It had been several moons since Cloudstar had decreed that territory SkyClan. Without true boundaries, prey was plentiful. Birdflight's kits were weaned. Inwardly she wondered if Cloudstar no longer acknowledging the code meant that they'd be made apprentices early.

...speaking of Cloudstar….

"Hazelwing?" she mewed, "Have you seen Cloudstar lately? Or Buzzardtail for that matter?"

Hazelwing sat down the fat thrush she held, her kits emerging from the den and wolfing it down.

"No," she meowed, then looked around camp. Birdflight followed her gaze. It seemed that Fawnstep, Nightfur, Quailheart, the apprentices and elders were the only cats in camp.

"I'm sure they're just out hunting," Hazelwing said with a shrug, "Lots of prey, lots of cats!"

Birdflight looked back at the lack of cats. "Yeah…" she sighed, "I thought he'd know better. If we overhunt in greenleaf, we won't have any prey left in leafbare, and if we don't have prey in leafbare, we won't have prey to reproduce in newleaf and we'll be starving all over again…"

Hazelwing shrugged and laid down beside her. "I suppose. You remember all those tales Petalfall used to tell us as kits? About Skystar?"

Birdflight smiled and huffed a laugh, "Which one about Skystar? He did lots of things, you know."

"The one where, when he was just Sky, he marked all the territory from Twolegplace to the Thunderpath as his. Even tried to claim Fourtrees?"

"Yeah?"

"And how he killed many rogues to manage it?"

"Yes."

"I do wonder, and I don't mean to offend you, if Cloudstar is following the pawsteps of leaders past."

Birdflight let out a sigh. "Sk-Skystar did lots of good things too," she tried to argue.

"That doesn't mean we should excuse his bad actions, Birdflight."

Birdflight shifted. "We shouldn't. But his bad actions don't mean we should excuse his good ones."

Mintpaw, Buzzardtail's oldest daughter, looked up at the sky before whispering to her siblings. The apprentices all stood and headed past the nursery toward the ThunderClan border.

Birdflight narrowed her eyes and stood to follow. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked before they could leave the clearing.

The three jumped and, wide-eyed, they all turned back. Tansypaw was the first to speak.

"We wanted to go see the old border!" she mewed.

"Yeah," Mintpaw went on, glancing nervously at her siblings, "We wanted to see if they came across Weaselwhisker's body yet."

Birdflight flexed her claws and she could feel a wave of heartbreak coming from Hazelwing, who was only a pawstep or two away. Weaselwhisker had been killed in a battle over Duskstar's Clearing. Specifically, the battle that SkyClan couldn't lose. Not only had they lost the clearing, Weaselwhisker had lost his life, Hazelwing had lost her brother, and Mousefang and Stoatfur had lost their father.

"That's very irresponsible of you," Birdflight mewed, "What would've happened if one of the Twolegs scooped you up, hm?"

Snailpaw shifted his paws awkwardly and stared at the ground. "We were going to go along ThunderClan's border and see if our parents were there."

Birdflight felt a weight lift off her shoulders, only to be replaced with another. Why were these kits first thought that Buzzardtail and Fernpelt were trespassing? Quailheart and Fawnstep stepped out of the elder's den, soon followed by Hawksnow.

"I'll go with," Quailheart meowed, stepping closer, "They've been out all day. So have most of our warriors, might as well make sure ThunderClan didn't use that outside of the warrior code against us."

Birdflight shuddered as the thought of Cloudstar crossed her mind. ThunderClan was always cruel, that was made clear no sooner than when Nettleclaw murdered Weaselwhisker. Could they have given her mate a wound so awful that not even StarClan could heal it?

"Yes," mewed Hawksnow as Fawnstep pulled the apprentice-sized Webkit off of Gorsekit, only roughing up his pelt more, "And we'll all stay here with the kits."

Birdflight nodded and Hazelwing smiled up at her. Quailheart took up the lead of the patrol while Birdflight took the back. The apprentices pressed close to eachother, looking around nervously. Birdflight couldn't help but wonder if they knew something they shouldn't.

Grass crunched in front of them and a dark ginger head emerged from above a bush. A black one, who's ear was torn clean off and still bloody, followed. Quailheart blinked.

"Nightfur! Are you alright? Did a fox find you?"

"Not fox," the black tom responded, face twisting in that malicious smile he always held when there was a war recently fought, "ThunderClan."

Birdflight stepped forward and faced Buzzardtail, "Is Cloudstar alright?"

Buzzardtail smiled, "Wonderful. Can't say the same for Redstar, however."

Nightfur faced the apprentices, "Now that we've won," he said, smile still not fading, "Why don't you live up to your promise and bring SkyClan to ThunderClan's camp, hm?"

Birdflight felt her heart sink and her fur rise. She didn't know which one she should snap at, the warriors or apprentices, but she felt the need to yell "WHAT have you been DOING?"

She restrained herself and let the two toms step around the bush, making more still-bleeding scars known to the patrol.