Oh my gosh guys, so many reviews! Before I posted this chapter I had 100 more reviews than I had chapters. You know how that feels? Awesome, that's how. You are all so epic.
Wolftaco gets an Oakshade plushie to rip into pieces *tosses plushie*
DahliaStarr gets a Frozenpaw and Nettlepaw plushie because they are so cute together. *tosses plushies*
Enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: Are any of you out there tired of reading these? Because I'm tired of writing them. *sigh* I don't own Warriors!
"Hello, Frozenpaw. It's good to see you again," Squirrelfur purred sarcastically, smiling broadly at the white she-cat. Frozenpaw dug her claws into the ground as she stopped beside Hailblaze at Highstones.
She knew since her first day, that there was something about going to the Moonstone that she hated. It didn't take many visits to realize it was Squirrelfur. Since the first time the pale gray she-cat teased her about her size, Frozenpaw had forever, searched for some good reason the medicine cat didn't like her for. She had grown since her ceremony, and was now almost Squirrelfur's size, but that didn't seem to change anything.
Hailblaze softly growled. "Don't talk to her that way, Squirrelfur. Anyway, where's Goldenwillow? Is she ill?"
The WindClan medicine cat suddenly appeared forlorn. "I am afraid so. Very ill. With a disease I am unfamiliar with."
Spiralwhisker, who had been sitting beside Squirrelfur, nodded. "We are all sorry to that. May StarClan guide your paw steps, and Goldenwillow that we all wish the best for her."
"It's very hard to grasp," Squirrelfur admitted. "She's always been by my side, and I've known her for so long. Getting used to being the only medicine cat is going to take a while to get used to."
Hailblaze chuckled lightly. "Don't worry. It shouldn't take too long. Frozenpaw already acts like the leader of the herbs!"
Frozenpaw growled. It wasn't true. She had been an apprentice for five moons now, and she still felt completely out of place while sorting leaves or making poultices. Being a medicine cat was not her true destiny, and as Lionpaw's warrior ceremony wound closer and closer, she felt like she was watching the life she would never have play before her eyes.
"Come," Hailblaze said. "It's time we meet with our ancestors."
They journeyed down the series of dark tunnels, only using each other's scents to navigate them towards the cavern. Frozenpaw was beginning to feel more relaxed now when she came to the Moonstone. It had been so long since she had her haunting dream with the mysterious white cat. However, never had she come face to face with a real StarClan warrior. Her dreams would be filled with the things they always were: her longing to be a warrior, and her pain of her lost friend.
As the underground room opened up into an unreal world, Frozenpaw couldn't help but let herself fall into the endless wonder she was bound to endure, no matter how many times she would come to Highstones. Her fur would stand on end, her heart would quicken its pace, her spine would tingle with an icy sensation, just beholding the magnificent stone before her. She took her place beside Hailblaze, tucked her paws underneath her chest and let her nose connect with the sacred stone.
Frozenpaw was flashed into a pool of darkness, abandoning the forest and her place beside her mentor. As she was flung into the peaceful void, there was nothing but just that. No worries, no thoughts about her family or Lionpaw or Nettlepaw or the other medicine cats. Just her, and blackness.
She hated it when light filtered the pitch dark and shone through to her dreams.
Frozenpaw blinked her eyes, trying to adjust her vision to see what had come before her. She gaped when she saw she was at Fourtrees, the same place she had her last StarClan dream. Fear and denial clenched her belly as she tried escaping her sleep. Not again, she thought frantically, listening for the almost soundless paw steps of the strange white cat.
But they never came.
Frozenpaw looked around, sniffed the air, pricked her ears, but there was no sign that the enigmatic cat was coming. The dread that gripped her stomach loosened, and she let out a deep breath.
But her relief didn't last her two heartbeats.
She was shot into another setting, a familiar land of trees and thick grasses. It took her not long to realize that she was in ThunderClan territory in the time of night. The sky was black overhead, dotted with occasional speck of silver light. She looked around, to see if there was anything that could indicate what was happening, and she froze when a twig snapped. She turned.
A figure, a cat, swiftly padding through the trees. Frozenpaw wanted to move or snarl, or something, but she was locked into place, completely frozen. It didn't smell like her Clan either. The cat was out of place, in a territory it didn't belong. She wondered who the cat was, but her thoughts were cut short when she was warped through the darkness, and the next things she knew were a massive head ache and the edge of the land.
She was standing at a cleft, where down below, she could feel evil brewing, it stirred and it growled, the kind of thing that made you want to run when you couldn't, and have no choice but to let go.
Death.
Frozenpaw leaped forward, but she had no idea where she was falling next. Teeth gripped her and she was flown high in the sky, like she expected a bird, she felt as though she could touch the stars, but, before she could even move, she was dropped.
Cold air cut through her pelt as she fell from the sky to the ground, and when she landed, pain coursed through her body, and before she knew it, the scene was black, and her mind as empty.
It was
completely
and yet
blankly
part of the
dark world
she had
fallen into.
It
was
EMPTY.
Frozenpaw shook awake. Her pelt was hot with fever, and her heart thumped rapidly in her chest, as if there was a clap of thunder threatening to escape from her chest. Her paws ached, and she realized that there were faint scratches in the stone floor beneath her, where her claws had tried to grip the stone. Her pads bled, and her breathing was uneven. It was all too much too quickly, it was a sign that she was to receive, but it all went by too fast to mean anything.
It was an urgent warning.
Hailblaze jerked his hind leg before waking. Frozenpaw watched with wide eyes as he got up and stretched out. It took her not long to realize Spiralwhisker, Squirrelfur and Whispershadow had also risen from their dreams. She slowly stood up, fearing that if she moved to quickly, she would plunge into a whole new treacherous abyss of dark slumber.
"Hurry up," Squirrelfur grumbled.
Frozenpaw didn't even both to feel annoyed.
She and Hailblaze padded side by side as the headed back for ThunderClan territory. Frozenpaw just stared ahead at the milky gray sky, with unfocused eyes that would for one heartbeat be looking at the trees in the distance, and the next a bird that was soaring just above the horizon. Hailblaze turned to her.
"I had an...alarming dream," he whispered. "I did not want to bring up back there with the other medicine cats though. What did you see, Frozenpaw?"
"Tell me yours first," she replied.
He fixed his gaze in the distance. "I began in ThunderClan territory, and it was dark, nighttime. That's when a cat made it's way across, and it smelled like an intruder."
Frozenpaw stiffened. That was exactly how her dream started out, but she didn't say anything, she listened for Hailblaze to continue.
"But before I could move, I was in a new place. It wasn't a place I was familiar with at all. What dld you think that could mean? The Clans will find themselves in a whole new forest?"
"Just go on," she murmured.
"I was standing at a cliff, and down below there was nothing but pure evil," Hailblaze explained, and he pinched up his face. "I tried to get away, but when I did I was pushed away by an excellent force as some sort of beast leapt into the air, and as it got there, shone up in the sky like a star. It was the strangest dream I have ever had. Never has anything been so unclear to me."
Frozenpaw almost stopped walking. He wasn't carried up in the air like she was? He didn't fall and hit the ground like she did? Her heart continued its rapid beating as she looked away.
What was StarClan trying to tell them?
Bleh. Worst chapter EVER in the history of EVERYTHING! I described the dream so sloppily. Also incredibly short. Now I'm sad. :( But please review to make me happy again!
~Destiny
