Everyone waited in the clearing, their ears perked, and their fur standing on end. They were all thinking the same thing: was Dawnfur going to be alright? It was the morning after she had left, and everyone was getting a bit worried. Swiftheart was worried that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves, and Pantherpelt was worried about their food supply.

Icefang strolled into the clearing with two mice in his mouth. He gently placed them by a bush. It was their fresh-kill pile, and it was next to their warriors' den. He walked up to the others, greeting them with a friendly meow. "Hi."

Swiftheart looked up, smiling. "Hi, Icefang!"

Pantherpelt didn't say anything. Her stared off into the distance, praying to StarClan that Dawnfur would be okay. He didn't notice Icefang as he approached. The grayish-white tom nudged his friend with his nose. "Hey, Pantherpelt, it's your turn to go hunting," Icefang informed him.

Pantherpelt snapped out of his trance, and nodded. He stood up just as a mouse burst through the bushes. He dropped to a crouch and silently watched his pray. It moved closer to him, unaware of its predator's presence. His pray scrambled towards him, and he killed it with one swipe of his paw. Suddenly another mouse ran through the clearing.

"What is going on?" Pantherpelt wondered, dropping into another crouch. This time his pray bumped into his left paw. The mouse looked up at him with wide, scared eyes. It tried to run away, but Pantherpelt pinned it down with his paw. Then he killed it with a quick bite to the neck.

"Look, two in one," he meowed happily, walking to the fresh-kill pile with his catches.

"But you didn't even leave the camp," Icefang muttered under his breath.

A rustling in the bushes made everyone tense. Swiftheart sniffed the air, and said: "Cat!" Everyone's ears shot up, and they unsheathed their claws. They head a high pitched voice shout: "Where did it go?!"

Pantherpelt arched his back, hissing. He smelled ShadowClan! With one huge leap he disappeared into the bushes. Swiftheart hear the other cat hissing too. She guessed that Pantherpelt was about to attack the poor cat. Before she had time to stop Pantherpelt another voice was heard. "Wait, don't hurt her! She's sick!"

Then, Pantherpelt rolled out of the bushes with a light gray tom on top of him. The tom's emerald green eyes glowed with a fierce determination to win.

A scrawny, white she-cat scrambled out of the bushes, her ocean blue eyes were wide with fear. "Hawk-eye, get off that cat!" She screamed.

Like a dog obeying its master, Hawk-eye pushed himself off of Pantherpelt. The black tom glared at them with suspicion in his eyes. "Where did you come from? Who are you?"

"I am Hawk-eye, as you already know," the gray tom said with a smirk. "I'm a former RiverClan cat. We've been watching you for a while, and we need a medicine cat. Do you know where we could find one?"

Icefang brushed past Pantherpelt, his fur standing on end. "You were spying on us?!"

Pantherpelt tried to calm his friend down with a gently nudge. "Let them explain their situation."

"Come here, Snowfoot," Hawk-eye commanded.

Snowfoot looked at him with scared eyes. Swiftheart took one look at her and guessed that she was the timid type. "Y-yes, Hawk-eye?"

The gray tom looked annoyed at her timid nature, but he managed to smile. "You know that leaf-bare is coming soon, right?"

Icefang tensed. They wanted to share food? He thought. Or maybe they want shelter? Well, he wasn't going to let these cats into his Clan. "Yeah, so?"

Hawk-eye glared at the stubborn cat. "So, we need shelter! My mate here," he pointed to Snowfoot with his tail. "She has some kind of sickness. Her fur doesn't get thick during the winter. It stays thin, and she almost froze to death last leaf-bare."

Anger rose inside Icefang's belly. He normally wasn't mean, but he didn't want a disease-carrying cat in his Clan. "Get out! We might catch her sickness!"

Hawk-eye arched his back. "I don't have it!"

Icefang glared at him. "That's way she almost froze to death!"

"Do you wanna fight about it?" Hawk-eye hissed in frustration.

Pantherpelt, being his usual calm, caring and dense self, decided to intervene. "Stop this senseless arguing. I don't think that Hawk-eye would leave his mate."

"You don't know him," Icefang argued.

An ear-splitting wail silenced all the angry cats. "Stop fighting! I hate fights like this! Look, it's almost leaf-bare and we need more food and members. Can't we all just get along?" Swiftheart shouted, trying to sound calm.

Pantherpelt looked at her, surprised. Icefang was surprised too. His mate had drained the anger from his body. He shook himself, and spoke again: "I'm sorry but we don't want a sick cat in our camp," he explained gently.

Snowfoot looked at the ground, and Hawk-eye licked her check. "We understand." Hawk-eye nudged his mate, and they turned to leave the camp.

"This is crazy," a familiar voice meowed.

Every cat turned to look at the tortoiseshell cat, who just padded into the clearing. Her pale green eyes glowed with newfound hope, and her tail swayed side to side with happiness. "We need new members!" She exclaimed.

"Dawnfur!" Swiftheart meowed happily, running towards her friend.

"I'm Dawnstar now," Dawnstar corrected. She shot a sympathetic look at Hawk-eye, who glared at her. He didn't want others to pity him.

"Then it's settled," Pantherpelt said with a nod.

Icefang walked up to Dawnstar, his eyes burned with anger and fear. "But Dawnstar, that she-cat has a sickness!"

Dawnstar nodded. "I know. That is why we can't turn her down. The poor thing looks half starved."

"We've had it rough," Hawk-eye admitted. "But we're not weak, and we don't need your pity!"

"I understand." She smiled sweetly at them. "Please, tell me your names."

Hawk-eye met Dawnstar's gaze and nodded. "I am Hawk-eye, a forgotten RiverClan cat." He didn't show any disrespect for Dawnstar, but he didn't show any respect ether.

"And you are?" Dawnstar saw that the white she-cat was very nervous, so she smiled warmly at Snowfoot.

Snowfoot shifted her paws feeling very uncomfortable. With a nudge from Hawk-eye, she began to speak: "I'm Snowfoot, a ShadowClan run away."

"That Clan did you no good," Pantherpelt meowed.

Snowfoot raised her head, happy to have friends. But on the inside she was hurting. Only Hawk-eye knew what they did to her, and he felt his heart break every time he looked at her.

"I'm still not liking this but, welcome to the Clan," Icefang smiled.

Hawk-eye shot him a look of disbelief, and growled: "That's great, but I don't need you to welcome me."

Pantherpelt spoke next: "Okay guys, calm down. You're all officially DawnClan cats and we need more fresh-kill."

"Doesn't Dawnstar need to choose a deputy before moonhigh?" Snowfoot asked, her voice shaking.

"Yes. Yes I do!" Dawnstar's eyes lit up with memory. "I will name our deputy at moonhigh."

The cats cheered, but Hawk-eye was starring off into the distance. Something didn't feel right, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. But he couldn't leave Snowfoot with these strange cats. She was all he had. With eyes filled with guilt, he looked around the clearing. Memories of his old denmates filled his head as he searched for the source of this strange feeling. His muscles tightened when he saw two, round yellow eyes watching him from the shelter of a bush. Hawk-eye shook his head and they were gone. Now he was beginning to wonder if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Hawk-eye?" Snowfoot's soft, scared voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

He looked up at her. "Yes?"

"I smell something… evil?" Now she was unsure of what to call it.

"ShadowClan?" Hawk-eye asked.

"No, it's not them… it's different!" Her voice was filled with alarm, and Hawk-eye's eyes were darting around the clearing.

"What's wrong?" Pantherpelt asked.

The two cats turned to look at him. Snowfoot wasn't sure if she should share this information with her new Clan.

"Nothing," Hawk-eye said quickly.

Pantherpelt looked at him, but Hawk-eye held his gaze. "We're going to have a look over there." He pointed to a bush with his tail.

"That's the warriors' den. I guess you could look at it, if you want," he said.

Hawk-eye nodded , and began to walk towards the bush; Snowfoot followed close behind him. The bush wasn't that big, and Hawk-eye guessed that they were still fixing it. He peered into the bush, his eyes searching the darkness. Snowfoot poked her head inside the den a heartbeat later. She was sniffing the air. Once their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Snowfoot tapped Hawk-eye on the shoulder. "Look!"

Hawk-eye saw a small patch of fur in the middle of the den. Weird, he thought, walking over to it. He breathed in the unfamiliar scent of a cat. But who was it? Snowfoot walked up behind him. She picked up the patch of fur with her mouth, and sprinted out of the den. Hawk-eye followed her, looking at Dawnstar.

"Dawnstar, Dawnstar, look," Snowfoot said scared.

Dawnstar watched Snowfoot drop the patch of fur at her paws. She sniffed it curiously. Icefang and Pantherpelt surrounded her, their eyes showed confusion. Swiftheart shouldered her way through the crowd. She smelled an all too familiar scent, and she wasn't happy about it. "Do you know who this fur belongs to?" Dawnstar asked.

Swiftheart starred at the fur in disbelief. Memories of that terrible night flooded into her head. She suppressed a wail of dismay. It was him. She answered her leader with a low growl:

"Darkpath!"