Chapter Three

A/N: I've come back from holidays! Please enjoy this chapter!

"Lionblaze." The warrior looked up to see Firestar staring at him. Lionblaze quickly leaped to his paws, embarrassed that he overslept. It was already sunhigh, but after the battle, all the energy had drained out of him. He ducked his head in apology.

Firestar purred with amusement. "I wasn't going to scold you for sleeping in," he meowed. "I want you to do something for me."

"What?" Lionblaze asked, eager to find out what it was.

"Ivypaw hasn't returned yet, and I'm convinced that she has been caught hostage by the WindClan warriors," Firestar explained. "And I only trust you to go and spy on them." Lionblaze felt privileged at the leaders' words. Firestar continued: "If Ivypaw is there, report back immediately and do your best not to get caught."

Lionblaze nodded. "I'll do my best, Firestar," he replied.

"Good," Firestar answered, and before he left he gave Lionblaze a look of determination, as though even if Ivypaw was captured, they will not cower under WindClan. Once the ThunderClan leader left, Lionblaze thought of eating first before he left. He padded over to the fresh-kill pile.

While he devoured a squirrel hungrily, Lionblaze caught sight of Jayfeather padding up to him. "Your injuries OK?" the medicine cat asked.

"Fine," Lionblaze answered.

"Firestar told me about the fact that you're going over to WindClan territory," Jayfeather continued. "Because we're part of the Three, Firestar wants us to know everything we're doing," he added in a whisper so that no one could hear.

"Does that mean Dovepaw knows of this, too?" Lionblaze asked.

"Hmm... I guess so." Jayfeather shrugged. "But if Firestar told her, then she'd be stomping to us right now and saying that it's against the warrior code and all that stuff." Lionblaze laughed. Dovepaw was just like Hollyleaf; bossy, dedicated to the warrior code... he sighed. It was hard to remember his sister, whom he thought that was part of the Three in the prophecy.

Lionblaze got to his paws, doing a huge stretch before he meowed, "I'm going to WindClan territory now."

"Why now?" Jayfeather asked. "You could do it a little bit after sunhigh. The WindClan border patrol must be out now."

"It'd be easy to get away from them," Lionblaze replied. He said his goodbye to Jayfeather and padded off for WindClan territory. A few mouse-tails before the border was in sight, Lionblaze could hear bushes rustling behind him. The ThunderClan warrior swung around to see Dovepaw's tail sticking out.

He sighed. "Come out, Dovepaw," he mewed, and his apprentice stalked out of the bushes. "Why are you here?"

"I want to go with you," Dovepaw replied, to Lionblazes' surprise. "If Ivypaw really is there, I want to go and see her," she continued.

Lionblaze blew out a puff of air when he saw the look of determination spread across her face, as though she would even fight him to be able to go and see her sister. "Fine," he growled softly. "Just do as I say. We don't want to get caught, OK?"

Dovepaw nodded eagerly and they stalked quietly past the WindClan border. They couldn't see any border patrol, to their relief, and they were able to walk more quickly now. It wasn't a heartbeat later until once they reached the WindClan camp.

"What if they smell us?" Dovepaw asked.

"Don't worry," Lionblaze assured her.

"Can we wait until sundown?" Dovepaw mewed.

Lionblaze agreed by nodding his head. From the sound of it, the camp was very busy. Firestar shouldn't mind, Lionblaze thought. He turned to Dovepaw. "What can you see in the camp?" he asked.

Dovepaw closed her eyes. "Umm... I can see many WindClan warriors running everywhere... oh! Heathertail's heavily pregnant." Lionblaze stiffened. Heathertail was pregnant? "Breezepelt's meowing in fear at Barkface... and uhh... I can hear some cat hissing angrily." Her voice grew in panic until she was wide-eyed at Lionblaze.

"What?" Lionblaze asked.

"Ivypaw's there!"

"WHAT?" Lionblaze was in total shock, and he forgot to keep his volume down. Luckily, because the camp was so busy, no one could hear the two shocked ThunderClan cats.

"She's spitting in frustration at Leaftail," Dovepaw whispered. "And the other guard... Emberfoot – I think – is going into the den where Ivypaw is. And he's telling her to shut up. How dare he...!"

"Calm down, Dovepaw," Lionblaze meowed, even though he, too, was really mad. "Shouting won't help. Whatever you say is not going to free Ivypaw from the den. We should just report back to Firestar now, because he told me that once we find out that Ivypaw is in the den, we –"

Dovepaw glared at Lionblaze. "We're going to get her back, that's what!"

"No! We'll get caught! So let's just get back alrea –"

"If you're not going, then I'll just go and fetch her back without you!" Dovepaw snapped, and she went on glaring at the WindClan camp, wondering what's going on.

"And get yourself captured as well?" Lionblaze asked, frustrated. "Then you'll just be a burden – and an extra worry – to the Clan and especially Whitewing and Birchfall!" Dovepaw glanced at him. "We will get her back; we just need a few more cats to battle with WindClan while we go and retrieve Ivypaw."

Dovepaw sighed, defeated. "OK," she replied. "We'll go back... after sundown, at least," she added, and her eyes seemed to flash.

"I'm OK with that, provided that you keep that promise," Lionblaze answered.

"Yeah, I will."

They stared at the WindClan camp, telling each other what was happening. During the time that they were talking, Dovepaw exclaimed, "Oh! Heathertail's kits have just given birth."

Lionblaze felt a flash of curiosity pass through him, and he asked, "What do they look like?"

"There's two kits," Dovepaw reported. "Two she-cats. One's got pitch-black fur with amber eyes, and the other's got pale brown fur with really pale blue eyes. The black one resembles Breezepelt, and the other is very alike to Heathertail, although it's got a tinge of golden-brown on it; your fur colour. You can see it if you observe her fur colour properly."

Lionblaze gulped. Golden-brown? He had golden-brown fur. Did that mean that one of Heathertails' kits half-belonged to him? "What are their names?" he asked.

"Well, right now they're talking about it. Breezepelt's offering suggestions like 'Shinekit' and 'Hollowkit', but Heathertail's decided to call the black one 'Darkkit'." Lionblaze knew why Heathertail called that particular kit that. First of all, her fur colour. And also because of the fact that when they were younger in the tunnels, they always played with each other pretending they were DarkClan cats.

"The pale brown one is called... 'Goldenkit'. What weird names!" Dovepaw commented.

"It must have been because of the –" Lionblaze didn't finish, because they heard some cat hiss behind them.

"What are you doing in my territory?" the voice was Crowfeathers'.

Lionblaze turned around, claws unsheathed. He was about to pounce when Dovepaw asked, quite bravely: "Why did you capture Ivypaw?"

Crowfeather hissed back, "It was not MY idea to go and keep her hostage. That was my son's idea. Go and ask him why if you want to know so desperately."

"How did he convince Onestar to capture my sister?" Dovepaw asked, alarmed. Lionblaze was totally shocked. So it was BREEZEPELT who told Onestar to capture Ivypaw. Why did Breezepelt want to do that? He knew it meant war and more death. Was it because he WANTED a battle? Was it that Tigerstar was influencing him too like he did to Lionblaze himself before?

The WindClan warrior shrugged. "I don't know. It seemed that Onestar had thought of that idea, too." He glared at us. "Now get out of here before I alert the rest of the Clan!"

"We were planning to go now, anyway," Lionblaze replied coldly, and he gave his father a frustrated glance before he added to Dovepaw, "Let's get out of here now."

Dovepaw was disappointed, but followed her mentor anyway.

"... and then we left before any of the WindClan cats knew," Lionblaze concluded. He left out the part when Crowfeather found them in WindClan territory, in case anyone asked him if he said anything about Leafpool or anything related to that.

Birchfall sprang to his paws. "How dare they capture my daughter?" he snarled. "If they injure her in any way, I'll –"

"You'll do nothing of the sort," Firestar snapped. "Killing is not allowed, if that's what you're thinking. Yes, I too am pretty angry that Onestar actually captured one of our apprentices, and I will lead a raid to retrieve her back."

"But they would obviously be expecting the attack!" Sorreltail protested. "Why else would they capture her?"

There was a moment of silence as the Clan cats thought. Lionblaze knew that WindClan would be waiting for them as they led the battle into the camp. They could be waiting for them now. Maybe Crowfeather warned them that ThunderClan could be coming, so that his loyalty could be proven to WindClan.

"We could just sneak into camp and bring her out," Dovepaw suggested. "At least a way to bring my sister back to ThunderClan!"

"That is very risky," Firestar warned.

"But it could work," Whitewing answered.

"I could go and bring her back," Cinderheart called from where she was standing.

Lionblaze was about to offer as well, so that he could have some time alone with her, but then Mousewhisker spoke up first, "I'll go, too. Anything to bring Ivypaw back."

Jealousy was the first thing that Lionblaze felt when Firestar nodded. "We'll try that idea first," he said. "And if it fails, then we'll have to fight to get her back. Meeting dismissed." Cinderheart gave Mousewhisker a nod of gratitude, and Lionblaze didn't miss the look of happiness in her eyes as the two warriors padded side by side into the warrior's den.

Lionblaze didn't notice Dovepaw padding up to him. "You're jealous, aren't you?" she asked. "It must be sad to see Cinderheart padding away with another tom."

"... I guess." He was still staring at the warrior's den. Then he glanced at his apprentice. "That's not important now," he meowed. "What's more important is getting your sister back."

"It's all thanks to Cinderheart and Mousewhisker for volunteering to get her back," Dovepaw meowed, her eyes shining. "Then, at the next Gathering, we can shout at WindClan all we like!"

"Do you plan to wait to get your sister back, Dovepaw?" Lionblaze asked.

"Well..." Dovepaw looked down at her paws. "I'd like to get her now if I could..."

"We can get her back ourselves," Lionblaze continued. "Why do we have to wait?"

Dovepaw gaped at him. "A-are we even allowed to do that?" she demanded. "We'd get into serious trouble!"

"Not really, if we can bring her back to the Clan, right?"

His apprentice thought carefully for a moment, and then she looked up at him, her eyes shining with determination. "I'll take that risk, if that means getting Ivypaw back."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Lionblaze meowed. "Let's go now!"

Looking left and right, Lionblaze quickly ran out of the tunnel, which was unguarded at the moment. Dovepaw pelted after him.

If this means getting Cinderheart back, Lionblaze thought, then I'll do it!

A/N: Hope that was interesting! Please review, and I'll update soon!