CLOSED The Truth? Please? Well - actually, I'm not asking.

[Longstorm]

Blueblossom, warrior of DarkClan, woke suddenly. For a moment she didn't remember where she was. The she-cat looked around at the earth and root ceiling of the den and remembered. We're under the willow tree in Frost Valley hidden, far, far up in our Dark Mountains, she thought, the sleep fog leaving her mind and replaced by sharp reality.
Three dead. Eleven remain. Four kits from TawnyClan. Miles away from any claimed territory. Trapped. In the Valley.
The white she-cat shuddered despite being surrounded by warm bodies. Her pink lips curled with the complete rage and grief she was feeling. Her paws shook as she thought, Never, not in my entire life, have I been surrounded by such failure. My own failure. All of her life Blueblossom had always considered herself to always be getting better. With each failure, she had grown stronger, better. It had made her feel almost untouchable. But the recent events reminded her how little control she had over certain things. Over life itself. Over others. Over herself. I am not a god. I forgot. That was a mistake.
Her anger suddenly turned into cold determination. A mistake I will never make again. The hormones of motherhood were gone. She no longer had a reason to play it safe. To play it quiet. To be the submissive mate. Grief had sharpened her mind back to what it had been. She was Blueblossom, daughter of the great deputy Greystorm and the respected warrior Dawnfur. Redstar was her brother, Thornstar was her lover, and all opposition was hers to overcome. StarClan was on her side. She knew all of the complex battle moves, the best hunting techniques, the greatest secrets, and could execute the most strategies with a 49% chance of failure. Years of living, getting better and better and better, listening and learning, had made her who she was.
She was Blueblossom. She was a warrior of DarkClan. She knew what she had to do.
I know what I have to do.
Blueblossom rose from her nest and stretched, yawning widely. Some of the kits murmured in their sleep but did not wake.
Better to let them sleep. She reached out with a white paw and prodded the sleeping form of Hollypaw.
The tortoiseshell apprentice slowly blinked awake. Her bleary eyes focused on Blueblossom and she blinked in greeting. Blueblossom nodded in return and gestured wordlessly to out the entrance of the den.
Hollypaw looked confused and opened her mouth to speak, but Blueblossom shook her head.
The DewClan apprentice cocked her head but she stood. Blueblossom lead her out of the den.

Outside...

Hollypaw shivered at the temperature change.

OOC: Incomplete

[Longstorm]

Hollypaw looked at Blueblossom and asked, "What is it?"
The pretty white she-cat looked back at the apprentice and meowed, "Tell me about this prophecy."
Hollypaw's eyes widened as she remembered the details of the dream . "I..." She looked away. "Gingerleaf should never have mentioned anything about it to you," her voice caught when she said the dead warrior's name.
Blueblossom's eyes narrowed. "Why? Because you're not allowed to tell anyone? What about each other?"
"That's different. We all already knew about it-"
"All," Blueblossom interrupted. "Just how many cats received this dream, anyways? I've heard 'all' of you mentioning others in the mountains. How many, Hollypaw? What was the dream about that was so important that two warriors, an apprentice and a nursing queen with four kits ended up all the way out in Frost Valley?"
Hollypaw wasn't saying anything. I can't tell her, she thought desperately. My Clan will die otherwise!
Blueblossom continued, "I don't care if it was an omen from StarClan, or if it's some great vow or anything like that! Cats have died. We're all trapped here, Hollypaw. Out here, there are no Clans or StarClan or prophecies. There is ice and there is snow and there is us. That is all." Her blue eyes bored into Hollypaw's green ones. "Tell me, Hollypaw. What is going on?"
Hollypaw was beside herself. Granted, she'd ever been exactly close to Blueblossom in the time she and the others had been resting in the Ice-Shell, but Blueblossom had Hollypaw's respect. Regardless, Hollypaw had been told by StarClan (OOC: not really) to not tell anyone about this dream and the Quester's mission.
But Blueblossom was right about one thing - in the Ice-Shell things were different. Very different. The sunlight was dark and blue, and when you went outside the world was either blinding or gray and darkening.
It was like she had been plucked out of the world and placed into a strange, not-life place. She couldn't describe it. It frightened her.
Hollypaw shook her head. "I can't -"
"You CAN," Blueblossom nearly yowled - even so, her voice bounced off of the walls of ice and amplified. She lowered her voice to not wake the kits. "You can, Hollypaw. You're not on a quest anymore. It's - over. You landed here. " Her white tail lashed. "You can tell me or leave."
Hollypaw's mouth opened in shock. Leave?

OOC: To be continued...

[Longstorm]

The apprentice took an uncertain step back. She was very conflicted, but there was obviously only one choice.
Blueblossom sat, looking at Hollypaw with a look of grim anticipation.
Hollypaw inhaled. "They said that our Clans were set to die." She felt a weight leave her shoulders, though she still had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
The white warrior nodded. "Go on."
Hollypaw cleared her throat and she shuffled her paws nervously. She wished that she could sit calmly like Blueblossom. "The dream mentioned the fallen moon that was across the mountains and that we had to bring it back to save 'all we hold true.'" It all felt so far away, she realized, like it hadn't really mattered in the end. What was all of this for? "Unite or die was another part - cats from every Clan came to join us, even AbyssClan!"
Blueblossom was surprised, but she remained silent. Something so terrible that even AbyssClan would take part?
"Then there was some part about StarClan, I think, or just the stars," the dream was a distant memory, "and a field. And to beware of surrendering traitors." Hollypaw shrugged. "If we didn't go then everything would burn, and something about a broken rock." She exhaled. "And don't tell anyone. Just go. That's all."
Blueblossom looked thoughtful. After a short time she meowed, "How many cats?"
"Maybe twenty or more," Hollypaw replied. "Apprentices, warriors, kits, elders, queens - we had everything and everyone from everywhere."
"What happened to them?"
"We had to go over the mountains," Hollypaw jerked her head in the general direction of the Dark Mountains, "but it was a problem for the kits and the elders. I think the main group went on, but our group got lost and I know some cats from the City went a different direction, and maybe the elder and a medicine cat stayed in the forest -"
"Medicine cat," Blueblossom interrupted. She stood. "What medicine cat? What did she look like?"
"She was gray - she was DarkClan's medicine cat, right? Mistlight?" Hollypaw had only spoken to the medicine cat (or 'Healer') briefly. She had been a young, tart she-cat, concerned for all of the cats but had her own wise opinions that she liked to make known. "How did you know she was missing? I thought you had been here for moons..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't know the full story about why Blueblossom and these kits were here in the forests.
Blueblossom nodded. "She vanished into the night along with three others. Two toms, one black and the other gray, and a blue-gray she-cat with a bushy tail. Did you see these cats?"
Hollypaw considered the descriptions. "All DarkClan?"
"All DarkClan."
A black DarkClan tom - that must be Blackfire the warrior! And the other two must be the apprentices... The apprentice slowly nodded. "Yes, I know of Blackfire. He was sort of taking the lead when I last saw him. And he had two apprentices with him. But Blueblossom,"
The white warrior ignored the questions and struck the ground. "Idiots," she spat, "Leaving in the dead of night without a single word in to their mentors or their superiors. I don't care about any prophecy or dream, that was foolish. They were thought to be dead." She growled long and frustrated. What she didn't say was that Icepaw leaving wounded her brother Redstar's ego severely, and three deserters was the last thing the Rebellion had needed only days before their preemptive strike against her former lover.
Thornstar, she thought, suddenly mournful. He's probably dead now.

OOC: To be continued...

[Longstorm]

Blueblossom suddenly grabbed onto another thought. Medicine cat in the woods? She stepped closer to Hollypaw. "What forests," she demanded. The apprentice looked confused. Blueblossom hissed in annoyance and clarified, "The medicine cat and the others. You said they stayed behind in the forest, what forest where? What territory?"
Hollypaw stuttered a moment. "Th-the - it was - DarkClan! It was DarkClan territory, do you really have to be so close to me?" Hollypaw was leaning back a considerable distance, ears laid back.
Blueblossom's paw prickled as she slowly stepped away from Hollypaw. She sighed mentally, irked at being reprimanded.
"Twenty cats," Blueblossom repeated. "From each Clan. Even AbyssClan." Hollypaw nodded.
"I thought AbyssClan hates everyone except themselves? I didn't think they'd go on a...quest with the other Clans." Hollypaw shrugged with a laugh.
"Yeah, well, none of us expected it either - I didn't really expect that many cats to show up either! I don't think we'd have met the AbyssClan and City cats if this a cat from my Clan hadn't brought up a kit-tale she'd heard. Snowfeather," she remembered. "That's who it was."
Blueblossom's eyes narrowed briefly. She'd had an epiphany, but about what she wasn't certain. She filed it away for later observation. For now, she was plotting.

OOC: To be continued...

[Longstorm]

Hollypaw was still worried. "I don't think I should have told you any of that." She cursed herself for being such a push-over.
Blueblossom looked up at her. "Because anyone you tell is going to die? I'll take that chance." She flexed her claws thoughtfully. She looked down at her claws and noted that they could use sharpening. Blueblossom turned and padded up to a thick root and began to work her claws into it. "We'll be leaving soon," she meowed to Hollypaw.
Hollypaw was surprised. "Really? But-" she looked up at through the ice that blocked out the skies. "The snow?" It had been some of the first snow Hollypaw had seen since she had been very, very, very small. She had truly learned to dislike it by living in the 'Shell.
Blueblossom nodded as she focused on sharpening her claws. "Doesn't matter. With leaf-fall coming, it'll only get worse. It's either now or next year."
"Where will we go? I can't go home!" The thought of going home had her in a sudden panic.
The proclamation was enough to make Blueblossom stop what she was doing and turn around. "And why not? I'm sure DewClan will be more than happy to get their apprentice back."
"I was given a quest and I failed, Blueblossom. I only made it here. Nowhere else..." She hung her head.
Blueblossom sighed soundlessly. "They're your Clan, Hollypaw. They'll accept you no matter what." Or at least they should.
Hollypaw looked up ashamedly. "But I'm Daystar's apprentice! He'll be so embarrassed..."
"We don't know that. You don't know that, and neither do I. But," she meowed, "We're not heading to DewClan right off. I'm going to DarkClan. If there's a chance that there's still a medicine cat in those woods, then I'd like to find her. And the camp is much safer than living here," she gestured to the willow and ice around them. "I doubt anyone was really supposed to live here. With so many dead I am compelled to believe that we have overstayed our welcome. Besides, the kits are old enough to travel now. Heh, they should be apprenticed by now!" She laughed roughly. "You can hang around with us. But, Hollypaw, you should think about going home sometime. I'm sure they need you." She looked at her meaningfully.
"I'll think about it," Hollypaw promised.
Blueblossom nodded curtly. "Thank you. And Hollypaw-" Hollypaw looked up. "You're very brave. You'll make a good warrior someday."
Hollypaw smiled slowly and dipped her head.
Blueblossom smiled back then became serious again. "We'll leave in two days...go and wake the kits, hmm? Today won't be an easy day for some of them."
The apprentice nodded and remembered the events of the night previous.

OOC: To be continued...

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