Chapter 11

Racing through the forest.

Faster, faster, faster.

All the way home.

Ignore the patrol.

I need to get home!

Mathpaw finally crossed the boundary into ThunderClan territory. Relief flooded over him.

I am home now.

The StarClan warrior hadn't told him whether to tell Redstripe's secret or not, so he decided to keep quiet for now.

Then Mathpaw started noticing things that were wrong.

Some out of place, and others changed entirely, but everything based off a good sense of humor.

Oh, no.

Mathpaw had known all along that reality was colliding with the FunnyVerse, but he hadn't actually considered it until now. It was a problem, and only StarClan knew who was behind it.

His paws tingled with frustration as a hoard of creepy clowns came into sight. They weren't even cats. This was ridiculous.

Back at camp, eyes peered out of dens and heads turned toward the entrance to the camp. Paws thudded on stone as ThunderClan came to greet Mathpaw.

"He's back!"

"Is it really Mathpaw?"

"I thought he was gone!"

A familiar gray tom came to the front of the crowd and raised his tail for everyone else to halt.

"Hello, Silverclaw."

"I'm Silverstar now. Trapstar is dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Silverstar's tail-tip twitched. "What have you been doing away from camp for so long?"

Other cats pushed their way to the front of the crowd to hear what Mathpaw had to say.

"I...er...I got lost in the forest and couldn't...I couldn't find my way back," Mathpaw stuttered, immediately wishing his voice hadn't shook like a frightened kit.

It was a very long time before Silverstar spoke again. "Mathpaw."

The one word chilled Mathpaw's bones.

He knew what was coming. But had Silverstar really found out what he was actually doing?

"Mathpaw, you were very brave in finding your own way back, but next time be more careful. And you should have known better than to go out alone."

Mathpaw heaved a sigh of relief as the ThunderClan leader padded away, followed by the rest of the Clan.

But something about the way Silverstar spoke made Mathpaw feel like he knew where he'd really been.