"You know this cat?" Briarrose growled.

"Yes." A combination of grief and love making his voice a coarse rasp, "She is the cat we lost to the monster poison." He wanted to leap forward and thrust his muzzle against her shoulder and simply breathe in her scent. But even as he watched, she was fading slowly out.

"I don't have much time," Gentlebreeze meowed softly, "But know this: I followed you, my love. And I will always follow you. Find happiness, and don't be afraid to explain our ways to these good cats. They are different from yours," she added, turning her gaze to Briarrose and Snowpaw and purring softly, "but they belong to a clan as good and honorable as your own."

Patches swallowed painfully as she faded out of sight. His eyes squeezed shut as the breeze seemed to curl around him, teasing his fur delicately and flooding his lungs with her scent before gently fading away.

Tabbypath lifted his head from Silverleopard's fur and looked at the other three cats, his eyes glowing like twin full moons. "She's alive!"

The she-cat lifted her head slowly and managed to open her eyes slightly. "Tabbypath? I'm so hungry I could eat a dog…"

"She's hungry! Don't worry Silverleopard, I'm going to stuff you with freshkill until you can't think of eating another bite." The warrior was on his paws, torn between bouncing like an excited kit, nosing the she-cat behind the ears and racing off to the freshkill pile.

"That would be nice," Silverleopard sighed, her whiskers giving a small twitch of amusement.

As Tabbypath sprinted out of the Medicine Cat's den, they could hear him excitedly spouting the news to every cat in the clan.

"I think explanations are in order," Briarrose said stiffly, "starting with why a cat from a strange clan gave Silverleopard an extra life!"

"That's what she did?" Snowpaw gasped, her eyes flashing wide. "But only clan leaders get extra lives!"

"The clan I come from is different," Patches explained. "We are a peaceful group, though we all fight well against Rogues. When…" Patches swallowed, "When a cat's life is torn from them, be it monsters, accidents or… or poison, that cat keeps a close eye on her clan mates. If she can help another clan mate, she gives a life to a cat who is dying before her time."

"Why didn't the warrior ancestors save… your love?" Briarrose rumbled.

Patches tipped his head. He had wondered that himself, but now he had an idea. "I think the damage was too great. The poison wasn't diluted the way it was for Silverleopard. If the Clan of the Skies tried to save Gentlebreeze, the poison would have sucked out every life they gave her and still be powerful enough to kill her in the end. Some wounds… cannot be healed with another life."

Briarrose's eyes softened and she dipped her head, "This I know. Some day I may tell you of another cat who lost all nine of his lives in a single blow.

"With this life I give you love. May you live it until you are as silver as the stars, and your trip to your ancestors be a gentle breeze in the Elder's Den."

Patches, Briarrose and Snowpaw turned as one to look at Silverleopard. Her eyes were half lidded, and she looked exhausted, but they could almost see the strength flowing back into the weary warrior.

"That's what she told me… the cat who gave me the life. I don't deserve it. But now I've got it, I will try to live it to the fullest for my clan… and for our future." Her gaze swept toward the entrance of the den, where Tabbypath could be heard offering mumbled thanks to his clan as he padded back toward them.

Briarrose sighed, "You will have to remain here for a while longer and regain your strength. I think it's safe to send Tabbypath back to his duties, now that the danger is past for you; but you are to do nothing more strenuous than visit the dirtplace for a while. Patches, you're free to return to your duties. And keep your mouth shut about this. The clan only needs to know that… um, we have Starclan to thank for Silverleopard's recovery."

In more ways than one. Patches thought, and slipped out of the Medicine Cat's den before Tabbypath could come in. The warrior was carrying the fattest frog Patches had ever seen, and his eyes sparkled with barely restrained joy.

The clan seemed upbeat in the light of the afternoon, gossiping eagerly about Silverleopard's miraculous recovery. Silentdeath nodded in solemn approval as Runningstream eagerly praised Briarrose's skills as a Medicine cat and Tabbypath's loving devotion, which must be the reasons why Silverleopard made it through. The apprentices chattered eagerly together in a big bunch, and once again Patches was struck by their size.

In Starclan, apprentices gazed into the mirror and then demonstrated their skills in hunting as well as combat for the clan. There was no mirror here, but perhaps Shadowclan had their own method of welcoming new warriors?

Finally Falmetail, Runningstream, and Sparkfire gathered their apprentices up and led them off, reminding them of the "assessment" that Patches had heard of earlier in the day.

Grassblade nodded kindly to Patches and took a seat next to him. "We have much to celebrate. With luck, we'll have three new warriors tonight. Silverleopard, I hear, is making a recovery. And perhaps, some kits will become apprentices soon and give the queens some space in the nursery."

"What about Nightpaw?" Patches asked quietly, "Surely she's old enough."

Grassblade purred a little laugh, "They are all old enough. But remember, there are many apprentices; if we sent them all out at once, they would trip over each other's paws trying to hunt. Besides," she added in a hushed voice, "I think we could use a bit more training in your moves before we make them warriors."

That evening, the clan celebrated three new warriors; Bumblebee, Blackear and Splasheye.

Silentdeath and Sparkfire were already in the Warrior's den by the time Patches padded in to settle down in a nest. Silentdeath raised her head, have him a half lidded stare and then turned away and settled down to sleep. Sparkfire uttered a low growl but turned away as well as the rest of the warriors slipped in to find nests of their own.

The den was crowded, and would be even more so if the three new warriors joined the rest. Shadowstep stuck his nose in, blinked, and rumbled a new names, calling them out for a night patrol. With more room, Patches settled more comfortably and pressed his face against his paws. His heart stung with every beat; the pain of losing Gentlebreeze had faded with time, but her appearance set open the old wounds anew. He did not begrudge Silverleopard her unexpected life, nor could he really feel jealous that poor Tabbypath got her back from the brink of death.

But it hurt. It hurt to know that Gentlebreeze's love drove her to follow him on his lonely path, ever waiting for the time, long distant, when he could join her. And it hurt. It hurt knowing that she was there, but he could neither see, nor smell, nor touch her. She wanted him to find happiness, even if it meant she had to watch him live the rest of his days with another she-cat.

Patches' throat constricted again and with a soft sigh he heaved himself up and out of the Warrior's den. He wouldn't get any sleep with thoughts capering about like mice in his head.

Blackear spotted Patches and tilted his head, silently inquiring.

"I need to go for a walk," he whispered, "I'll be back soon."

Spasheye flicked an ear and Blackear nodded. Bumblebee looked anxious but caught himself before he spoke.

"I'll be careful," he promised them all, but flicked a reassuring glance at Bumblebee.

The Shadowclan territory was alive with the trilling of frogs and the scuttling of night foraging prey. He sniffed carefully at the running streams and pools of water that dotted the territory, but he could smell nothing out of the ordinary. Though he ranged up and down, no sweet smell hinted that the water was poisoned. Sniffing directly at the little stream where Silverleopard had drunk… nothing sweet. But…

A faint bitter smell suddenly stung his nose. He could see nothing wrong, but the water was shrouded in shadows from the trees looming overhead in the dark night.

Yet he knew the water was tainted. Trailing along the water, he followed it all the way to the Greenleaf twoleg place.

Patches gasped as he stepped on something rubbery that gave and rolled beneath his paws. Staggering, he nearly ended up in the nearest pool of water, saved only by landing with a whuff of expelled air a whisker length away.

The trees seemed to bend slightly, and Patches gasped as a shaft of moonlight struck the surface of the water and found faint rainbows swirling in it. Feeling sick with realization, he turned and saw a dead frog; its flesh dimpled where his paw had landed on it.

It had been dead long before he touched it.

"No," he whispered in horror, "No, no, no!"

He raced back up to the twoleg place and groaned in horror. Water jetted up from the grass, spraying everything for foxlengths around. The bitter smell was stronger here, and he could see rainbows swirling along the water as it drained out of the grass, through the scraped patch of earth where the back monster blood had spilled, and out into Shadowclan territory. The twolegs had not cleaned up enough, and their enthusiastic watering of their lawn was washing the poison directly into the clan's water supply.

For a futile instant, he wanted to leap forward and dam the flow with more dirt. But he knew it was too late. The water had been flowing for hours now, and all the water that Darkstar had declared tainted was now severely polluted by poison. Worse, the running water made sure the poison was carried far and fast, killing prey and tainting every bit of water and every plant along the way.

This rainbow hued poison was common enough in the twoleg place, though Starclan cats knew that water found on thunderpaths was tainted. Here, there was no escape save directly from the lake near the Thunderclan border. Shadowclan would be without most of its herbs for the rest of the season.

As swiftly as his legs could carry him, Patches sprinted back to the clan.

He squeezed quickly in, dipping his head in apology to the three new warriors, who had jumped to their paws in alarm at his sudden arrival.

"Darkstar!" he hissed into the clan leader's den, "we have a problem!"

"Darkstar is leading the night patrol," Shadowstep growled into Patches' ear. "What's going on?"

The Loner didn't bother to hide the horror in his eyes as he recounted finding the new poison in the already tainted water.

Shadowstep closed his eyes and shook his head. "Starclan toys with us," he whispered, "It gives us joy and then sorrow and just when we recover, the sorrow returns tenfold."

Patches stared, disturbed. Did this Clan's ancestors truly toy with its descendants so? The Clan of the Skies was always kind and helpful, bringing comfort and warnings both to help the Clan in times of need. Even the surliest cat of the Skies would leap down from the stars and shove a cat to the edge of a thunderpath to safety if it could do so swiftly enough.

Taking a deep breath, the deputy opened his eyes again and gave Patches a level stare, "You may be tired Patches, but I think it best if you stay up and wait for Darkstar to return. He'd best hear it from the mouth of a cat who knows of what he speaks."

Patches nodded solemnly. There was too much to think about anyway. Almost unwillingly, his gaze drifted up to the stars above. They were more numerous here than in the twoleg place; the skies were almost cloudy with the countless points of light. Were the ancestors of these warrior cats truly like Shadowstep said?

Darkstar returned from what had been a quiet patrol and his face fell as he took in his deputy and Patches sitting up waiting for him with solemn faces.

"Oh no," he muttered, "what now?"

His expression turned to horror when he realized that half the clan's water, prey and herbs had been ripped away with one fell swoop.

"This will be a miserable clan for moons," he grumbled, "With Thunderclan on one side and Riverclan on the other, and the clan's own territory suddenly an enemy…" He sighed, "I will hold a clan meeting in the morning. There's nothing that won't wait until the Dawn Patrol."

"Isn't Riverclan on the side where the water is poisoned?" Patches asked, "Won't they be affected as well?"

"Perhaps at the lake on that side," Shadowstep growled, "But we have a small thunderpath and the Greenleaf twoleg place that forms a barrier between our territories. The poison trickling into the lake won't cross that just to affect a rival clan."

Darkstar closed his eyes for a long, long moment, and then he sighed. Without a word, he turned and padded into his den. Shadowstep and Patches shared an anxious glance and then both sighed as well and padded into their nests. The time would come soon enough for trouble to come clawing at the entrance to the camp.