Cinders to Flames

Chapter 17

Chapter 19

The next morning, Cinderfrost was up early. As she groomed her fur, messy from sleep, she thought of the day she had decided to trust Heronsky. The cold leaf-bare morning which they had gone out hunting, just the two of them. How she had defended him when Blackwhisker had said he didn't trust him. Heronsky's betrayal had infuriated her. She wondered briefly what she would say to him. No matter, she thought. More pressing matters were what she was going to say to Blackwhisker. How he was right.

Again.

She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. How many mistakes would it take before she learnt? Cinderfrost chose a vole from the fresh-kill pile and waited for Blackwhisker. He stumbled out of the warrior's den yawning.
"Oh. Hi." He said when he spotted her. "You're up early." Other cats started leaving the warrior's den, getting ready for the dawn patrol.

"Hey Cinderfrost!" Heronsky called. "Wanna do dawn patrol with me and Wolfclaw?"

Cinderfrost ignored him. "I need to talk to you, Blackwhisker." She said.

"Okay." He looked between her and Heronsky. "What's up with you two?"

"Didn't you hear me, Cinderfrost?" The white tom came up to her. She wrinkled her nose with disgust and turned away.

"Don't talk to me, you sorry excuse for a cat." She spat and turned away. "Come on Blackwhisker!" She called when she saw the black tom standing looking rather confused. He shrugged to himself and followed Cinderfrost into the forest.

"Are you going to tell me what's happening now?" He asked, irritation in his voice.

"I overheard Heronsky talking to Wolfclaw," she said, "Heronsky was planning to trick me because he was still salty about the time I beat him when we were apprentices."
"What a foxheart!" Blackwhisker hissed, shaking his head. "Well at least you don't need to worry about him anymore." He added, and Cinderfrost saw something in his eyes she couldn't quite place.

"Yeah." She shook her fur out in the cold. "We should probably go hunting so Houndheart doesn't get suspicious."
Blackwhisker snorted. "Everything gets to that old grump." He meowed, but his tone was lighthearted. They caught a family of mice and then went back to camp, both young warriors proud of their catch.

"I want to talk to you." Heronsky found Cinderfrost and Blackwhisker talking quietly in the evening, sharing fresh-kill between them.

"I don't want to talk to you." Cinderfrost said, her voice icy.

"It's important." Heronsky's mew was serious, so Cinderfrost sighed and followed him to talk alone, giving Blackwhisker a reassuring flick of her tail as she left.

"What do you want?" She stared at the white tom with all the hatred in the world.

"I want to know why you're ignoring me all of a sudden!" Heronsky hissed, his fur standing on end.

"I heard you a few nights ago, you foxhearted traitor! I decided to give you one last chance and you ruined it!" Her voice grew bitter. "I trusted you."

His eyes grew full of hatred. "So that's how it is then. Fine. You're going to regret this, Cinderfrost."

And without another word he stalked away from her and disappeared into the warrior's den.

Cinderfrost crept through the twolegplace of silent paws. Three cats followed behind her. She had been put on a night patrol, and it was going well so far. She caught a sniff of a strange scent and paused, motioning for her patrol to halt.

"What is it?" Bronze's voice penetrated the silence of the night.

Cinderfrost's lips drew back in a snarl. "Intruder." She hissed and started forward. She followed the scent to a dead end. A black tom leapt up onto a trash can and started to rummage its contents.

"Move out." She commanded, and her patrol spread out to block all possible escape routes. She moved forward to the intruder. With a well practiced leap she landed on the rim of the trash can opposite the tom. He looked up, fear in his eyes. "What are you doing here?" She growled.

"I-I"m sorry! I have a family at home and they need to eat! Please, a little mercy." He begged, his yellow eyes wide with fear.

Cinderfrost knocked him to the ground and he landed with a thud. She landed neatly beside him and clawed along his flank with her claws, blood splattering the pavement. She stepped back. "If I ever see you here again I'll kill you." Her mew was quiet and menacing, and the tom's eyes widened with terror.

"Thank you." He whispered, and then fled down the dark alley. Cinderfrost led her patrol back to camp and talked quietly to the council. They all shared any intruders they had found on the last patrol.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen that black tom around before." Appleheart said when she described her encounter.
"I said if I saw him in our territory again I'd kill him." Cinderfrost said. The other cats nodded with collective agreement.

"Toms think they can do whatever they want these days." Fluffy hissed.

"Yes! That's why they don't belong in the council." A black she-cat named Panther added with venom in her mew. Cinderfrost thought of Blackwhisker and frowned. The council started to disperse and Cinderfrost turned to Panther. "Are you sure all toms are horrible pieces of filth?" She asked. The black she-cat turned her head in thought. "All the toms I've met were horrible." She talked about her mate whose name was Jack. "He killed all my kittens when I told him I didn't want to be his mate."
Cinderfrost stared in shock. "That's horrible!"

"I know. I haven't had a mate since."

"You must've had a mate pretty young then. Where I live you have a mate when you're around the age of a senior warrior."

"Well, that's how it works here for strays. Many she-cats don't have a choice." Panther explained, her green eyes sad.

Cinderfrost talked about Blackwhisker, how he was kind and helpful. She also talked about Blizzardstar and Iceleap. "They all sound so nice." Panther said sadly, gazing in the direction of the FrostClan camp. "Maybe one day I'll get to meet them."

"Yeah well not Blizzardstar. He died." She said a little sadly, looking up at the stars for a moment.

"Oh. I'm sorry." The she-cat stroked her tail down her spine and she felt a shiver of happiness run down her spine. Cinderfrost wanted to stand there with her forever.

"I'd better go." She said instead, and the two cats touched muzzles for a moment. As Cinderfrost began to walk home she felt her heart tear in two once again. 

Yes, I've finally decided to write something, I know. Sorry for that very long absence.