"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."

Mary Anne Radmacher

Blood Feeds the Roots

The sunset again, sending the prisoners small den into darkness again. Rowanpaw was finding that he sorta almost enjoyed the company of his fellow prison mates. Well, besides Mudclaw, he was just a jerk. They had learned to become a little more friendlier to each other and tried to not rip out each other's throats too often. Though, Talon was just about to kill Mudclaw before Onewhisker had punced him and held him down while Mudclaw made his way to the back of the den.

Talon was calming down, but still had a bad temper problem. After a while he began to talk a little more and more until they actually got a whole paragraph out of him once. Rowanpaw and the others had a little party once he went to sleep. Talon began to start telling stories about the places he had been. Turns out, Talon had been pretty much every where. He claimed to have seen a great body of water that roared down a collection of rocks, like a steep cliff. The noise was so loud it rattled your teeth and shook off your fur.

Whisker was beginning to prove their theroy as him as a madcat even more as each day passed. One day he brought home nuts and threw them at the guards, claiming them to be some cat named "Flower." He was punished for two days after that. Sandstorm, who was starting to perk up, tried to get him to act a little more well......normal by talking to him for long periods of time each night. He seemed to be...........a more normal cat.....sorta.

Fuzz was still shedding like crazy. He started to speak up more until he was yelling, so they told him to pipe down and now he was back to his small quiet voice. Rowanpaw seemed plenty happy with that, it was better then him yelling. Fuzz also started a habit of not bathing. That lasted for two hours once Mudclaw kicked the tar out of him for as he phrased it "stinking up the joint."

Mudclaw and Onewhisker became friends, which Rowanpaw considered to be a freak of nature. They would sometimes talk all night about secret WindClan stuff and enjoyed making fun of the BloodClan warriors behind their backs. Rowanpaw was worried that they would get caught calling them stupid fox dung warriors that were born from a badger. They seriously needed to work on their insults.

Sandstorm was getting better....slightly. Rowanpaw often heard her crying about Firestar and moaning about him. Geeze cat, get a life. Mudclaw once made the mistake of saying how he was kinda glad the old fireball was dead. Sandstorm personnaly nearly ripped off both of his ears and clawed out his eyes. It was hard enough to drag her off him without Talon pointing and cheering for more.

"I'm so bored," moaned Rowanpaw one day. He was sliding a rock back and forth while the prisoners waited in silence for them to get tired enough to stop talking and go to sleep. That day had been an easy one and Rowanpaw just spent the whole day hunting. He guessed it was because Scourge was busy over on the other territory and he wanted alot of food once he got back.

"Well do we look like we care?" Talon asked. Rowanpaw looked at the uncaring faces of his prison mates. He shook his head. "Well then, be quiet about it. We don't want to hear about every one of your little mood changes."

Whisker was chatting quietly with Sandstorm, muttering on and on about a strange dream he had. Weird cat. Onewhisker looked over at them and said to Rowanpaw, "Looks like he had another one of his strange bizarre nightmares. Heard him moaning last night. Stinks being stuck in a den."

"Hey guys, why don't we talk about different rock shapes!" Fuzz said in his tiny voice with a little bit of enthusiam. Talon groaned and Mudclaw slammed his head against the den's wall.

"To keep Mudclaw from killing himself, why don't you tell us another story Talon? It would help us all from becoming murderers and killing each other for entertainment," Rowanpaw suggested.

Talon nodded. "Alright, I'll tell about the time I met a runaway from a prison den like this one. His name was Roar and he had a golden pelt. He was a little shakened up once I found him wandering around a forest outside a place where a group of, how you Clan cats call 'em, rouges lived. He had escaped from there after being their prisoner for almost half a moon. Roar told me the grand story of his escape. They were keeping a close eye on him as him chased a squirrel up a tree, when Roar had an idea. He disguised his voice from up in the tree to sound like another cat and called out, 'Intruder! Every cat come to the center!' Driven by obedience, the guards left him. Roar bodly walked away from his prison. I stayed with him until he was strong enough to care for himself and watched as he followed the river west."

"Interesting story. Has a bunch of flaws though, like how would a cat disguise their voice that much so that the guarding cats wouldn't recognize it as their prisoner's? That's what I would want to know," Sandstorm said, looking over at Talon. She had stopped chatting with Whisker long enough to hear Talon's stories. Everyone loved to hear his stories.

Talon just shrugged, but Rowanpaw's brain was churning with ideas. This story gave him a plan................

The next day, Rowanpaw was out chasing a particulary fast rabbit that refused to be caught. He bolted after it, his thin body allowing him to travel fast with the new muscles he had gained from the harsh conditions of the past few moons. The guards weren't visible, but he knew they were watching him from the bushes like they always did.

Rowanpaw finally caught the rabbit somewhere along the border. A sleek black cat came out and collected his catch. "Scourge wants an audience with you, Jaws over there will take you." The black cat gestured with his head towards the cat called Jaws. The black cat walked off with the rest of the guards.

Jaws was a brown tabby like Tigerstar and had a slight crazed look to him. They were alone and when Jaws grasped his scruff to drag him to Scourge, he had an idea. It wasn't accoring to plan, but this was a window of oppurtunity for Rowanpaw. He twisted around and slashed Jaws across the chest. Surprised, the tabby let go off Rowanpaw.

Rowanpaw bolted across the border, heading for TigerCla territory. Yes! He was free!

"Prisoner escape! ESCAPE!" he heard Jaws yowl back in BloodClan territory, but Rowanpaw was just glad to be free. Now all he had to do was tell his friends that he was fine and run off. It was the perfect plan. Or, so he hoped.

Author's Note:

Oh my chocolate fudge, I updated! Just think of this as my Thanksgiving present to you guys! Expect the next update to be around December nineish or around that time. I'm on chapter four of Long Shadows. It's great. Yes, I know Lunarpaw already finished it, so shut up!

My parents are in the middle of divorce, so that's why I haven't updated. Okay, enough of rambling, here are responses. This is my second most reviewed story. Thanks you guys!

!Response!

Sleektail- You serious? Maybe I should write a story 'bout Runningbrook. It would be kinda interesting. Thanks for your review!

Lunarpaw- Don't you hate cliffies? I like to write 'em. Gets more reviews I think. It's okay if you trust me, it's cool to talk to someone about stuff. I have none of my friends for that....*sob*

Sandtalon- You know during writing this whole chapter, I kept on wanting to put Sandtalon instead of Sandstorm. Think of it as a tribute to how much your reviews get to me. :D. You may be right about Shadepelt, but I'm not telling. Yes, this new Clan is a twist. What's going to happen. Are they bad or good? Keep on reviewing and reading to find out. Hey, my friends say hi back.

The Silver Kira Fox- They won't die.......yet. I just know realized I left out the other leaders. Ummm, how 'bout we go with this: Tigerstar has them under special watch. And sorry if I forget some of the warriors, I will try to mention them later on. Keep on reviewing.

xBlaze of Dreamsx- You're getting to get on my good side with your reviews. This one actually made me laugh out loud. Glad to see my reviewers actually make up a whole little dialouge thingie for me. You rock! Glad to see it's getting better instead of suckier. Review again!

Lady Padfoot21- Glad to see you like the twist. Thanks for your review.

Keep on reviewing you guys!

I will update as soon as my family issues get better.

Love,

Holly