A/N: I'm back! I bet you all didn't expect this... nor would you believe that I finished Nanowrimo (a 50,000 word novel contest) in the month of November, but maybe you would because it would explain why I didn't finish this chapter until now... it was mentally exhausting & technically, December was the official resting-up month. I would like to thank my following reveiwers:

Jaysong of ThunderClan, Dragonflywing, Silver wolf rain, xWillowsongx of RiverClan, Emberblaze of BrookClan, BlizzardInTheStars, and especially my #1 fan Stormfeather of LakeClan!

Was seven reviews the most I've ever got? Well... I don't deserve it for leaving you all in the dark for so long, but I just wanted to say I'm very very thankful for all of you! Who knows... if you all haven't reviewed this might not have been coming out today...

:D

A moon had passed and the family was ready to move to a more prey-rich area. Crystalkit had gained the ability to run and Cloudwhisker had found that the border between the pine forest and the oak forest really did open up into two different forests; and the family was heading to the oak forest. Cloudwhisker, Sunkit, Rainkit, and Mosskit had gone hunting and brought back enough fresh-kill for the small family. Bonekit preferred to stay and teach Crystalkit some hunting moves he had picked up and Blizzardmoon had supervised them to make sure that 'big brother' didn't teach Crystalkit any fighting moves he might have picked up.

The sun was high in the sky when Cloudwhisker and Blizzardmoon gathered the kits and headed out. Wisps of clouds were hidden shortly by the oversized mid-summer leaves. Prey scent was abundant; making the kits hyper and hard to control. Sunkit scampered away a couple times only to be called back by Blizzardmoon each time.

Blizzardkit sighed. Ever since Mossypaw died life had been lonely and Icekit hadn't been helping. Any relationship the two siblings once had had crumbled when she had begun to hang out with Cloudkit. In fact, Icekit had done everything within his power to hurt Cloudkit and her new relationship. When the two had sneaked out of camp to shadow Lionroar's patrol Icekit was the one who told, the no good rat. So now, she and Cloudkit were stuck cleaning out the elder's den.

"Blizzardkit," a sharp voice caused her to look up, "You can't be mad at Icekit forever; he was just trying to protect you from out there."

Blizzardkit growled under her breath, not wanting to look at the oldest elder in the eye, "Yes, Crystalwing."

The elder shuffled around in her nest and dragged herself over to Blizzardkit; her hind legs were useless behind her. She pressed her scarred ginger-and-white pelt up against the little kit.

"I regret not listening to my sister all of those moons back," Crystalwing began, "I was a younger senior warrior with an apprentice… his name was Bumblepaw, a nice, well-mannered, admired tom," she took a deep breath, "And my sister, Sweetholly, had Bumblepaw's younger brother as an apprentice- runty Shortpaw. Oh, she put Shortpaw always against Bumblepaw and I got so mad at her. One day I found her ordering Bumblepaw around while Shortpaw was eating one of the biggest rabbits on the fresh-kill pile; I got so mad that I leaped at her. Your father was a young leader back then, but he managed to finally break us apart. A couple moons later we were assigned to travel to Icepond- the place where the leaders and medicine cat visited StarClan- to present our apprentices. Oakthorn was sick that day, so we would be traveling alone. We had to cross a thunderpath right before we reached the Icepond."

Crystalwing looked away, not wanting to finish the story.

"Ah, come on Crystalwing! I want to hear the rest!" Blizzardkit complained.

Crystalwing pulled herself together, "We reached the thunderpath and Sweetholly said to wait for her to give 'the signal'. I, still very mad at her, refused and immediately gave the signal. Shortpaw and Bumblepaw raced across; confused. I followed them. Sweetholly tried to call them back, so they stopped in the middle of the road. I saw the oncoming lights and I desperately tried to drag them both off of the road, but they were in shock. The monster hit them, and ran over my legs in the process. Sweetholly managed to drag us off of the road and then ran back to camp to get help. Shortpaw was already gone, gone when the monster hit him. Bumblepaw died right beside me- I gave him his warrior name right there- Bumblespirit. The monster left me like this… and all because I didn't listen to Sweetholly and let my pride get into the way."

Blizzardkit looked down at her paws, "I'm sorry, Crystalwing, I didn't know. What happened to Sweetholly?"

"We reconciled our relationship before she died from green cough one cold winter next to her two kits."

"That's… sad," Blizzardkit's white tail drooped.

Crystalwing died the next day, passed away peacefully in her sleep. It was as if she had waited to tell Blizzardmoon her story before she passed, it was a shame that the young kit never listened, and what was worse is what came out of it.

"The world is so huge!" Crystalkit squealed; just as excited as her siblings.

"It's a lot bigger than what you've seen already," Blizzardmoon rested her tail across her daughters' shoulders.

Sunkit continued to clean her white paws mid-step, utterly fascinated with them.

"Sunkit, you're going to lick all of your fur off your paws if you keep on licking them," Cloudwhisker joked.

She immediately stopped and looked down on them as if she was afraid that she had already licked them too much and the fur would start falling off all in one moment.

"Do you think it would fall off all at once or one piece at a time?" Sunkit asked Rainkit.

"I'd prefer not to think of it," Rainkit shivered.

Bonekit cut into the conversation, "It would probably fall off all at once."

"Nuh-uh!" Sunkit pounced on him, bowling him over.

Blizzardmoon allowed the two kits to tussle for a moment before Bonekit bowled Sunkit into a shallow puddle.

"Now look what you've done, you no-good maggot-heart!" Sunkit wailed.

Blizzardmoon scurried over picked up Sunkit by her scruff, she shepherded Bonekit back to the herd using her tail.

With the kits back in line and night falling Cloudwhisker decided on a small 'cave', which was actually just a rather large, jutting rock on a bank that sheltered a spot were all the cats could fit in. Moss was quickly gathered, along with a couple mice and squirrels by Cloudwhisker, Bonekit, and Crystalkit- who turned out to be an excellent hunter. In the morning they would continue in search for more suitable shelter, but for the night the cave would work.

A/N: So we had a flashback in this chapter, along with the family going into new territory. Next chapter should be out soon cause I'm on Christmas vacation! YIPEE! Please review, it means a ton!

Your review question:

Do you like the flashbacks that I put in, or would you rather not have them in the story?

A) They're cool!

B) Sort of

C) No way, delete them!

Signing off & Merry Christmas!

~Willow