Chapter 27

"HIGHSTAAAAAAAAR!" Ghostface's jaws were wide open, his breath and the power of his voice scraped against his throat but images from his dream continued to flash in front of his eyes. He screamed again and then opened his eyes.

"Ghostface!" The sweet voice of Fawnshadow said from above his head.

The tom opened his eyes and took a few gulping breaths. The wind in his dream seemed to have sucked the breath from him.

"What happened? Are you alright?" She asked, giving him a few quick swipes over his ear with her warm tongue.

"Yeah." He sat up and saw that the whole of HopeClan was staring at him. He turned to her, his eyes squinted trying to remember what he had seen and heard. All that surfaced to his mind though was the sucking wind and the image of Highstar running across the meadow. He lifted his head and sniffed the air, as if trying to catch traces of the StarClan cat, but all the wind brought was cold into his lungs.

"Come on." She stood up and the HopeClan cats rose wearily. Ghostface's heart thudded in his chest dully as he looked at them. The wear and pain of travel was obvious on them. It had been half of a moon since they had first started and the elements had done them no favor. The wind blew strong from the north, bringing bitter cold upon the clan of already sick cats.

Ghostface walked beside a group of elders. Progress was slow and painful. They crossed several thunderpaths, but there were hardly ever any monsters and they had only come across a few two-leg nests.

Ghostface numbed his mind as he walked. He didn't want to think of what could happen to this clan, or what has happened. He just wanted to live one paw step at a time. Suddenly a yowl came from the back of the group. The sharp cry snapped Ghostface out of his trance and he whipped around and loped to the back of the struggling group of cats. Shadedpelt and Coldpelt were already there, along with Turtlefur, the MarshClan deputy and a couple of MarshClan warriors. All of them stood in a circle around a gray tabby shape."What happened?" Ghostface said, his pelt beginning to bristle.

Coldpelt looked up. The older warrior stepped aside to allow him a better view of the fallen cat. "It's Yewfang, a MarshClan elder. He just… fell."

"Is he…" Ghostface began, but stopped when Shadedpelt's nod confirmed the news.

"Bury him. He's with StarClan now." Ghostface gave a melancholy nod yowled to pause the tired march.

He stood by while the MarshClan cats and several other cats that had come to know the elder buried the elder in the snow, too wary to scrape the rock-hard earth away. Turtlefur said a few words over the body to StarClan, and the march continued.

"Ghostface, which way now?"

Ghostface looked up. Fawnshadow stood beside him, waiting for his answer. He looked around and his eyes widened. He was in the clearing, the exact same clearing of his dream. He squinted his eyes and looked off into the distance. To the north he saw the blurry shape of some jagged tops. To the east he saw a thick, never ending forest that extended around the shapes to the north.

Shadedpelt padded up beside him. "North, right? It's where you came from and it looks faster."

Ghostface looked at the black tom, and then back north. "Err…" Something about going north made him uneasy. "Um, I don't think so. I think it would be… safer if we went east."

"What? Why? That would take forever! Ghostface, these cats won't make it that long!" Shadedpelt said, looking slightly surprised and annoyed.

"I… I know, but—"

"Perhaps we should vote among the deputies and you." Coldpelt said, padding in. His ears were pricked, but his opinion was impossible to get from his emotionless face.

Ghostface was starting to get panicked. He knew they were tired, but every part of him told him to go east, and he didn't know why. He sighed when he realized that the only way to appease the tired and irritable cats was by a vote. Coldpelt padded off to fetch the deputies. When he returned, they sat in a circle.

"We have a choice now, to either go west over those mountains, or east through the forest. I know it seems like one is more obvious, but… something is telling me to go east." Ghostface took a deep breath, "Something about a dream I had from StarClan…"

"You had a dream from StarClan?" Foxtail said, looking up with interest, "Did they tell you we must go east?"

Ghostface hesitated, and then said, "Well, no, but--"

"Did they say it was faster and easier if we went east?" Turtlefur asked.

"I don't really remember what they told me, I just have a feeling, but I know StarClan was trying to tell me something. We can't ignore that." Ghostface said, looking around at the cats. They looked back at him, their eyes narrowed while they thought.

"A 'feeling' won't get us anywhere, Ghostface." Shadedpelt said, his ears flattened against his head. "We can't make it for much longer!"

"Ghostface," Coldpelt spoke. Ghostface looked up at the senior warrior, "I think Shadedpelt is right. It's not really a choice. We can't go east. We won't make it. Today, an elder died. Many more are to follow him. We have to go straight north."

Ghostface looked away. "Well, let's just vote, then. All for north raise your tails."

Every tail shot up, Coldpelt gave Ghostface a sympathetic glance as he looked around at the deputies. Ghostface sighed, "Fine, let's head north."