New chappie has arrived, via MY NEW LAPTOP -celebrates- Anyway, still Brambleclaw's POV. And many thanks to Dewflower for reading this one beforehand for me and for the great suggestions!

I have a request. Dewflower's already read over this chappie (if she still wants to keep pre-reading for me, that's great!)and I'd like someone else to pre-read for me as well as her just to bounce ideas off of. If anyone wants to pre-read for me, pm me. Please include your email if it's not in your profile- it makes it A LOT easier to send documents. (And space the letters so the thing doesn't delete it) .I'll take the first person who asks (plus Dewflower if she wants to keep on doing it.) Please and thanx!

Brambleclaw sat on a fallen log near the heart of ThunderClan territory. The sun wassinking swiftly through the sky, and he still hadn't decided whether or not he'd agree to meet Hawkfrost tonight.

He had called after his half-brother, who had refused to say any more on the topic. So Brambleclaw had been forced to return to camp, feeling wretched. He hadn't said anything to anyone about it, not even Squirrelflight. He knew that she would only think that Hawkfrost was up to no good.

And she could be right, whispered a voice in Brambleclaw's mind.

He sighed. Should he go or shouldn't he? Would he be the only one there, or had Hawkfrost invited others? What was he saying to him that he couldn't say at the Gathering?

A sudden hiss made his ears prick up, and his lips drew back as he recognized ShadowClan scent. A moment later he realized just how familiar the scent was. "Tawnypelt!"

"That's right, just shout for the forest to hear," the she-cat growled as she stepped out of the bracken.

"What are you doing here?" Brambleclaw asked.

"I need to ask you something, and it couldn't wait." Tawnypelt looked carefully around and scented the air to check that there weren't any other cats around before she sat beside Brambleclaw on the log. "At the Gathering, Hawkfrost asked me to meet him on the island tonight-"

"He did?" Brambleclaw meowed in surprise. "He did the same for me!"

Tawnypelt tipped her head to one side. "Why would he do that? It's breaking the warrior code!"

"I don't know," Brambleclaw admitted. "He wouldn't say."

Tawnypelt grunted. "Sounds a bit dodgy, if you ask me."

"He invited you and me..." Brambleclaw trailed off. "Perhaps Mothwing will be there, too, and he wants to talk to us about..."

"About being Tigerstar's kits?" Tawnypelt narrowed her eyes. "Why should we have anything to do with them because of that? You're always complaining about being compared to Tigerstar, Brambleclaw, but you'll go out of your way to talk to Hawkfrost just because of that link? That doesn't make sense."

Brambleclaw's fur bristled, and he said to his sister what he wouldn't say to any other cat: "He understands. Understands what it's like to be like Tigerstar."

"So do I!" Tawnypelt cried. "Talk to me about it, then."

"It's different with Hawkfrost," Brambleclaw insisted.

Tawnypelt reached forward and batted his ear, the same way she had used to do when they had been kits together in the nursery. "You were always as difficult as a tough piece of fresh-kill," she meowed, but affection was laced in her mew. "So you really want to go?"

Brambleclaw stared at her for a moment, and his curiosity and need to support Hawkfrost gave him all the answer he needed. "Yes."

Tawnypelt sighed. "Then I'll go with you."

&&&

Tawnypelt went with Brambleclaw across WindClan territory. Both had been born and raised in forests, and were acutely aware of the lack of undergrowth the moors provided, and missed the feel of sunlight-dappled shadows on their backs. When they reached the log at last Brambleclaw let out his breath in relief without realizing that he'd been holding it.

He put his front paws on the fallen tree. "Hawkfrost?"

"Brambleclaw." The deep answering mew made his ears prick up, and he looked around to see his half brother emerging from the darkness of the recently risen moon. More cats followed him- many more. Brambleclaw's eyes widened as he saw cats of WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan. There was Webfoot, Nightcloud, and Briarpelt, who had been followers of Mudclaw, along with the ShadowClan toms Rowanclaw and Cedarheart and another ShadowClan she-cat who Brambleclaw hadn't met before. There were also several RiverClan cats that he didn't know.

Rowanclaw and Cedarheart padded over to them as they leaped off the log. Tawnypelt flicked her tail at them and mewed to Brambleclaw, "Hawkfrost invited the three of us together."

"So you came, then?" Cedarheart meowed to Tawnypelt; and Brambleclaw was surprised that he couldn't detect any scorn in his tone- from what he'd seen his sister wasn't the most popular of the ShadowClan cats.

Rowanclaw's eyes narrowed as he looked Brambleclaw up and down. "You?" he spat dismissively. "Why would Hawkfrost ever invite you?"

Brambleclaw snarled, but Tawnypelt leaped in front of him, her dark green eyes surveying her Clanmates. "Watch how you talk to my brother, Rowanclaw," she growled.

Rowanclaw's hackles rose, but Cedarheart stood in front of him. He was larger than the ginger tom. "Leave it, Rowanclaw," he meowed. "As far as we know, we're all in this together, anyway."

Rowanclaw looked at him in surprise, as did Brambleclaw, but Cedarheart only shot an uncomfortable glance at Tawnypelt and padded away. His Clanmate glared at the brother and sister before he followed.

Tawnypelt was looking after Cedarheart, and Brambleclaw followed her gaze. "What was that about?"

"Nothing!" Tawnypelt's ears twitched in embarrassment. "Cedarheart's all right, that's all."

Brambleclaw didn't say anything more on the subject, though he couldn't help thinking that perhaps his sister was having a better time of it in ShadowClan than he had always thought.

"Have you noticed?" whispered Tawnypelt after a moment. "All the cats here- except for you and me- they were all followers of Mudclaw and Hawkfrost."

"It's not surprising," Brambleclaw pointed out, "if Hawkfrost picked them all out."

"But what does he want with us all?"

Brambleclaw could only shrug. The cats were moving around, sharing words awkwardly, their gazes flashing all the while back at the dark tabby cat that had brought them here. Hawkfrost stood near the Great Oak, watching them with something close to pride in his eyes.

"Do you expect us to stay here all night, Hawkfrost?" It was Webfoot, baring his teeth at the tabby warrior. Brambleclaw supposed that he hadn't forgotten what Clan was responsible for his apprentice's death, though he was a little shocked to see the look very close to hatred in his eyes. "We have Clans to attend to."

"Of course you do." Hawkfrost dipped his head. "You are all fine warriors, and that is why I have brought you here."

He perched on one of the Great Oak's roots, not quite in the branches like a Clan leader, but very close. A burly black-and-white RiverClan tom stood at his shoulder, looking like his shadow.

"Gather around," Hawkfrost meowed. "You may be interested in what I have to say."

At that moment Brambleclaw wanted nothing more to return to camp and curl up next to Squirrelflight and go to sleep. There was something wrong with all of this. He glanced at Tawnypelt, who looked as if she felt the same but would rather not let him know. "What else can we do?" she murmured.

They joined the other cats around the Great Oak, with Hawkfrost standing before them, his penetrating blue eyes searching them all. "Just as all of you have done," he meowed, "I have served my leader Leopardstar well, and obeyed her orders without argument. She is far wiser than I am, and I am not afraid to admit it."

"What about what you and Mudclaw did?" asked Tawnypelt.

"That was a mistake." Hawkfrost lifted his head. "I believed I was doing the right thing. I thought that Mudclaw was the rightful leader of WindClan, and as a good warrior I was ready to help him reach his position. But I was wrong, and I knew it when the tree fell on him. StarClan didn't want him to lead."

Despite how uncertain he was about this whole ordeal, Brambelclaw felt the need to say something on Hawkfrost's behalf. "It's true," he meowed. "Hawkfrost saved me from Mudclaw, when he could have let him kill me."

"And Weaselpaw?" Webfoot demanded. "My apprentice died in the patrol that you led. You were the one standing on the rocks when they fell on Weaselpaw."

"Another mistake," Hawkfrost meowed, bowing his head even further. "And a worse one, for it caused an innocent cat's death. But I was still only following orders to win the balanced rocks. Webfoot, believe me, I never met for Weaselpaw to die."

Brambleclaw found himself believing his half brother's words. There was the right combination or certainty and modesty, and his light blue eyes never left Webfoot's. Finally the WindClan cat nodded.

"All right, Hawkfrost," he meowed. "What do you have to say to us?"

The tabby stood up tall. "There have always been four Clans," he meowed. "I have never doubted it. But think of all the trouble we have been having. Mudclaw. Border fights. Boundary issues. I know that ShadowClan has a poor section of the forest, and WindClan has to run until their paws drop off for skinny rabbits. It is beyond me how ThunderClan even manages to survive in leaf-bare, while all the forest prey is in its burrows.

"Who decided that the forest should be divided in such a way? Why should we agree to the unfairness of it?" Hawkfrost's eyes gleamed as he looked over the cats.

"What do you want us to do about it?" asked Cedarheart.

"There is nothing we can do. But all this rivalry between the Clans...what is the point of it?" Hawkfrost wrapped his tail around his paws and the black-and-white cat beside him piped up, "I can't think of a reason."

"What I suggest is that we meet here," Hawkfrost meowed, "Once every quarter moon. There is a great deal we can all learn from one another, if only we give each other a chance."

"Go behind our leaders' backs?" objected Nightcloud.

"Wasn't this whole journey to find our new home done without the consent of Clan leaders?" queried Hawkfrost in return.

"That was different," muttered Tawnypelt from Brambleclaw's side. She was looking up at Hawkfrost with barely concealed distrust, and he wondered if she was right. Hawkfrost was talking sense...but was he really?

"This is against the warrior code." That was the voice of a ShadowClan cat Brambleclaw didn't know.

"The warrrior code." To his brother's shock, there was a note of scorn in Hawkfrost's growl. "The warrior code was once everything to me. But it was because of the warrior code that I sided with Mudclaw. That I became the best warrior I could be for RiverClan, which made Mistyfoot challenge me. We have never challenged the warrior code. But why can't we? How do we know that the rules are anscestors set down for us are the right path to follow?"

&&&

When the cats left at last, they had all agreed not to say anything about the meeting to their leaders, though they would make the decision themselves whether or not to return the next quarter moon.

"I'm not coming," Tawnypelt meowed stoutly. "This isn't right. Do what you want, Brambleclaw, but leave me out of it."

She touched her nose to her brother's muzzle to take the sting out of her sharp words, and he nosed her in return, feeling that familiar pang of sorrow that she wasn't with him any more in ThunderClan.

Brambleclaw was one of the last to leave the island, as he was the only ThunderClan cat and had no companions to travel with. Hawkfrost and his black-and-white companion were seeing everyone off, meowing a few words to each one before they could depart.

Hawfrost loped up to Brambleclaw and nodded to his friend. "This is Badgerclaw. I told him about the rogues."

Badgerclaw dipped his head, though his eyes never left Brambleclaw, which was rather unnerving, and in the end the tabby warrior turned away to Hawkfrost. "How come you didn't ask Mothwing to come?"

Hawkfrost kneaded the ground with his paws. "She's a medicine cat," he meowed. "She's already got a relationship with the other Clans. And I don't want her to know about these meetings. She has enough to worry about without this as well."

Something flashed in his eyes- worry, almost. Brambleclaw wondered if there was something about his medicine cat half sister that he didn't know, but before he could ask Badgerclaw meowed, "Will you be coming the next quarter moon?"

"Er...I don't know." Brambleclaw's paws prickled nervously. He looked at Hawkfrost and let out the question that he'd been holding. "Why are you doing this, Hawkfrost?"

His half brother blinked, and then his eyes narrowed. "I tried doing things by the warrior code, Brambleclaw. I tried to be a great warrior the normal way. But I always did everything wrong. Maybe if I do it this way- my way- it will work out."

Evil, evil Hawkfrost. Or is he...?

Reviews are appriciated!