Chapter 11

Icepool stretched awake to the warm den on the flat top with her family. The night was warm in the den, even though it was probably chilling on top of the mountain. Which she quickly realized was true when she stepped outside. The wind nearly knocked her back into the den, and the cold made it feel like a pile of snow hit her. This actually did happen about three seconds later when a sudden blizzard hit. It knocked her back into the den where she lay on the ground for a few moments to recover before shaking the snow of her pelt.

Some of the snow landed on Dawnleaf and she quickly jerked awake and shook her pelt shouting, "Cold! Cold! Cold!"

Her shouting woke up everyone else, "What now Dawnleaf?" asked Ravenheart sleepily.

"I don't know. Suddenly really cold snow hit me on the back!" she said. Then she looked at Icepool who was still covered in flecks of snow, "What happened to you?"

"I went outside to check the weather, and I got hit by a sudden blizzard!" she said. She shook her pelt again and everyone jumped back to avoid being hit. Then she continued, "It looks like we're not going down the mountain today."

"Then how will we get food?" asked Lakeheart, "If we can't go outside, then neither can the prey. And the rabbits that were in the den last night retreated further into their burrows."

Icepool looked at the hole in the wall where the rabbits were. A kit could fit in that hole and fetch some rabbits, but not a full grown warrior. But if she and Dawnleaf made the hole a bit bigger they could fit. Both of them got their names at a young age, so they were still the age of the average apprentice.

Dawnleaf must have got the same idea, because she began digging at the hole. Within minutes there was a hold that a warrior could fit through. She looked at her work with pride and said, "You coming?"

"It's food," said Sandpelt, "Of course I'm coming."

With Dawnleaf and Icepool in the lead, they began traveling further into the tunnel. Eventually the tunnel got bigger and bigger, but it was still uncomfortable.

Why do rabbits sleep underground? She wondered, they must have the brains of Twolegs if they think underground is a cozy place to live. There's no sunlight for their kits to grow strong, and it's really gloomy.

As they kept going, it got darker and darker, and there was still no sign of rabbits. Soon there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and they all poked their heads out of the hold and found themselves in a patch of bushes at the edge of the Thunderpath.

"That's strange," said Lakeheart, "The blizzard's gone."

They all climbed out and looked out at the Thunderpath. The stench of the monsters came over her as one roared by. It turned onto another Thunderpath and kept going away from the mountains.

"That's the way we have to go," said Icepool, "If we cross the Big Thunderpath, then we can travel through the fields till we get to the river. Then we can follow that to Highstones.

"Why don't we go across the smaller Thunderpath, and then stay to that side of the Big Thunderpath until we reach Ravenpaw?" asked Sandpelt.

"Do you want to spend the night with Twolegs?" asked Dawnleaf.

Icepool thought she heard him say no, but then Lakeheart swiped her tongue across his ear and whispered something to him that Icepool couldn't hear.

Then the small group began to travel onward toward the Big Thunderpath. It wasn't very far, so when they got there, they still had time to quickly cross before another monster roared by.

As they kept going, they eventually came to a white fence with bushes covering the bottom. The small group went through the bushes and under the fence, but then Icepool stopped. She opened her mouth to drink in the scent, and she could smell cat. And by the racket they made on the ground, she guessed it was two kittypets stalking toward them in the grass.

"I know you're there," she said. The grass stopped moving, "I'm not stupid you know. You can come out now."

"I told you to keep your paws light on the ground!" said a voice. It sounded like a tom, but she couldn't be sure.

"I was trying!" said a younger voice.

"Give'r a brake. She's trying the best she can," said another voice and the tree stepped out of the grass. A dark brown tabby tom walked out with a grey she-cat and a young black tom. "I'm Shade," said the black tom, "This is my little sister Sun, and our unofficial mentor Hutch."

Icepool looked at Hutch, "I've heard about you from Firestar," she said, "You're that cat who chose not to stay with SkyClan."

Hutch looked embarrassed, "It's true," he said, "I did leave. But then I saw that my Twolegs had gotten a new cat and wouldn't let me back inside. I felt crushed, but I didn't want to face humiliation from the clan if I started begging to rejoin. So I decided to travel on my own."

"Then eventually he found us," said Sun, and she walked over and started to rub her pelt against his, "He said he'd love to train us to hunt for ourselves. Because when we we're born, we were taken from our mother and brought here. We had no idea how to hunt and then Hutch showed up and taught us."

"We all live in the barn back there," said Shade, "If you want to stay a night, you're welcome to."

"We'd love to!" Dawnleaf quickly accepted the offer and ran over to the small group of cats, "Lead the way! I haven't eaten since moonrise last night!"

Icepool suddenly realized how hungry she was. It was sunhigh now and she hadn't eaten in what felt like moons. So the small group followed Shade, Hutch, and Hutch's little admirer Sun to the barn.

The barn was a pale red, and instead of being a square like normal barns, it looked more like a triangle. But from the inside it looked like a square with two corners closer together. In the small space between the two corners were three nests on top of a stack of hay. The whole barn was covered in hay. There were also stacks of hay that you could climb to a second floor, but the second floor wasn't complete. It was only about four tail lengths from the wall.

The ground wasn't as rough as the Thunderpath when she walked in, but it wasn't too great either. But Sun, Shade, and Hutch didn't seem to care at all. Her family though was licking their pads when they all sat down by a pile of fresh-kill by the nests.

"Take some fresh-kill;" offered Sun, "The barn is crawling with mice."

"But that doesn't mean y'all can eat it all," said Shade dryly. By now Icepool and her sisters could see that Shade had an accent that he probably got from one of his parents.

"Come on Shade," said Hutch, "Now it's time for you to give them a break."

They all sat down with a mouse and began eating. Sandpelt sat with Hutch -and Lakeheart close by of course- Dawnleaf and Ravenheart sat with Shade to talk about hunting and fighting techniques, and Icepool went over at sat with Sun who had sat down in the hay alone.

"So how did you end up here?" asked Icepool, "I want to know the whole thing."

Sun sighed and looked at her paws, "When Shade and I were young," she started, "I can just remember that my mother was a kittypet living in the Twoleg Place not far from here. Our father is a loner, he never liked the way of a kittypet, but was too solitary to join the clans unless they made him leader of the whole forest. So one night he came and took the two of us from our mother, he planned on taking us here and raising us to fight for ourselves. But the night he came here with us-we were about four moons old then- a huge cat attacked and killed him. But luckily our father killed him first; the energy it took to fight the battle killed him. We ate food from the Twolegs in the nest close by for a while, but then Hutch came.

He saw us so small and unprotected, so he decided to take us and train us. But when the Twolegs saw him, they stopped brining food to us, they only brought milk. StarClan knows why they did that, maybe they thought Hutch would take it all or something.

Anyway, when we turned six moons old, he gave us the names Sun and Shade. Now he's been training us for about a moon, and teaching us the way of warriors."

"So your only seven moons old?" asked Icepool. Sun and Shade didn't look seven moons, they looked much older. But when Sun nodded she decided to change the subject, "If your mothers Twoleg nest isn't far, why don't you visit her?"

"She wouldn't recognize us now," she said sadly, "When we were born, I was white, and Shade had a fire-red pelt. Some how when our lives went downhill our pelt colors changed. Our mother was a beautiful white with red spots, our father was jet-black."

"Maybe if you find a happier life you color will change back," suggested Icepool, "I've heard stories of cats whose pelts can change colors depending on the condition they're in. Maybe for you two it's happiness."

Sun nodded, "I guess it's possible. But it looks like I'm in a position where I can never regain a happy life. If I want to survive I have to get better at hunting and fighting, I never was good at either. And my brother says I have to stop thinking I'm having dreams with cats I've never known."

Icepool pricked her ears in surprise, "What kind of cats?"

Sun cocked her head at Icepool, she had a confused look in her pale amber eyes, "Why does it matter?"

"Just tell me,"

"Well I've seen two blue cats with blue eyes, a really pretty one that called herself Spottedleaf, and-"

Icepool cut her off, "I know Spottedleaf!"

Suns eyes widened, "Really? How? Is she part of the group of cats you lived with?"

"In a way. Actually, she died many moons ago. She was the ThunderClan medicine cat, but now she walks with StarClan."

"Hutch told us about that. Medicine cats are the ones who heal the clan and communicate with StarClan, your warrior ancestors. I wish I could do that."

"Maybe you can," Sun jerked her gaze to Icepool, "I think those other cats are Stonefur and Bluestar. They are also members of StarClan. Maybe you're destiny is to be a medicine cat."

A light grew in Suns eyes, but then faded again, "How? I'm not a clan cat. I'm a loner who lives in an odd shaped barn. And are you really sure I'm supposed to be a medicine cat? I thought only other medicine cats could tell."

"Actually I am a medicine cat."

Suns eyes grew wide again, "Really? But you're like, my age. I thought it took moons upon moons to become a medicine cat."

"Well I'm a little older than you. And I became a medicine cat at a young age. Just like Dawnleaf became a warrior at a young age. I think it was to prepare us for this journey we're on right now."

Sun was about to respond when Hutch's voice sounded from the other wall, "Do you want to come training?" he asked, "If we sit here all night we'll have no more food 'till tomorrow."

Icepool exchanged a glance with Sun and they both ran to catch up with Hutch.

Out in the field, Hutch was watching Shade practice his hunting techniques. Icepool was walking around the field with Sun trying to show her some herbs.

"Maybe if we convince Hutch to rejoin SkyClan, then we can come too and I can become a medicine cat," said Sun.

"Maybe," answered Icepool, "But Hutch has to want to go there, you can't make him."

"I already know he wants to go back," said Sun, "He always talks about how he wishes he had stayed with the clan. But he's always been too scared to go back because he's afraid that the clan won't let him back in."

"He just doesn't realize that a clan is family yet. In a clan, it doesn't mean you give up on each other. You have to stick together."

The two of them continued to talk until twilight, when Hutch found them and they all went back to the barn and stayed the night. Icepool was about to ask weather Hutch really wanted to go to back to SkyClan, but when she found him he was already sleeping.

Icepool decided to just go to bed herself. She climbed up the hay stacks to the second floor and made a nest on the highest stack on hay. She may be inside, but she wanted to have the same open space feeling as outside the barn. So she curled up and went to sleep.