know, just because you w-were hurt, an-and we helped you."

"Is that so?" I questioned mischievously. "Well, I can also be an example of how strong a Clan cat can be."

I breathed deeply, and used all of my energy to force myself to a sitting position. It was fairly easy, surprisingly, seeing as it was only a little while ago when I couldn't, but it was a very different thing to sit up than to stand and walk around.

"Hey, Echosong, didn't you say it would take a long time for me to be able to walk around? How come it's so soon since I had trouble sitting up, but I'm fine now?" I teased.

"I don't know. Maybe because you feel better," the pretty silver tabby suggested.

"Echosong, I've got the two. Frozenclaw was the one who had taken the thorns out, though," Freezefang's voice called. It was slowly becoming a familiar sound for me.

"Thank you. Bring them in, then get Frozenclaw. I want to speak to him."

Three cats padded in—Freezefang, a colorfully flecked black she-cat, and a large, mostly dark brown tabby tom. I guessed the she-cat was Starlingpaw—mainly because she was limping—and the tomcat was Hidingpaw. Why was his name Hidingpaw, though? I forgot the question as I noticed another two cats coming in. A silvery white tom and a white she-cat with silver flecks.

"Ah, Frozenclaw, there you are," Echosong meowed. "I wanted to speak to you."

"What is it?" he inquired quietly. "I put cobwebs where the thorns were, and I had marigold there. Is that okay?"

"That's great! I might have…." I ignored the two as they spoke. Instead, I inspected the newcomers.

"Hi," the white she-cat mewed brightly. "I'm glad that you seem better. My brothers would never be able to take care of themselves, let alone another cat, so I'm very happy that we joined. If something happened to me, I'm afraid to even wonder." She chuckled. "What about you? What about your family?"

I narrowed my eyes and looked away.

"Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know," she apologized sincerely. "So… why did you join?"

That was a question I could answer.

"I was on the territory, and Sharpclaw here found me. The first thing he did to me was threaten me, but then he pushed me out of a tree. Anyways… you know, I'm not sure why I joined." We stared at each other for a moment, then laughed.

"The reason I joined was to keep my brothers from doing anything else to themselves. Did you know that one time Freeze, well Freezefang now…." I listened as she told her story, and I watched the sun appear in the milky sky.

Morning already? I thought. What a long night for me!

"Thank you, Frozenclaw. Alright, everybody out except Starlingpaw, Pantherpaw, and (possibly) Sharpclaw," Echosong announced.

"Bye," the white she-cat meowed.

"What's your name?" I called after her. She didn't hear me, though, and continued.

"Sparklelight," Starlingpaw explained.

"Thanks," I meowed. "I'm Pantherpaw."

"I'm Starlingpaw, nice to meet you."

Echosong trotted towards me. "Pantherpaw, you need to sleep."

"But—"

"No buts. If you rest enough, I might just let you walk more. I'm sure Gargoyle won't come. Just have these poppy seeds."

"Don't you think it's bad that I have so many poppy seeds all the time?" I joked. "I might become addicted."

"I doubt it. No more excuses, Pantherpaw; lick them up." Did her whiskers twitch as I swallowed the seeds? Maybe.

"'Night," I moaned. "Wow, those things work fast."

Again, I opened my eyes, relieved that I was once again in the area I had met Cloudstar in. He was standing there, a long-haired light brown tabby she-cat behind him. He waved his tail at me as I walked towards him. I sniffed him, making sure it really was Cloudstar.

"Don't worry, Pantherpaw," he purred. "I'm not Gargoyle."

"How do you know about Gargoyle?" I hissed, leaping away with my ears flat against my head.

"Don't be so jumpy; you might hurt yourself," he teased. Then he answered, "A friend told me."

"Friend?" I echoed.

"How long has it been? Three, four moons?"

I gasped, and blinked to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. "Mother!" I cried joyfully, running to her.

We purred, and she licked me. We nuzzled until she pulled herself away. She turned her head, and closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she forced out.

"What?" I asked, confused as to why she was acting so strangely.

"I-I-I… I can't say. No…no! Stop it; I have to tell her! Why can't you leave us?!" she coughed.

"Now, now, Ebony. You wouldn't want to scare your daughter, would you?"

"No!" I screeched, sprinting past my mother, trying to escape.

"You can't leave, silly kit."

My paws scrabbled on the ground, but I wasn't going anywhere. I whimpered as a large, hulking cat stalked towards me. I skidded to what you might call a halt and tried to back up. I could do that, but I bumped into another cat…s. A huge mass of cats blocked my way.

"Come here, my little Panther," he sweetly suggested. "Why don't you say hello to your uncle Gargoyle? I got all dressed up in that foolish leader's pelt just to see you."

"Get away," I hissed. My fear was too great to hide now.

"Why would I want to leave you, Panther?" Gargoyle caressed my shoulder with his tail. It sent chills up my spine.

"You fox-hearted piece of—" I snarled, but he shoved his face in mine.

"Sh, we don't want you to sound like one of those growling savages that traveled around the Long Water, do you?" His black eyes flashed gleefully. He was enjoying this!

"Back off!" I spat, slashing at him with unsheathed claws. "Get away, you pervert!"

He nimbly hopped away, and licked his paw. "That hurts, Panther. It really hurts that you would even try to do that to me. I suppose you don't understand that I can damage you, but you can do nothing to me."

Gargoyle flicked his paw, and his long claws slid out. "Want me to demonstrate?"

"I don't care if you hurt me," I replied arrogantly.

"Physically, you mean?" he sneered. "Oh, that's not what I mean."

His movements were slow as he made sure I understood where he was going. "Mother, run!"

"She can't, Panther. I have summoned her from StarClan. She cannot leave until I allow her to."

"Mother!" I yowled. "Mother!"

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Sorry about the bad chapter, but... I don't really know. Really, sorry. Yeah, this update wasn't as soon as I had hoped, nor was it as good. It didn't really go as I planned either, but I guess filler-type chapters don't always. Okay, just wondering—what do you think Gargoyle looks like? I want to know! I already knows what he looks like, so... if you get it right, you get a plushie of whomever you want! Yay! W00T!

Right, I forgot- sorry about her ultra fast healing. It's sort of weird, but... yeah. Sorry if it seems strange.

Okay, I'm done with this for now (finally!). I will try hard to make the next chapter better (and is updated faster). Yay! Thank you to the reviewers!