AN. Enjoy chapter ten!

Chapter Ten

Shadowsoul's patrol was still rushing towards the mountainside of Cloudtrees. Shadowpaw could feel the rouges presence getting closer giving her a slight chill through from her head to the tip of her tail. Why had they split up? If they run into rouges they could be in deep trouble plus the mountainside was probably the most dangerous area. Why send a patrol without even a leader?

Snowfrost then came to a sudden stop. Shadowsoul turned around angrily, "Why do you stop HiddenClan cat?" He snarled.

Snowfrost met Shadowsoul's gaze, "I scent blood!"

Cloverwing scented the air, "I smell it too!"

"Same," said Dawnglow.

Shadowpaw sniffed the air, blood it was.

Sunpaw exclaimed, "We've gotta check it out!"

Snowfrost nodded, "I agree,"

Shadowsoul glared at each member of his party, "Yes, we must," he spun around and quickly headed in the direction of the scent. The HiddenClan cats followed swiftly, nervous and anxious to see whose blood they smelled.

Then Shadowsoul came to a stop, "Well, would you look that," he said emotionlessly. Shadowpaw peaked over to the direction Shadowsoul was looking at. She gasped in horror, it was Nettlesting, a WhisperClan warrior.

Dawnglow scowled, "Nettlesting was part of the spying patrol! What had happened?"

Snowfrost stalked up to the body, "He has a deep bite in his throat," she looked up, "There is some blood on that branch, he must have fallen after he was bitten,"

Shadowsoul scowled, "I don't care how he died! The point is my clanmate is dead! We need to find those rouges now!"

Shadowpaw glanced down on Nettlesting's golden body. This was just terrible, if the rouges did this to Nettlesting, what about the others? Her thoughts shifted to her Clan, her Clan that was in the paws of Nettlesting's murderers.

"What we need to do is send someone to fetch Dawnstar and Shadestar. Something had gone wrong and we can't continue our plan if the spying patrol had failed," advised Dawnglow.

"The spying patrol has not failed!" Snapped Shadowsoul, "Nettlesting was obviously attacked by rouges! If the rouges are nearby then the Clan cats must be nearby as well!"

Dawnglow shook his head, "The rouges have taken control over all of Cloudtrees. There are many of them and they've spread themselves out all over Cloudtrees. They could still be anywhere,"

"Wait," said Cloverwing, "I smell the Clans!"

"She's right!" Exclaimed Dawnglow.

"This way!"

Cloverwing took the lead. The rest followed with Shadowsoul scowling about the sudden change of leaders. Shadowpaw followed eagerly.

Cloverwing came to a stop by a hedge. "They should be just over there," she whispered. The party cautiously took a peek, there…..was nothing?

Shadowsoul scowled, "Excellent scenting! It was stale. We had missed them!"

"W-well I figured it wasn't that stale!" Stammered Cloverwing

Dawnglow sighed, "At least this is something, and we can still follow their scent and find out where they are,"

Shadowsoul grinned, "Oh, don't worry, you'll find out where they are,"

At that moment rouges jumped down from the trees, "Great job Shadowsoul," praised one of the rouges, Mud. "I see you came across the cat Eve so gladly sunk her teeth into,"

Eve liked her lips, "It was all my pleasure, so long as these Clan scum submit or die,"

Dawnglow faced Shadowsoul angrily, "You traitor! Betraying both Clans!"

Shadowsoul snorted, "I'm not betraying them, I'm gonna make them better,"

The orange she-cat with white paws, Vixen approached them, "We've got your clanmates, we can do anything we want to them, but you've gotta obey or else you all die!"

Shadowpaw crouched low to the ground fearfully with Sunpaw putting a protective paw in front of her with unsheathed claws and bared teeth. She was scared of what would happen. Dawnglow placed his body protectively in front of Cloverwing. Snowfrost gazed angrily at the rouges that surrounded them with unsheathed claws.

Mud grinned, "Now, now, sheath you claws and put away your fangs or else us too will get violent!"

Dawnglow scowled as he sheathed his claws, as did Snowfrost. Dawnglow turned towards Sunpaw, "Go ahead and sheath you claws," he ordered. Scowling, Sunpaw obeyed.

Mud nodded, "Good, good. Leer and Eve and a few others will gladly escort you to the others."

Leer flicked his tail, "Come on now, we don't want to wait all day do we?" the HiddenClan cats reluctantly followed the black tom.

Shadowpaw still kept low. How could Shadowsoul betray both WhisperClan and HIddenClan? What was going to become of them? And what was going to happen to the other two parties?

Mud went over to Shadowsoul and whispered in his ear, "Now, get muddied up Shadowsoul and go to the other parties. You know what to do from there,"

The WhisperClan deputy nodded and went over to a pile of mud where he began to splatter himself to make it look as though he were in a fight.

"Oh, and Shadowsoul?"

Shadowsoul turned over to Mud, "What?"

Mud slashed him quickly across the face, Shadowsoul yowled as blood oozed down his face, "What was that for?!"

"Do you think some mud is going to fool them? You're going to need real wounds to convince them you mouse brain!" Mud snapped.

Shadowsoul snarled, "Whatever," then he scurried off to find Shadestar and Dawnstar. Shadowpaw wanted to stop him, but she would endanger the others, and if she didn't, she was endangering the parties. She felt torn, but she just kept on walking. Fearing for the future.

AN. Now my chapters are getting shorter...ahwell. I know that this is kind of a repeat of last chapter but it's part of the story. I'm hoping my next chapter'll be better.