Beneath the sky, completely oblivious to the danger and chaos going on in the land of the dead, in ShineClan's territory, a heavily pregnant she-cat sat still as ice staring up at the dawning sky. She marvelled silently as streaks of pink, gold and blue painted themselves across the black sky. Already the stars were starting to wink out, the cats they belonged to vanishing deeper into the territory of SilverClan. The she-cat blinked, rose to her paws and stretched her back, belly touching the ground. She grunted in annoyance as her large stomach got in the way of her stretch. Can't wait to get rid of this stomach, it's starting to get stupidly annoying.

There was a rustling in the gorse behind the she-cat and she jumped a little. "Who's there?" she demanded.

"Just us," a deep voice rumbled as a patrol of four warriors crept out. Their fur was flattened down by dew from crawling through gorse and long grass. "Why are you out here, Ivyfrost? Poolfur would flay you if he found you out here so close to your due date."

"I can take care of myself, Snaketail," Ivyfrost grumbled, twitching her tail. "Surely I'm allowed to watch the sunrise in the morning? You can't stop me, even if you are deputy."

Snaketail narrowed his eyes and then indicated to a ginger tom, "Take her back to camp, Wildleg"

"I'll just leave again," Ivyfrost hissed.

The deputy curled his lip in annoyance, stony gray tail lashing. "Wildleg, when you get back to camp take her to the medicine den and have one warrior guard the den entrance. She mustn't get back out in case she goes into labor outside of camp. Or decides she doesn't want her kits anymore."

Ivyfrost gasped in horror. She wouldn't dare think about killing her kits! Just because their father was with another she-cat doesn't mean she wouldn't want them. A low growl echoed in her throat at the thought of her previous mate. "Come now, Ivyfrost," Wildleg said gently. "Let's get you back to camp."

Instead of protesting, Ivyfrost followed Wildleg as the ginger tom began to pad in the direction of camp. Long, brown grass stood in the way and the two cats had no choice but to shoulder through it. Cold drops of dew smeared over their pelts, slicking it down and soaking through to the skin. It annoyed Ivyfrost a little. She took great pride in her fur, always making sure it was fluffy and well groomed. She'd have to spend a while drying her fur out in the sun for the dew to melt away. If she was even allowed into the sun now that she was a prisoner in the medicine den.

She sighed. Her Clan didn't trust her anymore. They all thought she was going to snap one day and kill either her old mate or the she-cat that had stolen him from her. But they were all wrong. She wouldn't dare kill anyone, it just wasn't something she ever be able to do, especially to a Clan mate she had grown up with. The Clan just didn't understand anymore, no, they didn't want to understand. All they wanted was for a queen with a broken past to forget about it, have kits and then become a warrior again, ready to protect her Clan with her life.

But it just wasn't that easy anymore.

"You okay, Ivyfrost?" Wildleg murmured. He looked a little wary. Ivyfrost snorted. Apparently he had heard of the rumours going around about her. Had he heard the one about her eating an apprentice from another Clan? Or had he heard the one about her knocking her victims out, dragging them to a cave and then torturing them?

"You don't need to look so frightened of me. I'm not going to hurt you. You really shouldn't pay attention to these rumours, most of them are fake. Do I look like the kind of cat who could drag a full grown male to some cave and then torture them?"

Wildleg flattened his ear slightly and licked his chest in embarrassment, "Sorry. It's hard not to believe them a little when you hardly talk to anyone anymore." He looked back at Ivyfrost with his ice blue eyes. "But you are a lot nicer when you talk, you should do it more often. Sometimes having a friend solves all sorts of troubles."

"A friend?" Ivyfrost repeated, "I had one once. He died."

"Oh." Silence fell over the two cats as the long, wet grass began to come to an end and the thorn barrier of ShineClan's camp came into view. But before Ivyfrost could be ushered in under the mocking stares of the two cats on guard, Wildleg stopped her with his tail. "It was Leopardleap wasn't it?" Ivyfrost's blank stare was enough to fluster the ginger tom a little. "Your best friend I mean. He was that elder, Leopardleap, right?"

"Uh. Yes," Ivyfrost admitted quietly and then brushed past Wildleg. "You're right, everyone needs a friend, but not everyone deserves one." Then she entered the camp. Almost immediately her pelt was smothered in the cold stares of her Clan mates. She didn't mind them too much as she had grown used to them. But there were two sets of eyes she could never get used to as they burned her pelt.

The dark amber eyes of Lionstrike, her past mate, and the pretty green eyes of his new mate. She had hoped that one day she could get used to them but inside she knew that would never happen. Her eyes were drawn down to her large stomach that cradled the fragile life of new beginnings. No. She could never get used to their stares, but she would tolerate them, for her kits.

"You shouldn't be leaving camp so close to your due date," a low voice growled from within the medicine den. Ivyfrost sighed and shouldered through the gorse to enter the dull medicine den. Poolfur sat, sorting through different size leaves, his back turned away from the den entrance. It made Ivyfrost wonder how he had heard her coming, before she realised that his sharp sense of hearing could pick up a mouse scuffling through the thorn barrier. "What if you suddenly go into labour away from camp and die?"

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine," Ivyfrost said dryly. "I'd only gone through the long grass so that I could watch the sunrise but I won't be doing it anymore. Snaketail ordered a guard to be posted outside the den so that I can't get out anymore. They're all terrified that I'm going to brutally murder some cat soon. I just wish they'd leave me alone!"

Poolfur discarded his herbs to sit beside Ivyfrost, his tail draped across her shoulders in an effort to comfort the queen. "They think you're insane, my dear, something to mock, to poke at. Until they realise that you're not insane that might not leave you alone. But for now, how about you take a nap? It might help calm you down a little."

"I suppose a nap would be nice," Ivyfrost mumbled. "I've been up since before dawn. You're lucky you can never father kits, Poolfur, they're a pain before they are even born!" she joked. As she brushed past Poolfur to get to the nest, she failed to miss the flash of pain that flitted across the medicine cat's face.

The nest was warm, soft, cosy and for once not hiding any thorns. Ivyfrost curled up into it with a purr, her eyes already beginning to droop shut. As she fell into a deep sleep she began dreaming about what life could have been if Lionstrike were still her mate. But it was just a dream, like it would always be.

A figment of her imagination.

(Yay! And I'm proud to announce the co-author is... Hawkcatcher! Or whoops, Huntress of Sacred Dreams. :D)