"Nightclan is coming!" Dawnpaw shouted, running into camp with Mossflower by her side. Firefur looked up from where she was laying, her eyes were getting older as she could barely make out the two cats that had been sent out on patrol, but her hearing was still acute.

Cricketcloud was the first to speak above the muffled voices of the cats, "What do they want?" She asked, more than willing to fight if the situation demanded it.

Mossflower answered, "They said that Cloudclan spoke to them saying that all the clans must form together and they were wondering if they could ally with Dayclan." She explained, and Autumncloud and Mistycloud stood up and walked over to where Cricketcloud was standing.

"Tell them they can." She ordered and Dawnpaw sprinted out of the camp. Another wonder that only Cloudclan could have bestowed upon them, Nightstar actually swallowing her pride to unite with the other three clans, even though she had only asked for Dayclan… But pushing that thought aside Cricketcloud was in for another surprise.

Instead of Nightstar coming through the reed barrier, it was the big brown deputy, Thorneyes, in the lead. Her head was hung low, another odd gesture on Nightclan`s normally high-strung attitudes. "Cricketcloud… Autumnsong, or is it Autumncloud now, and Mistycloud." She said, dipping her head to the other leaders. In a moment Cricketcloud realized that this wasn`t Thorneyes speaking, it was a solemn new leader, still mourning over the death of a leader. Nightcloud must have died.

"Nightclan comes to you in hope for unity in the clans, Nightcloud has been killed by the disease and I am now Thorncloud." She said, confirming what Cricketcloud had already predicted.

Cricketcloud watched as more Nightclan cats trickled into camp, their population was low with only six warriors and five apprentices, three queens and six kits, with two elders. Not counting the new deputy, whoever that was, and Snowfeather and Hawkpaw. Of course the medicine cat and medicine cat apprentice was there also, but were hideously thin. Actually, all the cats in Nightclan were thin, their bones could be counted through their pelt and their eyes were hollow, either from mourning for their old leader, or the quickly expanding disease.

Cricketcloud nodded and the Nightclan cats gathered into the camp…which seemed smaller with such a vast amount of cats. "We are now all united…and we have filled Cloudclan`s desires." Autumncloud said, and everyone in camp bowed their heads out of respect.

(0000)

Duskclaw was sicker than before, her paws dragged across the ground, and odd hallucinations came to her in the day, and in the night. Patches of her fur was missing and her bones jutted out of her pelt, with glazed over eyes she had a ghostly appearance and she had almost given up taking care of the sick cats. Out of the many in the sick-hollow only about three were saved, the others were soon to face a painful fate. The small amount of prey Bird, Thunderfire, and Flufur brought was hardly enough to feed everyone, and Duskclaw could hardly remember the last time she ate.

Today though, Silentecho and Reedclaw came to her with some unpleasant news, "Duskclaw, we have been thinking…" Reedclaw said, not really wanting to say the unpleasant news. But Silentecho couldn`t because he had been in a fire while he was a kit, which made his vocal cords strained and his voice raspy.

"Yes?" Duskclaw asked painfully, putting down the herbs she was organizing, not that any of them could help.

Duskclaw shuffled his paws, "We think that we need to start feeding Dark-root." He said in a hushed voice. Duskclaw looked at him in shock, Dark-root was a black root that had venomous parasites in it, you die before you have a chance to calculate what you had ate. It was used long ago as a last resort.

"No, if Cloudclan wants to take a cats life they will, we don`t need to help them." She said, stomping her paw on the ground. Silentecho and Reedclaw gave each other uneasy glances, but said nothing more on the subject. As soon as they left Duskclaw let out a sigh, she knew that the two were probably right in their idea, but Duskclaw would never take another cats life, even if the cat was sick and in pain.

(000)

Snowfeather and Oakpaw had made it back to the group and after a lot of explaining, Batshadow knew that their duty had just become an even harder task. Not to mention that they had lost Bunnytail, Wildeyes, and Sunstar and they didn`t even know if they had been captured…

"We should just go home, we have no clue where this plant is, and there`s no chance that we can survive here with Thunderclan as an enemy!" Snowfeather hissed. There were a few startled meows and Starflower meowed in protest, but in reality, they all knew that her words were true and there was nothing they could do, now that they were split and Oakpaw was injured.

Falcon stepped up, her eyes blazing in anger at Snowfeather`s words, "We are not leaving!" She meowed and they all looked at her. "Don`t you understand? All these trials, everything, was laid out by Starclan to stop you, you`re falling right into their trap!" She meowed sternly, horrified that they would give-in.

"Listen, the only easy day was yesterday, and that will be that way for as long as we`re out here, I can`t guarantee that we`ll all get back, but I can promise you all that we will get the Night-glow-plant, even if it means we kill for it." Falcon said. They all looked at the brown and white cat, the passion of her words burning in her eyes gave them new hope, and with that restored, they knew they could carry on with their mission.

Oakpaw nodded, "Then what are we waiting for, let`s go get that plant!" He said, they all nodded and were about to move on when Starflower was knocked off her paws by a grey bundle of fur. "Riverclan!" Oakpaw yelped, remembering the name from when he was a prisoner. But Thunderclan was mingled in with Riverclan and Oakpaw felt his heart snag in his throat.

"Into the water!" Falcon shouted. That may be fine for her, she being able to swim like a fish, but for Batshadow, who had lived in the desert and drank out of puddles, it was insanity! But they had no choice as Snowfeather yanked the warrior off of Starflower and ran into the lake.

Batshadow reluctantly followed, but a good nip on his hind leg by a black cat made him jump in without hesitation.