Night: Hello all you readers! This is my first Fanfiction…so enjoy!

Bluefur: Also, according to Night, I have another sister…

Night: Right to the point, huh. But anyway, yes you do! It's an OC!

Blue: Right. Ok, advice to the readers. Just skip over the top part if you read Bluestar's prophecy before, and just read the ending. Night has been very stupid and decided to rewrite the ending of a chapter, but then wrote the whole chapter from the beginning.

Night: Okay, okay, go away. It's time for the story.

Adderfang spoke gently. "Bluefur, would you like to join a hunting patrol today?"

Bluefur gazed at him, trying to focus.

A moon had passed since she'd left her kits with Oakheart. The nursery walls had been fortified with extra brambles. Two warriors sat guard through each freezing night to make sure that no fox or badger would ever steal into the nursery again. The Clan had believed Bluefur's story—that she'd awoken to find her kits gone. Every cat believed that they had been stolen by an animal that had clawed a hole in the back of the nursery, driven by starvation to venture into the camp for the first time.

They'd searched the forest for days, not knowing where to look, the scent trail killed by freezing snow. Bluefur had scoured the woods with her Clanmates, numb with guilt, reminding herself over and over that she'd done it for her Clan. Meanwhile hunger and sorrow gripped the Clan. They spoke in low voices and huddled in knots, eyeing Bluefur with pity that stabbed her like thorns. She was sick of telling lies. She hardly noticed how empty the fresh-kill pile was these days. She was too miserable to eat, wishing only to hide in sleep. She felt as though the shard of ice piercing her heart would never melt.

They'll be safe with Oakheart.

The thought wasn't enough to ease her guilt. Was Mosskit watching from StarClan, hating Bluefur for stealing her life? Had Snowfur explained that her life had been sacrificed for the good of her Clan?

"Bluefur." Adderfang rested his tail on her shoulder and repeated his question. "Do you feel up to hunting?"

"I'll hunt with you, if you like." Thrushpelt hurried to join her. Sadness shadowed his gaze. He was grieving as a father would grieve. He'd worked harder than any other cat to reinforce the nursery, and his pelt was still tufted and scratched from the brambles he'd woven tightly into the branches. Bluefur wished she could tell him that two kits lived on, safe and cherished, across the river.

She shrugged off Adderfang's tail. "I'd rather hunt alone."

Adderfang nodded. "As you wish." Thrushpelt turned away, his eyes clouding.

"Bluefur!" Rosetail caught up to her,pressing close as she padded toward the tunnel. "Are you going to be all right?"

No! Nothing will ever be all right ever again. Bluefur longed to curl up against her friend's warm fur and go to sleep for a moon.

"I'll be fine," she replied, feeling hollow.

She scrambled up the side of the ravine and headed into the forest. As the Owl Tree came into view, a squirrel darted across her path. She froze, her paws burning with cold on the ice-hardened forest floor. The squirrel had a nut in its jaws and was scrabbling among the roots of an oak. Bluefur dropped into a hunting crouch, tail straight, belly lifted from the forest floor.

Stonekit. Did he still remember hisThunderClan hunting crouch?

Pushing away the thought, she thrust down

with her hind paws and sprang, landing squarely and killing the squirrel with a single bite.

"Nice catch."

Goosefeather's rasping mew made her whip around. The squirrel swung from her jaws.

She dropped it. "What are you doing here?" The elders rarely made it up the ravine.

"I still have legs, you know," he snapped.

It was jarring to hear a Clanmate speak to her in a voice that wasn't honeyed with sympathy. She straightened and met his gaze. "What do you want?" Did he have another stupid prophecy to ruin her life?

"You did the right thing."

His words made her bristle. "For whom?" "For your Clan." Goosefeather narrowed

his eyes. "The prophecy left no room for kits. You must blaze alone at the head of your Clan."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she hissed. She hated the prophecy and hated Goosefeather for telling her about it.

Goosefeather blinked. "It is not your destiny to feel better, it's your destiny to save your Clan."

"And I will," she growled, her mew as hard as flint. "But I will always regret what I've done."

"The kits were your choice," Goosefeather pointed out. "StarClan made no provision for them."

"StarClan made me sacrifice everything I loved." Bitterness rose like bile in her throat. "My kits

—"

Goosefeather cut her off. "They're alive, aren't they?"

"Not Mosskit."

"StarClan will honor her loss."

"What about my loss?"

"It is small compared with the fate of your Clan."

Bluefur shook her head, trying to clear it. Was she just being selfish? What was one broken heart compared to the safety of her Clanmates? Where was her loyalty? She dipped her head. "I'll serve my Clan," she promised.

"Good." Goosefeather nodded. "Sunstar wants to talk to you."

He padded away into the trees.

Bluefur met the ThunderClan leader as he was climbing over the top of the ravine.

"Bluefur." Sunstar greeted her. "I wanted to talk to you away from the camp." He headed into the forest. "Walk with me."

Bluefur fell in beside her old mentor, remembering how he had spoken to her after the death of Moonflower and again when she'd been grieving for Snowfur. "Is this another lecture to tell me to leave the past behind?" she growled.

He shook his head. "It seems you are destined to suffer," he sighed. Bluefur looked into his eyes and saw how the ThunderClan leader had aged in the last few seasons. Making ThunderClan strong and feared among the other Clans had cost him three lives in battle; sickness had taken another two. Goosefeather had told her to aspire to leadership, but was this how she wanted to spend her days? Fretting and fighting and tired from the weight of responsibility?

I have no choice. StarClan has chosen my path.

The ThunderClan leader ducked under a low-hanging fern. "I can tell you only what I've told you before. Life goes on." They brushed past a bush where tiny green buds had pushed off their brown husks, hazing the branches with green. "Leaf-bare is followed by newleaf and then by greenleaf. The forest doesn't freeze forever. You must take heart from that, after the loss of your kits. I know that you will be okay —and even stronger than before."

Would he be so sympathetic if he knew two of them lived on, with RiverClan? The fur pricked along her spine.

"Cold?" Sunstar asked.

"A little."

They padded farther through the trees.

Sunstar seemed to have something on his mind, and Bluefur waited for him to speak first. They jumped over a narrow stream, swift with snowmelt, and pushed through a bramble thicket where the stale scent of rabbit clung to the thorns.

Sunstar led the way through the thicket and held a tendril out of the way with his tail. Bluefur padded through and looked at him, but he seemed lost in thought.

"Why are we here?" Bluefur asked, her voice cracking.

"I thought it would make you feel better. Apparently not." Sunstar sighed, hearing the sadness in her voice.

Bluefur waited, tense, for the announcement of deputyship for her, but Sunstar just flicked her shoulder with his tail and trudged toward camp, his ears drooping.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather under the Highrock for a clan meeting." Bluefur pricked her ears and ran out from the warriors den, stopping under the shadow of the Highrock. It was time to claim the deputyship. She stopped and looked at the cats assembled beneath the large boulder. Thistleclaw was already there, along with Tigerclaw. Their eyes were gleaming.

"No! Sunstar has made a foolish choice!" A voice hissed, and Bluefur turned to see Goosefeather standing beside her, his eyes wild.

"What?" She asked breathlessly, but Goosefeather paid that no mind. He was staring at Thistleclaw. The gray-and-white warrior shot her a smug look, and turned back towards Sunstar, who was standing at the foot of the Highrock. Tawnyspots was standing at the next to him, his ribs pushing against his ragged pelt. Sunstar dipped his head low. "Tawnyspots, Thunderclan thanks you for your loyalty and your courage. You have served your clan well, and we hope that your days in the elder den are peaceful. Your stories and wisdom will still have a place in the Clan, and we will continue to learn from you." Tawnyspots flicked his tail—Bluefur saw pain flash in his eyes—as him Clanmates yowled his name. "Tawnyspots! Tawnyspots!" Rosetail's voice rose above the others as she cheered her old mentor.

Bluefur got ready to stand up.

"Thistleclaw." Sunstar beckoned to him with his tail. " You will be ThunderClan deputy from this day forward. May StarClan grant you the courage to help your Clan face whatever lies in its path. And when the time comes for you to take my place, I pray you will shine at the head of our Clan."

Bluefur's mind whirled as her Clanmantes yowled Thistleclaw's name. No! She was supposed to be deputy! She gave up her kits for that! The camp was suddenly spinning, and Bluefur staggered. The ground rushed up to meet her, and her mind sank into darkness.