Chapter 16

"Up! Everyone up! Shorty's been kidnapped!" Tallblaze shouted frantically, waking up everyone in NightClan.

I was up on my paws in a moment and ran out of the den. "She got kidnapped? How?" I asked.

"Couldn't this have waited until morning?" Wingstar asked.

"She was kidnapped, Wingstar. It can't wait. She'll be gone by then!" Tallblaze exclaimed.

"It's not like she was worth anything," Wingstar told him. "Let everybody rest and then whoever wants to can search in the morning."

"Anyone who wants to leave should be able to. A NightClan cat is in trouble!" Tallblaze argued. "Please, she's in danger!"

"And she can wait until morning. No one is allowed to leave camp," she ordered. "Is this understood?"

Tallblaze was about to dig his hole deeper when Boulderfang said, "Come on, let's head to your den and you can tell us what happened while we help you with your injuries."

"Fine," Tallblaze agreed. We went with him to the medicine den.

"Just sit down, I'll handle this," Boulderfang told him. "Um, what do I do?"

"Cobwebs are used to stop bleeding," Tallblaze answered.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"I dunno. I was just out collecting herbs and when I was heading back I saw her being held down by Grasstail," he told us. "I'm sorry, I tried to do what I could, but there was five of them and two of us, one of which was held down. I did what I could but now she's gone and I'm not sure what will happen next."

"We should be able to find her tomorrow," Silentstorm stated. "Her scent trail will be fresh enough."

"Silentstorm is an expert tracker," I added.

"We'd be able to save her if Wingstar would let us. I panicked and yelled and I shouldn't have because then we'd be able to sneak out," Tallblaze said. "This is my fault. It's all my fault. I couldn't save her."

"Tallblaze, you know how hypocritical you're being with the amount of times we've all told Deathfire it wasn't her fault for things?" Boulderfang asked.

"Besides, Deathfire wouldn't want you to blame yourself," I added.

"She was so scared. Especially after I told them I wasn't gonna let them take her away to torture. She's probably terrified now," Tallblaze murmured. "And she looked so hopeful when I showed up. Like maybe she had a chance. I should've tried harder. Done something more. Something to allow her to get away."

"Hey, it's okay, we'll find her in the morning," I promised. "Everything will be fine."

"I hope you're right," Tallblaze told us, "because if not, I'll never forgive myself."

"No one is allowed to leave the territory to search," Wingstar announced. "We know how poorly that ended back when Silkshade was kidnapped a long time ago. We'll just have to see if she finds her way home herself. And everybody who searches must be back by sunhigh for regular patrols."

"She's long gone from the territory by now," Silentstorm muttered. I flicked her with my tail.

"Okay, let's go," I announced.

"Yup," Boulderfang agreed.

"We aren't going to find her, are we?" Tallblaze asked.

"No, we aren't," Silentstorm told him. "She's gone."

I flicked Silentstorm with my tail again. "If we don't find her now, we'll search tonight," I whispered. "When Wingstar can't stop us."

"Okay then," he responded.

"Can I come?" Darkpaw asked.

I felt the others' hesitance. "Of course!" I told her.

The five of us left camp and did our best to follow Deathfire's scent trail from last night.

"Sky's dark," Silentstorm observed. That certainly matched the mood of the group well.

"This is where I last saw her," Tallblaze told us. "They went that way."

"I have no idea which direction you're talking about, but let's go!" I exclaimed. I certainly did not lead the group in the direction he was talking about.

We walked mostly in silence. Eventually, we reached the border.

"We need to head back to be back at camp by sunhigh," Silentstorm stated.

"We'll come back on our own later," I promised.

We began to head back to camp. And then it began to rain.

"We'll never find her now!" Tallblaze exclaimed. "It's going to wash away her scent!"

"It's too late now," Silentstorm said.

"Silentstorm, stop it! You aren't making things any better by being negative!" I yowled.

"I'm sorry for telling it like it is instead of lying about it to make everyone feel better!" Silentstorm shouted. "She's gone and there's nothing any of us can do about it except hope she finds her way back!"

"Don't talk like that! There's no way she's gone forever!" Boulderfang responded. "We're going to save her. We always do. We have to!"

"I'll go ahead back to camp," Darkpaw told us, leaving us to deal with our issues.

"That's the thing! We don't have to! The good guys don't always win! This isn't some nursery tale, this is real life! Bad things happen!" Silentstorm told us. "We'll see her again when Flurrytail wants us to see her again! Face it, she's gone! We failed!"

"Stop arguing!" Tallblaze shouted, getting our attention. "This is my fault, okay? If you're gonna yell at someone, yell at me. She's gone and I couldn't protect her. If I had been in camp last night, this would have never happened. She was looking for me."

"Why would she be looking for you?" Boulderfang asked.

"She occasionally comes and talks to me after she has a particularly bad nightmare. She's had them a lot since around the time the greencough outbreak began," Tallblaze answered, not completely lying. "She wouldn't have any other reason to come out of camp I know of."

"True," Boulderfang said. "It's still not your fault though. You didn't know what was going to happen and we can't prevent the past."

"We need to go back to camp," Silentstorm told us.

"You're right," Boulderfang agreed. "Let's go."

We all walked back to camp, feeling somewhat disheartened. Any hope we had was quickly fading as the rain picked up. We entered camp.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather around highrock for a Clan meeting!" Wingstar yowled.

We all gathered around highrock. I had a sinking feeling this was about Deathfire.

"Deathfire is missing. Considering the fact no one found her, she will be presumed as dead. She can have a vigil tonight," Wingstar announced.

"What?" Tallblaze exclaimed. "She's not dead! You're the one who made us waste time and wait for morning! You're the one who made her wait until morning! You're the reason she's gone and we may never get her back!"

"Are you really going to talk to your leader like that?" Wingstar demanded.

"Yeah, I am when she doesn't care about one of her Clanmates out of sheer bias!" Tallblaze responded.

"It's not my fault you're fooled by her act! The Clan will be better off without her anyway!" Wingstar told him.

"So you're content to just sit there while she's surely getting tortured?" Tallblaze asked. "Are you really that cruel of a cat?"

"She deserves it if you ask me. She's a murderer and a liar," Wingstar answered. "I just wish I could do it myself."

Tallblaze stormed away as Flurrytail snickered. Things were bad. Worse than ever. Even our own leader didn't care. She even admitted she wanted to hurt Deathfire. She had lashed out at Deathfire the other day, but this was a whole different level. We could only hope the rain ended soon so we could hopefully still pick up her trail.

It rained all day.

Author's Note: Wingstar be like "lmao, let's abandon one of NightClan's warriors to a horrible fate because I think she sucks." Top tier leader, definitely deserves her nine lives. Better than the legendary Firestar by a mile. Actually, where!s that Wingstar hate club I ordered a while back? Yeah, we may need to murder Wingstar and then Flurrytail and then appoint someone leader. Don't care who as long as they're not horrible. Anyway, leave a review if you want! I'll see you next week!

-Rowan W.