"Don't forget Jayfeather…" Yellowfang whispered mysteriously, "Blazing lion and leaves of holly will save the clan from thorn heather."
"StarClan really has to work on their prophecies," Jayfeather mumbled dragging himself out of his nest. "Whatever could it mean?" he mocked.
"Ouch!" Thornclaw mewled, as Jayfeather's tail wacked his supposedly sprained paw.
"Sorry," Jayfeather quickly apologized, listening for Thornclaw's reaction. Thornclaw had pitifully padded, more like limped, into the medicine cat den the other day, and had collapsed on the ground. He complained about his paw, and how it 'hurt so much'. Jayfeather immediately sensed Thornclaw was lying, but he was curious about his intentions. Thornclaw frequently rushed out of the den, sometimes on his 'hurt' paw, to go make dirt or get water. Jayfeather had been too busy with Whitewing's greencough to follow him, but had planned to one of these sunrises.
Thornclaw smirked, gingerly placing his paw back on the newly changed moss. "It's okay," he grunted in imitated pain.
"I'll be more careful next time," Jayfeather promised. The first step of his plan was to mop up the pool of rainwater in the back of the den, to give Thornclaw a reason to escape the den for his unknown reasons.
He pawed over some moss and began soaking the rainwater. "What are you doing?" Thornclaw asked curiously.
"I'm moping up some of the rainwater for Daisy's kits," Jayfeather turned to him and mock apologized, "I don't know if there will be any left for you, you'll have to go to the stream. Do you mind?"
"No, no, not at all," Jayfeather probed into Thornclaw's mind. Yes!
"Will your paw be okay?" he asked, pretending to care.
"Yes, I think so, after a couple more sunrises. You're the medicine cat though."
Jayfeather noted his time quickly running out, whatever Thornclaw would be doing was ending soon, so he pushed his plot further, "I have to go bring this water to Daisy's kits, do you mind watching the den?"
"I can watch it."
"Great, I'll be a while, so get comfy!" Perfect.
Jayfeather rolled the sopping moss outside of the den, and rolled it to the nursery. Daisy and the kits were out of course, if Thornclaw had been listening, he would have known that they were out on a walk. Jayfeather waited until he smelled Thornclaw's scent waft by the den.
"Now about that prophecy," Jayfeather thought, "Blazed lion, I wonder who that could be? Maybe Lionblaze? Nah. It can't be him. It must be Whitewing!" He padded out of the den, following Thornclaw's scent. "And leaves of holly? It can't be Hollyleaf, there's no resemblance at all! It must be Ashfur. Yes, that's it."
He skirted the bushes, and kept on the scent trail.
"Thorn Heather? Well, I can't possibly think of what that could be. Thornclaw isn't acting suspiciously at all! And it's not like Heatherpaw has anything to do with this. It must be Brackenfur, meeting with… Heather? Sorreltail. Yes, Brackenfur and Sorreltail are meeting, and Whitewing and Ashfur are going to save us all!"
"Prophecies…" he grumbled. "Obviously Heatherpaw wants Thornclaw's help at getting back at Lionblaze, and Lionblaze and Hollyleaf are going to find out their plot and save Lionblaze from the trouble." Just then, Lionblaze and Hollyleaf appeared out of the dirtplace tunnel.
"Right on schedule," Jayfeather rolled his eyes, and sat quietly in the bushes.
"Have you caught any rabbits today?" Hollyleaf was meowing to Lionblaze.
"No, I haven't, I'm catching a squirrel," Lionblaze was replying.
"Warriors, it's as if they have nothing to do but hunt!" Jayfeather thought to himself.
He followed Hollyleaf and Lionblaze into the forrest, it was only too obvious that they were on Thornclaw's trail to the WindClan border.
"WindClan?" Jayfeather mocked from the thorn bushes. "I thought the prophecy was about ShadowClan! Because they're so evil!"
Lionblaze and Hollyleaf were almost at the WindClan border. Hollyleaf was boasting that she was going to catch the bigger rabbit while Lionblaze was telling her about his squirrel.
"Hey, it's Thornclaw!" Hollyleaf mewed in surprise. Jayfeather stopped to watch the scene, hidden behind a patch of delightfully smelling heather.
"And he's with Heatherpaw!" Lionblaze glared at the Windclan she-cat.
"It's not what you think!" Heatherpaw meowed defensively.
"Yeah," Thornclaw mewed, "It's not like I faked an injury to help Heatherpaw get back at you! Oops."
"'Oops' is right traitor! What did I ever do to you?" Lionblaze demanded.
"Now that I think about it, nothing. I just had this urge to hurt you!" Thornclaw smiled brightly.
"Firestar is going to hear about this when we get back!" Lionblaze yowled, before turning to Heatherpaw. "And I'm sure Onestar will love to hear about this too at the gathering!"
"No, I'll do anything!" Heatherpaw meowed pitifully.
Jayfeather sat back on his haunches and grinned.
"YOUCH!" Jayfeather yowled, as a sharp thorn snagged his pelt. The thorn was dug deep into his skin, and blood was trickling out of a large gash.
"I didn't even notice you back there!" Lionblaze mewed, "Now you can help us turn in these traitors!"
Jayfeather sighed. This cut was deep enough to take a quarter moon to heal.
"You were right StarClan, I should have taken your warning about the Thorned Heather," Jayfeather thought to himself looking up at the non-visible stars.
"We have to go warn the clan about these thorns!" Lionblaze yowled, "Who cares about traitors! The clan comes first!"
Somewhere up there, Yellowfang grinned in satisfaction.
So in the end, blazing lion and leaves of holly really did save the clan from thorn heather.
A/N: This was me poking fun at the Erins who seem to have forgotten about the traitor for the moment, (at least Brambleclaw seems to have) and all the fics that have really bad prophecies. I hope you enjoyed it! Tell me what you think in a review! I know, I know, I didn't edit! Nearly 3 pages. 932 words.
