A/N: Whoa hey so it's been awhile. My bad. I was waiting on cover art but I can add that when it's done.
Shrewpelt didn't tell Merlinstar. He didn't even go near her the whole day. Darkgaze knew that, because Sootfeather had put her on nest rest. She wasn't allowed to leave the camp.
It was a little silly, she thought. She hadn't been hurt that bad, but she was glad for the excuse. She still felt trembly on her paws, though whether it was from the battle or what happened after, she couldn't say.
Rather than stay in the warrior's den the whole day, Darkgaze camped out by the medicine den. Sootfeather didn't seem to mind. Watching her care for their clanmates was nice to pass the time with. Sootfeather could be distant and closed off, but she was kind; she'd earned her suffix for her gentleness and caring attitude, after all.
The sun was at it's zenith when Sootfeather finally finished checking over everyone who had been more than superficially hurt in the battle. She sighed and stretched, and then spoke to her apprentice, who had been dutifully following every direction she was given.
"Redpaw," Sootfeather meowed, "Would you please go and see if any more marigold has grown? See if Raincloud would go with you."
Redpaw hopped to her paws. "Of course!" she chirped, happy to help as always. "I'll see you soon, Sootfeather."
"Thank you, dear," Sootfeather said warmly. She and her apprentice touched noses, and then Redpaw was off. Sootfeather took a moment to watch her go, and then she went and sat by Darkgaze. "So," she started.
Darkgaze jostled herself out of her thoughts. "Um?" she wondered, pushing herself to her paws.
Sootfeather glanced at her, and Darkgaze had a moment of deja vu. Somehow, the look in Sootfeather's eyes suggested that she knew more than she should. "I didn't keep you here strictly for you to rest," she said.
"Then what?" Darkgaze prompted apprehensively.
"I know," she said plainly. "About you and the Shaleclan cat."
Darkgaze's paws slipped and she sunk down. "What?" she mouthed. She couldn't tell if she made any noise.
"I'm not judging you. That is for Starclan to do, when you reach them. I'm only telling you that I know." Sootfeather spoke frankly and calmly. "And I know what you'll do about it."
"What, then?" Darkgaze asked. She hadn't figured anything out yet. But Sootfeather only shook her head.
"That's something for you to stumble upon yourself. But I feel I must assuage a fear of yours. Duskfang is not angry with you. He asked me to tell you that."
"Thank you," Darkgaze said, honestly relieved. She'd been so scared..
"I wouldn't say he's entirely happy, but." Here Sootfeather paused, and tilted her head. "What are you going to do?"
"You already know," Darkgaze pointed out, pulling herself back up.
"Yes, but you don't."
'I.. I don't know," Darkgaze admitted. "I.. I can't ask her to leave Shaleclan. And I know she can't ask me to leave Brushclan. Isn't that all there is?" Sootfeather made a noncommittal noise, and Darkgaze sighed. "I don't know. I love her so much already, Sootfeather."
"It doesn't seem fair," the medicine cat said neutrally.
"No," Darkgaze agreed quietly. "Not fair at all."
"I wonder what would make it fair," Sootfeather mewed. She stood up. "Try not to fret, Darkgaze. You'll be fine. Goodbye for now."
Darkgaze watched as she left, still as puzzled as ever. Sootfeather had given her a little to think about, at least. She glanced at the sky. It was far from being night. Her scratches itched.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Hawkstripe brought her a mouse not long after her talk with Sootfeather. They had a nice talk. Darkgaze couldn't tell him what was troubling her, though he obviously knew something was, but just spending time with her brother had always been enough to make her feel better.
Acornfoot came to see what they were up to just before Hawkstripe was called away again. Darkgaze wondered if they would have been half as warm to her as they were if they knew about Astertail. The thought didn't help her concentrate on her troubles.
Then she wondered if she was being overdramatic, and that thought ate up the rest of the time until nightfall. By that time, Darkgaze had a decent idea what to do. What would make it fair, Sootfeather had said.
Well, there was one way.
Darkgaze reached the border first. Mounting excitement pushed her to hurry, and she had been running by the time she ended up at her destination. The exercise felt good after a full day of rest. She didn't have to wait very long before Astertail appeared.
Thought she lacked her usual exuberance, Astertail didn't seem downtrodden at all. She met Darkgaze at the border and the two spent a moment exchanging affection before sitting down to talk.
"Figure anything out?" Darkgaze ventured. She wanted to give Astertail a chance to say what was on her mind before she suggested her own options.
But Astertail only shook her head. "The only thing I could think of is one of us leaves their Clan to join the other's.. Or if we leave entirely."
Darkgaze hadn't thought of that. Her stomach did a minor flip-flop. "Let's leave that for a last resort," she suggested. Astertail nodded in agreement and Darkgaze took a moment to collect her thoughts. "It's not fair for one of us to leave their Clan while the other stays," she said carefully. "What would make it fair?"
Astertail pinned her ears back. "Can it be fair?" she wondered. "One of us will always be giving something up."
"Yes. One of us," Darkgaze agreed.
"But if both of us," Astertail started, realization dawning in her voice. "If we both.. Could we do that? Would Cliffclan or Caveclan even take us in?"
"It's worth a try," Darkgaze mewed. "But which should we ask?"
"Not Cliffclan," Astertail said immediately. "I'd be alright, I think, but I don't know if you could handle it."
Darkgaze gasped in mock offense, and then purred. Cliffclan's territory was indeed infamous; it's name wasn't an exaggeration. "That's probably true. Caveclan, then. Should we try tomorrow?"
"First thing in the morning," Astertail agreed. "We'll meet at the Palegrounds."
"Sounds good." They touched noses and drew away. Darkgaze hesitated. "Astertail.. If they say no.."
"We'll take our chances outside the Clans," Astertail said immediately. Then she stopped. Her head lowered. "Unless.. After that.. You want to give up?"
Darkgaze thought about life in Brushclan, alone. Dodging Shrewpelt for the rest of her life, wondering if today was the day he'd finally be angry enough to tell the whole Clan what she'd done. "No. Never," Darkgaze mewed, fierce. "If it comes to it, I'd rather brave the Outlands together than be in Brushclan without you."
Astertail gazed at her with wide blue eyes, and in them Darkgaze could see her own feelings reflected back. Darkgaze held the scent of heather in her mind as long as she could as she walked back to the Brushclan camp, assured in the knowledge that one way or another, after tomorrow she and Astertail would never be apart again.
Darkgaze slipped back out of camp before anyone else had awoken. She'd barely slept, and she felt it. A wave of excitement kept her on her paws, though it was a close thing, especially at first. She felt better when she met Astertail at the Palegrounds.
"The patrols haven't started yet, I don't think," Astertail mewed. "If we go slowly enough we should meet one only a little ways in."
Caveclan territory was easily accessed from the Palegrounds. They had to cross the White River only once, an easy enough task considering it was frog-river, and the level of the water was low. The creatures that gave the level of the river its name scattered from their pawsteps and then they were across and officially into Caveclan territory.
Just past the river they stopped. There was the problem of not knowing where, exactly, the cave system that made up the Caveclan camp was, and they really didn't want to meet a patrol too deep inside and offend the Clan they'd be at the mercy of.
They didn't have to wait too long before a patrol found them. There were four of them, two brown tabbies, a ginger tabby, and a black cat. "What is this?" the cat leading the patrol mewed, suspicion glinting in his eyes. The two cats with him had their hackles raised. "What are you going in our territory?"
Darkgaze and Astertail tried to make themselves as nonthreatening as possible. "We'd like to speak to Batstar, please," Darkgaze mewed.
The patrol crept closer, careful not to let their guard down. "What is this?" the ginger tabby mewed, sniffing deliberately. "A Brushclan cat and a Shaleclan cat, together?"
"We'd really like to talk to Batstar," Astertail said, stepping back from the inquistive Caveclan molly. "We haven't hunted, and we can't do much harm. There's only two of us." The last cat didn't seem to believe that very much; she glanced around as if expecting Shaleclan and Brushclan cats to swarm out of hiding.
"Aren't Shaleclan and Brushclan having.. Issues between themselves lately?" one of the brown tabbies muttered to the other.
The black cat, the leader, shrugged. "Batstar'll want to know why they're here anyway. Come on, all of you," he said briskly. The three other cats on the patrol crowded around Darkgaze and Astertail, flanking them for the trip to the Caveclan camp.
For most of the trip, Caveclan territory seemed mostly similar to Brushclan's, though there was less plant life. It was only when they reached a cliff did things change. The cliff itself wasn't very tall, but what mattered was around it. Rock had obviously sloughed off it long ago, creating a pile of rubble that had a very obvious opening in it. When the patrol approached, a sentry positioned outside and on top of the cave opening disappeared into it.
Darkgaze felt her fur crawl. She'd known Caveclan lived in a cave, but seeing the entrance that disappeared into a dark and shadowy tunnel was a lot different than simply knowing a concept.
None of the four cats escorting them seemed put off or ill at ease seeing the tunnel. In fact, their pace increased slightly as they grew close. Darkgaze and Astertail resisted minutely at the tunnel, and then, resigned, entered.
It was dim inside, and it only got dimmer further down. The air was cool and damp, and rocks that tapered to points dotted the roof of the cave. As they listened, they could hear the soft patter of paws, and the occasional drip as a drop of water fell to the ground.
Whispering started. They could hear more pawsteps, not their own, as they walked further down the tunnel. The walkway seemed to suddenly open up into a large chamber. Cats stood around the area, surrounding a pool of water dotted with rocks like stepping stones. Behind the Caveclan cats were more openings to more tunnels. As Darkgaze watched, more cats emerged from the tunnels. One of them stepped forward, and through the dim light Darkgaze recognized Mousepelt, the Caveclan deputy.
"Ravenheart?" he mewed. His tone was bewildered and suspicious. "What is this?"
"Intruders we found by the River," Ravenheart explained. "They say they want to see Batstar."
Mousepelt tilted his head. "Batstar has already been fetched," he explained. "Toadfur went to get him when she saw you approaching." And indeed, the dark, hulking shape of the Caveclan leader was emerging from a tunnel, followed closely by the gray form of who Darkgaze assumed was Toadfur.
"What's going on?" Batstar wondered. His tone was deep and slow. He stepped up to where Ravenheart stood, and tilted his head at Darkgaze and Astertail.
"We, um," Astertail started, "We wanted to speak to you about something. In private, if we could, Batstar." She pressed briefly against Darkgaze, and the gray cat could feel her nervousness.
"Is it a matter of grave importance?" Batstar asked, not unkindly.
"To us it is," Darkgaze mewed.
Batstar blinked slowly and seemed to think it over. "I think that whatever it is can be spoken about in front of my Clan," he mewed finally. Darkgaze chanced a look around. From the amount of cats she could see, she suspected that the entirety of the Clan was in the chamber.
She almost cowed beneath the stares of so many cats, but Astertail pressed against her side kept her steady. When the Shaleclan cat spoke again, her voice was steady. "Batstar, Caveclan, we've come here to ask to join your Clan." There was an immediate murmur from the cats around them. Darkgaze could hear curiosity and outright hostility in the sound, though she could pick out nothing in particular.
Batstar silenced them all with a flick of his tail. "Why?" he prompted calmly. His expression gave nothing away.
"We- We're from different Clans," Astertail continued. "I'm Shaleclan. My name is Astertail," she added, as if an afterthought. "Darkgaze, the cat beside me, is Brushclan. We're mates." There was another outbreak of noise, louder this time. More of the sound was hostile than before. "We know it's against the code," Astertail mewed immediately, raising her voice to be heard over the buzz. The sound stopped, and she was able to talk in a softer voice. "We know. That's why we've come to you. We can't do this any longer, being traitors to everything we believe in. But we can't be apart either."
Darkgaze spoke up now, her voice more tremulous than Astertail's. "The thought hurts," she confessed. "It hurt being apart in our day to day lives, and to never see each other again.." She shook herself. This wasn't the time to lament. "We're Clan cats," she started again. "We want to be loyal. To a Clan, and to each other. It's a compromise. We both leave our Clans. We change our loyalties to.. to Caveclan."
"Both of us give something up," Astertail put in. "Both of us gain."
"And why did you choose Caveclan?" Batstar mewed.
The question startled them, and it took a moment to gather their thoughts. "I don't know if I could navigate Cliffclan's territory," Darkgaze said finally.
To her surprise, Batstar looked amused. "As good an answer as any." His head dipped to them.
"We know what we've done is wrong. But we want to make it right. We're trying to make it right," Astertail mewed after a moment's pause. "We don't expect to be welcomed with open paws. We know we'll have to earn our stay, to work to become Caveclan." She glanced at Darkgaze. "That's.. that's all, I think. Thank you for hearing us out."
Batstar considered them for a moment. The tension in the cave heightened. "Cactusleaf," the Caveclan leader called. "What has Starclan said to you?"
A bright orange cat stepped out of the throng. Darkgaze had seen her before, sitting with Sootfeather and Redpaw during Gatherings. She spoke, "I've heard nothing in particular." Darkgaze felt her stomach fall. She pressed her cheek against Astertail's. But the medicine cat continued, "However, that means little. Starclan wants us to make our own decision over this. They will not lead us." She dipped her head at no one in particular and sat down.
"Well then," Batstar mewed. "In that case, we'll decide. All of us, the ones who would be clanmates to these two." Chatter immediately broke out. Batstar flicked his ear. "They will tell us what they think, one at a time." The Caveclan cats fell silent again. Batstar crossed to a ledge of rock at the side of the chamber. "Here, if you can," he mewed, and sat down.
A tan, obviously pregnant queen was the first to scale the ledge. When she spoke, her mew was cold, but not overly so. "You disgraced Starclan for pursuing your relationship in the first place. You broke the warrior code each time you visited each other, knowingly and willfully. However.." and here her expression softened, "You are obviously trying to fix your mistakes and make sure they never happen again." Darkgaze felt her stare bore into her a moment more, and then the tan queen slid off the ledge. Another cat took her place.
"Your loyalties will be even more divided now!" the new tom snarled. His pelt blended in with the cave wall. "What of your families?" he demanded. "The friends you left behind? Do you think you could face them in battle and fight them off, knowing them as you do?" He spat once and leapt down without bothering to use the smaller ledges that lead to the larger one.
Astertail and Darkgaze flinched, but said nothing in their own defense. Another stepped forward to say something, and then another, and so on, until half the Clan had voiced their opinions. Some were damning, others more lenient, but then the testimonies began to blur together, until Darkgaze couldn't tell whether the majority of the Clan was for or against them.
There was a momentary pause when it became clear that no one else wished to speak. Batstar climbed up on the ledge. He looked comfortable there. Darkgaze suddenly realized that it was where the leader of Caveclan usually addressed their warriors. "I have one final question for you," Batstar said. "If we say no, what will you do?"
"Leave," Darkgaze and Astertail said together with only a moment's pause. Astertail took over. "We are Clan cats, through and through. Being warriors is what we were born to do. But we can't be without each other. If you say no, we'll take our chances in the Outlands."
"Forever?" Batstar questioned. When they nodded, he tilted his head. "Alright." He glanced at his warriors. "Everyone who is for these two joining Caveclan, stand near me. All who are against, take the other side."
Paws began to shuffle, and slowly one cat after another took their places, peeling off from each other to make their decisions. Darkgaze's heart began to pound. She could feel Astertail's speeding up as well from where their bodies touched. Batstar's side was larger, though only marginally so.
"The Clan has decided," Batstar mewed, projecting his voice. "Darkgaze and Astertail are Caveclan warriors." The warriors congregated around him buzzed with small murmured congratulations. The other side stayed silent.
"Thank you," the stunned Darkgaze mewed. Beside her, Astertail nodded.
"I suppose you have to go break the news to your Clans," Batstar mewed, voice gentle. The two new Caveclan cats nodded nervously. "You have until sundown," he continued. "May Starclan bring you safe back."
Darkgaze sent up a silent prayer of her own just before one of the cats on Batstar's side stepped forward. "I'll take you to the border," she offered, glancing at Batstar, who nodded.
Astertail and Darkgaze followed her out of the cave, back the way they'd come to get in. "My name is Dawnflower," she mewed, once in the open air. "It's good to meet you both." The two cats returned the sentiment.
"Here's this path," Dawnflower mewed. "It'll lead you back to the camp. When you get back, I'll show you around the camp. Don't worry. It's easy to pick up." She stopped at the White River and watched them go.
Back in the Palegrounds, Darkgaze and Astertail exchanged a look and took a deep breath together. "I'll meet you back here," Astertail promised. "Good luck."
"Same to you," Darkgaze returned. Together, they stepped back onto the territories they were born in, for the very last time.