Chapter 20, Missing Something

It was gray and dull in the clearing as Snakepaw stretched and awakened from his hollow in the roots of a tree. Moonpaw and Silverpaw were playing some sort of fighting game on the other side of the tree. He was about to state that it probably hadn't been Silverpaw's idea to Icepaw, when he realized she wasn't there.

Once again, her words echoed through his mind. Goodbye, my friend. He refused to succumb to the flood of memories those words brought. He sat up, placing his tabby brown paws carefully on the ground to avoid slipping on the smooth pine needles.

Mudsplash greeted him. "Come on Snakepaw, let's train. Fishshadow is helping us today with your battle training. You haven't been focusing as hard lately." She meant well. She just couldn't quite tell her apprentice something comforting. She had tried to involve him in other apprentice battle training with Moonpaw and Silverpaw but it just made him more discouraged. Icepaw was the only cat who had really been able to involve him in battle training.

He almost asked her if Icepaw was coming to, but he bit his tongue hard to stop him from saying it. Of course she wouldn't be coming, because she had left.

As they padded through the pine woods, the dull light made it easy to slip away into his memories of Icepaw. He remembered her playful smile, her lovely laugh, her dark blue eyes; he remembered the day she left.

He blinked his eyes open slowly and licked one of his paws as he looked around in a daze. Moonpaw was still asleep but Silverpaw was sitting stock still staring at the highledge. The gentle light of dawn warmed her outline as she turned back to look at him. "Snakepaw," she called as if from a great distance.

He got up slowly, seeing his own gray and brown paws moving towards her. He blinked again. "What is it?" he asked in confusion.

"It's Icepaw." she said simply. "She's gone."

Gone. Gone. Gone. The words echoed through his head as he thought through the countless implications that were swirling around almost before his amber eyes. She had left to go back to ThunderClan, he knew. Her words echoed through his mind, over and over again. First they were so quiet he almost couldn't make out what she had been saying in his distant memory. Then they boomed louder and louder until he wanted to run away from the whispered words. He felt a sensation of incredible loss as he thought of the friend he had lost.

She was gone.

Snakepaw was brought out of his reveries suddenly when Fishshadow prodded him. "Snakepaw," he murmured. "Silverpaw just ran all the way from camp and she wants to talk to you."

Snakepaw frowned but nodded. Silverpaw's urgent green eyes brought him back to yet another memory. The memory of the words she had said while he just sat there in shock.

"I saw her leaving the camp. Sleetflash was staring after her so I asked Sleetflash what she was doing leaving camp early in the morning. She told me Icepaw was leaving for ThunderClan. I know I was selfish, I know I was rude and I know I didn't make it any easier for her to say but I'm sorry. I know I'm the same way to you as well and I'm sorry." Silverpaw's eyes shone for a minute in the way a friend's did when another friend was in pain. She wasn't making stupid jibes. She had continued. "I know I'm not Icepaw, and I never will be. I know I'm not your friend, and I probably won't ever be that either. I just wanted to tell you that she'd gone and that I'm sorry. I don't even know why I'm saying this to you but I am so I might as well finish. I never really got to know her but I know you did, so... remember her for me."

He and Silverpaw had shared that morning. For one morning, it had been as if she cared. The minute the daily routine started again she was her normal, snappish self. He had withdrawn from her again.

Silverpaw pushed her way through the brush panting. "Snakepaw!" she said quickly.

"What is it?" he asked. His amber eyes showed disinterest as he looked at her.

"Icepaw - she's coming back!" she said.

Coming back? She's coming back? Icepaw? The same Icepaw? Really? Truly? She was coming back?

He knew who it was pushing through after Silverpaw by the sound of their pawsteps and their breathing.

Her blue eyes looked directly at him. Her whiskers quivered slightly in the wind. Icepaw stood between two pine trees.

"Icepaw?" he asked. He couldn't quite believe it was her. It was like she was an illusion, like she was only a dream. Maybe she was like mist and the wind would blow her away before he got the chance to even hear her voice again. Maybe he was seeing things. She looked too perfect, and the light dancing around her like the sun made her seem no more than a ghost.

Then she started running towards him. Her white fur ruffled in the wind which broke through the trees. She pressed herself against him for a minute, then pulled back and looked at him. She grinned. "First one back to camp wins!"

She broke away from him, running as fast as she could toward the camp. He smiled; she would be out of breath halfway there. She could run for short periods of time, but beyond that she would be panting for the rest of the afternoon. He began to lope after her.

Silverpaw stood looking sadly after them for a minute. Moonpaw came up behind her. "You're not actually jealous of them are you?" she scoffed.

"No," Silverpaw said absent mindedly. "I just think maybe I'm missing something."

Okay, so I know everyone hates Silverpaw and Moonpaw. Let's see what happens, shall we?
I have to thank personally my latest big reviewer: ATHENASOWL11! Thank you so much! You've been keeping my inbox alive with reviews! Thank you!

Also thanks to Bubbletail, my latest reviewer.

Spoiler for next chapter: Short chapter but then long chapter after it. Time will have passed in the plot between the next chapter and the chapter after that.

~Iceshadow of SHADOWCLAN~