Hurry up!" Thornhollow called, "We're almost there!" Shadowblaze groaned, Thornhollow had already said that five other times and he had been wrong every single time. As if she had been thinking exactly what Shadowblaze had been thinking, Lunastar called, "Are we actually almost there or is this another 'It's just around this tree… whoops… sorry, occasion?"
"It's close, I swear." Thornhollow insisted. "Sure…" Lunastar muttered. "Guys, I think he's actually right for once," Hawkclaw called, looking at something on the ground, "The plants are partly alive now, we must be close to the border." Shadowblaze glanced at the ground and found that Hawkclaw was right, the plants were actually looking more alive than they had looked when they were deeper in Nightmare Clan's territory.
"Well, I guess you were actually right for once." Lunastar said, an awed look present on her face. Thornhollow puffed out his chest and grinned proudly, "But," Lunastar cut in, "You were still wrong more times then you were right so I wouldn't get too excited. Plus, we only believed you after Hawkclaw confirmed it." Thornhollow's face falls and a look of sadness crosses his face.
"Kidding! We actually might've believed you if you had given us some proof." she says, lightly nudging Thornhollow's shoulder with her own. His grin returns and he shoves her back.
Shadowblaze watched the exchange between the two and got a strange feeling that something was going on between the two of them. Then she lifted her head and blinked in surprise, a small shaft of sunlight was shining in a small clearing.
"Guys! Come on!" she cried excitedly, dashing towards the light with Hawkclaw on her tail. As soon as she stepped into the ray of sunshine, she felt the invisible slime from Nightmare Clan being burned off by the warm sun. Hawkclaw joined her in the warmth and muttered, "Thank Starclan, that hole was just too gross." she snorted a little and when Hawkclaw noticed he flushed slightly from embarrassment.
The sound of a twig breaking announced Lunastar's presence in the clearing. "Oh it feels so good to be out of that gloomy forest." she says with a grin. Then she turns to the fog filled forest and called, "Come on Thornhollow, the sun won't hurt you!" Shadowblaze glanced at Thornhollow and found him hesitating at the edge of fog.
Thornhollow cautiously stepped forward and suddenly jerked to a stop as if there was a wall keeping him in the fog filled forest, "I can't cross the border!" he shouted, "One of you guys has to allow me to cross!" a look of annoyance crossed Lunastar's face as she muttered something that sounded like, "Mooncrap! I forgot about that."
Then Lunastar called out, "I, Lunastar, give Thornhollow permission to cross all the borders of Nightmare Clan." Shadowblaze watched as a shimmering wall appeared for a few moments following Lunastar's words. She the saw a flash of fur in the bushes behind Thornhollow.
"Run!" she screeched at him. Thornhollow turned and his eyes widened as the Nightmare Clan wolf leapt at him. He quickly stumbled backwards and fell across the border.
The Nightmare Clan wolf slammed into the invisible wall. He clawed angrily at the wall as Thornhollow scrambled up and joined their group in the sunny clearing.
"We made it." Hawkclaw murmured in Shadowblaze's ear. She grinned, "For a while I thought that we would never get out of that hole." he returned the grin and a laugh burst out of his mouth as he looked at something behind Shadowblaze.
She turned around and found Thornhollow slowly turning in a circle, looking at everything wide-eyed. Shadowblaze snorted, he looked ridiculous. She glanced at the last member of their group, Lunastar was sitting in the shade of a tree, an amused look on her face as she watched Thornhollow.
Shadowblaze walked over and settled in the shade of one of the trees at the edge of the clearing. A few moments later Hawkclaw joined her, she rested her head on his shoulder and he gently twined their tails together.
"C'mon! We have to get going!" Lunastar's voice cut through Shadowblaze's dream, she blinked several times and then yawned. "Urgggg." Hawkclaw groaned as he too woke from Lunastar's yelling. He turned towards Shadowblaze and said, "Did she wake you up that way too?" she laughed and sat up, beginning to wash herself.
As she finished her quick washing, Shadowblaze saw Lunastar trying to wake Thornhollow up. She was gently nudging him with a paw, Shadowblaze let out a huff of annoyance and stalked over to Lunastar. "Just wake him up the way you woke us up!" she hissed, to her surprise Lunastar hesitated, she glanced from Lunastar to Thornhollow's sleeping form and an evil grin spread across her face.
"You like him." she whispered in Lunastar's ear, her eyes widened and she vigorously shook her head no. Shadowblaze laughed, "It's so obvious!" she choked out. Now, if you're not gonna wake him up, I'll do it." she went over to a tree and searched around until she found a clump of moss. Then she soaked it in one of the puddles that had formed from a light shower yesterday.
She then walked back over to Lunastar and Thornhollow and positioned herself so that the clump of moss in her jaws was just above Thornhollow's face. She smirked at Lunastar and then clamped her jaws shut, squeezing the water out of the moss and onto Thornhollow.
He woke with a scream. Shadowblaze stumbled back, laughing her head off, "That was awesome!" she laughed, noticing the annoyed glare Thornhollow was giving her, she quickly said, "Oh and you can blame Lunastar, she wouldn't wake you up. Also Lunastar has a- mmph mmph mmph!" Shadowblaze tried to say, 'Lunastar has a crush on you' but sadly, Lunastar launched herself over and clamped her paw over Shadowblaze's mouth.
"Lunastar!" she complained. Lunastar just glared at her. Eventually giving up she grumbled, "Fine, I won't give it away, just promise me that you'll tell soon." she glanced at Lunastar and found that she had nodded, accepting the facts. "Good, now let's get going. How much further do we have to go?" she questioned. "It take about half a moon to get there." Lunastar informed Shadowblaze.
"What?" had she heard her right? It couldn't take half a moon to get from here to the clans. "But it only took us a day to reach that twoleg area!" she yelped. Lunastar looked shocked, "We were always told that this was the shortest way." "Well, whoever told you that wrong." Hawkclaw cut in, where had he even come from?
"Guys, we just have to go that way, we can't go back through Nightmare Clan's territory." Thornhollow pointed out, "True." Shadowblaze muttered, "Alright, fine, I'm in, Hawkclaw?" he pauses for a moment then reluctantly says, "I'm in."
They set out and Lunastar leads them through the woods with the rest of them trailing behind her.
Shadowblaze tiredly trailed after Lunastar as she focused on putting one paw ahead of the other. They were crossing a huge, dry plain that was on the "shortcut" to the clans. Behind her she could hear Hawkclaw panting, everyone was. These plains were practically a desert, scarce water, blazing sun and almost no prey.
Up ahead Lunastar calls in a voice that's hoarse from the lack of water, "I see some trees, we should rest and continue tomorrow." everyone made some sort of movement or noise as agreement.
As they reached the trees they found that what had looked like a large grove of trees was actually just a few trees with spindly branches and little to no leaves. Shadowblaze sighed in defeat and just flopped down at the base of one of the trees.
Thornhollow followed her example and settled at the base of another tree. Soon everyone had settled under a tree Shadowblaze looked at Lunastar and questioned, "How much further?" Lunastar sighed and replied, "Anywhere from 3 to 5 days of traveling before we reach the clans." "No, I meant how much further until we get out of this desert thing."
"Ohhh, we can make it by the end of today if we hurry."Lunastar stated. Shadowblaze grinned happily and stood. "What are you doing?" Hawkclaw questioned, "We should get going now, like Lunastar said, if we hurry we can get out of these plains." they all stared at her for a moment before a flicker of understanding flashed in Lunastar and she stood and walked over to Shadowblaze, "We are going to go now, if you guys want to stay here longer, be my guest."
Hawkclaw and Thornhollow glanced at each other and came to the conclusion to follow Shadowblaze and Lunastar. They walked over to and they began their trek once again.
Ignoring her exhaustion, Shadowblaze set her mind to continuously set one paw in front of the other and just let her mind rest.
When Shadowblaze pulled herself out of her mind she found that it was already sundown. The next thing she realized was that they had now reached the twolegplace that was practically right next to the forest that held the clans. She sighed in relief when Thornhollow pleaded for a break and they all agreed to rest.
They walked into the twolegplace and followed one of the strange stone paths that the twolegs made to an area with a large thing with straight sides. As they watched from the shadows a twoleg came out from the back of one of the stone dens it dumped a clump of twoleg stuff into the thing and went back into the den.
"Do you guys smell that?" Hawkclaw asked, sniffing the air and licking his lips. Shadowblaze sniffed and her sense of smell was met with the delicious smell of some kind of meat. Following the scent trail, she found that the smell was coming from the thing, "It's in here!" she yowled and her friends ran over to the thing to find the origin of the delicious smell.
Thornhollow grinned and said, "I'll get it." he volunteered as he leapt straight into the thing. Immediately his voice echoed up from inside, "Ewww! I landed in some kind of- gunk!" Shadowblaze snickered and Hawkclaw called, "Did you find the thing that smell good?" "Yeah," he called back, "It's some kind of meat, it looks a little burnt." "Well bring it back up and we'll all share." Lunastar called.
Shadowblaze expected to see Thornhollow's head poke out of the top of the thing as he got out of it, not a small explosion inside the thing. A loud thump was heard and Thornhollow groaned, "What happened?" Lunastar yelled, "My paws are too slippery from the gunk! I can't get out!" Lunastar turned to Shadowblaze and Hawkclaw, her eyes wide, "We have to get him out!" "Well, duh." Shadowblaze muttered.
"We have to tip the thing over!" Hawkclaw yowled excitedly, "Then Thornhollow will slide out." Shadowblaze glanced at Lunastar, who shrugged, so Shadowblaze answered, "Ok let's do it."
The three of them slipped into the gap between the thing and the wall and slammed into the thing as hard as they could. A loud, "BANG" echoed through the passageway and a few twolegs walking around let out screeches of surprise.
But the thing hardly moved at all. "Again." Luastar hissed through clenches teeth, Shadowblaze slammed herself into the thing again with all the force that she could muster. Judging by the loud thumps on either side of her, she could guess that Hawkclaw and Lunastar were doing the same. Even with all three of them doing their best the thing still didn't move enough to tip. Just then Shadowblaze got an idea.
"Guys! She called, "We're gonna need Thornhollow to help too, from inside."
The next attempt they made, they had Thornhollow pushing from inside too. "One, Two, Three!" Lunastar shouted. At three the four of them all used all their strength and SLAM! The thing rocked forward and almost tipped. They all looked at one another and they yelled, "Again!" time after time, they came close to tipping the thing but it stubbornly rocked back into place.
The fact that they were so close, yet so far frustrated Shadowblaze. She could tell that they were about to give up when Lunastar and Hawkclaw yelled, "I got an idea!" at the same time. They glanced at each other and Hawkclaw opened his mouth and said, "We need another cat." after he spoke Lunastar chimed in, "We have to have another cat or wolf or something run into the thing when it's about to tip, instead of trying to just get enough strength from just shoving."
Shadowblaze looked at the two of them, both ideas were good. "Let's just try one more time, then we'll go find another creature to help us." they nodded in agreement.
"On three!" she yelled, mostly for the sake of Thornhollow. "One! Two! Three!" then they all shoved the thing, hard. "It's tipping!" Lunastar yowled, "But not enough!" Hawkclaw yelled, a moment later a brown blur leapt through the air and hit the tipping thing and successfully making it tip over with an ear shattering crash.
Thornhollow tumbled out of the thing with a bunch of twoleg stuff and a bundle of something clamped in his jaws. A light flicked on in a square thing on the side of one of the stone dens and twoleg voices started to shriek. A twoleg peered out of the entrance of the den next to where Shadowblaze was standing and screamed when he saw Lunastar and Thornhollow.
It disappeared back into the den and another twoleg reappeared with it a moment later. They began to shriek wordlessly and one of them grabbed a small thing and held it up to the side of it's face. Then it began to chatter in the strange language of humans. Moments later a strange sound began to assault Shadowblaze's ears, a monster ran to the entrance of the passageway and and a twoleg got out pointing a thick stick at them.
Shadowblaze didn't know why the twoleg thought that the stick would protect him, but then again, twolegs were pretty dumb. Then Thornhollow panicly shouted, "Those things are deathsticks! The twolegs use them to kill each other and animals! They killed my brother!"
At this everyone looked at each other and by a silent agreement, began to run away.
As they reached the end of the passage three loud bangs rang out, something knocked a round thing filled with twoleg stuff over, Lunastar yowled in pain as another thing hit the side of the stone den next to her and exploded a huge spray of rock shards in her face. Shadowblaze didn't know what the third bang's thing was, but she soon got her answer when a sharp pain sliced through her shoulder.
She stumbled, up ahead Thornhollow was standing next to a gap in a twoleg fence yowling, "Come on! I can trees!" Hawkclaw turned around and gasped as he saw the condition Shadowblaze was in, he ran back to her and supported her under her injured shoulder as she limped her way to the gap.
They barely made it. They ran into the forest and soon the bangs stopped. They flopped down, exhausted next to a stream. "The clans are really close now." Hawkclaw puffed as he regained his breath.
Shadowblaze looked around and surprisedly announced, "I know where we are. I grew up near here." as she spoke she kept her eyes on a little island in the middle of the stream, the water from it to the shore was extremely shallow.
In her mind she could see five cats walking down to the edge of the stream, three kits and two grown cats with their tails twined together. The kits ran towards the water, only to get pulled back by the tom who meowed, "Let me set up some barriers first, I don't want you little ones to go into deep water."
A little black she-kit squeaked, "Why?" the tom gently laughed and told her, "Because you can't swim." "Ohh!" the she-kit said. The tom left the kits with their mother and went off to get some barriers.
The grown she-cat smiled at her kits as they played. The little gray pelted she-kit was sneaking up on her brother, who was busy examining something on the ground. The black she-kit was trying to sneak to the water.
She snuck closer and silently thought, 'Cool! Mom hasn't even noticed yet!' or at least, that's what she thought. As soon as her paw hit the water, her mother appeared and pulled her back to her littermates. The kit scowled and tried to wriggle free without success. "Moooom!" she complained, the she-cat only purred gently and kindly but sternly told her to stay on the shore until her father got back.
"When will he get back?" she asked her mother. As soon as the question left her mouth she saw her father walking out of the woods with a clump of sticks in his mouth. He went over to the shallow water and set the sticks up so the kits wouldn't be able to get to the deep water. Then he turned and shouted, "Come on in!" the black she-kit was already running towards the stream. She splashed in and instantly jumped back out. "It's cold!" she yelped. The tom chuckled.
They had spent the day at the stream, a happy family. Near the end of the day the tom picked up his kits and set them on his back, then he walked out to the island with the she-cat following him. He walked up onto the small island and sat under the only tree on the island. When his family was around him he said, "I want to carve this moment into history forever, so we can always remember this day. Everyone make a promise, we will keep this promise to our death."
All the cats nodded solemnly and the tom started, "I promise that I'll always love you Rain and that I'll alway be here for Shadow, Birch and Storm." then the she-cat spoke up, "I promise that I'll protect all of you." the young tom went next, "Umm, I um promise to ummm… always stay loyal to my family." the gray she-kit spoke up proudly, "I promise to always try be brave and do the honorable thing." she stated confidently. Everycat turned to the last kit, the black she-kit, her eyes were squeezed shut and she seemed to be thinking, then she opened her sky blue eyes and seriously said, "I promise that I will alway try to protect my family and keep them from harm."
Then the tom scratched a claw on the bark of the tree, carving the mark deep. The rest of the cats did the same thing, forming the a strange mark. They had left the mark there to signify the promises they made.
Shadowblaze looked away from the island and quickly said, "Guys, I'll be right back, I have some um things to do on that island." she said, pointing towards the island. Lunastar and Thornhollow nodded, but Hawkclaw eyed her suspiciously but eventually nodded too.
She walked out to the island and found the tree, the scratches were still there. She pressed her paw to the scratches and whispered, "We were so happy, what happened to us?" she pressed her head to the smooth bark and and silently cried. "I tried to keep my promise, I really did, but I lost all of you! Mom, I'm sorry, I should've tried harder to convince you to come with us. You were keeping your promise, trying to protect us. Storm, you ran after me, it was the honorable thing to do. Birchpaw, you are so loyal, now instead of being loyal to just our family, you're now loyal to Thunderclan, I hope my dream wasn't real. Skystar, I have nothing to say to you. "I promise that I'll love you Rain and that I'll always be there for Shadow, Birch and Storm." you broke your promise! YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER CAT! YOU DIDN'T SAVE MOM AND STORM! IF YoU WEREN'T OFF WITH SANDFIRE YOU MIGHT'VE BEEN ABLE TO SCENT THE FOX AND WARN US! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, KNOWING THAT YOU COULD'VE SAVED LIVES! WHY DID YOU STOP LOVING US? WERE WE TOO IMPERFECT? WELL, NEWSFLASH, NO ONE'S PERFECT! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY WITH SANDFIRE. I HOPE YOU END UP IN THE DARK FOREST! YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE! YOU STOPPED LOVING MOM AND YOU WERE NEVER THERE FOR ME!" she froze, horror coursing through her veins, "I broke my promise my stupidity led Storm to her death. I didn't try hard enough to convince mom to let me help her. My quest led Thorn to his death. I've failed my family." she whispered.
"No you didn't you tried to protect them, that counts for something, right? You didn't mean to get them killed, it wasn't even your fault." she lifted her head and blinked away the tears as she looked up at Hawkclaw. "Plus, you still have Birchpaw." he continued, she held up a paw to stop him, "and I have you, you're my family too." he smiled.