Stars Of The Abyss - Promise Of Ice (Book 2)

Chapter One

A quarter moon had passed since the battle, in which all clans were defeated. The fires in WindClan's territory, although now gone, had stripped all the heather, cowslips, gorse, and any other natural sign of nature - causing the land to look more bare and dry then it had done before. Only a few of the sparse trees that grew on WindClan's territory remained, and even then, with the coming leafbare, the leaves had already died to an orange, and had fallen out, before disintegrating due to the harsh, rocky environment of the moors. The fire was rumoured to have been taken care of by two legs in large, red monsters, but the rumor was to be taken with a grain of salt.

Due to the battle, many compensations had been made - Many of the apprentices had been turned into warriors, such as HickoryPaw himself - Now as HickoryPool. His friends, who had survived the terrible events were made into warriors, too, BlackPaw was now BlackStag, StringPaw as StringCatcher, PikePaw as PikeThistle, and GorsePaw as GorseFrost. Not to mention LilyKit was now being mentored by GoatIce.

And last of all,
his mother had come back from the dead after losing a life.

Laying in WindClan camp, the damage was clear from the fire, as a constant chill breeze flown into the camp, and tingled at the cats' fur. The thickets, broken by battle and burnt by fire, no longer remained to protect these felines. HickoryPool flicked an ear, as he watched BlackStag sorting out poultices. HickoryPool's wounds had already been taken care of, but many others were still wounded, causing The Medicine Cat Den to be completely full, however, HickoryPool was slightly relieved - RiverClan had went back to their old camp, leaving BlackStag's den to just be for his own cats.

HickoryPool staggered upwards, stalking across the clearing to LilyPaw, who was playing with a beetle against the ground. He straightened himself up, his slightly floppy and large ears flicking against the movement, as LilyPaw looked up at him, her pale hazel eyes blazing with interest.

HickoryPool gave her a nervous smile, "Can you show me your hunting pounce on the beetle?"
LilyPaw stared hard, "Why would I need to practice a hunting pounce?" She whipped her head away from him, "We are WindClan, not ThunderClan."

HickoryPool hesitated, "Well - if another battle happens," Which hopefully it won't, he added to himself, "We can adapt hunting pounces into battle moves." He reasoned with the apprentice.

LilyPaw gave a snort, "GoatIce told me that the reason why my mother died was because she was too focused on trying to learn her attackers' tactics, rather then make her own."

HickoryPool was taken aback, "Yeah, well, GoatIce can be wrong sometimes... If not most the time." He recalled to the times GoatIce treated him with hostility, and refused him prey, "GoatIce isn't the person to listen too when it comes to personal issues, trust me, she -"

LilyPaw cut in, "Every cat from WindClan to Twoleg place already knows about your personal experiences with her!" She hissed, "But she's my mentor, it is my job to listen to her, and it is your job to be a warrior, not a grouseheart!"

HickoryPool flinched, before shaking his head, and turning away from LilyPaw, there was no reasoning with her, she had the attitude of a skunk.

HickoryPool wandered away from LilyPaw. His pawpads scraped across the course surface of the camp, and his tail lay flat behind him. HickoryPool reacted heavily to someone's insults, or hostility - he never knew why, and many cats often said it was because of the outsider blood that ran outside him.

HickoryPool was the son of ThunderStar, the WindClan leader, and CowWaddle, her deputy. ThunderStar had been born to PrimroseBite when she was still in the clan, but the father of ThunderStar was a rogue tom named Aries. PrimroseBite had became a savage rogue too, of course - she had ambushed all the clans while they were fighting, and had stripped a life away from ThunderStar, who at the time looked as dead as dead could be.