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Nightstorm: Destiny doesn't own Warriors, fool!

Me: Nightstorm

Nightstorm: What? You don't!

Chapter Forty-Seven

By the time the sky was a black landscape with a crimson river flowing through at the horizon, Ice felt that they had covered a lot of ground. Back when she was...upset, she couldn't keep track of how far she journeyed, but it was against the numbing cold of a blizzard. Perhaps they really weren't that far from the forest.

Nettlepaw flanked her side, walking in long strides. If Ice didn't know any better, she'd say that he was just as excited as she was to make it there, only she did know better. He just wanted to get it over with, or just make her happy, or both.

In the silence of twilight, Ice felt her spine tingle against the quiet. Beside her, Nettlepaw was stiff. She turned her head a bit to look at him. "Do you - want to stop for the night?"

He shook his head. "There's no where to stop. These moors are as bare as a rat's tail. Let's keep going."

"Do you want to talk?"

He shot her a sideways glance. "Since when are you so interested in talking?"

"Well," she replied, "I just, don't want you to be so uncomfortable. I know you don't want to this, but you are, so at least...well, let's talk."

Nettlepaw was silent, and it took Ice a moment to realize he was caught in his thought, wondering what to say. Finally, he blurted out quickly, "What would have wanted your medicine cat name to be?"

She was taken aback. "What kinda of question is that?"

"I don't know, it was the first thing that came to mind."

Ice scowled at her paws, white against the dark ground. She could see that blood had dried on her claws and left her with rusty, red-brown flecks coating them over. She sighed. "Well, I actually earned my full name." She closed her head and shook her head. "No, that's not it. I - I really was just given it. They thought I deserved it, but I didn't. I..." she trailed off, not knowing what else she could say.

Nettlepaw's voice was sympathetic. "Do you remember what it was?"

Ice hesitated. "Frozenleaf," she breathed. Memories flushed in of that night at the half-moon Gathering. She screamed, and ran away while the other medicine cats watched her with horror in their eyes. She opened her eyes again to see the real world, because her flashback was too much.

You do not feel the pain of the past...said a voice within her head, eerie and breathy.

Ice cleared her throat. "Never mind me. What were you hoping would have been your warrior name?"

Nettlepaw shrugged. "I never really gave it much thought. I was too busy thinking about what my name would have been if I wasn't a warrior." He gave a little laugh. "But now that you ask...maybe Nettlefang or Nettlestrike. Something fierce like that."

"Really?" asked Ice. "I would have given you something much more compassionate. Like Nettlecreek or Nettlecloud."

"Nettlecloud?" he echoed. "Stonepaw and Smallpaw would never stop making fun of me!" He laughed again, but it was strained with sorrow. "You said they earned their warrior names?"

Ice remembered saying that once before. "Oh, yeah. I don't recall what they were exactly. Sorry."

Nettlepaw made a small noise. "Eh. That's okay. I don't really care all that much."

They were very silent for the next few moments until again, Ice couldn't stand it. "Anything else you'd like to talk about?"

Nettlepaw shook his head no. "Maybe we should stop."

When the night finally took over the twilight is when they saw a tree through the darkness. They walked faster, eager for a rest.

When they reached the tree. She and Nettlepaw climbed to it's lowest branches. Once he sat, Nettlepaw wrinkled his nose.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you smell something...rotting?" Nettlepaw asked her, swinging his head around to look at the ground.

Ice lifted her muzzle to the air and sniffed. He was right. The air was heavy with the polluted scent of something around there decaying. She held her breath against the horrible odor. "I can't sleep with that. We should find a new tree-"

"Ice, look."

Nettlepaw was staring intensely at something below them. Ice followed his wide-eyed gaze to a figure lying in the grass. Suddenly the smell slammed down even harder than before. "Did something did here? Forget this, Nettlepaw, let's go!"

He didn't budge. "Come closer."

"What?" she exclaimed, disgusted. "No! What will it take for you to move!"

"Look."

Ice was beginning to feel tired of fighting him. She leaned in closer to get a better look at the body. The moonlight shined over golden-brown tabby fur, matted at the shoulder with blood. The night lights also glistened in the reflection of an eye.

A single, half-eaten eye.

Ice gasped, and looked further. It's belly looked sliced up in pieces around it and chunks of meat from other areas of the body were missing in the neck, face, flank and legs. She could she bone beyond the rotting flesh.

Bile rose in her throat because another body resembling the first caught her sight at the corner of her eye. Nettlepaw followed her eyes and gasped loudly.

"Nettlepaw," she whispered, stomach churning. "I would usually laugh at the sight of this. What am I not laughing?"

But it was her own thoughts, not Nettlepaw, that answered.

Arrow, and Blade.

She gagged at the realization and tore her gaze away. "Let's get out of here. Now!"

Nettlepaw and Ice raced down the trunk of the tree and leaped past the bodies. They ran until all breath had escaped them, and collapsed on the ground, not caring where they were, only that they were away from that horrible sight.

"What...was that?" Nettlepaw panted, horror gripping his voice.

Ice didn't reply. She couldn't tell him what it really was. She needed him for the Clans, and telling him the truth would drive him away. She swallowed the bitter taste in her throat and said, "I have no idea."

Stirring beside her woke Ice the next morning.

Her eyes fluttered upon and her first thought was about the night before, but she pushed the painful memory aside and looked up to see Nettlepaw groggily getting to his paws.

She mumbled a greeting and stood as well, and looked over the plains, dew shining from the morning sunlight, but as she then turned to her dark gray companion, a sense of overwhelming darkness swept over everything.

"Look," Ice said, knowing what he was thinking. "Let's put last night behind us. Obviously a badger or fox or some sort of predator attacked those two cats and left them there for dead."

Nettlepaw didn't reply but agreement sparked in his amber eyes.

"Okay, shall we get going?"

"Do you think we're going the right way?" Nettlepaw asked hoarsely.

The incident last night told her that they were definetly going the right way. "Yes."

"Alright. Let's go."

The padded side by side towards the rising sun the cast an early morning glow to the brightening sky. Ice looked at it, and thought that perhaps it was a good sign, that where she was going and what she was doing was a growing triumph for her. Most of her kept that stuck thoroughly to her mind, but the small portion left of her, denied it. Why would there be a sign if there were no ancestors to give it to her? Were they warning the Clans of her arrival?

Ice growled at herself. Why did she always have to drag her mind into these thoughts? It was thoughts like these that led her away from her happiness and concentration. The only way it seemed to get out of it was to talk to Nettlepaw, and never was he easy to speak to. There always seemed to be something there that just left her thinking even more. And at this time, it felt especially wrong to speak to him. He looked so shaken up.

Somehow she had to keep her mind off StarClan. "Hey, want to hunt?" she asked quickly.

They caught a field mouse and a crow and ate in silence. Why did it always seem to bother her? Was she so used to the noise of the alleyway that she had forgotten what it was like to be engaged in such a peaceful state?

Ugh! Why must I think so much? Can't I just focus on walking and going the right direction? I also need to work on my plan, but no. I have to think continuously about those stupid Alley Cats and those stupid and 'almighty' dead cats!

Nettlepaw swallowed a bite of the crow. "I don't think it should take much longer to make it too the forest. Wpinn I left, I was journeying for about a quarter moon, and that was only because I didn't know where I was going. I'd say we'll make it too the Clans in...I don't know another sunrise?"

Ice nodded. So the blizzard really had disoriented her sense of speed. That made sense. "Great. The sooner we get there the better. I'm going to have to kill something other than a mouse or I'll go crazy."

Nettlepaw smiled awkwardly. Ice was almost sure he heard him wince.

The continued on their journey for the rest of the day without stopping. When the sun was well-behind them and vanishing beneath the moor is when the ground got a little rocky. They padded downhill until the ground dropped steeply a few fox-lengths. The ground felt hollow.

"Is it just me, or does it feel a little chilly?" asked Nettlepaw.

Ice waited a bit and realized he was right. The air was crisp and growing bitter. "Has time really past so quickly? It's leaffall already?" She remembered the forest the slept under the night before they felt. The ground had been little with brown and orange leaves that cracked under her pads. "Well, we should go inside. I think there's a cave under here."

They leaped down and slipped into the opening that welcomed them into a stone-floored cavern. One look around, told Ice of a memory she had.

She felt the ground slip out from under her when she realized where she was. Nettlepaw caught her on his shoulder and lowered her softly to the floor. The world spun around her. Nettlepaw hovered over her head and said something, but she couldn't hear. There was a shrill ringing in her ears.

Greyson...

Her head pounded with painful beats.

Why do I keep coming across the death places of the cat's I've encountered? First it was Arrow and Blade, who I had mercilessly killed. And now it's Greyson, that cat that I allowed be mercilessly killed.

Ice's thoughts slipped from her then, and the edges around her vision went black, just before the rest of it did.

Okay, we only have about one or two more chapters before the epilogue. Seriously, we're that close! Stay tuned for more!

Nightstorm: And REVIIIIEEEWWW!

Me: Couldn't have said it better myself.

~Destiny (and Nightstorm)