Dawn was streaming through the warrior's den when Ivypool woke up, blinking at the sudden light. She paddedout just as the dawn patrol was leaving. It had been six sunrises since Redwillow's attack. Dovewing was waiting for her by the fresh-kill pile.

"I've been up before dawn. I think something happened in the forest, but I was still half asleep when it happened, so I don't know." Dovewing meowed after Ivypool joined her.

"Do you think it was Redwillow?" Ivypool asked her sister worriedly.

"I don't know, but there is nothing we can do now." Dovewing replied after Ivypool picked a shrew from the pile.

"Yes there is! We can go out and look around. I know we can. Then we can find out what happened - maybe it was the guard on the camp. We can-" Ivypool was meowing energetically.

"You know we can't go alone. It probably was the guard on the camp, but we can't be sure." Interrupted Dovewing.

"You can ask Lionblaze. If you tell him what you heard, he'll probably be just as interested to find out what it is as we are." Ivypool reminded her littermate.

Dovewing sighed, "Okay," she finally agreed, "but I'm going to tell Jayfeather where we're going."

"I'll do that - you go talk to Lionblaze."

The sisters went to talk with the two cats, leaving their food half-eaten by the fresh-kill pile. When they had finished, Dovewing brought Lionblaze with them to the training hollow.

"Okay," Lionblaze said,"cast out your senses. See if you can find the cats or Redwillow. Dovewing nodded, and scanned the forest for unusual sounds or fights. There! By the ShadowClan border. She strained to hear what the cats were saying.

"Birchfall! Blossonfall!" Called Toadstep. "Where are you?"

"No where close," snarled a voice. Redwillow! "That you'll ever get to in time."

Dovewing opened her eyes in shock. "Toadstep is in trouble. Redwillow separated the patrol. We have to help them!"

"Calm down." Lionblaze meowed. "Where are they?"

"Near the ShadowClan border, not far from the Halfbridge." Dovewing said confidently.

Ivypool gasped. "That's not far from the place where I was attacked!"

The three cats dashed through the undergrouth and bushes, jumping over logs and skirting around trees. As soon as they got there, they saw Toadstep snarling and hissing, trying desperately to hold on to Redwillow's back.

Just like how Sorreltail and Brackenfur crept up on Redwillow, Lionblaze, Ivypool, and Dovewing slowed downand crept up on the russet-furred cat.

When they were close enough, Lionblaze bowled him over and trapped him underneath his body. Hissing, Redwillow's eyes narrowed in concentration, and he threw Lionblaze off, just to confront Ivypool and Dovewing.

The littermates attacked from either side and Redwillow was tiring, his strikes becoming weaker and less well aimed.

The sisters held Russetfur down while Lionblaze and Toadstep cought their breath.

"I could have beaten him, you know," he meowed to the sisters, "I never lose."

"That's why you should give someone else a chance." Ivypool retorted.

Lionblaze bit his tongue from repling with a similar statement. She's right, he reminded himself. "Okay," he meowed aloud, "how are we going to make sure that he doesn't escape again?"

At this Redwillow hissed back," You can't." He melted into the shadows, similar to the way he had done before. When all four cats growled in frustration at losing him again, they heard a screech coming from closer to the border with ShadowClan.

"That's Blossomfall!" Meowed Ivypool.

Then, with Toadstep included, the four cats headed toward the source of the screeching. They came to a clearing filled with ferns and saw Blossomfall fighting a large grey scarred tom.

The four cats advanced on the tom and forced him to the ground. As soon as they did that however, they heard more hissing from farther into the woods.

Lionblaze meowed to the cats who were cornering the tom, "Dovewing, Toadstep! Help Birchfall. We'll come to you once we've finished with him." He spat at the large tom, and the two cats pelted away into the bushes.

"Don't be so proud. You'll never catch the Dark Forest." He hissed. Ivypool, Lionblaze, and Blossomfall kept advancing on the tom and driving him back with well-placed blows. Finally the cat went limp beneath their paws. Defeated, he disappeared just as Redwillow had done.

Ivypool hissed in fury that they had lost him, and went to help Birchfall. This time they found that the three warriors were being confronted by two much larger Dark Forest warriors, one of them at tom, the other a she-cat that even the three cats combined were having trouble with.

The new cats hurled themselves into the battle, just to find another warrior trying to stop them. The tom cornered Toadstep and went one-on-one with him, clawing out fur. The remaining warriors, Lionblaze and Ivypool, went to help their friends and battle the other three cats while Dovewing went to help Toadstep.

The six cats had the strength of numbers, and they cornered their opponents and hissed at them until they learned their names. The grey tom that was fighting Blossomfall was called Thornheart, the tom that challenged Toadstep was Frosttalon, and the tom that was fighting Birchfall and Lionblaze was Snowtuft, and the she-cat that was clawing Dovewing and Ivypool was Greyclaw.

Then the four cats shimmered and disappeared.