A/N: For The Clan of Clouds again! Love that forum. Anyhow…

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Near Insanity

Nightfeather returned from hunting and dropped her large mouse on the fresh-kill pile settled in the middle of the IceClan camp. A thin layer of snow coated the ground and the sky was a gray expanse of clouds as of this sunrise.

The black she-cat picked up a strange scent. She looked up. A crowd of cats were clustered around the Ice Tree, which also served as Hawkstar's den. A hole in the middle of the hollow trunk was where the leader slept and held meetings with Snowthorn, the deputy. Icicles were dangling from the leafless branches, reflecting the scene below with almost perfect accuracy. Wind danced through the sky, bringing with it the harsh cold of an almost ever-lasting leafbare that IceClan had learned to endure.

"Who's here?" Nightfeather walked up to Blazenose. The bright ginger tom was sitting at the head of the crowd.

"Found a rogue, she wants to join the Clan," he explained gruffly, shrugging, "I don't think that Hawkstar will have any of it, though."

"Helo, subgects!" a white she-cat with sparkling blue eyes exited the tree den, "I am ur knu leeder!"

"Wait, what?" Heatherfrost exclaimed. The light grey she-cat rose above the crowd, her fur bristling and her tail lashing as signs of defiance.

"I am Prettystar!" she meowed, stopping to draw a paw over her sparkling white ears, "And I am awesomee. Because I wil cleer ur everlastin leafbare!"

The she-cat stomped one paw and the snow and ice disappeared. Grass sprouted and leaves appeared on the Ice Tree.

"This…treee shalle nowe be knowne as the Leaf Tree," Prettystar announced with an aurora of great importance.

"Forget it," Heatherfrost meowed and shook her head, stalking off to the warriors' den, which was now a fully-grown bramble bush with roses growing around it.

"Poof! Saye byebye!" Prettystar giggled as Heatherfrost disappeared.

Many cats ducked down as the new leader swept her gaze over the crowd, as if it had been her blue eyes that had made the light grey she-cat vanish.

"Go finde mee a prettey peacock too eat!" the she-cat laughed, "Nightfeather, Blazenose and Snowthorn!"

"I'm the deputy!" Snowthorn protested, his spiky fur standing on end, "I will not listen to this…cat!"

"Poofe!" Prettystar giggled and Snowthorn disappeared, "Bee offe, the reest of u."

Nightfeather and Blazenose hurriedly exited camp, "What are peacocks?"

"These?" Blazenose indicated a large, blue bird with iridescent feathers, "If so, how are we supposed to kill it?"

Suddenly, Blazenose's claws extended to the size of bird talons. The peacock walked straight towards the two cats, as if in a trance, and dropped to the ground, waiting for Blazenose to kill it.

"Um," the tom meowed, then stabbed the bird in the neck with one large claw, "Now what?"

"Take it back to camp?" Nightfeather suggested, which lay only a few pawsteps away.

Blazenose grabbed its large head in his mouth and Nightfeather nudged it along through the camp entrance tunnel and over to the fresh-kill pile, which had suddenly turned into a fresh-kill heap. It was a mountain of blue and green iridescent-feathered birds.

"These things better taste good," Nightfeather muttered, before raising her voice, "Prettystar, we've got your prey!"

"That's not a peecock!" she screamed, then poofed Blazenose away, before giggling, "Ohh waite, yees it ise."

Nightfeather decided not to say anything, but remain silent in fear of getting her life poofed away from her.

"May I go to sleep now?" a queen named Featherpelt dared to ask.

"Nope!" Prettystar giggled, and poofed the queen away, "Butt the rest off u cane nowe!"

Nightfeather ducked into the warriors den and shook her head, lying down in her mossy green nest.

"Weird," she muttered, "I still can't believe that – just wow."

She shook her head again and closed her eyes, letting sleep overcome her. She tried not to let the strange happenings of the day sink in too far, otherwise she knew that she wouldn't be able to get a blink of sleep. She already felt herself missing Blazenose, even though a small part of her was suspicious about his 'death.' Poofing a cat didn't really mean they were dead, did it?

Nightfeather peeled her eyelids open to the concerned light grey face of Heatherfrost, "Good morning. You were muttering all throughout your sleep. You alright?"

"You- but you were poofed!" Nightfeather leapt to her paws and ran out of the den, "So were you, and you, and you!"

"And the peacocks, they're gone! Hawkstar, you're back! Where's Prettystar?" Nightfeather exclaimed.

"Uh, Nightfeather," the medicine cat, Flowertail, meowed, her light golden pelt shining in the pale morning sunlight, "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not! Where are they? The peacocks? And Prettystar? And why are the poofies back?" Nightfeather whirled around, terrified and utterly confused.

"Help me," she squeaked before sinking onto her belly, letting the snow soak into her black fur, "Why are the poofies back?"

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A/N: It's late at night so I was trying to not wake my folks from laughing while I wrote this, but I failed, I think…anyway…