Chapter Five
A/N: Wondering what happens? Well, hurry up and read it, then!
Heathertail glanced at Lionblaze in surprise. "Lionblaze!" she gasped. "What in the name of StarClan are you –"
"Don't touch the deathberries!" Ivypaw interrupted her speech. "They'll kill you!"
The WindClan queen stared at the berries in shock. "D-deathberries?" she stammered. "T-then I was going t-to..."
"... to kill yourself," Lionblaze finished. He stared in seriousness at Heathertail. "You shouldn't have thought about going to get herbs you've never seen to Barkface. You could've died, you know. And then what would happen to your kits? Think about safety first –"
"Who cares about that?" Breezepelt demanded. "She's still alive now. What are you doing in WindClan territory? And why's the lame apprentice with you?"
Ivypaw unsheathed her claws. "How dare you call me lame!" she hissed. "I'll bite your neck until I see the blood drain from you!"
"What do you mean by 'who cares'?" Heathertail yowled to her mate. "You didn't even know what I was going to eat. And now you're saying 'who cares'? You don't really care for me, do you? You've only become my mate because you wanted kits that would become like Tigerstar, right?"
"Don't talk about my dreams about Tigerstar so loudly!" Breezepelt snapped. "Now they all know!"
Harespring stared quizzically at Breezepelt. "Dreams about Tigerstar?" he asked.
Lionblaze gasped in shock. "So you mean that Breezepelt is also being influenced by Tigerstar?"
Heathertail and Breezepelt didn't seem to hear him. "Did I say that I never loved you?" Breezepelt growled. "I really did! And you never realised this, did you? And I only told you the secret about me having dreams about the Dark Forest and Tigerstar because you're my mate and I am very, very fond of you! I wouldn't tell anyone else, would I?"
"Then what's with the 'who cares' then, huh?" Heathertail hissed.
"Please stop arguing!" Harespring snapped. "What about the ThunderClan –"
"Run!" Lionblaze yowled, and the three ThunderClan cats ran off back to their territory. Dawn was almost to come, and they wanted to surprise the rest by bringing Ivypaw back. And Lionblaze wanted to impress Cinderheart, too.
"Hey!" Breezepelt shouted. "Now look, Heathertail! You distracted us, and now see! They're running away! Harespring, we're going after them!"
"Then you'll get into even more trouble!" Heathertail snapped. Their arguing soon faded away into distant echoes as the three cats slipped through the dirtplace tunnel.
"So... now what?" Dovepaw asked. "We never told anyone we were going, so how are we going to show our appearance with Ivypaw?"
"Umm..." Lionblaze didn't know what to do. He glanced at Ivypaw.
"That means... you've came to the WindClan camp at your own free will?" Ivypaw asked. "You never negotiated this with Firestar?"
"No," admitted Lionblaze.
Ivypaw sighed. "Well, the only option now is to go in together, then. But don't blame me if you guys get into trouble," she added seriously. "I'm not the one who didn't ask for Firestar's permission to go and save someone."
Dovepaw replied, staring at Lionblaze. "Well, I wasn't wanting to sneak into WindClan territory to fetch you. But I really wanted to see you back in ThunderClan again."
"Well, what matters now is that your safe," Lionblaze meowed, "and that they didn't harm you."
"What happened once you were captured by WindClan?" Dovepaw asked curiously.
Ivypaw opened her jaws to speak, but was interrupted by Lionblaze. "It's slightly past dawn already," he hissed. "We better make our appearance through the camp entrance, or else we'd look more suspicious."
Dovepaw nodded, and after thinking a moment, Ivypaw agreed with a faint meow. They exited the dirtplace tunnel and padded through to the entrance.
Lionblaze stopped when they reached the entrance of the camp. "No one's guarding the entrance now," he reported after examining the camp tunnel. "Though the smell is fresh. I'm guessing that they're switching guards."
"Should we go in now, then?" Ivypaw hissed.
Lionblaze shrugged. "I guess, he muttered, padding through the tunnel that led into camp. The two siblings glanced at each other and followed the golden warrior as he made his way into camp. Lionblaze could feel the sun blazing right towards him as he exited the tunnel and was exposed to the sun.
The golden tabby tom immediately felt awkward and embarrassed when he noticed cats staring at him suspiciously. Their faces soon turned to shock when they realised that Ivypaw was behind him. They just stood there – frozen – as though they could not believe that Ivypaw was back.
Lionblaze was about to say something when a cry of delight was heard from the warrior's den. Whitewing quickly ran out and nuzzled Ivypaw all over.
"I thought I'd lose you!" Whitewing gasped.
By then almost everyone in camp was out of the dens, watching Ivypaw in surprise as the apprentice tried to duck away from her mother's movements. Jayfeather only just exited the medicine cat den, his ears angled towards the crowd of cats surrounding Ivypaw. Birchfall was next to his mate in a heartbeat, half-happy an half-shocked at the sight of his daughter.
Ivypaw meowed, "Of course you wouldn't lose me. I'm not that easy to defeat, anyway." Dovepaw purred with amusement; it seemed that everyone was happy now, until Lionblaze noticed that a few cats were glaring at him.
Dustpelt was one of the first to speak. "You stupid mouse-brain!" he snapped to Lionblaze. "Did you go all the way into WindClan territory in their camp to get Ivypaw back?"
"Then how else would he have got her?" Dovepaw demanded, defending Lionblaze instantly.
"Now they'd think that we want to have a fight with them!" Thornclaw hissed in reply. "Look at what you've done now! We're already in enough trouble as it is!"
A voice sounded behind Lionblaze. "What's going on here?"
It was Firestar. Lionblaze turned around to see the ThunderClan leader padding towards them out of the leader's den, his flame-coloured coat shining like the sun above him. Lionblaze had to squint to see him properly. Now he wished he hadn't. After Firestar took a quick glance at Ivypaw, his eyes were cold as he stared at Lionblaze. "You should've waited until I gave the order for us to retrieve her," he growled. "Onestar must now think that we want a fight with him, no?"
"At least I'm safe now!" Ivypaw mewed angrily from where she was. Whitewing immediately gave her an angry glance.
"Your safe, but now we're in even more danger!" Berrynose snapped.
Thornclaw nodded. "What if they're coming to attack us now?" he asked, eyes challenging as he stared around the rest of the Clan.
Lionblaze felt uneasy. He thought their expressions would be the exact opposite as it was now. His eyes met Dovepaw's. She was staring at him worriedly, not knowing what to do. Some of the cats around here were not angry about his actions, whereas the rest were just plain staring at him angrily.
"Then we shall be prepared for them," Firestar announced. He glanced at Brambleclaw. "We need to have the nursery heavily guarded. They might want to steal kits this time, knowing that our apprentice was smart enough to flee."
Brambleclaw nodded and ordered Graystripe, Icecloud and Spiderleg to join him as they went to comfort the queens and explain what was happening.
"Dustpelt," Firestar continued. The dark brown tabby tom's ears instantly pricked, eagerly listening. "I want you to lead a border patrol to the WindClan border. We have to be sure that they're not in out territory yet."
Dovepaw padded up to Lionblaze. "What should we do?" she muttered, her eyes giving away her confusion.
"I don't know," Lionblaze replied honestly, still watching what Firestar wanted to happen around camp.
"... and Brackenfur," the leader went on. "Please go and send a hunting patrol out. We may need a lot of strength for this fight. Jayfeather, make sure that we have enough healing herbs," he added. Jayfeather dipped his head.
"OK," he meowed. Before he moved, he stared at Lionblaze with his sightless eyes questioningly, as though he wanted to know what happened. Then he headed to his den.
Soon most of the cats had gone. Firestar turned to Lionblaze and Dovepaw. Lionblaze flinched when he saw Firestar's disapproving face. He was definitely in trouble; no doubt. Dovepaw seemed to be the only comfort here. Ivypaw had just left with Whitewing and Birchfall to the medicine den for any signs of injury.
"You knew that I would have thought of a way to save Ivypaw anyway, didn't you?" he asked coldly. "I even said about this last time." He meant about the meeting before Lionblaze and Dovepaw snuck out to save Ivypaw.
Lionblaze hung his head apologetically. "I'm sorry," he muttered.
Firestar nodded. "And you, Dovepaw?" he asked.
Dovepaw ducked her head too. "Sorry," she meowed.
The ThunderClan leader nodded approvingly. "Good," he replied. "I hope that you are aware that your actions have done a terrible thing to ThunderClan. Be sure that you think twice before you do what you want." He retreated back to his den, his tail swishing with annoyance.
"He didn't even punish us!" Dovepaw hissed.
Lionblaze blinked. That was true. Firestar didn't mention anything about punishment. Was it that maybe Firestar wanted them to go and retrieve Ivypaw from WindClan? Or was it because Firestar was scared, because after all, he knew that Lionblaze, Dovepaw and Jayfeather were part of the Three?
"Let's go to Jayfeather first," Lionblaze suggested, deciding to act as though he didn't hear Dovepaw's speech. He felt that Jayfeather needed to know what happened.
Dovepaw sighed, as though she was angry that Lionblaze was purposely not listening to her. "OK, fine," she meowed, and they headed off to the medicine cat den. As they entered, they saw Ivypaw with her parents behind her, anxiously asking Jayfeather if there were any injuries. Lionblaze could feel Jayfeather's anger and annoyance as he meowed through gritted teeth billions of times that there was nothing wrong with her, and that they could leave.
Jayfeather noticed the arrival of Lionblaze and Dovepaw. "As you can see," he meowed to Whitewing and Birchfall, "we have new injured cats here, so if you may..."
Whitewing finally sighed and nodded. "I guess we're just going to be a bother to Jayfeather if we continue like this," she meowed to Birchfall. "Let's go."
Ivypaw rolled her eyes at Dovepaw. Lionblaze and Dovepaw both purred with amusement as they watched the three cats left. Jayfeather sighed, completely annoyed, and muttered, "Finally! I was about to age and die if they didn't come." Now it was serious time, as Jayfeather turned around to face Lionblaze and Dovepaw.
"Why'd you guys leave?" he asked curiously.
"I really wanted to see my sister again!" Dovepaw answered immediately.
Jayfeather sighed. "You still could've seen her if Cinderheart and Mousewhisker went to fetch her, you know." He glanced at Lionblaze. "You must've wanted to go out to, if you did. Why?"
Lionblaze gulped. What should he say? Saying just what Dovepaw said wouldn't mean anything. Plus, with Jayfeather's hard stare, Lionblaze didn't think that he could lie. After all, Jayfeather knew whether you were lying or not. He could just walk into your thoughts.
With a resigned sigh, Lionblaze replied, "I did it to impress Cinderheart."
A/N: Sorry for the late update! Please review and thanks for reading!