Hello, everyone! I'm back from the dead (aka my backpacking trip), and I whipped together this little guy to start off the fanfiction splurge I think I'm about to embark upon. My goals (and I think they may be a bit impractical but that's okay) are to finish both A Question of Arrangement AND this arc of Elemental - meaning Book 3, War of Shadows, and Sunstrike's Story - by the time school comes around. That's five more chapters of this story! Actually, there may be six...I think I tacked on one with a weird POV situation. Anyways, it won't be many more. Then we move on to Book 4! And let me tell you, Book 4 is looking pretty neat. I've plotted the beginning and the end, so I just need to fill in the middle chapters, and then we'll be completely set.

This is a rather confusing Mountainpaw chapter, and I wrote it that way, for the most part. Don't be too alarmed :)

I don't own anything from Warriors canon. Just some random ideas about weird elemental cats. Enjoy!

Chapter 15: When the Chain Breaks

"It's not fair," said Skypaw stubbornly. "How we have to be the messengers to Lionstar."

"I thought you would like it," said Mountainpaw dully. "Having all the attention and power, all of that. Seems your sort of thing."

"What is that supposed to mean?" snapped Skypaw. She shook her head when Mountainpaw shrugged absently. "If the others could just pull themselves together, we wouldn't have to give these reports."

"I think we can handle it ourselves," said Mountainpaw. "No one else needs to get involved."

"If it was you and I heading up this thing, maybe," said Skypaw. "But with Birdpaw chillier than ever and Littlepaw and Willowpaw all neurotic, we can't do anything."

Mountainpaw listened to her complaints without a sigh. He was getting used to it by now. Apparently, Skypaw considered him and Birdpaw to be the last rational littermates she had, although she felt that Birdpaw was purposefully distancing herself and did not appreciate it. Then you had Willowpaw, who was apparently a kit that needed to get her priorities straight. Littlepaw, formerly Skypaw's preferred littermate and companion, was turning into a cranky and neurotic mouse-brain as far as she was concerned. Mountainpaw secretly suspected that Skypaw thought poorly of him as well, but considered him rational enough to complain to him constantly about how they were all separated and how she was the only one that could save them because of her commitment to the prophecy.

He could only stand the constant chatter and slamming of his siblings because most of the time, he wasn't even listening. There were further things to think out that didn't involve any of them. Because this was his task. The earthquakes, the sights in the Dark Forest, it was all on him. He wasn't going to push away his littermates, but he wouldn't go out of his way to bring them along with him. He had to knock on the door of balance – whatever that meant – and solve this earthquake problem. That's what he was: earth.

The entire warrior guide council (as Mountainpaw liked to call them) was already waiting. Lionstar was, as he usually was, flanked by Icecloud and Doveheart. Jayfeather was hovering slightly farther away, as was Ivypool. So normal. It was as if they didn't even think about hiding their allegiances from the five apprentices. Mountainpaw could see just from tiny displays like this exactly what every member of the crew thought of each other. Lionstar was like a rallying point for all of them but especially for Icecloud. Doveheart was his deputy, as she had been before he even became leader. Jayfeather was ever the distant one, mysterious, perhaps reluctant to lean on them. Ivypool obviously had had a quarrel with everyone in there at some point in time, and though they all worked together, her wounds were deepest. Had Mountainpaw not known her side of the story, he would have been oddly suspicious.

"What did you want to talk about, Lionstar?" Skypaw asked pleasantly. That's exactly how she acted around the grown cats – pleasant. As if she was one of them already, and that the time she was required to spend with her actual prophecy-mates was just un-necessary and tedious.

Lionstar heaved a sigh, and it was Jayfeather who softly spoke.

"The matter of the five of you accomplishing anything," said Lionstar curtly. "We are your guardians, as you know very well. And we are strongly considering a new type of training for you."

"Training?" Skypaw asked pleasantly, although Mountainpaw picked up a note of hostility at the idea of power being torn from her paws. "What do you mean?"

"Group training, by our commands," said Lionstar. "Because the matter is that you are not able to work together when you are training apart."

"I suppose you know a lot about the type of work we must do," said Mountainpaw before he could help himself. Skypaw hissed a warning that Mountainpaw didn't want to hear. Lionstar heaved a sigh at the interruption before continuing.

"From now on, every other sunrise, the ten of us will meet and discuss what to do next."

"Because that was how you completed your prophecy, right?" said Mountainpaw bravely. "You trained with each other, and you had warriors leading the way. With all due respect, Lionstar, I think you're wrong."

"Mountainpaw doesn't mean that," said Skypaw hurriedly, shooting her littermate a scandalized glance. "We would happily accept any advice that you have to offer."

"Mountainpaw means what Mountainpaw says," said Mountainpaw. He didn't know why he was so opposed to this idea, but suddenly, it was time to vocalize how he felt about all of this. "I understand that you all just want to help. And yes, it's been difficult for us to work together lately, but I don't think monitoring us and forcing us into anything is really the best way to solve that problem."

"And how would you solve it?" asked Doveheart. "Continue lying to each other, I suppose."

"We can sort this out," said Mountainpaw. "It is our responsibility, not yours."

"Mountainpaw – " Lionstar squared his jaw, as if he had taken offense.

"You mean well," said Mountainpaw. "But if any of you think that you have what it takes to stop these earthquakes and save the Clans, then you're wrong."

"Ivypool has agreed to this," Jayfeather snapped, taking Mountainpaw by surprise. "There you go, so don't think your little secret training is going un-noticed."

Ivypool went entirely stiff, and Mountainpaw stared at his mentor.

"Jayfeather," said Icecloud. "I think that's a little bit…"

"We have to work together," said Ivypool cautiously, meeting Mountainpaw's eyes.

"Exactly the same way you did, back in the war," said Mountainpaw quietly. The warriors fell silent, and Skypaw cleared her throat.

"I'm sure we're all just a little tense right now," she said. "I think we ought to give this a try. It can't hurt for us all to learn from one another and – "

She fell silent as Mountainpaw and Doveheart stood upright. There was a shift beneath his paws, something so small that he wouldn't have been alerted to it were it not for the far-distant cries for help he could hear. A sense of dread fell over him, and then he was sprinting on uneven, shaking ground, and into the sunlight.

He could feel the rocks so unsteady beneath his paws, and he tried to call out to them, but it was as if there was no reply.

"Ivypool, Doveheart, collect every cat in the Clan and move them to the center of camp, as far away from hanging objects as possible," ordered Lionstar, pushing past Mountainpaw. "Jayfeather, Icecloud, get to safety."

"I'll help," said Icecloud with a pitying glance at her mate, and then the three she-cats of the warrior guide committee bounded off, raising their voices in siren. Lionstar leaped over Mountainpaw and Skypaw, landing firmly on the ground and looking back up at his kits. Mountainpaw saw the concern and smelt the fear, and then Lionstar turned around and began doing his duty.

"We have to get the others," said Skypaw, and then she was gone as well. That left Mountainpaw right outside Lionstar's den as the world shook. Everything moved and kept moving, and he tried to steady himself on the rocks that once were his friends and now were his enemies. He shut his eyes, seeking balance that could not be found. Then he opened his eyes, realized that there was still danger all around him, and rushed down into camp below.

Cats ran in all directions, but Mountainpaw could locate his sisters through the nonsense, and they huddled towards him. Willowpaw pressed into Mountainpaw's pelt, shaking furiously.

"What do we do, Mountainpaw?" asked Birdpaw, her eyes wide. Mountainpaw didn't know, but how could he tell her that? He let his eyes scan camp, spotting the places where rocks seemed to be sturdiest, but it was too hard to figure out what was holding what together when he was just getting dizzier.

"You all are useless!" screamed Skypaw. She rounded on Willowpaw. "Willowpaw, ice the perimeter of camp."

"What?!" screeched Willowpaw.

"It will stop the rocks from falling," Skypaw began, but Willowpaw wiggled out of reach and shook her head frantically. There were tears falling from her eyes by this point.

"I can't do anything!" she said. "I'll just make it worse, I will. I can't help you OR the Clan – I'll destroy everything!"

"Willowpaw, focus!" said Skypaw, but Willowpaw hissed, lashing out with a paw as Skypaw made to reach for her.

"I'll just make it worse," she whispered, and before Mountainpaw could react she bolted into the crowds, potentially to find Icecloud or Mouseclaw or someone.

"Willowpaw!" Skypaw screamed her sister's name to no avail, and then she turned to Birdpaw and Mountainpaw to yell some directions that didn't make sense.

Her orders entering and exiting his brain at the same rate, Mountainpaw took a deep breath and made another circle. It wouldn't be enough to ice the perimeter, as things were too unsteady. This was all caused by something – but what? He tried to extend his senses with his powers to feel what the source was, but every time he tried, a blockade as sharp as claws hacked through his power, and he returned to his location, reeling from the exertion. There had to be another way.

The trees on the perimeter were waving in the wild wind, and Birdpaw had noticed it.

"Skypaw, if you don't do something now, that tree is going to fall," said Birdpaw.

"I have more important things to handle than a falling tree!" said Skypaw, her blue eyes wild. "Namely, what I'll do if a rock falls and crushes our Clan-mates!"

"If that tree falls into camp, it will crush our Clan-mates," said Birdpaw. "Let the rock you're holding fall. It's on the perimeter, and it won't hurt anyone."

"I won't destroy the camp!"

"Skypaw, you must!"

"Birdpaw, can't you do anything? Burn the tree for all I care. We have to keep the camp together and everyone safe."

"The camp doesn't matter!"

"It all matters," said Skypaw furiously. "This is my home, and I will not let some stupid earthquake that nobody will stop do anything about it. Mountainpaw, can you get control of the rocks at the top of the clearing?"

Mountainpaw ignored her request. It would do no good. He narrowed his eyes at the bottom rings of rock that surrounded their camp, watching them tremble from all the exertion up above. A large chunk of rock fell from up above, and Skypaw screamed, reaching out to catch it on a bed of air at the same moment Mountainpaw tried to dissolve it into dust.

"Mountainpaw, that's not helping," said Skypaw. "Do something useful!"

"Let go of the rock," said Mountainpaw quietly. "I can dissolve it before it hits the ground."

"Let go?!" Skypaw hissed. Mountainpaw repeated the request as he turned around the camp once more. There was something he was missing. He could stop the rocks from falling on the top, but Skypaw would do that whether or not he wanted her to. No, that wasn't true.

"Skypaw, you mouse-brain, let me do my job!" said Mountainpaw with all the force he had, and he rounded on his sister until her eyes went wide with surprise. "You can help the Clan, but let me do what I can do. This is not your burden to bear. This is my duty."

"This is a job for all of us," said Skypaw ferociously. "Birdpaw – I told you to take care of the tree! Birdpaw?!"

"I can't be seen, or the Clan will panic!" And Birdpaw was gone, racing up the slope to exit the camp. "I'll be fine!"

Mountainpaw's heart leapt into his throat as he saw the shadow move through the rock Birdpaw was standing on. In the shade cast by a waving tree, he saw the dark shape move of its own accord, wiggling around the rocks beneath Birdpaw's paws. It took a shape he recognized then – the shape of a cat. He could do nothing but watch as the shadow cat met Mountainpaw's eyes with empty, dark sockets, and then it dissolved into a clap of dust. At that moment, he heard Birdpaw scream, and he leaped forward, kicking Skypaw by mistake as he reached with his powers and steadied the rocks just enough for his sister to grab a hold of the one above it. Mountainpaw met his sister's eyes, and she took off, reaching safety on the grassy slope above, and he let the rock fall. Everything crashed to the ground.

"This is useless!" yowled Skypaw, and Mountainpaw saw that by this point she had managed to take a hold of three rocks on the perimeter. He scanned the camp. "I'm lowering these rocks. I can't…I'm sorry." She coughed, as if holding back tears, and Mountainpaw winced as a boulder crashed into the apprentice's den, effectively smashing it. Another followed suit, and Skypaw hissed in exhaustion.

The Clan was safe, he realized, but the earthquake was still going on, and there were shadows in his precious rocks – probably what was cutting him off. He took a deep breath and once more stretched his powers out to circle the camp and sense what was going on. Where was this coming from? Could he sense it, maybe? One side of the camp was shaking furiously, as if something was ramming into it repeatedly. Without wasting another second, he ran towards that side of the camp, ignoring the cries of his Clan-mates. He wasn't afraid of being crushed by a rock, and the smell of smoke from above him suggested that Birdpaw would keep plants from falling in and hurting him. Taking a deep breath, Mountainpaw smashed into the rocky side of the wall at full force, forgetting that it hurt, forgetting that this may in fact make things worse. He touched it, and knew it, and connected with it, and that was enough for him to understand that there was something dark moving in the fabric of the earth, an unholy dust disrupting everything he knew about the world. And he would exterminate it. He just wasn't sure how to reach the source.

"Enough," he whispered, but he didn't know who he was talking to. He reached out with whatever power he could find within him, surprised at how hardened he was all of a sudden as he steadied everything. It had to stop. He would make it, because he was Mountainpaw, he who knocked at the door of balance, and he would devour the shadows that threatened his Clan and the balance of the world he would protect.

The shaking stopped, as if scared away by that one, never-vocalized threat.

Mountainpaw looked up as everything settled down both in his head and in his surroundings, and he saw that the camp was staring at him. He had, after all, just run into a wall with a vengeance. There was only one interruption, and that was the loud crash of the remaining rocks Skypaw had been holding up. Mountainpaw glanced over at his sister, to see that she had passed out, but Jayfeather and Icecloud were already with her. He glanced up to see Birdpaw scampering down into camp as well, hopping over the one rock that had fallen down to the camp below. As the camp slowly spread out to investigate what was left of their camp, he could see Willowpaw, still shivering on the fringes as if she had been close to magical exertion when in fact she had done nothing at all.

Then, out of nowhere, Littlepaw came skidding up to him, his eyes wide and his fur on edge.

"And where have you been?" snapped Mountainpaw.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and he shook as if he had been simultaneously running and having a nightmare. "I'm sorry I wasn't – I'm sorry, Mountainpaw."

"You should be," said Mountainpaw. "Willowpaw was entirely useless, and Birdpaw and Skypaw – well." He huffed, making his brother flinch. "I don't think any of us will be quite ready to team up again anytime soon."

"I'm sorry," he repeated, still as shaky as the earth had been moments earlier. "But I think I know how to end this. And it's going to take all of us to pull off."

"This is my task to complete, not theirs," said Mountainpaw lowly.

"This is the only way," said Littlepaw.

The two brothers stared at each other, and Mountainpaw felt suddenly so weary of all of this, and somewhat wary of what was ahead. To get everyone together would mean knocking Skypaw down a few rungs, forcing Willowpaw to release the truth she hid, and opening up Birdpaw's thoughts. It would also mean accepting that Littlepaw was stepping into the pawsteps Mountainpaw had doubted he could fill. Most of all, it would mean letting go of the duty Mountainpaw felt was his own, and asking for help.

"Fine," said Mountainpaw. "What do we need to do?"

I'm really glad we're getting to this part of the story now. Like the part of the story where the Five are old enough to have their own personalities, and where the story is clear and mature. Ah, it's awesome. I was realizing the other day that, potentially because of how my writing has evolved, the vibe in this book is drastically different and more mature than the vibe in Books 1 and 2. That was a mini-rant. It's over now.

If you liked this chapter, let me know by reviewing! I would love to hear from you!

Stay tuned, because next chapter will be Birdpaw's - Chapter 16: The Lying Game. I have another huge and tedious writing project I hope to finish by Tuesday, and then I'll buckle down and get to finishing Elemental. So, it shouldn't be long!

~Elsi