The blue-gray she-cat's fur bristled as the huge tabby pinned her to the den floor. "Tigerclaw, what is the meaning of this?!" She yowled, struggling to rake her claws down the deputy's flank. The large tom was standing over her, claws pressed against her ribcage, nearly piercing into her. "I'm going to achieve what was meant to be. It's time for me to lead this clan."

He ignored the she-cat's hind legs kicking weakly at his stomach and chest. It seemed as if loss of faith in Starclan had weakened the Thunderclan leader. The huge tom gave a single blow to her throat, watching as her lives seemed to drain out of her by a pool of blood. The dying leader still struggled as blood rose in her torn neck. Her limbs twitched, eerily as she choked in her final breaths. The spilling blood faltered when she stopped moving, the stone floor of the den becoming stained with red.

The deputy felt the wave of scarlet lapping at his unsheathed claws as he thought of an excuse. He tried to remove all evidence of his betrayal. The deputy removed the brown fur that bunched at the dead she-cat's claws, and washed off the blood that was on his own. He had just killed his own leader. What could he tell his clanmates?

He checked the dead leader one more time to make sure she had lost all of her lives. All he saw was that her bright blue eyes turned to a dull gray.

"Mousefur! Graystripe! Dustpelt..?" A silver tabby called out into the forest as it reached moonhigh. He was in the same clearing his clan always tumbled in. But where were they? They seemed to have all disappeared. He checked the nursery, warriors den, elders den, medicine den and finally the apprentice den. It was too dark anyway, and the sun-reflected moon wasn't helping. But there was no Thunderclan scent lingering. Except...

"Bluestar!" He yowled, running straight into the leader's den. He skidded to a stop when he felt a huge ocean of blood hitting his paws like waves. He felt himself almost fall over from the force, and the thick stench of blood stung his eyes. He saw his leader in the middle of the den, dead. He tried backing up out of the den, but it was as if the entrance had disappeared, trapping him inside. Blood started to fill up the den, and he soon couldn't feel the stone floor on his pads.

"No!" He cried, trying to swim in the blood that started to drown him out. Was this the end? That was all he could think of as the red water filled his lungs...

He felt a claw jab his side. He grumbled in annoyance, flicking his ear. He blinked open one eye to see one of the other warriors, Graystripe, standing next to him. "At this rate you could have slept all leafbare!" The gray cat joked. The tabby rose up from his side and smacked the other warrior with his long tail. "It's my reward for me doing all the hunting." He retorted, stretching his slender limbs, claws extended. It was the final days of leaf-fall, and it was just about time for snowflakes to fall in Thunderclan.

His ears pricked up at the sound of a clan meeting yowl. Immediately, he left the warriors den and padded out towards the large group of cats who crowded by the Highrock. He sat beside a smaller dusty brown she-cat. Small murmurs were heard from cats who noticed that it was the deputy calling a clan meeting. That wasn't usually the case.

"Cats of Thunderclan, I have terrible news." The dark tabby rose tall above the clan cats. He had a small pit of fake agony in his meow. "Bluestar lost her last life."

Immediately, waves of shocked mewls echoed in the clearing. The deputy was bombarded with a mountain of questions. The silver tabby felt his blood freeze. All he could think of was the dead leader in the middle of her den, the blood drowning him.

Beside him sat another tabby, Darkstripe. Darkstripe nudged him, a glow in his amber eyes. "Come on, isn't it great, Longtail? Tigerclaw is leader now." His meow was a whisper, as if he didn't want any other cat to hear him. Longtail's ears flattened, and there was an hint of unease in his voice. "Sure..." Tigerclaw and Darkstripe were oddly close, almost like littermates. They would share every detail of every clan flaw with no exceptions. Longtail was sometimes involved, but maybe there was something he wasn't told.

Longtail noticed a smaller gray she-cat limping out of the medicine cat den, puffed tail high up behind her. "Cinderpaw, do you know about Bluestar's death?" Longtail asked her immediately as she passed by. The she-cat spun around to him in surprise, and twitched her whiskers. She seemed just as suspicious as Longtail was.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Tigerclaw told me some clan warrior killed her." She seemed uncertain herself. "There was really nothing else to say otherwise." Longtail wanted to argue, but even if he did, he would have no evidence. He couldn't stop thinking about the dream he had. But why did he have the dream and not the medicine cat? Even if she was still an apprentice. Longtail was worried for Cinderpaw as well. She had no mentor, and Spottedleaf died a few moons ago.

He assumed the medicine cat would know, since she was tending to Bluestar. He watched her disappear into the leader's den. The she-cat beside him was yawning. "Better get it over with, it's not long until I'm an elder with all this waiting..." The cats all turned to the deputy as he lifted his tail for silence.

Longtail knew Tigerclaw. He would easily cook up a fresh lie for any of the clan cats. But there was nothing he could do to reverse this mess.

Tigerclaw begun his story. "I was in Bluestar's den, asking her how she wanted to set up patrols for leafbare, knowing it was her last life. I was worried that she would catch whitecough." Tigerclaw was staring down, studying his paws, as if he was checking to see if he had washed the blood off of them. But Longtail could see that none of the other cats noticed. The huge tabby continued. "I offered her some fresh kill, so I went to go get it. When I came back, there was a tom standing over her. He smelled of Thunderclan."

Cats in the clearing started protesting, eyeing each other with uncertainty. Even the kits tumbled out of the nursery to try and hear the news, the queens trying to push them back in. Longtail noticed Darkstripe looked too calm about this. One elder spoke out above the others. "Who did the cat look like?" Cats turned back to the deputy, awaiting his answer. Tigerclaw paused for a moment, as if he was thinking. Longtail knew there was one tom he would choose to accuse.

"Ravenwing."