The cold wind blew in his face. StarClan’s prophecy of him seeking out the Tribe had been quite a blow to the tom but he had accepted it and said his goodbyes. He puffed up his coat and narrowed his green eyes. He had found the mountains after a long walk and sat down. Here he was, all alone with StarClan whom had said he had to go here. In his memory he could still feel Gorsepaw’s embrace but it was fading more and more by the day. He let go a deep sigh and took a look at the sky with all the stars dancing in it. Were his ancestors looking down on him now? He shook his head and curled himself up for the night. A long and cold night.

When the sun rose and he opened his eyes he saw he was covered in snow. The mountains were towering above him but there was no sign of anything. Softly grunting he rose to his paws. This was hopeless if he were to do this on his own. In his mind he cursed StarClan. Where were their guiding paws? Nowhere to be seen. He gritted his teeth and turned around and began padding back to the place he knew. The one place where he knew ever inch and corner. It would be a journey again, a hard one with so little food on the way but he could not do this on his own. He needed a cat by his side or else he would never find it.

The snow kept on falling on his fur, even tough it should have stopped already. Some weather it was, it was real dreigh weather. His stomach grumbled soft and he paused to take a deep breath. What would Hedgepaw think of his sudden appearance? And the children whom he had left? Would Amberstorm be Amberstar by now? Some part of him did not want to know it and wanted to stay away from the camp. As his mind played tricks on him he padded on, determined to see his children, Hedgepaw and Glenbreeze. The crooked smile he always had on his mouth had faded away. All there was left was an empty shell that was lost. When he pushed through the last grass he saw Highstones and ... and a familiar pelt. He shook his head, no why would she be here? It had to be a illusion right? He proceeded with caution and halted when the black-white she cat spoke his name. "Stallion?" she asked him and his green eyes held hers. Without words he knew exactly how to act and pressed his nose against hers. "It's me" he murmured soft in her beautiful pelt. Emotions swept him away, all things that had happened suddenly overwhelming him like it all had just happened. Loosing his son, loosing his Leadership, loosing his friends... All because StarClan had said it to him and where had it gotten him? Nowhere but at last he was home with his Glenbreeze.

Her mucles relaxed, her stiff posture became almost liquid. And for the first time in a long time he smiled again, at her. Her voice was coming to a breaking point, he knew her all too well. In a swift movement he sat down and swallowed. Comforting he touched her nose again. “I walked here” he simply replied and grinned and felt is fall from his face as quickly as it came there. Grim he frowned and sighed deep before replying. “I could not find the Tribe. StarClan said my destiny laid there but it is all surrounded by mist and even more snow up there” he mewed an felt a growl rumble in his troath. “They told me to leave the path lit by starlight and go seek the mountains height. Well, I did. Only to find nothing up there but their betrayal.” he gritted. The words Gorsepaw had said to him had turned cold and bitter in his mouth as he retold them to Glenbreeze. “They simply never cared for me” he snorted and gazed up angry at the sky. He felt left out by his ancestors, why they had done this was a real puzzle for the tom. There was no logical explanation to send a cat to the mountains only to come back empty pawed.

He let out a soft painful purr and rubbed his head against her cheek, thanking her for her kind words without using words of his own. There was not so much to say, only a lot to be felt. “I suppose they work in mysterious ways but I haven’t got a lot of trust left in them. I loved leading WindClan and taking care of my Clan. And just like that they kicked me out” he muttered in her fur. His ears turned forward after her last words. She was glad he was back? “I’m happy that you are the first cat whom I see upon my return. How’s Amberstar?” he asked. “I’m sure she is doing well as Leader” he mewed and pressed his large body against Glenbreeze’s fur. It was cold out here in the snow but somehow he could not feel the cold. There was something warm in the air. “And how’s Hedgek.. paw? And my children?” he mewed. He had almost forgotten that Hedgekit was no longer a kit but a Apprentice. And his children would be Warriors soon.

His face softened as she told him about Hedgepaw. He was indeed becoming the tom of worth he had wished for and it hurted him not being there and seeing Dewberry's son's and daughter growing up. One of her kit's she even had named after him but he had especially bonded with Hedgekit at the time whom reminded him a lot of Gorsepaw when he had been a kit. His heart ached to close the small -maybe bigger now- tom in his embrace but would he be able to handle his return for as long as it would endure? Glenbreeze told him how Hedgepaw had bonded with Storkpaw and a weary smile crossed his lips. It was good news, as well of his children. She did not finish her sentence but he knew what she meant. After he had left on a wimp of StarClan they must have felt sad and abandoned. Their own adoptive mother had left them for those fish eating freaks and now their father had left. He could only hope that they fared well. He wished he could come back in the Clan but the words of Glenbreeze tickled his mind in a wrong way. Complicated? He frowned and twitched his ears. "Do tell?" he asked with worry in his voice. "Amberstar chose a Deputy everyone did not agree with?" he mewed grinning. Oh, he had been there when he chose Amberstorm as his Deputy. And many leaders before him, WindClan was not the easiest Clan to lead.

When he fell silent he just simply enjoyed Glenbreeze's company. Distance of her had made his heart grow even fonder of her without him meaning to. It was almost like a classic romance, falling in love with your childhood's best friend. He closed his green eyes and leaned in to Glenbreeze and placed his broad head on her shoulder. "Yer a bonnie lass, you do know that?" He mewed soft in her ear.

The tom closed his eyes half when Glenbreeze spoke, only to let them fly wide open at her words. Amberstorm didn’t became Leader? He was confused, what happend to that tradition? Usually a Deputy followed up a Leader in the ranks. Not quite sure what to think about it he stayed quiet. There had to be a explanation right? As his mind raced to think what had happened Glenbreeze feed his mind if the race. ”Wolfheart” she mewed and his jaw dropped for a bit. It was a good thing it wasn’t leafgreen or he might have swallowed some bugs. But how on earth had StarClan decided on making Wolfheart leader? He coughed and closed his mouth, staggered with bewilderment. He knew StarClan was weird but to toy with age old traditions? Jeez. He had known she was expecting but that had not stopped other Deputy’s to become leader. Oceanbreeze for example. He saw the emotions on Glenbreeze’s face and gave her a warm look. She was so bonnie.. he bought, his heart would die if he could not stay here and now next to her. When Glenbreeze shook him out of his daydreaming with the explanation that Amberstorm was banished he had to lock his jaw not to drop again. Why on.. Because she had killed one of her own children. Confusion was written all over his face. “What the foxdung?” he whispered. “I can’t even go away and the Clan is still tearing each other apart” he muttered lashing his tail. He decided to let the subject rest, it was a lot to take in. Not Amberstorm had become leader but Wolfheart, whom had accompanied him to .. he twitched his ears and let out a soft grunt. “I think I know what happened. Wolfheart has accompanied me to the Moonstone when I went there to talk to Gorsepaw.. And when my lives were taken. Somehow Wolfheart must have come in and taken them. What a pile of horseshit” he snorted. It crystal-clear that StarClan had been a real ass hole here. He snorted softly but let the feelings of anger and disgust fare when he felt the soft breath of Glenbreeze in his fur, murmuring something so soft he almost couldn’t hear it. But he did hear her. He gave her a lick between her ears to comfort her a bit. “I don’t know if I still have a place in WindClan. But you do have a special place in my heart” he mewed. He had no idea if he was to stay here or to go back to the mountains and try again. Maybe he would be better off as a Rogue, creating his own place without StarClan. But maybe with Glenbreeze? He had seen some great fields that lied just behind WindClan borders.

Glenbreeze leaned in a bit more closer and the big tom let out a soft purr. Even tough StarClan seemed to have abandoned him Glenbreeze had not. It was almost soothing to the wounds StarClan had inflicted on him. He let out a deep sigh and thought about her words. What good would it do to return to the mountains? He was not completely sure what he would find this time, more snow and misery? He shrugged his shoulders, not replying to her question. He knew she could not follow him there but a big part of him wished she could, just the two of them. No StarClan of Leader bossing them around… it sounded almost to ideal. They both got lost in their thoughts and he just enjoyed her company for now. When Glenrbeeze lifted her gaze he saw she wanted to ask a question. ”Yes?” he murmured soft and warm. There was a lot going on in her mind, there was no doubt about that but he could not pinpoint anything specific. It was a chaos in her mind. Soothing he brushed his tail over her back to calm her a bit when she spoke what was on her mind. “Please, just don’t leave” she mewed with a sensation of pain in her voice. His green eyes hooked in her green ones and he pressed his forehead against hers. “I would stay for you” he mewed and rubbed his cheek against hers. “For I have made many mistakes, one of them being not choosing you in the beginning.. We should’ve been together form the start” he mewed his voice warm and kind. “But I canna be just a Warrior again” he mewed with another pain in his voice, a deeper, rawer pain. “I need more purpose in my life” he mewed and fell still. The raw pain of not being able to speak about the pain that was in his core. Maybe in time he would be speaking of it again, but only to her. If she wanted to.

The tom bit his lip, waiting for her reply. He had have two relationships before Glenbreeze, both of them ending not.. very well. Many quarrels with Shatteredice and after her Stagstorm whom had disappeared. No doubt Stagstorm had gone to BloodClan with Brat. His mind raced trough the moments until a metallic taste shook him awake. He had been biting his lip so hard it had started to bleed a bit. A part of him wondered if Stagstorm had not just seen him as a fling, and nothing more. It had been around the time that Stagstorm went away he was send to the mountains. Some part of him wanted to know how the brown tom was doing but another part of him told him to let it rest, all he would get from seeing his former mate would be a world of hurt.

His gaze fixated on the snow under his paws, some clumps were hanging in his fur and with a quick shake he got rid of it. Glenbreeze spoke softly to him that he should linger around the forest and he smiled at her. "I have no intention of leaving you behind" he murmured and gave her a lick over her ear. "I could always overthrow Wolfstar?" he suggested with a grin on his lips. "But you don't have to beg, I won't be going any time soon" he mewed and leaned in to her with a deep rumbling purr in his troat. "If you are okay with that, that is" he mewed with a glimmer in his green eyes. Why he had not seen her as a potential mate when he was younger was a riddle, but he could see it clear as day now that he was never meant to be with either Shatteredice or Stagstorm. It had always been her. Glenbreeze. He could not yet speak the words aloud, he was unsure if she even felt the same. "Shall we give meaning to life together? It's tearing my guts out not to be with you" he almost whispered pushing himself to say it aloud though. He knew he would regret it even more if he didn't say it here and now.

He laughed back at her when she called him a idiot. Maybe he was a idiot, a bit. Sheepish he kept on smiling at the beautiful black and white face of Glenbreeze. He wanted to lay his head next to hers, every remaining day of his life. When she spoke her mind his sheepish smile turned from a sheepish one into a day where the sun finally came out and the clouds disappeared. “You have just made me the happiest tom in the whole forest and every territory behind that” he mewed and took Glenbreeze in a tight embrace with his paws. It was a very fragile moment, only a soft wind could blow it away, but he was determined to not let that happen. When he let go of her, he gently touched her shoulder and put his nose in her fur. “You smell.. so good” he murmured and closed his eyes. He drank in her smell and opened his green eyes to stare at her with a love that he only now could set free, to be with her. He stroked with his big fluffy tail over her back with a small amount of pressure to guide her. “I want.. I need you. All of you” he mewed hoarse with desire. He wanted to be intimate with her and only her, forgetting the mess that was all around them. It was not the love of a young cat anymore, it was a mature love that had multiple layers and would define them in a whole new way.

His heart stood in fire and flame for the she-cat, she would be unable to comprehend how deep his love was for her. She followed his guiding and he could not stop his soft purring. He felt blessed that Glenbreeze chose him and that she accepted him with all of his flaws. He felt the snow give way underneath his was and when they came to a better ground it was stable. It was somehow a bit symbolic of how his journey had been, things not going great but now finally getting more stable. He gestured Glenbreeze to wait for a minute when he peeked his head in a crack that was formed in the Highstones and then led her in. "Yer safe with me" he mewed and felt how his chest swelled with more love for the she-cat.


He had dozed off for a bit, recuperating his strength to face the cold weather again later. It was all he could have wished for, finally being with her. His tail laid over the flank of Glenbreeze as a duvet to keep her warm in the cold air. His head wobbled a bit, back to front almost like he was falling asleep real fast. Her voice woke him from his slumber and his eyes were filled with amusement. "Nah, I don't think so. Even StarClan has walked the surface of this earth and they understand love" he grinned touching her cheek again with his nose. "Maybe if we were to go at it again and again.." be tough aloud and started to laugh. He could never have imagined thing going this way and he had been in Highstones before but where they were was a long way form the Moonstone. And even if they had defiled the place he could not care less. "Stay here with me will ye? Tonight?" he asked and laid his head on his paws gazing at her with kitten eyes. Spending the night together was something most cats did in Camp when they were mates but he was not running back to there, not now he tasted freedom with Glenbreeze here. "I love you Glen" he meowed and started purring again.