Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors. However, I do happen to own the characters that were created for this story. Please don't steal any of them intentionally.

Chapter 7

After Crimsonstar, Featherstar, and Angelstar introduced themselves to Gloom as well, the three leaders and Rowanwind went off to discuss what they should do now with RogueClan.

"I don't trust them," Crimsonstar said the moment they were out of earshot of the other cats.

"Crimsonstar, you trust no one but the cats of your own Clan," Featherstar meowed harshly. "You not trusting them comes to no surprise." The RiverClan leader looked at Angelstar and Rowanwind. "It is obvious that they want to help us. They have been through much more than we have. It's also quite clear that they will follow Rowanwind to their last dying breath, especially Gloom."

"Then are we agreeing to ally ourselves with them?" Rowanwind asked.

Angelstar nodded. "I cannot think of turning them away now."

Crimsonstar grunted. "Fine. But if they turn out to betray us, I blame the rest of you for not listening to me."

"That is fine, Crimsonstar," Featherstar meowed.

Rowanwind couldn't help but feel deep respect for Featherstar. She was never afraid to say something harsh to the grouchy Crimsonstar.

"Now, we need to figure out where they are going to live," Featherstar said. "I know for certain that none of us have the room to allow them onto our territories."

Rowanwind suddenly had an idea. "What about the area around the Moonpool? It would be perfect. There are no longer any cats there because DarkClan killed off most of Slug and Thicket's family."

"That is a brilliant idea, Rowanwind," Featherstar agreed. "Are there any objections to allowing RogueClan a temporary home in the area near the Moonpool?"

Angelstar and Crimsonstar did not object.

"Then it's settled," Featherstar said. "Let us go and tell them."

The four of them headed back to the clearing.

"We've come to a decision," Rowanwind told the members of RogueClan. "You may fight with us. As for where you may stay, there is an area near our sacred Moonpool that you can stay. You may come with us of ThunderClan so we may show you."

"Thank you. You will not regret having us fight beside you. We'll fight until this war is over," Gloom meowed. "Lead on, Rowanwind. Lead on."


After Rowanwind and the others showed RogueClan the area where they could stay, they headed back home. The forest seemed peaceful, for once, with birds chirruping and the wind rustling the branches of the trees overhead. Rowanwind couldn't remember the last time he felt so peaceful. No doubt it had been before DarkClan had cast shadows over the Clans around the lake.

"Do you hear that?" Oakpelt whispered, stopping in his tracks.

Rowanwind and the others stopped quickly. Stormypelt looked at Oakpelt curiously. The other three looked around, their ears perked to try and pinpoint the noise that Oakpelt had heard.

"This way!" Oakpelt said in a low whisper. He went into the hunter's crouch and began to creep around a bush.

Rowanwind gestured with his tail for the others to follow Oakpelt's lead. The ThunderClan cats all crept through the forest, their paws making no noise on the forest floor. Rowanwind's heart thundered in his chest. Could what Oakpelt have heard be what had killed Stonebreeze?

Oakpelt suddenly paused, staring into the clearing that had been hidden from them by the bush. They all ducked down out of sight and peered into the clearing with horror. Sitting with their backs to the ThunderClan cats were three DarkClan toms, their pelts looking like pieces of the night in the middle of the clearing. And sitting in front of these three toms was none other than Maggotpaw, Frostflower's medicine cat apprentice. Rowanwind wondered what she was doing, and why the DarkClan cats weren't attacking her. His questions were answered a few moments later.

"Do you have any idea how he died?" the DarkClan tom seated directly in front of Maggotpaw asked.

"No," Maggotpaw said, her voice quavering. "I told you, Rowanwind only said that he had a mysterious injury that was a hole."

"Did Rowanwind see the injury himself?" the tom demanded.

"I...I don't know. I think the ShadowClan cats only told him about it," Maggotpaw replied. "I don't think he ever actually saw Stonebreeze."

Rowanwind's stomach dropped to his paws with realization about what Maggotpaw was doing...she was reporting to the DarkClan cats!

"We will have to keep that in consideration. Whatever killed the tom could still be in the forest," one of the other toms said.

The other two DarkClan toms nodded.

"Hopefully it will not hinder our plans of taking over this area," the third DarkClan tom meowed.

"And what of this rogue that they were supposed to be meeting?" the first tom asked, turning back to a quivering Maggotpaw.

"I only know that he knows about you," Maggotpaw said. "And that he wanted to meet the leaders of the four lake Clans on the Gathering island."

Rowanwind wanted to scream. Maggotpaw was giving absolutely everything away to their enemy! Suspicion crept into his mind as he thought about the fact that Clawstar's patrol had been attacked, resulting in the leader losing most of his lives. He'd been wondering how the DarkClan cats had known their leader was going out on patrol...could Maggotpaw have possibly told them? With everything he was seeing here, it was highly likely.

"That is disturbing," the second tom muttered. His voice grew louder. "Do you think the rogue may know too much about us, Crusade?"

"Unlikely," the first tom replied. "We've stayed here too long. We will be back, Maggotpaw..."

Rowanwind felt something touch his shoulder. He turned slightly to see Stormypelt looking at him with the anxiousness of battle in her light blue eyes. With a deep breath, Rowanwind lashed his tail, giving the signal to attack.

With yowls and screeches, Stormypelt, Oakpelt, Crookedfern, Blackcloud, and Cedarspirit charged out from their hiding place. He heard surprised screams from the clearing and watched his warriors chase off the three DarkClan toms. When they had all disappeared through the trees, Rowanwind padded out to find Maggotpaw crouched in the spot she had been sitting before. When she saw Rowanwind, her light brown eyes widened and filled with tears.

"Rowanwind!" she gasped. "I...I can explain!"

Rowanwind hissed at her and pinned her to the ground. Her eyes went even wider. "I'm not the one you need to be explaining things to!" Rowanwind sneered. His anger bubbled through his body. "You're the one who told them about Clawstar going out on patrol, aren't you? That's how they knew when to attack!"

"Yes...but...but..." Maggotpaw stuttered.

"It's your fault that Clawstar is on his last life!" Rowanwind shouted.

He felt someone grab his shoulders with their claws and yank him off of Maggotpaw. Rowanwind spun around with a snarl.

"What do you...?" He stopped when he realized it was Stormypelt.

"Stop it, Rowanwind. You're scaring the fur off of her," Stormypelt meowed. "Did you even stop to think that there might be a good reason behind why Maggotpaw was giving DarkClan information?"

"A good reason?" Rowanwind spat angrily. "There are no excuses for treachery like this, Stormypelt!"

Stormypelt slapped his mouth with her tail. "Stop it, Rowanwind. Let's take her back to camp and let Clawstar deal with her. And stop screaming, you'll scare off all the prey any hunting patrols might catch."

Rowanwind took a deep breath. "Fine. Come on, Maggotpaw."

"The others headed back to camp after we chased off the DarkClan cats," Stormypelt whispered as they walked.

Rowanwind had forced Maggotpaw to walk in front of them, so he could keep an eye on her.

"That's fine," Rowanwind grumbled.

The news must have spread by the time they returned to camp. Most of the ThunderClan cats were outside of their dens and sitting together in whispering groups. When Maggotpaw, Rowanwind, and Stormypelt entered, the camp fell deathly silent.

Clawstar and Frostflower walked over together. Rowanwind noticed the disappointment on Frostflower's face and the calm on Clawstar's.

"Maggotpaw, Rowanwind, come with me," Clawstar meowed. "Frostflower, you may as well come along."

Clawstar led the way to Frostflower's den. Rowanwind thanked StarClan they had no injured or sick cats inside the den today. Clawstar sat down and Frostflower sat next to him. Rowanwind went and sat on Clawstar's other side. All three of them faced Maggotpaw, whose shoulders were hunched.

"Oakpelt and the others told me what happened," Clawstar said. He turned to Rowanwind. "Is it true, Rowanwind? Has Maggotpaw been giving information to DarkClan about things that have been happening in our Clans?"

"It is true," Rowanwind said. His paws tingled. "I heard everything with my own ears. Maggotpaw was telling them everything."

Clawstar's light green eyes closed and he took a deep breath. His eyes opened slowly and he looked at Maggotpaw. Her eyes were full of tears again. "I'm afraid, Maggotpaw, unless you can come up with a very good story as to why you were found giving information to DarkClan, our dreaded enemies...I am going to have to exhile you from ThunderClan."

Maggotpaw hung her head. "I...I do have a reason...for...for giving them information." A sob shook her shoulders. "They told me...when they killed my family...and kidnapped my brother...they said that if I were to get into...into one of the Clans and...and gave them inside information they...they wouldn't kill my brother."

Rowanwind remembered her saying, when she had first come to ThunderClan, that her brother had been kidnapped by DarkClan.

"And...and...and now they're going to kill him...kill him for sure!" Maggotpaw sobbed. She lay down and buried her face in her paws. Her shoulders shook with her sobs. "I...I don't want Whisker to...to die! He's all...all I have left!"

"Maggotpaw!" Frostflower went forward and began to lick her apprentice's forehead. "Your brother is not all you have left. You have me. You have ThunderClan. Why didn't you tell us that DarkClan was making you give them information in trade for your brother's life?"

Maggotpaw shook her head. "I...I wasn't supposed to tell! They said...they would...would find out if I told! And then...then they would kill him!"

Frostflower looked at Clawstar. "There must be something we can do, Clawstar," she whispered.

Clawstar's green eyes were blazing with anger. "There is something we can do." Clawstar turned to Rowanwind. "Gingerheart was kidnapped and kept at DarkClan's camp, wasn't she?"

"Yes," Rowanwind replied, wondering where his leader's mind was going.

Clawstar looked back at Frostflower and Maggotpaw. "Then she can lead us to them. It's time we take this war to them! Rowanwind, we will need a few of our strongest warriors for this attack."

"Are you insane?" Rowanwind gasped. "What could we possibly accomplish by attacking DarkClan's camp by ourselves?"

"Oh, we wouldn't be by ourselves, dear Rowanwind!" Clawstar said. "We will bring our allies...because we are going to free all of DarkClan's imprisoned cats!"


"Are you serious?" Granitetail gaped when Clawstar had gathered the Clan and told them of his plans.

"I am quite serious, Granitetail," Clawstar said. "Gingerheart, please come here."

Gingerheart sheepishly walked forward from where she was sitting beside Thunderstripe.

"You know where DarkClan's camp is, don't you? You spent some time there when you were kidnapped," Clawstar said.

"Yes, but I never thought I'd go back," Gingerheart replied.

"We will need you to be brave, Gingerheart," Clawstar said. "Do you think you can do it?"

Thunderstripe came forward. "I'll go with you, Gingerheart. We can lead the patrol together."

Gingerheart took a deep breath. "Okay, Clawstar. I'll do it."

"Good. Now, we must not be too hard on Maggotpaw. We've learned that the reason she was giving DarkClan information is because her brother was kidnapped by them. They have been blackmailing her, telling her that they will kill her brother if she does not give them the information. That is one of our main goals of this attack: we are going to attempt to free all of the imprisoned cats in DarkClan," Clawstar said.

"Icefur, too?" Rainfur screeched.

Sootpaw scowled at his mother for a moment.

"Yes, even Icefur," Clawstar replied. "He may have betrayed us, but I am sure none of us really think he deserves to be imprisoned.

"Now, we need to discuss who will go and who will stay behind to guard the camp. Rowanwind, I want you to choose two warriors to go with you tomorrow morning to give the news to the other Clans and ask for their help. I know you just went off to tell them all about the rogue wanting to talk to all of the leaders, but this is much more urgent."

"Speaking of the rogue," Rowanwind interrupted. "Oakpelt, can you go and tell RogueClan tomorrow that we are attacking DarkClan?"

"RogueClan?" Clawstar asked Rowanwind as Oakpelt nodded.

"Yes. The rogue turned out to be an old tom named Gloom, who is leading a small group of cats who call themselves RogueClan. Gloom said he was once part of a Clan called MoonClan, which was destroyed by DarkClan. He promised to help us fight against DarkClan until the very end of this war. They are living near the Moonpool now."

"More allies! That is good news, Rowanwind. We will need their extra forces if we want to pull this off," Clawstar said. "And now, I believe I have an idea of who will be going. Oakpelt, Granitetail, Reedclaw, Meadowlark, Mistmeadow, Darkeye, and Silvermoon. Rowanwind, you may go as well to help Gingerheart and Thunderstripe lead the attack. Blackcloud, while they are gone, I want you to help me in the camp. Does anyone object?"

"What about the apprentices?" Oakpelt wondered.

Clawstar shook his head. "No. Attacks on our territory and our camp are enough battles for them. If they are injured without Frostflower around to administer care...we cannot afford to lose any of our apprentices."

"Oh, fox dung!" Stormpaw grumbled.

Purepaw hit the young apprentice on the head with his paw to quiet him.

"Now that it's all settled, we should set up some hunting patrols so that there is enough fresh-kill for the warriors going off to battle tomorrow," Clawstar said, as if Stormpaw had never said anything. "Crookedfern and Thornfur, would you mind taking your apprentices out to hunt? Wetpelt, you can take Lightdew and Twigleaf out to hunt as well."

The cats Clawstar had called got together and went off to hunt as the other cats began to head to their dens and over to the fresh-kill pile.

"I'm going to check on Maggotpaw. I gave her something to calm her down, but I may not have given her enough," Frostflower meowed to Clawstar before padding away.

Clawstar sighed and looked at Rowanwind. "What a tragic life poor Maggotpaw has led, Rowanwind. A poor, tragic life indeed."

"Yes," Rowanwind agreed, watching Frostflower pad away to tend to her apprentice. Guilt was clawing at his belly as he thought of how easily he had jumped to conclusions about Maggotpaw. "Very tragic."


End of Chapter Seven

Author's Notes: I really enjoyed writing this chapter because I finally got to reveal the fact that Maggotpaw was giving information to DarkClan. I've been waiting for quite a while to get that out in the open, and now it is finally out. I'm sure Maggotpaw can breath much better now!