❂► T H E U N T O L D ◄❂

V I T R I F I C A T I O N

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T H R E E

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IT WAS incredibly hard for me to learn of Ravenpaw's "passing". At the time, when I didn't know anything about Firepaw and Greypaw's plan, and I took it hard, but part of how bad I felt was thinking about how hard it must have been for Dustpaw. The poor cat lost his brother way too early for anyone's taste. I'm glad we saw that he never really died when we left for The Lake.

What was harder than that, at least for me, was the fact that Firepaw and Greypaw weren't "Firepaw" and "Greypaw" anymore. Now they were Fireheart and Greystripe. Before I was Sandstorm. And that pissed me off. Especially back in the days where I was confused about how much I cared for Fireheart. And now they were being sent on this secret mission that no one, not even the deputy knew the details of.

Believe me, I asked.

So during that time I was practically glued to Dustpaw's side, comforting him throughout his grief while also dealing with my own dilemmas.

Or really, dilemma.

See while it had been hard losing Ravenpaw, it was somehow harder being in the camp without Greypaw and Firepaw. Those two, despite how annoying they were, brought life to the camp, from bickering elders to squealing kits. Without them, the camp was eerily quiet. And I missed the noise.

By Starclan, I thought in disgust, I miss Fireheart, of all cats.

The night before Fireheart and Greystripe made their infamous return, Whitestorm finally manage to peel me away from Dustpaw's side for long enough to force me to go training with him.

"We'll start in the training hollow today, and keep it light since I know you're still grieving", Whitestorm explained. I nodded in response and begrudgingly followed him out of the camp.

When we reached the training hollow, Whitestorm had me stand on the other side of the clearing.

"Today we're going to work on your defense. I'm going to try to knock you over. Obviously, try not to keep me from doing that. If you do get knocked over, try and escape, alright?"

I nodded once again in response.

Whitestorm's gaze softened, "You're less talkative than usual, still that sad about Ravenpaw, huh?"

That was the thing I loved most about Whitestorm. He was incredibly concerned about everyone's well-being. In this case he was wrong though.

While I was still sad about Ravenpaw's "passing" and would be for the rest of my life, that wasn't what my brain was focusing on. I was more focused on the fact that I was missing Fireheart, and how weird that was for me.

Sure, we had that little outing around the forest, but that was just one time compared to the hundreds of hours that I'd spent with Dustpaw and Ravenpaw. So it made no sense that I was so distraught that Fireheart wasn't in camp.

"I guess", I responded.

"Alright, get ready, I'm going to attack soon", Whitestorm explained.

I widened my stance and bent my head slightly, preparing for Whitestorm's attack. He began circling me at a brisk pace, every now again changing directions in an attempt to throw me off. But I turned my body with him, keeping my head even with his.

Then a flash of orange caught my eye.

Fireheart? He's back?

My eyes widened as something barreled into my side and I crashed to the ground with a loud "Oomph". I opened my eyes up to see a large white cat on top of me, pinning me down and churning at my belly with his sheathed paws.

"Come on", Whitestorm taunted, "Surely the Sandpaw can deal with being pinned." I growled in response and threw a few measly paw swipes at his face, but the angle at which my limbs were pinned left a lot to be desired from their power.

I sneaked a look of to the side where I had seen the orange, only to be extremely disappointed. A leaf? I was tricked by a leaf?

Since my attacks weren't working, I tried to feint that I had given up, going limp and stopping my paw swipes.

"Nice try, but unfortunately that move won't work on a warrior such as myself", Whitestorm calmly got off of me, "You're usually better than this, Sandpaw. I know losing Ravenpaw is hard, but you can't let that get in the way of your training." He sighed, "Let's try hunting, maybe you're just having an off day."

Hunting proved to not be any better than my fighting skills, after two hours of hunting, I had only managed to catch one sickly mouse.

"It's nearly leaf-bare", Whitestorm tried to console me, "So every piece of fresh-kill counts. Even that mouse."

Then he suddenly stopped and tasted the air. "I smell a squirrel. Catch this and then we can rest for the rest of the day, alright? I'll stay here and watch."

I stiffly nodded and opened my mouth to taste the air as well, pinpointing the direction of the squirrel. I dropped into the familiar hunter's crouch, and stalked forward, determined to show that I still had some worth.

The squirrel was mindlessly pecking a fallen acorns, occasionally stuffing one into his mouth. But it was still unaware of me growing ever closer.

Just three more steps. I judged, keeping my eyes trained on the unsuspecting prey.

Suddenly, the squirrel's head shot up and it locked eyes with me.

Then I froze, completely still as we locked eyes. The squirrel's eyes were bright green, just like Fireheart's.

That's weird...

Unfortunately, by the time I shook myself out of my thoughts, the squirrel was already halfway up the nearest tree, and there was no way I was going to catch it.

Fox-dung.

I turned around and stalked back to where Whitestorm was watching, his face screwed in confusion. "Why did you hesitate there? Even with the squirrel looking at you, you still could have caught it."

I didn't respond, instead just dropping my head.

"Are you sure it's just Ravenpaw on your mind? It seems like you're distracted by a lot more than just that."

Seeing that I still wasn't planning on answering, Whitestorm continued. "You know that you can tell me anything. I won't spread any secrets. Swear to Starclan."

I looked up at him, trying to read his gaze. He seemed genuine, as always, so I decided to tentatively open up.

"What- Say you felt like you were naturally supposed to not like someone, and you've been told that you're not supposed to like that someone, but despite that you still really like them. What would you do?"

Whitestorm smirked. "It almost sounds as though you're talking about a certain ginger cat there, Sandpaw."

"I didn't say that!" I protested.

Whitestorm's whisker's twitched in amusement. "Of course you didn't. Well, I'm not very experienced in the area of "forbidden love", but emotions are certainly more powerful than rules. And love is without a doubt the strongest of these emotions.

"It is love that allows mothers to protect their kits, even to death. And it is by love that a cat is able to lift extreme weight off of the people they care about." Whitestorm licked a paw and drew it over his ear. "So, in my opinion, you shouldn't let some silly ideas made up generations ago get in the way of how you feel about someone. And you certainly shouldn't let some other cat tell you how to feel about things."

I gave him a confused look, "That's too many words for me to understand."

Whitestorm audibly laughed and began to walk away, gesturing for me to follow him. "To put it simply, you can't let others tell you who you love. Only you know that."

I nodded, pretending like I understood him, and continued to follow him as we headed back towards camp.

✧ ✧ ✧

After that talked with Whitestorm, I unknowingly distanced myself more and more from Dustpaw. Suddenly, asking Fireheart to go out in the forest with me was becoming more than just a way to make Dustpaw jealous, it was becoming an activity that I genuinely enjoyed.

Of course, I never let Fireheart know this. I still hade it seem like he was my last choice, or I pretended that I was dead bored, or something of the like.

Dustpaw and I never really rekindled the friendship we had back then until we both arrived here in Starclan, which I still regret. In reality, Greystripe, Firestar and I kind of left him in the dust behind us.

I think the day that Dustpaw finally got over me distancing from him was when Fernpaw fighting with Cinderpelt against Scourge and BloodClan. I knew by the way that he looked at her that he had finally found happiness.

I'm glad he ended up alright.

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Word Count - 1454

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Author's Note

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Thanks to @WoF_and_WC_fan for giving me the idea for this chapter! There will be another chapter that he gave the idea for, so e on the lookout for that!

And there will be more opportunities to give me ideas for chapters!

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Hey hey hey, another chapter! And it's been four months!

I'm in college now, so I both have more time to write but also less time to write. More free time but I'm usually sleeping.

But I wrote out the layout for the last chapter of this section, and let's just say that I'm incredibly excited to write it, so this book ain't goin' nowhere.

I know this chapter was a little bit shorter, and I apologize for that, but I didn't want to keep you all waiting longer than you had to, and I didn't know if I could finish everything I wanted to write. 

I have ideas for the next chapter already, so I'll get started on that right away!

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- Maple -

- 11 ▫ 9 ▫ 2024 -