A/N: Only... counts on fingers three chapters left!

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Sorry that this chapter is so short.

Chapter 22 | Snowstar

"Seriously," Snowstar said, bleeding heavily and fending off attacks from both sides, "a compromise would be a great idea."

"I don't really think so," Hollypaw responded, battering Snowstar's legs to unbalance her. "I mean, we're trying to drive you out."

"Yeah," agreed Lightningclaw. He headlocked Snowstar and Hollypaw knocked her down. "I mean, you've been our enemy for a while now."

"Ah. Well, um, would an apology suffice?"

"Nope!"

Soon Snowstar was pinned. Lightningclaw aimed his claws at her throat, then snapped, "Come on. To the Great Rock." Hollypaw shepherded Snowstar like caows (or whatever those black-and-white things were called) and Lightningclaw aimed his claws at her throat.

"Now say exactly what I say, or you're dead," hissed Lightningclaw. Snowstar swallowed hard but nodded.

"Wolves of IceClan," whispered Lightningclaw.

"Wolves of IceClan," called Snowstar. She listened to Lightningclaw and then continued. "We are retreating back to our territory. I am under WaterClan's cont-" She broke off. "I refuse to say that!" she snapped to Lightningclaw. "I'm not a traitor to IceClan."

A moment later, she fell to the ground. Eyes glassy, claws softened, Snowstar lay there, her last sneer slowly fading from her face. "She's dead," whispered Hollypaw, but somehow everyone heard her.

"Dead?" cried Emberfoot.

"I don't believe it!" yelled Swallowtail. "Snowstar couldn't die, she's... immortal."

"Show me the body," Claystar snapped. "I want to see for myself."

Lightningclaw kicked the limp body to the clearing with distaste. Hollypaw looked up at him. "Are we done here?" she whispered. "I want to see Windrunner."

"Almost," her leader whispered back. "First we must see this camp cleansed of IceClan."

"She's dead," Hollypaw murmured, almost to herself. "We killed her, and without MoonClan's help either."

"Snowstar is dead!" screamed Swallowtail. "Oh, Dark Forest… There's no point being here without Snowstar." She pushed through the exit.

One by one, the other wolves realized that their unshakable leader was dead, and they too fled the camp until finally, at last, they were all gone.

But one thing was wrong. "Where's the body?" Hollypaw asked in bewilderment.

"Taken," Lightningclaw said grimly. "She went straight to the Frost Forest. That's bad. It means that if she decided to visit the living, like MoonClan, she'd be able to touch us. Usually Dark Forest or Frost Forest wolves can't touch living beings."

"And Darkfire?" Hollypaw asked. "Is she still there?"

The two wolves raced up to the leader's den to see. There was the imprint of Darkfire in the sand, but she herself wasn't there. She'd limped away as evidenced by the trail of blood. "She escaped," Lightningclaw said. "We'll have to deal with her another day."

"Yes," hissed Hollypaw. "She killed Swiftbreeze and I will never forgive her for that. Never."

The two wolves spent the rest of the day until sunhigh clearing out the IceClan-scented moss, replacing the herbs that Gorsepelt, the medicine wolf, had taken for himself, and drenching the IceClan scent marks with WaterClan.

At sunhigh, they returned to Twolegplace with Yellowtail and Sandcub. Hollypaw was immediately tackled by Honeypaw. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" she screamed. Then Dustpaw was on her, and so was Windrunner.

Lightningclaw was getting the same welcome by all his cubs and had disappeared beneath a multi-colored mass of fur. Then Hollypaw tensed. "How's Falconpaw?" she asked anxiously.

Frostfur pointed towards him. The cobweb couldn't be taken off because it was part of the scab, and he smelled like infection. Most of Falconpaw's cuts had healed, but the belly slice was infected. Hollypaw cut the cobweb open through the middle, careful not to hurt Falconpaw, and worked quickly with the marigold. She carefully cut out the rest of the cobweb and applied moss instead of more cobweb so it wouldn't stick to the wound again.

"Is he all right?" whimpered Honeypaw.

Hollypaw kept working for a few more heartbeats before she looked up. "He'll be fine, but he'll need to rest for at least another quarter-moon."

"YES!" screamed Honeypaw. She tackled Hollypaw and drenched her with grateful licks. "Thank you thank you thank you! I don't know what I'd do without you!"

Hollypaw smiled and said, "No problem. I do this every quarter-moon."

"Hey, speaking of moons," Honeypaw said, "isn't there a Howl Time tonight? Remember how bright the moon was during the invasion?"

"Oh yeah!" Hollypaw said. "I-"

She didn't get a chance to finish because Lightningclaw jumped up onto a boulder and called, "WaterClan, Clan meeting!"

The wolves and lions gathered beneath the boulder and looked up at Lightningclaw expectantly. Lightningclaw announced, "Hollypaw and I have cleared our camp of IceClan warriors, and killed Snowstar! Today, we move back into camp!"

The warriors cheered rousingly.

"And tonight, we shall go to the Howl Time, and show the other Clans that we are strong!"

The Clan whooped and cheered loudly.

"We'll show Darkfire that we're not a Clan to mess with!" Lightningclaw jumped down from the boulder and called, "Follow me to camp!" The warriors and apprentices charged after him, except for Hollypaw, Honeypaw, and Falconpaw, who was still unconscious.

"What do we do now?" Honeypaw dithered uncertainly.

"We carry him. You take his head and I'll take his back legs."

They arrived at camp not long after everyone else did.

()()()()

As the day turned to night, warriors went out hunting and patrolling, Hollypaw replaced her damaged herbs, the lions cleaned out the Cold Cave and the leader's den, the apprentices got rid of all IceClan remains, and Lightningclaw couldn't be more proud of his Clan.

"I can't believe it," he murmured to Yellowtail. "Just the three of us then, and look what it is now." His words held a bittersweet edge. Swiftbreeze had sacrificed herself to make the Clan what it was.

Yellowtail smiled back sadly. "Yes. It seems as if the forest is enchanted to keep away lions. These are wolves' territories, and soon Sandcub and I will die, and the forest will belong to the wolves again."

Lightningclaw wanted to deny this, but he knew it was true. Yellowtail had barely survived redcough. She was getting old, anyways. She'd lived through three generations and might not make it through a fourth.

"You're lucky to be leader of such a loyal Clan, Lightningclaw," Yellowtail said. "You have a great destiny."

"Yes," said Lightningclaw after a while, looking back on the sunset. He thought about his cubs, his mate, his Clan, his destiny. "Yes. I'm a very lucky wolf."

()()()()

That night at the Howl Time, WaterClan, except for Yellowtail, Sandcub, and Falconpaw, surged down the slope to the Howl Time place. Every wolf was groomed meticulously. That night, Snowstar wasn't there, but Lightningclaw had a feeling she was watching from the Frost Forest, waiting to get revenge.

Lightningclaw jumped smoothly onto the Great Rock and helped Cloudstar up. SnowClan weren't his enemies, so they could be allies. One never knew when IceClan would get back to full strength.

But to his surprise, when IceClan showed up, Darkfire jumped onto the Great Rock with all the arrogance that Snowstar had had. "Hello, Darkfire," snapped Cloudstar with more than a little animosity. "What are you doing here?" It was an obvious effort for Cloudstar to speak politely, or semi-politely.

"I'm leader of IceClan, obviously," Darkfire snapped. "I was deputy when Snowstar died."

"Yes, you were," Lightningclaw said, dipping his head to her as courteously as he could. "Did you get your leader's name?"

"Yes," Darkfire said, tossing her head arrogantly. "Which is more than you can say. Wolves of the Clans, meet Darkstar!"

IceClan cheered and the other two Clans went silent, but there were so many more wolves in IceClan so it looked like everyone was cheering.

"What sort of news do you have?" Lightningclaw asked Cloudstar, conspicuously skipping Darkstar.

"Prey has been running well," Cloudstar reported, "and we have two new warriors: Willowheart and Pebblestorm."

"Willowheart! Pebblestorm!" WaterClan and SnowClan chanted, loudly overpowering IceClan's boos.

Cloudstar nodded to Lightningclaw, who announced, "WaterClan is thriving. Our apprentices are nearly ready for their warrior names. We are coping well after being brutally attacked and driven by our camp from IceClan." SnowClan gasped in shock at the atrocities of IceClan, now only just revealed.

Lightningclaw continued, "We have driven IceClan out after they took over our camp. We mourn the loss of our medicine lion, Swiftbreeze, as she was murdered by Darkstar.

"One of our apprentices, Falconpaw, was injured terribly by IceClan and consequently couldn't attend this Howl Time. A warrior, Sunrise, and his cub, Goldencub, were both murdered by Snowstar." Lightningclaw kept going on like this and one by one, each of IceClan's atrocities were revealed.

"But WaterClan is strong. Despite these crimes, despite all we've been through, WaterClan shall live on!"

Darkstar shouldered to the front of the Great Rock and snapped, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always blaming IceClan."

"It is true?" called Stonestream. "Did your Clan do all this?"

"Yes," admitted Darkstar. "But-"

"Did you murder Swiftbreeze?" called Dapplepelt, who was medicine wolf of SnowClan and a friend of Swiftbreeze's.

"Yes, but only because Snowstar-"

"Did you invade our camp?" cried Frostfur.

"Um… yes?"

"Then you're not fit to be a leader!" Frostfur screamed.

"I AM LEADER OF ICECLAN! MOONCLAN THEMSELVES CHOSE ME!" bellowed Darkstar. The Howl Time place became quiet. More calmly, Darkstar said, "Yes, I admit that I did everything you are accusing me of. However, that was under the rule of Snowstar."

"Who's to say that you're not going to do the same things as Snowstar?" Frostfur challenged.

"No one," Darkstar responded, "but won't you give me a chance?"

"Like I'd give a murderer a chance!" screamed Hollypaw. "You killed my mentor!"

"I-"

Two silver warriors shimmered into the air. Hollypaw heard Swiftbreeze telling her, It is time. It must be revealed.

What? What's revealed? Hollypaw received no answer other than a breathy Wait and see.

"Grayheart!" Frostfur gasped, looking at the gray MoonClan warrior that had appeared before her. Grayheart was Frostfur's father in ThornClan, now dead. Frostfur had never known her mother.

"Silverflame?" Darkstar gasped, looking at her parent. For a second her voice and Frostfur's sounded one and the same. "Silverflame? What are you doing here?" Silverflame smiled at Darkstar, who'd never known her father. Then without a word, Silverflame and Grayheart padded to the center of the clearing together and twined their tails lovingly.

And it was all clear to Hollypaw. How Frostfur had never known her mother. How Frostfur's and Darkstar's voices sounded similar. How Darkstar had never known her father. She knew the real reason that Snowstar had formed an alliance with Claystar.

"Frostfur and Darkstar are littermates!" she gasped out loud. "They're half-Clan!"

A/N: Wow, Darkstar is half-Clan! I wonder what will happen next :D

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