Chapter 13: Shadowclan's Traitor's

Moonscar snickered. 'No cat knows about the plot against the code changing, except for the cat's in the rebellion and Harestar. Sparrowpaw might catch on, but I doubt it.' The sun shined on his silvery gray coat as he looked around the camp. Sparrowpaw, and Snowpaw are mewing about something, the patrols that were called for the day left the camp, and Sunfire, his old apprentice walked up to him. "Moonscar," she mewed in a hushed tone, "should we really go through with this. Sparrowpaw might have to leave Shadowclan, since his blood is Riverclan.." Moonscar cut her off, "We took in Sparrowpaw because he was in danger, we won't cast him out just because he isn't one of us. Besides he chose to stay in Shadowclan, which means he will show us loyalty instead of showing it to Riverclan. So don't worry about it. Remember Dovewing?" Sunfire nodded. "She chose to stay in Shadowclan with Tigerstar, since she loved him and realized she couldn't raise her kit's in Thunderclan without lying to her clanmates. Sparrowpaw is the same, except that he chose to stay in Shadowclan because he doesn't trust Riverclan, mainly Beaverclaw. Tigerstar won't kick them out, just because they have different blood then us. Tawnypelt is also the same in the matter. She chose to leave Thunderclan because she couldn't handle being thought of only being Tigerstar's(claws) shadow and that she was supposedly destined to turn the same as her father. Since then she has proven her worth as a Shadowclan warrior and maybe even leader if she was chosen before Rowanclaw. Who was weak, as a leader. So would we kick her out just because she is Thunderclan? No," Sunfire replied, "I had forgotten about those two. Thanks for reminding me. It makes me feel a lot better, knowing that stopping the changes being made, doesn't mean that Sparrowpaw will be kicked out," She then turned away from him, heading out with her apprentice Lakepaw, Brackenpaw, Coralpaw, and their mentors.

He walked up to Cloverfoot. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked. "Well you could go out and hunt. Leaf-bare won't be ending soon, and we have a lot of cat's to feed," she trailed off. "Okay, I will go out and hunt for the clan," Moonscar replied. 'This is perfect, I can practice my hiding in the shadows' battle move,' He bounded across the snow, his nose sniffing for scents. He found a big gray rock. 'Instead of sniffing and looking for prey, I could stand totally still and wait for prey to come to me. Like waiting for enemy cat's to ambush'.

Moonscar waited and saw a white rabbit come along. He pounced on the rabbit, the rabbit tried to get away, but he succeeded in killing the rabbit. Moonscar grabbed the rabbit with his jaws and buried it to come collect it for later. He walked through the pine forest, aware that some cat might be watching his actions. He sniffed the air, all he smelled was pine forest and a hint of bird. Moonscar decided to follow the faint scent trail of birds. He silently stalked up to the place where the bird is. Moonscar saw a pigeon land on the soft snow in the clearing. It was different from the bird he smelled earlier, but he stalked it anyway. Moonscar slithered like a snake, making the pigeon look for a snake. The pigeon boobed it's head looking for the supposed snake. By the time the pigeon realized there was no snake it was too late. Moonscar already pinned it down, the bird flapping its wings in Moonscar's face so that he would possibly let it go. Instead he gave the pigeon the killing bite. Moonscar felt it go limp underneath him.

He carried it in his jaws, walking back to where he buried the rabbit. Both were a little skinnier than normal, which means leaf-bare really is here. Suddenly out of nowhere, Sliverwing, his sister crashed into him. "Sorry Moonscar, I didn't see you there," Sliverwing mewed apologetically. Moonscar snarled, "You made me drop my prey! I squashed them. Now nobody would want to eat them," Sliverwing sighed, "I would, cause I am really hungry. I didn't get to finish eating my prey earlier today," Moonscar mewed, "Then have them, I'm sure you'd like them," Sliverwing took a bite of the rabbit, "They still taste good, which means some cat can have the pigeon," Moonscar sighed in relief, "That's good, now if you excuse me I'll bury the pigeon and find another piece of prey for the pile," Sliverwing took the rabbit and bounded off with it.

'Why can't my sister bother some cat else instead of me? I thought since she has her own apprentice she would be bothering me less, but no! She always has to bother me,' fumed Moonscar as he trudged in the snow. A black shadow appeared before him, 'Wait that's not a shadow, it's a badger!' Moonscar leaped back in surprise. He smiled, 'This day just got a whole lot better.' Moonscar thought as he dodged one of badger's incoming blows. He heard pawsteps approaching him and the badger. Moonscar raked his claws at the badger, but the badger dodged. Suddenly the pawsteps he heard stopped. ''Yoooowwwlll!" shouted a cat from behind the badger. A cat had jumped onto the badger from behind. He recognized the cat as Sunfire. "Sunfire it's dangerous!" shouted Moonscar as he tried to hit the badger. Sunfire gripped onto the back of the badger, her claws making the badger bleed. He saw Lakepaw come to his side and they tried to hit the badger, without getting in between the badger's massive paws. The badger stopped attacking Moonscar and Lakepaw and tried to shake Sunfire off of his back. Sunfire yelped as she was thrown off the badger, landing on Moonscar. "Get off me!" grumbled Moonscar. Sunfire immediately got off of him. "What were you two thinking, I had that badger under control!" growled Moonscar. Lakepaw mewed, "We were practicing hunting techniques with the other apprentices, but then we decided to split up to get a better chance of finding prey. Then we saw you fighting a badger, by yourself, and my mentor rushed to help you take it down. Then I followed suit,"

Sunfire nodded at Lakepaw's statement. Moonscar sighed, "At least none of us are hurt badly," Lakepaw mewed, "Yea, though the scratches I got seem to hurt a lot," "Then let us get back to camp to have our injuries treated," replied Sunfire. They walked back to camp, Moonscar stopped and mewed, "I left my pigeon close to where the badger was, can I go get it?" Sunfire nodded in agreement. Moonscar raced along the undergrowth and found the spot where he buried the pigeon. He unburied it and grabbed it's flesh in his jaws, careful not to make it bleed.

He walked back to camp. Cats were lying in the sun, the elders keeping the kit's busy. He laid his pigeon on top of the fresh kill pile, then padded to where the medicine cat's den is. When he walked in he saw Puddleshine and Shadowpaw, going over Lakepaw's scratches. Moonscar sat near the entrance. "Shadowpaw, what is the best herb for Lakepaw's scratches?" asked Puddleshine. "Marigold?'' replied Shadowpaw. "Correct!" praised Puddleshine. Shadowpaw smiled. Lakepaw complained, "Puddelshine, I appreciate it if you speed up teaching Shadowpaw. Because you can train him tomorrow on a less impatient patient . Besides my scratches are stinging," Puddleshine glared at him. Lakepaw whimpered.

"Shadowpaw, we can continue your training after I've seen to Lakepaw and Moonscar," Shadowpaw nodded, he brushed past Moonscar. Moonscar watched as Puddelshine put an orange flower pulp onto Lakepaws scratches. Lakepaw winced at the marigold touching his scratches, but soon relief instead of pain showed in his eyes. Puddleshine mewed, "Lakepaw you can go, just rest for a bit and don't go through any brambles, if you want those scratches to get infected," Lakepaw nodded. Moonscar walked to where Puddleshine is sitting, while Lakepaw walked out of the den. "Sit down," ordered Puddleshine. Moonscar sat down and watched as the medicine cat looked at his wounds. "Looks like you've only got scratches," murmured Puddleshine to himself. Moonscar watched as the medicine cat chewed the marigold leaves. Moonscar felt the pain go away and instead a soothing pain replaced the pain that was from his scratches. He wondered about the badger, if it left Shadowclan territory or if it stayed on Shadowclan territory.

Puddleshine mewed, "You can go now, take all the precautions I told Lakepaw and the scratches will heal in no time," "Thanks," replied Moonscar. He turned away and headed into Tigerstar's den, Sunfire and Lakepaw are already there when he walked in. Tigerstar mewed, "Moonscar, I understand that you also faced the badger that Sunfire and Lakepaw fought, right?" Moonscar replied, "Yes, I was the first one to encounter the badger. Though before I ran into him, I couldn't smell badger," Tigerstar nodded, "Leaf-bare snow offen disguise's scent trails," Sunfire rolled her eyes at their leader's statement, and Lakepaw mewed, "Not true, the badger could have been walking towards Moonscar and the faint breeze could've been pushing Moonscar's scent towards the badger instead of the badgers scent being pushed in the direction of Moonscar. Leaf-bare snow is only one thing that could account for Moonscar not scenting the badger," Tigerstar eyes gleamed with shock at the apprentice, but soon replaced it with pride, "Well done. Sunfire you have an intelligent apprentice on your paws, make sure he doesn't get killed,"

Sunfire mewed, "I'll make sure of it, Lakepaw you can go to the fresh kill pile to get something to eat. You deserve it," Lakepaw nodded and left the three warriors behind him. Tigerstar mewed, "You two can also go, I have no need to keep you in my den any further. I will send a patrol this evening to check if the badger is gone from our territory and to warn Riverclan or Skyclan if the badger headed either way," Moonscar and Sunfire nodded and turned to go, but Tigerstar asked, "Would one of you like to lead the patrol?'' Moonscar suggested, "Sunfire has the least amount of injuries, so she should join the patrol," Sunfire agreed and Tigerstar sent them away. Sunfire mused to herself, "I better get a patrol ready to leave. It's close to evening, and Tigerstar wants the patrol to leave then," She bounded off, kicking up snow as she did so. Moonscar sighed, 'That she cat has got to stop talking out loud to herself. The plan to destroy the coming change will be blown if she can't learn to speak inside her head for once. Which is why me and the others don't trust her with secret's and details about plans, we only give her vague but followable instructions.'

He saw Sparrowpaw talking with the other apprentices, he seemed to be happy among them. He was glad, because it meant that he won't be persuaded so easily to join Riverclan. Sparrowpaw had thanked him about rescuing him from his supposed clanmate Beaverclaw. He would have done it for any cat. The warrior code states that all kit's from another clan if they are in danger to recuse them. He assumed that it also meant that you have to save apprentices and warriors from danger if you could sense that they couldn't handle it, and besides they were kit's once. He was shaken out of his train of thought when Sliverwing mewed, "Hey there brother, I heard you took on a badger. Nice job staying alive," Moonscar mewed, "Ah, thanks?" "I'm just giving you the compellent you deserve. After all, not many cat's survive badger attacks," Moonscar looked at Sliverwing, really shocked at her current behavior.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Sliverwing?" Sliverwing laughed, "Can't I give my own brother a compellent?" Moonscar sighed, "Yes, you can. But it's not normal for you to do. The only thing you do to me is tease me. A lot," Sliverwing purred, "It's part of my charm, brother. I like seeing cat's react to my decisions and teasing. It's fun to see their reactions, especially yours brother dearest," Moonscar sighed, "Of course my reactions to you are the funniest," Sliverwing winked, "Well I have to go now, see ya later big bro!" She padded away and walked out of the entrance to camp. He really wished that he didn't have a teasing sister, but what could he do, there were no magical objects that could do that. Besides if he got rid of Silverwings fun side, he could permanently change her and maybe miss that side of her. He shook his head, life wasn't as simple as the nursery tales made it seem.

Moonscar went to the fresh kill pile, to eat something. He chose a thrush from the pile. He bit into the juicy flesh. 'I wonder if we'll be successful in overthrowing the cats that want change to happen. We've been improving our fighting skills, while cat's without apprentices are hardly using them, so we should have a chance to beat them,'