A/N: It's been some time since I updated; it's because my grandparents are on vacation in Cancun (Spelling

A/N: It's been some time since I updated; it's because my grandparents are on vacation in Cancun (Spelling?) and my aunt and uncle are strict about 'no computer on weekdays, and do anything you want on weekends' rule. Oh, the long time also gave me the idea of a plot twist… read and review please!

Chapter 9 – Threat

The very day Dawncloud—no, Dawnstar returned from the Moonpool from receiving her nine lives after Foxstar had passed away, she sent an apprentice to fetch Duskshadow to meet her near the lake.

Duskshadow despaired at first—he hoped she wasn't going to press him into becoming her deputy—but he still limped out of camp. He felt Ravenwing's presence at his back, following again, but this time he ignored her.

They had exited camp like this for two days after the first time they had sparred in the training hollow, and each fight ended in victory for the medicine cat. Well, she wasn't a type of cat to boast about defeating Duskshadow, and he felt he was getting better.

He would have been huffing and puffing as he found Dawnstar, but his daily exercises out of camp helped regain his old stamina back. "So now that the fearsome Dawncloud has become leader, what'll you do with this power?" he asked as he emerged from the trees.

Dawnstar turned with helplessness in her green eyes. "Please, Duskshadow, I know we can do it! ThunderClan will be the strongest Clan around the lake, but I need you as my deputy—"

"No. How many times do I have to say no!?" he snarled. I hope you're there, Ravenwing, he thought. You're the witness to her madness. Just don't be mousebrained enough to jump out! "I was made to fight, not to talk and bandy words with other leaders. That's all the elders tell us! The legendary Firestar was a talker, not a fighter. I don't want to become the same."

Dawnstar flinched from his rage, but her own fire was showing in her green eyes. "Fine," she spat. "You say you were made to fight. Don't worry, dear brother, if it's fighting you want, it's fighting I'll give you. I'll make Rowanheart deputy, how would you like that?"

Duskshadow rolled his eyes. "Are you serious? Rowanheart's a mousebrained fool who charges into battle, falls to envy easily, and he can't even think before he fights!"

"Then what is your suggestion, brother?"

"Willowstep. He's a senior warrior, not too old and not too young and rash like Rowanheart. He's well-known at Gatherings, so while you play at war and plot your little take-over-the-Clans game, he can gain enough respect from ThunderClan so the other Clans won't suspect a thing."

Dawnstar blinked, and murmured, "You know, I really think Foxstar was a mousebrain not to replace Stormclaw with you."

If you mean I have the brains to be a tactical genius, it doesn't mean I have to be leader if I don't want to! Without another word, Duskshadow turned back to camp.

As he passed the first tree, he saw Ravenwing's huge blue eyes as she gaped at him. "Hide, mousebrain," he hissed under his breath so even Dawnstar couldn't hear. Ravenwing understood what he meant and crept off in the other direction, towards the Sky Oak and the training grounds with steady paws.

When he finally reached the camp, he picked out a vole from the fresh-kill pile, trying to think on what Dawnstar was trying to do with a full belly, when an apprentice pelted into camp yowling, "Dawnstar has brought in a Clan of rogues!"

Sure enough, there was a terrifying beating of marching paws that sounded like a stampede. At the front was Dawnstar, her golden fur shining like the sun and her eyes gleaming with triumph, with a massive host of rogues at her back.