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

Chapter 13

 "How does your shoulder feel?" Blackpaw questioned, giving Seedclaw's shoulder a sniff. The LichenClan warrior had taken a nasty bite but it was healing nicely thanks to herbs they had gotten from the twolegplace with the help of Harvey, Night, Juniper and a few other kittypets. Many cats had been wounded by the coyotes including Seedclaw, Tallsong, Cinderflame, Applespots, Brackenpelt, Petalshine, Riverstar, Flowerheart and Timbertail. They had spent nearly a half moon recovering from this attack and lost even more travel time.

The deaths of Rootscratch, Wheatwhisker and Ashfeather had really ruined the Clan's attitude towards the barn they had been staying in. Most cats were terrified to leave though the coyotes hadn't returned. Blackpaw and the other medicine cats worked tirelessly to help care for their Clanmates and help those who were grieving for lost loved ones. MoonClan's morale in particular was incredibly low, they had lost a beloved warrior and their Clan leader had lost two lives.

Violetfur had done an incredible job keeping MoonClan together, despite her own pain at losing her mother. Blackpaw admired the MoonClan deputy she was a very brave and noble cat, MoonClan was lucky to have her. As for AshClan, they were already small enough and now they had one less warrior. Wheatwhisker was a very kind and loving warrior, he loved Lilyclaw and all of their kits and was a wonderful mentor to Nightpaw. Blackpaw felt bad for both his own mentor and his sister, but they both kept working. Skyfeather stuck to his medicine cat duties and now that she was recovered, Nightpaw worked hard with hunting and keeping her Clanmates happy despite her loss.

Blackpaw wished he could do more for his sister, he wished he could sit down and talk with her to make sure that she was okay but he had been so busy with medicine cat duties that he barely got a moment to talk to her. I just hope she's taking care of herself. Blackpaw wished, he knew that Rabbitpaw was helping her as Nightpaw helped her with the loss of Timberpaw. Timberpaw's death was one that Blackpaw couldn't shake from his conscience. He had argued with all the other medicine cats, he knew he should've stayed up with the apprentice, but Skyfeather told him to sleep and when the woke up, both Shorttail and Timberpaw were dead.

Despite what they all told him, Blackpaw blamed himself. He knew that he could've done something more and Timberpaw wouldn't have died. None of these cats should've died. Blackpaw's faith in StarClan was beginning to falter. Why would they send us on such a dangerous journey and take so many cats from us? He didn't want to think that, but he couldn't help.

"Blackpaw." Blackpaw looked up to see Skyfeather. His blue eyes were dull and exhausted. "Check on Riverstar, will you? I'm going to visit the twolegplace and get some marigold. I'll be back before dark, Oneflight is coming with me."

"Okay." Blackpaw just nodded, watching his mentor vanish out of the barn with Oneflight. Skyfeather looked so exhausted, Blackpaw just wished he would rest. However, he knew that arguing with his mentor was a waste of time. He just listened and padded over to Riverstar to check on her wound. It had been a deep bite mark on her belly, but last he checked it was healing nicely.

Riverstar was sitting near the back of the barn and Blackpaw was surprised to find her talking with Nightpaw. "Hi," Blackpaw greeted, somewhat awkwardly. "I'm here to check on your wounds."

"They don't hurt anymore," Riverstar explained. "Though you can check if you need to." Blackpaw did check her wound, it was closed and healing nicely. "Before you go, can I speak to the two of you?"

Blackpaw looked at Nightpaw who looked just as confused as he was. "Sure." Blackpaw sat down beside his sister and looked at his leader.

"I want to let you both know how proud of you I am. I feel like I haven't been as involved with you two as I should have been. You're my niece and nephew, and you're all I have left of Echoheart." Blackpaw twitched his ears at the mention of his mother. He hadn't really thought about her since they left. Does she know we left? "When we were younger, Echoheart was such a sweet, loyal warrior. She was kind to every cat around her, but she was always easily influenced by those around her."

"She was?" Nightpaw tilted her head.

Riverstar nodded. "She never listened to her head, only her heart which was often misguided. When she was young warrior, she fell in love with a MoonClan warrior named Cedarheart. She nearly got herself killed because of it, and then later with Thornstar. He started talking to her across the border and convinced her to turn her back on AshClan which eventually led to the death of Moonwhisker." Riverstar looked at her paws. "I miss Echoheart every day, and I know you two didn't get to see much of her but I wished you could've met the old Echoheart."

"Do you think she knows we left?" Nightpaw asked, her voice low. "What if she tries to follow us?"

"I don't know how she would find us." Riverstar admitted.

"Would you ever let her back in the Clan?" Blackpaw asked, a question that had been clawing at the back of his mind. "If you think she had changed."

"I don't know." Riverstar sighed. "Part of me really wants to, but I don't know if I could ever look at her the same. She killed our sister and she clearly has it out for Dawnstar, I could never trust her in a battle against SunClan.

Blackpaw thought back to when Honeypaw told him about Echoheart's attack on SunClan. Echoheart had gone for Honeypaw directly and attacked Falconpaw earlier. She wants revenge. If she ever lays a claw on Honeypaw again I'll attack her myself, I don't care that she's my mother. She never was a mother to me anyway.

"Either way," Riverstar continued talking. "I just wanted to tell you two that I'm so proud of you and I'm honored to have you in my Clan." Blackpaw felt genuinely touched by Riverstar's words. He had to remember that he wasn't just Echoheart's kin, he was Riverstar's and Moonwhisker's as well. Moonwhisker was an incredible medicine cat, I hope I can be half as good as she was. Blackpaw loved being a medicine cat, he wouldn't have been able to do that under Thornstar's rule. I'm glad that Dawnstar killed him, she saved my Clan. Once again Blackpaw's mind went to Honeypaw, she was the only cat who ever made him question his choice to be a medicine cat. I love being a medicine cat, but that means I could never be with Honeypaw. He found it harder and harder to fight his feelings for Honeypaw, and spending so much time with her during this journey hadn't made it any easier.

Her bright green eyes gave him hope and her voice silenced his fears. He wanted to find Clans' new home, but he also knew that he and Honeypaw would go back to living in separate territories.

"You there?" Blackpaw felt a paw prodding into his side, he shook away his thoughts on Honeypaw and focused on Nightpaw who was getting his attention.

"Yeah, sorry." He apologized. "Just thinking about a lot."

"Understandable." Nightpaw mewed. "How's everything going by the way? I feel like we haven't been able to talk very much lately with everything that's been going on."

"Stressful." Blackpaw admitted. "Skyfeather is working himself to death and I was finally relieved from all the sickness when we got attacked by coyotes. We've delayed getting to our new territory even longer and every cat is terrified of being killed by a coyote." He stopped his rambling, he hated ranting about his frustrations, especially to Nightpaw who had plenty of other things to worry about without her worrying if he was okay.

"Just stay hopeful." Nightpaw touched her nose to his cheek. "AshClan is lucky to have you and Skyfeather as medicine cats. We'll find our new home soon, this won't be the end of the Clans, I promise."