Chapter 13

"I'm telling you Dawnleaf, it's actually me."

"How can I know for sure? I'm asleep."

They are now asleep, and Icepool has worked her way into Dawnleaf's dream to go to Midnightstorm. Now if Icepool could only convince Dawnleaf that it's really her.

"Say something that I would never dream," said Dawnleaf.

Icepool sighed, "You think Onestar is the best mentor ever."

Dawnleaf's eyes widened, "You ARE my sister!"

"Just follow me. I may have made it to your dream, but I'm still not sure if I can reach Midnightstorm."

"Fine, we can play follow the leader."

"Can you ever stay on topic?"

Icepool sighed and sniffed the air. She found Dawnleaf by scent, so she figured she could do it again. But then she realized she had no idea what his scent was. So she just found the best scent she could and went with that. The scent was really nothing at all. It smelled just like the plant, actually, it smelled like nothing at all. She remembered that until she was woken with mouse bile, she hadn't scented anything. Maybe, before Midnightstorm died, she had rolled in the stuff.

Soon the trees above their heads became dark with the starless sky. She knew they were going the right way. Every so often, a rustling would be herd in the bushes. It would always be ahead of them. When she scented the air, she could smell nothing. So she chased it.

"What are we doing?" asked Dawnleaf.

"You know what we're doing and don't deny it."

Dawnleaf shut up.

Eventually, the rustling stopped at a clearing. Midnightstorm jumped out of the bushes.

"It's about time you got here," he said.

"It's only been a few minutes," said Dawnleaf confused.

"You don't know how time works in this wretched place," he sat down, "Shall we get started?"

"Yes," meowed Icepool calmly, "First just tell us what happened to you."

"Why can't we start with what dose he want with us?" asked Dawnleaf, "Can't you get some one else? You look like the kind of tom that would have a son."

"Well, actually, I have three sons and a daughter. Two of which are only apprentices. My eldest son…" he trailed off on that thought, "And my daughter is most likely being forced to help her brother. I want my daughter free, but there's nothing I can do. My eldest mistook the meaning of the things I did in RainClan."

"What were their names?"

"My eldest son is Shadow. He was Shadowtail before he was banished from RainClan. He tried to bring his sister Nightcloud with him, but she wanted to stay. And yet, Shadow came back and stole Nightcloud during the night. She was small so he just picked her up and left. My two other sons...I don't know what happened to them. Their names are Bramblepaw and Nightpaw. My mate always did love any name with 'night' in it." Midnightstorm seemed to trail off at the sound of his mate. She decided not to ask about her.

Midnightstorm cleared his throat, "Any way. I might as well start with the beginning with him. When he was born, Starlight warned me he would be trouble, but I didn't listen. He became apprenticed; his mentor was the deputy Crookedear. I'm not sure what happened to him. But apparently, he thought I was trying to over through Cloudstar. But I wasn't. I was only trying to help Crookedear. He was sick to I insisted that he temporarily became an elder till better. Cloudstar could assign another temporary one. When Cloudstar finally agreed with me, Shadow was a warrior. So when Cloudstar assigned a new temporary deputy, he was sure it would be me. Actually he thought that through apprenticeship also, but that's not the point now. The point is, I did become deputy. So Shadow decided to 'help me' as he put it. He began to gather ever rouge and loner that happened to pass by. He got them together, and attacked Cloudstar.

"I was definitely not in favor of this, but he thought I was. With Crookedear not in power, I would become Midnightstar since I was deputy. Shadow looks just like me, so in the battle, he attacked Cloudstar, Cloudstar thought it was me. I got Shadow off of him, but Cloudstar still hit my eye. Shadow pushed me back out of the way and got rid of Cloudstar's eighth life. Shadow immediately left, leaving me for Cloudstar."

"Where comes the Shadow getting banished thing?" asked Dawnleaf.

"That was right before the battle," he responded, "But before I forget-"

A loud rumbling started to kick up and Icepool and Dawnleaf began to shake back and forth. Ravenheart! Why wake us up now?

"Your sister has a job to do in RainClan!" he shouted over the noise, "Prepare her for her leadership!"

Then they woke up and he was gone.

"Good morning lazy furs," said Ravenheart in their faces, "Time to go; we've got quite the trip ahead of us. Dawnleaf, any idea on how long it'll take us to reach Ravenpaw?"

Dawnleaf began to stagger to her paws, "I'm estimating one days travel to get to the Small Thunderpath. Then it's a pretty direct route to the barn, which will take about half a day if undisturbed. And we're pretty far ahead of the half moon, but we'll get there a day or two before the full moon."

Sometimes I wonder how she dose that.

"Feathertail never said a specific night, so maybe we can do it on the full moon," meowed Icepool.

"I don't care how late you have to do it, I hear that barn has tons of mice," joked Sandpelt.

"That's my Sandpelt," purred Lakeheart, "Always thinking of his stomach."

So the group set of after eating that dawn. On the way down the river, they had a pretty straight course. There were no twolegs to disturb them, and the horses didn't seem to care of their presence. They traveled till sunhigh before they ate again. Dawnleaf was convinced she was actually getting chubbier since they left.

It was a clear day, so when they set off again they didn't have to warm themselves up from the leaf-bare cold as they did that morning. They just kept going on a direct course down the river.

A while before twilight, Dawnleaf stopped and pricked her ears. "What's wrong?" asked Ravenheart.

"Shh," whispered Dawnleaf, "I hear something."

Icepool didn't hear anything, "What are you meowing about?" she whispered, "I don't-"

Then she heard it. There was a roaring sound that came in, and then faded. Then again, and again.

"The thunderpath!"

Icepool wasn't sure who said it; she was already two fox lengths away. Soon she came to a sudden halt a mouse length from the thunderpath. Huge monsters roared by, sending large vibrations down her spine.

"Icepool!" she turned around and saw Ravenheart at the bottom of the slope, "Come down here!" she shouted above the roar of the monsters, "There's a way underneath!"

Icepool carelessly ran down the slope; then did two forward rolls after tripping. When she got up she followed the others to a large hole under the thunderpath. The walls were made of a strange silver wavy stuff, and there was a small stream of water running through the center. She went over and sniffed the water, but jumped back in disgust. Gross!

She had just then realized how bad this place smelled. She became dizzy and nearly passed out. But luckily, Lakeheart picked her up by the scruff and carried her out to a patch of bushes before she did.

"The moon sets in the flower that smells like fox dung," said Icepool still delirious.

"Good thing we haven't gotten any bigger," said Dawnleaf, "or she would have passed out."

"Yes," meowed Ravenheart sternly, "but you shouldn't have tried sniffing the water in the first place."

"Sorry," mewed Icepool softly after figuring out where she was.

"I'll go out and see if there's any prey that would bother to stay near a thunder path," meowed Sandpelt getting up, "But if I can't find anything, we'll be going to bed hungry."

"I'll go with you," said Lakeheart, and they both left.

"Well what are we supposed to do now?" asked Dawnleaf. "All there is to do here is-" Dawnleaf cut of her own sentence when she saw Ravenheart's ears prick. "What are you doing Ravenheart? I don't hear anything. If I did I would be quiet but I don't hear-"

"Shush," Ravenheart whispered. Pause, "You can't hear them?"

"Who?" asked Icepool.

"Lakeheart and Sandpelt, they're talking just outside the bushes."

"How can you hear them through the bushes? These are the thickest bushes I've ever seen."

"Maybe it's where she's sitting," suggested Dawnleaf, "I'll go over there and see."

Dawnleaf walked up next to Ravenheart. Nothing. She took a step forward and froze in mid trip after her paw hit Ravenheart's paw. Her ears pricked. She could hear them.

Icepool walked over and touched Ravenheart's other paw. Suddenly she could hear them.

"How are we going to tell them?" she herd Lakeheart say.

"I'm not sure," said Sandpelt, "But we can't just tell them when we get to Rainclan. The sadness would keep them from doing whatever they need to be doing with their lives. We have to tell them before we get there."

Then the voices faded as they went to look for food. Icepool backed away before Dawnleaf finished her trip and landed nose first in the dirt.

"Tell us what?" asked Icepool, "What did they say?"

"They don't want to live in Rainclan," said Ravenheart, "They'd rather roam the world." Icepool was surprised. There was no sadness in her voice. She seemed to not care.

I guess it would be better, thought Icepool, Without them, Ravenheart and Dawnleaf wouldn't really care who spent the most time with them. There would be nothing to remind them.

But Icepool's thoughts were still clouded by the thought she may never see them again.