Yay, chanting title~!
Again (in case you didn't see this in my AN) I'm going to be gone on Saturday to visit family, and my parents might just decide to drop my brother and I off for the week. If so, I won't be able to update for some time. They haven't decided yet, so that might change, but I decided to say so just in case~
@Shimmertail: But of course we get more Northy! I didn't kill him off in Shattered for a reason (although I briefly considered it xD). I'm pretty sure you don't know who the wailer is, since we haven't met her yet, but there's another kitty in Chill's group that you probably do~
@TheVioletGleek: Thanks! Nice to see you again. I do enjoy being cruel to my characters (although, oddly, I really hate reading stories where characters die and stuff...go figure!). The forest-sickness isn't really any disease in particular, although I remember drawing from a few of them during the planning stages (same for this new chilling disease). They're both combinations of different illnesses, although I couldn't for the life of me remember which ones. As for Blackpaw, it was probably a 70/30 split between not wanting to be humiliated/doing what's right for the Clan. He's selfish that way. Shimmerfrost puts up with her...mostly because she has to, since her getting another apprentice that could stand her iciness probably isn't going to happen, ha. The other older warriors make sure Shimmer's not too hard on the poor ditz.
@VeniVidiVeci: Yuppers, we'll most definitely see Minnow and the little Blight/Nightshade 2.0's eventually. Rather soon, actually, I think.
@Smokefrost: Chilly feeding off of Spiderpaw would be ridiculously cool, but I think all of Spider's anger would probably melt poor Chilly. xD
@Silverblossom: Moonpaw's eyes have always been blue, like the sky or the flowers or whatever else Soot likes to compare them to, ha. Sorry you're confused about the relationships thing, I'll get to that here in a minute for you! And of course Blight had to come back. Some of you felt sorry for him in the end, and he definitely hates to be pitied. xD
@Crowstorm: Unfortunately, Toxin died in Shattered's epilogue so we won't see her again, sadly. ;^;
Everyone seems to be shipping BlizzxRobin. I wonder why. *shifty eyes*
Anyway, Silverblossom was confused about some of the relationships, so I figured I should brush up on that a bit, for the apprentices at least.
SOOTPAW is the sister to SPIDERPAW. SOOTPAW and SPIDERPAW are cousins to ROBINPAW and JAYPAW, who are siblings. BLIZZARDPAW is unrelated to any of the other apprentices. REDPAW and BLUEPAW are brother and sister, parents unknown. FIREPAW is REDPAW'S idol. FIREPAW and BLACKPAW are brother and sister. Their biological parents are unknown, but they were raised by PETALCLOUD and SWANSONG. LEOPARDPAW'S heritage is unknown.
Blizzardpaw's a weird case because of Silverstar's crazy legacy. He is Silverstar's grand-nephew, and Shimmerfrost's nephew (or like half-nephew or something, since Reed and Shimmer had different dads. I have no idea; of course, that makes him Chillpaw's half-nephew or whatever too.)
Hope that helped Silverblossom and anyone else who was confused. :)
Also, poor Silver has had a bit of back-lash because of her becoming a bit of a recluse and her sickness; I was talking to Queen of the Pens about it, and I wrote something extremely long and explaination-y. Here it is if anyone wants to take a look:
Ah, I see. Actually, the illness has nothing to do with her personal beliefs, she's just sick, because she's been more exposed to the disease than the other cats. That, coupled with the fact that she hadn't been taking care of herself (which is because of the betrayal, I'll acknowledge that, but I'll address that in a moment) left her susceptible to the sickness. In other words, she is honestly ill with some sort of virus/bacteria thingamajig. I assure you, she won't be the only one to get sick -- or die. (Spoilers, oops! Not really, I always kill someone off, so it's not that big a surprise xD).
Anyway, as for the handling, you're right. She handled it badly, but keep in mind that her entire belief system was based on two things:
1. Everyone deserves a second chance. More importantly, if you give them that second chance and show that you think they're worthy of it, then they will turn themselves around; all you have to do is prove to them that you believe in them. This has always held true with her, as illustrated by Doveflight (the apprentice who was a trouble-maker that Silverstar helped mentor back in BirchClan, if you don't remember). The one time it was broken before was with Snake, when he turned on her to help Toxin, but Silverstar never knew about that because she never saw him or the body after Toxin killed him.
2. StarClan will always provide/look after those they care about, when possible. Again, this has always held true for her; it could be argued that even the whole Northstar-FrozenClan fiasco eventually resulted in something good, because she built AshClan/found Forest/sort of allied with Northstar, etc.
However, with his betrayal, Chilly shattered both of those notions completely. He destroyed her belief of second chances because he used his second chance to attempt to kill her. He destroyed the second because StarClan didn't try to warn Silverstar, or alert anyone to what Chilly was planning. As far as she could tell, absolutely nothing good came from his actions; she lost a life, AshClan lost an apprentice, and their sense of security and trust in one another was broken.
That doesn't sound like much, I know, but she believed those two things with her whole being; her faith in StarClan and others was what helped her through the loss of her Clan and all that. It's like if you were religious (I obviously have no idea if you are, and it doesn't matter much to me, but for the sake of an analogy) and you devoted your life to your chosen god/religion/church, and then somehow science managed to prove that your god(s) didn't exist and that all of your beliefs were a lie. Naturally, you would experience a horrible emotional crash that would take months, if not years to deal with.
It also impacted a more personal aspect of her life, which I've alluded to (and I'm sure you figured it out, most people did, but in case you didn't then I won't say anything) which took another emotional toll.
Does that make sense? Please don't think that I'm attacking your opinion, or anything, you're completely entitled to it. I just want to make sure you see all sides of the issue, because there's obviously a lot of stuff that I know that the readers do not, which puts you guys at a bit of a disadvantage when you draw conclusions.
Hope she doesn't mind me posting that. xD
Anyway, I think that's all for this chapter. Stay tuned. <3
