What are you talking about, it hasn't been three years since I started this. Okay, it has. Oops? But why come back to it, Si? Because I hate leaving things unfinished, that's why. (oh snap I just rhymed) I have most of the rest of this planned out and it's about to get super weird, super crazy and super exciting and probably not make any sense so hold onto your hats folks, the most disjointed fic ever is going to be finally finished.

Also I was too lazy to check this properly sorry. WARNING: horrible grammar ahead, read at your own risk.

PLACE THE BLAME

Gustpaw raced after her mentor, willing herself to go faster. She pushed the wind more and more, to the point where it stopped obeying her and turned straight against her, sending her tumbling to the ground. Embercloud barely even glanced in her direction, charging after the two streaks of fur heading towards the river. They had to stop soon… Gustpaw shook herself off and hurried in pursuit of Embercloud again, this time leaving her tail to stream behind her, keeping it as still as possible. The wind fell silent, waiting on a command.

She skidded to a halt behind Embercloud just in time to see Ravenkit plunge into the river, a bundle of something clamped tightly in his mouth. Honeyblossom screeched and leapt in after him without delay, leaving the mentor and her apprentice stranded on the river bank, hopelessly confused.

Honeyblossom struggled against the icy fingers of the water that lapped at her sides, but she pushed through the swirling waters and snatched Ravenkit by the scruff, all the time with the look of death upon her face. That was a glare you would never want aimed in your direction. Embercloud perched precariously on the edge, reaching out a forepaw for Honeyblossom to grip onto. Gustpaw stood a few paw steps back, fidgeting nervously, unsure of what to do. She didn't trust herself to blow the wind to aid them, so all she could do was stay out of the problem.

The medicine cat fought valiantly against the waves, managed to move those precious whisker-lengths that closed the gap between her and Embercloud's outstretched paw. Still clutching a writhing Ravenkit in her jaws, her claws connected with Embercloud's foreleg and with a yowl a pain Embercloud heaved the pair of soaking clan-mates out of the river. Gustpaw scurried over to offer a paw, but Embercloud waved her away.

"Go back to camp and tell Robinwing. I know he's about to go on patrol; just go!" Gustpaw stood frozen for a moment, whole body quivering. "Quickly!" Embercloud snapped, jolting the calico apprentice into action, sending her bolting across the moor side, back the way she came. Her paws pounded against the ground, panting furiously as her legs burned with the effort. She was concentrating so hard on running as fast as she could without conjuring a single wisp of wind that she bashed straight into her father.

"Gustpaw! What's got you in such a tizzy?" he exclaimed, staring down at her in concern. She returned his gaze with a wide-eyed look, gasping for air.

"Honeyblossom… Ravenkit… Fell… River…" was all she could splutter out, each word punctuated by shaking breaths. Robinwing appeared from the back of the patrol, Dawnsong's concerned face peering over at her behind him. Shadepool, the final patrol member, trotted up to stand at Stormwhisker's side, head tilted to one side.

"Right, well your father and I will go and help them. Dawnsong and Shadepool can take you back to camp," Robinwing swiftly decided, winking at Gustpaw before whisking Stormwhisker off towards the river, the two toms falling in step beside each other, rapidly disappearing over the hill. Shadepool grunted, not even given the time to protest, and turned tail and began trudging back to camp without a glance at Gustpaw. He seemed unfazed his son had fallen in the river. Dawnsong blinked down at the apprentice, eyes brimming with concern.

"Are you alright dear?" she asked, inspecting Gustpaw's face carefully. Gustpaw could only nod, avoiding her gaze lest she reveal how shaken she was. But why was she so shaken? It was nothing to do with her. Still, it unnerved her, the thought of a kit angering Honeyblossom so much it caused her to chase him. She didn't think even Ravenkit was capable of that, yet… That medicine cat was terrifying, Gustpaw concluded, even more so than Embercloud. And Ravenkit, well, he was more devious than she had suspected. How his brother put up with him she didn't know.

Fadedkit! Gustpaw suddenly remembered. Maybe he knew something about this weird occurrence. She would have broken into a run but Shadepool and Dawnsong were still padding silently beside her and she didn't want to seem too jittery. So she walked with them as calmly as she could, though her whiskers were still quivering when they made it back to camp.

"Thank you," she muttered quickly to the two warriors before speeding off to the nursery before they could say a word to her. Inside, Duskshadow looked distraught and Fadedkit like he was about to drop dead. Gustpaw rushed to his side, staring into his golden eyes meaningfully.

"Fadedkit, what happened? Why was Honeyblossom chasing Ravenkit?" he probably didn't know and if he did he'd probably be too scared to say. Fadedkit's heart was in the right place but he was to cowardly to put it to good use most of the time. Gustpaw stared and stared at him intensely but he only quivered under her gave, unable to speak a single word.

Gustpaw was growing impatient, "come on, Fadedkit, for StarClan's sake!" she snapped, stamping her paw against the ground. A sudden snap of wind caught Fallenkit in the jaw and sent him staggering backwards, his eyes growing even wider and more fearful.

Duskshadows head whipped around and her eyes clapped on Gustpaw. "No, I… I didn't… the wind…" no, I didn't mean to, Gustpaw begged inside her head. She was just impatient to figure out the Ravenkit mystery, so hadn't wanted to hurt Fallenkit but the stupid wind was too keen to follow her paw's commands.

"Get out, Gustpaw, leave my kit alone," Duskshadow snarled, backing Gustpaw towards the entrance. The calico apprentice pleaded and apologised a thousand times but the Queen didn't once show any sign of letting her stay, so eventually Gustpaw had no other choice but to turn tail and run. Again.

She had done at least ten circuits of the whole camp by the time they came back. Honeyblossom trudged beside Stormwhisker, dripping, whilst Robinwing held a sopping Ravenkit in his jaws. Embercloud brought up the rear, her expression unreadable. Duskshadow appeared from the nursery almost immediately and rushed to Robinwing, licking Ravenkit frantically as soon as he lowered him to the ground. Gustpaw watched tentatively, not daring to go near Duskshadow after she had almost lashed out at her. So she waited on the other side of camp, straining her ears to listen to their conversation.

"That brat… poppy seeds…" was all she could pick out as Honeyblossom loomed over Duskshadow, expression hard and accusatory. Duskshadow made no signs of being apologetic or intimidated by the medicine cat and glared right back, shooting back some cruel-sounding words Gustpaw couldn't quite make out.

"He almost scratched me," it was Fadedkit, who had slipped silently beside her, still trembling. Gustpaw's head whipped round to meet his eyes, blinking.

"Why?" she should probably apologise for the wind, but… he couldn't know it was her. She hadn't meant to anyway, what was there to be sorry for? The fact some cruel twist of fate had landed her with this impossible ability? No. She wouldn't say sorry to anyone for that. She was the one who deserved to be apologised to.

"I don't k-know," Fadedkit whimpered, gaze stuck to the ground, "he seemed so, so… determined, so angry, even more so than usual… he said he had to 'make her sleep and sleep deep' or something and when I tried to stop him leaving he jumped on me and unsheathed his claws…" he trailed off, too terrified by just recounting the scene. Gustpaw pitied him; Cloudpaw might be a show-off but he wasn't a bully and Cinderpaw would never hurt a fly. Fadednkit was the most meek cat there was and he plagued by his overpowering brother every moment of the day. At least he was going to be an apprentice soon and then he could spend more time away from him and more time with Gustpaw and her siblings.

"It's not your fault," was all Gustpaw could offer, gaze falling onto Ravenkit and the rest of the group. Shadepool had appeared now too and seemed to be restraining Duskshadow, whilst Robinwing was having a quiet word with Honeyblossom. Ravenkit sat below all the drama still dripping wet and looking horribly confused. Embercloud was nowhere to been seen.

It didn't make sense. Why didn't anything ever seem to make sense? Gustpaw felt like her whole life had been a series of confusing misfortunes ever since she had discovered that she had this useless ability. And she hated it. Why her? What did she do wrong? Why not give the ability to Cloudpaw so he could show off about it? Everyone would love him. They wouldn't love her if she revealed her power. They'd kill her.

Kill me, the thought lingered in Gustpaw's mind, eyes glazing over as she consumed herself in her own thoughts, they would. They'd think that I'm some sort of freak and they'd kill me so I didn't put anyone in danger. Was it melodramatic, to think that? Gustpaw didn't think so. This talent of hers was going to cause her nothing but trouble, she could feel it. She had to find a way to get rid of it.

But how?

"Gustpaw!" Fadedkit was nudging her with a white-tipped paw worriedly, looked at her with those huge golden eyes she always thought she might drown in. There was so much feeling glowing in those two shining orbs, so much fear. They were a lake no one was allowed to breach.

"What? I… sorry. I was thinking," Gustpaw murmured, shaking her head to snap herself out of her reverie, turning to face him properly. He averted her gaze. Fadedkit's gaze with deeper than the Moonpool but Gustpaw's was piercing as sunlight and brighter than dew and it was too much for Fadedkit. Most things to do with eye contact were too much for Fadednkit, but it was Gustpaw's eyes that always unnerved him the most; they contained something infinitely unreadable and unendingly compelling.

"Fadedkit, do you who he was talking about? Who this 'her' was he wanted to sleep deeply?" a thought had suddenly occurred to her and she wasn't sure whether she liked it. Maybe she was assuming too much… no, she couldn't be too cautious these days, when every movement created a new mystery.

Fadedkit was so fixed on the ground he turned his whole head to face it, refusing to even glace at the apprentice, "he… he said… he said…" she could barely understand his voice it was trembling so much.

"Said what?" Gustpaw asked urgently, turning her whole body to face him, "said what?"

"The one… the Gust," now he turned to face her and eyes were two orbs of undiluted fear, "that's you."

She wasn't even surprised. Honestly she didn't even know if she was capable of being surprised anymore, after all these ridiculous events that kept happening. Still, it brought a whole new batch of questions to claw at her insides. She was surprised her whole body wasn't in ribbons from all the turmoil the constant stream of questions had been causing.

"He didn't tell me why," Fadedkit added before Gustpaw could find words of reply, his eyes returning to fix on the earth. Just another missing piece to the picture, then. The calico looked over at the black tom, gaze softening. He was so innocent. Life wasn't fair; it always seem to pick on the harmless ones.

"It's okay," Gustpaw tried, scuffing the earth with a paw, "just another thing that doesn't make sense," she sighed bitterly, focus drifting back over to Ravenkit and company. Only Shadepool, Duskshadow and their kit were left now and Shadepool's scolding was loud enough to be heard all over camp.

"Do you think life is some sort of joke, Ravenkit?" he snarled, leaning down so his black face was right next to Ravenkit's own, "think you can do what you like because you're oh-so-little, oh-so-cute? Guess what, life doesn't work like that. Get your act together or you'll get left behind." He drew in a sharp breath, leaning in even closer, until all Ravenkit could probably even see was his father's face and his dark, dark eyes made of liquid rage.

"And we don't wait for anyone," he was gone before Duskshadow could stop him, though she tried. She shouted after him as he charged out of camp, her voice a desperate wail. Gustpaw could barely see Ravenkit from her position, but even from where she was standing she could practically feel the fear rolling off of him.

"I'm sorry, Fadedkit," Gustpaw offered, glancing to her side to see the kit's reaction, but he was gone. In his place was the dreadful figure of WindClan's medicine cat, fur plastered to her skin in such a way that she looked almost monstrous. The venomous look in her eyes only enhanced the effect.

She locked eyes with Gustpaw, her gaze hypnotising. Then she leaned closer to the apprentice's face just as Shadepool has done to Ravenkit moments before and said these words, "this is your fault, you know. I don't know how and I don't know why but this is your fault and you know it."

And Gustpaw knew she was right.

If anybody has just read this all from the beginning try not to be disappointed by the fact my writing has actually gotten worse over three years. It was never very good to begin with but now I'm more out of practice than ever and wow that was something special right there. Though at least now I've learnt how to actually keep a plotline moving because I could have basically cut half if not all of those early chapters. If anyone is still with me, however, prepare yourselves because things are about to get crazy random, crazy dramatic and crazy complicated and I'm really quite excited (I already said that at the beginning, didn't I? Oh well).

About 4 years on this website and my ANs are still too long. Old habits die hard.