CLOSED Cats off a Plane

[Guest]

Sunclaw, future leader of MoonClan, looked around the empty places beyond the airfield. "Where are we," she asked in confusion.

[Meany]

Blackfire looked around in mild confusion. "I - I don't know..." He'd never seen this forest before and he certainly didn't recognize the two-leg things - places, nests, dens, whatever - either. "I don't know where we are." He frowned deeply.
Snowfeather rolled her eyes. "Idiot," she spat only half unkindly, "We're on the other side of the City. Your mountains are that way," she pointed in the direction of the trees that blocked their view.
It had been sheer panic at being left behind and failing in her mission that had driven her to join the other cats on the plane. Now that she was here she was glad that she had made her split-second decision. But Snowfeather wasn't so sure that the MoonClan cats felt the same. Speaking of which, what use were they supposed to be again? Where were they supposed to live and all that, being a full-fledged Clan and all. Did the other Clans want them to be there?
The she-cat frowned. All of that would be questions for later. "We need to find out what's going on," she intoned to the group.

Jazz, of course, realized where they were pretty quickly. He'd moseyed around the outer parts of the two-leg areas enough in his younger days to know his home when he saw it from a distance. He almost nodded serenely but for the newborn kit hanging from his mouth. The pitiful new thing mewled for Spottedfern, who was only pawsteps away near her brother, Cloudscar (who, to Jazz, seemed like an okay sort of cat.)
The tom cleared his throat softly.

Blackfire looked around - it looked like he would have to take Snowfeather's word for it. He turned to Sunclaw, as did Snowfeather. Snowfeather cut in just as he was opening his mouth and meowed,
"We're back in our own territory."

[ticktock]

OOC: Hey guys what time is it for the cats? And I will post some else soon.

[Longstorm]

OOC: I'm gonna say that it's probably somewhere in the morning, closer to noon. I think that works fine.
Oh, man, who do I play here...

IC: Beampaw looked back and forth at the strange territory. This wasn't... But was it? There were some trees like she had seen in her dream, but in her dream they hadn't seemed so close. She'd assumed that maybe they were the trees below her mountain home... But she'd never been beyond the territories close to the MoonClan camp and didn't have a point of comparison. Now it seemed that she had been wrong all along. And oh, that was a shock and a pain in her heart.
"Oh..."

Leafheart approached the medicine cat apprentice. "Beampaw," he meowed, looking a little lost. "Beampaw, I thought we were supposed to go home?" In a way he wasn't exactly disappointed. Somehow he'd figured that they would end up in the Other-Clanner's territory after all, but hadn't voiced his suspicions during the incredible flight over the glorious mountains.
Beampaw sort of shrugged helplessly. "I guess not," is all the words she could find in her to say.

In a bittersweet way, Jace was beyond thrilled to be back home. From here he knew how to get back into CityClan territory. He could go back, resume his life as though nothing had happened, and he could forget about the enigmatic Burnsky he'd met back in the mountains. That sounded fair enough in his head.
He didn't know what the other cats had in mind, really. There was some sense of foreboding in returning to the their territories, something in the air that was different, but it didn't matter as much to him as it seemed to the Forest Clan cats. Jace could go home. Jace could find Yami and Flight and Relay and they could all pick up where they left off. Heck, maybe Jace would start courting some she-cat, who knew? There were plenty of active (being especially important in a Clan made up of freeloaders), intelligent she-cats in CityClan that would make good mates.
He would move on. He'd had enough of adventures.

Icepaw's paws tingled in anticipation. "We're almost home," he said breathlessly.

[Runfast]

OOC: I have almost no idea who my cats are here.

IC: Otterpool looked at Beampaw. Looking back, she had been very supportive of her apprentice's interpretation of her dream sent from Sky-Moon - but maybe she had interpreted her dream a little too literally.

OOC: Carry on.

[Longstorm]

OOC: Bump.

[Runfast]

OOC: Who are all of the Questers again?

[Longstorm]

OOC: Full list of Questers present:
Blackfire, Snowfeather, Joy, Cold, Sinewpaw, Icepaw, Mosspaw, Jazz, and Jace. Two are yours. Two are mine.
And then all of MoonClan (and Spottedfern's kits.)
Assuming there's an airfield somewhere near or past Moki's Farm on the map, we should head into the City or cut through the woods into No-Clan's Land. Buuuuut - we're gonna STEAL A TRUCK, YEAH.

STILL OOC: Cannot play Sunclaw for the life of me!

IC: Icepaw looked around.

[Meany]

OOC: I knew that. Sort of.
ARE WE REALLY GOING TO STEAL A TRUCK?
I could maybe play Sunclaw, I think. I am reading Switch's posts with her in them.

IC: Jazz sighed heartily. He was winded (hah) from the insane flight over the mountains - AND from standing near Spottedfern when she had given birth to five gorgoues little kitten-bundles, oh my goodness!
Thinking of her, Jazz glanced back at the queen. He glanced carefully, though, because he had one of the gorgeous little kitten-bundles in his mouth at the time (and he felt super honored to be carrying one of them!).
Spottedfern, the queen in question, was exhausted. She didn't want to show it, being a strong warrior of MoonClan, but she was. The flight, giving birth, the run soon after - everything. It was too much for her at the moment, and her legs were trembling. AND - she had some problems with Talltree, her mate, father to her five beautiful kits. (OOC: Pming you Runny.)

Sunclaw looked over her Clanmates, spotting their ails and their exhaustion, seeing them lick their sore pads and bristled fur. She was proud of her Clan's strength despite facing great grief and impossible situations.
But she felt less than proud of herself for trusting Sassypelt. She'd been blinded; but she still felt bitter at the Clan cats for causing her death. Didn't they know the Warrior Code at all? She shook her head, then her pelt. She was listening to the conversations around her.
Sunclaw was very unhappy to be in the other Clan's territories. She very much wanted to be taken back to her ancestral home. But she had no one to turn her disappointment, her ANGER, onto, ot truly, since it truly was no one's fault that they were here.

"Damn it, Blackfire," Sunclaw turned fully to the black tom, "What was all this about, anyway?" She got closer to him. "Some great threat against your kind? YOUR Clans? And you traveled moons to reach us, to bring MoonClan, my Clan right into the middle of it?"
Blackfire opened his mouth but Snowfeather scoffed and he glared her way.
Sunclaw continued, getting in his face (though she was shorter than him) and her voice got quieter, "You came across the mountains to bring my Clan into danger." Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head and huffed. She stepped back one step and said loudly, "Well, where is it, Blackfire? Where is the great threat? What would you have us fight for you?"
Blackfire recoiled at her tone, gritting his teeth. "It wasn't - " he stopped. He looked at the cats around him - they were watching them, he knew it - but there had been a dream! A prophecy! There was a point to this! Stormstar saw it, why couldn't she? There was a point to this!
"Sunclaw," he meowed, his voice trembling slightly with tiredness and slow growing desperation, "Sunclaw, Stormstar knew that -"
Sunclaw rolled her eyes. Snowfeather had to stop herself from whapping the DarkClan warrior upside the head.
Sunclaw's eyes narrowed again. "I didn't ASK you about Stormstar, Blackfire," she spat. "I asked you where the fight is, what you would have MoonClan DO."
Blackfire hesitated. "I..." He looked around at his fellow Questers frantically. They didn't have answers for him, least of all Snowfeather who was saying nothing, for once. Damn you, Snowfeather, he hissed internally.
"I..."
Sunclaw frowned. "Out with it, Blackfire! I am your senior, though of a different Clan, I suspect that means something here in this place, tell me, where is the threat?" With no answer, she plowed on, "You can't have just crossed the mountains for no reason, am I correct?"
Blackfire stammered -
"Am. I. Correct? Answer me."
Jazz watched on, stunned by the thourough reaming Sunclaw was giving Blackfire.

Blackfire stammered, "The-the prophecy- there's a prophecy, you heard me talk about this," he got out as clearly as he could, but it was like he was trying to speak above a lot of noise when there wasn't any.
"'Return the fallen moon to its home,'" Sunclaw recited. She shook her head with a silent scoff. "How long did you contemplate this shared vision of yours, Blackfire?" She gave him a hard stare. "Those who speak to Sky-Moon have been known to ponder dreams for moons before they know the true meaning behind them; did you simply grasp the nearest, easiest explanation?"
Blackfire looked away from her, half-thought explanations roiling on the tip of his tongue, but he could not say any of them.
Yes, even Snowfeather was feeling shame at Sunclaw's words. She remembered her roll in directing the Questers in deciphering the dream they had been given. All that time, that frantic time, way back in the beginning, it had seemed so right to look for MoonClan. What other explanation was there? Maybe...something, she thought now, wondering.
Snowfeather wondered if she would be 'pondering' the dream for the rest of her life now. They certainly hadn't been thinking about what it all meant in depth when they were travelling to the barren lands. This is a strange way of thinking, she thought, for an AbyssClanner like myself. Huh.
And Snowfeather and Blackfire's facial expressions did not go unnoticed by Sunclaw. Oh, she noticed alright.

"We were told to leave or die," Blackfire insisted (Snowfeather looked at him)- he found his voice again. Sunclaw's frown grew. She and Blackfire knew that wasn't a defense against her argument. "Here, Blackfire, in this place, MoonClan may die anyway." This saddened her, scared her deeply - not a fear for herself but for her Clanmates - but externally it made her expression fiercer.
"Where's the threat, Blackfire?" she repeated. Sunclaw was treating Blackfire like the leader of the Questers in this situation; yeah, he had taken the most charge of the Questers even in the beginning, and when they made it to the barren lands he had spoken for them, so now she spoke to him and made him see what she was seeing, because Blackfire didn't seem to be thinking straight.
And he wasn't answering her harsh question, the question that put everything into perspective, so she stared at him, and the cats of MoonClan, ragged and haggard, turned their silent stares on him too.
The exhausted DarkClan tom, glancing at the stares, trembled a bit then exhaled sharply, emotionally. "I - I don't KNOW."
A long, still moment passed. Wind blew through distant, unfamiliar trees. Scents came unbidden from the twolegplace.
Sunclaw scowled, looked away jerkily, then side-eyed him through the scowl, then looked away again, grinding her teeth, breathing out in a quiet hiss, the fur on her shoulders bristling more than before. She had nothing more to say to him. Nothing. His sheer stupidity - ALL of their sheer ignorance was staggering. All of this trouble for absolutely no reason. Her Clan, endangered, displaced, traumatized, why? No reason. Just a hunch. Damn them all. She breathed in. Breathed out. Repeat once. Twice.
Whitelight watched her, eyes wide. The arguement had her frozen in shock because the reality of their situation came back to her, after the flight and Spottedfern's giving birth and the run soon after had made ehr forget.
Cloudscar wasn't watching Sunclaw as much as he was staring at the Questers. They had - they had? How could they? And he said so - "How could you dare assume the fate of an entire Clan was yours to decide?"
Blackfire looked at the short warrior. "My own Clan," he shakily said in argument. But he was done with it. He had nothing else to give. He was so tired, and he hadn't even realized it.

Jazz was grounded. He had never thought about any of this the way the MoonClanners were talking about it. He felt so stupid. He felt so sad for them. He wasn't sure what else to feel - it wasn't anything like this in CityClan.

Sunclaw knew what she wanted in that moment. She wanted to be as far away from these Other Clanners - these, these, DEWClanners, these ABYSSClanners, these DARKClanners, these TAWNYClanners. The odds of MoonClan returning to their home? Poor, she just knew it. Everything that happened was just like chance to her and it didn;t seem to her it could happen again, not if she tried and tried - and each time they tried, it would probably just bring MoonClan even further away. Maybe that fit in with what she wanted to do in the moment, but she wanted to walk, to feel stone and ice under her paws, or grass and dirt, mud and marsh, whatever was nearest, the things she rarely walked on but knew the names to. She did not want her Clan to fight anything. They needed to be safe. She needed to secure her place as next Clan leader - nine lives, damnit damnit damnit, no place to speak to Sky-Moon, what was she supposed to do now? She would have to rely on Otterpool's wisdom later, she reasoned. Clan first, always.
Sunclaw gathered her strength of will and stilled her roiling anger. She looked at Blackfire steadily, her face set in grim determination; meanwhile, Cloudscar was shaking his head slowly at Blackfire's response.
"Find this threat, Blackfire," she said coldly, her tongue sliding around the word. She spoke clearly, loud enough for everyone to hear without seeming like she was making an annoucement, thought she was. "Because I mean to take my Clan away from you. And those like you. So be quick. My patience is gone."

Snowfeather clawed at the ground anxiously with one paw; before the Questers had been sort of thrilled to be back in familiar lands. Didn't seem like it now. But - she knew that she would be going with Blackfire, because his nerves looked about shot.

Blackfire stepped away from Sunclaw unsteadily. "Hhh - " he looked at the Questers. "We - " he breathed. "Jazz - can't stay in the open f'ever," he mumbled. "Sinewpaw - Snowfeather - c'mon..." With a last guilty look around at the cats, he turned and loped away towards the distant woods, sort of falling in and following Snowfeather because she had a better idea of where they were than he did.
Sunclaw watched them depart. She thought about sending one of her ranks with them to see if whatever they found, if they found something, was really there and wasn't just some lie, but she didn't want to send any of hers away.

Jazz inhaled. "Well," he meowed in a less-perky-than-usual voice, "It's raining. Can't stay out in the rain forever..." (mumbling around kitten fur - then the kit was gingerly taken from him by a MoonClan cat. Maybe that meant he wasn't trusted any more? He wondered...) He glanced around, seeing some signs of twolegplace stuff here and there. "Could sheter that-a-way," he pointed with his tail over to a clump of shrubbery and two-leg things.

OOC: This is the meanest I have ever been to Blackfire. But it feels real, if you know what I mean? I don't think I've typed the word Blackfire so many times in one post
I think I want the twoleg things to be a couple of trash cans or something that isn't abandoned trash.
This is really long OMG. I hope it isn't getting in the way of reaching the big fight, because I know that's important to you, LS, and to Loki. But why is it so important again?
I'm ending the mega-post there.

[Runfast]

OOC: How do you expect me to follow this?

[Loki]

OOC: naughty naughty OOC sentence posts, you'll be punished!

IC:
Sinewpaw followed Blackfire without question. He had nothing to say to Sunclaw. He didn't think there is anything he could say that would assist the situation at paw in any way. What would mother do? , He questioned himself thoughtfully and came up with nothing more then an empty feeling.

He looked sideways at Blackfire who seemed to be struggling with his paws a little. The young Tawneyclan apprentice sighed softly padding closer to the tired warrior, "I know how Sunclaw feels. I'm scared too."
He offered his shoulder for Blackfire to lean on if he should need it.


Joy sat back, far away from the group and avoiding the kits at all costs. "I'd feel sorry for her," She said grudgingly to herself, "if no other cat here hasn't sacrificed something to come. Oh Uncle Bone, Shadowstar is going to skin me when I return. Viletongue is going to make me step on thistles after he's missed a few mice!"
Damn, dirty, nasty, selfish, boggy, twisted, pscho Moonrats!

"Ugh," She hissed inwardly, "I'm becoming Viletongue. Though I suppose he could come up with something a lot more... colourful."

She was talking to herself again... she felt lonely.

OOC: I have no idea what I'm doing, that was beautiful by the way Meany!

[Meany]

OOC: Expect post to follow. I am not dead.

[Meany]

OOC: Btw thanks! That post took a lot of thinking lol. But it's super serious, so here's a waaaaaaaaaaay less serious post. I don;t know if I'll ever be able to make another post like thatone. Its my masterpost.....

SNOWFEATHERCENTRIC!

IC: Blackfire's ears flicked as he thought about Sunclaw being scared. "It's almost over," Blackfire tiredly sighed to Sinewpaw. "It has to be." He glanced at the apprentice's offered shoulder but flicked his tail to decline it, shaking his head a few times. It was all so much...
Snowfeather rolled her eyes despite feeling that she'd run a race only to find that it ended somewhere far away and she'd missed the turn somehow. "Let's hope so," she said muttered.
Blackfire frowned, hearing her, but found that he didn't care enough to confront Snowfeather. Whatever, Snowfeather. Whatever, he thought.
He looked on to the trees and two-leg areas beyond, a little thrown by the similarities and differences between it and the Valley they had come from. He missed home. He missed the Willow. StarClan, he wanted to go back. But home was a long way from here - and in some way it felt further than more than just actual distance, which weighed heavy on Blackfire's heart. He had so many questions about his homeland and each one seemed to be attached to  a regret he had.
Blackfire narrowed his eyes with an exhale through his nose. Home would always be with him, he knew this. And his path was ahead of him. Wherever it was taking him... He wasn't too sure, actually. He was meandering. He hoped no one noticed.

After a little time of silence and walking passed, so much that the MoonClanners and the others vanished from sight, Snowfeather meowed, "No-Clan's Land," in an abruptantly loud voice.
"Huh?" Blackfire said back to her, confused and slightly startled, pausing.
"Full moon, beebrain," Snowfeather said. "If anything is happening, it'll probably be there. You know. Just so we have an actual objective in mind, and we're not just wandering around aimlessly like a - well. Like present company." Snowfeather looked at Blackfire pointedly.
The white DewClan warrior watched Blackfire demonstrate his current range of facial expressions which seemed to be vaguely confused and offended manpain, mixed with infinite exhaustion followed by what looked to be a muted version of his "you said something in a meany way and I'm gonna be a meany too" with jaw-clenching and everything, finished with a look Snowfeather immediately decided to name "Sunclaw is love; Sunclaw is life," because who else could have put that look of desperate determination on his face?
"I - fine. Fine," was all Blackfire said to that. Snowfeather decided she liked this Blackfire more than the other one.
"Great."  Snowfeather happily took point without even saying she would and lead the group onwards, feeling that despite everything, today could only get better.

Of course, she could have been wrong. It depended on how she looked at the possible situation they could find.

Snowfeather had been affected by Sunclaw's words but not to such an extreme extent as it had Blackfire. Snowfeather didn't care that much when it came down to it. Sure, the confrontation would come back to her for the rest of her natural lifespan but in a way she held herself to sucha level of indifference that it wasn;t that she didn't see herself as not responsible for MoonClan's present issues - because that would mean that shehad felt some sort of commitment from the beginning and that she cared about the Clans in general. In her mind she had just been there as a non-entity, playing out her purpose the way any good soldier ought to.
Of course there was an ulterior motive to her forceful suggestion to head towards No Clans Land - the gathering information wasn;t for MoonClan, it was for herself and by extension for AbyssClan.

So if they found DewClan and TawnyClan and DarkClan dead then oh no, her Clan is dead, how terrible. But then she could go home. But then again the other-Clanners would probably try to adopt her. When she thought about it, joining a ragtag Clan could even become her new mission if that happened, and that sounded awful. So that meant everyone should probably die, which seemed unlikely.
Thinking about the fifty possible outcomes made her head hurt. She kept walking.

OOC: So like when are we seeing the battle? We are like part of a day away from it right so I guess they see it and come back or what? What do they see? How does this relate to them stealing a truck? Should we cut through the City because that would be cool I guess. Wait are we further than a part of a day away from NCL because I am not entirely sure how far we are away from the CITY.

EDIT: I dont know why I added the last two sections but I don;t want to delete them anyway?

[Meany]

OOC: bump?

[Meany]

OOC: thinking about some Sunclaw stuff and how these guys might be closer to abyssclan territory than they think and maybe some cat talks about the myth that abyssclan drove moonclan from their home? I think maybe Sunclaw would want that land back. she can't do anything about it but she wants it back anyway, maybe.

[Longstorm]

Icepaw looked between the MoonClanners and the Questers, shocked at how easily Blackfire had taken the abuse Sunclaw had dealt out. How could he just - but why would he -
Icepaw shook his head., insulted for Blackfire. But what could he say? He couldn't find the words - he just wanted to throw Sunclaw's words back in her MoonClan face, but what could he say? Because...as much as he didn't want to think so...she was kinda right. Kinda. Only kinda. Like, it was kinda bad that they had sort of kidnapped MoonClan and now they didn't really have a home, and that sucked. For them. But she shouldn't have blamed Blackfire, not the way she did. Jerk.
Icepaw grimaced and narrowed his eyes in MoonClan's direction. They weren't his favorite cats at the moment.

Jace wanted to go home.
Seriously.
He'd had it 'up to here' with these Clan cats. Holy moly. They all seemed a little unstable.
The tom looked at Jazz who looked like he'd been beaten over the head with a branch, and he padded up to him, followed him to the mass of twoleg things that he had deemed suitable for the Clan cats to take shelter under.
"I want to go back into the City," he told him quietly.

Beampaw stayed close to her mother and her sister, shocked and awed at the exchange between Blackfire and Sunclaw. She had mad respect for Sunclaw and found herself to be more wary of the Clan cats than she had been before.
What would become of MoonClan? How would she be able to become a medicine cat if she didn't have a place to speak to Sky-Moon? Would she have to talk to StarClan now? The future seemed so uncertain - but she was glad that she had her family and her Clanmates with her.
Otherwise I don't know what I would do, she thought grimly.

[Longstorm]

OOC: BUMP/

[Meany]

Blackfire and Snowfeather and Sinew kept walking and walking walking and walking and walking until they had gone from walking in open land to walking in foresty-spots. The day had passed slowly, and the journey had gone even slower but they hadn't made it into Clan territory yet. So they took a short break and Snowfeather showed off by catching some food before the others did. And then they started walking again.
Blackfire was worried that they would not be able to find what Sunclaw wanted them to find and that MoonClan would be gone when they got back. This made him irritable, and Snowfeather and Sinewpaw knew it.
The day passed from morning into late afternoon then got closer to the evening before they finally realized where they were.
"That's TawnyClan's river," Snowfeather pointed out when they came across a swollen, rushing river.
From there they were able to follow it towards No Clan's Land...

[Runfast]

Otterpool went up to Sunclaw. "What is the plan now, Sunclaw," she asked her calmly. She wasn't extremely worried, maybe just a little frazzled, though. "We have new kittens, and Spottedfern is tired (though still strong); and the Clan is still somewhat unsettled by everything that has happened. We are waiting on your word."

[Meany]

OOC: will post laterz

[Runfast]

Cold, Choosing of AbyssClan, looked around at the surrounding other-Clan cats. Now that they were here, what was there left to do? Now there was this business with the cats of MoonClan, the cats of DarkClan didn't seem to be getting anywhere - no one seemed to have any sense of direction.
He despised standing around, milling about with these directionless cats. It made him feel stupider.
I have had more than enough of this. The taciturn Choosing thought about what Scorchpoint would do and decided quickly (though he was mostly thinking about his own interests) that he would try to find out things for himself. Getting away from the cats was simple. Just walk.

Cold left the group of cats. Thinking about it, a large group of cats out in the open so close to twoleg civilization seemed like a pretty bad idea. And no one seemed to be keeping a lookout, considering how easy it was to just walk away from them.
Cold wanted to know what was happening in AbyssClan. He sort of also wanted to know what was happening to the other Clans - though he really wanted to follow Blackfire and the others, mostly. He was very curious cat at heart. His cold heart.
The gray tom caught up with the cats easily. They seemed to have stopped to talk or something, or maybe they were looking at something, he couldn't really tell. So, some meters away from them, he slunk through the underbrush past them. He made his way out into the open to see a river.
Okay. A river... He stared at it for a long minute. Suddenly, "Oh my god, TawnyClan," he burst. He had completely forgotten that the TawnyClanners made their border along the river - the river he had forgotten in its entirety. With that momentary mental lapse in the past, Cold had a decent idea of where he was.
Cold inhaled the scent deeply. He smelled a whole lot of river. And he heard a whole lot of river.
I can follow the river to the grass plain. He crept back into the forest and began to follow the course of the river in the cover of shadow. It was also raining, so the river just made things seem colder too, anyway.

Time went by. Cold found himself enjoying the leisurely walk along the river. The part he enjoyed the most was that no one was with him. Wow, he hated people, he realized. SO much. He hated all of the cats he had been traveling with in particular. Wow. He especially hated them when they spoke. And they spoke all the time. But now that was (literally) all behind him. Freedom felt sweet. It smelled sweet too, because it didn't smell like the crap, piss and hairballs of 20+ cats. Cold had endured some trials.
Cold found himself coming to a significant bend in the river. He surveyed the area and paused. Now that he was really looking at it, beyond some vaguely leafy trees he could make out the blackened bark and leafless-ness of the burnt forest beyond TawnyClan's river. A fire? He glanced at the forest he was walking in and deduced that the fire must have been stopped by the river. He wondered how the fire had been started - Cold had never seen the forest burn. He knew that fires started in the City, on purpose and on accident, but he had no idea how the forest could burn too. It was a mystery.
Cold shook it off and continued on his way.

More time went by in silence. Not for the first time Cold thought about what may have happened to Scorchpoint. At this point there was probably a strong chance that he had been killed, if he hadn't somehow returned to AbyssClan in his absence. He also thought about the changes that must have come to AbyssClan in their absence too - they (being him and Joy) knew that there was a new King. Things must have changed somehow while they had been gone. I'll find out soon.

Maybe by now the sky was beginning to get darker than it was lighter. But now, after having walked and walked, Cold found himself looking at familiar landmarks. With another turn around a bend of the river, Cold could make out No-Clan's Land in the distance. He was pretty sure he knew what had changed right then and there.
In the distance, though it was far away, Could could tell that the color of the trees he had walked under a moon past were black and dead, probably burnt like TawnyClan's. Across the sprawling wheat field he could see that marshes looked fine, though he couldn't see the City or AbyssClan territory from where he was so he didn't know if they had burned either.
I know more than the others now, he knew. He could go back or he could go forward and find out more.
The choice was simple.
He went forward.

[Meany]

Sunclaw looked at Otterpool. She nodded, "Alright. Talltree, Cloudscar -" she looked at the cats she called the names of. "Find shelter for the Clan." Sunclaw wanted a little more than that at the moment. Not some temporary place for her Clan to hide, but some place they could defend and keep away from the other Clans. And also to somehow get home...

Jazz looked at Jace, pausing in leading some cats to twoleg rubbish. "Well," he started, thinking. "Well, that's your choice, Jace. I guess I'd be heading the same way sooner or later, too. It's not far 'way." He looked tired and more than a little bit older. "'S'fine, Jace. You g'wan ahead. I'll see ya soon." He gave a little lop-sided smile to the younger CityClan tom.

OOC: edited, now more complete

[Longstorm]

The day passed from morning, to afternoon, to late evening, and then even later.
The cats of all Clans had moved deeper into the woods to avoid detection. Any cat who lived in or near the City knew this was called the Two-Leg Forest.
Jace had long since departed from the group. With his departure, some of the other cats seemed to have started to consider the same. And not just the Questers.
With Sunclaw ensuring that the cats of MoonClan stood separate from the cats of the other Clans in their temporary shelter, some of the warriors of MoonClan had begun whispering amongst themselves, casting accusatory glances in the Questers' direction. Sometimes even Sunclaw stood with them and joined in when they did. But other times she sat off to the side and spoke quietly with what was assumed to be the senior warriors of MoonClan.

The Questers were disquieted at the MoonClan cats' behavior. Perhaps they had a right to be. And the rain did nothing to help.

Everything remained quiet and tense right up until the moment that Blackfire, Snowfeather, and Sinewpaw reappeared out of the wet bleak dawn.
Then the tension snapped like a branched weighed down by snow.

Sunclaw knew of their arrival in seconds. She excused herself from her conversation with her warriors and strode up to him with her tail lashing. Her eyes were narrowed and sparking.
"Well?" She said sharply. The young DarkClan warrior jerked his head back when she got up in his face.
"Um." Blackfire looked sorta pitiful. But he knew he had to speak quickly because Sunclaw didn't seem to have a lot of patience left.
"The forest of TawnyClan was burned," he said. Sinewpaw looked distressed, and had been looking distressed since they had arrived - this news was why.
"And?" Sunclaw pressed.
"Well - uh - it seems that TawnyClan isn't there anymore. And many cats have gone towards the Moonfall, we believe."
"You believe," Sunclaw said flatly. At this point cats of MoonClan had begun to gather around her. On the other side the Questers had begun to gather around their own. Maybe not as together as they may have once been, but still standing more separate to MoonClan than to each other.

Blackfire nodded.
Sunclaw looked unimpressed. "Okay. So you can leave now."
Blackfire looked confused - an expression mirrored by some of the Questers, but others looked...relieved. And fed up. And looked like they were a second away from saying 'Good riddance.'

Sunclaw would not warrant any argument. "Goodbye," she said in a slow, condescending tone. She flicked her tail and turned around, and padded away. As one her cats made way for her then followed in her pawsteps.
Blackfire stepped forward - "But wait -" And then Cloudscar of MoonClan turned in a flash and emitted a long, low warning growl. There was murder in his eyes. Blackfire knew better than to test him.

That was it, then. Their journey was over. And perhaps had failed in their task. But then, what really had been their task? Who could say what the objective had been? And who could say that with this parting it was truly over?
Perhaps one day in the future they would find that the journey was not as complete as they had once thought...

[Longstorm]

OOC: continued is Questers Hit Home: https://outcastwarriors.rpg-board.net/t1667-questers-hit-home

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