::CHAPTER THREE::

The tom was still as a stone when they entered the elders' den.

They held their breath as though it were the only thing keeping them from plummeting thousand-fox-length drop. Uncertainty glimmered in their eyes as they exchanged inquisitive glances. Before them lay one of the two elders of ShadowClan, Gorseclaw. His body was curled loosely on a nest of moss and soft ferns. Orangekit didn't want to get any closer than he needed to, in fear of discovering something he'd rather not see up close, but Marshkit was already inching forward, carefully placing her paws to ensure she didn't make too much noise, until she had reached him. The tortoiseshell she-cat studied him closer, before letting out a soft but heavy sigh.

"He's asleep," she whispered back to him, and Orangekit let out his own breath in a rush of relief.

"What should we do now?" He asked as she came back to stand at his side.

The young she-cat pondered for a moment, then replied, "I guess we just wait until Gorseclaw wakes up?"

Orangekit, though disappointed, nodded. The two backed quietly out of theden, only to feel fur brush against their tails. Immediately the pair spun around to find themselves standing before an old, soft-furred she-cat. She was beautiful despite her age; the flash of white above her nose shone brightly against her silver fur and her green eyes were still clear and alight with amusement.

"Looking for someone?" She mused.

"Silvercloud!" Marshkit mewed with excitement. Orangekit watched as the two touched noses in greeting, remembering that the old she-cat was the mother of Marshkit's father, Pounceclaw. "We were, actually. We wanted to ask you two a question, but you weren't inside and Gorseclaw is sleeping."

The elder chuckled. "Isn't he always?" With a wave of her tail, she beckoned for the pair to follow her. "I was just coming back from the fresh-kill pile. Come with me; keep an elder some company while her den-mate is snoring."

Silvercloud led them to a shady spot not so far from the den. Orangekit's fur bristled as thoughants were crawling through it. He couldn't stand to wait any longer or he swore his head might explode with all the possibilities he was imagining! As she settled slowly upon her haunches, she switched her green gaze between the two. "Well? What are you two looking for- a story?"

Orangekit glanced unsurely at Marshkit. "Sorta," he said. "We kinda have a question."

"Do you now? Out with it then. What do you want to know?"

As though a dam had been broken to let a river flood through, questions began to pour uncontrollably out of the kits. They wanted to know about ThunderClan; how the once-called "heroes of the Clans" could seemingly turn overnight. They wanted to know why those cats would do what they've done- such as killing their elders, stealing territory, killing without reason- and why nobody seemed to have any motive to stop them from doing it.

The warm welcoming on Silvercloud's face immediately shifted to a look of guard. Unsurely, but with a smile, she asked, "I'm sure your mothers would want you to learn his from your mentors, not me?"

"Morningbloom told me to my face to go ask you," Orangekit quickly replied.

He saw a shadow cast over the elder's eyes, sending an immediate pang of guilt to resonate throughout him. He hadn't meant to bombard the old she-cat so suddenly. Yet, they had to know. They would be apprentices any day now anyways- what difference would it make if they waited?

The elder wrapped her tail neatly around her paws and murmured, "I suppose no one can live forever in oblivion. Not even kits. Well, get comfortable, little ones. This is going to be a long one." She waved her tail, beckoning them close. Then she added, more to herself, "And StarClan help me tell it right."

They shuffled near, peering up at her zealously. Orangekit's heart was beating against his chest. Something was churning within the young tom. A yearning to know. A yearning to understand. He wanted to know what was going on the real world, the world his mother lived in- perhaps, even his father, too. He was getting older. Moss-toss had grown boring for he and his den-mates, and they fantasized only of being warriors now- of fighting true battles, not just the ones they created. This would only bring him one step closer to being a real member of ShadowClan, to understanding the history of his ancestors. This is surely what he wanted.

Yet, as eager as he was to know what everyone else in the Clan seemed content to hide from them, Orangekit was apprehensive still. Things could only get complicated after this lesson, and Orangekit knew that well- he only hoped he would not wish to return to the simplicity of ignorant bliss, where the only world he knew was the serene world inside his Clan's camp walls.

There's no going back from this now, he thought as Silvercloud began to speak.

"The truth is, kits, that not even your elders know the tale by heart. No cat really knows the truth of what caused ThunderClan to abandon the nobility and honor they had once possessed and turn to their lives of treachery. What I can tell you for sure, however, is that it all was the doing of a single cat."

"A single cat ruined an entire Clan?" Marshkit said disbelievingly. Silvercloud gave a small nod.

"When I was a young apprentice, ThunderClan's leader at the time, Crowstar, announced a new deputy. All cats who encountered him adored him. He was a well-spoken, charismatic, disciplined, and noble young tom- everything you would expect from a ThunderClan cat. The other leaders and deputies welcomed him warmly, and I don't think anyone was suspecting what horror he would later commit. Look at me- you know I am well by in my moons. But that gathering was the last gathering ThunderClan ever attended.

"Full moons went by and no ThunderClan cat ever turned up. Their borders were never faint, yet there was hardly a sound to be heard from their territory. Every cat was stumped- we didn't understand how an entire Clan could just disappear."

"So how did you find them?" Orangekit piped up.

"We sent out a patrol. Two cats from every Clan, since this was an effort between all three of us. My father was on that patrol." A look of sadness darkened her eyes. The young kits exchanged glances of regret and pity. They both knew, in that moment, that things were not going to end well.

"When the patrol left, they were expected to return by sun-down, yet they never did. We waited three days for them to return, but the worry only grew. A rescue patrol was sent out, this time with the deputies of the Clans, to make the severity of our actions known to ThunderClan. It is a crime to kill, but to kill a deputy is an offense to the heart of the Clan. Yet out of all the cats who had gone into that territory, only one came out alive."

Marshkit's breath caught in her throat. "You mean... they were killed?"

Orangekit's hackles bristled with a fear he tried to convince himself was anger. "The monsters!"

Silvercloud hushed them with a flick of her tail. "We found the deputy of RiverClan, Stoneybrook, passed out on our border. Both of his ears were clawed up terribly, but I'll keep you from the gruesome details of what the rest of him looked like. It took him days to come back to us, but thankfully, StarClan granted us not only his soul, but also the knowledge he had learned. When Stoneybrook arose, it took him some time to adjust to his injured hearing, but he managed to tell us what had happened. ThunderClan, he said, no longer followed the same Code as us. Crowstar had died not long after the last gathering ThunderClan participated in, making way for their new leader: Burrstar."

"Burrstar?" Orangekit echoed. Speaking the very name alone felt like he had a thorn in his tongue.

Silvercloud nodded. "Burrstar claimed he had been visited by StarClan, who told him to sever from the rest of us- that we were lost causes, disgraces on the name of the four Clans. He killed any cat who dared to speak against him. When our first patrol entered their territory, they were slain for trespassing, and when the second tried to talk reason, they were killed for heresy. Stoneybrook told us he was spared only because their new leader needed someone to tell the rest of the Clans, and he was the last one in line to die."

A shiver rolled through Orangekit. He couldn't imagine the past as a reality. He couldn't imagine that this was real, when it sounded like the elder was simply relaying to them a nightmare she once had. He couldn't imagine the agony the RiverClan deputy must have endured, but truthfully, he didn't want to. Silvercloud fixed a stern, intense gaze on them, one so strong that neither Orangekit or Marshkit had ever felt burn their pelts, and said, "Those cats have no mercy, kits. StarClan forbid you ever run into them alone."

Orangekit stared at his paws. Marshkit said beside him, her voice thin but firm, as if not convinced, "How come StarClan let them do this?"

Silvercloud was silent; she only hung her head. Even the wisest cat in the Clan did not know the answer to that.

Orangekit pressed, "So... how did things get to how they are now?"

"We let them," came a new voice.

All heads turned around to see an old tomcat slinking out of the elders den. His lean, worn down muscles rippled beneath a thinning, grey-flecked coat, mottled with tabby markings. His golden eyes were stern and dull, and his presence was one that radiated authority and experience so intensely that Orangekit could sense it in his bones. He shuffled closer to Marshkit to make room for the elder as Silvercloud dipped her head respectfully. "Gorseclaw- did you nap well?"

He grunted as he fell to his haunches. "I napped," he meowed curtly. He then swept his gaze across the faces of the two kits. He clearly had better things to talk about then the fairness of his sleep. Like he had been with them since the beginning of the conversation, Gorseclaw opened his mouth and let flow the story to Orangekit's question. "We allowed those retched cats get how they are. Our mistake was expecting ThunderClan to come to their own senses. They began to take in every rogue, every loner, every kitty-pet or even just curious Clan cat into their ranks. Their territory was large, much like ours used to be, but not enough to sustain their growing numbers. We knew we could not fight them, as they easily outnumbered us, yet ShadowClan was foolish to think that the sense could be starved into them. That damned leader of theirs was a merciless one. He cared for his cats and his alone. In the dead of the night, he and his devils ambushed us. We lost almost half our ranks to them, and half our territory, all in one foul swoop. Little did we know at the time that WindClan had suffered the same attack that very same night. When Silvercloud warns you that these cats have no mercy, she's right. The fuzz on your young pelts mean nothing to them but a sign of an easy kill."

Now, Orangekit was glad he had moved closer to Marshkit, because the blood had run cold in his veins.

Silvercloud tried to ease them with a gentle stroke of her tail down Marshkit's flank, though it did little to waver the pure horror stricken on the young she-cat's face. "RiverClan gave us segments of their territory, but it was not enough. The three Clans, as foolish as it was, ended up fighting against one another over borders, losing more and more lives in the process. Finally, after Ruststar became leader, he called a Gathering early to discuss the problem. He and the other leaders then divided what remained of the lake between all three Clans. Ever since then, we've been living in a delicate peace. Thankfully, those evil ThunderClan cats seemed to be a part of that peace, for nothing has happened for quite some moons."

"Until today," Gorseclaw puffed, raking his claws across the dirt.

Marshkit was shaking her head, as if she couldn't wrap her mind around it. "Surely not all ThunderClan cats are evil? Snakeclaw is from ThunderClan, and he's never hurt anybody."

The silver she-cat gave an awkward twitch of her tail. "Not evil," she said, "but he is very... different from the rest of us. ThunderClan cats are trained to kill, not defend themselves. They are taught to mask their emotions and to be cunning and coldhearted. I can see him striving to learn our ways, to integrate, but you can't blame your Clan-mates for being a little hesitant to accepting him when he comes from the very Clan that killed their family."

Orangekit tilted his head. "Why did we let him live with us if we don't trust him?"

As if surprised, Silvercloud flicked a wide-eyed look upon Orangekit. "Your mother never told you this story?" She asked. Bewildered, the young tom shook his head. Silvercloud casted her eyes across the camp, the kits following her gaze to where it rested near the medicine cat's den. Sitting before it were Lilystripe and Snakeclaw, close enough together so that their pelts were only a whisker from brushing. Orangekit kept watching his mother and the warrior as the elder spoke.

"Not many moons before you were born, Orangekit, your mother brought Snakeclaw to our camp. He was wounded very badly, and while our medicine cat was treating him, she begged Ruststar to let him join us. At first, he was ready to deny it. How could ShadowClan harbor an enemy, so ruthless and ready to kill? But, once he had heard what Snakeclaw had done for her- although he may have been reluctant- Ruststar allowed him to become one of us."

"What did he do?" Marshkit asked.

"He saved her life." Said Gorseclaw, a look of disgruntlement on his face. "She said that prey led her over the border into ThunderClan territory when she was hunting. Those cats take trespassing very seriously. If Snakeclaw had not been on the patrol that caught her, she would likely not have made it out alive."

"He protected her," Silvercloud mewed. "Though, they ended up wounding him badly for his rebellion, and ultimately exiled him for betrayal."

Gorseclaw laughed dryly, cutting in. "StarClan knows why they didn't just kill him."

"After he was casted out," Silvercloud continued, "Lilystripe brought him here for treatment. Ever since, he's been here at the mercy of Ruststar. Those two were close, you know- too close to have just met, and everyone could tell. Perhaps that is why Ruststar had let him stay, for your mother never fit in very well here, Orangekit. Snakeclaw finally gave your mother a companion, but after you were born, they stopped sharing meals together, let alone even speaking." She sighed softly. "I do hope today brings them close again. I truly hate to see your mother so isolated. Morningbloom doesn't exactly make good company."

"Hey!" Marshkit said, to which Silvercloud gently apologized, though Orangekit could see in the old she-cat's eyes that she wasn't truly sorry

The tom looked down at his pale ginger paws. Confusion as brewing inside of him, and with it, too many questions. Why hadn't his mother told him any of this? If Snakeclaw meant so much to her, why didn't he play any role in her son's life? He had never seen the two even sneak a glance at each other in the six moons he had been alive! What had driven the tom to save his mother? And if the two really had shared such a strong bond before Snakeclaw even joined the Clan, what had caused it to so suddenly disappear?

Guilt began to rise within Orangekit. Surely he had not been the reason?

He could sense Marshkit's worried stare on his fur, but he had no urge to look up at her. Silvercloud shifted, as if about to move on to another topic, when someone called her name from across camp. All eyes turned to watch Ruststar and several warriors padding over to them from across the camp. He recognized Buzzardtail, the deputy, along with Goldenfern, Leopardfang and Flamewhisker, their medicine cat. Orangekit spotted dried flowers in the reddish-brown tabby's mouth. He flicked his gaze back to Ruststar, wondering what they were for.

As he stood before them, Orangekit began to notice every detail. He had never been so close to Rusttstar before. Flecks of gray covered his muzzle and his face, yet his copper eyes still blazed with strength and vitality. His ears were large and tufted, just like Marshkit's, and though he was surely up in his moons, his physique still seemed to be toned with the muscles of a powerful warrior in the prime of their life.

"Gorseclaw, Silvercloud," Ruststar meowed in greeting, dipping his head to the elders. Though authority edged his voice, affection warmed his gaze as he stared at the silver elder. A purr rumbled in the back of her throat as Silvercloud rose to her paws, dipping her head back to her mate in greeting.

"What can I do for you?" She asked.

Ruststar gestured with his tail to the group of warriors behind him. "The day is wearing on and it will be sundown soon, when it will be time we buried those elders. I want to see if we can determine who they were before we lose the light, but it is only right they are buried honorably, in the traditional way."

She nodded in agreement, then turned her head to the kits. "Run along and find your mothers. I've told you more than enough today."

The pair dipped their heads, mewing their goodbyes. As they walked back towards the nursery, Orangekit cculd not raise his head, for a storm of thoughts was raging within his mind. He wondered if it was really StarClan that had really visited Burrstar, and what it must be like to live in such a strange Clan, full of cats with mixed blood and varying heritages. He wondered if his existence had cost his mother her only friend, who, despite being born in a StarClan-forsaken Clan, despite only distancing her more amidst her own Clan, was still a friend nonetheless. Amidst the many questions, one popped in his head that, despite his resistance, he couldn't keep his mind from wandering to.

If he had been born in ThunderClan, would he feel more like he belonged?

Just before they reached the nursery, Marshkit stepped in front of Orangekit, stopping him in his tracks. In the dim, rosy luminance of the evening, her cream fur almost shone ginger, just like his, and her soft, warm brown eyes seemed to glow amber.

"Orangekit," she meowed, "I hope you know you'll always be my friend. Even if your father is a ThunderClan cat, or some other outsider- I'll never think any less of you for it. Not like the way the rest of our Clan thinks of Snakeclaw."

The tom stared at her for a moment. Though the stern look in her eyes seemed to fortify her statement, he questioned if her heart would ever change on the matter of their friendship. However, that small, determined smile that creased her maw gave him hope that if he would have to live like Snakeclaw did, at least he would have her to depend on the way the warrior had Lilystripe.

"Honest?" He asked.

"Honest," she swore, placing a white paw on top of his.

For a moment, they simply shared each other's time, locked in a stalemate of stares. His heartbeat hastened a bit, swelling with a foreign mixture of excitement and nervousness, so much so that he swore his chest would burst. However, whether out of good or bad fortune, it hadn't the time to explode, for in that same moment, Marshkit's jaws were beginning to stretch in a yawn.

"Great StarClan, I'm tired," she mused, casting him a sleepy glance. Sitting for so long must have made her drowsy, and the mass of information that had just been stuffed into their heads surely didn't help. As if summoned by the exhaustion of their kits, Morningbloom and Lilystripe appeared out of the nursery, ushering them inside. Marshkit settled beside Briarkit, who was already lost in a dream that made her paws twitch, while Morningbloom circled around them. The small tom slumped into his mother's belly, nestling into her tail as it curled around him.

In the silence that quickly settled upon the den, Orangekit heard Marshkit whisper..

"Goodnight, Orangekit."

He smiled softly.

"Sweet dreams, Marshkit."

A/N: Hey, readers!

I apologize for the extreme delay with this Chapter. I know I said last chapter I'd update once or twice a week, but that probably won't be happening. College deadlines are coming up, so I've been very busy ((and stressed yikes)) and along with it, there's been a lot of drama I've had to sort out.
Since this story is sort've a diary for me, I've had to rework some of the plot points for the future and change some characters around. I also rewrote this chapter, which didn't help with the timing. But since I had a few minutes to breathe, I wanted to spend it by finishing and putting out this chapter, before the bustle of school and responsibilities sweep me away again.
Enough excuses, though- I really hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Got something to say? Leave a Review! And if you like the story, be sure to Follow for its next update (it'll be like a little surprise that neither of us know when will happen, bc my life is unpredictable xD).
Thank you so much for reading, and any sort of support is deeply appreciated!
Until next Chapter,
-W.