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Sorry I left it on a cliffy, I wanted some suspense.

Here is chapter 14! Enjoy!

(Birchstar's POV)

The cats in the clearing gasped and wailed in horror. Birchstar could not believe his ears. Lightstep, dead? His deputy, dead? His best friend... dead.

This is my fault, he thought. I should never have told him to go on a patrol...

But how would you have known that this would happen? said a nagging voice at the back of his brain. Birchstar shook it out of his head.

His daughter Clearmist, bloody from fighting, continued to speak. "W-we saw the d-dogs, and th-the dogs s-saw us. They charged a-at us, and Light...Lightstep jumped on t-top of one. Then the w-wind blew..." she shuddered and sobbed. "He was t-taken away by the w-wind and he hit a tree." she wailed. "We heard the snap of b-bone and he was l-lost. Gone."

Birchstar shook his head in grief. "Where are the others?" he tried to say in a calm voice, but it squeaked like a kit's.

"Well, S-Snakefang is probably o-out still there fighting still. H-he killed one of the d-dogs with his t-teeth though." Clearmist responded in a shaky voice.

Birchstar's eyes widened. "So there are more than one dog. Oh, Vinepaw! Is she ok?"

Clearmist nodded. "When I left, she had made some sort of thorny vine shield to protect herself."

Dawnwish appeared. "Good. Birchstar, what are you going to do about this? There are only two warriors left now. We should help them!"

Birchstar did not need to think twice. "Two patrols. Clearmist, take the first and show them where the dogs are. I'll take the second and follow right behind you."

Now for the patrols. "Stonepelt, Sparkwhisker, Fishleap, and take Nopaw. That's the first patrol."

"Second; Swiftblaze, Icepath, Eggclaw and Dawnwish! Don't forget Splashpaw!"

Bigpaw growled. "What about me? Vinepaw's my sister! By the name of Minnowstar's most stinky-"

Birchstar knew better than to argue. "Bigpaw, first patrol! Morningdust, you're in charge while I'm gone."

She rolled her fearful eyes. "I'll be the only warrior here anyway. You can count on me, Birchstar! Now go! Our other Clanmates might be hurt!"

"First patrol; go now! Oh, and kits," he told the disappointed kits who had been left behind, "defend the camp."

"Yes sir!" squeaked the newly named Leafkit. Birchstar nodded and returned to his patrol.

"Second patrol, go! Don't forget to fight with your powers if necessary!"

And the second patrol was off. Birchstar couldn't help thinking, how many more dead are we going to return with?

The battle was raging fierce.

When the second patrol arrived at the clearing, every single battling cat looked a little more relived. Yet Birchstar couldn't believe his eyes. There were eight dogs in the clearing; yet two were dead, so that made six alive. They rushed into battle right away.

Birchstar flung himself at the biggest dog, who seemed to be the leader of the pack. Leader and leader, they clashed and fought like never before. Birchstar knew that he couldn't be killed in battle, so he wasn't as afraid as the other warriors.

They fought for many minutes, until the lead dog huffed and sat down for a break. "Losers." Birchstar growled. But he was tired to, so he sat down for a moment.

During that time, he looked around. Powers were going off everywhere; Stonepelt had his rock body on as he clawed the flank of a russet dog, Bigpaw and Vinepaw were using their powers on a big brown one as Nopaw distracted it with his 'Twolegness'.

He looked the other way and saw a light body on the ground. Lightstep.

He ran over to his dead friend and buried his nose in its fur. A tear trickled down his cheek. He had the strength in battle, but not for this.

He lifted his head and turned around. Suddenly, all the fighting slowed, then stopped. Cats' froze in mid-leap, and some dogs' jaws were open widely, their spit drops hung in midair.

Everything was frozen. Even time. Except for him. He was so confused.

He looked back at Lightstep's broken body. He let out a gasp. There was another cat standing over it, and it seemed to be moving, like him.

Didn't the time just stop?

Birchstar stepped forward towards the cat. "H-hello?"

The cat turned around and he gasped again. The cat standing over Lightstep was... Lightstep.

The moving Lightstep looked at his old friend and smiled sadly. "Hello, Birchstar."

Birchstar noticed starlight around his paws. This was Lightstep, StarClan form...

He though that he should be scared, but he wasn't. This was just like the time at the Moonpool. "Lightstep! I'm... I'm sorry."

The star-Lightstep shrugged. "It was the time that StarClan has chosen for me to come join them. I've had a good life," he added bitterly; "longer than I should have." Birchstar knew that his friend was referring to the time when their Clans threatened to kill them. They both sighed and lay down, sharing tongues for the last time, even though there was a horrific, deadly battle frozen all around them.

Birchstar was transported many moons back. "Remember that time when we found you?" Birchstar asked his dead deputy. Lightstep nodded. "Yeah."

"You found me stuck in a tree, you brought me back to OddClan and changed my name from Lightfoot to Lightstep. And then the next day Fishleap was kitting! Since she had her new little Splashkit to take care of, you named me deputy instead of her, even though it was only my second day there!" The cats chuckled.

"I have to admit; you were bad at first, but then you became the best deputy I could ever have." Birchstar sighed in grief. "You should've became OddClan's leader after me."

Lightstep shook his head. "I would never become Lightstar, and you know it. Anyway, my life is done. I am no longer the OddClan deputy, but a StarClan warrior."

There was a moment of silence, then Birchstar looked around the bloody clearing of cats and dogs. He saw Fishleap in the middle of clashing a dog's eye, and Dawnwish seemed to be putting an ointment on Swiftblaze's bloody flank.

"Was it you who stopped the time?"

Lightstep tilted his head from side to side, as though saying yes and no at the same time. "It was StarClan who decided."

"Why?" Birchstar couldn't seem to hold the question in.

Lightstep smiled a mysterious way. "I have a message from StarClan. Protect Birdkit from every danger in her path, even at the cost of your lives. She is important."

Birchstar looked confused. "Birdkit? Protect? Why?"

But he saw Lightstep slowly start to fade away. "Protect Birdkit! Never forget!"

"Wait!" Birchstar watched Lightstep become more see-through, and his voice became no more than a whisper. "StarClan is on your side..."

The OddClan leader suddenly yowled at his faded friend, "Lightstep! Tell Mistfur and Softkit that I miss them!"

Birchstar could swear that he heard a faint whisper, "We will always be with you!"

Suddenly, the battle unpaused. Screeches filled the air as Fishleap finished clawing the dog and Dawnwish finished pressing ointment of Swiftblaze's scarred flank. "There you go..."

Birchstar bent his head to the unmoving body of Lightstep. "Goodbye, friend," he murmured. He turned and stalked back into the battle. What did that mean?

He didn't have to think for long. He soon felt long claws rake his head and he turned to see the lead dog he was fighting before. He snarled and leapt on it.

I've got StarClan on my side...

They fought for what seemed like hours. Birchstar felt himself get weaker and weaker by the strike, yet the dogs didn't seem tired at all. The clearing floor was stained with blood, and most of it were cats. No StarClan, we're loosing, all hope is lost.

Birdkit paced anxiously around the camp. She and Morningdust alone seemed anxious about what would happen during the battle, but the others chatted happily about it.

"I bet Snakefang killed all of them by now. He's the Clan's best fighter!" Firekit mewed excitendly.

"Who's Snake-fang?" Darkkit wondered.

"Not Snake-fang, just Snakefang. His power is that his teeth are so poisonous, it kills anything he bites!" Petalkt explained.

"Ya, so just be careful and don't accept any prey that he hunts! Only he can survive that poison." Brightkit giggled.

Leafkit sighed with relief. "Thank goodness! You guys make it sound like OddClan is very powerful. We're winning for sure!"

Birdkit shuffled her paws. "I don't know, guys... I mean, Lightstep died... The battle must be hard." She felt a tear trickle down her cheek. She hadn't talked to Lightstep very much when he was alive but when she did, he was very nice and funny. He was also one of the most respected warriors in all the Clan, and she knew that it would break Birchstar's heart to chose another deputy to replace him. She knew that this was the first warrior's death in OddClan.

But Firekit shrugged. "Lightstep was weak. The other warriors are stronger, and they'll beat the dogs for sure!"

Morningdust gasped. "Firekit! Don't ever say that again!" Tears shone in her eyes. "Go back to the nursery. Your time outside the den today is done." Firekit looked like he was going to protest, but he hung his head in shame at being scolded by his mother, so he slowly walked into the nursery.

Morningdust wiped her tears away. "I can't believe he said that..."

Birdkit shuffled to her adoptive mother. "What's wrong?"

Morningdust ignored her. Instead, she mewed, "Did I ever tell you what my powers were?"

"Nope," Birdkit realized, suddenly interested in what the queen had to say. Her own kits and the new ones were interested too, so Morningdust continued with the story.

"My power is that my pelt changes along with the weather."

Birdkit gasped. "Really? I never noticed!"

Morningdust purred. "Well, it's Greenleaf, and it's been sunny every day that I've been here. But you'll see that in the winter, my pelt turns a frosty-grey. In Leaf-fall, my pelt is ginger and during the spring, it's a nice light, tabby brown."

Airkit's eyes widened. "Cool," she muttered.

"What about at night? Does your pelt change in the night?" Darkkit asked curiously.

Morningdust purred and nodded. "Yup. It turns black like the night sky."

Birdkit groaned. "I never even saw it, and I've been sleeping with her for two weeks."

Brightkit giggled. "We've only been around for two weeks!"

Morningdust rolled her eyes in amusement. "Well, you guys were sleeping most of the time. Also, it's quite dark outside at night, so it's harder to see. The nursery shadows don't help either."

The cats sighed. They hoped that the fighting cats were ok. They ate as the sun went down, and at last the kits scurried one by one into the comfy nursery.

Soon it was only Morningdust and Birdkit left in the OddClan clearing.

"Dusk," Moriningdust suddenly meowed. "It has always been my favourite time of day."

Birdkit noticed for the first time that Morningdust's usually golden pelt was now a pinky-gold colour. "I like your pelt," Birdkit remarked.

A couple more minutes of silence. Then Birdkit spoke again. "I... I don't think that they're coming back tonight." Morningdust nodded.

"Um, Morningdust?"

"Yes Birdkit. Ask me anything."

"Why did you protect Lightstep so fiercely? Do you... love him, or something?"

Morningdust's eyes shot up wide. "Oh, no, not in the world!"

She huffed sadly. "He... he was my brother. So he is Firekit's uncle, and his nephew was making fun of him!" She wailed.

Birdkit felt sorry. "I'm so sorry! I didn't notice... I didn't know..." She gulped. "But... you came to the Clan a long time after he did. Why?"

"A lot of 'whys' coming from you today, huh?" the former RiverClan warrior joked. "I came a while after because my power started to develop later than his did. He was exiled under the name of Lightfoot, did you know that?"

Birdkit shook her head. "No. Why'd they change it?"

Morningdust shrugged. "It's supposed to take a bit of memory away from the past."

"Why didn't they change you name?"

"Cause I asked Birchstar not to."

Birdkit was going to ask why, but Morningdust whisked her into the nursery. "You're asleep on your paws. Have a little snooze, and hopefully the others will be back tomorrow." Morningdust left her alone in the nursery to go stand guard of camp.

Birdkit never thought that she'd ever fall asleep, but she eventually did, thinking of Lightstep, Morningdust, Firekit and the dogs that might be tearing her new Clan apart.

You guys are awesome! Thanks for the reviews!

By the way, I've been getting a lot of OCs lately. I will try to use them all at one point, but for the next 3 chapters, no one new is going to appear. Just saying. But thanks anyways!

Reviewers will get a plushie of... what about Firekit? The little troublemaker...

Thanks for reading, keep reviewing! Stay in touch,
- sMhoionne (guess what I did there! The first person who gets it will get their OC in the next chapter! Only one please!)