Chapter 3

Bumblekit showed me the warrior's den, the apprentice's den, the nursery, and the leader's den.

"And finally, the medicine cat's den!" Bumblekit mewed. "Leafpool sleeps here, with her apprentice Jaypaw. Jaypaw's training to be a medicine cat," he wrinkled his nose, "Personally, I want to be a warrior. It's too bad he's blind."

As I turned to go back to the nursery with Bumblekit, I picked up a hushed voice. I pricked my ears. It sounded like Mousefur's voice. I guess she was rested up.

"I can't believe that ShadowClan would betray StarClan like that!" Mousefur mewed.

"I can't either," Jaypaw replied grumpily.

"Jaypaw, can you go check on Purdy and Briarkit?" I heard Leafpool ask. "Oh, and while you're at it, get some borage as well."

"Now, if you excuse me, I need to go check on Briarkit and collect some borage," Jaypaw said to Mousefur.

I narrowly avoided being trampled by Jaypaw as he stormed past me. I rolled off to the side and bumped into Bumblekit.

"Hey, are you okay?" Bumblekit asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, scrambling to my paws, "Hey, you forgot to show me where the dirt place is."

Bumblekit froze. "Right. Yeah. Of course. It's that way," he said, pointing with his tail.

I stalked off to the dirt place, snuck out of camp, and hid near the camp entrance. I mean who care if I broke the Warrior Code? It's the Warrior Code so only Warriors have to follow it, right? If I was correct, and I was indeed in Long Shadows, then Jaypaw, Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze would go to the ShadowClan camp.

Heartbeats later, I saw three figures exit the camp. I peeked over the bushes. It was the Three!

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I heard Jaypaw ask.

"Yes, of course," I heard Hollyleaf reply. "ShadowClan is breaking the warrior code!"

"You're breaking the warrior code by sneaking off into ShadowClan territory," Lionblaze scoffed.

"But ignoring StarClan is much more of a bigger deal!" I heard Hollyleaf exclaim. "We can't just let ShadowClan get away with this!"

"Come on, you two," Jaypaw grumbled. "We can't be gone too long or else everybody will be suspicious."

I heard them start to run through the trees. Soon, they vanished into the trees.

"They're going to spy on ShadowClan," I mumbled to myself. "Then, Tawnypelt's going to come back to camp with them." Should I go with them? Or should I let destiny take its course? Ugh, so many decisions, especially ones that could alter the destinies of some cats.

"Flamekit, what are you doing out here?" a voice exclaimed.

I whirled around to find Rosekit panting behind me.

"What are you doing here, Rosekit?" I hissed softly at her. Starclan, if more kits follow me, then they will realize that we're gone and start search parties.

"What are you doing here?" Rosekit retorted. "If you're here, then I can too!"

"Ugh, fine. But don't tell anyone, and stay close to me, got it?" I meowed while stalking toward the direction to where the Three had gone off to.

Behind me, Rosekit pranced happily. She made all kinds of noise: stepping on twigs, playing with leaves, and meowing loudly to me. Each noise made me cringe.

"Rosekit, stop!" I hissed at her, "If you keep fooling around, then someone is bound to catch us. Remember, be quiet. Mousebrain."

Rosekit nodded.

Right then, I heard a squirrel scuffling on one of the trees. "Squirrel!" Rosekit shrieked.

Oh my StarClan. "Rosekit! What did I say about being quiet!" I hissed harshly at her while batting her head softly with my orange-pelted paw.

"Sorry." She meowed back.

We continued to follow their scent until I heard voices.

"Down!" I whispered to Rosekit.

We crouched in the grass. I ahead into the trees and saw Jaypaw, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf in the tree, gazing intently at something.

"Cats of ShadowClan!" I heard a booming voice.

Rosekit gasped. "Sh-ShadowClan?" she asked, shocked.

I put my tail over her muzzle, "How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?"

"I have asked that you renounce StarClan, and you have obeyed. StarClan has done nothing for you, in your times of deepest trouble. Instead of giving you blessings, they have cursed you with terrible leaders and a sweeping sickness. StarClan will not protect you now, when the sun vanishes."

A collective gasp was heard in the camp.

"How do you know if the sun will vanish, Sol?" A ShadowClan cat asked. I think that was Tawnypelt, the way she always questioned decisions that weren't verified by StarClan or otherwise.

No. "Rosekit, stay here and stay hidden. I have to do something." I meowed softly to her.

"Wai-" Rosekit started but I was already going around the camp to get to Flamepaw, the future medicine cat kit, not me.

"StarClan has told me in my dreams." Sol answered with a smug look on his face. Gasps filled the camp as cats conversed with each other.

I finally got to Flamepaw and pushed him into a bush. "Be quiet, or else ShadowClan will be lost to Sol." I turned back to Sol. "Lies!" I brought my voice down to a lower octave, "Those are all lies! Midnight was the one who told you that, not StarClan! You just used what Midnight told you to your advantage!"

I looked at the rest of the ShadowClan cats who looked at me in shock. I saw Littlecloud looking at me with pride, and Sol looking at me with disgust. "And how would you know that, Flamepaw?" he spat.

"Unlike you, StarClan actually came into my dream and warned me about you!" I spat back at him.

"Then what was the message they gave you?" asked Blackstar.

"Raggedstar came to me and said: 'Beware of the one who looks like a lion for it is he who will deceive you all by using information given by Midnight.' I think we all know who the 'one who looks like a lion is'." I glanced over at Sol accusingly.

I heard a gasp that was barely audible from somewhere up above.

Sol pricked his ears. It looked like he heard it too. "Who's there?" he growled.

I froze. The Three were in danger!

"Sorry, that was me," I heard Littlecloud cough.

Sol narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure I heard someone here. Someone is spying on us!"

'No dip, Sherlock,' I thought. I quickly glanced back up at the tree. Lionblaze was helping Jaypaw down from the tree, well trying to anyways. I'm pretty sure Jawpaw won't want anybody fussing over him, even in danger.

Sol followed my gaze. "Aha!" he cried, "The spies are over there!"

I resisted the urge to facepaw myself. 'That was a stupid mistake,' I thought to myself.

Sol whirled back towards me. "You were in on this, right, Flamepaw?"

I swallowed. Tawnypelt looked at me, with somewhat of a proud look. Rowanclaw narrowed his eyes at me.

.

"I only spoke the truth, Sol. Once more, unlike you." I glanced back at Blackstar, "I mean seriously, who are you going to believe, a cat we don't know and never met before or an apprentice who is really a cat of ShadowClan and known by his Clanmates all his life?"

Glances were exchanged between Blackstar and Russetfur, "That does make sense. But again, an apprentice as young as you are can be lying to get what he wants. So how about this: Sol, tell us who gave you the message and what it was." Rowanclaw meowed calmly.

Sol froze. I glanced back at the tree to see that the Three were gone.

"Well, you see, Midnight came up to me and-," Sol stammered.

"How do you know Midnight?" Blackstar said, narrowing his eyes.

"Should we really believe him, Blackstar?" Russetfur asked. "After all, he may just be a lying rogue looking to make some mischief."

Blackstar stood and walked towards Sol. "I don't know if we should trust you," he snarled, "Even if you claim that StarClan has left us, how do we know? You just come into our camp and feed us lies, while Littlecloud has been here his whole life telling me the absolute truth? Why should there be a reason for me to believe you?"

'Yes, it's working!' I thought happily.

I walked backwards slowly, going to fetch the real Flamepaw. Flamepaw looked at me, his eyes wide.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

"I'm Flamekit, from ThunderClan," I answered. "Just trust me, okay? I know I might seem suspicious right now, but I swear on StarClan, you will thank me for this later on. Think you can handle it from here?"

Flamepaw nodded. "I think so."

"Okay, I'm going to go now," I whispered. "Just stay calm, okay?"

I turned before he could reply and raced back to the ThunderClan camp.