The clearing was silent. The cats seated around the pool were silent. They were just too horrified to speak.
Finally one of them, a tom with a bright orange pelt, broke the silence with a single word: "No."
The other cats looked up at him. Their faces showed agreement. "How can they have done this?" he continued. "I knew WatchClan was evil from the start, just like all of us did, but this…this is just crossing the line."
"I know, but Lionheart, what can we do about it?" meowed a blue-gray she-cat.
"It just doesn't make sense," murmured another she-cat, a black one. "Why would they just come to the lake and decide that they were the rulers?"
"I don't know, Hollyleaf," said the blue-gray she-cat. "But they won, and we have to accept that."
"No!" yowled a ginger tom. "We can't let them do this to our Clans! We have to do something, Bluestar!"
"Oh, Firestar," sighed Bluestar. "We can't. Not this time."
"But we have to!" wailed Firestar. "They'll destroy us all!"
"I know," said Bluestar wearily. She turned, so the next words she spoke were addressed to the cool night air. "We may not be able to stop it. But we will welcome those poor apprentices that will die each season gladly into our ranks."