I HAVE ASC#4 THUNDER! THUNDER SPOILER THREAD

Nightheart wakes up, his hind leg in agony. He wonders where Frostpaw, who has been stiff and distant towards him the whole time despite his attempts to be friends, is and calls her name. She responds, only a tail-length away, and tells him she treated his wounds. They thank each other for saving their lives. Nightheart continues to miss and worry about Sunbeam before starting a conversation with Frostpaw, complementing her on her warrior and medicine cat skills. Frostpaw admits she only had become a medicine cat apprentice to please Curlfeather and Nightheart admits to Sparkpelt wanting him to be like Firestar. Nightheart feels like Frostpaw has finally sheathed her claws for the first time since meeting him. Frostpaw tells him she will go back to being a medicine cat as StarClan has finally shared real visions with her.

They continue their journey and Frostpaw tells him what Riverstar said about the three-striped Thunderpath. Nightheart is cheered that she is getting advice from RiverClan’s founder. Frostpaw eventually finds a Thunderpath with an extra white stripe running along the edge to total three white stripes and they follow that path, walking on the side path marked by the extra white line, as they notice monsters don’t drive on that part. But then a gang of bikers approach from behind them, which Nightheart interprets as Twolegs clinging to the spine of bony monsters and wearing hard shells on their heads. They flee through a gap in between Twoleg dens and approach a fence, and they decide to head past it and find their way back to the striped path when the bikers leave.

The run into Twoleg kits while crossing fences and barely manage to escape but then a white dog furiously starts chasing them and even after they escape over a fence, its about to break through the fence by banging into it repeatedly. Nightheart runs away and before he realizes it, has run onto a pool with blue ice on the surface. But it isn’t ice, it’s soft and wet. It folds like a great wet leaf and wraps around him and pulls him deeper. By forcing himself to hold still he escapes to the surface but is still unable to make it to shore and Frostpaw has to save him. They find a new escape route from the dog about to break through the fence and head back onto the striped Thunderpath. The pain is his leg is worse than ever. Nightheart is ashamed that Frostpaw had to save his life twice and he can’t even take care of himself, let alone another cat.

I'mma be real here... Frostpaw going back and forth from being a medicine cat or not is kinda... getting old. Like I get it but it's getting old from a writing perspective. It feels like clan hopping but for medicine cats, and I don't think he Erins know what to do with her at this point lol.

Also Nightheart is going through it, my guy might as well be dead at this point, yeesh.

Poor Nightheart (and poor Frostpaw too still)!

I know she mentions wanting to be a medicine cat again due to her new visions, but I'm still holding out hope for her to become Froststar instead.

It's always fun when the cats encounter twoleg phenomena and we have to guess what they are. Not sure how I feel about Frostpaw wanting to go back to the med cat field, since I low-key want to see her become leader eventually. Poor Nightheart having self-doubt...

honestly this would be a neat buildup to Nightheart potentially having his leg amputated. Not only would Frostpaw no longer be alone with being messed with by the cutter, but also would just make his story a bit more interesting. Been a while since we had a disabled protag. Not that it's guaranteed they'll handle it well this time lol but a fella can dream.

I know and I'm hoping that comes into play later and it gets revealed she's destined for leadership instead. It was Thunderstar who said it wasn't her destiny, by the way.

Wait, do we know how bad the leg injury got? If it ends up warranting amputation, that's wild. Where's Puddleshine when you need him?