A/N: After posting Chap 3, I realized that the prologue has been misspelled for a while. Whoops. ^^'

There were also quite a lot of /these/ in it. To explain, the first 2 chapters were made in Wordpad. Putting Wordpad on here doesn't save this and bold whenever you send it over, so I used slashes to help me remember what to put in italacs. The semicolon misuse? Well... I'm still not very well informed on those, so it's gonna take me a while to start using them correctly.

Lastly, even if you're just stopping by, it would mean the world to me if any of you posted your thoughts on this story. Polite critiques will also be appreciated! :)

"There's nothing here," Sandflower reported.

"Are you sure?" Daisyheart inquired, narrowing her eyes.

"Of course!" Sandflower exclaimed, finding it hard not to snort. "I've checked it at least three times."

Daisyheart looked unsettled for a few moments, before the usual nonchalantness she carried returned.

"Fine."

"And the others have checked three times too," Sandflower scolded, "the badger isn't here."

Daisyheart rolled her eyes. "You need to remember that I'm deputy."

"And I'm the best queen this clan has ever had," Sandflower noted, raising her tail.

"I think you mean elder," Daisyheart scoffed.

"Maybe eventually," Sandflower meowed, showing mock innocence, "and when you're leader, the kits will always come to me and ask of how my dear sister was such a grouchy furball."

Daisyheart huffed, looking the other way.

Sandflower frowned. Her sister certainly was a grouchy furball. Couldn't she take a joke for once?

Sandflower stared at Daisyheart, as if she was expecting her to answer, but eventually gave up and trotted away to find the other badger hunters. Since Daisyheart was being so stubborn, it was up to her to take charge. Their enemy was obviously not here, so there was no sense in continuing a lost cause.

Sandflower's first choice was Hollyfoot. Out of all cats, she presumed that he had the oddest scent, so it would be easy for her to find him.

Following the trail exactly, she eventually came to a halt when it abruptly ended. Looking around confusedly, she assumed that it was just a mistake on her part, until she caught sight of white fur poking out from underground.

Alarmed, she moved swiftly over to it, only to be relieved when she realized that he wasn't buried alive. Instead, he was under an overhanging patch of ground, curled up with his nose buried in the dirt.

She frowned. "What are you doing?"

The tom's head jerked up, but he didn't turn to look at her. "I'm sniffing for badgers."

"In this tiny spot?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side. "That barely even fits you."

"Better to be safe than sorry," he said, getting up to stand beside her. "Now, since you're so concerned about me, why aren't you looking for it?"

Sandflower nearly rolled her eyes, but upon catching a faint gleam of playfulness in his eyes, she instead hissed. "Daisyheart is being stubborn," she meowed before adding on a quick, "And stop mooning after me!"

"Mooning?" he pouted, tilting his head to the side. "I don't see how being nice automatically means I'm after you."

Sandflower gritted her teeth. "Good," was all that she could think of to say. The thought of Hollyfoot falling in love with was almost sickening – especially considering how he was already the father to one kit and a possible father to two others.

"What's gotten under Daisyheart's fur?" Hollyfoot asked, breaking the silence. "Has all this responsibility gotten to her head?"

"Likely," Sandflower said, trying to keep her voice lighthearted. She was relieved to know that he had already dropped the whole "mooning" subject.

"Find anything?" a voice interrupted from behind them.

Sandflower didn't need to turn around to look, recognizing who it belonged to instantly. "No, we're just leaving."

"Did the badger leave?" Buzzardpaw asked, padding up to sit by Hollyfoot. The lack of worry and hope carried in his tone was surprising to Sandflower. Did he not care about his clanmates at all?

Shaking her head, she shoved the thought away. She had already been quick to judge with Hollyfoot – and she definitely wasn't going to accidentally misinterpret Buzzardpaw, too.

"Let's go," Sandflower finally mewed. As soon as she said that, Buzzardpaw got back on his feet, allowing Sandflower to lead them all back over to Daisyheart.

"You've all checked in every spot?" Probed a frowning Daisyheart at their arrival. Buzzardpaw and Sandflower both nodded in response, while Hollyfoot was too busy looking in the other direction to notice.

With a gusty sigh, Daisyheart begrudgingly nodded. "Fine, fine," she muttered, wordlessly turning and running off into the forest. The group followed after her as quickly as possible, and Sandflower wondered if they were just as confused as she was.

When the camp came into their view, Buzzardpaw ran ahead of them and went inside first. But when the rest of the patrol got their turn, the very few cats outside were already swarming over to greet them. Surprisingly, the only one that came to Sandflower was Firewhisker, who wanted to see if she was alright. On the other paw, from front to side, Daisyheart was surrounded. Even though they were only asking one question at a time, Daisyheart looked like she thought they were asking a million. Sandflower noticed that even Hollyfoot looked uncomfortable, as he was already backing out through the bracken.

"Enough!" Daisyheart eventually shouted. There was a sharp edge to her tone - so obvious that it shocked Sandflower.

You'd think that a deputy would know to keep their cool, Sandflower thought, irritation settling in her. Daisyheart shouldn't have been this furious over losing sight of a badger. They'd find it eventually, and they would get rid of it, no questions asked. She wished that Daisyheart could relax for once.

"I'm going to speak with Hailstar about this," Daisyheart growled, shoving her way through the crowd.

As if they were on cue, the group disassembled. Only a few cats stayed behind – Marigoldpaw, who was concerned over where her brother was, and Firewhisker.

"Is she alright?" Firewhisker worried. In response, Sandflower rested her tail on his shoulder.

"She'll be calm by sunset," she meowed reassuringly, despite not being sure of these words herself. There were countless times where her sister had held a grudge for several days. "It's probably just a deputy instinct."

But, she couldn't just allow Firewhisker to drown in his worries. It wouldn't be the right thing to do.

Firewhisker believed her. "I hope. We can't let our own deputy be taken to the Medicine Cat tunnel all because she worried too much."

Sandflower rolled her eyes dramatically. "I don't think a few sneezes worth of anxiety automatically means she's going to end up like that."

Thankfully, Firewhisker didn't take the former conversation very further. With the most kit-like eyes Sandflower had ever seen, Firewhisker whimpered. "You don't have to be so mean."

Sandflower had to slap her tail over her own mouth to stifle her laughter. How was he so good at that? "Newborns shouldn't complain," she teased, removing her tail a few heartbeats before she spoke.

Sandflower took a small bite out of the ash colored squirrel, quickly passing it back over to Molecloud, who copied her, pushing it over to Firewhisker. Above them, the sun was beginning to lower, accompanied by various hues surrounding it. After Daisyheart stormed off, Sandflower hadn't seen her leave Hailstar's den at all. Although she was curious about what was taking so long, she knew it would be a bad idea to bother them. And so, along with a few others, she waited patiently for the news to arrive.

Before she knew it, the squirrel they were eating had turned into scraps. Molecloud gently pushed what was left to Sandflower, who, in response, only sent it back. "You can have the rest," Sandflower offered, washing her muzzle with one of her paws

"You want it?" Molecloud cheerfully asked, nudging Firewhisker.

When Firewhisker didn't respond, Sandflower turned to him, confused. With wide eyes, she immediately noticed that most of his fur was bristling. "What?"

Thankfully, this time, Firewhisker answered. "Did you see that?!" he hissed.

"See what?" A muffled Molecloud chimed in, swallowing the rest of the squirrel she had in her mouth.

Sandflower searched the clearing for what he was talking about, and discovered that Daisyheart was now lingering around on one side of camp. Both relieved and annoyed, she sighed. "What about her?"

"She just brushed off Marigoldpaw like she was crowfood!" Firewhisker growled.

Sandflower blinked in surprise. Of all cats, Daisyheart was the person she least expected to be rude to a cat she raised herself. But, in spite of that, she defended her sister. "She's probably busy."

Firewhisker lashed this tail. Beside him, Molecloud was quietly burying the remains of their fresh-kill.

"Being busy doesn't matter," Firewhisker meowed angrily. "That's her kit! There are no excuses for her doing that. It's like abandoning them when they need to be comforted – or even worse, hating her own offspring!"

Sandflower flinched. She was used to Firewhisker getting overly defensive when it came to kits, but that last part made her feel like she had just stepped on a thousand thorns all at once. Molecloud noticed this, but she only met Sandflower's eyes with a sad shrug, then looked away, not bothering to question it.

After that, there was an awkward silence that was almost painful for Sandflower to have to sit through. Firewhisker was too busy to realize it, Sandflower noted, seeing that his fur was still spiked and he was still glaring at Daisyheart. Molecloud was uncomfortably shuffling her paws.

Finally, Molecloud stopped the break between speaking. "I should go check up on Swiftpaw," was all she meowed, unfortunately leaving Sandflower behind to deal with this herself.

It took Sandflower a few heartbeats, but she eventually had enough of this. "Let's go talk to Marigoldpaw," she suggested, breaking Firewhisker out of his trance.

He blinked several times, quickly responding with a, "Huh? – Oh, okay."

Sandflower rolled her eyes. Although this time, she wasn't sure on whether or not it was out of annoyance.

–

It didn't take long for them to find and pad over to Marigoldpaw. She was still in the clearing, but looked as uneasy as a hare.

Sandflower was about to speak first, but Firewhisker beat her to it. "Anything wrong?"

"Have you seen Sedgeflower and Beepaw?" Marigoldpaw hesitantly asked, directing her question to Sandflower.

"He left the patrol just before we made it to the meadow," Sandflower answered, pointing her tail to the bracken entrance.

"I know, but," Marigoldpaw meowed back, giving Sandflower a look that she couldn't understand. "They never came back."

"Are you sure?" Sandflower pressed.

Marigoldpaw nodded.

Sandflower quickly glanced around the clearing, confirming that neither of the cats were outside of their dens.

"Beepaw must be in trouble!" Firewhisker exclaimed, lowering his voice to a whisper. "We have to go look for them!"

Marigoldpaw's eyes brightened. She nodded again, but this time it was in agreement.

Sandflower shrugged, looking up at the sky. "Sure, but we need to hurry before it gets too dark."

Already, Sandflower was beginning to wish that they had saved this for the morning. They had been out long enough for the moon to begin rising, and even though they had searched nearly half of the territory, none of them had spotted Beepaw or Sedgeflower's pelts.

Finally, Sandflower was beginning to understand their concern. She had assumed that they had gone on a long hunting trip, but by now, she knew that something must have gone wrong. Who would even consider prey-hunting all day in the middle of Greenleaf?

Hollykit, Poppykit, Tansykit, Foxkit… To get her mind off of her aching paws, Sandflower was trying her best to keep herself lost in thought. Because of how long this was taking, Sandflower was starting to miss Firewhisker's constant questioning to Marigoldpaw. At times, it did get annoying, but she knew that it would be a million times better than adding to her list of favorite kit names.

As they trekked on, Sandflower continued her game. Morningkit, Sootkit…

She looked back up at the moon. It was a lot higher than it was when she last looked. Robinkit… The names were getting harder and harder to think up.

Sandykit..? With a frown, she returned her attention back to the group. Looking closer at them, she wondered if they were as bored as her. Or tired. Either way, she didn't want to be here.

Blazekit, Burntkit…

Suddenly, Sandflower saw something up ahead. She couldn't pinpoint what it was, but it looked darker than the rest of the forest.

Passing it off as a heavily shaded area, she tried to get a little more entertainment out of her idea.

No, Burntkit would be cruel…

Now that they were getting closer to it, Sandflower couldn't help but gaze up to see how many tangled branches there were. Surprisingly, there were almost none. She looked back down to the oddly shaded part, squinting to try and get a better look at it.

However, her new way of looking at it didn't help at all. She stared at it for a few more moments, until something clicked. There was definitely something wrong with it.

"Stop!" she howled. Immediately, the two in front did.

"What?" Firewhisker cried, spinning around. Marigoldpaw did so as well, but it was in more of a panicked manner.

Realizing that she had overreacted, Sandflower suddenly felt embarrassed. "That thing up ahead looks really weird."

Firewhisker relaxed, but Sandflower could tell that he was holding back a scowl. "Why don't we go check it out then?"

Turning back to his former position, Firewhisker briskly trotted ahead of them. Sandflower watched him uncertainly before taking off. Beside her, Marigoldpaw tried her best to keep their paces matched, her fur still ruffled from shock.

When both cats began to catch up, Sandflower realized that Firewhisker had stopped just beside the object, almost all of his fur now spiked up. At the sight of this, she moved faster, pausing right by him to finally get a better look at whatever had spooked her.

Sandflower nearly gasped when she saw it. Just a few whisker-lengths away was the largest hole she had ever seen. It was roughly the size of 3 badgers, but deeper than the tallest oak tree she had found so far. In fact, Sandflower had no idea how deep this was, considering part of it was consumed by darkness.

Then, out of nowhere, Marigoldpaw shrieked. Hearing this made Sandflower jump quite a few pawsteps back. "SEDGEFLOWER!"

Shivering, Sandflower barely managed to force out a demand, "Where?!"

"Look," Marigoldpaw whimpered, backing away from the chasm as if it were going to swallow her up at any moment. With a sudden feeling of fear, Sandflower saw that Marigoldpaw was shaking harder than she was.

Forcing the courage to look in again, Sandflower hesitantly stepped back into place. This time, she noted that there were several ledges on the sides that she hadn't seen before.

Glancing from one to another, Sandflower saw nothing. Not willing to just give up, she looked closer, and near the bottom, she finally saw it.

Sandflower's jaw gaped. Barely hanging on one of the ledges was the body of a brown tabby.

Sedgeflower was dead.

Sandflower stepped back until she couldn't see the insides of the hole anymore. It was as if, just by seeing Sedgeflower, she had gained the worst possible greencough you could get.

Sandflower couldn't think of what to do. Where did this come from? How did she fall in? Why did it attack Sedgeflower? Could this happen to them?

All of this was making Sandflower feel worse. She didn't know how, but now it felt like she had three illnesses all at once.

Timidly, she tried to see what the others were doing. Marigoldpaw continued to shudder, but she still had enough will to keep scanning the hole. Firewhisker, on the other paw, appeared to be frozen in place. Sandflower couldn't tell on whether or not his eyes were still moving.

Meekly gazing down at her paws, Sandflower tried to recollect herself. Sedgeflower was dead, Beepaw was still missing, there was a badger on the loose, and now they had a giant monster to worry about. She couldn't move, the others were just as terrified as she was, and…

She wanted to go home.