The group of cats continued their journey. Mostly, they kept quite, except for the times when Jayflight gave a command and Swiftpaw made some snarky comment that ended in a mini-argument that Hero always had to break up. After some time, Hero grew tired of the squabbling and snapped at both of them, causing the two she-cats to fall silent, though it was obvious that annoyance still broiled beneath their pelts.

   Eventually, the cats came to the Burning Plains. They stood out on an area where the land rolled upwards like hill, only much smaller, and looked out over the place that had scarred Hero. The large dry meadow stretched out far ahead of them, and Hero could see the buildings of the city rising at where the Burning Plains ended. 

   "What now, then?" Lilypool asked out loud, voicing the thoughts of all the cats.

    "I suggest we go around the Burning Plains," Smokewhisker said, turning his head to face Jayflight.

    "That would mean we'd have to go a longer way-" Lilypool began, but she was cut off my Smokewhisker.

    "Yes, but for safety's sake. It wouldn't be that far out of our way anyways."

   Jayflight spoke up. "Smokewhisker is right. We'll go around the Burning Plains."

   "Alright," Hero agreed begrudgingly. He wanted to get to the city quickly and wasn't eager to prolong the journey, but he had to agree with the majority of the group.

   With the decision made, they began to slowly make their way around the Burning Plains, skimming the edges of the meadow, avoiding the occasional fiery patch of ground. Eventually, they came to a place where two parallel lines of metal cut through the ground, with smaller pieces of metal placed horizontally over them. Hero had seen these a few times in the city, but he didn't go to the part of the city where they were very often. That was where the rogues prowled, and where they were, Hero wasn't.

   A large tree grew by the tracks, casting shade in a large shadow all around it, and there the cats stopped to rest. The three warriors and Hero sat close to the trunk, their voices rising and falling as they discussed what next to do on their journey. Swiftpaw settled near them and began to clean herself.

   Snowpaw sat a little ways from the group, his pale green gaze sweeping out over the landscape. He observed the area, eyes trailing over the burning patches of ground and fixating on the tall spires of the city. He wondered what it would be like over there, tall gray giant Twoleg creations rising above them, the Twolegs themselves walking and growling and yelling all around them, the monsters zooming right past. How could any cat live in such a place, with so much noise and bustle? 

   His thoughts were interrupted by a small growl in his stomach. The effects of Harestripe's herbs were starting to wear off. He lifted his nose in air and let his jaw drop, tasting the air for the smell of prey. It was hard to scent anything over the acrid scent of the plains, but the faint odor of prey was definitely present in the air.

   He looked back at his Clanmates. Each appeared to be busy with their own things. He smiled as his eyes came to rest on Swiftpaw. The she-cat couldn't resist following the cats, and when he'd seen her slipping through camp, he had to go after her. And anyways, this was Whiteshadow. Whiteshadow was like a brother to Snowpaw. He'd always been the one to spend time with him in the nursery, always been the one who hadn't looked at him like a servant to do his bidding like everybody else. Whiteshadow was his friend.

   Well, for that matter, Whiteshadow was everybody's friend. There wasn't a cat in the Clan who didn't like Whiteshadow.

   Snowpaw rose to his feet and began to pad away, following the scent of prey. It took him away from the tree, farther up the tracks, until he finally stopped when the other cats were about twice or thrice the length of the camp behind him. The prey scent was strong here, and Snowpaw pinpointed it as mouse. His stomach grumbled once more as he tried to find exactly where the critter was hiding and he finally realized that it was holed up inside the tracks. He stepped over one of the lines and crouched low, until he finally saw the mouse, which was huddled in a place where the tracks crisscrossed. It sent up an uproar of squeaks as it sensed him. He began to try to wiggle his paw into the space to get it out.

   Swiftpaw drew her tongue over her paw one last time, and then pulled it over her ear. She cast a glance behind her to look at the warriors, who were still conversing in low tones. She wrinkled her nose as she saw Jayflight cut off Smokewhisker to speak up. That she-cat was far too assertive for her own good. 

   Swiftpaw glanced up to where she'd seen Snowpaw sitting and then looked away again before she'd realized that he was gone. She rose to her feet. Where had the tom gone off to? She made to tell the others, but stopped herself before she could. He'd probably just gone a little distance away, and anyways, it wasn't worth having them yell at him for walking a few fox-lengths. 

   She padded up to where'd he'd been sitting and began to follow his scent. As she did so, the smell of prey began to steal into her nose and she realized that he must've been looking for food. She looked up, and there he was, some ways in the distance, crouched smack in the middle of what Hero had said were the tracks. Swiftpaw let out an exasperated sigh and began to bound towards him.

   Snowpaw was still trying to get to the mouse, but it had retreated farther into the tracks, just beyond the reach of his paw. He had just decided to try to shove his paw deeper inside when a voice from behind him made his jump.

   "Snowpaw!" Swiftpaw called as she reached the apprentice. "Why did you-" she was cut off by the noise of a distant clattering. She looked ahead, but the tracks bent sideways around a rise in the ground and she couldn't see past. 

    "Snowpaw, looks like the giant monsters Hero was talking about are coming-"

    "I'm stuck."

    "What?"

    "My paw is stuck."

    Swiftpaw bounded forward to Snowpaw. At the sound of Swiftpaw's unexpected mew, Snowpaw had been startled into pushing his paw deeper inside the slats of the tracks. Now the mouse was gone and Snowpaw's paw was stuck.

   "Snowpaw! How could you get your paw stuck?!" Swiftpaw exclaimed.

   "I'm sorry! You startled me!"

   Hero's ears swiveled upwards as the noise of a commotion came to him. "What's that?" he asked, cutting off Lilypool as she'd been speaking.

   She snarled at him, irritated that he'd interrupted her. "It's you not letting others speak. Now-"

   "No," Smokewhisker said, rising to his paws. "I hear something too." He gazed at the others. "Cats." 

    Immediately, all the cats turned their heads to look for the apprentices.

And just as they'd suspected, they were gone.

    "These apprentices," Jayflight growled. "What've they done now?"

    Lilypool began to grumble along with her, but Hero stood with his ears perked. A sort of rumbling was in the air, seeming to make it vibrate slightly. He knew what that noise was. The train.

   Hero padded away from the other cats and out of the range of the tree. And there, in the distance, he saw two small figures, crouched by the tracks. He narrowed his eyes. Were they by the tracks, or on the tracks?

   Whatever they were doing, a train was coming and it was far too dangerous for them there. He'd told all the cats about the trains. Why weren't they moving away? 

   "I see them!" he called to the other cats before bounding towards the apprentices. In the near distance, he saw a giant maroon-and-brown train rounding the bend and his heart began to quicken. 

   He finally reached them, skidding to a stop. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed.

   Snowpaw was frantically trying to tug his paw, which Hero saw was stuck in between the slats of the tracks, free and Swiftpaw was pacing by his side.

   "I'm stuck!" Snowpaw wailed at the same time Swiftpaw exclaimed, "He's stuck!"

   "The train's coming! We've got no time!" As if to prove his point, the train blew its horn and the bellowing noise echoed through the air. The pebbles on the ground near them began to rattle and jump and vibrations seemed to go up from the ground through his bones. 

   "Move!" Hero yowled, dragging Swiftpaw away from the tracks before jumping into the spot where she'd standing, crouching over Snowpaw and desperately trying to shake his paw free while Snowpaw began to panic, pulling his paw.

   The train blew its horn again and Swiftpaw's eyes grew round as the rumbling beneath her paws grew louder and she turned to see the locomotive bearing down upon them.

   "No!" came a screech from behind her and she turned her head to see the rest of her Clanmates running towards them. Jayflight was the one who'd yelled, and the she-cat quickened her pace, though there wasn't much room for her to go faster.

   The cats came skidding to a stop just as the train reached them, hurtling by at a speed Swiftpaw couldn't fathom.

   "No," Jayflight breathed. "No. That couldn't have just - no - that - no."

   And just as suddenly as it had come, the end of the train went by.

And there were Hero and Snowpaw.

Unharmed.

    "Snowpaw!"

    "Hero!"

   The AshClan cats rushed forward to meet their Clanmates. 

    "Oh, Snowpaw," Jayflight said, drawing her tongue roughly over the tom's muzzle. He leaned away from her, a bit shocked at the amount of care she was showing. "You foolish foolish cats," she said, shaking her head. "What were you even thinking, apprentices?" 

   "I just wanted to get us all some prey," Snowpaw said. The shock of what had happened was fading and his heartbeat was slowly returning to its normal pace. 

   "I went to see where he was," Swiftpaw put in.

   "But then I got stuck," he finished. 

    Lilypool shook her head. "You two..." 

    "Sorry," Snowpaw hung his head.

    Hero stood. His heart was racing too, and fear still coursed through his veins, but he didn't let it show to the others. "We'd better get Snowpaw out first. He's still stuck." 

   Jayflight had seemed to just notice that. "Oh, yes. Hero's right. Now we've got to figure out a way to let him free."

    After a little while of wrangling about, they finally managed to do so. And then, they set off once again on their journey, but this time with quite a bit more talking that was quite a bit less hostile. Their laughter started off tentatively, but eventually, it was echoing across the plains.

   Hero in particular felt something feel a little different inside of him.

Because Hero had survived once again.

   "We're very close to the city," Smokewhisker announced as they neared another hill, though this one a proper one. "It's going to be just over that hill."

    The cats eventually grew silent as they trekked upwards. The place they'd been traveling to was so close now. Whiteshadow was close. Their mission, the purpose of all this - it lied right ahead. 

   Swiftpaw was first to reach the top of the hill. As she climbed up the last few mouse-lengths, she turned her head to call back to the others. "I've reached the-" she cut herself off as she turned her head back to look out ahead and stopped in her tracks.

   The other cats caught up with her a few moments later, and their reactions were all the same.

The city spread out below them, an uncountable number of buildings rising high, higher than any tree that they'd ever seen, an immense number of multicolor-pelted Twolegs moving about, monsters roaring along the sprawling gray roads, emitting the noise of the forest multiplied a thousandfold.

"We've reached the city," Jayflight breathed.

   "Finally," Lilypool responded. "This journey's been long enough."

But Hero knew better. The journey wouldn't end now.

It had only started.

So I finally wrote a full, proper chapter in Clockwise. How was it? ~ Duskie