Chapter 12
Icepool stretched awake the next morning to a pale white cat almost directly in her face.
"Come on!" Sun shouted, "Let's go! Let's go!"
"Go?" Icepool asked drowsily, "Go where?"
"The river! We're going to go to our new clans!"
"We?" Icepool asked, "You mean you're going to SkyClan?"
"Yup," Shade leaped up onto the hay stack, "Sun couldn't help askin so she blurted it out last night and now Shortwhisker's takin us to SkyClan."
"Shortwhisker?" Icepool was confused, "So he took his warrior name back? How?"
"Well he insisted to Ravenheart that he needed to have a real warrior give him the name again, but Ravenheart told her that he never fully diminished the name. She said Leafstar would be okay with it, and Cloud told her he was okay with it last night," Sun had so much excitement in her voice it was hard to understand her.
Icepool was about to ask about the 'Cloud' cat she mentioned, but she didn't want to confuse the young soon to be apprentice.
The three cats hopped down the hay stacks to the mini fresh-kill pile, where every one else was already eating. She grabbed a mouse and gobbled it up, then decided she didn't want to take anymore, so she could have the other cats have some.
"Just take as much as you want," Shortwhisker insisted, "No one's coming back here."
Icepool nodded and quickly took a juicy mouse from the pile and devoured it. Then she looked up slightly embarrassed and began to clean her face.
Before they left, they all lay down under the rising sun and let the heat warm their bodies. Icepool looked at Sun who was next to Shade. The sun must have suddenly woke her up because she realized that Sun's fur began to look whiter, and Shades fur looked like Firestar with black spots.
They're reaching their happiness, she thought, their pelts are changing back to the original color.
The sun was into the sky, but it wasn't quite sunhigh yet. So the slightly larger group left the farm and began to head for the river. When they came out of the bushes under the fence, there was just a long plain ahead of them. But not long enough to hide the river. You could see water splattering up against the rocks and logs. Icepool guessed it was still a wild current from the big storm they had.
"You guys aren't crossing that," mewed Sun, "Are you?"
"No," mewed Ravenheart, "Sandpelt isn't strong enough yet. We'll cross the river farther down, closer to Highstones."
"Come on Ravenheart, I'm not that weak," purred Sandpelt. He stretched and flinched, "But I am old."
"We're not that old Sandpelt," Lakeheart purred back, "We're about senior warrior age."
Ravenheart rolled her eyes, "Well anyway, it will be sun-high soon, and I can tell you're all hungry by the way you're wobbling when you walk. So let's just go to that clump of reeds over there, and we can get some fish ore mice."
"I'm a fan of water voles," mewed Shade.
Sun licked her lips, "Same here."
Icepool took her turn and led the small party across the plain. The tall grass was scurrying with mice and rabbits, but Icepool fought her hunger and kept going.
But a few paw steps later when they reached the reeds, she walked over to dead fallen down reeds and collapsed. The world seemed to blur around her. She could see a flaming red and snow white blur hovering over her.
She could hear voices saying things like,
"What do we do?"
"What just happened?" "What do you think? She just passed out!"
"Well what do we do?"
"I don't know! You have nothing to do when it's the medicine cat that passes out!"
Then it just went black.
She looked around the dark forest. There were no stars in the sky, just a dark black nothing. The ground beneath her was covered in moss, and rustling went on all around her, as if no cat had been there for thousands of moons.
She walked forward and peaked through the bushes into a clearing. Two large tabby toms stood over a small black apprentice. One tabby had amber eyes, and the smaller had ice blue eyes. She couldn't see the young apprentice's eyes from her view, but she could tell he was a mixture of joy and scared.
Then she looked back to the ice blue eyed cat. She recognized him almost immediately. Hawkfrost. How could she not see it before? She had seen him at a gathering before his death. She only saw him once, but it scared her so much, it was practically burned into her memory.
She looked back to the larger cat. It looked just like Brambleclaw! But it couldn't be, he had the evilest gaze in his eyes. Tigerstar. She had herd about him in elder tales. He looks just like Brambleclaw, but the evilest cat in the history of the forest. Other than Scourge.
Icepool tried to listen in, but was out of earshot. Then there was a rusting behind her, and she jumped almost into the clearing. She turned around and saw Spottedleaf walk over to her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Icepool was confused, "Didn't you call me here?"
"No. This is something you have nothing to do with. I wouldn't need to call you."
"Then why am I here?"
"I don't know, but I have to save Jaypaw from making the biggest mistake of his life." Spottedleaf pushed past Icepool and into the clearing. When Icepool looked at Tigerstar again, he was looking at her. Smiling.
He had brought her here. For reasons she had no clue about. She immediately turned and ran. She pushed past bushes and twigs, not caring if she sounded like a herd of twolegs. She just ran.
But then she reached a clearing where a jet black cat sat in the middle. He had amber eyes, even colder than Tigerstar's. Across his left eye was a scar, from a cat. You could clearly identify all four claw marks across his eye.
"About time I found you kitten," he meowed, "Thanks to you, I'm what I am today. A lone outcast that sits alone in the dust outside StarClan."
Icepool felt herself begin to shake, "W-w-w-who are you?" she barley stuttered out.
"Midnightstorm," he meowed. He walked over and stood in front of her, "Starlight hasn't told you about me? She never did like me."
Starlight? She wondered, Is that who that 'Star' cat is from my dreams?
"Oh well," he meowed, "Just so you know, It's because of your 'legacy', as she called it, I had no choice but to stop Cloudstar from keeping out of the clan."
"What do you mean?"
"Well I might as well tell you if Starlight hasn't," he was about to sit down when a fog came over the clearing, and an acrid scent filled her nose. "What the-"
Icepool put her paw over her nose, "It smells like…mouse bile?"
The world went black in front of her.
Icepool opened her eyes, and say Dawnleaf holding a wad of mouse bile in front of her. "She's awake!" Dawnleaf shouted, "Are you okay sis?"
Icepool looked at the huge rabbit in front of her. Dawnleaf nodded, and Icepool ate the whole thing.
"You okay Icepool?" asked Shade, "You just…fell over."
"Yea," mewed Sun so excitedly she looked as if she was going to do a back flip. Then she started talking really fast, "Youjustpassedoutandwehadnoideawhattodo! Itoldthem, dunkwateronherandtheshockofthefreezingwaterwould
wakeherup. Butn-o-o-o-o-o. Shadesaidweshouldbiteyournose,butIknewthatwouldhurt. SoIwaslike,noway,andhewaslike,yeaway,butIwaslikenowayand-"
"And I woke you up with the mouse bile," Dawnleaf cut in.
"Well thank you for not biting my nose," she meowed.
"Ha!" Sun shouted.
"Or dunking cold water on me." Shade stuck his tongue out at Sun.
"What's with the tongue?" she asked.
Sun looked confused, "What do you mean, 'what's with the tongue'?"
"Exactly that. What's with the tongue?"
So it took till a little after sun high to explain to Icepool what it meant to stick her tongue out at some one. It seemed strange to Icepool, but eventually, she did it to Ravenheart later.
"Sun, you have decided to follow the path of a clan. By doing so, your name is no longer proper. The fire of the sun lives with you, even though your color is white. From now on, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Sunpaw. May your leader Leafstar choose a wise mentor for you," meowed Ravenheart.
Icepool decided, that before they parted, that the young apprentices should at least have a proper name for the final of their trip.
"Shade, you have also chosen this path. Your black pelt dose not show yourself proudly, and your new red pelt dose not example you former name. The flame in your heart to protect your sister is as bright as your pelt. You shall be known as Flamepaw. May Leafstar choose your apprentice wisely as well."
Icepool chanted their new names several times, but she became lost in thought about the dream she had. Midnightstorm seemed like such an evil cat, not one to belong in StarClan. The image of him still burned in her memory perfectly. The bright amber gaze, the scar across his eye. How could this cat be good? She decided to try and meet Starlight tonight, after the were on their way.
"Thanks so much Ravenheart," mewed Sunpaw, "It feels like I'm finally a clan cat now."
"Same here," meowed Flamepaw.
"Always glad to help," meowed Ravenheart, and she dipped her head to the young half-apprentices.
It was near twilight now, and Shortwhisker, Sunpaw, and Flamepaw where going to set off for SkyClan now. They figured if they followed the river, they'd be there by nightfall. But Icepool and company would leave the next morning.
"It's been great knowing you Icepool," mewed Sun, "I hope you make it to RainClan."
The two cats touched noses. "So do I," she mumbled under her breath.
"Well let's not waste all day saying goodbye," meowed Shortwhisker, "Can't waste daylight."
"Yes Shortwhisker," said Flamepaw.
The three cats all turned and walked down the river. Then Ravenheart and Icepool went to the makeshift den in the reeds. Dawnleaf was in the back corner, looking kind of distracted. Though it's odd enough that she's not in the center.
Icepool walked over to her, "What's wrong?" she asked.
Dawnleaf looked up at her and motioned with her tail to sit down. So Icepool sat at looked back at Dawnleaf. She had the most troubled expression on her face.
"You know how when you woke up earlier, you had a scared look on your face?" she started. Icepool nodded. "Well once I saw your face, a strange image came into my head. It was of this strange black cat, with amber eyes, and a scar across his left." Icepool gulped, Midnightstorm. "Well when you left to say goodbye to the others, I took a nap and I saw him again. He said that I had to help him go to StarClan somehow, but I don't know what to do!"
Icepool thought for a moment. Maybe if she really could find other cats in her dreams like Starlight said, she could find Midnightstorm again. "I have an idea," she finally meowed, "We have to try and find him again."
"How do we do that?"
"Just take another nap."
Obediently, Dawnleaf put her head on her paws, and she could soon see the steady rise and fall of her breathing. Then Icepool put her head down, and fell asleep. Time to get some questions answered.