x.I've.been.so.hollow.inside;;

[Đarκsong]

Snowdrift awakened in an unfamiliar land. Even though she didn't recognize the grassy clearing in front of her, she felt oddly safe. All of her wounds from the fight vanished and along with it the numbness and paranoid feelings. It was wonderful.

Yet the snowy she-cat was quite sad. She felt horrible for the two kits she had left behind. Would they be fine without her? She had no idea what might become of Purplekit and Maskkit.

A rustle in the bushes behind her made her jump. A tortie she-cat stepped out and began carefully padding over to her.

"....Snowdrift?" The tortie asked.

Snowdrift's eyes widened, "Pantherheart?!" She had grown up with this she-cat; they were about the same age. Snowdrift herself didn't know Pantherheart very well, but never really had a problem with her. She remembered feeling very sad for her when she died in kitting.

"Wha....what happened?" Pantherheart asked. She was shocked to see Snowdrift here, and then again not. She had recently become the focus of Secret's wrath, so the tortie she-cat figured that he had killed her.

Snowdrift's eyes wandered to her paws, "Secret and Demon....they ambushed me. The kits were lost....I was trying to find them....Secret took off to find them for himself....Demon....he...." Snowdrift choked on her words.

Pantherheart was frozen in place. She didn't know what to say and was completely surprised about what had happened. She asked no more of her fellow she-cat, and instead sat down beside her and tried to comfort her.

[რoonwhisker]

Almondpelt and Pearlpelt were sharing tongues in the forest. It was part of their daily routine, each and every day they met at this time to share any new news that had happened that was worth sharing. They always seemed to find something to talk about. The time the met, was the time they died. It was just to remind them of what had happened.

"So Shimmersoul and I--," Pearlpelt was saying. But Almondpelt cut her off, "Wait, something happened..." he muttered. He shivered, getting the familiar feeling that a cat had joined StarClan.

Pearlpelt nodded, getting the feeling as well. They walked together in sync where their instincts led them. Sure enough, there was a new cat in the land of StarClan. Pearlpelt recognized the cat quickly. Snowdrift. They were about the same age, and she'd grown up with her. "Snowdrift!" she exclaimed, leaving Almondpelt's side, a rare sight. "What happened?" she asked, she knew it wasn't the right time for Snowdrift to die.

Almondpelt hurried after her. He'd known Snowdrift, but she was much younger than him. Just as Pearlpelt was. "Long time no see, Snowdrift," he joked, bowing his head in respect to her.

[.&&. Snowsong.]

A shiver ran its fingers down the pale she-cat's spine, and her dull, gray optics flickered. Lifting her apex, Frostwing was aware of the feeling of the newcomer in StarClan. Padding, almost swiftly, to the meeting, her lobes picked up voices, a variety of them.

Soon, she reached them, and she paused in shock. It was Snowdrift, wasn't it? She had seen the cat before, and she knew that she cat wasn't meant to die now. Also, she felt a slight ache. She knew she was thinking of and missing her loyal daughter, Snowsong. Perhaps it was because both Snowdrift and Snowsong had the exact beginning of their callings.

Heaving a faint sigh and pushing the bittersweet memories away, she leaped into the clearing, a couple of tail-lengths behind the others. Then, she padded delicately, silently, into the group. "Welcome to StarClan, dear Snowdrift," she said remorsefully, yet with the kindness in that smooth, velvet tone of hers that she always used.

[♫.Starredmyst]

Shimmersoul stared down silently into a pool of water, golden eyes half-closed in an attempt to hide the emotion within them. The star-flecked water seemed not to be a reflection of the sky above, but a window into a different scene: for on it, the leader of IvoryClan approached another she-cat. Shimmersoul's throat tightened as she watched Patchstar, his pose stealthy and dangerous; what had her mate become?

A strange shiver flickered up and down the silver cat's spine, a sensation that had become all-too-familiar in her nearly twenty-five moons in StarClan, and reflexively she looked up. Another cat had just passed through StarClan's gates...

Pulled away from her reflections, Shimmersoul stood, drifting over to where a number of other cats had already gathered. Most of them were she-cats, she noticed idly, and lifted her head in an attempt to see who it was.

Snowdrift. Shimmersoul recognized the she-cat vaguely; they had been the same age, in the nursery together, but Shimmersoul and her sister had never gotten to know her. Carefully weaving her way closer to the center of the gathering, she bowed her head.

"StarClan welcomes you," the she-cat meowed, softly echoing the others. Her greeting done, she backed away softly, wondering to herself what had killed the she-cat -- she hadn't been paying attention to her at the time.

[Đarκsong]

Snowdrift shyly slipped back behind Pantherheart. The sudden onslaught of cats frightened her. She choked on her explanation as she looked over the group of cats. She recognized all of them. It didn't really occur to her how many cats had died in her lifetime, and how many were close to her in age.

The snowy queen nudged her tortie companion in the side, signaling her to explain.

Pantherheart glanced curiously over to Snowdrift. She could understand the she-cat's fear, but didn't really want to recount the story either. Supposing she should help Snowdrift out she recounted all she was told, "Those rouge toms, Secret and Demon, ambushed her in the forest. She had left camp because the kits were lost..."

"....I don't know what happened to them....." Snowdrift choked, close to tears. It tore her up inside to not know if they were alright. Not only was she responsible for her own 2 kits, but some of Dawnflight's had run off as well.

Pantherheart wraped her dark tail around Snowdrift, trying to offer some comfort.

[რoonwhisker]

"Aw you poor dear," Pearlpelt meowed, touching Snowdrift's nose to her own. Pearlpelt shook her head in sadness. "He's causing so much trouble," she meowed. "I'm sorry Snowdrift, I just hope you can find happiness here with us," she added, her voice smooth and gracefully.

Almondpelt tensed for a moment. "Someone's dead," he muttered. Pearlpelt nodded, "I feel it too. But who? Was it Demon?" she wondered.

[.&&. Snowsong.]

With a slight dip of her apex, she closed her moonstones. She had felt a prickling feeling along her spine still, and she worried that it was a signal that her daughter may be at risk. Who else could it mean? Snowdrift had already been killed, and the foreboding aura of heed around her should have dissipated by now. She knew no other cat was dead -- yet -- so why else would she continue to feel the uncomfortable aura?

With a faint sigh, Frostwing shrugged it off, glanced back up at the others as she straightened up. Her orbs scanned all of her fellow StarClanners, and she couldn't help but feel a fraction of her shoulder fur begin to bristle.

"Was it Demon?"

After a couple of seconds of thought, she drifted to a conclusion. "Well, considering how old Secret is, it must have been Demon. Besides, Demon seems more skilled, and all Secret could do to help is only give a couple of slashes."

She closed her jowls for a second, glancing gently at Snowdrift in wait of receiving either refute or verification. "Well, dear, do you remember if Demon --" she struggled for the correct words, her hesitation revealed. "-- if Demon was the final battle you had?" She inwardly winced, knowing all too well that Demon was her stepson.