"No! Not Mistysplash!"

The loud yowl woke Amberkit, who had been sleeping lightly curled up next to her mother. 'Mistysplash?' she thought. 'That's the deputy, I think. They sound distraught. I wonder what happened to her?'

Amberkit tastes the air carefully. The scent and feel of fresh air was somewhere to her right. Her mother was snoring softly at her left. Amberkit slowly got up, careful not to wake her mother. Then she padded out of the nursery slowly, taking care not to step on Blazekit's paw, which was dangling in her way. She swiftly reached the entrance to the nursery, and carefully poked her muzzle out of the nursery. A rusty tang was in the air, accomapnied by cries of anguish. Out of the voices, she picked out Cloudstar, Mousetail, Maplestorm, and Shadeleaf's voices. The original cat who had cried out was Icerose.

"It was HurricaneClan, " Maplestorm mewed bitterly. "I turned my back on her for a second to help Rosepaw, and when I turned back, there she was, the life bleeding out of her. I noticed Haretail running away from Mistysplash, and Mousetail chased after her, but both of us were too late."

"Mistysplash was a good deputy," Cloudstar was mewing softly. "We will have her vigil tonight."

Amberkit realized, by the feel of the sun's warmth on her whiskers, that it was that funny in-between time, before sunhigh yet well after sun-rise. Most of the cats would have been gone on a patrol or hunting.

"And so, when I got there, I noticed a HurricaneClan warrior slip away from Mistysplash, who was lying on the ground, motionless. Maplestorm was hurrying towards her, and I took off after the warrior. I recognized her, it was Haretail. Beetlepaw was a few tail-lengths in front of her. I tried to catch up, to teach them a lesson, but Beetlepaw had already gotten away, and I barely got to swipe my claws down her flank when she disappeared down a rabbit hole," Mousetail was saying, "the coward." He spat these last words out like crowfood.

"It does indeed look like a cat deliberately scored their claws down her side and there's a puncture on the neck, too," Shadeleaf has interjected. "This wasn't a misplaced blow."

Amberkit could hear Cloudstar sigh quietly, the sound muffled by the sound of an exclamation coming from the direction of the elder's den. She recognized the deep, loud, yet raspy voice. It was Lionroar.

"What happened?" the elder exclaimed. "Is that Mistysplash? She- she's dead!"

Shaken, Amberkit drew back inside the nursery. Now she recognized that tangy, bitter, salty smell smell. She had smelt it before, when Fernkit had cut her paw pad on a sharp rock. Blood.

Unknown to her, she would smell it much, much more in her lifetime.

A/N: Sorry for the short chappie. Just wanted to sort out the Mistysplash stuff.

~Misty