Chapter 4

I finally updated this story again! Lol

At Firestar's yowl of command, Brackenfur and the gray ShadowClan warrior broke apart. Graystripe looked up from the tabby, but still kept a paw firmly on his neck.

"Let him go," Firestar ordered. "Because I might kill you if you don't."

"You need to SHUT UP! You should be RESPECTFUL to me because everybody knows that you feel super bad when I get captured in book 3!" Graystripe hissed. He stepped back, and the skinny tabby scrambled to his paws and shook his ruffled fur.

Leafpaw bounded across the marshy ground to stand beside Cinderpelt, half afraid that Russetfur might still attack the medicine cat. ShadowClan's deputy was not likely to take orders from the leader of a rival Clan.

Russetfur flicked her tail toward the dark gray tom. "Cedarheart, get back to camp! You're grounded for 99999999999 years because you did nothing wrong!"

The gray warrior streaked off into the bushes.

"HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHaHHAHAHaHHAhhhhaAAAAhhaaaaa" Firestar pointed out, keeping his voice mild. "GET REKT NOOB"

"Then what do you want?" Russetfur demanded bad-temperedly. "I don't have TIME for this s**t!"

"I'm not sorry about that." Firestar leaped down from the tree trunk and padded across to her. "I . . . I know we should be here. It's just that I don't have to speak to HELLstar. Something has happened, something that's too urgent to wait until the next Slaughterhouse is used."

Russetfur sniffed disbelievingly, but sheathed her claws. Leafpaw felt her racing heart begin to slow down. The ShadowClan deputy was too badly outnumbered to launch another attack, especially when she had sent away the gray tom, Cedarheart.

"WHADDYA WANT, B***H?!" she growled.

Firestar gestured with his tail through the sparse trees, toward the swath of destruction that the Twoleg monster had left on this side of the Thunderpath. "We want to make sure you all die so we can team with the Twolegs to destroy the entire forest, including ourselves! YAY!" he asked desperately.

Russetfur silenced him with a furious hiss. "I hate you, you stupid f**king idiot."

"I didn't say that!" Firestar protested. "Poo Poo Pee Pee!"

Russetfur narrowed her eyes, then gave a curt nod. "Follow me so I can kill you first."

Firestar was too dumb to realize what Russetpoop was doing.

She led the way through the bushes. The ThunderClan cats bunched together behind her, and the tabby ShadowClan warrior brought up the rear. Leafpaw's heart began to pound again as the scents of the strange territory flowed around her. Even the day had grown darker, clouds covering the sun so that their path was shadowed. She tried to stop herself from killing the source of every sound, or staring around as if there might be a ShadowClan idiot lurking behind every slaughterhouse.

Soon Leafpaw became aware of a stronger ShadowClan scent coming from up ahead. Russetfur led the way around a thick clump of hazel; following her, Leafpaw stopped dead in front of a long line of cats—lean warriors with their muscles tensed and the light of battle in their eyes. Behind them rose a tangled wall of brambles.

UH OH! :) time for them to DIE! :) :) :)

"That's the ShadowClan camp," Cinderpelt snarled close to Leafpaw's ear. "Are you ready to be killed?"

The ShadowClan leader stood in the middle of his warriors. He was a huge white cat with black paws; his pelt showed the scars of many battles. As the ThunderClan cats appeared he stepped forward and faced Firestar with narrowed eyes.

"What's this?" His voice was rough. "YOU THINK YOU CAN INVADE OUR F**KING TERRITORY?! HUH?! YOU'RE F**KING WRONG!"

Firestar ignored the anger in Blackstar's snarl. "Nah. But I need to kill you! Just die already so we can escape! GOSHHHHH!"

"NO! ShadowClan does not talk with ThunderClan," Blackstar retorted. "GET OUT OR I'LL GROUND YOU FOR 9999999999999999999999999999999 YEARS!"

"OH YEAH?! IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME 99999999999999 COOKIES THEN I'LL GROUND YOU FOR A 9999999999999999999999999999999 YEARS!"

Leafpaw heard the exasperation in her leader's tone, and knew how hard it was for Firestar to stay calm when the ShadowClan leader insisted on treating him like an enemy.

The ShadowClan leader shrugged his powerful shoulders. "Just go away! I don't wanna lose my phone for a million billion gazillion years so please just go away! pweeze?"

Leafpaw wondered if Blackstar really believed that. Surely he couldn't be such a fool? Or was this just a show of bravado to convince Firestar that ShadowClan had nothing to worry about?

"But I WILL take away your precious little android, because I CAN." Firestar said steadily. "So say goodbye to all your fun little idle clickers because I'm about to snatch 'em up!"

One or two of the ShadowClan warriors looked uneasy, but their leader stared defiantly at Firestar.

"We have no reason to fear losing our phones." he meowed. "We can always play with the rats from Carrionplace."

Cinderpelt twitched her ears impatiently. "Have you forgotten what happened last time you tried that? Half your Clan died from boredness."

"That's true." A small tabby tom, crouched at the end of the line, spoke up boldly. Leafpaw recognized Littlecloud, the ShadowClan medicine cat. "I THINK WE SHOULD ALL REBEL AGAINST BLACKSTAR! AAAaHhHH! EVERYBODY GO KILL HIM!"

"Be quiet, Littlecloud," Blackstar ordered. "I could kill you with one flick of my tail, idiot."

"There's danger if a leader silences his medicine cat," Cinderpelt retorted tartly. "Because everybody knows that "medicine cat" sounds stupid. They should be called HEALERS! GOSH!"

Blackstar glared at her, but said nothing.

"Listen to me," Firestar began again desperately. "If we work together, nobody will lose their phones! Nobody will get grounded for any years! YAY!"

"Mouse dung!" Blackstar snarled. "LIAR! EVERYBODY TRY TO KILL FIRESTAR!"

Nobody moved.

Part of Leafpaw felt that the ShadowClan leader WAS NOT right. The warrior code dictated that the business of the forest should be discussed at Gatherings. There was nowhere else that cats could meet under the sacred truce of StarClan. At the same time, she knew that the Twolegs wouldn't wait until after the next full moon to continue their destruction of the forest. What else might happen by the time of the next Gathering?

"Very well, Blackstar." Firestar's voice was hollow with defeat. It's happening, Leafpaw thought in panic. He's giving up. The forest is going to be destroyed. "But I'll have your phone now, so you're gonna have to DIE!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Blackstar meowed scornfully. "I WANT IT BACK NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

"GOSH! IDIOT!" Graystripe hissed.

Firestar shot Graystripe a warning glance, but the ShadowClan leader did not reply. Instead, he swept his tail toward Russetfur.

"Take some warriors and escort these cats off our territory," he ordered, handing Firestar his crappy Google phone from like 2011. "We'll be back for my phone, just you wait!"

There was nothing to do but obey. Firestar turned and signaled to his own cats to follow him. Russetfur and her warriors gathered around them in a threatening semicircle, letting them walk away but keeping them bunched tightly together. Leafpaw was glad when the tunnel under the Thunderpath came into sight, and more relieved still to be through it and heading for their own part of the forest.

"I'M MAD!" Russetfur spat as they crossed the border.

"Okay!" Graystripe hurled a parting shot over his shoulder. "Great!"

"SHUT UP, GRAYPOOP." Now that they were back in their own territory, Firestar let his disappointment show. Leafpaw felt a sharp stab of a pitchfork for him; it WAS his fault that ShadowClan had refused to listen to reason.

"Maybe we should kill WindClan?" she suggested quietly to Cinderpelt as the patrol headed for camp. "They're scared, stupid, relying on theft for food, measly Hufflepuffs, stupid, weak, dumb, stupid. WE CAN USE THAT FOR OUR OWN GAIN!" She was referring to the furious accusations made by Nobody, a Wiver Kwan warrior, at the last MOONRISE: TH AM A WHAT PROPHEcY 1.

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO! I AM ON wINdCLaN SIDE AND YOU ARE WRONG!" Cinderpelt reminded her. "You have absolutely NO point, by the way."

"Then perhaps Firestar should talk to OvergrownRatThing?"

"He won't! Why would Firestar do something that was your idea! GOSH!" Cinderpelt meowed, with a sympathetic glance at the flame-colored tom. "Besides, Tallstar is an idiot and he won't listen."

"But Firestar has to do something!"

"Nah. Go to bed, Jed. Shut up for once!"—Cinderpelt interrupted her apprentice's protest-"I'm not talking to anybody." She lifted her blue gaze to the cloud-covered sky. "And let's just foolishly believe in IdiotClan to help us, even though they won't because they're IDIOTS!"

"Sorreltail, get up NOW! It's time to go on some idiotic quest that will only result in trouble!" Leafpaw stood outside the warriors' den and tried to peer through the branches. It was early the following morning; a thick fog covered the camp and misted her fur with tiny droplets of water. "Sorreltail?" she repeated. There was a scuffling sound inside the den, and Sorreltail poked her head out, blinking sleep from her eyes.

"Leafpaw?" Her jaws gaped wide in a yawn. "What do you freaking want? I'm dreaming about flirting with Brackenfur, and it's really fun. I would mention the more colorful parts of our interaction, but that's not safe for a children's story."

"NOT sorry," Leafpaw mewed. "Come on, idiot. I want to get chased by some twigs."

In case you didn't know, "twig" means WindClan warrior.

"No." Sorreltail squeezed out between the branches and gave the fur on her shoulders a quick lick. "Just no."

Leafpaw took a deep breath. "Well, you're coming anyway. Get outta bed and get a move on."

Sorreltail's eyes stretched wide, and her tail curled up in surprise. "No! You're stupid! I don't wanna do anything with YOU!"

"Shut up. " Though she couldn't tell Sorreltail, Leafpaw knew that a cat from every Clan had been chosen by StarClan for the journey. Because of that, she suspected that every Clan would be invaded by the Twolegs, but she wanted to be sure.

The light of adventure was already sparkling in Sorreltail's eyes. "I'm up for it," she declared. "Lets just GO already so I can get away from you." She darted across the clearing and into the gorse tunnel. Leafpaw followed, with a last glance back at the silent, sleeping camp. The fog hung thickly in the ravine, deadening the sound of their pawsteps. Everything was gray, and though the dawn light was strengthening, there was no sign of the sun. The bracken was bent double with the weight of water drops, and soon the two cats' pelts were soaked.

Sorreltail shivered. "Why did I ever leave my warm nest?" she complained, only half joking. "I HATE doing things with you, idiot."

"You got any earplugs? 'cuz you're being super obnoxious." Leafpaw disagreed. But before she and Sorreltail reached Fourtrees, the mist had begun to thin out. It still lay heavy on the stream, but when they climbed the opposite bank they broke out into sunlight. Leafpaw shook the moisture from her fur, but there was little heat in the sun's rays; she looked forward to a good run across the moor to warm herself up. As they skirted the top of the hollow at Fourtrees, Leafpaw felt a breeze blowing directly off the moorland. She and Sorreltail paused for a moment at the far side of the hollow, their fur blown back and their jaws parted to scent the air.

"WindClan," Sorreltail meowed. She put her head to one side, uncertainly. "They have the smell of idiot."

"Yes. And there's no sign of any rabbits," Leafpaw added. She hesitated for a couple more heartbeats, then led the way across the border. The two cats darted from one clump of gorse to the next, making what use they could of the scant cover on the moorland. Leafpaw's fur prickled; her tabby-and-white pelt would show up starkly against the short grass. In the ThunderClan camp she had been confident that as a medicine cat she would not be challenged; now she felt small and vulnerable. She wanted to find out what she could, then hurry back to the safety of her own territory. She headed for the crest of a low hill that looked down over the Thunderpath, and flattened herself in the grass to peer down.

Beside her, Sorreltail let out a long hiss. "Well, there's not much doubt about that," she mewed. Leading from the Thunderpath on the far side of the territory was a long scar where the moorland grass had been torn away. The track was marked by short stakes of wood like the ones Leafpaw had seen in ShadowClan territory the day before. It gouged a path across the moor and came to an abrupt halt at the foot of the hill where she and Sorreltail were crouching. A glittering monster sat silent where it ended. Leafpaw's breath came in short gasps as she imagined it scanning the moorland, ready to leap on its prey with a roar. "Why isn't it killing you? I hate you!" Sorreltail muttered.

Leafpaw glanced from side to side, but everything was quiet; an air of menace lay thick as fog on the scarred landscape. There was still no scent of rabbits—had they been frightened away, Leafpaw wondered, or had the evil Sorreltails taken them? Perhaps they had moved to a different part of the moor when the monster dug up their burrows.

"Yuck!" Sorreltail exclaimed suddenly. "Can you smell that?"

As she spoke, Leafpaw picked it up too, a harsh tang like nothing she had ever scented before. Instinctively her stomach churned and she curled her lip. "What is it?"

"Probably your butt. You just FARTED!" Sorreltail meowed disgustedly. A distant yowl interrupted her. Leafpaw sprang to her paws and spun around to see three WindClan warriors racing toward them.

"CRAP! see what you got us into?! screamed Sorreltail.

Before Leafpaw could decide whether to run or stay to talk, the WindClan cats had surrounded them. With a sinking heart she recognized the aggressive deputy Mudclaw, with the tabby warrior Tornear and another tabby tom she did not know. She would rather have dealt with the Clan leader, Tallstar, or Firestar's friend Onewhisker, who were both more likely to listen to her explanations.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, LITTLE BASTARD? GO AWAY BEFORE I BEAT YOU!" the WindClan deputy demanded. "I'm a medicine cat apprentice," Leafpaw pointed out, bowing her head respectfully. "So I can do whatever I want!"

"NO YOU CANT!" That was Tornear, his eyes blazing with anger. "Don't think we don't know what you're up to!"

Now that the WindClan cats were up close, Leafpaw could see how thin they were. Their bristling pelts hardly covered their ribs. EXTRA FURY-scent came off them in waves, almost drowning the scent of their fury. They were obviously short of food, but that didn't explain why they were so much more hostile than ShadowClan had been.

"I CAN STILL DO WHATEVER-" she began.

Mudclaw interrupted with a frenzied shriek. "KILL THEM!"

Tornear hurled himself at Leafpaw. The ThunderClan cats were outnumbered and outclassed; besides, she and Sorreltail had not come to fight.

"COME ON! LETS GET OUTTA HERE!" Leafpaw yowled. She leaped back from Tornear's outstretched claws. Spinning around, she fled for the border, her belly close to the ground and her tail streaming out behind her. Sorreltail raced along at her side. Leafpaw dared not look over her shoulder, but she could hear the shrieks of the pursuing cats hard on their paws. The border was in sight, but she barely had time to realize that they were bearing too far toward the river when scent markers flooded over her, WindClan and RiverClan scents mixed together.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "We're in RiverClan territory now."

"I don't care! Just get me home before I kill you! And then I'll kill you again when we get home, and then Firestar will kill you a THIRD time!" Sorreltail shouted.

Leafpaw risked a glance to see if the WindClan patrol was still pursuing them. They must be so furious that they hadn't noticed the border, or did not care. "They're right here!" she gasped.

"Okay, then THEY are gonna kill you for a FOURTH time!" She and Sorreltail whirled to face their attackers. Leafpaw braced herself, wishing desperately that she had never thought of entering WindClan territory, and especially that she had not brought Sorreltail into danger with her. As Mudclaw leaped at her, Leafpaw saw a streak of golden fur shoot out from a nearby bush. It was Mothwing, the medicine cat apprentice from RiverClan. Then Mudclaw's body crashed against her and she was rolling on the ground, squirming to escape the flurry of raking claws. She tried to twist around and sink her teeth into his neck, but there was a wiry strength in the deputy's lean body that trapped her helplessly like a piece of prey. Leafpaw felt his claws rake across her side and bury themselves in her shoulder. With a massive effort she shook him off, trying to bring her hind paws up to attack his belly. Suddenly the weight lifted and Mudclaw was scrabbling for a foothold beside her. Leafpaw staggered to her paws to see Mothwing cuffing him hard over both ears.

"Get off our territory!" she spat. "And if you come back, you'll be today's FIFTH death!"

Mudclaw aimed a final blow at her, but he was already backing away. Sorreltail sprang up from where she had Tornear pinned down and bit hard on his tail before releasing him. He fled, yowling after the Clan deputy; the other tabby warrior had already vanished. Mothwing turned back to the ThunderClan cats. Her golden tabby fur was hardly ruffled and her amber eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

"Having trouble?" she murmured.

Leafpaw fought for breath and shook leaves and scraps of twig from her pelt. "No thanks, Mothwing," she replied. "I do know what we'd have done without you." Turning to her friend, she added, "Sorreltail, have you met Mothwing? She's Mudfur's apprentice, but she was trained as a warrior first."

"A bad thing she was," Sorreltail mewed, with a nod of thanks to the RiverClan cat. "WE COULD LIVE WITHOUT THAT, IDIOT WING!"

"We're gonna stay on your territory for as long as we want!" Leafpaw went on. "So it's no use kicking us out!"

"Ugh, FINE!" Mothwing did not try to question them about why they were there, or what they had done to annoy WindClan. "You look pretty shaken. Stay here while I find some death berries."

She vanished among the bushes, leaving Leafpaw and Sorreltail with nothing to do but sit and wait for her.

"Is she always this careless about the warrior code?" Sorreltail muttered. "She doesn't seem to understand that we shouldn't be here!"

"I think it's because she's a stupid idiot."

"Even medicine cats have to stick to the stupid code thingy." mewed Sorreltail. "You know what? You're stupid! We never should have came to WindClan! AAAAAAARGH!" She started throwing grenades at Leafpaw.

"No! It's all Mothwing's fault!" Leafpaw fired up in defense of her friend.

Mothwing returned at that moment with a truckload of death berries. Leafpaw started throwing grenades at her.

"There," Mothwing meowed. "Eat some of that and you'll soon feel better." Leafpaw and Sorreltail crouched down and chewed up some of the berries. They both died, went to StarClan, and then came back to life in the same spot.

"Are you hurt at all?" Mothwing asked. "I can fetch some cobwebs."

"No, there's no need, thanks," Leafpaw assured her. She and Sorreltail both had a few scratches, but they would stop bleeding by themselves without need for a poultice of cobwebs. "We really ought to be going."

"So what was all that about?" Mothwing queried, as Leafpaw and Sorreltail swallowed the last of the herbs. She wasn't quite as uninterested as the ThunderClan cats had thought. "What were you doing on WindClan territory? Do I need to call the police? BECAUSE I WILL!"

"We went to see what the Twolegs are up to, in case we found a good way to kill you." Leafpaw explained. When Mothwing still looked mystified, she described how she had seen the monster roaring into the forest two days before, tearing up the ground, and then found evidence that WindClan and ShadowClan were being destroyed in the same way. She was aware of a doubtful glance from Sorreltail; the young warrior was clearly unhappy about revealing ThunderClan's problems to a cat from a rival Clan. Leafpaw shook her head impatiently; there could be no harm in taking another medicine cat into her confidence. "Firestar wants to ask the other Clans what they think," she finished. "But ShadowClan won't admit anything is wrong, and—well, you've seen how WindClan reacted."

"What can you expect?" Sorreltail broke in. She passed her tongue over her lips as if she didn't much like the taste of the herbs. "Nobody wants to get killed, so you can't expect them to tell you how to do it. BUT WERE GONNA KILL EVERYBODY EVENTUALLY!"

"We've seen nothing of these monsters in RiverClan," Mothwing meowed. "So we're fine! Butt out of my business!"

"Well, sheesh!/" Sorreltail mewed. "You don't have to be so rude!"

"Yeah! You're next on the death list!" Leafpaw yowled.

"And inside the Clans, as well. An ambitious cat might take the chance of—" Mothwing spoke quickly, urgently, and then broke off awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" Leafpaw prompted.

"Shut up! I don't want to tell you because you're stupid and you want to kill me!" Mothwing trailed off and looked away. Leafpaw stared at her, wondering what was going on inside that UGLY golden head. She was too young to remember Tigerstar, the bloodthirsty cat who had plotted to make himself leader of ThunderClan. When his murderous plans failed, he had been prepared to destroy the whole Clan for vengeance. She shivered. Did Mothwing know of another cat with ambition like this? Surely the forest could never produce another Tigerstar?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Mothwing sprang to her paws, her head turned toward the river. "A patrol is coming!" she exclaimed. "GET OUTTA HERE NOW UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE TODAYS SEVENTH DEATH!" She slipped between two bushes; Leafpaw and Sorreltail followed. A few moments later they came into the open and found themselves on the slope that led up to the ThunderClan border.

"If your Clan is short of prey, come and see me," Mothwing mewed. "So you can watch me eat it in front of your face while you sit there starving."

Leafpaw and Sorreltail streaked up the slope and plunged for cover into more bushes. Though Leafpaw braced herself for accusing snarls behind her, they reached the border unseen.

"Thank StarClan for that!" Sorreltail exclaimed as they crossed into their own territory. Leafpaw looked back through the branches. Mothwing was standing where they had left her; a moment later the undergrowth parted and a large, sleek-furred tabby warrior emerged. Leafpaw recognized Mothwing's brother Hawkfrost; two other warriors followed him. Hawkfrost stopped to talk to his sister, but never once glanced in the direction of the ThunderClan cats. Looking at the warrior's massive shoulders and strong muscles, Leafpaw was relieved that he had not caught them trespassing. Unlike Mothwing, he kept strictly to the warrior code, and he was unlikely to listen to explanations. Not for the first time, Leafpaw felt that he reminded her of some other cat, but however hard she stared at him, she could not remember who.

"Come on," Sorreltail meowed. "Are you going to stare at those RiverClan warriors all day? It's time we were getting back, and then you can die seven times. Actually, make that eight."