Compare/Contrasaganza!

That title didn't make any sense, I apologize.

Anyway, as promised, a quick comparing/contrasting of what is new/old between the original role-play and Shattered. Divided for your convenience. :)

Plot

• Pretty much the whole thing in Shattered is new. I can see you staring at me right now, going 'wat?' Yes, it's true, almost the entire plot of Shattered is original/new. You see, in original role-play, I began playing with my new Clan (ForestClan, incidentally) with Silverstar already having her nine lives and Frostfeather already preggers (she was giving birth when role-play began, actually, I think that was my first post). So /everything/ (and I do mean everything) before AshClan was established is almost completely original. Surprised?
• TalonClan DID exist originally. They were even ran by a kitty named Slaughter who overthrew Northstar. That's all true. Even the forest Clans/FrozenClan's relationship was all true, but it really wasn't dealt with very much. FrozenClan was just an excuse to use Northstar/kill the forest Clans, and the forest Clans were just so I could use Silverstar as a new leader of a new Clan. Her parents/past were hardly touched at all during original role-play; same goes for Northy, although the basic bare-bones story (had a mentor who he really loved but died, killed his father for power, was overthrown by Slaughter) is the same. 
• TalonClan was known by another name, which I'll get to in the Names section. However, it wasn't the TalonClan we know today. You see, instead of existing for like only one season like it did in Shattered (barely even that, really) TalonClan (and the rest about Silverstar creating a new Clan which was never technically role-played but just sort of hand-waved as having already happened) took years to build. The end result was that it was an incredibly large Clan, much bigger than the TalonClan we know and hate. It was also created/ran entirely by Slaughter; Lion didn't kill him, or anything. Slaughter never actually officially died, because we never actually got to that point.
• Also, TalonClan was full of cannibals. Yeah, you read that right. Cannibals. Snake was a cannibal. Slaughter was a cannibal. Toxin was a cannibal. Now, FrozenClan/the forest Clans weren't cannibal Clans, but somehow when they came together to make TalonClan, they all turned into cannibals, or something. That was never really made clear, pretty much because TalonClan was just for some evilly delicious tension in role-play. They were just...evil cannibals. Yeah.
• Other Clans existed in original role-play, but they were all incredibly small compared to AshClan. My Clan was actually the most popular by far (over 100 cats compared to 30-40 in the others; we didn't have a character limit). The other Clans were SecretClan (which had wolves as well as cats in it...don't ask, I don't even know), FireClan, SunsetClan, LakeClan, PhantomClan, FrostClan...we kinda had a lot of Clans, yeah. Unlike PeakClan, however, they didn't have a problem with AshClan charging in and taking over. They didn't care so much, so there were few battles (boooring, right?).
• Silverstar's mate wasn't named Forest. He wasn't anything even close to being Forest. Her mate (for all of like three moons before his role-player disappeared) was named Tornadofang, and he was kind of just a big ol' grump. Forest's opposite, really. Silverstar even had four adorable, badly named kits: Timberkit (brown tabby, kind of the inspiration for Timber and, by proxy, Forest himself), Cottonkit (white she-cat...how do the cats know what cotton is, I dunno), Lifekit (silver tabby...Life? I don't know, man)Wolfkit (wolves don't live in GB, but whatever, right?) and...Sproutkit (a calico. I have no idea how a silver cat plus a gray-blue cat created a calico, white, and brown tabby, but whatever). Yeah. You might just now be realizing how bad my old role-play stuff was.
• Frostfeather had kits with a rogue who was never really named/revealed, it just sort of happened because she was just pregnant when I started rping her. She later popped out Ospreykit, Falconkit, and Sparrowkit. Sparrowkit went on to become one of AshClan's FOUR medicine cats (yeah, four...in case the other three die, or something, I guess) and Ospreykit became one of the strongest warriors in the Clan/TalonClan's prisoner...Falconkit never did anything. Ospreykit eventually had a bunch of kits himself, but none of those were used in Shattered, or anything.
• Ravenwing mothered two different litters, by two different cats. One was by Duskheart (mentioned in JtR, if you've read that you'll remember him), but after Duskheart's original mate re-appeared, I created a new mate for her, Eaglestrike. He was the deppy of the old forest Clan, just like in Shattered, and they eventually had kits together. The kits from Duskheart's litter were Pumpkinkit, Spicekit, and Spacekit. Eaglestrike's were Purekit, Passionkit, Spiderkit, and Wispkit. Spiderkit's the only one of Ravenwing's kits that I used for Shattered at all.
• Shimmer...oh, where to being? Shimmer has always been (and will be) one of my most iconic characters, as well as one of my favorites. You know the weird way she spoke when she was younger in Shattered? She was always like that in role-play, throughout her entire life. She also had a weird habit of referencing human movies/slang (once she was watching a pair of cats falling in love and referenced like seven Disney movies, including The Lady and the Tramp). She was extremely weird, but I adored her. She was also sort of evil-ish, in that she had no regard for her Clanmates whatsoever. She pretty much hated everyone, and gave them a tongue-lashing whenever she could, including Silverstar. She had no loyalties to anyone or anything, and her favorite thing to do was to get everyone into trouble. Once, she actually dug a pit and threw some kits inside of it just to watch them sit there and suffer. Yeah, she was not so good...but /so/ fun to role-play! She never had a mate or anything like that (could you imagine?) but she eventually found an apprentice that melted her a bit (Olivepaw, not rped by me, but he warmed up to her really quickly). Besides Olivepaw, the only other cat in the world she cared about was her mother. Shimmer and Silverstar met the same way as they did in Shattered, with Shimmer kind of chilling and grooming herself. However, in role-play, Shimmer and her mother were separated by wolves (wat?), not creepy ghost thingies that only they could see. She also did not have a brother. She did, however, have two sisters....
• ...which brings me to this. That whole tangled family thing in Shattered DID exist in role-play. However, Reedrush wasn't a part of it. Most of it was the same - Whitefrost gave her kit away to FrozenClan, that kit mated with Slaughter, had  kits, and ran off with one of them - however, Cinderstream had /three/ kits in original role-play: Shimmer, Toxin, and a cat you guys don't know named Mercury. That's right; Shimmer and Toxin were sisters! Mercury was pretty much a clone of Toxin, except she liked playing with her prey; i.e., other cats, before she devoured them. Sadistic little gal. I think I eventually killed her off, but I can't remember...also, Northy and Silver weren't originally related.
• Now, with Reedrush, almost everything was the same; she was born in  a strange society (not called the Kalan, but something like it), her father died (he was named Ashheart, though, which technically should have been Ash-heart, except I had a tendency to accidentally type it as Assheart) and she escaped from a Twoleg Pound. However, she was not pregnant; there was no cat named Blitz. Jag found her starving to death and taught her how to hunt; then they went their seperate ways. Reedrush did follow the scent of ash, left by her father, just as in Shattered. When Reedrush and Jag separated, Reedrush scented ash, and ran back to find Jag, only to see that he had been hit by a Twoleg monster. That's obviously the scenario that played out at the end of Shattered, just relocated to a different place in the plot. Anyway, Reedrush and Jag  were totally in love and such; however, Toxin was following them. You see, in role-play Toxin was actually decently aged, and she was looking for a mate. Jag was strong and junk, so she picked him, but nearly killed Reedrush. Jag obviously didn't want her and chased her off, but she followed them all the way to the Clans. Reedrush and Jag joined SecretClan, instead of Silverstar's Clan. Toxin discovered Silverstar there, and raced off to tell her dear daddy about the kitty that got away, which got them into a whole mess of trouble.
• That kind of brings me back to Toxin; again, she was older, and much more sadistic (although just as calculating as in Shattered). She was Slaugther's right-hand gal, and as such she was later assigned to take over a band of rogues. These rogues were led by Tremor, and all of the rogues in his band in Shattered were in original role-play. Blight was with Toxin, however (in this story he totally loved her, although she didn't really care about him) and eventually knocked her up. Toxin gave birth to several kits; Screech, Slit, Sulfur, Ax, and Pulse. Toxin and Blight were eventually chased out by Tremor and co., along with the kits, although Pulse stayed behind because she was a total softy and Toxin didn't like that.
• Rumble wasn't blind. He did, however, have extremely poor eyesight. He had a weird connection with the ground, in that he could sense the voices/movements of cats far away from the tremors in the earth. I obviously kind of twisted that into being part of his weird senses in Shattered, and I made him blind for the fun of it.
• Northstar's story is basically the same. He fled his Clan, stumbled on to SunsetClan (which is closest to PeakClan in this story) and saved a she-cat with kits from killing herself. The leader of SunsetClan (Sunstar) had knocked her up and then carelessly left her for the medicine cat, just like in Shattered. The queen and Northy fell in love, blah blah blah. He also gained an apprentice, little Rabbitpaw, although she didn't have a fluffy tail and wasn't as ditzy. She was more spiritual, but either way she helped Northy defrost. He still hated Silverstar, tho.
• Brightflash was inspired by Whitelight (had to change her name, obviously), a strange she-cat with amnesia who just sort of appeared. Brightflash is kind of spacey and distant just like her, although Whitelight didn't have a kit.
• Thistlepaw is completely original.
• As one of my reviewers mentioned, Buck was originally kind of a hick/redneck cat. I'd prefer not to talk about it. xD
• Flameheart (was that his name? I'm not sure anymore), the cat that Silverstar and co. found at the very beginning of Shattered (that dying warrior with the other warrior who gave him water? Remember?) was based off a background character named Sunbyrn, who was Frostfeather's mentor. I don't know why I spelled burn weird. I don't know why I thought that sounded like a good name. I just...don't know.
• Brightfire was originally a prisoner of TalonClan (he helped Osprey-whatever escape in role-play). His character was pretty much the same, all noble and jazz, except that he was also an excellent orator. I needed a sort of revolutionary for Shattered, so I decided to dig him up and rename him.
• Brightfire's original character had a sister, who did indeed take out Snake's eye in role-play.
• Wanna talk about Death? Let's talk about Death. Death was, in role-play, much cooler than in Shattered. He was big and muscular and strong and no body told him what to do. He was, however, still deathly afraid of kits, just as in Shattered. And, like in Death's chapter, kits were strangely attracted to him, which led to all sorts of shenanigans. Deathy was also really really REALLY lazy, to the point where he just slept/sunbathed all the time and yelled at anyone who wanted to make him do stuff. He and Frostfeather never really knew each other. SOMEHOW he managed to find himself a mate (Starlingfeather), and they had a bunch of kits (two were mine, Dazzlekit and Goldenkit. Dazzlekit's name was later Dazzleflash, which kind of inspired Brightflash's name, a bit). Death is probably one of my other top five cats to rp, and he's appeared in a few other rps in various forms since then.
• Northstar did name a kit after his mentor. However, the kit he named was actually his real son, not the kit of the leader.
• Blight was a more sympathetic character, originally. He totally loved Toxin (although she didn't love him back) and was in general kind of a failure. He was still a cannibal, though. 
• Snake existed as he does in Shattered, but he was more sympathetic too (I spent a lot of time playing with TalonClan in role-play). He still had his lust for silver she-cats (and lost an eye because of it) but he might have been kind of bisexual because he had a weird, extremely close relationship with a tom named Marshfoot. Snake and Toxin didn't interact too much, and Snake was never interested in Cinderstream.
• Marshfoot didn't appear in Shattered, although he was a pretty  interesting dude. He was a rogue (with a Clan name, for some reason) who nearly murdered his own kits because they were hard to take care of. His mate, Clearwater, fled with them and gave them to LakeClan. She eventually fell in love with a rogue named Arrow (an incredibly disturbed but amazing character). None of them were in Shattered.
• Tremor's band didn't change much, except that Phoenix never died (and eventually mated with Shredder. I couldn't remember if it was Scorpion or Shredder while I was writing Shattered, so I guessed, and apparently I was wrong). She actually had two kits (Harpy and Golem, continuing with the weird naming tradition). Swansong didn't die either; she mated with Scorpion. Primrose was the only one to die, in battle. Swansong and Primrose were both still kittypets who adopted Pyro/Merla. Swansong was also completely silent, and a bit of a prude (there was a story I read about how swans don't sing until they die, and their death song is referred to as a 'swansong', which inspired her name, so she didn't tell Scorpion she loved him until she nearly died; it was very dramatic and lovely xD).
• Sprig lived with the band just like in Shattered, although she was actually kind of important. She was FrozenClan's medicine cat, just like she was in Shattered. She trained Rumble and stuff.
• Belladonna was never in any role-play, or involved in any way. She was actually born when I noticed that deadly nightshade had a prettier name, belladonna. And thus, in my terrible, awful brain, her fate rose. Her life/death was decided at the very beginning of the story. The only thing that changed for her was popping out kits; Toxin was supposed to do it originally, but the timeline didn't really allow it. Ah well.
• Redkit and Bluekit are sort of new; back in role-play, Mitch and Natasha did find a couple of cats named Axel and Starsky (pronounced star-ski), but they kept 'em. 
• Blizzardkit/Robinkit/Jaykit are all new. Sootkit's new too.
• Forest is completely new, except for his appearance, which can kind of be credited to Timberkit. His crooked smile kind of came from the Aristocats, which I liked when I was little. xD
• Cane and Amber are also completely new. Carmelo is too.
• As mentioned before, Lion and his friends are based off of a group I used before; I used them first in Snatched, but that was the more idealistic version. In the Shattered version (true to role-play) everyone died and Lion went crazy. In role-play (keep in mind this is a different place than the one where I role-played with Silverstar) he went crazy, gathered some followers, and attempted to kill the leader. 
• Chill is a character I've used twice before; the first time, he met the same end as we see in Chilled's Prologue (and there was more planned for him after he died, I just didn't get around to it; Chilled will use that). The second time (still on-going) he's actually kind of a decent fellow, after a /lot/ of character development.
• Blackmoon has no basis in role-play; he's my brother's character, and I sort of twisted him to suit my own needs. 

I think that's all for the basic plot.

Names

•  Silverstreak/star's name actually remained the same; it's one of the few I liked, so I kept it.
• Silverstar's Clan was originally called ForestClan. I was planning for that name to be used in this story as well, which is why Forest exists; he was supposed to die and it was going to be awful and heart-wrenching and she'd name the Clan after him. But you guys loved him tons, and I realized I always kill of the leads, and if you're too used to that, where's the suspense? So I kept him alive, which is actually kind of cruel because now you guys don't know whether the romantic partner will live/die anymore. Yay me!
• Frostfeather was originally named Opalstorm. Ravenwing was Jadeleaf.

• Eaglestrike was named Nebulastar (Nebulapelt as a warrior).
• Northstar had no warrior name, I just never needed one.
• Rabbitpaw's name was Arrowpaw (she wasn't mine)
• Rosedapple's name was Palmribbon (not mine either, thank goodness)
• Lightstar was Sunstar, I don't remember Graywing's old name. Neither of them were mine either.
• Death's name actually was Deathstorm. That's partially why I call him Death in this story, a little private joke for myself. Horrible names, I know. He had a hater named Sparklewish, if that helps.
• Brightfire's name was Firebrand, and Rainsplash's was Dewdrop (I had a thing for compound names).
• Buck's name was Buckheart. Jag's was Jaggedheart. With Forest becoming Forestheart...yeah, I think you see the problem there.
• Reedrush's name actually stayed the same, since she wasn't from the Clans anyway.
• Cinderstream's name was Quicksilver, which makes no sense since it's a human term for mercury. I just thought it was pretty (if you haven't already guessed, I didn't put a lot of thought into these old names). Also, incidentally, Quicksilver wasn't as crazy/needy as Cinderstream was after she ran off. Ah well.
• As mentioned before, Ashstir was Ash-heart. -stir fits more with the Kalan's theme, though.
• Again, Brightflash was Whitelight.
• Natasha and Mitch were Sasha and Mitch (written before the real Sasha appeared and gave birth to her messed-up kits).
• As mentioned before, Flameheart was Sunbyrn (shudder again).
• Brackenheart was originally known as Strongheart. What the dump is that, I don't know. Thus, Northstar's son was named Strongkit.
• Silverstar (senior, the one Silverstreak was named for) went by Tarnish after he fled his Clan.
• BirchClan was ForestClan, ShellClan was AquaClan, and MarshClan was MarshClan. FrozenClan was...AuroraClan (shudder) which didn't make any sense since they didn't have auroras. 
• TalonClan was...oh man...I'm ashamed to even say it. ReaperClan, there. Yeah. ReaperClan. Like the Grim Reaper. Which cats don't know about. Which cats wouldn't care about anyway. That's what they named themselves after. Yeah.

I think that's all the horrible revelations from my past. If not, I'll update it or something...hopefully you guys don't think I'm an idiot now, ha. Looking back, I was pleased at how much I've changed (especially with names...dear God, my names!). So...yeah. xD

T-the end? B-but....;^;

Yeppers, it's the end; we finally finished this marathon. Shattered was close (so close) to being a year old, but I managed to pull through, ha. And we're currently the longest; no other story has 300k, and there's only one over 200k, so I think I'm safely on top for the time being. :D

Anywho, question time...it'll be awhile before I get to do this again (sob) because I'm going to be realllly busy. Ah, well, here we goooo:

@Crowstorm: Leopardpaw is one of the characters in Chilled; one of the main characters, to be exact, although we don't see from her POV.

@AutumnSunsets: I'm not a big Naruto fan, but my little brother is, so I know who you're talking about. All he ever watches is Shippueden, or however you spell, it though, so we don't see Sasuke much. xD Also, Chill was never around Clover at all; he was brought into the camp after a patrol found him wandering the territory. Lion just clung to the hope that Chill was his son...because Lion was craaazy. We'll see Minnow in the sequel, and the kits too, no worries about that.

@InsaneCertifiably: We'll have Chilly's intentions for Silver in the sequel. Can't spill no beans just yet, sorry!

@Shimmertail: Aww, I appreciate your rambling, it makes the reviews more fun to read!

@Lynxeye: Ha. I was going to kill off Forest, there for awhile, but I changed my mind about mid-way through the story, partially because you guys were so attached to him...and partly because if I killed off all my main lovers, what would the surprise be at the end, mm? I'm actually being crueler this way, because now that a story has ended semi-happily, you guys will never know how I'm planning for the others to end. I'm laughing evilly right now, you just can't hear me.

Also, a few people have asked where I RP/where my old RP was. I role-play on Neopets (don't laugh at me!). That's where I got my start (I wasn't looking for a guild, it just sort of...happened) and, incidentally, role-playing is what got me into writing fics in the first place. Where I first started out no longer exists, but I'm currently in a really lovely guild called The Den of Warriors. You guys can find the webbie at http://neopets.com/~tdowexplore. You're welcome to join (it'd be cool if you did) but I'll warn you that we're pretty literate (not crazy literate, though) and you've got to fill out an application to join.

The funny thing was, the guild leader was actually reading Shattered when I first joined, so she kind of thinks of me as a celebrity, which is awesome for me! If you guys want to look me up on Neo, my username is princessleopard (old name, ugh, but the inspiration for my pen name). Shoot me a neomail any time.

If you're not interested in role-play but would like a good laugh, go to http://neopets.com/~_Mistyfoot__. There are all of my old old OLD characters from when I first started out. Many of them have ridiculous names (which I'll address in the comparison thingy) but until I get that up, feel free to guess who was who long ago, and stuff. And remember, if I can go from being that bad to half way decent (I'm decent, right?) then anyone can!

Oh, and also...did I mention that Chilled will be written from FIRST POV? Fun times! I need some practice with it, and I figured...heck, why not?

Anywho, I've got big girl stuff to do now; I'll get the prologue and everything else up when I can, but we'll see when that actually is. Until then....<3

Last POV chapter ;^;

Sorry I didn't update this yesterday, I uploaded the chappy right before I had to go to bed so you guys would have something to read and so I wouldn't be so guilty for continuing to be late. Eh. xD

So, that was our last POV chapter and stuffs. BUT we still have the epilogue (I always title them as being epilogues, so you don't have to freak out that the story is over until you see that, for future reference), which will both tie up some loose ends and untie some other knots for the sequel to deal with. Sweet, rite?

Also, I think the before-and-after list is a definite yes; I'll put it here on the blog, in a separate post so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

ALSO (tambien en espanol) this blog will continue to be updated and such, as I'll need it still for the sequel. After I post the epilogue, I'll answer questions about Chill's chapter, and after I post the prologue for the new story (when that will be, I'm not sure yet), I'll answer questions from the epilogue, and everything should be normal from there on out.

Tiempo de preguntas (time of questions, literally, but I think it's safe to say we would just say Question Time)!

 @Shimmertail: It gladdens me that you're a fellow Troper. Maybe you'll be the one to start a trope page for my stories? Ha. We'll see what happens to Toxin in the epilogue, and Lion too; however, Lion did not believe in StarClan. He didn't believe they were evil, or anything, that was more Slaughter/Blight's agenda; Lion believed that the Clans were a corrupt system that had to be destroyed in order for him to get over his friends' deaths. He didn't care about StarClan one way or another, really. And yes, I'm fond of how Silverstar killed him too; growth on her part, since she's finally willing to take things to that final level, but there were kinder motives behind it too. And yes, Arrowpaw (she wasn't my character...but my own names were horrible too, so). Rabbitpaw is mostly based on Arrowpaw (except for a few things, like her tail; Arrowpaw had no tail problems or anything), who was role-played by a old friend of mine.

Ninjakitty: Yep, Belladonna is what we call a dilute calico, a white cat dappled with cream and blue. I think they're extremely pretty, but rare, so that's why she was a kittypet. Rosedapple is silver, splashed with darker gray/silver.

QueenofthePens: Paragliding sounds fun, but I'm terrified of heights, ha (especially bridges. I HATE bridges). Northy starting his own Clan would be the coolest thing since the wheel (i.e. it would trump even sliced bread!). And of course Chilled will be spaced like that; all the cool kids do it! And, you know, it's kinda an eye-catcher, which has worked well for me so far. I sort of agree about Forest, though, him having a warrior name feels really...weird. But he's no Daisy or Millie or Purdy, so he's gotta have one.

JayEyedWolf: You're right, I should have included sharp objects. PLEASE don't hit me with objects of any kind. D:

Crowstorm: Mmm, I honestly kind of liked the italic/normal transition; it probably looked weird on the site, though, because the dashes didn't translate right, but I felt that it communicated the quick pace and confusion of battle...but maybe that's just me. Also, no, the place where I role-played (a guild on Neopets) doesn't exist anymore, I don't think, and all I have saved are my old characters.

Everthorn: Hey, buddy! To answer your questions, in my experience the chapters are about 5k, although some have been as low as 3k (and the prologue was 1k, but that doesn't count since prologues are never too long). The longest chapter (Reedrush's first one) was a whopping 19k! As for the pages, I can't give an estimate on that because while I write I often change the fonts and sizes to accommodate my mood/the character (for example, Northstar and Lion were both written in sort of old-fashioned fonts, like Century, whereas Nightshade's were written in a couple really messed up fonts that were all jagged and junk; most of Silverstar's were written in Century Gothic, etc.) so the page numbers varied wildly according to all that.

I think that's all the questions, but I have one more tidbit for you guys. As I just mentioned, the original role-play has all been long deleted BUT I have some of my old characters. They can be viewed here:

http://www.neopets.com/~_Mistyfoot__

Be warned, many of my names are HORRIBLE. Most of the characters from Shattered are there; some are missing or have been changed, but all that will be addressed at the end with the before-and-after thing. A lot of stuff in story is like inside jokes for me based on bad stuff that happened in role-play (for example, if you look on that page you'll see a cat named Deathstorm. Yes, for real. Deathstorm, if you think really hard, probably reminds you of Darkstorm/Death. The reason he's called Death for most of the story was a sort of reminder for me of who he used to be...a way to cringe at my poorly conceived names. Also, as I mentioned previously in the story, Death is MUCH more pathetic than Deathstorm...but they were both paedophobic and lazy, so it all works out.).

I think that's all for now; hopefully the epilogue will be up soon. See ya then!

IT'S THE EYE OF THE TIGER, IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT

Stupid title is stupid.

Anywho, the battle's over and we're gathering the wounded and dead. Yay for that. Yay for Forest being alive.

A lot of people felt bad for Blight (gasp!). So we'll get this out here right now. Yes, Blight was a horrible disgusting monster of a cat. But he did love Nightshade in the end, even if it was in the most twisted of ways. Because, honestly, I think that if you can convince someone that they love you as strongly as he did with Nightshade, you can't help but lose a bit of yourself to them too. I'm not saying that redeemed him in any way or made him any less completely despicable, but y'know. Fun stuff to think about.

AND now that Nightshade/Belladonna is over and done with, we can talk about brainwashing! Believe it or not, I did a bit of research, and the methods that Blight used were very similar to the methods that the Koreans used on American soldiers during the war. AND,some of those soldiers actually did switch side, becoming commies and all. HOWEVER, the effects of said brainwashing didn't always work (cases in point: Robin & Minnow) and when they did work, the condition was extremely unstable (hence Nightshade's craziness and confused questioning of whether or not she should follow Blight) and required constant affirming. That's why Blight had to spend so much time with her, and when she was with others the cracks began to show. And when she saw Buck - the physical representation of the memories she was repressing - everything started going bad. And then the Master died at Buck's claws, which caused the clash of both of her personalities. In the end, only one could remain dominant.

@Dawnshine: The question mark wasn't because /I/ didn't know whether to put Nightshade or Belladonna. It was because Nightshade/Belladonna herself didn't know who she was.

@artemis: Yes, Buck could tell pretty easily that Nightshade was preggers, but remember this is the first time he's seen her in a long time, so her giant belly would be obvious. Blight's been with her every day for moons, so the changes are too small for him to really see. Kinda like how you don't really notice your puppy is growing up, but when your friends come over they comment on how big he is.

@CrystalSakura: They're in the same universe as SnowClan (Fear/Brownfur, remember) but SnowClan won't exist for a long time in this timeline. Too bad Blight doesn't know about the other four Clans, though. xD

I think that's all for now, my brain's kind of in the toilet (AP tests this week and next week! Oh God!). We're close to the end, blah blah blah. c:

WE'RE SO CLOSE

I was gonna update this after I posted the latest chappy, but it was really late...and then I totally forgot until now. Worst blogger ever, I know, I know.

But it kind of just hit me that this next chapter will be the last full Silverstar chapter EVAR. Serious shiz time, man. We're down to the wire, after moons of stalllllling.I'm kind of terrified.

Also, WOW. I'm surprised that a lot of you actually said you're advertising/talking about my story. It's like being a celebrity when you don't know you are. It's cool, and I really appreciate you guys; it's thanks to you all that this story even exists. <3

@WolfOfBloodPack: Silver and Forest are mates. However, they haven't, ah "sealed the deal" as of yet. As mentioned briefly in a previous chapter, Silver didn't want to do any deal-sealing, because being with kits and losing them like Doveflight would be the worst thing ever, and she didn't want to go through that; plus, having a pregnant leader before or shortly after the battle would be hugely bad, since they need her in a leader-y frame of mind to pick up the pieces after the dust finally settles. They do lick and such, but there's just not enough time to show them interacting much, without bogging down the story.

@Ninjakitty: Dapplefern went to go tattle about PeakClan's plans only a few days before the battle; because of Silverstar, she knew when the battle would take place, so she just waited for TalonClan to get close so she could sneak off to talk to them without making her Clanmates suspicious. They were probably around the lake somewhere, and she went around Twolegplace instead of through it, so it didn't take too long...and no one likes her anyway, so they don't watch her very closely. xD

@Mlaia3: *sniffs* Do I smell a Troper here? c:

@Shimmertail: I'm not exactly sure where Scourge's timeline fits in with everything else; because it's only been a few moons after Brownfur fled MarshClan, we know that it is well before Snowkit was probably even born...but not too far, I guess. It could be well within the canon timeline for Scourge to be making BloodClan, and I guess it could be possible for Jaggedclaw to be a part of it in the past...maybe? He might be too old, I dunno. I epic fail with timelines, if you didn't already guess from TR and Snatched. xD

And, I guess my ANs will stay, because it seems you guys like them...I'll try to tone them down after epic battles and junk, tho, honest.

Also, I'll do the before-and-after thing (it's going to be so long, oh God D:) but after the story's over, cuz I'd be spoiling otherwise.

Thanks again to everyone advertising by word of mouth and all, I really appreciate it. I don't think I say this enough; I love you guys! <33

Oh Dear, 50

I'm sorry, I haven't updated this yet! I kinda forgot. DD:

Anyway, we've got time, sooo.

For the people who asked about Northstar/wind; he'll remain Northstar for at least the duration of the story. Only a few cats don't know he isn't really Northstar, and I honestly can't imagine him without the -star suffix. It's kind of part of who he is. C:

@JayEyedWolf: The sequel will only be a few moons ahead of time, so all the main characters (or...at least most of them, mwhaha) will be there. They won't be the focal point, but most of them will still be be-bopping around down.

@CrystalSakura: As Silverstar briefly thinks in this chapter, PeakClan isn't native to the forest; they used to live somewhere else, and presumably wherever they used to live a long time ago had more than one Clan.

@Shimmertail: Ha, for once my innuendo wasn't intentional! And I'm honored that someone would write a fic of my fic (seriously, that's dedication!).

@QueenofthePens: There are similarities, sure, but some things are obviously different. This enemy has been foreshadowed, instead of randomly appearing (seriously, we never heard of them before the book they appeared in) and, although it is similar in that Clans are joining forces, that doesn't necessarily mean they're exactly the same. For one thing, in this battle the other leaders will actually do something in battle, rather than letting Firestar/Silverstar do everything by themselves. And...there was more when I first read the question, but I can't remember them now. Sorry. xD

@Crowstorm: I'll just leave what happened that night to your imagination. It would be awkward for Rosey to be preggo again, ya, but I don't think anyone would really hold it against her now. Dapple is her main hat3r, and....

@Oakwhisper: I'm honored, and you're definitely not a psychopath. I think about it at school too...although that's planning, really. :p

@Frostfirecat: A little late, but happy birthday, darling! *tosses Northy plushie*

@JayEyedWolf (again?): I don't have a warrior name for Hawky just yet, but I will. And, as always, I can't spoil pairings. :p

@:Lynxeye: Thanks! I'm definitely not fond of Jayfeather, as you can see. As for Silverstar's family tree, most of it occurred a long time ago in rp, although there were a lot of changes I had to make for this draft.

I think that's all (it was a lot to reply to!) which is awesome. Hopefully I'll have the next chappy soon. In the meantime, here's the current layout:

Ch 51: Someone's POV (no way!)
Ch 52: Silverstar
Ch 53: Another mystery guest's POV
Epilogue

So ya, not long. xD

I'm Only Kinda Late....

Ya, so, didn't get time to update the blog before I left...and then unfortunately I didn't write anything because

a) Had to do some homework (and by some I mean 100+ AP US History terms)
b) I usually wait at least an hour before starting to write (only when in the car) because for some reason it helps me get my ideas together...and I kinda dozed off.
c) Something wiggity-wack was going on with the battery, so the first time I turned the computer on, it was already at 80%. Ten minutes later, it was at 59%. So...ya.

So those are my excuses for not giving you another chappy when I came home. Please buy them and don't eat me. :D

@Shimmertail: I'm really curious now....Why don't you already have an ff account? They're easy to make. As for my music, I've been listening to Pandora Radio lately (you can thank that beautiful invention for these updates, oh yes). You can see all of my songs that I've check-marked and stuff (the one I listen to most often is the Perfect one; it takes the title as the first song you pick as the title of the station, and I just typed in "Perfect", so don't think I named it that on purpose. I didn't know it was the name of the song, lawl. xD
Anywho, linky:
www.pandora.com/people/princessleopard1
Also, I've no idea what Toxin's warrior name was. Eheh. You can make up one for her, I don't care. xD

@QueenofthePens: Eh, maybe she'll die in the battle, I dunno. I don't think that's what's up with Dapplefern; she just deals really, really badly with rejection (shoulda given that one some thought there, Northstar) and when Lightstar gave her apprentice away, she felt like the entire Clan rejected her...and...we'll see. C:

Silverstar didn't tell Northy because it would seriously completely and totally rock his world. Because, not only is he then responsible for the death of his father, but the sister he never knew he had, too. And then his loyalties will be all squished, and...it would be messy. He needs to keep his head in the game right now, so he's ready for the battle, instead of worrying over past wrongs, and she knows that.

I think that's all for this round...maybe? I dunno, I'm sleepy, so. Stay tuned, and all that...love you guys. <3

Holy New Chapter, Batman!

Yep, me again. You prolly didn't want to see me again so soon...my bad. But 'tis an important chappy, so yay, right?

We're really close to the end, if that wasn't painfully obvious.

@Shimmertail: Maybe (for Dapplefern). Leopardpaw isn't currently connected to anyone at this stage of the planning process, but you would not believe how much crap I just make up on the spot. So who knows, really. xD The Scourge story is still untitled, bleh.

@Ninjakitty: Sandpelt is Hawk/Ice's daddy, and Dapplefern's his sister, so she's Ice's aunty. It shows. xD

I think that's all, since I had about 9 reviews this time. Hope you enjoyed this chappy, tho, it felt epic while I was writing it. Love Pandora's Radio Thingy.

Rabbitpaw's Shenanigans

Yay, another chappy, blah blah blah. :D

@CrystalSakura: I can't remember Firestar's ceremony, but I think Cinderpelt at least came with him to the Moonstone...and I know fo sho that Echosong was with Leafstar when she gained her nine lives in Firestar's Quest. I'm pretty sure that medicine cats are at least there during the ceremonies.

If you guys need a picture, I have a truly wacked-out family tree? Wanna see it? xD

@AutumnSunsets: The Kalan already existed before Cinderstream came with lil baby Reed. Ashstir's mother's mother already made it.

@Shimmertail: I'm sorry for the death of your One True Pairing...but me? Kill Forest? *whistles innocently* Also, it's funny that you mention Timberkit, because in original role-play one of her kits was named Timberkit (although in rp she wasn't mates with anyone called Forest and there wasn't a Timber).

Also, I would again like to point out that my updates are not very long inbetween. Most webcomics/fics only update once a week, and mine are usually earlier than that. If we do a little math, perhaps we'll see. There are 52 weeks in a year. Divide that by 12 months and you get about 4.3 weeks in a month. Shattered is ten months and eight days old. That's about 43.14 weeks. We currently have 48 chapters. So...yeah. I generally update more than just once a week, so I don't really know why it would seem like it's been a long time for you guys...? Sometimes it's a bit more than a week, I know, but life gets in the way, or writer's block sets in, which isn't really my fault. xD

Love you guys as much as ever, though. <3 Also, I'd like to encourage voting on the poll (it's still pretty close despite about 2/3 of you voting for Chilled, because there haven't been many total votes). Also, I'd like to go ahead and give you gives a sneak peek of Chilled, in case it wins. Here's one of our main characters:

As the lil blurb says, this is Leopardpaw, found as a rogue on the territory. Sootkit/paw is our main character; her brother Spiderkit/paw is sort of like our Northstar in terms of how many chapters he'll receive, since the POV is going to bounce between the two of them. Leopardpaw will not receive any POV chapters, so she's kind of like...Frostfeather or Ravenwing. Important, but we don't stare into her mind or anything.

I'm very fond of her design, honestly, but enough about aesthetics. The actual character of Leopardpaw is puzzling; she seems nice enough on the outside, but she's a schemer, and doesn't hold back even when sparring with her Clanmates. She's very antisocial, and has an odd habit of watching the Clan; definitely a suspicious character, especially since she cares to share so little of her past. Most of Spiderkit/paw's chapters will revolve around his suspicion of her.

I think the chapter order will be Sootpaw, Sootpaw, Spiderpaw, Sootpaw, Sootpaw, Spiderpaw, etc. Sootpaw's the main focus, but Spiderpaw lets us see what's going on with the home front.

This is probably all really confusing (but hopefully interesting) since most of you guys don't know the broad strokes of Chilled's plot. Sorry, but it would be too spoiler-y for Shattered right now. xD

Uh, anyway, hope you enjoyed this lil glance. Sorry about the size of the picture, it won't format right. If you click on it, it'll be big and you can read the blurb on the side. ^^

Until next time~

Nine lives, oh jesus

Finally completed Silverstreak's nine lives. Hope you guys enjoyed finally discovering her tangled family tree. (Seriously, I tried making one for AshClan, and it's like...impossible. Dear God.)

Queen Of The Pens, you can quote me if you like, I don't mind. xD

Autumn_Sunsets: Sweet! Someone finally asked if Blight's ever done this before, and why. How exciting! I promise those questions will be answered, I'm just not sure if it'll be in-story, or not. If I can't do it in-story, I'll answer it either here or in my final AN.

@Tears of a Black Wolf: I dunno if I like them or not, I don't generally pay attention to the artists of songs I like, ha.

@Bluefire Eternal: I'm the same way, I keep an eye on the books through wikis, cuz I can't stomach reading them anymore...I just like making sure that canon hasn't changed much, important things like how StarClan/the Dark Forest work, that sort of thing.

Rainshimmer, I've missed you tons! Glad you're back! Slaughter is totally a pedophile, but so are a lot of cats in the Warriors series (cough Ashfur and Brambleclaw, cough). And you asked about the 'whys' of Blight's stuff too, which makes me happy.

@Thewhispers: Thanks for pointing that out. Curse you, blind toms!

Everyone hates Dapplefern. I wonder why....xD She'll get her comeuppance eventually, methinks.

I suppose that's all for now. Thanks for the reviews, as always. <3

Chapters 44 and 45

Made it past the FFN glitch (obviously) and forgot to answer reviews last time. So.

Nightshade, bearing kits? Geez, that would be incredibly cruel. Do you really think I'm that mean? D:

I mean, I am that cruel to my charries, and theoretically it could be possible, I guess. But still.

@Crowstorm: As shown in this newest chapter, Minnow had no way of knowing if Nightshade was aware of the situation, or whose side she'd be on. She also didn't know what Blight was planning, so going along with it might not have helped her; the problem is she has no idea what happened to Nightshade, and whether or not Blight was trying the same thing with her.

@Autumn_Sunsets: Good point about Merla and Pyro! Unfortunately, being rogues they don't have much of a kithood, so these sort of adult ideas are important in their lives. Obviously they don't know about the moral and mental implications of taking a life, but they've experienced so much violence already (by way of Maggot's constant raids as well as the loss of their mother) that it seems like the only way they can respond.

@QueenofthePens: Yes, the brain-washing is extreme...but the scary part is, I based it in fact. Koreans tried this technique (almost exactly) on American soldiers during the Korean war. They actually managed to turn some soldiers onto their side as well, although like we see with Nightshade, the result was both destructive and fragile; keeping such a hold is very, very difficult. As Blight is finding out, what with Nightshade breaking Minnow out and all.

@Shimmertail: We'll see Toxin's alliances soon, don't you worry. Once upon a time, they were kind of in love (a squicky, twisted kind of love, ya), but now....

Hmm, I thought the cliffhanger was worse than you guys seem too...but I guess I haven't connected enough dots for you yet. It's all so clear to /me/, but...I've obviously got the privileged information here. ^^

@PricelessCatLady: I found the answer on the forums, and the person who posted it got it from Yahoo Answers. You're welcome. :)

@Shimmertail: Again, congrats on the kittens! And you're right, we'd really be in for it if Shimmerpaw was evil. She kind of was in role-play...she was a bit of a psychopath, really, since she didn't care about anyone but herself. xD

Chappies 43 y 42

Yay, Nightshade craziness is always good to her about, right?

Sorry, I keep forgetting to update this blog. Don't think I've forgotten about you, darlings. <3

Aaah, TLK II. I couldn't even tell you the last time I watched that; Scar's ebil mistress was cool, but the kinda crappy Romeo/Juliet bit was a lil much for me.

Crystal-Sakura, you asked why I kinda gave up after the first series. Well, I'll keep it simple: once the Clan sent out cats to go find a magical talking badger who sounded like Yoda, I was turned off. It only got worse when they introduced the Tribe (who is apparently so useless they have to have outsiders help them with all their problems; if they had the cougar hunting them all this time, you'd think they'd be strong just to survive; instead they can't handle a bunch of rogues and need the Clan cats) and then the whole FeatherxCrowxLeaf fiasco just really drove home how much the Erins hate their she-cat characters. She-cats always suffer way, way more than the toms, ESPECIALLY in relationships.

Queen of the Pens, you asked why Silverstreak was refusing to get her nine lives. She was not; she simply did not have time. It has to be during the night, but the first night she had to train with Northstar (if she'd not gone to their first training session together, the seeds of distrust would have been spread...or fertilized...or sprouted...something metaphory like that) and the next night she had to speak with Cane/Amber. There was no time in between, so she's going to do it the next night.

I think that's all, mff. I'm tired. xD

Chapter 41

Random quick update, yay.

Queen of the Pens, the only admirer that you listed that I can refute is Buck; he's having a steamy affair with Jag while Northy gets it on with Silver and Rose plots his death, remember? xD

That's a very interesting idea, Shimmertail, although as always my lips are sealed. Still, the things you guys think of are really cool. xD

Crystal Sakura, you have a point about Blackmoon's name. However, I'm pretty hardcore against anything /written/ after the first series (not including Firestar's Quest, as I felt it was a more back-to-basics story. I am personally very, very much against using Moon or Sun as a prefix or suffix. Both the moon and sun are heavenly bodies just like the stars; they basically control the cats' entire lives with their rotations. I kind of compare them to the Holy Trinity; no one ever names their character Starkit unless they want to be made fun of, just like no one names their child Jesus. And no one should name their kit Moonkit or Sunkit any more than they would name their kid God or the Holy Ghost (although that would be a pretty BA name).

Also, SkyClan's Destiny is kind of an embarrassment for the whole Warriors series; there was a Frecklewish, and that should really say it all. xD

Chapter 40

Yay, landmark 40th chappy~

For all those who asked, Chill is completely, definitely, and totally NOT Lion's real son. Lion knows this, in the back of his mind, but he can't directly think about it. It doesn't make sense, really; Chill is too old, and completely white versus Clover's ginger and white. Chill also has blue eyes, which neither Clover nor Lion had.

Snowfur, I will be the first to say that I hate this timeline. It's messy and uncoordinated even when I have the events organized, because in order to portray some events I have to skip around in time and it's even a little confusing for me sometimes, so I understand where you're coming from. I'll probably never do a story this complex because of it. xD

Whether or not the Clans are "good" or "bad" isn't Lion's priority. He knows Silverstreak isn't guilty of anything, but Fadedstar cost Lion his kits; in a way, Lion is doing the same by killing Silverstreak. He knows that individual cats may be good, but in his mind the Clans are a corrupt, evil system that he must bring down, no matter the cost, to ensure that he will never lose his family (which now consists entirely of Chill) again. It's kinda tragic, really. :3

Chill also knows that he isn't Lion's son. He's actually of apprenticing age, although he's very small for his size. Because of how old he is, he does remember his past, including his real mother. That's why he was alarmed about Lion mentioning his mother; he thought Lion meant his biological mother, that he'd figured out who Chill really was.

Lion hasn't killed any of his followers yet...but any cat still in TalonClan is a coward or deserter from the original Clans. Some cats joined to protect their kin, but most of those have probably fled, like Brightfire and Rainsplash. The original FrozenClan cats make up most of TalonClan, but they want to kill the BirchClan cats and take their revenge on Northstar anyway, so everything works out for them.

We'll see about who Blight sides with, but remember that at heart Blight is a coward out for his own self first; he'll side with whoever has the power.

Carmelo is currently united with Toxin; they might or might not have a physical relationship, although an emotional one might also be possible. Carmelo isn't a very slimy, shifty cat, although he is charismatic; he'll only turn on Lion if Lion shows signs of betraying him, or if his increasing psycho-ness becomes truly evident. We might find out how he and Toxin met, but I'm not sure yet.

That's a very interesting idea, Crystal-Sakura, but I of course can't say anything about that. Chill will probably and obviously play a part in the sequel, but...well...we'll see. xD

Snowstar of RiverClan, I'm afraid I don't know who Featherthorn is...and the only defining features of Carmelo (physically) would be his golden fur and eyes, but you said the eyes are different, so I'm not exactly sure how their pelt color makes them extremely similar...?

And you're welcome (since I'm sure you'll thank me, because you lovely people usually do) for the quick update!

Chappy 39

Yay, Lion's insanity. Honestly, I felt that this chapter was really, really bad because I was having CRIPPLING blockage, and everything I tried with him just felt awful. Lion is one hard nut to crack, lemme tell ya. D:

For those still wondering about what the heck Belladonna looks like, you can try googling "blue calico" or "dilute calico". A blue calico is a cat that has blue patches instead of black, and cream instead of ginger, like a normal calico cat. I think they're very pretty myself, and she's the first character I've had with that coloring (it doesn't look very good on pictures, but if you see one IRL it is sooo pretty <3). Too bad she's such a head case, eh?

And, about Brightflash...no. *awkward cough* Originally she was Lightflash, but it was awkward because of Lightstar, so I changed it to something almost the same, but...there's Brightfire. Eheh. I'm an idiot sometimes, I know. She'll need a name change, but it's okay. She's based off a character named Whitelight (rhymes D:) who had amnesia, although I never had the opportunity to delve into her past.

*tosses Shimmertail a Northy plushie with Super-Sleeping Action* It would be sweet if you named them after my characters, but please don't name any of them Belladonna. She'd be doomed from the start. xD

Some of your predictions were also very interesting. It's a given that Lion will attack Silverstreak (no one else is taking his revenge from him), but why do you think that Eaglestrike and Stonestar will die? It's possible that Eaglestrike might (not saying anything more about that, mhm) but Stonestar has nine shiny-and-spiffy new lives. Do you think Lion or TalonClan could take them all away?

CrystalSakura, you asked about Mousepaw's stutter. I just threw it in there when I first made him (because...I can?) but the reason he switches words is actually something I learned from observing my teacher (he has a very bad stutter). When he gets to a word that he's stuck at and knows he can't get past, he'll switch to another word or phrase that is easier for him. Like Porky Pig (no offense to any stuttering readers).

You also asked about /why/ Dapplefern is crazy (most people just guessed who she was and left it at that). Dapplefern isn't crazy, exactly, but she has an enormous ego because of her snazzy looks. She's always been able to get what she wanted, but Northstar was not at all interested (and a little creeped out, because he's not exactly experienced in these sorts of matters) and rejected her. She's acting kind of like an angry cheerleader, but since this is a life-or-death kinda world, things are a liiittle more serious.

Now, one final issue that I'd like to address. Someone named "Nightfrost" left a review that kind of irked me. I'd like to address her concerns, if I may.

Firstly, I had never said that cats have to look identical in order to be related...but they do have to share their traits with their parents. Maybe you haven't gotten to genetics in middle school yet, but kits inherit their traits from their parents. It wouldn't make sense for them to look wildly different, although many different-looking kits can appear in a litter depending on how many fathers there were. Secondly, I never said that all white cats with blue eyes were deaf. In real life, roughly 70% of them are, but not all. Whitestorm didn't have white fur and blue eyes; his eyes were yellow, so he's not exactly the best example there. Also, if you remember, both Chill and Blizzardkit are white with blue eyes...so not even all of my own characters are deaf. Also, I would appreciate if you'd work a bit on your grammar and spelling before critiquing another writer. ^^;

Please understand that I definitely appreciate any and all critique, so long as it actually...makes sense. Y'know what I mean. xD

Anyway, our beautiful 40th chappy should be here soon. C:

PMD: Sapphire

So, since I'm writing a PMD fic, I figured they deserve their own question-answering posts. Crystal-Sakura asked all the questions, so:

* It isn't that Dewdum loves dew (although they do), it's that a long time ago that's what their town was known for, because it was so pretty. It became a tradition to have the dew on the roofs all day, and they had to preserve that after the weather grew warmer, so it falls to some fabulous Ice Pokemon to keep it going.

*For the squiggly e, go to Insert -> Symbols -> More Symbols and just look for it. To get it in every word I type "Pokemon" while I'm writing, then go back to Ctrl+F to find and replace "Pokemon" with Pokémon.

*Thanks for the heads up, I need to change it eventually.

*Sapphire knows about birds/bugs the same way we know about dinosaurs and smilodons. Around Ash Ketchum's time (in the first few episodes of the anime, anyway) normal animals existed. This is way in the future (somewhere in the ball park of 2000 years) but humans would still remember them existing, even if they all went extinct. They probably have cute little old nature shows and everything.

*Igglybuff is the pre-evolved form of Jigglypuff. You're thinking of Wigglytuff (confusing, ain't it?)

*Most teams want to be legend teams, since they still get to do rescue/exploration team stuff with the bonus of chatting with Legendary. It's pretty much everyone's ambition.

V-Day, Hooray

Yay, somewhat fluffy chapter. Good times. :3

Few small answers

*giggles* I kind of half-way named Cane/Amber after Cain/Abel. It just sort of fell into place, there was no real beginning for the idea of them.

Natasha and Mitch aren't exactly mates; they're old friends, but they kind of have romantic feelings for each other. When Natasha found Red/Bluekit, she was hoping the two of them could raise them together, but she unfortunately couldn't produce any milk.

Crystal-Sakura, don't worry! Your reviews are crystal-clear (*giggle*, I'm so lame) to me, and I do the same thing when writing AN's (or answering these questions D:). And the sequel might or might not include Chill/be related. We'll see. @.@

Lynxeye: Why did Sandpelt retreat?

Pretty much all of the answers that you listed, actually. PeakClan was outmatched (although not outnumbered) and from the very beginning the raid was pretty much doomed. He was also worried about her words, since he was the deputy and could barely land a blow on her; he knew his warriors wouldn't fair much better. And, he needed some time to regroup and rethink their battle plan. Retreating was really all he could do, since PeakClan was losing.

Crystal-Sakura also mentioned something about the rogue-band names, which I meant to justify but forgot to. So:

The rogue band actually comes from original role-play (really far back). It was a lot of fun, although the events were quite different (Blight really did get into the band, but he had Toxin with him, and she actually was pregnant; they didn't kill anyone, although they tried it). Mostly their names were just sort of fun and random when I first created them, and I wanted to preserve a bit of the old spirit, since this new story is drastically different from the silliness of my old rps. Phoenix and Griffin were both originally kittypets, and kept their names; same for Swansong and Primrose. Swansong and Primrose actually adopted Merla and Pyro; the two little kits didn't remember anything but their names. Scorpion and Shredder come from a dear rp-friend of mine with cats of the same names (one of them became Swansong's mate originally, the other mated with Phoenix, but I always got them mixed up and I can't remember which was which now).

Chapter 37 uppp

Lawl, what I loved about the reviews for these chapters was that for Chapter 36 you were all "Death's phobia is so funny :D" but by Chapter 37 you were all "...D:". Bwahahaha.

Yes, the psycho kitty was obviously Dapplefern. Just making sure you guys remembered the good ol' days. :p

Jeremy Irons has one of the coolest voices ever, so if some of you imagine Northstar talking like that, more power to you.

For those who mentioned Northy being good, keep in mind that this is all benefiting him. Sure, Stonestar doesn't trust him now, but if he can prove himself in battle then he hopes that will change, and he's hoping that Silverstreak will die during/after the battle. Once the battle's over, if everyone is still alive he'll be focused on taking them down again. Yay.

Queen of the Pens, your dot points have utterly convinced me. Rosedapple must secretly be the killer; so secretly that I didn't even know! Truly, your brilliance astonishes me. Would I be wrong to assume that you already knew about the (rather passionate) affair that Buck and Jag are having behind closed doors? :)

Shimmertail, I will neither confirm nor deny your theory. But, a few things you might have to reconsider:

a) Reedrush is not Ashstir's biological daughter. He mentions that his mate brought Reedrush with her, and that although Ashstir raised her as his own, she is not his daughter.

b) When did Cinderstream's sister leave the Clan? If Reedrush was not Ashstir's daughter and Cinderstream's sister lived in BirchClan, that means the father would be a BirchClan tom. Wouldn't Silverstreak have mentioned by now a queen that ran off with one of her own kits? That would be big news, even if it happened a long time ago. Silverstreak would remember that, maybe even recognize Reedrush, depending on how old she was when her mother left the Clan.

I think those were all of the answerable bits I really had during these reviews...but, these reviews were all very lovely and juicy, and I thank you all for that! You guys are the reason Shattered exists, just as much as I am. <3

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. :)

Chapter 34

So, 'twould appear that another chappy is up. So. :3

It appears more NorthxSilver fans have joined the ranks. *giggles* Once again, I'll admit I considered it~ But Northy is a bit older than she is (as someone mentioned, hurrhurr) although not by a whole lot considering the various ages of mates in the Warriors series; he's prolly somewhere about a year older than Silverstreak, although I'd have to do the math using secret information to know fo' sho'. He still calls himself Northstar, by the way; he hasn't changed /that/ much (and for all Stonestar knows, he was still a leader at some point).

Broken Memories: If Blight (DIE) and Silverstreak's groups ever meet up, would Nightshade even recognize Buck as a friend instead of an enemy?

Who knows? It depends on just how great the brain-washing is, and how much Nightshade really remembers about her past; how much she's repressed. Who knows? She might just snap under the strain and kill Buck.

*cough*

*giggles* Lynxeye, don't be scared. I'm glad I can make you feel that way; writing is all I do, it's nice that I'm good at it. A little. xD

Frostfirecat, that's an excellent idea. I'll think about that~

Chapter 34, dawgs

Aight, 'nother chapter's up and all. Mopey Silverstreak fun times.

Now, a whole whole bunch of you guys asked about how Northy felt about Silver. So I'll go ahead and address this now (and address smaller questions that are about the same thing in a bit, this is just broad-spectrum info).

It seems like most of you guys think Northy feels bad for Silver. This is exactly not the case! He feels bad because he realizes that if they destroy Silverstreak, the odds of them being able to beat Lion are slim to none. He's worried about the cats that he cares about; he knows Rabbitpaw and Rosedapple will both fight against Lion with all they have, but it won't be enough. He knows PeakClan will be killing innocent cats, which will hurt their development as a true Clan, especially in StarClan's eyes. By attacking Silverstreak's group, he's pretty sure Stonestar is sealing their doom. He also knows that it is really the only thing that Stonestar can do at this time. It's lose-lose for PeakClan, and this is why he feels bad; Northstar is all about control, and now he cannot control anything.

As for Stonestar, a lot of you guys seem to think he's a baddie now. Really, the whole point of PeakClan is to illustrate one thing: the line between good and bad is slim. We know Blackmoon is a cat of excellent character and merit, and yet he betrayed Silverstreak...but he did so in an attempt to ensure the survival of his Clan, to protect his Clanmates and restore PeakClan to their former StarClan-loving glory. Stonestar is making the same choice; he knows his control over PeakClan is weak. They've been under weakened leadership for too long. Stonestar knows the only way to make PeakClan powerful is to unite them, and they have a common enemy in Silverstreak. Stonestar believes it's their only choice, and unless something happens for PeakClan to see Silverstreak as an ally (while still following Stonestar's ruke) he has to go through with it, even though he knows it's wrong and hates himself for doing it.

Now, specific questions:

Bluefire Eternal: ANOTHER green-eyed silver cat 0_o? You just want to mess with our minds, don't you? There's no possible way Silverstreak, Toxin, Shimmer, Reedrush, AND Minnow can all be related somehow... Or can they?

BWAHAHAHA.

Actually, Minnow's a role-play character of mine, fairly recent. She was perfect for the role, and it's always easy to use characters you know, so I stuck her in. She's not important in the Toxin-family-web.

Queen of the Pens: I know Northstar likes Rosedapple. But is he in love with Silverstreak? Weird, I know, but I think it's possible...and I actually like the pairing.

You never fail to impress/amaze me with the things you think of! And it's funny, because I actually considered this in original role-play (even though they were both spoken for at the time, it still seemed so delicious it was worth a thought) but I decided against this. In this story, they don't even have the grudging respect for each other that they did in role-play; it's just hatred. Now, it would be incredibly interesting for the two of them to overcome that and build a relationship, but I don't believe a romantic relationship between the two of them is in the future. Neat thought, though~

Chapters 31 y 32

"y" is "and" in Spanish. xD

Shimmertail: Shimmer is Toxin's niece, isn't she?

Toxin is one and a half years old, Shimmer is almost six moons. It'd be possible, assuming that Toxin's sister grew up and had kits at a relatively young age. Whether or not that's right...we'll see. ;)

Crowstorm: But why didn't Northstar ir Silverstreak say Rabbitpaw's or Shimmer's names?

Originally I wrote it because of necessity, but after you asked I really went and thought about it...and things might have actually turned out worse if they'd been using names! If Silverstreak had asked about "Shimmer", Northstar would have been angry. He's heard of two Shimmers (he knows Silverstreak said her name was Shimmer once, and the real Shimmer said her name was Shimmer) so for all he knows, "Shimmer" is just a name the rogues are told to use when they're in trouble. He'd think she was mocking him, kind of calling Rabbitpaw a rogue. If Northstar had asked where Rabbitpaw was, Silverstreak would have been confused; this confusion would have led to her being distracted and trying to reason with Northstar, but he hated her so much it wouldn't have mattered. Silverstreak wouldn't have wanted to fight, and would have probably been killed before they discovered Toxin. And, anyway they both say "she" or "her" because they both assume the other knows who they're talking about.

Lynxeye: So why does she still follow his orders? Does she hope to become next leader of TalonClan? Or does she just haven't any other perspectives?

Toxin is a twisted case. She truly does know her father is a monster, and she sort of hates him for that. But, at the same time, her mother abandoned her and left her to Slaughter to raise, allowing Slaughter to effectively shape her in a much more powerful way than Blight did to Nightshade. Slaughter has an amazing amount of control over Toxin. Being rational, she knows his actions are wrong, but she still cares about him on an emotional level. Like any daughter, she wants to make her father proud; she even kills Snake primarily so she'll get all the glory.

Frostfirecat: Will their be a chapter in Forest's point of view now?

Maybe! It'd be interesting to write from his perspective, but I haven't decided (also, have you read your mail lately? I'd like to know what your story idea is first before giving my blessing ^^;).

Lynxeye: Could Toxin and Reedrush possibly be littermates? They are vagualy the same age, aren't they? What does Silverstreak have to do with them? There was a point in the Snake chapter, when he thought about Toxin's mother where I thought she might have come to FrosClan as a kit from another Clan- BirchClan? But I still don't see where the link to Silverstreak can be. She's not old enough to be the littermate of Toxin's mother, is she?

Not much I can say here, but it's certainly an interesting theory! You're correct with Toxin and Reedrush being the same age. I can't say much about what Silverstreak has to do with either of them (*whistles*) but I can tell you that Toxin's mother did come from one of the forest Clans. To clarify with ages: Toxin and Reedrush were somewhere around one year and a half at the beginning of this story; Silverstreak was two and a half years old at the beginning. So it's possible, but Toxin's mother would have had to only have been a year or so old when she kitted.

Interesting questions, guys, I can see your minds working. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun to watch you squirm, but, well...have faith! All will be explained/revealed eventually. <3

Chapter 31 (oh mai!)

Yay, action-packed chappy. Everyone wins, except you guys because that cliff-hanger was incredibly cruel. I'm kinda sorry. :D

Question time!

Flamesong: By the way, is Forest's leg healed? Or did he just stand by while everyone jumped from the trees?

Forest's leg isn't completely healed, but it's been a little over a moon now since his injury; he's regained a lot of use of his leg, but it isn't perfect. Forest didn't jump down from the trees, but he did serve as one of the pairs of blinking eyes that freaked out the PeakClan cats; the way Forest planned it, they acted as a sort of kitty conveyer belt, going up the tree, leaping down, staring at PeakClan while moving down to make room for the next cat and to keep PeakClan guessing; when they were the last cat they would jump into the tree again.

Lynxeye: But where was Northstar in this chapter? He would surely have been against this meeting, wouldn't he? After all, Stonestar could have come to an agreement and even become friends with Eaglesstrike, which surely would damage his reputation in PeakClan, after he spoke that badly about them. Was he hunting? Or was he just sure Stonestar would trust his word over anything Eaglestrike might say and didn't see any reason to interfere?

Good question! Northstar was there (we didn't see him, he was hanging out in the nursery with Rosedapple like he tends to do) but he preferred not to say anything. He knows Stonestar is the mellow type, even the type that might talk to the rogues. However, once again, the best story Eaglestrike could give would be basically the same as Northstar's, only with Northstar in the wrong. Logically Stonestar would conclude that the rogues had planned their stories together and were lying to get revenge on Northstar by having the Clan turn on him. Northstar also knows how honest Eaglestrike is; he doubts Eaglestrike would try anything fishy, to trick Stonestar into believing him/succeeding in his goals. As we know, he was wrong. AND, Northstar knew that tensions would only build between the two groups, and at this time he thinks Silverstreak's group is very small and weak; war is EXACTLY what Northstar wants. He'd like nothing better than to stain his claws with BirchClan blood.

No Queen of the Pens questions to report (I am both shocked and disappointed) so there we go. Sit tight for the next chappy, I'll write as quickly as my poor baby fingers can~

Chappy 30~

Wow, 30 chapters! That's some sort of milestone, or something. I dunno. xD

Questions, yay, stuff. :p

Queen of Pens: But would there be so many cats without owners in the city? Wouldn't they be caught and taken to a pound, or something like that? If it was a small city, then it wouldn't have so many cats, although nothing would be done to control them. But if it were a large and prosperous city, say, somewhere like Sydney, there would be people trying to control the stray animal population.

It all depends on where you live! I live in a very (very very) small town. We have Animal Control, but they really don't do anything, and we only have one shelter here; it's almost always full. Because of this, animals here are not rounded up very often; it's just too much work, and they breed like crazy. I go to a woman to have my hair cut, and she used to have a log-cabin style place in the middle of town. Living underneath her house were FOURTEEN black cats! (I counted them while they were chilling outside while waiting for my brother's hair to be finished). And that's not counting the ones I could hear moving around underneath her house! And that's just one place. There are probably hundreds of strays in my town, no one really cleans them up.

That being said, this Twolegplace is medium-sized. They probably have AC and two or three shelters, but cats have a way of keeping hidden most of the time. They burrow under buildings, or live in abandoned lots like Cane and Amber. If people don't go into those abandoned lots, who is going to report them to AC? Competition is obviously going to be fierce, but considering most cat litters are anywhere from ten to four kittens (my friend's cat had a litter of a whopping fourteen, poor girl) the number of living cats will be high.

Queen of Pens: Also, why did the guards let Reedrush in? They had no idea what she were going to do. For all they knew, she could be one of Cane's minions who had disguised her scent. She might have had an army behind them, ready to take advantage of the less guards. Reedrush refused to tell the guards what her business with Amber was; she might have even killed Amber when she had the chance. Don't you think that that level of trust with strangers would spell Amber's doom?

Firstly, Reedrush could never be Cane's minions. Cane is a firm believer in tom supremacy (as Amber is the opposite). He'd never trust a she-cat with an important mission, like invading Amber's home. Secondly, if there was an army, why would Reedrush have Jag at her side? If she was really trying to be sneaky, surely Jag would be hiding with the others, not right there flashing his tom-ness in their faces? Thirdly, both Amber and Cane are extremely arrogant, and actually quite trusting of cats of their gender. They've earned reputations for taking cats in without many questions, but they are also known for being incredibly brutal if that trust is betrayed. Not very many cats want to tangle with them. And then, both Amber and Cane are very assured of their own personal power, and think themselves above the other's tricks. Fourthly, Amber was not quite alone; Flicka was waiting just outside, and as she's Amber's trusted right paw, if there was even the slightest hint of a struggle, Flicka would be in the room immediately ripping the threat to shreds. And, finally, Amber was curious. Any cat working with Cane would know that a tom strolling into the heart of Amber's territory was a death sentence. And because toms and she-cats are so segregated in Amber/Cane's groups, seeing a she-cat and a tom together was a very strange thing. Amber was wondering how this could be so; obviously they were not her agents, nor were they agents of Cane, so who did they belong to? She knew the only way to pry an answer from them was to talk to them face-to-face, and she did not believe herself to be in any real danger. Despite her soft looks, Amber is a very fierce and skilled fighter; she would not be on top if she wasn't.

Lynxeye: How does he (Brightfire) get along with Death, then?

Remember, Brightfire and Frostfeather never had a true relationship; Frostfeather's not the type for lasting things, and she had a bit of a reputation. Brightfire knew that, but he let himself be weak for a night, and they had their little fling. Things are more complex now that he's a father, and it'll be awkward, but he harbors no resentment towards Death for his advances. Now, he might be angry with Death for his lack of any gentlemanly qualities....

Shimmertail: I was also wondering: what happened to Toxin?

You remember her? I'm surprised! She'll have her moment, just you wait. She's a smart one. ;)

Chapter 29

Yay, another chapter! Sorry this one took so long, loves; it was supposed to be a Christmas present, but things got rather out of hand, ya? Call it a New Year's present. :D

Now, questions. Almost everyone asked the same thing: What the Dark Forest was Blackmoon thinking?

This one I can answer, and it is precisely why the Blackmoon chapter came before it; Blackmoon's having a crisis of faith. He's always known being a medicine cat would cost him Rosedapple; that's why he let Graywing be medicine cat. However, StarClan played a cruel trick upon him by taking Graywing and making him the medicine cat. He just had a chat with Stonestar about improving the Clan; if word gets out that he allowed Silverstreak to escape, Stonestar would no longer trust him and the chance to improve PeakClan would be gone. Blackmoon feels he needs to make up for that, to prove his loyalty, and he does so by capturing Silverstreak. He doesn't believe she'll be hurt, only held while they figure out how to get rid of the rogues.

Basically, he had a choice between StarClan and PeakClan, and he's really not feeling too friendly towards StarClan. StarClan asks so much of PeakClan, without paying attention to them; StarClan's busy with the original four Clans (right about now, Bluestar is probably still in her mother's belly) as well as all the trouble with FrozenClan and the others. PeakClan has been neglected by StarClan. Not only that, but he now knows that Lightstar was never even given nine lives; StarClan wouldn't even recognize him as leader. And now they're expecting PeakClan to sit idly by while newcomers seize their territory; StarClan is favoring one Clan over another. Blackmoon cannot let that stand, not while PeakClan is in danger. A string of corrupt medicine cats led PeakClan to where they are now, while StarClan concentrated on tougher things. Blackmoon feels it is his place now as the newest medicine cat to change that, to bring PeakClan to where they should be. When he feels PeakClan has returned to their traditional routes, then he will accept StarClan's judgment. But until then, he feels he must do what is best for his Clan, instead of being StarClan's plaything.

Hope that helps you guys; Blackmoon is honestly a sweetie at heart, and a good cat. I'd hate for him to get a lot of hatred when his intentions were good. Of course, so were Northstar's (kind of) but....xD

Queen of the Pens offered an opinion as well:

I think Stonestar should have given Silverstreak a chance to speak and defend herself. After all, I thought he was less comfortable with Northstar than Lightstar had been.

Now, that does make sense; it's true that Lightstar was fonder of Northstar than Stonestar is. But, at the same time, Stonestar respects Northstar. First, he saved Rosedapple's life; then later he saved Rabbitpaw's (even though it was kind of his fault). Northstar stayed with Rabbitpaw while she was healing, and now she is his apprentice; Stonestar respects that and is closer to Northstar because he is so close to his daughter.

Also, it wouldn't make a difference if Stonestar had allowed Silverstreak to speak; she would basically say what Northstar said, since Northstar used his own story to accuse Silverstreak. Because Silverstreak is the intruder, the enemy, if she repeats the same story as Northstar but accuses him, the Clan will hate her more than they already did. Even Stonestar would be more likely to believe Northstar than some random rogue.

Lynxeye:
Oh, and I wanted to ask how long your story will be. It's pretty long already, but I can't really see the end now, with so many characters and plots that still have to be linked.

Honestly, I'm not sure; this story is much longer than I thought it would be already. We're about half-way through the timeline (although I intend to skip through some of the middle stuff) we've got a lot of major events to cover still. It's amazing to me that this story's been going on for at least six months...hopefully it won't be six more. xD

Shimmertail:
I was wondering if you would ever consider doing a sequel to Snatched about Lume and Lightpaw re-forming Fear's group. Would you ever consider doing one?

Now this is an interesting question, because I've been considering so meting like it (probably not what you think). Basically, my plans for the next story are either a sequel to Shattered, or a Scourge story. I'll eventually post a poll for you guys to vote on the two ideas (after Shattered is over). But I can unveil the Scourge story now:

Basically, Scourge is reborn (like TR, but...not) although it has nothing to do with the will of StarClan. He's not born into a Clan, but to his own mate (he's his own son, basically) at the exact moment of his death. With Scourge dead, a power struggle takes place, and his mother is forced to flee, taking her kits with her in hopes that they'll survive. Baby!Scourge must attempt to survive, and hopefully retake his father's empire, while trying to learn about the strange memories that afflict him.

The story will be a bit odd; Baby!Scourge will basically follow his old life (the storyline of Rise of Scourge, the manga) only with twists on each major point and some of my own invention. Along the way he'll run into Lune and Angel, and we'll see how they're doing...they'll be very important.

It sounds a bit strange (putting ideas into writing is so hard D:) but, y'know. Anyway, short and sweet: If I write the Scourge story, we'll indeedly see Lune and Angel.

Numbuh 28

Aight, here we go like usual!

Now, there were several good questions, but Queen of Pens was one of the best; normally I don't wonder why a character does/does not do something, just that they do/n't. She asked why Northstar didn't just kill Blackmoon. I thought about it a bit, and realized that killing him would be an awful blunder. I'll post her question/reasoning, and walk ya through it~

Queen Of The Pens: I don't understand why Northstar doesn't go ahead and kill Blackmoon. After all, Blackmoon knows all his secrets and Northstar is already very twisted - he's killed his father and quite a few others. Is it because he actually, genuinely cares for Rosedapple, or is there some other reason behind him not killing Blackmoon? Northstar just doesn't seem like a character who would care for other cats.

Let's go through this step by step, eh? In amazing bullet form!

*Firstly, Blackmoon does NOT know Northstar's secrets. He basically knows that Silverstreak has some history with Northstar, and also that Forest was almost killed by him. Neither of those are really cause for concern, since PeakClan has always been brutal when handling rogues; PeakClan would probably applaud him for it. That isn't a whole lot to hurt Northy's rep; in fact, he uses it to his advantage in Chappy 28, as we see.

*Northstar has only very rarely killed with his own paws. Don't get me wrong, he's an incredibly brutal fighter when it comes right down to it, but he has a bit of finesse. He never took a single life from his father himself, and he always manipulated others into doing distasteful things; he even made other cats kill the medicine cats of the forest Clans! Why would he kill Blackmoon himself?
*He does care for Rosedapple. They're close, especially since he sort of equates her situation with his own mother. She's grown on him, like Rabbitpaw; why else would he make her promise not to end her own life? Why else would he warn Blackmoon to keep away from her?

*Blackmoon doesn't suspect Northstar of killing Lightstar, either, because of what he says to Silverstreak in this chapter; Northy killing Light would make no sense, from an ambitious stand point, because he'd just have a new leader with nine shiny lives to defeat in order to climb his way up the totem pole.

*It would be an incredibly bad idea to kill the only cat that can heal anyone in your Clan (he has no apprentice, remember!) especially with your arch-enemy and her group of rogues lurking around. Remember, he has no idea how many of them there are, or how strong; he has to assume that at least Ravenwing and Frostfeather are with her, and Eaglestrike, plus perhaps Brownfur and Silverstar, since they're also missing. And he knows how persuasive she can be, so he has to assume she has a large group of rogues aspiring to be warriors with her, probably being trained in butt-kicking. As such, Blackmoon is the only cat who could tend to anyone if anyone was hurt, or if a sickness decided to rear its ugly head -- remember, it's during leaf-bare.

*He knows Blackmoon's secrets are a little juicer than his own; he could turn Blackie against Rosedapple completely if he chose. Blackmoon won't risk that.

Hope that cleared some stuff up for you; enjoy your reviews like always, Queen. :)

The other main question is from another loverly reviewer, Lynxeye.

Lynxeye: I wondered why Lighstar didn't appear to give Stonestar one of his lives. Is it because he didn't want to tell him how he died? Or is he ashamed?

A little of both, really. Lightstar popped straight into StarClan, because he was honestly a good cat, even though he should have never been leader. Once in StarClan, though, StarClan had all the time in the world to show him all of his mistakes, everything he did wrong (Graywing, going to pieces after her death, Rosedapple, etc.). So he's filled with shame, from all he did wrong. (Fun fact: His warrior name was Lightheart, but not in a "beacon of gloriousness" kinda way, more in a "everything's a joke :D" kinda way, although he was a very good warrior). That and he was ashamed of how much he completely went crazy and offed himself, meant that he couldn't face Stonestar at that moment. He might talk to him later, but Lightstar has to come to terms with his own faults and accept them before he could bear facing any of his Clanmates.

C-c-c-chaaaapter 27!

Yo! Chapter 27's up and beautiful!

Sadly because I didn't get as many reviews this chapter (loved yours again, lynxeye; I'm really grateful you take the time to go through it again to get everything :)), there aren't many questions. Lynxeye was wondering about Sandpelt, so I'll just gab a bit about him.

Firstly, you're right, we haven't seen Sandpelt, which is precisely the point. You had it right when you said Stoneheart was sensible; he's smart, strong, and loyal to the warrior code; a real pillar, you could say. And because of that, he picked a cat who is equally loyal. Let's face it, Stone didn't have a lot of options; Dapplefern's yucky, Fawncloud's too soft, Foxclaw's a crab and hard-headed, and most of the others are on their first apprentice right now. Sandpelt has already mentored an apprentice; not only that, he's really quite smart, and is honestly a good cat. He keeps his head down, never causes any real ripples of unrest in the Clan, and he's good at heart. He makes for a reliable deputy, but he's a little out of place in a leadership position, so he'll listen closely to Stoneheart. After Lightstar's abrupt demise and the troubles he left behind, the last thing Stoneheart needs is a deputy who will contradict him; Sandpelt won't. Sandpelt doesn't know much about leading, so he'll follow Stoneheart's own lead; only if Stoneheart is way out of line will Sandpelt attempt to check him, and Stoneheart /does/ recognize that he might go overboard attempting to straighten the Clan out. So really, Sandpelt is an excellent choice.

And there you have it! That's about all for this chappy, I guess...except one thing I noticed. The first few Peaky chappies, everyone called the rocky outcropping "the Pillar". Now it's transformed into "the Peak". Weird. @.@

Tripe Chappy Update~

It's been awhile since I updated this, so here we go! Questions & Answers for Chapters 23, 24, & 25!

Rainshimmer: Will Tremor's group appear again? Will they join Silver & Co.? What's Maggot gonna do? Is Nightshade ever gonna get some sense whacked back into her? She's not gonna die soon, is she?

Firstly, I think we'll see Tremor's group again; they can't let three murders just slide, right? As for whether or not they'll join Silver, I can't say (I might or might not have not even decided yet xD). Maggot will most likely ally with Slaughter rather than be taken over forcefully; by being an ally, he'll know more about Slaughter's plans and goals. As for Nightshade, I guess we'll see. :3

Lynxeye: Are those bosses Eaglestrike mentioned the same kind as they were in Snatched? Or is it even the same city?

They are the same "kind" of bosses; I'm sure that every city has a few boss cats that keep tabs on everything. Some of them are as strong as, say, Scourge or Ruin; some of them are weaker and thus there are more. This is not, however, the same city as the one Snow & Co. went to.

Insane: Blizzardkit's name changed, so why didn't Buck's or Jag's or Shimmer's?

Blizzardkit is too young to really even know what his name means; he won't even remember being 'Blitz'. He'll be raised as a warrior would, with a warrior name. Shimmer, Jag, Buck, and anyone else who joins, however, are raised in a completely different manner. Their old names are a part of them; until they're willing to let that part go, they cannot be re-named. The older cats have to learn the warrior code and adapt to being in a Clan before they earn their warrior names. Shimmer is an interesting case; she's too old to forget her old life, but she's willing to adapt to a new one. Silverstreak is simply going to wait until she becomes an apprentice to rename her, since it's less than a moon away anyway.

Also, I'd like to thank lynxeye especially for her amazing review, but I want to thank the rest of you guys as well! They really make me feel loved and I think they help me improve too. <3

Chappy 23

Alright, chapter 23 is here! Another Nightshade chappy for those who were wondering what she's been up to.

And, of course, questions!

ValroggTheInvincable: And Northstar, do you think if Lion knew about him that they would team up, like, TalonClan and PeakClan vs BirchClan?
As epic as that would be, no. Remember, Northstar is selfish; he wants everything to himself. If he has a choice, he would obviously rather have TalonClan than weak old PeakClan. Lion wouldn't align with anyone if he didn't have to, and he would hear about Northstar from the others; he would never join forces with someone so power-hungry and dangerous, especially since BirchClan is so tiny right now.


Queen Of The Pens: What I don't get is why PeakClan allowed Northstar to keep the suffix 'star' at the end of his name. The stars are sacred to the Clans, and only leaders are allowed to be called 'star'. I like Shimmer. Is the kit that Lion pretended was his son her brother? Also, I find myself disbelieving the part of the story in which Lion kills six perfectly healthy, hand-picked warriors. Has he got some special power from StarClan?
Lotsa stuff to discuss here! First (and I think I've mentioned this) PeakClan is really lax about names, as Blackmoon shows. Northstar isn't leader anymore, so Lightstar doesn't care. Northstar would never change his name anyway, as he is clinging to the prestige associated with it. PeakClan is already so far away from StarClan that they don't care. For the second question, I don't know (wink), and for the last, you have a really good point there. First, when Lion first showed up, everyone was skeptical of him. He managed to take the first two or three mainly by surprise. The others come from his motives; Lion didn't (doesn't) care whether he lived or died. He was throwing his all into the battle, and the damage he took didn't matter. The cats he were fighting cared about their lives and were loyal to Slaughter, thus they didn't fight with abandon. They tried to preserve themselves, while Lion soaked up the damage. That makes a huge difference, when you have nothing left to live for.


Not so many, but that's okay.

I'm pretty pleased with this chapter, though. Nightshade crossed the line when she killed Swansong, but she's starting to see the line, too. Questioning Blight is a big step for her~

Also:

NaNo begins November 1st, so I won't be working on this until either I win NaNo, or it is over. Sorry! In the meantime, you can follow me on NaNo (ID 462055) and on FictionPress (Prin Pardus) because I'll be posting my NaNo on there. Please stay loyal, and welcome Shattered back when I get to update again! Remember, I love you guys!

Chapter 21, 22, 23, oh my!

Yup, time to answer some questions~!

Blizzard-dream: Robin's dead. Or is she...? We never actually saw her dead body, now did we? What's going to happen to Death?
 She's definitely dead, unfortunately, or else Barb would have had to reason to bother Blight about getting Belladonna, right? Poor Robin never had a chance, although she refused to fold, surprisingly. As for Death, he just needs some practice. Before now, he's always had someone to mooch off of (as we might find out soon), but he's on his own now and has to fend for himself and support the Clan. He just needs some time and training to get the hang of things.


Hiddenfilly: Does Northstar seriously think he can win without StarClan's help?
Sadly, yep. To him to seems as if StarClan turned their backs on him. Not only that, but StarClan hasn't done much for the Clans, at least in his eyes; they didn't warn the forest Clans of FrozenClan's plans, and they didn't tell Frozenstar that his son was planning his death, nor did they save Brackenheart and Birdpaw, the only two cats who mattered to Northstar when he was young. To him, StarClan seems almost powerless; if they had power, why let a medicine cat die? Why let Northstar seize power and destroy the forest Clans, only to lose his power to Crowtalon (and eventually Lion)?

Crowstorm: So anyways, why was Northstar so mad?
You didn't miss anything, don't worry! Northy has problems. He's angry about his part in Rabbitpaw's injuries (and perhaps death) as well as how Rosedapple is bent on ending her life, and he's conflicted about some other things that we'll eventually see.

Lynxeye: I wonder where Stoneheart was when Graywing died?
Stoneheart was there, but just as shocked and shaken as everyone else...Graywing was actually his sister! He was too overcome by emotion to take control. Northstar wasn't close with Graywing, and saw her as the reason for Rosedapple's grief, so his emotions weren't as strong.

I'd also like to say a few more things:

First, it really surprised me how much hate Lightstar/Graywing have received. Males turning on their female mates isn't that uncommon, even in canon (Spiderleg/Daisy, for example, or the countless toms who moved on after their she-cats died; Crow/Feather, Fire/Spotted, Gray/Silver, to name a few). Lightstar is, at heart, a good cat. He's a little young to be leader and overtaken by emotion easily; he lacks responsibility. Graywing is gentle, but very emotional as well, and although her loyalty to StarClan was great, she always was true to StarClan. And, as her last words showed (kinda) she and Lightstar never actually meant to hurt Rosedapple. If Lightstar had known Rosedapple was pregnant, he would have never continued his affair with Graywing. Unfortunately, by the time Graywing realized she was pregnant, it was too late. Then, there is PeakClan's society; StarClan is a distant thing to them, a force outside of their daily lives. Breaking the warrior code by mating with a medicine cat isn't shocking or strange to them like it would be in, say, RiverClan. It just doesn't matter to them; Graywing just has a little tougher time doing her job, is all.

And then, new reader Queen of Pens brings up some excellent questions. First, Northstar could still easily kill two cats, even after running. He was born in the mountains, remember, so even though his paws took a bit of a beating, there wasn't nearly as much damage to them as there would be to a normal cat. Also, he has always been a good runner; it takes much farther to tire him out than with normal cats. Finally, he did have a bit of time to rest. The patrol that found him and been moving constantly trying to find him, whereas all he had to do was sit and wait for them, allowing himself to rest. And then, about Slaughter: If you haven't found out already, Slaughter isn't a terribly important character, merely a stepping stone to the true antagonist, Lion. Lion is the more compassionate, emotional character you were thinking about. Slaughter is a bit flat, but it's intentional; he's a stereotypical "for the evulz/for the power" villain, and while he's scary, the capabilities of revenge-bent Lion are much more terrifying, simply because he knows right from wrong and chooses to ignore it. Also, he doesn't much care for Toxin. She looks very much like her mother; Slaughter didn't mate with her mother for love, merely power, due to her heritage. Toxin's mother managed to escape him, fleeing with his other daughter. This fact - that he didn't completely control her - has caused him to hate even the thought of her. Toxin's resemblance to her mother stirs up that hate, and he knows it clouds his judgment, thus he sends her away to help him focus. Also, he couldn't have known it would/could be suicide on her part; she's highly skilled in battle, and in his mind any cat of his kin should be able to kill three she-cats at the very least.

 Next chappy is about Nightshade, guys, stay tuned~!