I forgot to add the disclaimer! Neither warriors nor Harry Potter belongs to me.

Chapter 2

It had been nearly a week, and the patrol, along with their leader and their deputy, had not returned.

"Maybe they got lost," suggested Dustpelt.

"It's certainly a possibility," said Cloudtail gravely.

"What are we going to do when the Gathering comes? We can't just turn up without Firestar, he has to address the clans," Mousefur said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

The three cats were sat near the fresh-kill pile, heads lowered.

Finally Dustpelt acted on their fears. Despite the nervousness born from the gesture, which could be seen as an act of rebellion to the other cats, his words came out steady, "let all cats who are old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the highledge for a clan meeting."

Awkwardly the cats assembled. Dustpelt was surprised that none of them complained that he had no authority to do such a thing, and decided not to bring attention to that particular detail.

"As you all know," he began, "Firestar, not to mention Brambleclaw, went missing several days ago."

He paused, waiting for the challenge to his words. When none came, he sighed.

"The gathering is coming up and we need to decide who's going to address the clans."

Silence. Absolute, total silence. You could have heard a leaf fall in the camp as every cat stared at Dustpelt with emotions ranging from contempt to relief. He supposed the matter must have been on their minds, too.

Then, "Sandstorm can do it."

Dustpelt nodded sarcastically at Spiderleg's suggestion, "Yes, she could. Were she not missing as well."

Spiderleg ducked his head in embarrassment.

"Don't make him feel bad, Dustpelt," Rainwhisker berated him.

"I'm just saying, we need a plan," Dustpelt said before the clan could dissolve into a pointless argument, "I was thinking I could-"

"Oh, so that's what you called the meeting to do. Seize Firestar's power while he's not here," Thornclaw said angrily.

"It's a suggestion," Mousefur was quick to leap to his defence, "he's not trying to seize anything."

Dustpelt sighed and looked up in exasperation as they began to debate about his ambitions.

Oh, Firestar, where are you?

"Hey!" Squirrelflight protested, "my father's the leader of the whole of Thunderclan. They'll find me! And you'll BE SORRY."

The bushy-haired human took no notice, which Squirrelflight wasn't surprised about. The other cat who had been taken with her, however, raised his head, "they can't understand us," he said, "and they won't hurt us anyway."

Squirrelflight growled at him, "you're a kittypet."

When he didn't respond, she took a moment to take in the appearance of the other cat. He was a large ginger tom with a flat-looking face- which made Squirrelflight think he had run face first into a tree- and an overall lionlike appearance. His fur looked permanently rumpled and scruffy, and it was very thick.

"What's your name?" Squirrelflight asked after several moments of awkward silence.

"The tailless' are calling me Crookshanks," the cat said simply.

"I'm Squirrelflight," said Squirrelflight.

"The tailless' will definitely change that," Crookshanks promised as he rested his head on his paws- Squirrelflight took this as a sign that the introductions were over, "you'll see."

Squirrelflight didn't like Crookshanks, but she trusted the other cat's advice.

"If you want to find your friends," the fluffy ginger kittypet had said, "you should allow this twoleg to take you with her. All the twoleg kits go to the same place, and they're pretty much the only ones who take cats from the pet shop."

So here the warrior was, crouched in a kittypet cage, snarling at the bushy-brown-haired twoleg who was anxiously sat in front of the wire mesh.

"Do you think there's something wrong with her?" asked Hermione to Ron. She was watching the smaller of her two purchased ginger cats as it snarled and spat at nothing in particular. Ron had suggested several times that the display of aggression was aimed at her, but she couldn't think of a single reason the cat would be angry with her.

Ron, who, unsurprisingly had been of no help at all, said dryly, "if you ask me, it can only be a good thing. Scabbers doesn't want two of those thing chasing him around."

Hermione pursed her lips, "so you've said."

As if the mere mention of the rat's name was enough to bring up Crookshanks' hatred, the fluffy cat raised his head.

"See," Ron said, noticing, "that cat has got it in for Scabbers."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron, cats can't hold grudges," Hermione said, in her no-nonsense voice, "he's probably just angry at getting woken up," she put her hands on her hips and added, "by your stupid voice."

She stormed out of the room, and Ron was left to shrug and turn to the aggressive cat, "honestly. You'd think I was the one hissing and spitting at her."

Squirrelflight was awoken from her fitful sleep by someone tapping on the door of her cage. She raised her head and realise it was Crookshanks, "what are you doing, mouse-brain? I'm trying to sleep."

"It's midday," Crookshanks protested.

Squirrelflight looked up at the light pouring into the window and realised Crookshanks was right. Still, she would not admit defeat to the infuriating kittypet by leaving the matter unargued, "it's not like I have anything better to do, locked up in here all day."

Crookshanks nudged the catch and opened the cage, "that's why I'm getting you out."

She pricked up her ears, "really? I can go? Have you found my friends?"

Crookshanks huffed, "No. And you can't go away yet. I want you to help me."

"With what?"

"That infuriating rat. I've been chasing it all day, but it's so elusive that I'm suspicious," Crookshanks hissed.

"You woke me up," Squirrelflight stifled a yawn, "to help you catch a specific rat that you haven't been able to catch."

"There's something about that creature," Crookshanks protested.

Squirrelflight rolled her eyes, "ok, fine, but then can I sleep?"

"Sure."

Crookshanks led Squirrelflight to one of the twolegs. Squirrelflight recognised the tall ginger kit who had been making comments to the bushy-haired kit while Squirrlflight was threatening her. Her fur instantly stood on end. She didn't like him. She didn't like him at all.

"Why are we here?" she asked her new friend.

"That tailless is the owner of the rat," said Crookshanks. Already he was stalking the twoleg.

Squirrelflight looked at the sleeping twoleg. She didn't want him to wake up and tell the other twoleg that she was out of her cage. She began to back slowly towards the exit, ready to bolt if he showed any signs of waking up. Luckily, Crookshanks' attention was firmly fixed on a small bulge in the twoleg's pocket, and he didn't notice the other cat's cowardice. Crookshanks clearly was not an experienced warrior, nor any kind of warrior.

Squirrelflight might have gotten away, if Crookshanks had thought of a better plan than just pouncing on the twoleg's chest, where the rat was huddling.

The twoleg awoke with a yelp; he must have thought he was being attacked (and for good reason). The moment he realised what was happening, he leapt up and threw Crookshanks off. Squirrelflight dashed forward, concerned about her new friend, and nearly got kicked in the side for her troubles. The twoleg was furious. He quickly went in pursuit of his enemies. The two cats bolted, making for the door through which they had entered.

And ran straight into the bushy-haired twoleg as she entered the room to see what the fuss was about.

"RON!"

Ron winced, knowing he was in trouble.

Hermione stood in front of him, Crookshanks pressed against her chest, his claws dug into her shirt from terror. It could have been Ron's imagination, but the infuriating fluffy cat was looking slightly pleased with himself. Still, Hermione's attention was wholly on her ginger-haired friend, and she didn't seem to notice the smug aura that surrounded the creature.

"Ron, you could have killed them!" Hermione was still waiting for an explanation.

"They were going after Scabbers. They've teamed up against him, now. How do you expect him to recover from his illness if there's two of the vicious animals after him?"

"They're cats, Ron, I can't stop them from chasing rats," Hermione sighed as if he were the one that was being unreasonable.

"And what's that other bloody beast doing out of it's cage?" he cried, glaring at the smaller one who was crouched at Hermione's feet.

Hermione looked stumped, "I don't know," she said, her brows furrowing. She looked questioningly at the cat, who continued to stare at him. Even the cats had it in for him now.

They might have stood like that all day, had Harry not chosen that moment to intervene.

"Hi, guys. Have you seen- what are you two doing?"

Ron didn't take his eyes off of the little fiery red cat at Hermione's feet, "those mangy creatures keep targeting Scabbers."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Harry, tell him he's being ridiculous. Cats don't target specific animals."

Harry stared between them, unsure of which side to take, then turned away, hands up in a gesture of hopelessness, "I'll leave you two to it," he said.

I'll have a word with him later, Ron vowed before checking to make sure the cats hadn't stolen Scabbers, and leaving in the other direction to go to his room.

Hermione sounded slightly relieved when she next spoke, "I'd start packing if I were you. We're leaving early tomorrow.

He limited his reply to a grunt.

Squirrelflight had decided not to be too aggressive towards the twoleg. They had reached an unspoken agreement. The twoleg would take her to where her friends were likely to be and Squirrleflight wouldn't try to kill her. So she was allowed out of her cage more, and had more opportunity to go after the little rat that had gotten her and Crookshanks into so much trouble.

The only problem being that the rodent spent most of his time within the protection of the grumpy ginger twoleg.

"Squeaky little coward," snarled Crookshanks. They were crouched near bushy-haired twoleg as she helped ginger twoleg to put all his stuff in a little case.

Squirrelflight scented the air, "he must stay in that twoleg's pelt all day! The scent's only coming from that place."

"Don't twolegs change their pelts?" Crookshanks asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, he must come out then, but when will that be?" Squirrelflight agreed. She stalked forward to a pile of spare twoleg pelts- or whatever they were called, and sniffed them, "I definitely smell him on them, but the scent's quite stale. I'd guess he changes once a day."

Crookshanks shuddered at the thought of shedding his pelt, "twolegs are so weird," he said.

"No kidding. A clan of twolegs completely tore down the forest where my clans used to live. We all had to move!"

Crookshanks shuddered, "that must have been awful."

"It was," Squirrelflight quickly told him the full story of the prophecy from Starclan and the quest she and her friends had been on. When she'd finished, Crookshanks nodded, "well, at least you made it. There are plenty of clans of cats who wouldn't have been strong enough."

Squirrelflight had a feeling that Crookshanks knew more about these things than he let on.

"There!" Crookshanks hissed suddenly, interrupting Squirrelflight's thoughts. He had spotted the rat poking his head curiously out of the twoleg's pelt.

"He doesn't look too good, does he?" Squirrelflight observed as they ducked further behind the doorframe. The rat's fur was missing huge clumps, and he seemed to have visibly lost weight since Squirrelflight last saw him three hours ago.

"No," Crookshanks shook his head, regarding the rat with a serious expression.

They didn't have much more of a chance to observe their target, because at that moment, the ginger twoleg spotted them crouched around the corner and began to shout angrily. They scurried away, deciding to leave the two twolegs to argue by themselves.

The next day there was no opportunity to chase rats, as the twolegs seemed in rather a hurry to leave the den. The cats, and their quest for the little grey rat, were forgotten in packing, shouting and all the other nonsense twolegs had to do in preparation to move camp.

Crookshanks and Squirrelflight ended up back in the small cages that they had been brought in, nervously awaiting their fate. It came, a few hours later, in the form of two twoleg monsters that pulled up outside the door. The twolegs wasted no time cramming themselves in.

Squirrelflight had never been in a monster before, although, it seemed, Crookshanks had. It wasn't as bad as she'd expected. Once she was used to it, she hardly noticed that she was moving, and even started to enjoy the sensation of travelling fast enough to reach her destination within a few hours.

All too soon the monsters pulled up near a large gathering of twolegs. They were standing on a stone platform that was raised above two lengths of the shiny stuff twolegs often used. Below that was a lot of pieces of wood, arranged in a way that would support the long beams, which went on far into the distance and curved out of sight.

Her group of twolegs didn't stop there, however. They continued until they reached one of the pillars that was supporting the ceiling. Squirrelflight looked around, wondering why they had stopped. That brick pillar was the same as all the others, wasn't it?

Or was it? Squirrelflight could be imagining it, but there was a strange field of power surrounding the unremarkable structure. A similar one to the one that surrounded all the twolegs that were in their group. Squirrelflight had already gained the suspicion that these twolegs weren't ordinary twolegs.

As if to prove her point, the larger ginger twoleg and the shorter black-haired twoleg with the scar on his forehead strode right up to the wall. Looking around, they leant on it.

And fell right through it.

Squirrelflight blinked, wondering if her eyes were tricking her.

No, they weren't. The twolegs she had seen falling into the solid surface were no longer in their group. And two more- the tallest twoleg- the bossy ginger one- and the short female ginger twoleg kit were walking towards it. Were they investigating it?

No. The twolegs were unaffected by the strangeness of their friends' disappearance. As she watched, they too disappeared through the barrier.

Squirrelflight glanced at Crookshanks, wondering if the other cat was also confused by the display. Apparently, he was. There would be no explanation coming from him.

Squirrelflight was so lost in confused thoughts that she almost didn't notice that the bushy-haired twoleg that was holding the cats had begun to move forward until she was alarmed by the barrier moving closer. They were taking the crossing at a run.

Faster and faster they moved. Squirrelflight squeezed her eyes shut, wondering if she should bolt from these- apparently mad- twolegs if the cage was to pop open when they crashed. She would find her friends some other way. But the crash never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

To find herself in a completely different place than the one she had just been in.

The monsters that had carried them to this place were apparently not the last ones Squirrelflight would see today. On the platform where they had emerged was a huge one. It had a round head and a funnel through which steam was belching through, and Squirrelflight realised that she had found the reason for the two long pieces of shiny material on the ground below the platform.

Behind it, and unmistakeably attached to it, were an uncountable number of smaller monsters, with windows looking towards large, comfortable-looking sitting areas, each enough for about six or seven twolegs.

Some twolegs were already in the monster, while others shared tongues on the platform beside it, apparently exchanging heartfelt goodbyes with their loved ones.

Some of the twolegs that had come through the barriers with her instantly went over to greet friends of theirs. One in particular- the ginger bossy one- went over to greet a female twoleg- possibly his mate- with his chest, where the shiny thing he'd been bragging about all morning was pinned, so that she could see it.

This is just like a gathering, Squirrelflight realised, looking around at all the mingled crowds of twolegs. She had never seen so many twolegs in her life.

But what's the reason for that monster over there?

Maybe it was what the clan leaders stood on to talk to the twoleg clans. But somehow she doubted that the clumsy twolegs would want to climb onto something like that. Why wasn't there obvious hand holds? And why was there steam coming out of it?

Squirrelflight was left to ponder those questions later as the twoleg carrying her began to move towards the giant monster, having said her goodbyes to the others.

It's incredibly annoying to be forced to listen to others talking when you can't join in. It's even more annoying when you have to listen in on a conversation when you can't understand a word the other people are saying. Squirrelflight might have started talking to Crookshanks out of sheer boredom, but the other cat's cage was on the opposite side of the carriage, and Squirrelflight doubted the twolegs would appreciate the two of them yowling at each other across the space.

So she was stuck trying to guess what the twolegs were talking about from their expressions and reactions.

The ginger one was explaining something to the other two, but the bushy-haired one was trying to interrupt, looking exasperated. Then they were arguing again.

Great Starclan! Do twolegs ever stop arguing?

Squirrelflight gave a huge yawn and began to curl up in her enclosure, but before she could, the bushy-haired twoleg moved towards her, and, much to the horror of the ginger twoleg, let her out of her cage. She was still talking calmly to her fellow twolegs, but they weren't listening anymore.

Ginger twoleg gave an angry shout and shoved Crookshanks, who was already reaching for Scabbers, off.

The two cats sprang away from the fight that was bound to occur as a result. They curled up together on the empty seat, watching attentively for movement from their rat target.

The journey in the long monster was, at first, as uneventful as the journey in the littler monster earlier. It also wasn't as fast, and Squirrelflight didn't see any other giant long monsters on the way, making her suspect that this was the only one. The thoughts of, 'where are we going?' and, 'what are these twolegs going to do with us?' were less scary when she could look forward to the possibility of finding her clanmates when she got there.

There was an older twoleg with a trolley that went by with some food, and Squirrelflight managed to steal some of the food that was given to the twoleg kits to share with Crookshanks. (The two cats never stole food from twolegs again, owing to the strange colourful blobs that looked so inviting but tasted so horrible).

And for a while, the rat never poked his head out of the twoleg kit's pelt. Squirrelflight was almost beginning to think he'd died. But there he was when the food came out, his curious face looking around for morsels he could snatch.

Squirrelflight stopped Crookshanks before the other cat could pounce, "don't, mouse-brain, the twoleg will catch you. Let's wait until we can see more than just his head."

It wasn't long before flying endlessly through the countryside in a twoleg monster, no matter how fast they were going, began to get very boring.

...

It was several hours before anything remotely exciting happened.

Almost the moment Squirrelflight began to drift off to sleep, she was jolted awake by the compartment door sliding open. The twoleg that had opened it had a pale complexion, and an unusually pointed nose. He stepped in, gazing around with obvious disregard. She gave a soft hiss. However horrible she thought the twolegs who had taken her were, somehow she knew that this twoleg was much, much worse.

As if to prove her suspicion, the twoleg was flanked by another pair of twolegs. These ones were much bigger than any twoleg kit she'd seen so far. One was tall, but no doubt he had muscle. He had little fur on his head, but what he had was black. The second was shorter and slightly fat. He had a head of wirey black hair. Neither looked pleased at their present company, but maybe their faces were just stuck that way.

The black-haired twoleg with the scar gave what must have been the twoleg equivalent to a growl, and said something to him.

Apparently ignoring him, pale-haired twoleg targeted his gaze at the ginger twoleg kit who sheltered the rat. Whatever he said in that sneering voice, it must have hit it's mark, because the other twoleg sprang up, snarling something fierce. The black-haired one followed him, whether to join him should a fight break out or stop him from doing anything drastic, Squirrelflight didn't know. The bushy-haired one remained seated, observing the performance with the same icy disdain she seemed to hold for everything.

Before the pale-haired twoleg could do any more damage, he stiffened. There was a quick exchange, in which the black-haired twoleg sounded triumphant. Then, with one final cold look at the room in general, the pale-haired twoleg took his leave.

Squirrelflight looked around for the cause of his sudden retreat. Her eyes fell on the final twoleg in the room. He was a brown-haired twoleg adult, and he was fast asleep. Judging by the respect twoleg kits held for their adults, Squirrelflight decided to see the mystery as solved, and went back to her much-needed sleep.

...

Brambleclaw had found sleep for most of the journey. His dreams were troubled, but not quite nightmares. He dreamt he was running through an unfamiliar forest. He couldn't remember how long he'd been walking, just that he needed to get somewhere, fast. Then he woke up, with the feeling as if he'd forgotten something.

He was so busy pondering over what the dream meant that he'd forgotten the actual reason that he'd woken up.

Something was wrong.

He was colder than he'd ever been in his life. And suddenly, although he knew logically that the problems he was facing right now were nowhere near as bad as what he had faced in the, past, everything seemed hopeless.

How would he ever find Squirrelflight again, when she had been taken by that twoleg to who knows where? How would he ever get back to Thunderclan, and would they even be there when he returned? There was no guarantee that no trouble had befallen the forest while the warriors had been gone. Especially with Hawkfrost's recent betrayal. And what was he doing? He shouldn't be relying on twolegs. He shouldn't feel any loyalty, or compassion to the creatures who had destroyed his home and driven his clans to travelling midwinter with no clear directions to follow. He was a disloyal disgrace. He was a-

Brambleclaw's thoughts might have continued on this track for many moons, had Firestar not suddenly noticed his deputy go rigid, "Brambleclaw? Are you alright?"

He jolted out of his pessimistic mindset, "y-yes. What's happening?"

"I don't know."

Neville and Ren seemed just as confused as they were.

"Why have we stopped?" Neville asked.

"I don't know," Ren said, her voice shaky, "but we can't be there yet. I don't like this."

Brambleclaw started. He hadn't noticed that the train had ceased to move. But there it was, painfully obvious. Something a trained warrior like himself should have noticed instantly. What was wrong with him? Was he becoming useless?

"We should ask Harry," Neville said with certainty.

Ren nodded.

Maybe Harry's their clan leader, Brambleclaw guessed. Clan leader or not, this Harry was certainly a figure of respect for the twolegs. And if he was, he would have more of an idea than Brambleclaw, with his muddled mind, did.

So when the twolegs left the compartment together, he was quick to follow. Firestar was too, but maybe he was just following Brambleclaw to tell him what a bad idea it was to wander out of a 'safe position' to trail two twolegs he hardly knew into possible danger.

He did not, however, comment on Brambleclaw's poor judgement.

The trip to Harry's compartment was thankfully uneventful, but Brambleclaw did accidentally tread on Firestar's tail once, earning himself a hiss and a glare.

"Sorry," he had muttered, ducking his head.

Harry had turned out to be a small black-haired twoleg kit- clearly not a clan leader- who was huddled in a compartment with two twolegs and two cats.

One of the twolegs was tall, with ginger hair and a rather bemused rat with it's head sticking out of his pocket. He had one hand pressed fearfully against the window of the compartment, trying to make out what was happening outside.

The other was a female kit with bushy-brown hair. She was watching the others a lofty, exasperated expression, as if she knew perfectly well what was going on- which Brambleclaw guessed she didn't- and simply wasn't going to explain the situation to anyone else.

There was a cat with them; a fluffy ginger kittypet which looked like a small lion who had recently smashed his head against a hard surface.

It was the fourth member of this rather strange group that made Brambleclaw gasp in shock.

He stared at the familiar red she-cat in disbelief, "Squirrelflight?"

...

Sorry if this chapter felt rushed, I just got carried away with Squirrelflight and Crookshanks vs Scabbers, (which was very fun to write)!