I opened my eyes as something sharp prodded me in the side, waking me from a dream I was having about Squirrelflight.

"Ashfur, Ashfur! Wake up!" someone mewed urgently. I opened one eye, and saw that my sister, Ferncloud, was standing in front of me. I jumped up form my warm nest, and looked her straight in the eye.

"What do you want?" I asked groggily.

"I have to tell you something!" she covered her chest with a few licks.

"Can't it wait?"

"It's really important!" she was making such a fuss that I would feel bad if I made her go away.

"Is something wrong...?" I asked sleepily.

"No! It's something good!" she snapped.

"What is it?"

"I'm going to have kits!" she meowed excitedly.

I sighed. This was nothing special, because knowing my sister, she had a new litter almost every day. Well, maybe that's exaggerating a little bit, but still, she reproduced a rabbit! "That's great." I said finally.

"I've just told Dustpelt; he's thrilled!" Ferncloud meowed.

I nodded my head, not really listening to my sister. The main thing on my mind was how to get rid of Brambleclaw. I looked down at my paws, and closed my eyes, trying to think.

"-So I was thinking, if I have a girl kit, I'm going to name it Icekit, and if it's a boy, then maybe Brownkit, or Foxkit-" My sister droned on and on, and I groaned. Whenever my sister was going to have kits, she seemed to get very talkative.

"-I asked Dustpelt what he thinks, and he said that we should probably wait and see what they look like, because we can't name them before we see them, can we? So-" she stopped in mid-sentence. I looked up, wondering where the noise had gone. She seemed to be glaring at me.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Were you even listening to me?" she meowed angrily.

"Of course I was," I meowed, getting up and stretching. "That's great news. Kits!" I padded out of the den, and my sister followed.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked me.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I'll go hunting..." I said vaguely, not intending to go hunting at all. "How about you?"

"I have to go make myself a nest in the nursery, since I'm moving in there." she meowed.

I nodded absently. Ferncloud cocked her head to one side.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked, cocking my head the opposite way.

"You seem kind of... distant." she said, groping for the right word.

"I'm fine." I meowed rudely. I needed to go and work on my plan, and just sitting here and talking to Ferncloud wasn't helping!

"Oh," she licked the base of her tail. "I'll see you later then." she bounded over to the fresh-kill pile.

Finally! I thought, as I made my way to the entrance of camp. To my disgust, none other than Brambleclaw, the most despicable cat alive, was on guard duty. I decided to walk by dramatically, and hiss at him before I would disappear into the darkness of the forest.

As I prepared to stalk past him, he called out, "Hey Ahfur, why aren't you training Birchpaw?"

"That," I glared at him. "Is none of of your business." I said rudely. So much for my dramatic entrance.I stalked past him, and turned to hiss.

"I can handle my own apprentice, thank you very much." I meowed dramatically.

Brambleclaw shrugged, and settled down. So I decided to go and get to work. I had already decided what I was going to make. It would be hard, but worth it.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Now that's what I call art-work! I marvled my work after a long time. It was a statue of Squirrelflight, and if I may say so myself; it was very artistic.

My plan was to get a large rock, put it onto a branch directly on top of it, and then wait until Brambleclaw would come. Since Brambleclaw is so mouse-brained, and since my art-work is so good, he will think that it is the real Squirrelflight. Then, I am to drop the rock onto Brambleclaw's head, and boom! Bye-bye Brambleclaw! I couldn't wait to see Squirrelflight's face when she figured out that her precious mate would be gone. Then, she might fall in love with me.

I imagined myself with Squirrelflight and sighed. What a great match we would make.

Now, back to my genius plan. I clambered up the tree, and waited with my rock. Soon, Brambleclaw was bound to come along. I looked up at the sky, and saw that it was sun-high. I must have been out a long time.

Suddenly, I heard a rustle in the bushes. Then, I noticed a mouse was scrambling around the roots of a tree close to my statue. I blinked, and then, Brambleclaw came out of the bush, stalking the mouse. My eyes widened. Brambleclaw looked at my statue, and cocked his head to one side.

"What's that?" he wondered aloud.

Anger flared inside of me. Why couldn't he tell that it was Squirrelflight?!

Brambleclaw cautiously approached it, and I prepared to make my move. Right when Brambleclaw was directly below me, I pushed the rock. But the rock didn't move. Mouse-dung! I looked underneath the rock, and saw that it was stuck in some sap from the tree. I closed my eyes angrily as Brambleclaw shrugged again and left. Proabably to hunt some more.

As I slowly made my way down from the tree, I decided to take a look at my art-work one more time before I went back to camp. It really was beautiful, and I have no idea why the mouse-brain didn't know what it was. I went over to investigate it, and saw that it would probably rot in a few days, since it was made from leaves and mud. Sadness gripped me as I realized that this would probably be the last time I would ever get so close to a Squirrelflight. I rubbed my head against the sculpture, and pretended that this was the real Squirreflight. It was just bad luck that the rock didn't budge, because this was really a good plan to exterminate Brambleclaw.

I looked up at the branch, and thought, wouldn't it be just plain bad luck if it would fall on me instead? After all, I'm not a very lucky cat, and sitting underneath a rock wasn't very smart. I rubbed my head against the sculpture again, and boom! The rock fell on me.

Ouch, I guess that plan back-fired. Now lets move on to plan B.