It has been two months since they were trapped in this forest, and in that time, the four DayClan cats met two exiled LightClan cats and a young CrystalClan apprentice. "So... who are you three?" Nightfang mewed. "I'm Starlingpool, and this is my best friend, Moonfeather." The sable she-cat mewed in a friendly tone. "And I'm Rubypaw." The small dark red apprentice chirped happily from her place beside Starlingpool.
They finished up training in the cave, Rubypaw with the best performance. "Nice job today everyone! You all worked very hard, especially Rubypaw! You're really improving!" Nightcloud congratulated. "Thanks Nightcloud. I do try my best." Rubypaw said. "That's pretty evident." Starlingpool told her. "Whisperheart was really great too! She hit every target dead on! And remember when she saved me from that bolder?" Briardawn said. Whisperheart looked down and avoided eye contact. "You really think I did well?" She asked. That was different. She has never acted like this before. "Of course! When do you not do well?" Briardawn complimented her. She kept looking down and mumbled a "thanks." Briardawn walked to the sleep cave with Eclipsewing and Nightfang, all of them talking about how tired they were. Whisperheart turned around to follow and Moonfeather caught a hint of red on her face. Was she blushing? She signaled for Starlingpool and she trotted over. "What's up Moon?" She asked. "Did you see Whisperheart's reaction to Briardawn's compliments? I thought I saw her blushing." Moonfeather told her. "Nah, she's probably just hot from all the training. I worked up a sweat myself!" She said. "No, there's definitely something different going on here." Moonfeather claimed. Starlingpool shrugged. "Whatever you say." She looked her in the eyes. "There's something different going on, and I'm going to need your help to find out what it is." Moonfeather said.
Eclipsewing awoke the next morning to the sun shining in her eyes. She groaned and buried her face in her paws as she tried and failed to get back to sleep. "Come on Eclipse. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Briardawn shouted in an attempt to wake up the black-and-white she-cat. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" She shouted, batting at Eclipsewing's face with a paw.
"Ok Ok I'm up!"
"Good, now C'mon. Training is starting." Briardawn told her. "Yeah! Why you gotta be soooo bossy!" She meowed in an exasperated tone of voice. "Ugh! I hate mornings!" Eclipsewing grumbled under her breath as she followed after Briardawn. "Stay awake! And I mean it miss lazy-claws!" Nightcloud mewed exasperatedly. Eclipsewing just hissed and flexed her claws.
"Mornin sleepyhead" Whisperheart said in a joking tone of voice. "Shut up Whisp!" Eclipsewing snapped at the silver-and-white she-cat. "Who ruffled your fur this morning?" Whisperheart mumbles under her breath. "I. Said. SHUT UP!" Eclipsewing caterwauled. "Stop screeching like a dying animal! Your gonna make us all deff!"
Whisperheart laid in a tree for a long time, gazing up at the stars. She acted so stupid when Briardawn said she did a good job. Why did she do that? "Whisperheart? There you are! Why aren't you in the sleep cave?" Nightcloud came up to her. She jumped at the sound of her voice, not expecting anyone to find her here. "Oh! I uh... I just wanted to get a good look at the stars! If you look up and to the right you can see the Little Dipper." She lied. "Yeah sure. Why are you really up here?" Nightcloud didn't fall for it. Whisperheart sighed in defeat. "It's because... I feel bad about earlier. I acted like a complete idiot around Briardawn!" She said. "Huh? All she said was you did well in training. We're members of a Clan, we always compliment each other. Why are you acting different now?" She looked really confused. "It's because... I like Briardawn."
Nightcloud's jaw dropped open in shock. "You what?!" Whisperheart didn't want to repeat herself, so instead she just looked at her feet. "Whisperheart, why didn't you tell me earlier?" She asked. "Because I was afraid you would make fun of me. You know, since we aren't even the same species and all." Whisperheart said, being completely honest. "I would never make fun of you! None of us wou-ok maybe Moonfeather would, but I won't!" Nightcloud started to pace. "This isn't just some small thing, this is huge! You need to let her know!" She said. "Wait, tell Briardawn I like her? No way! I could never, what if she doesn't like me back?" If she didn't like her the same way... maybe she needs to rethink this... "What? No! You don't have to tell her directly! Drop a few hints, you know? But don't make it to obvious. You need to give her a chance to fall in love with you." Nightcloud told her. "How can I give her that chance if we are almost never alone?" She asked. Nightcloud looked thoughtful. "Hmmm... don't worry about that, I have a plan."
A few hours later, the sound of screeching cats and fighting tour through the air. The six cats, startled, poked there heads out of there cave entrance. They saw a black and white she-cat attacking a dark gray tomcat. The moon shown down on a shadowy clearing, and dark figures were slithering out from the shadows almost like a group of snakes or a pack of ravenous wolves looking for pray to eat. Two of the figures, a sable-furred apprentice and a black and white dappled she-cat patted out of the bushes, witch were cloaked in shadow, the light of the moon making the leaves of the bushes a bright silvery color that glowed in the night.
The black and white she-cat launched herself at her attackers, latching onto a brown tomcat's back and digging in her thorn-sharp claws. He yowled in pain, but she did not relent. She planned to banish these dishonorable cats from her territory with a fight they would not forget. She sank her teeth into his ear, pulling backward until she felt it tear. The tomcat screeched, jerking his head out of her grasp and escaping back to his territory.
She whirled around, searching for a new opponent, and threw herself into the heat of battle with a cry strong enough to instill fear in even the most experienced warriors. Her claws tore through enemy fur with the vicious rage of StarClan. The ground near the border stream began to pool with blood from both groups of cats. The she-cat remained unharmed.
As she was swiping her unsheathed claws at the nose of a ginger tabby, she heard a sharp cry emit from one of her clanmates. Hissing at her opponent, she slashed his face one last time before streaking off to the source of the cry.
"Nightwing, watch out! Behind you!" One of her clanmates yowled, and the black and white she-cat whipped around and sank her thorn-sharp claws into the back of a dark gray tomcat's shoulder. He let out a yowl of pain, and Nightwing bit down hard on his neck, and the cat fell to the ground, blood pooling out from the open wound like a river, and the ground beneath her was stained with the blood of several of both her enemies and of some of her fallen clanmates.
"Nightwing! Help Ashscar, quickly! She's running out of time!"
"Where is she, Moonfire?" Nightwing mewed, and the dark ginger she-cat pointed with her tail to where another black and white she-cat was trapped under a heavy looking tomcat, her back legs were weekly kicking at the tomcat's flank, but it was no use, and her attempts were futile.
"What's going on out there? Should we help them? Look! One of them is injured!"
"No, Rubes. They're wild cats, I don't think they're very friendly." The small russet-furred she-cat sighed but did as she was told. "Ok Starlingpool, I'll head back in the cave." She mewed to her adopted mom. Starlingpool nodded and licked Rubypaw behind the ears. "Yeah, let's go back inside. We don't want them to see us." The sable-furred medicine cat mewed while gently nosing her apprentice back into the den.