Whaddup.

Recap: Jaguarpaw, who ShadowClan had taken in, succumbs to his illness and dies. Snowcloud wants to talk to Frostpaw, who refuses. Ratpaw senses there's something wrong, but Snowcloud won't tell him. She goes to sleep and wakes up to see Emberheart. She begins to argue with her, voicing her doubts that Frostpaw is actually a threat. Emberheart is furious that she thinks she's making up a false prophecy, and asks her what she could possibly gain from it. Snowcloud can't think of an answer, but then realizes something and looks at her with horror. When she wakes up, she decides to go and find Willowfall.

Chapter 35

A Fool

"...What do you mean, she's gone?"

"Olivepaw, I'm telling you, I haven't seen her in hours. She just vanished!"

"Maybe she's feeling sick and is in the medicine den?"

Cedarpaw blinked open his eyes, only to be greeted with the sight of cloudy skies and snow falling. A shiver crawled down his spine and his stomach was growling loudly, but he tried to ignore it.

Yawning and getting to his paws, he glanced around to see that only a few others were still sleeping; most of the Clan was already awake.

"I checked, already. Onespot and the others haven't seen her, either."

Pricking his ears, Cedarpaw turned to see Ratpaw, Frostpaw, and Olivepaw, their heads bent low. Ratpaw's tail was twitching frantically, and he was talking rapidly and anxiously, worry in his amber eyes. Frostpaw was sitting beside him, saying nothing, looking away, ears flattened slightly, almost looking ashamed.

Frowning, Cedarpaw made his way over to the other apprentices.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly. Ratpaw looked at him, apparently a bit stunned. It seemed like the others still weren't used to hearing Cedarpaw speak. He'd only just begun to talk again since his confrontation with Olivepaw when he'd told her all about how he had killed his father and about the death of his brother, Waterkit. And as far as he knew, she was still the only one who knew.

"...It's Snowcloud," Ratpaw murmured, looking back and forth between him and Olivepaw frantically. "I'm telling you, I haven't seen her since last night. She seemed worried about something, too, but wouldn't tell me what was wrong."

"...I shouldn't have been so cold, last night," Frostpaw muttered, flattening her ears and staring at her paws. "I should have let her talk to me. I didn't realize that something could be wrong."

"It isn't your fault, Frostpaw," Ratpaw said quietly. "No one can blame you for acting that way. She... hasn't been exactly friendly towards you, lately."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Frostpaw demanded, looking up at the others with worry. "No matter what she's done or how she's been acting lately... She's still my sister, and I can see now that something is wrong."

"I just don't get it," Olivepaw muttered. "Where could she possibly have gone?"

"Well, maybe she thought that anywhere's better than here," Ratpaw said quietly. "With the way Blossomstar's been running things. But I'd have thought she'd have at least said something..."

"Can we try following her scent?" Cedarpaw suggested quietly, again causing Ratpaw and Frostpaw to jump at the sound of his voice. He tried to ignore it. "...Maybe we can get a sense of the direction she was going in..."

"The only problem is getting out of here without anyone noticing us," Olivepaw muttered. "Blossomstar's got guards all around the island. It's a wonder Snowcloud managed to slip by them in the first place. But four of us...? How are we supposed to pull that off?"

"We could make a distraction," said Cedarpaw softly, glancing back and forth at the others. "Let's just ask one of the other apprentices. Maybe Littlepaw or Brokenpaw will help us."

The others looked a bit hesitant at first, but finally Frostpaw murmured, "...I think it's the best chance we've got. If we have any chance of finding Snowcloud, then we need to leave right away. Depending on when she left, the snow could've already covered up her scent..."

"Alright," said Ratpaw quietly, straightening up and glancing over to where Littlepaw and Brokenpaw were sitting together, their heads low. Ever since the death of their mother last week, they'd barely talked with anyone else at all. Cedarpaw blinked slowly as he watched them. They had just lost their sister, and now, their mother.

A bit like me, Cedarpaw thought; he, too, had lost both a sibling and a parent. Though he supposed the circumstances under which they had died made his situation a bit different.

"Wait here, I'll go ask them," Ratpaw murmured as he made his way over to them.

Olivepaw, Cedarpaw, and Frostpaw sat in silence as they watched. Olivepaw glanced over at Cedarpaw, giving him a tiny, worried smile. He tried to smile back.

A moment later, Ratpaw came back.

"They'll do it," he murmured. "We just need to give them the signal. We should go wait at the edge of camp."

"Frostpaw, have you told your mother about this?" Olivepaw mewed.

"Furzetail doesn't know, no," the white cat murmured, looking down. "I didn't want to worry her. I was hoping we'd be able to find Snowcloud ourselves before anyone else realized she was missing."

"C'mon," Ratpaw whispered as he made his way to the edge of camp. The others followed and crept behind a tree, staying low to the ground. Now, most of the Clan was awake and chatting or going off on patrols.

Cedarpaw spotted Brokenpaw and Littlepaw on the other side of camp, near the edge. They were looking at Ratpaw, waiting for a signal.

Then, Ratpaw nodded his head. Understanding, Brokenpaw suddenly out out a blood-curdling cry, collapsing to the ground.

Within seconds, there was commotion as everyone ran forward or looked at each other in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on, panic in the air.

"It's now or never," breathed Ratpaw. "Let's go!"

And with that, the four apprentices turned and dashed off, leaping over the stream and running as quickly as they could for the trees.

. . .

The grass and bright red poppies rustled in the soft, warm breeze, the sky bright as Emberheart kept walking through the trees. Her narrowed green eyes were glowing and focussed on the path before her. A yellow butterfly landed on her head; the she-cat snapped at it irritably and it flew away.

She walked quickly and with purpose, her jaw still clenched together in fury. Snowcloud had confronted her, accusing her of lying, that she'd made up the prophecy about Frostpaw. The nerve of her. Who was she to try and put Emberheart in her place? She let out a low growl, her fur rising just thinking about it.

Not that she had been wrong, of course.

This had all been going so smoothly. Snowcloud had seemed like the perfect cat to try and befriend, someone who would be easily swayed and would trust anything that would come her way. Emberheart had picked her because she was stupid.

So what changed? What had made the white she-cat suddenly doubt her and give her the courage to speak out against her?

And what had she been talking about, just before she'd woken up...? She'd froze, her eyes suddenly wide with some sort of new understanding. And the way she'd looked at Emberheart...

She couldn't have figured it all out, could she have? No... There was no possible way. There was no possible way this cat had completely figured out just what exactly it was Emberheart was doing.

The corners of her lips rose into a small smirk. Even if she did know, then it wouldn't matter for long, would it?

She pushed through a clump of ferns, and when she came out, she came to a small stream, and across the water was a different scene completely.

On the other side, the trees were suddenly dark. They were tall and black, their leafless branches long and entwining with one another. There was a dark fog covering the ground, which consisted only of rotting leaves and tangled thorn bushes; nothing else. The sky above it was dark, as well, with quickly-moving storm clouds out of which bolts of lightning would shoot every now and then. Instead of the sounds of birds calling and squirrels chasing each other that one would hear in the forest Emberheart came from, the only sounds to be heard here were faint screeching and shrieking sounds, though it was impossible to tell if they were cats or some other animal. This narrow stream separated two completely different worlds- StarClan and the Dark Forest.

Emberheart flicked an ear and sat down, impatiently lashing her tail. He should have been here, by now.

She didn't have to wait long, After just a few moments, the shadow of a cat appeared from the darkness, though the fog was so thick it was impossible to see his features clearly. It was only after he slowly took a step into the stream and began to walk across it into the light that he could be seen clearly; he was a large, lean, light brown tabby with glowing amber eyes.

Once he stepped onto Emberheart's side of the bank, he shook his paws dry and looked at the she-cat.

"You know," Emberheart mewed, a soft smile on her face, "I'm impressed you're still able to find your way through the Dark Forest to StarClan. You're the only cat who's ever managed to do that."

"It took a lot of time to find the right path," he said in a low voice. "...I trust no one else knows about this? It's supposed to be impossible for Dark Forest cats to reach StarClan, and vice versa. If anyone found out about this..."

"Please," snorted Emberheart. "Who would I tell? Those fools haven't the slightest idea of what I'm doing, either. They keep surprisingly little supervision on me, considering I wanted to kill Willowfall." She lifted a paw and flexed her claws, examining them. "But I guess that isn't important to them. As long as I didn't actually kill anyone, I can roam StarClan as I wish." She looked up at the tom. "Too bad the same couldn't be said for you, could it, Reedfur?"

The tom's eyes darkened, and he pulled his lips back slightly.

"Enough idle chat. You wanted to speak to me, did you not? Tell me what you want, and be quick about it; I don't want anyone to find out I'm here."

"Relax," muttered Emberheart. "No one's listening. What I wanted to ask you is this- you were able to travel from the Dark Forest to Earth, were you not?"

Reedfur regarded her somewhat coolly, his whiskers twitching.

"What of it?"

"You truly are an incredible cat," remarked Emberheart with a grin. "Not only were you able to do what's supposedly impossible- cross from the Dark Forest to StarClan- but you were also able to return to the living world? What is it about you, of all cats, that has the ability to do this?"

Reedfur narrowed his eyes. "If you only brought me here to make snide remarks, then I think I'll be going back."

"Not so fast," Emberheart mewed, getting to her paws and taking a step closer. "I just want to ask you something. How did you do it? How were you able to get back to the living world?"

"...Someone else from the Dark Forest told me how," Reedfur muttered. "He showed me. But it isn't as simple as going to and from the living world as you please."

"Then how do you do it?" growled Emberheart, growing impatient. "Tell me!"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't raise your voice," Reedfur said in a low voice, eyes narrowed. "It's like this. Every once in a while, a... A portal will appear. No one knows why, or who or what made it. However, it's extremely difficult to find; it will appear in a random place in the Dark Forest, at a random time. It was only due to luck that I happened to stumble upon it and was able to go back to Earth."

"So what you're saying is this," Emberheart said, flattening her ears, looking disappointed, "the chances of you finding that portal again are very slim."

"Exactly," Reedfur mewed. He hesitated and looked at her in a way that suggested he had more to say.

"What is it?" Emberheart demanded, catching on. "You have an idea, don't you?"

"Not exactly," he grunted. "It's just a rumor, actually; it might not be true at all. But this Dark Forest cat I met also told me this: it may be possible to open the portal at any given time with the help of a StarClan cat."

"Well, isn't that convenient?" purred Emberheart, brightening up. "If you haven't forgotten, you're talking to a StarClan cat right now."

"It's much easier said than done," Reedfur growled. "The portal only exists in the Dark Forest. For you to go through it, you'd have to cross the border into the Dark Forest, something that you've tried and failed to do."

"Then I'll just have to try harder until I find a way to do it," countered Emberheart, straightening up.

"Why do you want to go back to the living world so badly, anyway?" muttered Reedfur, lashing his tail.

Emberheart just grinned.

"There are a few cats I wish to kill."

Reedfur just snorted. "Even if you do succeed, StarClan will surely find out and banish you to the Dark Forest."

"That's a price I'd be willing to pay," the she-cat responded. "As long as I can see them all die... That's all I want."

"And what about your son?" pressed Reedfur. "Badgerkit? You'd be separated from him for good. Isn't his death the whole reason you have this grudge against Willowfall?"

At his words, Emberheart's face suddenly fell. She lowered her head, a sudden look of something close to sorrow appearing on her face. Her eyes darkened as she turned away.

"...Badgerkit refuses to see me," she murmured. "Because of everything I've done."

"And you're willing to throw away any chance of rekindling your relationship with him?" Reedfur demanded. "Maybe if you stopped all this scheming and you showed him the good in you, he'd forgive you and you could live happily in StarClan together."

"...It's too late for that," Emberheart growled, lifting her head to glare at him, her eyes suddenly flaring. "The only thing I want now is to see Willowfall suffer."

"You really are a fool," Reedfur muttered, looking at her with distaste as he straightened up. "I pity you, Emberheart."

"And what do you know about good relationships with children?" the she-cat spat. "You killed one of your sons, and tried to kill the other after he killed you. Sounds like a flawless parent-child relationship." She then began to laugh as she shook her head.

Reedfur's blazing amber eyes narrowed to slits, his lips pulled back, exposing his sharp, white teeth.

"That's it," he snarled. "If you wanted my help, you can forget it. I'm not helping you."

"Fine!" exclaimed Emberheart, still caught in a fit of laughter. "I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help!"

As she continued to laugh, Reedfur sneered at her in distaste and swiftly turned, making his way back across the stream and once again vanishing into the darkness and thick fog until any trace of him was gone.

It wasn't until he was out of sight that Emberheart finally began to stop laughing. Her smirk fell into a frown as she watched where he had left. She stood there for a few moments, the soft wind ruffling her fur, the tom's words repeating themselves in her mind.

Maybe if you stopped all this scheming and you showed him the good in you, he'd forgive you and you could live happily in StarClan together... You really are a fool...

Emberheart flattened her ears as she turned away from the Dark Forest and looked out into the direction she came from- into the light and the red bursts of poppies and the bluebirds chasing each other in the warm wind.

And in a low, sad voice, she murmured, "...Badgerkit..."

Yeahh, the reason I didn't put [Cedarpaw] at the beginning of this chapter like I usually do was because there was so little of him here (sorry about that!). It was mostly about Emberheart.

Anyway, thanks everyone who's been reviewing, y'all are the greatest.

Till next time,

Pearls