A New Horizon Book 3: A Frozen Heart {COMPLETED}

Chapter 1

Honeypaw looked up at the pale blue sky, watching the snowflakes fall lazily from the wispy clouds above. She suppressed a shiver, ignoring the pain of hunger that clawed at her belly. She looked back down at the snow-covered ground. The tiny patch of marigold only had a few leaves left, the others killed by the cold. As if it wasn't hard enough. Honeypaw picked up the herbs and started back to camp. She didn't want to stay out any longer and risk sickness.

The SunClan camp was a miserable place, the fresh-kill pile was nearly empty and so were the bellies of the warriors that lived there. I had been nearly two moons since the Clans were instructed to leave and for some reason: they hadn't yet. Honeypaw knew that her mother, Dawnstar, had been impatient and anxious to leave but the other Clans had been hesitating, namely AshClan.

Honeypaw stepped into the medicine cat den, Pebblestep had returned from her own herb collecting task and from the looks of it, had only recovered small traces of yarrow. The other cat in the medicine cat den was Flash, a rogue who had served under the former AshClan warrior Echoheart until his sister, Lilac died and Echoheart nearly killed him as well. Pebblestep and Honeypaw had taken it upon themselves to heal him back to full health.

Flash's wound was completely healed, but he remaind in SunClan camp for fear of returning to the twolegplace and facing the wrath of Echoheart. Flash lived in the medicine cat den, but would hunt for the Clan as well. Honeypaw had grown quite used to having Flash around, he had a stoic and sharp personality, he wasn't a cat she could talk to like Snakewhisker, but he was good company.

"What did you find out there?" Pebblestep questioned once Honeypaw entered the den, turning to face her apprentice. Her one good blue eye rested on the small scraps of marigold that Honeypaw picked. "Is that it?"

Honeypaw set down her sad collection of herbs and nodded sadly. "Yeah, everything that wasn't killed with the forest is now being killed by the frost." She carried the marigold over to their tiny herb store. "I've said this before, but why haven't we left yet? Have you spoken with my mother about it?"

"I have and she doesn't know why either. It's been almost two moons. We should've left long ago. I know it's hard just to get up and leave but we're risking our lives. We have no herbs, no prey and sickness could pick up at any point. Hollykit and Burnkit are four moons old now, but they're still kits. At least Sandfoot and Snakewhisker aren't incredibly old, they could fight sickness but we have no catmint."

"So what are we going to do?" Honeypaw asked, feeling a sense of helplessness weigh down on her chest. I can't do anything for my Clan. We've stopped going to the moonstone because we can't even speak with StarClan. Her chest tightened. A medicine cat's job is to heal their Clanmates and communicate with StarClan, if we can't do either of those then are we really medicine cats?

"The gathering is two days from now, we'll have to make it clear to the Clans that it's time to go." Pebblestep sighed. "I'm going out to look for more herbs. You can stay here, I'll be back soon." Without waiting for a response, Pebblestep quickly headed out of the medicine cat den, leaving Flash and Honeypaw alone.

"Things are really bad around here, aren't they?" Flash questioned, lifting his head from his nest.

Honeypaw nodded. "SunClan is struggling to survive, and we still have much more of leaf-bare to deal with." She looked at her paws. "And Pebblestep and I can't do anything to help them."

"I'm sure at this gathering you'll be able to convince the other leaders to leave, I doubt that SunClan are the only ones struggling right now." Honeypaw knew that Flash had a point, and she was certain that the other medicine cats were urging their leaders to leave. As she thought about the other medicine cats, her mind drifted to the AshClan medicine cat apprentice Blackpaw.

They had met in secret three times since their first, but hadn't done much lately because it was too cold and they had other things to do. Honeypaw missed spending time with him, she only ever got to see him at gatherings now since they stopped going to the moonstone at the half-moon. I shouldn't be thinking about him in this way. Honeypaw told herself over and over, but no matter what she said; she couldn't stop the feelings she felt.

Honeypaw had done everything she can to just focus on being a medicine cat, but she didn't have much to do without any herbs. She felt useless, scared and alone. She never really spoke to her brother, Falconpaw either. He was busy trying to hunt and provide for the Clan. Even border patrols had come to a slow down so every cat could focus on hunting. Even with all that, the fresh-kill pile remained bare.

So far there had been no signs of sickness, but both Honeypaw and Pebblestep knew that it wasn't far behind. The only herb they had to treat greencough was chickweed, which wasn't as useful a catmint, and they had a very tiny amount. If multiple cats in the Clan got sick, without any herbs Honeypaw knew that she would lose Clanmates.

In an attempt to keep herself busy, Honeypaw went to the elders den, seeing if Sandfoot or Snakewhisker needed anything. They both claimed to be fine and Honeypaw left with disappointment weighing on her shoulders. Neither Goldenleaf nor her kits needed anything, so Honeypaw trudged around camp begging for something to do.

Movement caught her eye as she passed the warrior's den and spotted a hunting patrol returning. The patrol consisted of Crowfur, Turtleblaze, Petalpaw, Heatherflight and Mudfall. Crowfur and Heatherflight each carried in scrawny squirrels while the rest of the patrol had nothing but disappointment in their eyes.

Crowfur and Heatherflight set their fresh-kill down and the patrol separated. Honeypaw caught Petalpaw's eyes and approached the apprentice. "Hunting not go well?" Honeypaw questioned, knowing the answer but trying to make conversation.

Petalpaw noded. "Turtleblaze almost caught a mouse but it got away, other than that we saw nothing else." The apprentice sighed sadly. "I feel like I'm not doing enough, I can't hunt and we can't find any prey."

"I know how you feel." Honeypaw flattened her ears. "Pebblestep and I haven't had any luck with herbs either and we're constantly looking."

"I thought we were supposed to find a new home." Petalpaw pointed out. "Like, two moons ago."

"We were, but something is holding the other Clans back. We're going to try and convince the leaders to leave at the gathering in two days. If we can't then I don't know what we're going to do."

"At least SunClan is lucky to have two great medicine cats." Petalpaw purred, clearly trying to make light of the situation. Honeypaw honestly felt a little assured by the apprentice's words. Petalpaw was an incredibly kind cat and Honeypaw always enjoyed talking to her. "No matter what happens I'm sure we'll be fine. SunClan is strong."

Honeypaw looked at Petalpaw gratefully, she was right. SunClan was strong, and despite all odds Honeypaw felt deep down in her heart that SunClan would survive. Not just SunClan either, all four Clans will make it out of this. I swear it on my life.