AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know a lot of people appreciate my very fast updates (I'm always on the internet, so I'm always updating) but I'm rather tired of seeing seven-chapter stories with freakin' 69 reviews, while mine is ten chapters and I have, what, 10? So I'm not updating until I get at least five reviews on this chapter. I WANT to update, but I also want to know that people are freakin' reading it.

Niah-Miyoki: I'm glad! XD Thanks for being a faithful reviewer.

WARNING: This chapter is pretty angsty.

Leafpool found herself stiff and tense after her first time. She leaned against Spiderleg as they made their way back to the ThunderClan camp. As they went, rain began to fall, and Leafpool began to feel uneasy. It was as if the clouds themselves were weeping as the downpour fell harder.

"Spiderleg, I think we should hurry," she murmured.

He rasped his tongue across her ear. "Are you cold?"

"No. Well, yes, but I'm getting a really bad feeling. Can we please hurry?"

He smiled gently. "Of course."

They picked up the pace until, despite the tense pain she felt, Leafpool was pelting towards the ThunderClan hollow, full speed. She was glad that Spiderleg trusted to her instincts, because the nervous shadow in her mind was growing with every step as her pelt slicked back with the rain.

Leafpool skidded to a stop at the very edge of the ThunderClan hollow, remembering her fall into it when Crowfeather had confessed his love for her. Almost unconsciously, Leafpool shifted away from Spiderleg. What have I done?

Spiderleg suddenly gasped with horror.

The light tabby she-cat peered over the edge, and her heart dropped to her paws and landed hard in the hollow. She backed away from the edge. "No...no...Oh StarClan, NO!" Her voice rose to an eerie wail, and she raced along the edge of the hole to pelt down the path and skid to a stop.

Sandstorm lay limp and bloody before her.

Squirrelflight looked up, her eyes shining. "Oh, StarClan, Leafpool, I couldn't stop her. I had to think of the kits, and she was all the way up at the top of the hollow..."

"What are you saying?" Leafpool's amber eyes were wide. StarClan, please, don't let her be dead. Just...injured. I can take care of her! StarClan, PLEASE!

"She leaped," whispered Squirrelflight, and the tears spilled down her cheeks, mingling with the rain.

"No," murmured Spiderleg from beside Leafpool.

"NO!" shrieked Leafpool. She buried her face in Sandstorm's pale ginger fur. No, no, no, she thought uselessly, rubbing her nose deeply in her mother's pelt. No, no, no, no, no. She couldn't even breathe in her mother's familiar, milky scent; it was covered by the salty rain. "No, StarClan, NO!"

StarClan has betrayed me!

"Leafpool, you have betrayed StarClan," murmured a voice on the rain whipping into Leafpool's ears and eyes. "Your kits will be both Crowfeather's and Spiderleg's."

What? Leafpool didn't open her eyes. She hardly felt shocked; she was too full of agony and horror to be any more shocked at StarClan's statement, but she asked mentally, How is that possible? I haven't had...I haven't...not with Crowfeather! And it isn't possible to have more than one tom's kits in one litter.

"It is possible. It is the same with Squirrelflight."

What? They aren't all Brambleclaw's?

"This is your punishment, Leafpool," whispered the voice, every word striking at Leafpool's mind and sanity. "You would do well to heed it."

"NO!" The scream burst from Leafpool with such ferocity it made her throat raw. She flung herself over Sandstorm's broken body, sobbing freely. Even as the rain fell to a drizzle, her raw, agonized wails split the night.

-

"Leafpool, I know what you've done."

Leafpool looked up, her eyes red and swollen, to see Sandstorm, her pale ginger shape thrown into sharp relief against the gray, cloudy backdrop of the forest. She couldn't bring herself to be overjoyed, because Sandstorm's voice was soft and raw with pain.

"You have much loss facing you in the future," she whispered. "Too much loss. It is too large of a punishment for your crime."

Leafpool drew in a sharp breath. "StarClan will take more from me than my mother?"

"Yes." Sandstorm nodded. "We all love you, Leafpool. We must teach you loyalty."

"Foxdung!" spat Leafpool furiously. "StarClan doesn't want to teach me anything. They want to punish me, and punish me only! Why? Because I loved another! No, I loved two others. And I loved my family - Firestar, and you, and Squirrelflight. I still love you. But this is my payment?"

"No. This is your payment for betrayal." Sandstorm's voice was thick with unhappiness. "Leafpool, I don't want it to be like this."

"Then I will leave," declared Leafpool. "I won't experience this pain."

"No, you cannot leave," snapped Sandstorm warningly, "or your kits will die."

That gave Leafpool pause. For the first time since last night, it hit her - she was going to have kits. She flung herself toward the spirit of her mother, sobbing again into Sandstorm's warm chest. "What am I going to do, Mother? Will Brambleclaw kill me?"

"No. He will renounce your post. He is merciful, despite his traitorous ways in the past."

"Renounce my post?"

"You will understand." Sandstorm wrapped a paw around her. "I love you, Leafpool."

"I love you too," whispered the light tabby as her mother faded away, and Leafpool awakened.