CotS #1: The Dark Path (currently being rewritten)

Chapter Sixteen

I awoke in the medicine den. I squinted slightly, and saw I was alone with Emuwing. This was going to be awkward. 

"It's impossible." Emuwing was talking to the wall. "How did her throat just heal like that?" I stared through my eyelids, and she was peering curiously at my throat where Lightcry had violently slashed me earlier.

"StarClan," I said matter-of-factly. 

Emuwing whipped around to stare at me. "You're awake!"

"I'm surprised all the moony toms are gone," I muttered under my breath.

Emuwing gave a nervous half-laugh. "A lot of things have happened, Stormdawn. Hazelshade goaded Iceflame, and she killed Stonestar. She's Icestar now. She's already back from the Moonstone. I went with her, and Cocoaleaf stayed here. For one, even though they're not Feathermist's descendants, they could stay."

"Okay," I agreed. "They could. And so could CountryClan."

"You love him, don't you?" she asked. "You love New Zealand."

"What are you talking about, I barely know him," I muttered. But when she mentioned him, when she even said his name, my heart was beating wildly.

"But you want to know him," she said. Her voice was almost pitying.

Finally, I let myself nod.

Emuwing gave a delicate laugh.

"Is he outside?" I asked.

Emuwing rolled her eyes. "Stormdawn, all your lovers are outside."

"Let him in," I said.

"Only him?"

"That'll send a message to Duskypelt and Cloudysky."

Emuwing sighed, nodding, and walked out. She almost looked resigned to what I'd asked her to do. Was it because I had the toms, and she was forced to be alone for the rest of her life? Never raise kits with any tom, just deliver kits, over and over again, and watch the happy faces, never to experience it herself?

I heard a 'WHAT?' from Cloudysky, a sigh of resignation from Duskypelt, and a soft patter of paws as Emuwing and New Zealand entered.

"You let me in," New Zealand said, half-dazed. He looked hopeful.

"I did," I nodded. "I don't know you very well."

"Neither do I know you."

"But I want to know you."

New Zealand smiled. It reached his eyes. 

"Get better soon," he meowed briefly. "I need a sense of purpose now. Did you know? My entire CountryClan is in shatters. We're completely joining SeasonClan, somehow, and we're not having country names anymore. Completely changing to warrior names. Lithuania is never going to adapt. She loves her name."

"On the contrary," Cloudysky meowed from outside – eavesdropping, ugh – "Lithuania told me that she didn't mind as long as she got a pretty name. And, apparently, Icestar is promising her the name Lightdawn. She likes that."

"Oh, whatever." New Zealand rolled his eyes.

I followed him outside. Apparently, I was strong enough to do that. "Zeal," I said finally. "Do you know what happened to those CloudClan cats?"