Guild Wars

~ Guild Wars: Chapter 16 ~

Ioclaw felt as though her paws were about to fall off. The six months had passed and Wire was taking them to meet in Midnight's Guild. She had never trained this hard before. Most Crystal Searchers weren't chosen, her, Spottedfeather, and Amurmist were exceptions. Whitepatches and Birdwing had begun their training, and Wire seemed to think they were ready for battle. Moonsight, on the other paw, didn't.

"I don't want to throw my sister into war during her first four months of training," she snarled. "She needs more time!"

"Talk to Wire," Ioclaw mewed with a yawn. "Not me."

"I wish we could go with you," Wonderfur murmured. "I don't want you to go by yourself."

"You think I want to go without you? I don't want to go at all! I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in the last six months, I'm exhausted!" Ioclaw whined. "I don't want to go to war with cats bigger than us."

"You've been training," Wonderfur meowed comfortingly. "You'll also have some cats there to help you. I just wish those some cats included us."

"Me, too," Moonsight huffed. "I want to be there with Whitepatches. Why is Wire sending her already? She's only been training for four months. Four months, Ioclaw!"

"Well don't have a hissy fit with me," Ioclaw murmured, drawing a paw over her ear. "Oh, yay! We're almost there!"

She forced herself to run forward, ignoring the pain in her paws. It increased each time they hit the ground. She nearly stopped to give them a break, but she couldn't now, not when she was so close to a longer break and hopefully an end to this dumb prophecy.

Soon, Wonderfur and Moonsight were at her side. The three friends burst into Midnight's camp behind Wire. Ioclaw quickly gasped for breath, then rushed over to a familiar russet pelt. "Rust!"

Rust jumped and whirled around to face her. "Ioclaw! It's so good to see you. You've really grown these past six months, you're almost as big as me!"

"It's been hard not being able to meet with you and Peril for half a year," Ioclaw meowed. "It's so nice that we can all finally be together again."

"Well, we have to wait a bit for Peril for a little bit, but yeah! I wonder how she looks now?" Rust smiled at Ioclaw. Ioclaw smiled back. She sat down beside him, letting out a breath of relief. Her paws were finally getting a break and she was finally getting a moment to clear her head. It'd been so crowded with thoughts the whole trip, it was nice to finally be able to narrow them down to the happy ones.

"How have you been feeling?" Ioclaw asked. "Ya know, with being watched and everything?"

Rust kind of froze, then flicked his tail. "Fine," he murmured. "I think I know who it is now."

Ioclaw pricked her ears. "Really? Who?"

Rust blinked. "You remember how I told you guys about CC? One of the kits Carter was in charge of?" he asked.

Ioclaw nodded.

Rust dropped his voice. "It's her."

Ioclaw bit back a gasp. "But . . . Cats walking among the stars can only talk to Prophet Cats, meaning the only cat they'd be able to talk to is Salmontooth. And how was she able to watch and talk to you before then?"

Rust let out a deep, quiet growl. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I've talked to Carter about it, he agrees it could be her."

"Carter?" Ioclaw mewed. "How is he?"

"Good," Rust mewed. "He has a mate now."

"Who? Koi?"

Rust shuffled his paws. "Me."