Warrior Cats: Icetail's Enemy (COMPLETED ✔️)

Chapter Twenty Seven

Edited ✔️

Icetail thrashed to break free from the vines that his paws were tangled in. Help! Let me out! he wanted to yowl, but the words somehow didn't come out.

Then, a familiar cat padded out from the undergrowth. Icetail gasped. Shard! "Long time no see," meowed the strange cat. Today, he looked much different than the one time where he tried to kill him, and the other time where he insulted him, and the other time when he tried to train him.

Finally, Icetail managed out the words. "Sh-Shard!" he gasped, sputtering out blood. Thorns of the vines were digging into the back of his neck painfully. "Help, get me out of here!"

Shard purred. He began to pad away into the distance, leaving Icetail wide-eyed. He---he just came to see me! He just wanted to tease me! he thought with anger.

Suddenly, his anger was gone. Other cats were padding out from the distance other than Shard. He made out cats that he hadn't seen for a long time. Icetail stopped struggling and stared straight at his own mother, his eyes wide, his pelt quivering. Ripplefur was also there. They were both staring back at him, expressionless.

"Featherbreeze!" called Icetail. "Featherbreeze! Ripplefur! Snap out of it!"

Featherbreeze and Ripplefur began to pad away after Shard in the darkness.

"No, don't follow him! You don't know what he is going to do to you! Please!" wailed Icetail. He hadn't felt such grief in a long time. He had never felt like a kit again until now ever since the day he had the nightmare of the darkness.

The painfully sharp thorns dug deeper into his pelt, and Icetail yowled with pain as the blood trickled down.

More cats, one by one, began to follow. Ashtail, Dewfang, Flameheart, Brightstar, Vinetail, Squirrelpaw, Silverpaw . . . they were all following each other into the darkness one by one, ignoring Icetail's pleads. Why won't they listen to him?!

Every cat he cared about . . . they are all leaving as if they were dying . . . and he could do nothing but yowl after them as they faded away.

It's a warning. If I do not find the meaning of the prophecy very soon, then every cat I love will die under my paws, because I won't be able to do anything to save them!

* * *

Icetail cleared the elder's bedding as he helped the apprentices with their chores. Sparrowheart refused to put Icetail on any patrols, so this is what he was stuck doing for the day. He certainly did not want to sleep—which everyone kept suggesting that he'd do. He wanted to feel useful to the Clan even though others wanted him to take a break.

Vinetail was the only cat right now who understood. He understood somehow that Icetail would get nightmares if he were to dream. He was thankful for having such a considerate medicine cat.

Stripeeyes padded up, feeling his way to the den. "Oh, hi Icetail. Back to apprentice duties?" meowed the almost-blind tom as he caught Icetail's scent.

"No. I just wanted to help the apprentices," Icetail explained. "Besides, Sparrowheart won't put me on a patrol."

"I can't believe that you don't notice how much you are overworking yourself," laughed Stripeeyes. "Even me, a cat who can't see, can see that."

"That doesn't take sense," Icetail muttered, bundling up Stripeeyes's old bedding. He turned to Silverpaw and Droppaw. "You two! Go bury this outside the camp," he ordered.

"Yes Icetail!" Silverpaw meowed. She and Droppaw scurried off after scooping it off the ground

"I'll be right back, I need to get you clean bedding," Icetail told the elder. He just nodded and sat down on the outside of his den, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Icetail padded into Vinetail's den to see Sweetpaw organizing herbs. "Come for bedding?" the medicine cat apprentice asked. "I see you helping the apprentices. I don't think Brightstar wants you to do that."

"Well," said Icetail with a sigh, "It's better than nothing."

"Don't spoil them too much," Sweetpaw meowed, passing him the bedding through her jaws. Icetail clamped on it and padded out, adding a muffled 'thank you' before returning to Stripeeyes.

He laid out the bedding, removing a loose thorn from it before smoothening it out. "There, all done!" Icetail said to Stripeeyes. "You can rest on it now if you'd like."

"Sure thing," Stripeeyes meowed gratefully, not budging from his spot. "Well, I actually prefer it out here. You see, I don't know when I'll die, so I want to enjoy the sun as much as I can."

"That's a sad reason, but I understand." Stripeeyes was the oldest cat in camp, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he'd passed to StarClan in his sleep.

"Want to hear a story?" asked Stripeeyes. "I don't recall ever story-telling to you or your brother. All of the young cats of MoonClan came to me in the past for stories. Even Sharpfang!"

Icetail realized that Stripeeyes was right. As kits, the two would always play and compete with one another. When they were apprentices, nothing much changed except for always having something to do such as patrols or duties. "Dewfang is out on a patrol right now, but I'll listen if you want me to," Icetail replied, sitting next to the elder. I don't like stories, but I don't want to disappoint Stripeeyes.

"Well, the story I am about to tell you is not mine to begin with. It belonged to another elder who died while I was a kit. It's a story about DarkClan." Stripeeyes got more comfortable. "She said that in her early memories, DarkClan had never existed."

"Never existed?" Icetail asked, astonished.

"Sure, I guess. That's what Berrysplash said. She told me that she remembered a lot of fights over territories with a bunch of rogues, but of course, it was nothing she could fight as a kit. She said that it involved all the Clans, actually. MoonClan was almost at the brink of destruction until the four Clans gave up chunks of their territory to the rogues who now call themselves DarkClan."

Icetail listened closely. Somehow . . . somehow, he knew that it connected with the prophecy. Then suddenly, he gasped as realization hit him hard in the head.

The darkness was never meant to be, he recalled. DarkClan! That darkness—shay if it's DarkClan!

"Are you okay?" asked Stripeeyes, tilting his head. "You feel tense."

"Oh, I'm fine." Far from fine. "I just have to find Flameheart. Do you know where he is?" asked Icetail.

"Yes, he went to go hunt by the borders of CloudClan. Or maybe it was MarshClan . . ."

"Thanks! I'll just follow his scent!" Icetail bolted from his spot, but Stripeeyes stopped him.

"Can't it wait until he gets back?" Stripeeyes meowed firmly. "Sparrowheart said you needed rest today, and you do," warned the old elder.

"It can't wait! I don't know when—" he stopped himself there. I don't know when the darkness is going to strike, he was about to say. "I-I have to go."

Stripeeyes sighed. "Good luck."

"Good luck for what?" asked Icetail.

"I don't know what to wish you luck for, but you obviously need it," meowed Stripeeyes with a smirk as he padded into his den.

Stripeeyes was not right. The prophecy can't be figured out by luck, so far it hasn't. But thanks anyways, Stripeeyes, Icetail thought before bolting out of the camp entrance.

Now I know something helpful!