Literally Frozen, another fanfic prompty for The Gone Angel

I couldn't move, I couldn't breath. I was frozen, literally frozen in ice. I'd suffer through cold, and my heart and organs would turn stone.

Yellowwhisker snapped awake. She shook her head furiously. Just a dream, she told herself quickly. A dream.

Yellowwhisker had been having these awful dreams lately. It was always with death, always with cold and snow. She hated snow for that. It was the cause of her dreams.

She slowly stretched, enjoying the popping sounds within her pelt. She was a large dusky brown cat. Most of the time foreign cats thought she was a tom at first glance. She blamed her mentor Owlnose's sharp but quiet meows as Yellowwhisker had practiced one of his hard training exercises when she was senior apprentice.

Mainly bashing her shoulder against a tree stump.

"Always keep them tough," he would advise sternly. "The power comes in your legs. Strengthen them and you can topple any cat."

Yellowwhisker liked to believe he was crazy for such tactics. It did nothing but give her sores and pains for days.

Until her Border fight. She had been extremely surprised at the power behind her swipes. They dislodged every cat she fought. It was incredible! The downside behind this was her broad features. She was so thick with muscle toms were actually scared of her! She wanted to be the best Warrior, sure, but she didn't want her own Clan-mates to alienate her either!

The only cat who didn't shirk from her monstrous physique was Limepaw. He loved fighting, and the fact that Yellowwhisker scared everyone only made him look at her like she was even more amazing.

She rumbled a purr.

The apprentice was such a coward though. After her heard of Owlnose's strict training procedures, he up and vanished until the Leader gave him Pinetail as a mentor.

The only problem was, Limepaw never returned to claim his new mentor.

In fact, he had been gone for a quarter of a moon already.

Yellowwhisker had tirelessly searched the territory with her Clan mates, calling and scenting for the apprentice. They found him three days later. His body frozen in the river. The she-cat had watched quietly from the back of the crowd as the Leader informed Limepaw's parents. It had been a very mournful day.

Three days later, their Medicine Cat ruled it as homicide.

Someone killed Limepaw.

And Yellowwhisker had gone out for blood.

For three days she searched tirelessly, questioning Rivaled Clans in the border, walking around the lake to spy on other Clans from the safety of the shoreline. She had even gone so far as to look deep within her own Clan for signs of hostility. Nothing.

The she-cat couldn't let go of this obsession. It was like an extra pelt that weighed he down. Until she found the source and removed it, she mentally felt like she could never move on. It began to worry her other Clan mates, whenever Yellowwhisker drifted off in one of her mental states. She would not speak for hours, stare everyone down with a glare.

Other moments she would curl up and hide from them.

The Medicine Cat had decided enough was enough. Yellowwhisker would need to take some poppyseeds and lie down.

She decided to sleep outside the Clan. Search for clues while she's at it.

Yet here I am, snoozing, she thought, surveying her surroundings. Snow piled high over every tree. The lake was one large icy disc, reflecting dazzling sunlight that hurt Yellowwhisker's eyes.

What was I thinking, sleeping out here in Leaf-bare?! I must be crazy.

No, that wasn't true. She was crazy. Yellowwhisker knew how wrong this was. But she couldn't help it. And even now, after this revelation, the she-cat padded forward. The trees didn't seem to get closer. She began running. She didn't make traction. What is going on here?!

She glanced down.

She blinked.

The lake. She standing on the lake. But her reflection. She had none. The clouds rolling and coiling through the ice, but not her.

She looked at her pelt. She looked healthy. She opened her jaws and tasted the air. She tasted fine!

"I can't feel the wind," Yellowwhisker mewed. "I can't feel anything!"

She looked around, everything looked the same. She glanced down once more and choked back a cry. There was another cat within the ice. Another victim!

She peered down. Why did this keep happening? She wondered sadly.

Something looked familiar about this body.

Dusty brown fur, eyes wide with terror, Yellowwhisker blinked as she stared at herself.

What did this mean? Her heart hammered painfully in her chest. Was she... dead?

"Oh!" Her body rose from the ground. Terrified, Yellowwhisker flailed her paws as she was held in the grip of some unforeseen force.

It carried her steadily higher, until the lake looked like the size of a cat's eye, the forest its body.

This high up Yellowwhisker could see past the Twoleg dens that lined outside RiverClan and WindClan's borders. The mountains where the mysterious Tribe dwelled, and even past that to places beyond.

Realization struck her like a blow to the chest. The nightmarish dreams, the absence of touch in the wind, her reflection.

Another page opened in her memories. She had awoken to find a tom in front of her. She tried to get up, but her body wouldn't move. He shook his head slowly. "paralysis, works very well in the claws," he mewed silkily, observing his claws in the sun light. He had clamped his teeth on Yellowwhisker's tail and dragged her bodily to the edge of the lake.

Throughout the entire time she had tried to move, shout, plead and yowl. But she could only whimper as he dragged her body over the edge of the cliff above the powerful churning waters beneath the lake. The rest had been a blur, as the she-cat awoke above the lake, a restless spirit unable to comprehend her own fate until it was too late.

"Limepaw, I'm sorry" the she-cat whispered before her body faded in the clouds above.