Flamepaw's Destination

Chapter 22

It was near evening by the time that they had finally decided to set off again. For a while, all three cats had satin the forest, trying to contemplate what was to be done. It was incredibly hard for all of them to grasp the idea that RiverClan was over with.

Flamepaw could not keep out the image of her mother's body or of Goldstar's lifeless eyes staring at her. Barkpaw did his best to comfort her, but she knew he was struggling greatly too. Mothwing had not spoken a word since.

Finally, their growling stomachs had forced them to move on their way, though Flamepaw had no notion of where they were going. They just silently wandered through the forest, unsure of which direction they were heading toward.

A mouse scampered across in front of the group of cats, and Flamepaw watched as Barkpaw killed it swiftly.

"Here, you have it," he said, tossing it to Flamepaw.

Flamepaw was starving, and her mouth watered at the sight of the dead mouse.

"We can share," she suggested, even though she'd rather have the entire mouse for herself.
Barkpaw shook his head. "I'm not hungry."

"Mothwing?" Flamepaw asked.

Mothwing also shook her head.

Flamepaw felt a bit guilty about eating without them, but she devoured the entire mouse anyway, glad to ease her growling stomach. Barkpaw and Mothwing just sat down and stared at nothing.

Flamepaw too felt the same depression that they did. If anything, she should've been affected the most having seen the most out of all of them. She had been the one who had so desperately wanted to help her clan, and now, there was nothing that they could do.

There had been no talk of what was to happen to them. Flamepaw herself had no idea what she would do. Would she join another clan? Or perhaps she'd live life as a rogue? She'd lived a rogue life for many moons already.

She wasn't sure what Barkpaw wanted either. She wanted to stay by him no matter what. She supposed now they could become mates officially since the RiverClan business was over, but Flamepaw didn't want to force anything onto him. It would be awhile before they were all decided and settled.

Once the sky became dark, it was Flamepaw who spoke up about finding shelter. She could not believe how disoriented Barkpaw and Mothwing were. Perhaps she had already gone through so much distress that it no longer affected her. All of this seemed to be new for Barkpaw and Mothwing.

"It's getting dark," Flamepaw informed them.

Mothwing glanced up at the indigo sky where tiny stars were beginning to appear.

"So it is," she agreed. She paused for a moment, then kept walking.

"We should find a place to sleep," Flamepaw suggested.

"Yeah, yeah we should," Barkpaw agreed, now back to his senses.

Flamepaw looked around and led Mothwing and Barkpaw to a small cave made by some adjacent rocks. While Barkpaw and Mothwing crawled inside, she fetched some moss and gave it to them as nests.

Mothwing went to sleep right away without a word while Flamepaw and Barkpaw seemed to be kept awake by the reality in front of them. Flamepaw tossed and turned but could not get comfortable.

"I bet all those RiverClan warriors are looking down at us from StarClan tonight," Barkpaw murmured at one point, noticing Flamepaw was far from asleep.