Okay, can I point out something depressing? I was just looking at the story stats for Blind Faith, and here's the deal – 408, FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT(!) people clicked on this story. THIRTEEN of those FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT people left a review. To me, that is sickening. Point made. I WILL NOT update this story until I get 25 reviews. So PM your friends, put it on your profile, do whatever you feel necessary to get me to update, but unless I get AT LEAST 20 reviews, this is the last chapter you will read. You will never know how this epic tale ends. Think about it.
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"May all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Highrock!"
The loud yowl pierced the delicate black curtain of sleep around Icepaw's head. She jerked awake, staring around in confusion. Pale sunlight filtered through the twigs above her head, telling the apprentice that it was just past sunrise. Yawning widely, she rose to her feet and raked the moss from her pelt. Beside her, Robinpaw was still soundly asleep.
Icepaw prodded the ginger she-cat gently in her side. Robinpaw's eyes blinked lazily open, and then focused on Icepaw's patient expression.
"Wha…?" she grumbled, rolling over in her nest and twitching her tail.
With a sigh, Icepaw poked her again. "Cinderstar's called a meeting. Get up, you lazy furball."
Shaking her pelt, the white she-cat stepped out of the apprentices' den and into the bright light of day. The other cats of ThunderClan were emerging from their dens, all half-asleep and tripping over their own paws. Stonepelt caught her eye from where he sat at the bottom of the Highrock, and she trudged over to sit next to him.
"What's going on?" she mewed, yawning again.
"The Gathering is tonight. Cinderstar's announcing who will go."
Instantly, Icepaw perked up. She'd never been to a Gathering before. Apprentices didn't usually get to go, but sometimes… she glanced surreptitiously at Cinderstar, crouched in a patch of sunlight atop the Highrock, his tail curled around his paws.
Once every cat was seated, their attention focused on Cinderstar, he straightened up and waved his tail for silence. "As you all know, the Gathering is tonight. I will now pick those warriors accompanying me."
Icepaw's face fell. He'd said warrior – not apprentices. Oh well, she thought to herself, there's always next time…if I'm a warrior by then. The thought pleased her – she imagined herself standing tall, elegant, at the lip of the hollow, gazing down at Fourtrees, where cats from all other Clans were milling around a jagged spur of rock. A loud yowl echoed through the air as she led her Clan down the hill… The image popped as Cinderstar's voice brought her back to reality. Not yet, Icepaw, she cautioned herself. You're not leader yet. A flickering smile passed over her face.
"Would Oakshadow, Brightpool, Tansyleaf, Ashfoot, Palenose and Mossfur please join me at the bramble tunnel at moonrise? Thank you, meeting over." He nodded to the crowd before slithering down the side of the boulder and slinking back to the shadows of his den. For a brief moment Icepaw wondered exactly what it was he was always doing in that den, but then she caught a glimpse of Tanglethorn and Brightpool following him and realized whatever it was it probably wasn't at all interesting.
"Icepaw!" a needling voice made a chill roll down Icepaw's spine. Her whisker quivered as she turned to face Tansyleaf. The expression on the warriors face looked as though she'd just swallowed a hive of bees, but Icepaw assumed it was…conceit.
"Yes, Tansyleaf?" Icepaw mewed, the acid in her voice concealed by a layer of fake honey.
The pale brown she-cat sniffed and stared down her nose at Icepaw as if she was something rancid and unpleasant. "Aren't you…" she searched for the word, and when it came to her a sneer twisted her muzzle, "jealous? That I'm going to the Gathering and you're not?"
Feigning innocence, Icepaw purred, "Of course not! After all, I'll get my chance soon enough!" For one moment she let her careful mask slip, exposing a wicked grin. The glint in her blue eyes made Tansyleaf stumble backwards in surprise. Before the warrior could choke out a word, Icepaw's composure had returned. She blinked placidly at Tansyleaf, her tail waving.
"You…I…well, yes, we'll see," Tansyleaf spluttered, shaken by Icepaw's lapse in control. She shook her head once and then seemed to recollect her thoughts. The she-cat drew herself up to her full height and glared fiercely at Icepaw. "Are you sure about that? I heard someone saying that Cinderstar wouldn't ever make you a warrior." She glanced up at the sky as if in thought.
Though she knew Tansyleaf was just trying to goad her into doing something stupid, Icepaw couldn't help but follow up. "And why's that?" she purred, still feigning oblivion.
Cackling with glee, Tansyleaf replied, "Because you're a kittypet!" Her stupid grin implied that the warrior believed this was possibly the most hilarious joke made at Icepaw's expense in the history of the world. With a cavalier roll of her eyes, Icepaw stalked away, leaving a shocked and somewhat crestfallen Tansyleaf behind her.
"You really should hit her, someday," came a drawling meow in Icepaw's ear. She recognized the voice but didn't turn.
"I'm biding my time, Robinpaw," Icepaw replied matter-of-factly. And it's true, she thought to herself delightedly. It's only a matter of time.
"All the same," mewed the ginger she-cat, appearing at Icepaw's side. Her pelt was still ruffled and interspersed with bits of moss, as if she hadn't groomed before the Clan meeting. "I'd like to see someone take a chunk out of that badger-brain's jaw." She chuckled at her own morbid sense of humor, her whisker twitching.
They padded side by side toward the freshkill pile. Icepaw was about to bend down and snatch a juicy-looking thrush from the stack when a thick, gray-striped tail flicked down in front of her muzzle. Confused, Icepaw stared at it for a moment.
"Have you hunted for the elders yet this morning, Icepaw? I was under the impression that you just awoke." The voice was deep and commanding, but Icepaw could detect a hint of amusement in its familiar tone. Adopting a chagrined expression, she raised her head to meet her mentor's sharp gaze.
"Sorry, Stonepelt," she mewed, making her eyes wide with embarrassment. "You see, I had a dream about hunting…I guess I thought it was real." The explanation was ridiculous of course, but as Icepaw knew, it was all in the delivery.
Stonepelt's expression softened immediately. "Mouse-brain," he purred, tail twitching. "When will you learn to tell the difference between dreams and daytime?" he gave her ear a swift lick before his gaze hardened again and he stepped back. "Be that as it may, you two still have your duty to your Clan. I expect to see you back here by sunhigh, your jaws full of prey." With that, he turned tail and loped away.
"Smooth," Robinpaw muttered, reluctantly pushing her mouse back into the pile. "He could've had us kicked out of the Clan for that. What were you thinking, eating now?"
"I could ask you the same thing," meowed Icepaw indignantly as they headed for the bramble tunnel.
"I was just following you. You can't blame me for being asleep on my paws."
Icepaw snorted. "Just like you can't blame me for having an inconvenient dream."
"Oh please," growled Robinpaw. She hissed as a thorn snagged her pelt. "You don't expect me to believe that one, do you?"
Relishing the thud of the earth under her strong paws, Icepaw led the way to the Great Sycamore, where she knew there would be mice aplenty during the heat wave that was claiming the forest. Robinpaw guessed her plan as soon as they came under the vast web of branches of the huge, ancient tree.
"I'll go this way," murmured the brightly colored she-cat. She dropped into a crouch and disappeared into the ferns with barely a whisper. Icepaw watched her go calmly – she knew that Robinpaw was not a very good hunter, but there had to be someway to easily show her up today. She knew that Stonepelt would be awaiting their return, and she had to somehow show her mentor that she was better than Robinpaw…and idea slammed into her with the force of a hurricane as she glanced around her surroundings. Feeling a little smug, the white apprentice slipped into the undergrowth, heading away from the great tree.
Snakerocks loomed in her vision only a few fox-lengths later, rearing from the sea of green ferns like some horrific monster. Keeping her paws light on the ground, Icepaw crept towards the tower of stones, tasting the air carefully. She circled the heap, once, twice, three times until she finally caught the scent she was looking for. Pinpointing her prey, Icepaw dropped her haunches and narrowed her eyes. Step by step, she closed in on the unsuspecting creature. Then with a yowl, Icepaw's claws flashed out. The creature was tossed into the air, it's dismembered head tumbling to the ground. (a/n: sorry for the gruesomeness..0.o)
Grinning, Icepaw craned her neck and gingerly lifted the dead adder from the ground. It's weight dragged her head close to the ground, but it was worth it. Her eyes narrowed with contentment, Icepaw shuffled away from Snakerocks carrying her prize.
Robinpaw was nowhere to be seen around the Great Sycamore, and when Icepaw returned to camp, all was quiet – the ginger apprentice seemed to have disappeared.
"Icepaw?" came a stunned meow. Icepaw turned as Stonepelt slipped out of the warriors' den. He stared at her in bewilderment, and Icepaw frowned, confused, until she realized that is gaze was trained not on her but on the prey she carried. The she-cat's grin widened.
"Did you…catch that?" asked the gray-striped warrior in disbelief, padding hesitantly forward as if he expected the snake to come alive at any moment take a snap at him.
Dropping the prey to free her jaws, Icepaw replied, "Yup. By Snakerocks." Then a sudden devastating thought occurred to her. "Can you…can you eat snake?" she asked, staring despondently down at the limp body of the adder.
"Well," Stonepelt murmured, taking a few steps closer, "I suppose so, yes. You might want to ask one of the elders – I've never even seen a dead adder before." He reached forward and sniffed the carcass tentatively. Then he shifted his wide-eyed gaze to Icepaw's thoughtful face. "I'm…proud of you, Icepaw. Not many cats have the skill to catch snakes without being harmed. It's the mark of a true warrior." Then he narrowed his eyes and straightened up. "However, it was a dangerous thing you did, and you should have waited until a more experienced warrior could accompany you. If the snake had bitten you, you might have died out in the forest with no one the wiser. Come one, bring your snake and we'll ask Palenose how one should go about eating it."
Icepaw gently grasped the scaly body in her jaws once more. The concept of being bitten by the snake had hardly occurred to her – it hadn't seemed possible that this small, weak creature could cause her pain. She glanced down at the snake's tail leaving a thin scar in the dust and felt a burst of satisfaction.
"Hello Stonepelt, Icepaw. Great StarClan, what have we here?" Palenose gasped as the two cats neared the elder's den. The tabby she-cat leaned forward and sniffed the snake just as Stonepelt had, her eyes betraying her nervousness. "Did you catch that, Icepaw?"
Icepaw nodded, reluctant to drop the snake in case Mossfur was around somewhere to snatch it from her. She wouldn't put it past him to claim he'd been the one to catch the adder and get her in trouble for arguing.
"Icepaw and I were wondering if you knew the best way to eat an adder – I've never had the opportunity myself," Stonepelt meowed, nudging Icepaw forward.
Palenose thought for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure I do know, but if I were you I'd ask Shortwhisker – he's got all that sort of knowledge. I just saw him go into that freezing little den of his. Oh, and would you mind bringing him some freshkill? That poor old cat never does seems to eat enough, I'm afraid he'll die of starvation one of these days and not even notice the difference." She chuckled quietly to herself as Stonepelt and Icepaw padded away.
Stonepelt carried a mouse to the medicine den, where they found Shortwhisker and Sparrowpaw padding back and forth between the cleft in the stone that made their den and the little clearing, where piles of dried herbs lay organized in neat rows.
Stonepelt cleared his throat softly and dropped the mouse, waiting expectantly for Shortwhisker to notice them. The old gray tom didn't seem to hear, but Sparrowpaw glanced up from her work.
"Icepaw!" she greeted warmly, her tail shooting straight up into the air. Then she noticed the adder dangling from the white she-cat's mouth. The tortoiseshell apprentice gave a squeal of fear, which finally seemed to break through Shortwhisker's intense concentration.
"Afternoon, Stonepelt. What can I do for you?" he wheezed good-naturedly. Sparrowpaw's gaze flickered fearfully between Icepaw and the adder, before realization washed over and her eyes grew wide with relief.
"It's dead," she acknowledged, letting her shoulders relax.
Shortwhisker gave a yelp of surprise. "Who's dead? Why wasn't I told?" he rounded on Sparrowpaw, spitting more questions, until Stonepelt finally intervened.
"No cat's dead, you old mouse-brain," mewed the gray tom with a sigh, "The snake's dead."
Shortwhisker's pale green eyes finally rested on the limp body of the adder, and he relaxed, his whisker drooping. "For StarClan's sake, why didn't you say so?" he huffed.
Icepaw rolled her eyes, though only Sparrowpaw caught the motion and stifled a giggle. The white she-cat dropped the snake at Shortwhisker's paws and meowed, "Palenose told us you knew how to eat a snake."
"She did, did she?" mewed the old tom, gazing curiously down at the diamond-scaled creature.
"You do know how, don't you? It is possible, isn't it?" Icepaw mewed anxiously. All her hard work, for nothing?
"Yes, yes, it is possible," the old tom replied. He stared at the snake a moment more before looking back at Icepaw. "I'm afraid it's a rather delicate process, and time-consuming, but the meat is delectable. Were you planning on eating it now or saving it for later?"
Icepaw hesitated, then mewed, "Later." She didn't want Tansyleaf to insist on her sharing the 'delectable' prey, so she'd wait until the pushy she-cat left for the Gathering.
"Very well. I'll just keep it in my den until then, so no silly kits use it as a play toy." Shortwhisker scooped up the body and deposited it gently in a corner of the clearing. Sparrowpaw shied away from the headless creature, despite her previous revelation pertaining to its mortal state.
"Thanks," Icepaw meowed, but once again, Shortwhisker didn't seem to hear. He picked up a shriveled leaf and padded past her, oblivious. With a shrug, Stonepelt followed, his tail twitching.
Icepaw eyed the snake once more before turning to follow the cats, but a tail tip touched her shoulder softly.
"Icepaw…can you wait for a second?" Sparrowpaw asked. Her voice was quiet, almost scared. Puzzled and morbidly curious, the white-furred apprentice paused and glanced over her shoulder at Sparrowpaw.
"Sure. What for?" Icepaw mewed, sitting back on her haunches slowly.
Sparrowpaw glanced at the ground, her whisker quivering. "I wasn't sure…it's the first…and Shortwhisker's so…" she murmured, her words jumbled together incoherently.
"Sparrowpaw? What's going on?" Icepaw mewed, now focused intently on Sparrowpaw's timid mew.
"I think…I think I had a dream…from StarClan."
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