Chapter 2

The Clan walked numbly into camp, Firestar's body suspended between Jayfeather and Silvereyes. A wail split the air, replacing the frost with grief. "Firestar! NO!" The wail wasn't even his mate's. It was Ferncloud's, as the horrified she-cat sped across the clearing. "No!" She screeched again, her eyes massive with sadness.

"It's all HER fault!" Berrynose wailed, swinging his head to the black she-cat who so kindly offered to help move their dead leader's body in a time of great grief. "SHE caused him to die!"

Oddly, silence followed his words, and no cat mentioned that it had indeed been Berrynose who wanted to fight Firestar to the death. Why was this? Silvereyes was a ShadowClan cat. And even if it's clear it's ThunderClan who did it, SOMEHOW ShadowClan takes the blame, oh-so-generously.

Silvereyes stared at Berrynose, her silver eyes wide. "What!? You're pinning this on me? YOU'RE the one who-"

"I will choose my new deputy now, before I head to moonpool," Brambleclaw cut her off. "But not yet."

"Nooooo..." Ferncloud's muffled shriek split the frozen silence. "No." Ferncloud suddenly spun around, a dark-and-pale-grey blur, and charged the shady-ShadowClan-she-cat.

"Bye Jayfeather!" Silvereyes called, spinning around to leave in fear of being attacked by these bereaved, leaderless cats.

"See you next half-moon!" Jayfeather yelled. All the cats looked at him in cold, bitter...

...confusion. What was he doing!? Talking with this retched, ShadowClan... thing? Jayfeather turned harsh, sightless blue eyes on them and shrugged. "I've been... training her since her mentor died early."

Excuse! The whole Clan narrowed accusing eyes simultaneously. "What!? It's true!" he snapped, sulking back into the medicine den, angry that his friend was gone. "AND YOU SET UP THE VIGIL BY YOURSELVES! MY HERBS!" All the cats stared after him with genuine confusion at their medicine cat's random mood swing. It was incomprehensible to them that their precious ThunderClan medicine cat could have ANYTHING to do with that evil, ShadowClan retch of a cat.

That, and his mood swing. "So..." Sandstorm spoke up. "Shall I prepare the vigil?" Brambleclaw nodded. "And I will choose my new deputy. JAYFEATHER!"

"No," a deep, rich voice from the stars above said. "You can't do that. He is a medicine cat."

"Oh, why not, epic voice of the Heavens!? Jaystar would be SUCH! A COOL! NAME~" yelled Brambleclaw, in a kit-like fury. "Fine! Lionblaze, you'll have to do. Is THAT okay, Voice of the Heavens!?"

"If you don't mind losing another deputy."

"Oh, okay." Brambleclaw shrugged. "Lionblaze, you're my deputy now."

Lionblaze stared from Brambleclaw to the Heaveans with pure horror. "What!? Was that a prophecy!? I don't wanna be deputy if it means I die! IT DIDN"T EVEN RHYME!" With that, Lionblaze was thrown into a seizure and passed out. Everyone stared at him in pure, idiotic confusion.

Then Cherrykit gained her wits and yelled, "JAYFEATHER! Something's wrong with Lionblaze!"

"What, you didn't already know that? There's ALWAYS been something wrong with Lionblaze." Jayfeather padded out, rolling his eyes. "Oh yah, and that. One too many battles'll do that to him. He'll snap out of it eventually. Nothing to worry about, it'll be fine." Cherrykit stared at him with confusion.

"If... you say so..." She blinked and trotted back to the nursery, surprisingly, she was still awake when the gathering patrol had come home.