When Crane's Wing woke in the morning, he immediately blinked his open to two murky blue orbs boring into his soul. With a surprised yowl, he jumped back and tripped over Dovewing who was sleeping nearby. The heartbeat his paw hit her, he stiffened like he was frozen in ice but his actions didn't invoke anything more than a few grumbles.

"Jayfeather," Crane's Wing hissed, turning his head. "Why in the name of StarClan were you standing over me while I was sleeping?"

"You were dreaming," Jayfeather said as if it were obvious. "You were talking with Cloud, right?"

"How did you know?" Crane's Wing asked. "I know you didn't walk in my dreams."

"I sensed the energy from the fog realm," Jayfeather told him. "It kept me up all night so I decided to wait for you to wake up so I could get some shut eye."

"Oh. Sorry. Did you stay up long?"

Jayfeather waved him off with his tail. "Don't worry about it. I walked around the forest a bit. I met a friend of yours. Coal I think his name was. He's from Rock's bloodline, right? Nice cat. He didn't freak out at the sight of me like everyone else."

"Yeah, he's like that," Crane's Wing said.

"So what did Cloud talk to you about?"

Crane's Wing lashed his tail. "So turns out the forest around here is not blessed with the power of the sacred cats. Apparently there's no such thing as a blessing either. The forest won't protect us and Cloud doesn't think we'll be able to settle this peacefully."

Jayfeather tilted his head. "Well duh. Was that ever the plan?"

"It's Lunar Sigil's plan," Crane's Wing grumbled. "Cloud told me to just forget him. I don't think I can change his clan. He's got moss in his brain or something."

Jayfeather blinked, not missing a beat. "Can't Cloud just send a dream to him?"

"That's not how it works," Crane's Wing sighed. "You probably know more about the Astral Plane than I do but since the Astral Beasts walk in the world of the living, they don't have their full powers. Each of the Beasts is anchored to one of the three so they can't freely pass between realms and they can't fully merge minds with you guys just because of the distance between you."

"Doesn't sound very sacred to me," Jayfeather said. "I'd think Astral Beasts would be more omnipotent than Astral Spirits."

"They are. They're cursed, remember? That interferes with something I guess," Crane's Wing shrugged. "Anyway, I think I'm going to go talk to Lunar Sigil. Each bloodline is about the size of a clan and there are more Lines than clans so if Lunar Sigil orders the tribe to train for battle, I'm sure we would do alright against the Tribe of Darkest Void."

Jayfeather rose to his paws. "Do you want me to come with you? Sounds like you don't know Lunar Sigil very well. Maybe I can be more convincing."

"Thanks Jayfeather," Crane's Wing murmured and the two padded past their friends and out of the den into the dawnlight.

Lunar Sigil's den was pretty far off from the other tribecats' dens much like how clan leaders lived outside the warriors' den in camp. It was just a bit after dawn when Jayfeather and Crane's Wing arrived at the den. Upon breaching the clearing it was in, Crane's Wing came to a stop, paws suddenly feeling heavy, and swallowed nervously.

Jayfeather sighed. "What is it?"

"I don't think Lunar Sigil wants to talk to us first thing in the morning," Crane's Wing said.

"Forget him. I'm a sacred cat. I can do whatever I want," Jayfeather said. "What'll you do if I just march in there and start yowling?"

Crane's Wing stared at him wide eyed. "Is that a twoleg thing? I swear making you read twoleg minds was a mistake. You're all weird now."

Jayfeather rolled his blind eyes. "Whatever. You got any ideas?"

"No…"

"Then we're just going to walk up and talk to him."

Crane's Wing began waking intelligible sounds of protest. Jayfeather just gave him a bored look.

"Calm down. You've got no problem talking to Bramblestar."

"Yeah but Bramblestar's my friend. And he's still a warrior. Shamas aren't like clan leaders."

Jayfeather sighed. "We really need to get over his anxiety of yours." Without another word, Jayfeather marched up to the den and kicked a stone, announcing his arrival. "Hey, Lunar Sigil. Wake up."

Crane's Wing stiffened and prepared to bolt but the white tom's head poked out of the den and his sharp eyes fell right on the older tom. Crane's Wing waved his tail awkwardly in greeting.

"What do you want?" Lunar Sigil asked bluntly, looking annoyed.

Jayfeather looked over his shoulder to his look alike. Crane's Wing shot him a glare before dipping his head to Lunar Sigil. "I had a dream last night."

"And? Cats dream all the time."

"Not just any dream. The dreamy kind."

"He got a dream from the Astral Plane," Jayfeather translated before Lunar Sigil could say anything.

Lunar Sigil snorted. "And you expect me to believe that? I'm a shama. If the sacred cats have anything to tell the tribe, they'll contact me."

"Not the Astral Beasts," Jayfeather said. "They don't give a flying fox dung who you are."

Lunar Sigil's eyes narrowed but Crane's Wing jumped in before he could say anything. "The tribe won't be safe here. Like I told you, the Tribe of Darkest Void wants to destroy us, the other tribe, and the clans. We're their first target, the first line of defense. We have to train to fight-"

"No," Lunar Sigil interrupted. "The Tribe of Sacred Lines isn't a tribe of… warriors. We are intellectuals. We won't settle this by fighting."

Jayfeather snorted. "I don't know much about the lines but it seems like each one's a clan within a larger group. Just by looking at them I can tell that Lion's Roar's Line are warriors and my own line is well suited to offer support in battle. There are several clansworth of cats here. Even if we don't win a battle, we can do enough damage to win the war."

"This is not war," Lunar Sigil responded pointedly. "This is merely a… confrontation. I respect you, Jay's Wing, I really do but you are not of this tribe and you do not know our ways."

"You're making a mistake. This tribe was once made up of terrific fighters."

"But not anymore. Please, let it go. We cannot defeat Black Spot and his followers. I might be able to bargain or convince Black Spot that the Tribe of Sacred Lines is no threat."

"But he doesn't care!" Crane's Wing protested. He was silenced by a sharp glare from his shama. Crane's Wing flinched and opened his mouth to retort but cut off when he saw the sad look in Lunar Sigil's eyes. Realization dawned on the grey tom. He's afraid. He just wants to keep the tribe living as it always has. He's not being a stubborn pain in the tail. He's just trying to do what he thinks will benefit the clan the most. Crane's Wing glanced at Jayfeather. Can he sense what he's feeling?

Jayfeather lowered his gaze. "Very well. We don't need you. Some of the lines are surely willing to fight for their lives and kin."

Lunar Sigil lashed his tail. "Don't tell me how to lead my tribe. You may be a sacred cat but I'm the shama here. Please, let me handle this."

Jayfeather didn't say anything, sweeping around. He waved his tail, beckoning Crane's Wing to follow. Not wanting to sit with the angry shama, Crane's Wing quickly followed him and flanked him with their fur barely touching to help guide the blind medicine cat. He rose his muzzle to Jayfeather's ear. "We're not going to let him handle this, right?"

"Of course not," Jayfeather replied. "Come on, let's head back to you den to talk this over with Lionblaze, Dovewing, and Lynx's Roar."

"... and then he said to let him handle it," Crane's Wing finished. He had been talking quickly and staring at his paws in his den. He looked up nervously to see his friends' reactions.

"We're not letting him handle this, right?" Lionblaze asked. "I mean, that's a pretty mousebrained thing to do. This Lunar Sigil sounds like a real pain in the tail to deal with."

"He's not all that bad," Lynx's Roar shrugged. "I still wish Solar Sigil was the tribe's shama but he does his best with what he's got."

"He's scared," Jayfeather said. "Scared to lose his tribe, scared to break tradition,scared to die. Too scared to do what he needs to do for the tribes and clans."

"We need to convince everyone to prepare for battle," Dovewing suggested. "We don't know when the Tribe of Darkest Void is going to attack the field. If we start now and they attack in a moon or two, the tribe could so some serious damage and maybe even drive them off for a bit."

"The tribe has no real fighters," Lynx's Roar said with a shake of his head. "Our strength is in numbers. Maybe we should just run."

"Like a bunch of mouse hearts?" Lionblaze questioned.

"Better than dying."

"I guess that's true," Lionblaze admitted. "But I'd rather die than abandon what's important to me. When the clans moved, it would've been difficult moving just one clan but all four migrated. The Tribe of Sacred Lines is too big to move and settle into a new territory. You'd have to split up, maybe into a few nomadic tribes or clans. If ThunderClan was stuck between breaking apart and fighting, I'd fight."

"These cats are united as one tribe but they are already divided amongst themselves," Jayfeather pointed out. "The shama unifies them but each line had a linehead like a clan leader. Maybe we could get them to convince the lines to fight."

Crane's Wing nodded. "Maybe. Swallow Flight and Claystone are usually pretty easygoing. They'll definitely listen."

"Roaring Tiger has Lion's Roar's fighting spirit," Lynx's Roar added. "He'll be ready for battle. Falling Tree could so either way. I'm not totally sure about the others."

"I don't know if we can even get them to listen to us," Crane's Wing said, "let alone agree to train their cats to fight to their possible deaths."

"What are you meowing about?" Jayfeather questioned. "Of course they'll listen to you."

Crane's Wing shook his head. "You know how I am. I'm a joke in the tribe. Just the scatterbrained cat who couldn't keep up with his lessons and got sent away from the tribe."

"And what came out of that? You found the three," Jayfeather pointed out. "They'll listen."

Lynx's Roar slapped Crane's Wing the face with his tail playfully. "Wake up, fuzzball. You're a hero! They'll listen to you. You just need to give them reason to follow you."

Crane's Wing swallowed. "Maybe… Alright. Okay, alright. Let's do this. Let's convince the Lines to prepare for battle."

Author's Note: Honestly, these chapters where Crane's Wing is just running around the tribe freaking out are kind of boring. Jayfeather was a bit ooc but that was just to make things interesting and it's understandable.

I think I'm going to start doing the question of the day thing. I tried it on The Wrong Pawsteps awhile ago and y'all seemed to like it. Let's start off easy.

QoTD: Who's your favorite Warriors character and why?

Reviews-

Wolfwhisker of Something- Black Spot will be coming soon. Unfortunately he does not look like Darktail. As Cloud explained, he is regularly reincarnated so he just has some random body. His description is on my profile. None the og leaders were despots like Brokenstar but they were far from open minded. When the first book happened, all the clans hated each other, had a very harsh closed border policy, were totally the cat equivalent of racist, and very heavily into rank then Firestar came in and changed everything. Og ThunderClan is America (messes with other countries, takes in immigrants, has lots of people who never die during giant wars), og RiverClan is like Italy (wants more territory and has lots of good food), og ShadowClan is like 40s Germany (needs no explanation), and WindClan is like Poland (weak and gets pushed around by everyone else but has a few good things) and they all hated each other for that. It wasn't until they moved the the Dark Forest battle happened that the UN happened and everyone got happy in one giant alliance.