Blood began to stain the ground as Seapaw coughed, desperately attempting to regain strength. Meadowpaw pawed at his back in attempt to dislodge the smoke that was blocking his lungs. He groaned and fell over in a heap of whimpers.

"I said, let's go. But no, we had to save the guy who's just adores giving us scars. Sure, that makes sense," Meadowpaw mumbled.

"If he had just listened to m- Ahh!" Meadowpaw let out a girlish squeak as a cloud of fire erupted in front of her. She pulled Seapaw quickly behind her - painfully, miserably.

Soon, she began coughing too. Not as badly as her brother – Seapaw was still smaller than her, so she could take a little more than he could.

Meadowpaw looked around, hoping for a sign of familiarity, but she found nothing. She was in… the forest? Camp? Maybe… no, she couldn't be in the tunnels, the fire couldn't reach the tunnels.

Right?

Finally she reached a spot that looked familiar – a small cave, with red gems shining inside – crystals, reflecting the red, orange, and yellow of the flames. The place where she had hidden with Seapaw from Autumnsecret.

Autumnsecret – she'd be willing to bet that this was his fault. Ugh! How she hated him!

A cloud of smoke got caught in her throat and she gasped hopefully, but nothing happened.

A fiery crystal was the last thing she saw.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's kind of obvious; she's breathing, mouse-brain."

"Okay, okay, how many others did we get?"

"The only RiverClan warrior who we got woke up and ran off with his fur still on fire. We managed to get Spiralpath – I'm sure Tearpath will be overjoyed. Most of the kits were found with him by the lake except for this little one and the tabby she was with. The smoke had traveled to the lake by then, and a couple of the kits had blacked out… they were sort of trapped. We barely got them out and we lost one. We barely got Severedtail out and he might not make it – he was trying to save the little Medicine cat apprentice."

"Shiningpaw?" the first voice asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that's the one," voice two replied.

Meadowpaw blinked and shook herself, taking a long stretch.

"Hey look, the little blue-gray one woke up," the second voice whispered.

Meadowpaw did a small, dizzying spin and fell over, facing a jet-black tom cat. He was next to a snowy white tortoiseshell.

The young white she-cat turned to her. "Yeah, I guess she did. Told you she was breathing."

Meadowpaw did a double take. Yes, there was Spiralpath, and next to him were Shadowpaw and Fawnpaw… Seapaw was curled up next to her, but he didn't look good. His fur was tinged with black and carried a layer of soot on top of his usually gray fur.

Without acknowledging the white or black cat, she examined him carefully. One patch of fur right below his left ear was singed completely off, and the skin was burned underneath. His pads were badly charred, and his breathing came in a rapid, rise and fall of his ribs. For the first time, she noticed how skinny he was looking, even for a TunnelClan cat. She flashed back to the day when he had given her a bit of his food.

"What's your name?" the black cat asked.

Meadowpaw turned suspiciously to him. "Who are you?" she retorted.

They looked shocked. "Um… Well, I'm Honorheart, and… she's Timecloud," the black tom, apparently Honorheart, replied shakily.

Meadowpaw remained silent. Timecloud stepped forward a sat down next to Meadowpaw.

"What did you say your name was?"

Meadowpaw looked up into the gentle blue eyes. "Meadowpaw…"