Sometimes Bilbypaw wondered if his life would be different if his father wasn’t dead. Then he remembered that if his father was alive, he and his mother would be dead instead, and usually stopped wondering.

Not today.

Today, thoughts of the father he hated but had never really met hung heavy in his mind along with the image of that horrible mechanical beast that ripped up trees and ate them. He’d seen it when he’d gotten lost while training, and had gone sprinting back to Cottonsilver trying to forget what he had seen. Unfortunately, it was still driving him mad two days later.

He knew no one would believe him. He had prayed to Starclan to send someone down so he could tell them what he’d seen, but no one ever came. In the span of less that 48 hours, he made the choice to regain control through his own means, but it required a certain kind of effort that he wasn’t certain would work out like he was hoping.

Bilbypaw was certain that his dead father had gone to the Dark Forest. Where else would a cat who would try to murder a queen and his own kit go? To most cats, that would’ve been the end of any potential contact – gone before Bilbypaw had even been old enough to comprehend the concept of death – but Bilbypaw was not most cats.

If everything went according to plan, if he’d laid the mouse skulls out correctly and laid down in the circle they made, he would achieve his current goal. One way or another, a cat from the Dark Forest would come find him, and he could ask them to assist in his larger scheme. There was just one teeny tiny flaw that was preventing him from closing his eyes properly: he didn’t know who that cat would be. It could be a murderer, a corrupt leader, a rampaging madman, or any other number of terrible things. It could be a complete stranger, or it could be his father. That one little variable was entirely up to chance, and Bilbypaw hated it.

He hated it, and he hated the fact that it made him feel a little bit scared.

---

“Well, that can’t be very comfortable.”

Bilbypaw’s eyes snapped open to dart around the scene, his body sitting bolt upright in shock. It was dark out, maybe nighttime, but the sky had no moon and no stars. Tall trees towered ominously around him, the wind whistling through the branches in eerie tones and strange things scampering among the undergrowth. He swung his head to the right – the direction he could’ve sworn he’d heard someone in – and-

Holy fucking shit.

It had worked. The ritual he’d picked up and put together through nothing more than a few conversations with the medicine cats masked as idle curiosity had worked. Before him stood an absolutely massive brown tom with long tabby fur and piercing blue eyes, looking him over with something like mild concern. His face was covered in a few scars, but he was otherwise unmarred… save for his legs. From his paws all the way up to his shoulders and upper thighs was a glistening plating of ice, somehow flexible instead of stiff when he moved. He padded a little closer, stopping half a foxlength away from the shocked apprentice.

“I don’t think the ritual was supposed to be comfortable,” Bilbypaw replied cordially, shuffling himself into a sitting position. The newcomer laughed.

“Yeah, no shit! It’s supposed to deter you from contacting us. You must be insane, kid.”

“I’m not insane, simply out of other options. My name is Bilbypaw, of Redwoodclan.”

The frozen tom raised an eyebrow. “Redwoodclan? Huh, what a coincidence. I was from there before… y’know,” he said with a little smile, gesturing at the forest around them both. “I’m Frozencry.” 

Bilbypaw glanced at the tom’s legs, then back up at his eyes. A bit on the nose, but he didn’t say that. Bilbypaw never said anything impolite – at least not to the face of any individual he was talking about. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Frozencry.”

Elegantly, the young tom got to his feet, stretching his limbs before turning to address the deceased warrior further.

“Forgive me if it’s too much to ask, but I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

Frozencry raised an eyebrow at the apprentice, tail flicking in what Bilbypaw understood as idle interest. “Help you with something?” he repeated, as though he couldn’t quite believe it. “Like with what? A murder? A power grab? Revenge or a coup or something like that? Because the answer is no. I’m not gonna spend the energy trying to help you achieve some petty goal when I could be furthering my own wants.”

Bilbypaw had to tamp down the flash of irritation that tried to rise in his chest. “No, no, none of those things,” he replied. “I promise, I understand that your time is valuable, and I swear this will be worth it.” He kept his voice cool, even though a part of him was starting to get a little antsy. He had to keep the other tom’s attention and good graces. If Frozencry left now, all his hard work would’ve been for nothing. He’d spent an entire day gathering everything he needed for this. If the plan fell through, that would be an entire day of his life he’d never get back down the drain – and an entire plan for a dire situation rolled back to square one. Fortunately, it seemed that playing his cards calmly was working.

“What do you want my help with, then?” Frozencry asked, drawing himself up to his full height and looking at the apprentice with cautious interest. Bilbypaw couldn’t stop himself from giving his usual charming, cunning smile.

“I need you to help me gather influence, but not just for my own benefit,” Bilbypaw said, beginning to circle the larger cat as he spoke. His yellow-blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark. The wind in the trees stilled as though waiting with bated breath. “Roughly two days ago, I found a metal monster in the forest near the Redwood-Meadowclan border, close to Twolegplace. I was trying to find my way back to my mentor when I heard strange noises and found it ripping up trees and eating them, moving like it had no mind.”

“A monster that eats trees?”

Bilbypaw nodded hurriedly, spurred on by the slightly incredulous tone with which Frozencry spoke. He hoped the other tom would see that he was genuinely harrowed by what he’d seen. Unlike every other time he talked to other cats, there was no acting here. Even a cat as charismatic as him couldn’t put a mask on when they’d seen something so absolutely terrifying. Something that seemed to destroy their understanding of the world itself.

“I know I sound like I’m insane right now, but I swear it’s true. It was big and slow and yellow, and it smelled foul in a way I’ve never smelled before.”

He could still remember what that scent had been like. Acrid and alien and something he knew instinctually to fear. He could still hear its roar in his ears, still see its strange, jerky movements.

Frozencry squinted at him, studying the expression on the apprentice’s face very carefully with attentive blue eyes. “And you said it was on the Meadowclan and Redwoodclan border? Near Twolegplace?”

“Yes. I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely not from here, that’s obvious.”

“And it eats trees? As in, the whole tree?”

“Yes. Rips them out of the ground and crushes them.”

“And how does this have anything to do with wanting influence?”

The question was tentative, but Bilbypaw had been around enough cats to know that he was getting somewhere. He paused his pacing, looking into the ice-laden ghost’s eyes with a disturbed conviction that was only half intentional. “We live in a forest,” he replied, and waited for Frozencry to connect the dots.

The massive tom’s expression softened into something more believing, his eyes searching Bilbypaw’s face. “… I see what you mean, yeah. But that still doesn’t answer my question, kid.”

“Except it does. We live in a forest full of cats who are unprepared for something that could destroy the whole world as we know it, but I could save them. I could lead Redwoodclan – and even the other three clans – out of certain doom… if I could get enough attention.”

Frozencry’s brow furrowed, obviously thinking. “… And you decided to ask a Dark Forest cat for help with this? Kid, I gotta tell you, we’re not exactly good guys. Definitely not saviors or anything like that.”

“I don’t need you to be. I prayed. Starclan didn’t answer, so I took it upon myself. All I need is for you to offer support in the background.”

“In what way?”

Bilbypaw flashed a little smile at Frozencry, seeming almost proud. He’d worked hard on this scheme, and he was glad it was working – especially when it depended on uncontrollable variables. If Frozencry had been any other cat, if the ritual had failed, if he didn’t manage to perfectly make his moves despite the fear… Well, he might’ve been screwed.

“Help me gain control. Power. Traction. I can make myself seem like I’m more than just a cat. I can look like a savior, a messiah. I just need you to do whatever you can to make it look like I’m more powerful than I really am, and I’ll handle the rest,” he explained, beginning to pace again, this time much more calmly. “It’s beneficial on multiple levels. The clans are saved – either through relocation or something else – and I get to be revered. And, if you agree to help, I’ll find a way for you to get what you want, too.”

Silence. Then a smile.

“Everybody wants to rule the world, kid,” Frozencry began casually, gesturing with one paw in a way that seemed almost dismissive, “But I like the way you think. I’ll say it’s a deal… on the condition that you find out about my relatives.”

It was Bilbypaw’s turn to look a little bit confused. “Your relatives? You don’t know who they are?”

“I’ve been dead for over 300 moons, and it’s not like I can go watch over my family like a Starclan cat. I know my sister, Cypressdaunt, was close to kitting the same moon I died, though.”

The apprentice frowned. “And you want me to find the descendents of your sister? Despite the fact that it’s been over 300 moons and at any point in the family tree it could’ve just stopped? How the bloody hell am I supposed to do that?”

“That’s for you to find out. Deal or no deal?”

Bugger. Can’t get out of this one.

“… Deal.”

And with a start and the sound of the other apprentices stirring around him, Bilbypaw woke up.