"Emma doesn't know how to greet guests." Really, mom? I think I can handle my own friends at an early-birthday party.

Chapter 20 already? Oh, well, this story will just have to stretch to Chapter 23 or so (including the ending allegiances and information). By the way, please read Chapter 23 when it comes out.

23, the Magic Number! Whee!

Chapter 20

The guards at the front of the camp stared at me. Then, recognition broke through the face of the right one and he unsheathed his claws. Well, that's what must have happened, because I sure as StarClan don't recognize him.

But sure enough, a few moments later, a dark tawny tom appeared through the entrance. One of his narrowed yellow eyes were bloodshot and red, like he had been crying a little too hard. He sniffed. I thought his first reaction would be to claw me to bits or something, but instead he just said, "I see that you have changed your mind."

I nodded through the pain and the throbbing in my leg. Cliff-Fall did not seem to notice, however, just turned, back facing me.

"That was the signal to come," he said, sounding mildly annoyed when I didn't follow him.

I muttered something about old toms and did as he said to do. The two bewildered looking guards at the front let us pass, but their exprpessions still said, 'What are you doing, boss? Claw the lass's face or somethin'!' Well, that's what old toms would think, anyway.

Instead of being lead into the center of the camp, Cliff-Fall herded me towards one of the shadier corners of the camp: behind a thick-leafed holly bush where there was a tiny clearing and a birch tree branch hanging over our heads. "Sit down," he commanded.

I was already half-collapsed from my foreleg, but I decided not to say anything about it.

"Before you begin talking," Cliff-Fall said, even though I wasn't planning to even open my mouth, "let me guess what you want and make this conversation go by quicker. You want revenge on LightClan? Then that's easy. I can cooperate with you anytime you want."

I was still very much surprised- and more than a little suspicious, but I decided that it was still better than killing me outright. "Well, you've certainly had a huge attitude change," I said, trying to sound as non-accusing as possible. Which was hard because I was accusing him.

Silence. "Just some alone thinking time," Cliff-Fall said finally, his voice low and his tone slow and careful. "You are my step-daughter, after all. You should have the right to know what goes on inside of our own family."

My heart was beginning to melt by the second. "O- Oh," I said, not sure for the first time what to actually say. "That's... nice." How was wreaking havoc on a whole clan nice? But they weren't really nice to me or Flutterpaw anyway...

"Right," Cliff-fall broke in before I could reconsider my choices.

He continued without giving me a chance to talk. "Yes, now that's settled. If it were up to me-" of course it is, old tom, I thought dryly- "if it were up to me, then the attack should take place next evening, when everyone's settling down to sleep and getting all drowsy. I've planned it all out before, of course. There's nothing to worry about."

Oh, but the cats in LightClan are going to have to be worried, I thought. Somehow, that did not comfort me at all, just made me feel more guilty about Flutterpaw's death, as if I was responsible for it somehow. "Sure," I finally settled on.

"Good to see that you've grown wise at last," Cliff-Fall said again, smiling. "I've planned out everything with the clan already. Every single thing that I've just told you is just rehearsing it. The only thing you're going to do is help us, alright? Claw and slash and bite like it's going to be your last battle."

Well, I certainly hope it wouldn't be.

I nodded. It was all I could do to keep the pain in my leg inside. I didn't have the heart to tell my step-father that I probably couldn't go- or tell it to myself, for that matter. His battle had already become my battle and everyone else's.

"That's good," Cliff-Fall called out when I stood up to leave. "But I have something else to tell you. Something that only the two of us can ever hear. It's a message from StarClan. It... it has to do with you."

I stopped in my tracks; a pebble skittered around my paws and spun on its bottom for a few moments before settling back down into the dust. "What did they say?"

Cliff-Fall took a deep breath. He looked as if he didn't want to be the one saying whatever he had to say. "StarClan said... that only the venom of a spider will be able to stop you. They said that you have been warned already, and that... it will try to stop you from doing the right thing."

"Oh! Of course!" I cried, bolting upward and ignoring the soreness in my right foreleg. "That's it, a spider bite. Um, that's what's wrong with my leg..."

I did not realize that StarClan's message was the very thing that calmed Cliff-Fall down until much later.

He squinted down to where the pain was repeatedly coming from. "That looks serious. Maybe I should have Duskleap check it out for me. I'm not really one for medicine... Duskleap!" he shouted. "Get over here! Someone needs you!"

There came a familiar face peeking out from the edge of the holly bush. "Glowpaw!" he quickly exclaimed. His head disappeared around the corner for a few moments before he came back in with a bunch of sweet-smelling plants in his mouth.

Bending down, he immediately caught wind of my pain-racketed foreleg. "Stretch it out. It's a brown recluse bite," he muttered. I did as he told me to do. "Thank goodness the ulcer did not spread to the blood stream. That would put your internal organs at risk. It's just going to hurt really bad and it heals pretty slowly."

"Do you have any herbs for me?" I asked. I tried to avoid the fact that they smelled like the inside of Brightpool's den.

Duskleap looked thoughtful. "I don't have anything specific for that, but burdock root might help just a bit, even though it's supposed to be for rat bites. Or perhaps some dandelion leaves to sooth the pain."

He ended up choosing the dandelion leaves, chewing them up into a pulp and slowly spreading it over my leg. It still hurt pretty badly, but it seemed to subside just a little. Or maybe that was just in my imagination. "Thanks," I said.

Duskleap grinned. "Hey, no problem. You must have accidentally rolled onto the spider while you were sleeping... they really don't like that."

I smiled. "Yeah. So we're friends, I guess?"

"Yup; and since I tell this to all my friends, I'm gonna tell you too: you now have permission to call me by my birth name, Spider Fang. It's what close friends address me as."

Before you say anything: Duskleap is not going to turn evil and kill everyone all of a sudden. I never make stories that simple. Fortunately and unfortunately.

Just warning you: the next chapter will be pretty long. I guess you can call it the finale, but the true finale will be on Chapter 22.