A New world - The Frozen Forest 1# Warrior Cats

12 - Night Uncertainty

The attacker leapt, pinning Lucidpaw. Its cold, fierce blue gaze pierced her with intimidation. It overweighed the apprentice, leaving her struggling to be set free. A claw sliced near her jaw, shallow enough to just make her bleed.

She kicked the opponent's belly with unsheathed claws, it backed up. She stood with a blood-stained throat, a bit of a fight lit something inside her. Yet this was much more dangerous, and she was more frail, than the innocent playfight with the junior Stonewarden. Was this what the FrostClan cats called life?

She dodged all that her wounds let her. Lucidpaw already felt this kind of pain, but there was no one to protect this time. It had to be her only. The attacker swept and lunged at the apprentice with graceful force. 

A flash of brown beamed over her gaze to pin down her attacker with fierce eyes. They both struggled, scrabbling their furious paws in the air and pinning each other down. Lucidpaw scrambled to her paws, and let out a restless gasp when noticing the small cat who stabilized the fight was just an apprentice.

In a sudden moment, another scruff of brown fur joined, showing the two fighting cats connected by kin ''Get out, Wind!''

She couldn't help more than to run away as they said. But the name they called her was odd. In her mind, she then reaized they were talking about Moonlit's companion. 'That Windpaw-'. She had to be happy she was not dead yet- 'but what about the other small cats?' she wondered

The burning wounds lead her on to get to the camp. She ran. She ran as if her attacker was suddenly back at her heels. With luck she would be eating an energetic fresh-kill by sunrise, if she made it there.

The night fell silent again, just the wind again by her side. With a swift pawpad the escaping apprentice stepped on the Clan camp.

Lucidpaw rushed towards the medicine den, vaguely remembering the way in the darkness that fell in the Clan alongside the moon. All of a sudden, a pair of bright different colored eyes stroke her gaze aside. She couldn't stop to stop and watch, that could lead to nothing better than sleep. The she just plummeted towards the hole made in the carved rock, leaving the possible cat behind.

It was much more dim, but a moss den was able to be seen and she rapidly curled herself on it. She refrained from wailing in pain as she covered her red paws with her droopy tail. She could not ask right now for the medicine cat's help, she would be asked how and why. If she died it would not matter much, at least she could be in the grasp of warm StarClan with the old ShadowClan.

She just laid in a rightened ball of fur, her sides heaving up and down with hope she would get better by morning.

...

The tomcat looked behind yet again, having that gut feeling of something being wrong.

Windpaw echoed him out of this uncommon gaze, ''Why do you look back so much?'' she took the lead towards the entrance of the Stonewarden camp, where most of his clanmates would be happily asleep. Except for the dark-furred apprentice and the energy ball called Windpaw. ''Do you miss silence?''

''Your silence I miss'' he joked. 'A bit true though,' he thought as Windpaw gladly giggled. She passed through mud-clad giant walls of the entrance, only led by the usual Berzerker scent. Moonlit stayed close to her, entering the sudden darkness of the tunnels.

''We're near, I'm su-'' He bumped onto the junior she-cat. Windpaw backed up, spitting dirt. ''Far lights, just lead me to my den!'' she moaned.

The two juniors soon were back on the usual camp, an underground abandoned rock-place from the Twolegs. It had one long Silverpath cutting the earth beneath, and lots of hay where the many warriors of Stonewardens made their dens. They were sound asleep. It was just Windpaw, him, and the breathing of the Berzerkers making barely any sound.

They padded upwards, following a wood-and-dust trail on the strange wood structures made by Twolegs. Moonlit stopped cold on his place. ''Windpaw?'' his voice sounded even louder with the lack of sound, for he whispered.

''Yeah?'' she whispered back

''What if I told y-you-'' he noticed his ears flatten, and tried not to show any signs of the 'possible' being the 'truth', ''I could be hanging with another she-cat?''

Windpaw frowned, ''Southernpaw?''

''N-no, I meant-'' he fell silent. Windpaw tilted her head, ''You mean another she-cat like, from another Clan?''

Moonlit got a shiver running down him, and a feeling of something stuck in his worried throat. He nodded ''Y-yes, in the hypothetic case, of course, not actually happening,'' He kept and held a gaze with an itty-bit of suspicion, but she just nodded it off.

''Of course, you would be disloyal to Stonewardens,'' she gave her explanation, ''But hey, it is not bad having friends outside from Stonewardens, right?'' she grinned. ''We have to find that little happiness in the frozen forest, among everything that is going from bad to worse.'' she remained silent staring at the hay-spread floor.

Moonlit gave a wide glance at Wind, visibly shocked. She wouldn't be the cat to say such things, and he was surprised to that she did not care about his ''Hypothetical'' meetings with the FrostClanner. And no matter how happily she said it, the thought was upsetting, and much more to an overthinker just like him. They both knew what it felt to be part of the frozen forest.

Then he thought of Lucidpaw, who could be still hidden in the bushes or sound asleep on her den either way. He knew a bit about her, and for her looks, she did not seem from FrostClan itself. Not always, at least. What if she was experiencing this world for a first time, ignoring how pathetic and nonsensical that sounded? She was annoying, yes, but it worried him that she could be exposed to such cruelty. But she had to grow. They both had. But he was sure he had grown a liiiittle bit more than her, to be fair.

He stared at the dark void illuminated by the Twoleg lights, and Windpaw just hummed herself for attention until tiredness. ''Well, I guess it is a good night.'' she muttered, curling in her gray fur alongside the motionless furball of Southernpaw. She looked aside, towards the spots where Oak and Shrew should be, ''Goodnight to them too,'' she finished and let her head rest on her paws.

Moonlit got out of his I-can't-react period and smiled at Windpaw. He just directed his tired body to his den, remembering the astonishment of the first time sleeping alongside the juniors. He fell asleep fast when resting his troubled head. Finally night time.

When could he tell the truth to her? When could he tell the truth to everybody? How could he... even know if it was the whole truth..?''