Six moons later……….
Rose-eyes stretched and yawned. Dawn had just started to crawl into the hollow. She peeked outside and winced at the dawn sun. "Ahhhh, a beautiful day, again!" said Wildstar as he stepped through the moss strings that curtained his den. Crackedfang crawled out of his self-made den, which by now needed more repair. "Good morning," quickly meowed the old, but strong, deputy.
"I am choosing you to go on patrol this morning with Skyflower, Hollysun, and Grasspaw. Hollypaw, Wildstar's daughter, had become a warrior only two moons ago. Wildstar treated it like Starclan had just blanketed the whole of Skyclan with glory.
Rose-eyes obeyed and silently padded with the group, and they made way to the borders. They made their way to Fourtrees and along the border. "This is taking forever!" complained Grasspaw. "When'll we go back?"
"In a few," replied Hollysun, clearly annoyed. Grasspaw had been complaining of long patrols for days. Crackedfang seemed to be trying to cure him of it by making him go on every patrol. Hollysun silently objected. The morning crept like a caterpillar on a huge oak. The warm Leaf-green had just started after a long and brutal winter. Leafclan had a new leader, Petalstar, a black and white she-cat. Leafclan had long since become an ally of Skyclan, and always came as back-up. Flowerclan and Sunclan had their own alliance as well. Luckily, no war had started though out the season. When sunhigh had come, Rose-eyes, Hollysun, Grasspaw, and Skyflower headed back to camp. Something was wrong. Rose-eye's eyes watered as she and the others smelt smoke. It was coming from camp. Rose-eyes bolted through a smoldering tunnel and into a fire. She luckily had ran into a patch of dirt that wasn't burning.
She looked around wildly for anyone who could help. She saw Wildstar digging at Crackedfang's den. Rose-eyes remembered her dream about the fire and Crackedfang. She joined Wildstar's frantic digging, and saw Crackedfang's terrorized face in the burning den.
Then, the heat became unbearable. Wildstar yowled with pain. Rose-eyes tried to keep digging, but was also forced to stop at the heat of the flames. She couldn't see the beloved deputy anymore, and she howled. She tried to charge at the den again to dig more, but Wildstar kept her back. "He it gone, Rose-eyes," he said.
Rose-eyes heard the despair in his voice, and followed him out to the stream where all the cats went during a fire. The fire feared the water. The water was a protection from Starclan. Wildstar took account of the Clan, but then looked down when he got to Crackedfang's name.
"We have lost a brave warrior today, my Clan," he stated. "It was dear Crackedfang, the deputy." The Clan cats whispered to each other for a small moment before Wildstar continued. "I must choose another deputy. I have all day to, but I will choose now. I choose Rose-eyes." Rose-eyes stared at him. She would have never imagined being deputy. She nodded to him, and his eyes filled with even more sorrow. Rose-eyes felt his pain. She had always felt close to Crackedfang. And to have him suddenly taken away from her, it was just too much for her. When moonhigh came, the forest fire had been doused by Twolegs. The cats all thought that the Twolegs only use to them is to douse fires. They went home, and all went to bed.
Wildstar didn't even try to send out late patrols. They all slept, except for Rose-eyes and Wildstar. They were sitting with Crackfang's charred den. They didn't know where his body was. They assumed that it was burned to ash. A horrible way for a warrior to be buried.
"Wildstar, we tried to save him, right?" she asked. Wildstar only stared at the den. A few embers were still glowing inside it. Jayfeather had tried his best to make sure that it didn't start the fire again. The cats decided that to make sure that they buried the body was to collapse the den.
They did this by digging around the middle of the den, to destroy it's stability. When their long work was done, they heard a thump and dust raised into the air as the den collapsed. "Good bye, brave warrior," whispered Wildstar as the dust settled.
The next dawn, Rose-eyes woke up. She was confused when a bunch of cats asked her who would patrol, but then she remembered Crackedfang. Crackedfang. The name made her feel like she had woken from a bad dream. She desperately wished that it was a dream, and commonly scratched herself to confirm. This wasn't a dream. It was life. Rose-eyes took what she had learned from watching past deputies to semi-lead the camp. She sent the right cats on missions and patrols, she was able to lead to triumphant battles, though there were very, very few.
Rose-eyes decided to talk with Wildstar. Maybe see if it was possible to get some help. As much war as there wasn't, it was still complicating to have to organize the whole Clan every day.
"Wildstar, may I talk to you?" she asked around sunhigh. Wildstar wasn't in his den, so Rose-eyes assumed that he was hunting. Wildstar didn't like other cats to hunt for him. He only ate what he caught. Rose-eyes organized the evening patrol early, and went to the forest to hunt.
She caught three voles, five mice, and a rabbit. A very wealthy meal for her Clan. She put the fresh kill into the pile and picked out a thrush. They were plentiful in her forest and the cats' piles of kill were mostly thrushes.
Rose-eyes made her way to the stream after her meal to wash herself. She liked the stream water because it "talked" to her. Rose-eyes loved to hear the babbling water and the fish splashing away when her shadow cast over them. The gleaming water showed her reflection. Rose-eyes had seen herself in the water many times, but this time, something was different. She saw a stronger, more sorrowful face looking at her. I am changing, she thought, and she truly was.