Smokestar's Clan

eighteen

It was dark when they returned to the waking world, so they decided to camp out for the night. Icicle had caught a gull from the beach and they shared it in the dull light of the Moonstream.

Smokestar suddenly sighed.

'Huh?'

'Sorry. It just occurred to me, I barely know anything about you. I feel like we haven't had a conversation that's not about the criminal acts of Rockfall or StarClan. And I hate that.'

'Oh, you're right.' Icicle nodded. 'Can I just say how much I love squirrels? But because we can't climb trees, they're a real delcicay to us. It's a bit of a shame.'

'Well, I'll have to ask Amberleaf if she'll trade some squirrels for some mice.'

'That would be awesome.' She smiled.

'You know FallClan, right? They live in the River territory.'

'Yeah, they're the ones we passed today, right?'

'Well, they fish. They swim, fish, and enjoy it. It's weird. But Amberleaf also likes to swim, in Greenleaf she practically can't be seen out of the water. The thing is, there's no FallClan blood in our family and I'm always just so confused as to what she's doing in the water.'

Icicle smiled. 'Skye's like that, too! I suppose some cats are just part fish.'

'Speaking of Amberleaf, there's this one time I was talking to her about herbs and Specklefur just ran up to me and yowled "YOU'RE A MARIGOLD BUSH" and she was so furious about it, too. Weirdest insult I ever heard!'

Icicle laughed, and Smokestar had to join in. How long had it been since he'd just laughed, and gossiped? He racked his brains, but could barely think of anything. He was glad that she was still laughing through Cyan's death, although he never wanted to push her grieving.

It felt good. Warm, and comforting. Screw you, StarClan! I will enjoy this time with Icicle!

She urged him to go outside. It was a relatively cool, starless night. All the stars of Silverpelt watched them as they lay next to each other, sheltered by the caves and serenaded by the gentle lapping of water onto the shore.

    'There's a gathering tomorrow, isn't there? Amberleaf was talking about it.'

'Yes! Yeah, there is.'

'I thought we could... we could maybe go and watch it? If you want to, of course.'

'Yes! I love that idea!' Smokestar smiled. 'Thank you!'

Icicle nodded. 'You have your StarClan, but I'd like to tell you about some of our Wolven stories, if that's okay?' Icicle asked. 'Look there, right above you. Do you see those three stars, real close to each other? That's Orion's Belt. Don't ask me what a belt is. Orion was a wolf-hunter, an enemy of the Wolf-Cats, and as the story goes, he was banished to the skies in his defeat to watch the wolves live on after his death. Oh, and that's Cleopatra...'

The stars seemed to warm the skies like they used to. The sky was a perfect shade of navy, and the water was dark, too, but it all felt warm. The moon was almost full and lit the night like the sun. He curled up next to Icicle. Her white pelt had never felt warmer. He could feel himself dropping himself into a comfortable sleep, and he was okay with that- StarClan watching the two starcrossed cats curled up, warming each other. Let them be angry, he thought. He'd deal with that later.

He could cope with that if it meant spending his Now with Icicle.

And as he fell asleep, he could've sworn he said, or maybe Icicle murmured, "I love you..."