"SILVERFAWN!" A white and black striped tabby tom with brown eyes raced into the den. The she-cat was just finishing a horrified scream as he broke through the entrance and the medicine cat appeared in the den.
"Silverfawn what happened?" the tom begged. He licked her ear comfortingly. Spiralpath looked down, extremely embarrassed as he realized why he recognized the silver she-cat.
"HIM! HE STOLE OUR KITS! IT WAS YOU! YOU WERE WITH THEM!" Silverfawn was shaking madly when Tearpath entered.
"My son would never do that!" Silverfawn stilled for a moment.
"Your son?" She repeated. Tearpath nodded.
"Your son," she whispered, "is a traitor."
Longstar paced the den tensely, Oakleaf flattening his ears repetitively, obviously wishing for a moment that he had never become deputy.
"And she GOT AWAY?" Longstar asked him again. He nodded.
"I don't know how she did it! Spiralpath was fighting her, she knocked him out, and dragged him out of the camp with ten warriors guarding her. Then that stupid queen wouldn't shut up!"
"Oh, don't you even get me started on Softmallow," Longstar mewed. "She's been punished enough." She smiled, satisfied, and Oakleaf relaxed a bit. She licked his ear once. "Go on, but don't let it happen again!"
She watched him go, sparkling with a bit of pride.
"Good luck nephew. Next time I won't let you live, I don't care what your mother does to me in StarClan."
Spiralpath shook his head desperately. "NO! Please, I didn't want to!" Whitetiger was bringing down a paw when Tearpath stepped in front of him. He scratched her muzzle and she howled in agony. Looking shocked, Whitetiger stepped back.
Tearpath's eyes were glinting with a light filled with fury, and suddenly the large tom was scared. She was a fierce warrior, and he knew it.
"Hear him out," she meowed, and stepped aside.
Spiralpath took a deep breath. "I would have attacked her… but… well, she threatened to… kill… my mate?" he said, almost questioningly. He didn't know how they would take it that he had mated with a she-cat when he was practically a prisoner.
Tearpath's eyes dulled. Whitetiger looked down, and Silverfawn curled her tail around her belly, where more kits were growing.
"I see," Whitetiger whispered. Then he looked back up, desperation filling the place where anger had left. "Please," he said, "How are my kits? Are they okay?"
Spiralpath, pleased to have the information the respectable tom wanted, answered him instantly. "They're fine." Whitetiger sighed in relief. Spiralpath felt terrible that he had to run away from them.
Longstar stared into the tiny, scared face. She pierced ribs with her paw and a high pitched scream of pain emerged from her victim. She smiled. In the last couple of days, she had been planning. A wicked, cruel plan, of course.
The kit in front of her, two months old, was her bait.
He would come to her, and she wouldn't lose any of them this time.
Spiralpath stepped around the corner, waiting in the spot where he had once run from ShadowClan, carrying three small kits. But today, he wanted to run away.
He looked back one more time, then shot into the forest. He ran through ThunderClan's territory and into RiverClan, repulsed by the familiar scent, and how much it smelled like home.
It would never be home.
As he made his way through the entrance, a large weight hit him. Longstar threw her burden across the clearing, but in the dark Spiralpath couldn't see what it was. Longstar put her head inches from his, then pulled back suddenly.
"Stupidpath?" she said. Spiralpath rolled his eyes, taking advantage of the fact that she couldn't see them.
Longstar recovered from her shock and laughed quietly. Oakleaf and Thornpad peaked around from her side.
"We thought we were going to have to bait you," she said, stepping off of him.
"With what? Softmallow? Autumnsecret? Severedtail?" Spiralpath asked, instantly crazed and panicky.
"Those are last resorts. Our bait was him," she said, referring to the little bundle she had flung around as easily as a rabbit. A small groan emitted from it. Spiralpath took off and knelt next to it.
"Shadowpaw!" he said, shocked and pained by the clear discomfort the kit was feeling. He had seen the kit carried off, heard the wails of what he had thought were the last sounds made by innocent Shadowpaw.
Yet here was the kit in front of him, suffering and taking what may be his final breaths.