Eep, a few days late. I was going to do it yesterday morning, but it kept slipping my mind. My memory is the worst. D:
Anywho~
I found it to be interesting how many of you mentioned Blight's pet-calling this chapter, even though he only had a few lines before popping out. It makes me smile, seeing how astute you all are!
@QueenOfThePens: And I quote: "If StarClan did show you these visions for some reason, it could be a variety of things. They could be warning you of things to come. They could be trying to fix their mistakes in the past, trying to learn from them, to protect those on this new journey. Or, this journey might hold important information of another matter...the destination, what they were looking for, how it all ended...something has to be important for them to show it to you." They're quite relevant, I promise you. :3
@Silverblossom: I really do dislike forbidden love...but apprentice love, in any form, is just too gosh-darn adorable for me to hate. At heart, I'm honestly a hopeless romantic. D:
@Ravenshade: Interesting catch there...but most could still mean that she isn't coming back, since she was somewhat prominent at the beginning of the story. You never know, ha. As for Reedrush, you're guess was incorrect, but it was a good one! We might figure out why soon, methinks. As for the smell of freedom, I bet you're right about that.
@Veni: Yep. I don't generally like "new generation" stories, but I especially dislike them when they're just a continuation of the lineage. I figured I'd do something a little different. And yes, we'll see Minnow and her kits, I promise! As for the poll, I figured I had to throw some random pairings in there, just to keep things interesting. Weird little ghost babies would be pretty cool, though. Imagine the question marks from the rest of the Clan when Soot delivers those. xD
@Dustleaf: We haven't really seen Soot longing for freedom, that much is true; however, I think it's sort of an inborn thing for young cats, to crave a bit of freedom and a bit of distance from their family, to spread their wings (so to speak). Soot just sort of reflects that longing. Freedom also gives her the ability to become a hero (technically a heroine, but I've always thought that sounded too druggy xD), which is what she really wants to be. She wants to live up to her father's legacy, and at home, with her deputy daddy and protective mother watching her carefully, her brother screwing everything up for her, and without a mentor, she feels she won't ever get that chance (aside from helping the DF cats, but of course no one could ever know about that). Freedom gives her the chance to become that hero. As for following them in secret, that much is true; she has very little training when it comes to hunting/fighting, and there's no way that she could provide for herself. However, she only has to follow them for a day or so; by then they'll be too far away to send her back, since she could just keep following them and they couldn't waste time escorting her home. Now, as we learned in this most recent chapter, Northstar is coming back earlier than the rest of the group, so he might be bringing her back with them, but as of now that's not certain. As for how she can track them, remember that most, if not all of her training sessions thus far have been focused on stealth. She's pretty decent at being stealthy by now; as seen in the chapter, she uses her knowledge from everything she's learned (the ferns from Spiderpaw, remaining hidden from Frostfeather, keeping track of her movements from Ravenwing, etc.) to help her on her way.
@CrystalSakura: Good question, about Thistlethorn's name. Firstly, I had to come up with it quickly, because I sort of changed the timeline of when the story started; originally where I'd planned to start, Thistlethorn was still an apprentice, but then when I changed the timeframe, he was a warrior, so the name was kind of created on the fly. However, I think you have a misconception; a thistle is not just the thorny part of a plant, it is the entire plant itself; thorns are just one part of that plant. It's basically the same sort of name as Rosepetal. Anyway, I generally use -thorn for fierce, powerful, somewhat "prickly" cats, all of which fit him pretty well. He's pretty friendly to his Clanmates, but to outsiders he's very leery (which might cause problems on the coming journey, since he's not fond of PeakClan).
I think that's all the questions. Sorry about the lateness, darlings~
