Hello, my readers! I'm back! I-I've kind of been out lately because writing had lost its signifigance. I felt like it wasn't important enough to commit to my stories. But all the ideas that have been whirling around in my head, whoa! I need to get back to writing!

Thank you so much for everyone who has been supporting me with this story! This is the tenth chapter, and I might have, maybe, about, five more? Probably. We're slowly coming to an end.

Review Answers:

Ambershine200: Hey, Blue! Your stories are coming along great! Thank you for all the support on this story! I'm sorry that I took so long to update... As for Clan always being capitalized, I don't really know.

Mossystar: Well, I hope by 'Gasp' you mean that you liked it...

Erin Hunteress: I'm glad you liked it! Hey, by the way, I loved your story! It had amazing description (much better than mine), and the character build was really nice! So, I'm sorry for drowning you in drama (badly written drama, but drama) and I hope that you will be pleased with this next chapter here.

Queen June: Well, thank you! I, myself, am not overly fond of my writing. I can always see faults in it. But I'm glad that you like it so much, and hope that this chapter is just as enjoyable!

Nalasleafheart: I finally updated. I'm happy that you were anxious for more of my crappy story, but sad that I made you wait, not that it was much to wait for.

AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT! THERE IS NO WAY I COULD REPAY ALL OF THE AMAZING READERS WHO HAVE MADE ALL THE EFFORT I PUT INTO THIS STORY WORTH IT!

Dovewing POV

Dovewing's eyes fluttered open. As she yawned, her mouth turned into a wide gaping hole, just like the full moon that had cast a silver glow on the tension from last night's Gathering. Her hackles had remained stiffly up all night, just from the menacing glares from ShadowClan.

Ivypool was the reason for this. She was the reason Dovewing's mind was swarmed with troubled thoughts, and the reason Bumblestripe refused to even look at her.

A tiny being wriggled inside of her, and Dovewing's anger was swept away by a wave of pure delight. Her kits would be born soon, in about a half-moon, maybe less. Jayfeather wasn't completely sure.

And here were at least two of them. Leafpool predicted four. Dovewing was so swollen that simply running was impossible. She had to sleep on her side in an awkward position, because it was excruciating to sleep on her belly or her back.

The sun was already high in the sky. These kits made her so tired. The golden solar aura seeped through the cracks in the bramble ceiling of the den, but the rays did not warm her. It was much colder now, and the earth was covered in a blanket of snow about a squirrel-length deep. Not an easy deal when you are burdened with carrying the heavy bodies of kits in your belly, no indeed.

Dovewing lurched herself to her paws, and, with her limbs shrieking in protest, she hobbled out of the nursery.

Dovewing would've appreciated a nice, plump mouse, but it was the middle of leaf-bare, and she couldn't bare taking prey from the elders and the queens that already had kits.

Lilpaw trotted over on light, dainty paws, trailed by her mother. She looked healthy enough.

"Dovewing," she mewed happily. "I caught this-uh, what was it again," she asked, turning to Sorreltail. The tortoiseshell smiled.

"A cardinal," Sorreltail reminded her daughter. Lilypaw turned back to Dovewing.

"I caught this car-din-al... cardinal for you!" she mewed, amber eyes alight with enthusiasm.

Dovewing smiled at the young tabby apprentice. "Thank you so much, Lilypaw, but I'm not hungry. You should give it to Brightheart or Purdy instead," she advised. Lilpaw's face fell and she shuffled her paws.

"Oh, okay. I just... wanted to five it to you, that's all," she mumbled, tail drooping.

Dovewing was immediately overwhelmed with guilt. "No, no, that's okay, Lilypaw! I actually am feeling a little hungry. I'd love to eat this cardinal!" she meowed cheerfully.

Lilypaw brightened, and puffered out her chest proudly. "It was about to fly away, but I jumped really, really high, and caught it in my paws, like this!" she said, demonstrating her victorious leap. Sorreltail purred in approval.

Dovewing gave the mother and daughter one last grin before she slipped out of the conversation. She plopped down uncomfortably beside the sunning rocks.

A hunting party entered the hollow with a fair haul of prey for leaf-bare. Dovewing noticed Bumblestripe deposit a squirrel and a starling on the meek fresh-kill pile. Hope filled her, and she beckoned for him to come and eat with her.

"Bumblestripe, share this cardinal with me. I'll never eat it myself!" she said, her eyes pleading him. Bumblestripe gazed at her coldly, her mouth a straight line, depicting neither disgust or delight.

"I already ate," he stated flatly, and stomped away, making an effort to kick dust up, and leaving Dovewing with the desire to cry her heart out.

She slowly took a bite of the cardinal, crunching the crimson plumage with her fangs. It was mostly just feathers, and the scarce meat was stringy and hard. And it was flavorless.

Why was it now, that she truly longed for Bumblestripe's company, and when she had had his company, she had longed for Tigerheart's? It was a weary matter.

Dovewing sighed and continued munching on the cardinal. She needed some energy in her, and some kind of willingness to get up off the ground.

Ivypool appeared out of the warriors' den, and made her way across the stone hollow to Dovewing. She had an expression on her face that made her look regretful. So she should be, Dovewing thought angrily.

The white and silver tabby bit her lip as she padded hesitantly up to her sister. "Um, Dovewing?" she mewed quietly, not meeting her eyes. She had an apologetic tone.

"You told him. I know," Dovewing said, not intending to make her feel any better. "He won't even talk to me anymore, and I knew who was to blame."

Ivypool looked bewildered. "What?" she asked, pulling an astonished face. Dovewing rolled her eyes and growled. Ivypool was so dense.

"You told Bumblestripe that my kits aren't his, and now he's angry at me. I can't believe you would do that to me!" she snarled in a low voice so that no one else could hear, launching to her paws. The quick movement made her sway on her paws, and her stomach gurgled.

Ivypool creased her brow and bared her teeth. " I didn't do that! I would never tell that secret! How could you think so little of me?" she said, the anger thick in her voice.

"Who else could have told him? Did you tell another cat, and that cat passed it on to Bumblestripe?" Dovewing mewed, grinding her teeth together in exasperation.

"No! I would never tell anyone, I promise!" Ivypool vowed in a hiss. Dovewing wasn't sure if she believed her. Her face was screwed up with anger, and the fur along her spine stuck straight up.

She turned away from her sister. She didn't really want to hear what she had to say. Even if she really didn't tell Bumblestripe, she was the one who started this whole mess with ShadowClan, and the one who had stolen Tigerheart from her in the first place.

For the fiftieth time, Dovewing reminded herself that she was the one who separated herself from the ShadowClan tom in the first place, and he was never hers.

The ferocity on Ivypool's face was replaced by the apologetic expression she had adopted before. "I swear by StarClan, Dovewing, I didn't tell Bumblestripe, and I never would. But that's not why I cam to talk to you."

Dovewing didn't reply, but she flicked her ear to show that she was listening. Ivypool hesitated again. She swallowed, opened her mouth, and then swallowed again. Dovewing's irritation and aggravation were shot through with concern for a few brief seconds, but then she grew tired of the repetitive halting.

"Get on with it!" she spat. Ivypool's ears sagged, and she exhaled and looked down.

"Alright, I'll say it..." she trailed off. "I've decided to run away with Tigerheart."

Dovewing's jaw dropped. She had never expected this. "What?! How could you leave your clan like this? Don't you want to mentor an apprentice and raise kits and serve your clan until your death?" she whispered.

Ivypool shrugged, as if it was a casual nature. "I've decided after a long period of thinking that my passion for Tigerheart exceeds my loyalty to my clan."

Dovewing was sure that she was thinking, But you decided the opposite, and that's why he's mine and not yours. But she wasn't angry at her, because it was true. She had decided that.

But she still wasn't thrilled about it.

"But-but what about Toadstep, and our mother and father, and Brightheart's new kits?" she pleaded. "What about me? My kits are going to be born soon. You'll stay until then, right? I-I want you to be there when they're born!"

I"I really don't want to leave before your nieces kits are born. I wish I could meet them, play with them, maybe even mentor one if Bramblestar allowed it. But I know that my destiny takes place far away, with Tigerheart. I love him more than anything else in the world," she mewed quietly and sincerely. Dovewing shrank back down onto her side. She didn't say a word, just turned away from her sister so that she wouldn't see the tear sliding down her cheek.

Ivypool left eventually, and Dovewing let the sobs rack her body. No one noticed, they were too busy. Ivypool would be gone soon, leaving a heartbroken Toadstep, a horrified mother and father, and a petrified sister, unable to live in a world without her littermate.

At times Dovewing had wanted to just run away from Ivypool and never return to her. Other times she wanted to rake her claws down her side. But right now, all she wanted was for Ivypool to come back and laugh and say, "It was only joke, I'll never leave you!"

They had fought so much, argued and quarreled, and come close to battling. They had spit hateful words at one another, and stomped away wishing the other would fall into a black pit of darkness.

She had taken it for granted. Every moment, even if they fought, even when the prophecy tore them apart from each other, even when they both wished for Tigerheart's love, they were inseparable. They were linked forever. How could they not need each other?

All of this rained down from Dovewing's eyes in the form of tears that plummeted to the ground like forgotten dreams, and left a stain that would eventually dry away, and be forgotten. But it left a stain on Dovewing's soul that would never go away, and never be forgotten. Ivypool was her second half.

And why was this all coming to her the moment Ivypool was leaving her? Why had she not recognized their bond earlier, when they would be together for longer? It was just like Bumblestripe and Tigerheart. Painfully ironic, no?

Dovewing didn't want to have to explain to anyone why she was crying, so she darted out into the woods she she wouldn't be bothered, and let the numbness wash over her.

Her breaths lengthened and her eyelids drooped, and she decided to take a sleep here on the frozen earth, where no one could break her heart again...

Dovewing woke from her slumber, her body trembling from the cold. What had awoken her? The forest was silent around her.

Then a great yowling broke the stillness and made Dovewing's ears ring. It grew louder and was joined by many yowls. Dovewing shot upward, and raced in the direction of the commotion, as fast as her weight would allow her.

She came up over the ridge, and she had a perfect view of a bloody skirmish on the ShadowClan border. Three ThunderClan cats, Mousewhisker, Poppyfrost, and Cherrypaw, up against five ShadowClan cats.

Dovewing waddled nearer to help, but stopped herself. What could she do? She was a pregnant queen who could barely walk, let alone fight in a battle.

Cherrypaw was pinned to the ground by a huge black tom, and Mousewhisker was fighting three cats at once, and Poppyfrost was losing pitifully to a quick tabby she-cat with razor-sharp claws and no mercy. She couldn't just stand there!

Dovewing swung her weight onto the tom who was attacking Cherrypaw, and stunned him. "Stop! Stop right now!" she hissed. "She's an apprentice, you big dolt! Pick on someone your own size!"

The tom snickered, his whiskers twitching. "Are ThunderClan so desperate they send queens as reinforcements?" he drawled. Dovewing couldn't fight him. And Poppyfrost couldn't go on a second longer. Mousewhisker's battle was lost before it started.

They had to retreat.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Dovewing yowled. Poppyfrost and Cherrypaw dashed away, but Mousewhisker was staggering. He couldn't even stand!

Dovewing snarled threateningly at the ShadowClan patrol. "This battle was unjust and unfair! It is over now! Get your flee-ridden pelts out of our territory!" she growled, glaring daggers at the largest tom. The patrol tottered sheepishly away.

Mousewhisker lay on his back, his legs splayed out awkwardly. His sides heaved and he moaned in pain. Dovewing whipped around to Cherrypaw.

"You're the fastest! You go to camp and get Jayfeather and Leafpool! Run faster than you ever have before!" she instructed. Cherrypaw nodded and raced away.

Dovewing examined Mousewhisker's wounds. His gray and white fur was barely visible through all the blood. The most blood was coming from an extra deep scratch on his flank. Dovewing snatched up a clump of moss in her teeth and began to soak up the blood and clean his wounds. That was all she knew how to do.

"Will he be okay?" Poppyfrost mewed shakily from behind. Dovewing passed a patch of moss to the tortoiseshell she-cat.

"I'm not sure how long he has without a medicine cat. The best we can do is clean his wounds and soak up blood. Cobwebs would work better for this, but there aren't any around," she said, thinking quickly. Mousewhisker moaned again, fainter than last time.

"What happened? How did the battle start?" Dovewing asked. Poppyfrost shrugged.

"We didn't do anything. Smokefoot accused us of stealing prey, and Mousewhisker denied it. They argued for a while, and then suddenly one of the younger ones sprang at Cherrypaw. Both Mousewhisker and I tried to help her, but the others attacked us," she explained.

This was all Ivypool's fault! If she could just be more sneaky and cover up her scent, then this never would've happened! Maybe if she just never loved Tigerheart, then all of this would never have happened!

If Mousewhisker dies because of this, she thought angrily, I will never forgive her. This is all her fault!