I hit a little bit of a writer's block, and instead of posting this morning I posted later on in the afternoon. Sorry guys! Please review - I tried to write as much as the last two but it was so hard. I had all the words and ideas but nothing really came out of my brain. This was more of a filler chapter, for that reason.

I do not own Warriors.

During the night so felt the terrible guilt of all that she had done. She had let Willowstar become a leader. She had killed her own mate and two of her kits.

Her kits. Strong, mewling Dappledkit. Her clinging, almost mirror-like Rainkit. But no. Her beautiful kits were gone.

Rainkit and Dappledkit were all so strong, all so loud. But Nightkit- or Thunderkit as Willowstar had named her- was quiet and the runt of her litter. And Willowstar didn't like the idea of two angry, revenge-seeking kits who would grow up into angry, revenge-seeking warriors. So she used Nightkit as a bribe- her life for the others. And so Rainkit and Dappledkit were tossed away like unwanted prey.

Nightclaw and his kits haunted her. Day and night she saw them, hiding in the shadows. She never tried to tell anyone because then she would have to explain how they died. She had murdered her family. Sometimes, she would snap. Instead of storing away the darkness she would change it into this vocal heat, this need to fight and kill and claw and crunch and-

No. Riversong reminded herself. She must not snap, she must keep her cool. All around her cats were in a stupor. Rosepetal was running around like a mad-cat, trying to fix everything. If Riversong was the medicine cat she would have sorted through the crowds to figure out who was injured and then organize herb patrols to find some chamomile in the forest. After that, she would begin to search through the smoldering fire and rescue the herbs.

But she wasn't medicine-cat because Willowstar said that she wasn't mentally fit for the job. She didn't- well-tried to not- hold it against Rosepetal. But when she tried to help her kit when there was a clan to attend to, it snapped her. But she held her tongue until Willowstar came around.

"We need to go and search the camp for anyone else," Riversong stressed, fighting to not claw the leader. After Nightclaw had died, his spirit was always straining to make an appearance. She could not risk her life against Willowstar. "The herbs, prey pile, or lost cats might still be savable."

"No."

"Mother, we must try."

"No."

"But-"

"Watch your tone."

Riversong hadn't realized that she was acting so Nightclaw-ish. She quickly backed away, though her pride was screaming. Nightkit was sitting farther away, a purr lodged in her throat.

"Riversong, guess what?" She asked, jumping to her feet. Riversong flopped onto the sand, tired of standing on three legs.

"What?" Sometimes Nightkit could become very adventurous, other times so quiet that she forgot Nightkit was there. Riversong tried to keep up with the resulting narrative but jumped up at the last few sentences.

"-Chamomile and she didn't understand until I was gone and then she looked like a complete Lion from one of the old tales because she moved so fast she was a blur and once she stopped but then she went fast again and I lost track of her and-"

"Wait, Chamomile?" I intercept. Nightkit nods like, Yeah, didn't you hear me? And tries to keep going. I don't make her stop because memory is flooding in.

"Chamomile, like Calm at the beginning. At least, that's how I learned it." The younger form of Riversong, now Riverpaw, recited to her friends. She was so excited to be learning new things and couldn't keep from bragging.

"Calm… I like the sound of that." Nightpaw yawned and his jaw stretched. "I just want to sleep right now."

"You just have to stop going out after the Gulls at night, Nightpaw." Rosepaw chides, leaning over to lick her fur.

"But my name is-"

"Yeah, yeah. We have already heard that you're, 'The mighty Nightpaw, destined for the darkest hour,' name. Could you just stop yawning a second to tell us again?" Rosepaw shoots back. Nightpaw yawns and turns his back to her on the flat rock, quickly falling to sleep.

"I will… later… when I… cool… comeback…" He mumbles, and Rosepaw snorts, smacking him upside the head with her versatile tail.

"Anyway, Chamomile is this really awesome plant that looks just like a-" Riversong tries to continue but Rosepaw interrupts.

"As much as this conversation interests me, I don't think I will ever become medicine-cat so this doesn't really involve me. Do you want to go hunting?"

"Fine." Riversong rolls her eyes and leaves the snoring tom. Almost instantly they hit up another conversation on what they will catch while out hunting, and before long forget entirely about him.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Willowspirit snarls at the poor, quivering tom, her eyes flashing. Shellstar exits his den with a yawn and surveys the crowd of apprentices and mentors.

"I caught this apprentice sleeping when he shouldn't have been." Willowspirit began, but her leader cut her off.

"Were you out chasing gulls last night?"

"Yes… Sorry, Shellstar." Nightpaw pushed his paw deeper into the sandy dirt and hung his head low.

"How many did you catch?"

"I'm sorry?"

"How many did you catch?"

"Two, Shellstar."

"Hm… Not good enough. Work harder and smarter next time, okay? You know, I used to go out Gulling at your age…" With that, he left. Willowspirit fumed and stalked off, muttering to herself about punishments and righteousness. Riverpaw ran over to her friend and started to excitedly apologize.

"Don't worry, it turned out fine in the end," Nightpaw told her, and gave her a comforting lick on the head. He was a moon older than her but it didn't stop Riverpaw from pushing her fur against his and rubbing heads with him. He chuckled and returned the gesture. All was well.

Again, writer's block. I hope this gives you a little more understanding of the whole relationship between everybody. After this, everything is going to go into a roller coaster with little memories as we finish with this part of the book. Thunderkit will take a bigger spotlight as she discovers something that should never be discovered.