Seedstar let out a long, loud breath.

"Maybe WindClan knows where she is," said Seedstar. "Maybe a patrol saw something and could help us find her."
"Or maybe WindClan took her prisoner!" called out Tigerfang.

"My kits!" cried Willowstorm, bringing Jaykit, Robinkit, and Cardinalkit closer to her. "What if WindClan takes them as well!"

A murmur of worry spread through the camp, cats talking quietly to the cat next to him.

Tadpolepaw began to shake, remembering what Thornleap had done to her when she was a kit. What if they had stolen Ashenpaw to get to her? If they had taken Ashenpaw prisoner, then ShadowClan would certainly battle them to get her back. Then Thornleap would have an excellent excuse to kill her. He could easily make a "mistake" in the heat of a battle. An image of his long claws slicing through her neck appeared in her mind. She let out a small whimper.

"Tadpolepaw, are you OK?"

She jumped. She had forgotten Owlpaw was right next to her. Suddenly, Tadpolepaw realized how unfair she was being, thinking only about herself. Owlpaw's sister was missing! And here she was worrying about what might happen in a battle! Battles happened all the time! No other cats were so afraid.

"Tadpolepaw?" said Owlpaw again, more worry in his mew this time.

Tadpolepaw cursed herself for not answering the first time, and gave Owlpaw a nod.

"I'm fine." she squeaked.

Owlpaw didn't look convinced, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Seedstar spoke before he could.

"Quiet." the brown she-cat mewed loudly. "There is no proof that WindClan has taken Ashenpaw, thus they are innocent. And, until there is proof that they took Ashenpaw, they will remain innocent."

"Her last known location was on the border!" yelled Tigerfang. "What more proof do you need!"

"A lot more than that." responded Seedstar.

"Seedstar," mewed Brambleheart. "With all of this tension on both sides of the border, I don't think it is unlikely that she was taken by WindClan."

"I'm not ruling it out," mewed Seedstar. "But I need more proof that is what happened. Listen, tommorow, I will take a patrol onto WindClan territory, to talk with them," she said putting emphasis on the word talk. "And see if they know anything about her disappearance. But, it is too late now. Silverpelt is in full shine. I will take that patrol early in the morning, but not tonight. I recommend that we all get a good sleep tonight."

With that, the clan finally seemed to accept that there was nothing that they could do for Ashenpaw until the sun came up. In a sad silence, only interrupted by sorrowful mutterings, cats retreated to their dens.

Meanwhile, terror continued to reign free in Tadpolepaw's mind. Images of a battle against WindClan with both her and Thornleap in it, continued to scare her. What if a battle happened? What if she and Thornleap were in it? What if there was a full fledged war? What chance did she really have if push came to shove and she found herself fighting Thornleap? What if, What if, What if!

Tadpolepaw and Owlpaw had now arrived at the apprentices den, and while all of the apprentices were either in their nests, or preparing to get into their nests, Tadpolepaw could not help but notice that there was no cat near Ashenpaw's nest, and that there was precious little of her scent left in her nest. She knew that Owlpaw noticed the emptiness of the nest as well. Before she curled up in her nest, Tadpolepaw locked eyes with Owlpaw. They shared a deep, meaningful glance. In his eyes, Tadpolepaw could see all of the emotion that he was hiding. Fear for his sister, anxiety over what was ahead of them. A small flash of hope, that his sister would have just wandered off and would be back, and simple, complete sadness that he wasn't with his sister. Despite her own terror, and fear of Thornleap, worry for Ashenpaw, and terror for what might be ahead, Tadpolepaw realized that he needed comforting. She lifted her tail and rested it lightly on Owlpaw's shoulder. A small drop of gratefulness passed through Owlpaw's eyes, telling Tadpolepaw thank you. Using gargantuan effort, Tadpolepaw broke the gaze between them, lifted her tail off Owlpaw's shoulder, and settled down in her nest.

The next morning, Tadpolepaw woke. It wasn't what she would have called a restful sleep. She had tossed and turned for a large portion of the night, and, when she had finally been taken in by sleep, she fortunately didn't have any nightmares. Still, it wasn't nice, as if she was still aware in her sleep that bad things were happening, that Ashenpaw was missing.

When she left the apprentices den, most of the clan was already awake, as the early morning sun shone down on the camp. She went to the fresh-kill pile, and grabbed a lizard, but simply stared at the dead creature. She wasn't hungry.

"Looks like the rain cleared up overnight." mewed Fawnheart loudly. No cat answered her, and Tadpolepaw went back to staring at her lizard.

Soon, it looked like everyone was up, and Seedstar went to the top of the Clanrock.

"Clan mates," she said loudly, so that every cat could hear. "I have decided. Coming with me to WindClan, will be Marshstep, Flightpaw, Weaselfoot, and Tadpolepaw."
Tadpolepaw's breath caught in her throat as she heard her name called. All of a sudden, one by one, all of her worst fears were coming true. With a rival clan on their territory, WindClan were likely to send some of their best and most important cats to meet ShadowClan, and those important cats could be Thornleap. All of a sudden the images of Thornleap killing her felt a lot more real.

"However," Tadpolepaw quickly flicked her attention back to the Clanrock, where Seedstar was speaking again. "I share many of your concerns that this could end up in a battle. Thus, I have decided, Gorsewater, you are to lead a patrol. Technically, you are a hunting patrol, but, you are to hunt not too far from the WindClan border. Far enough so that you cannot be seen or heard, but close enough so that you are not too far away. Take these cats with you, Lighteningrunner, Owlpaw, Juniperfang, Sunfoot, Graytail, Pinefrost and Tigerfang. They are to be our rescue if things end up in a battle. Stormfall is in charge of the rest of the patrols. WindClan patrol, we are leaving now."

All the fear that Tadpolepaw had now began to rise. This was it. She was actually going to WindClan. The images of Thornleap killing her flashed in front of her eyes again and again as she walked with the patrol to the WindClan border. As she just, just managed to suppress her fear again, she noticed that no one in the patrol was speaking. A nervous silence hung over the patrol, and the tension was rising; this cloud was going to break.

"Tadpolepaw."

Tadpolepaw looked up to see that Seedstar had fallen into step with her. She had also broken the silence, although it hadn't eased the tension. What did the clan leader want with her? She looked up at Seedstar to show she was listening.

"Listen," Tadpolepaw noted that the clan leader was speaking very softly, so that the silence would at least appear to remain unbroken. "If things take a turn for the worse, and WindClan start a fight, then you are the runner in this operation. Your job is to go, get out of there, ignore the fighting cats, just go. You need to warn Gorsewater's patrol so that we can get reinforcements to help defeat WindClan. You got that?"

Tadpolepaw nodded. She wanted this job, she felt nowhere near ready for her first battle. If she minimized her time that was spent on the battle field, the less chance there was for these images, these visions, to come true. The less chance there was for Thornleap to kill her. Still, she didn't like this, going into WindClan territory, everyone on edge, everyone with the expectation that there would be a fight. Her whole body was nothing but a bundle of nerves.

As the WindClan border neared, the silence simply became more and more deafening. It was like a buzz, one that was annoying, one that was going to make someone crack. With the exception of Seedstar's quiet talk with Tadpolepaw, the silence remained unbroken. Desperate to do anything to help ease the tension, Tadpolepaw walked up to Flightpaw. Like Owlpaw, she was Ashenpaw's sister. However, Tadpolepaw had never quite got Flightpaw. She was very quiet, and always seemed to be brooding about something. Whenever someone talked to her, she was always polite, but seemed to want nothing more than for the conversation to end. Despite this, Tadpolepaw went up to Flightpaw.

"How are you feeling?" she asked the grey she-cat. Instantly, it felt as if the silence that she had broken had been the only thing holding up the sky, and the sky was now crashing down on her.

Flightpaw, meanwhile, didn't seem to notice the sky falling. Instead, she casually flicked an ear.

"Nervous." Flightpaw said with almost no emotion.

"Do you think there will be a battle?"

"Possibly."

"Patrol halt!" called out Seedstar. Instantly the sky stopped falling, and everything was calm. The patrol was now at the thunderpath that was between them and WindClan territory. A monster whizzed past, making Tadpolepaw jump.

"We are now about to cross over onto WindClan territory." meowed Seedstar. "Once we are there, we are to simply wait for a patrol to speak to." There were no monsters nearby as Seedstar finished speaking, and the patrol scampered across the border onto WindClan territory.

On WindClan territory, Tadpolepaw noticed how short and dry the grass was. It was itchy. On ShadowClan territory, the swamps had almost always kept a large portion of the grass wet.

"Now we wait." mewed Seedstar, and in an instant the loud silence was back, and Tadpolepaw was too terrified to break it sometime. All the images of Thornleap killing were now at the front of her mind, and she began to shake.

After what seemed like moons passed, Tadpolepaw finally saw a WindClan patrol in the distance. They had noticed them as well, and Tadpolepaw noticed their pace increase, making her shake even more. What if Thornleap was on this patrol?

He wasn't. The patrol finally arrived, and Tadpolepaw knew none of the three cats it consisted of. One was a tom of reasonably light brown color, while another was a pure white she-cat with a couple of golden flecks. The final cat was much smaller than the other, two, an apprentice Tadpolepaw guessed. He was lithe gray tom with a white chest. But Tadpolepaw knew absolutely none of them. Were they friendly? How would they respond with the news that Ashenpaw was missing? Fortunately, Seedstar recognized them.

"Stepfrost, Sparkstone, Runningpaw." she mewed, looking at the gray tom first; he must be Stepfrost, the second one must be Sparkstone, and the third smaller cat, must be the apprentice, Runningpaw.

"How runs the prey in WindClan?" Seedstar mewed curtly.

"Good, thank you." Stepfrost responded. "But what brings you to WindClan territory?"

"One of our apprentices, Ashenpaw, has gone missing. She was last spotted on the WindClan border. We were wondering if you had any information."

"I think I should refer you to our leader on this." mewed Stepfrost carefully. "Sparkstone, Runningpaw, stay here and guard the ShadowClan warriors. I will head back and report this incident to Quickstar." The brown tom than ran off, vanishing from sight over the moor.

Meanwhile, a staring contest happened between the five ShadowClan cats and the two WindClan cats. The silence had returned, and, once again was solely responsible for holding up the sky. No cat dared to speak. But Tadpolepaw began to worry. Would Quickstar come? How many cats would he bring? Would she have a chance to get to Gorsewater's patrol? What about Thornleap?

Once again, moons seemed to pass before any cats returned. But, finally, Tadpolepaw noticed a large patrol heading over the moor. But Quickstar was not leading the patrol. Thornleap was. And Tadpolepaw began to shake again, images of Thornleap killing her were in her head. Then Tadpolepaw noticed how large the patrol was. Including Thornleap, there was six cats. Plus Sparkstone and Runningpaw, ShadowClan were badly out numbered.

"Thornleap." Seedstar mewed curtly, either not noticing or not caring about his numbers. "I thought Quickstar would be coming."

"Quickstar is ill," the ginger tom growled. "I am in charge for the moment. I hear you have a lost apprentice."

"Yes," said Seedstar. "Do you have any idea where she is?"
"In our camp, prisoner." responded Thornleap, raking his eyes over the patrol, halting briefly at Tadpolepaw, before moving over the rest of the patrol.

"Why?" pressed Seedstar, her hackles raising.

"She was found taking prey on our land," Thornleap spat. "We finally have our proof of your clan's thievery, Seedstar."

"Thornleap," Seedstar mewed after letting out a long breath. "I am truly sorry that she was found hunting on your land. But, she is young, and lacks better judgment that we will be taught to her as life goes on. May we please take her back to our camp and punish her?"

"Not until we have an apology from ShadowClan, and prey for all the times ShadowClan has thieved from WindClan."

"I cannot agree to those terms, Thornleap" responded Seedstar. "Not unless there is proof that we have stolen from you before."

"Then it appears we have reached an impasse," growled Thornleap. "WindClan attack!"


So, there we have it folks. Next chapter we will have our first battle scene! And I also got this chapter out reasonably fast!

Reviews, then cookies.

Rainy Spirit: Thank you! I'm glad your enjoying it!

A Sky of Blazing Stars: So, how does another cliff hanger help?

ExplodingQuasar: Yeah, Ashenpaw would do that. And I think I know what you think you know. But are either of us right? But does Aethernose know more than he is letting on? Or maybe he just doesn't know his mate well. I did mention at the start of the chapter Willowstorm's kits, so the nursery isn't empty. However, I'm planning for a barren stage of kits anyway, as ShadowClan is quite large at the moment. So there wont be kits for a while. Thanks for the review!

I-really-hope-not: Glad that your enjoying it! Lets hope another chapter makes you want more! Thanks for the review!

SomeoneI'mSure: I'm glad you enjoyed Snookwing's one line. With so many OC's it can be hard to premier even some of them, so I'm glad I got the right line! Me too, I probably make hundreds of mistakes per chapter.

Cookies!

A Sky of Blazing Stars: (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

SomeoneI'mSure: (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

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ASJ7: (::) (::) (::) (::)

AviRay: (::)

Luckyclaw of ThunderClan: (::) (::)

ExplodingQuasar: (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

Fala: (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

Dark Frost the Ice Night Hybrid: (::)

Maple Dapple: (::) (::) (::)

Amberpetal: (::)

Rainy Spirit: (::)

Enjoy those cookies! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, they mean so much to me. Also, we just went over fifty reviews this chapter, so that makes it extra special! Thank you all so much again, I love you all (Not in a weird way.)

I'll see you all in the next chapter!

Thanks!

-Willowstorm.