Chappy 36~

Whew, that was a fun battle to write. I hope you guys are as satisfied as I am after that. xD

Now, onto the reviews, I suppose...although there weren't as many as usual and they were shorter. Mff.

Crowstorm: if Cane needs to cross Amber's territory to get to the moss clearing, then wouldn't the siblings meet before they got the the clearing?

A-ha! I was waiting for/hoping someone would ask this question. Yay. :D

Yes, Cane needs to cross Amber's territory. But when he mentioned something about going through it looking for trouble, he was just bluffing; he knows Forest has some sort of alliance with the forest cats, and hopefully if he impresses Forest, he impresses the Clan. It was purely a bluff; if/when he goes to meet in the clearing, he's gonna be uber-stealthy about it, because the last thing he wants is to show up to parley all battered and bloody, right? You aren't very intimidating with a bloody nose. ;)

Also (and I know you guys don't know this, so I'm not holding it against you xD) Cane and Amber are very different from one another. Amber is very punctual; she likes having and following plans, and so she'll show up right on time at nightfall. Cane, on the other paw, enjoys being fashionably late, so he would probably head out a bit later; thus they would miss each other, although Cane's group might scent Amber's on the way there.

And, finally, Amber's a little distracted now by the giant fire raging on her territory. The meeting is a few days away, but she's going to have to spend time surveying the damage/lives lost. She isn't going to be preoccupied much with Cane and his doings.

Queen of the Pens: I still don't properly understand why Forest left. Did he just leave because he was momentarily angry, or was it a full anger that hasn't yet faded?

Forest left for several reasons. First, he wasn't sure how much Silverstreak truly cared about him, and he was frustrated because he didn't know. He envies others like Eaglestrike (especially since Eaglestrike is another tom) because they're closer to Silverstreak than he is. He feels like Silverstreak keeps her distance from him, because she's too internally confused about her own feelings. And he knows that Silverstreak cannot fully come to grips with her feelings; she left Frostfeather/Ravenwing partially out of anger, but also because she couldn't deal with the feelings of their betrayal. Forest was afraid if he pushed her too hard, she would flee again; at the same time, he felt like he couldn't wait any longer. He had to know how Silverstreak felt. So while anger played a part, it wasn't the whole story. He cares for her very deeply, even now.

Shimmertail: Who was your favorite warrior from the First Arc?

That's actually a really hard question for me, ha. I loved Yellowfang and Cinderpelt both to death, as well as Brightheart and Sandstorm (even when she was a little butt-munch! :3). Graystripe too (he was cool before Millie came along, gah). And I loved Littlecloud...but above all, my favorite character in the entire series has to be Whitestorm. I just love him to death. <3

*twiddles thumbs* I'm sorry that we won't have a Lion chappy for some time...but hopefully Nightshade will intersect with Lion too. We've got a lot to do. D:

For those wondering about the time-line, the day of the battle with PeakClan is Day 51. Nightshade/Blight are scheduled to reach Lion by Day 64. It's debatable how long it will be after that before Lion actually sets out on his mad quest. :)