Fireheart felt Graystripe's fur brush against his side. It was comforting in a way. He suddenly felt like he was being watched. He looked around to see who was watching him, but there was no cat.

"Alright," Bluestar meowed. "We'll stop here for the night."

Fireheart sat down, his belly churning with apprehension. Willowpelt approached and dropped a mouse at Fireheart's paws. He looked up at her from licking his chest fur.

"Here," Willowpelt meowed. "Eat."

Fireheart dipped his head to the older warrior gratefully. "Thank you."

"No problem." Willowpelt turned and walked away, sitting down and sharing tongues with Whitestorm.

Fireheart slumped down onto his belly, laying his head on his paws. Graystripe nudged him. "Are you okay?" Fireheart nodded his head, wondering what Nutmeg would do to him when she saw him. Would she kill him like she had threatened?

He pushed the mouse toward Graystripe. "You can have it."

He didn't wait to see the gray tom's reaction because he had already closed his eyes and slipped into a troubled sleep. He relived the moment in time he used to when he was a kit.

Rusty blinked open his eyes, feeling cold. He looked around only to notice that his parents weren't there. Standing up, he quietly padded across the hard floor of the house that belonged to his housefolk. He followed the familiar scent of his mother and father - Nutmeg and Jake.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Rusty heard his father's voice.

Then his mother responded. "I wanted to talk about fate."

"Fate?" Jake sounded confused.

Rusty peered around the corner of the wall to see his mother cornering his father. "Yes," Nutmeg crooned. "Fate."

"Nutmeg, what is this?" Jake stared at his mate. Rusty could see the suspicion in his father's forest-green eyes.

Her claws slid out and Jake's eyes widened. "Nutmeg..."

She pounced on him and sunk her teeth into the tom's throat. "No!" Rusty wailed, coming out of hiding. "Why did you do that?"

Nutmeg whirled around to see her youngest kit standing defiantly. Rusty felt nothing but anger and hatred bubbling up inside him as he looked at his mother. She pinned him down faster than he could get away. One of her paws was slammed down on his neck so he couldn't get up. She leaned in closer to him.

"If you tell anyone about this, I will do everything in my power to silence both of you," she hissed. Rusty could feel her breath, warm on his ear fur. "Got it?"

He quickly nodded his orange head. Nutmeg grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and flung him up to his paws. While doing that, she sliced down his belly and searing pain pulsed through him. He let out a cry of pain, barely managing to stay on his paws, and ran back to his littermates.

Fireheart felt someone shaking him. "Fireheart, wake up!"

He rolled over to see Longtail standing over him. Wondering why Longtail cared, he remember that the pale warrior was on first watch for the night. Fireheart sat up, licking his paw then drawing it over his ear in an attempt to hide his fear. He hadn't had a dream about that in a long time. So why did he have it just now?

Maybe because we're so close to reaching Nutmeg? he guessed. No, it has to be something else.

He stood up and started walking away when Longtail spoke to him. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You were muttering and twitching in your sleep."

"I'm fine," Fireheart responded. Then, eager to change the subject, he meowed, "I'll be back. I'm just going hunting before everyone wakes up."

Longtail nodded his head to let Fireheart know that he heard him. Then he turned and bounded away.

Approaching a small oak tree, Fireheart stopped and parted his jaws to taste the air. Mouse. He saw a scrawny little mouse scurrying around the oak tree, gathering small nuts and other food for it to eat later. Dropping into a hunter's crouch, he spread his weight evenly among all four paws. He stalked forward, carefully placing his paws on the ground so the mouse wouldn't detect him.

Before he caught the small brown rodent, growling erupted from the bushes beside him. He remained crouching down, but unsheathed his claws and turned toward the growling. A brown tabby she-cat hurled herself out of the bushes and slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground and driving the breath out of his lungs. Fireheart tried to yowl to alert someone, but the she-cat cut him off by thrusting her paw onto his neck, blocking his ability to breathe. He thrashed and struggled under her grip, landing blows on her shoulders, belly, and head. Realizing who the she-cat was, he managed to choke out her name.

"Nutmeg!" he gasped.

A thin, cruel smile spread across Nutmeg's face. Bloody foam and saliva flowing in steady puffs from her mouth, and her amber eyes held a wild look. "Yes, my dear son," she snarled in a creepily calm way. "Come to mama."

She lifted Fireheart's head so he was closer to her. He could smell her sour breath, which was hot on his muzzle. He fought back the bile that rose in his throat. Everything started spinning as he continued to have no roam to breathe, as Nutmeg's paws was still fastened on his neck. Without warning, Nutmeg slammed Fireheart back against the ground, hitting his head on the hard, compact earth.

His vision started fading and his mother's manipulatively threatening voice grew distant. Then, as Fireheart felt Nutmeg grip his scruff in her jaws and begin to drag him away, he was engulfed in an uneasily dark unconsciousness.