Chapter 31: The Long Field

As The Bending Tower animals proceeded with travelling, they came across the field on the other side of the forest. There were flowers blooming there, announcing a new season had came - new-earth, as they called it. White-earth was now over with.
Everyone trekked through the flowers. When Spots and Sylvia were done telling Ash their story, they went back to join the full Benders in the crowd. Now it was just Ash, Rusty, Eclipse and Nightgale up front once more.
As they walked through the flowers, Ash stopped as he saw something rustling in the flowers. Everyone behind him stopped as well, and Ash looked to see the flowers kept rustling, moving. Ash stepped forward and sniffed at it.
"I'll slay it!" Tiggerpaka exclaimed, running forward.
Just as Ash was about to stop Tiggerpaka, Tiggerkat jumped out from the flowers. "Hello!" she said, a big grin on her face. "What's up? Have you all come out to play in the flower field?" she let herself collapse on her back and began sliding all around the field.
"Oh. It's you," Tiggerpaka rolled his eyes.
"Um, no. We're going on a journey," Ash said to Tiggerkat.
"Ooh! A journey!" Tiggerkat exclaimed, "can I come?"
"No," Tiggerpaka grumbled.
"Yes, you can," Ash said, glancing at Tiggerpaka.
"Yay!" Tiggerkat exclaimed.
"You will walk at the back, that's the travellers' section," Ash nodded.
"Okie," Tiggerkat bounced to the back, and everyone watched her go. Tiggerpaka followed reluctantly, grumbling about "having to walk alongside an idiot for who-knows-how-long". Ash got back to the front and they walked off again, and everyone was all talking and murmuring to each other.
They kept walking through the flowery field, and that was when Streak and Nzuri came to the front. Ash looked at them. "Yes?" he asked. Ash had explained that if anyone had any questions or concerns they could come to the front and talk with Ash.
"When are we gonna eat?" Streak asked, "I'm hungry."
"You are not," Nzuri said, "you just ate not too long ago."
"Yeah, well, this travelling is making me more hungry!" Streak exclaimed.
"Well, I'm hungry too, but I manage to ignore it," Rusty shrugged.
"Because you're bigger than us!" Streak pointed out, "we're not even apprentices yet."
"We'll hunt once we get to Mt. Ice," Ash told Streak.
"Where's Mt. Ice? What is Mt. Ice?" Nzuri asked.
"A mountain," Rusty snorted, "covered in ice."
"Really?" Nzuri laughed, "I never would have guessed!"
Ash sighed. "Mt. Ice is a cold mountain downhill. After we get through this field we'll be at Mt. Ice. An animal who lives there will take us in for the time being. His name is Masang, and he's a blue rabbit. It'll get a bit chilly, but you'll live."
"Great, I don't wanna be cold!" Streak whined.
Nzuri bumped Streak with her head, "Maybe you can lean against Cinder for warmth," she teased.
Streak, claws out, hit Nzuri on the ear.
"Hey!" Nzuri exclaimed.
Rainbow then came to the front, "That's enough, you two. Come back here," she demanded. The two kits reluctantly followed their mother back to the crowd, Streak and Nzuri giving each other glares the whole way.
They had been travelling for so long Ash felt like he wasn't even controlling his paws. He glanced at Rusty, who looked very exhausted.
"Come on, Rusty," Nightgale giggled, "you're supposed to be the strong deputy."
"I'm sorry!" Rusty snapped.
Ash looked up at the gray, cloudy sky. He didn't like the look of the clouds, which had been getting darker since the morning had started. "We need to get moving faster before a storm breaks out," Ash muttered. A breeze swept through the area, making Ash shiver from the cold. He began to trot a bit faster, and some other animals began to pick up the pace as well.
They kept walking until they finally, after what seemed like three moons, reached the edge of the field. Down below Ash could see the fog, and the steep hill that sloped down. Ash could recall being here as an apprentice, when Rusty and Dust got tangled up and fell down the hill.
"Okay," Ash said, raising his voice, making everyone fall silent. He turned to face the crowd. "Be cautious as you go down, because I know some certain animals fell down here and it didn't end up pretty." Ash looked at Rusty, who seemed defensive.
"Ash! Yeah, way to sell me out," Rusty growled, "and that was sarcasm."
The group began walking downhill, and it became harder for Ash to place his paws down. He walked weirdly because of the sloping hill, feeling as though it was trying to tug him to the ground. Everyone else seemed to be having a difficult time too, especially Streak and his siblings; Ash looked to see Patch had tripped and fell, and Rainbow picked her up.
Ash then flinched to see Tiggerkat rolling down the hill; he couldn't tell whether she was rolling on purpose or accident. "Tiggerkat, get up!" Ash called.
Tiggerkat got to her paws. "Sorry, but it's really fun!" she grinned, and then walked to the back of the crowd, where Ash could see Tiggerpaka had his head in his paw, shaking his head and muttering.
They got steeper and steeper, and it began to get really cold.
"W-Wow. This b-brings back memories," came Slice's voice.
"Tell me about it," agreed Dust's voice.
It began to get darker despite it was probaby mid-day. Ash sighed relief as he saw the silhouette of a big mountain in front of them.
"We're here!" Ash exclaimed.

Author's Note:
I'm having so much fun writing TFEOB chapters now. c8
By the way, I brought War of the Wolves back, be sure to check that out. :3