Chapter Seven

A/N: I'm back! Now let's commence the chapter!

Shock.

The one word that was buzzing through Lionblaze's mind for a long while. Dovepaw, who struggled free of Whitewing's gasp, went to stand beside Lionblaze and spat straight at Cinderheart, "You liar! We didn't even put a single PAW on WindClan territory!" She swivelled her glance to Ivypaw, her sibling. "Right, Ivypaw?"

Ivypaw opened her mouth, and Lionblaze thought that she was going to stick to Dovepaw's side as well when instead she meowed, "You did disappear, Dovepaw. Cinderheart wasn't lying."

Dovepaw stared at her sister, stunned, only to be replaced by anger. Whitewing quickly rushed over to her daughters and pushed them out of the front of the crowd. The rest of the Clans' eyes followed them before they retreated back to Lionblaze, who still couldn't believe it. Of course he didn't go anywhere! He remembered quite clearly that he was teaching Dovepaw a few self-defence moves, while Cinderheart and Ivypaw watched and copied them.

Firestar turned to face Lionblaze, looking quite annoyed. "Do you have anything to say, Lionblaze?" he asked, his eyes cold.

"I'm not lying . . ." Lionblaze knew that his words seemed like false talk to the others, after Cinderheart's and Ivypaw's "claims". Breezepelt sneered at Lionblaze, who turned away, a look of pure hatred in his eyes. One day he would slit Breezepelt's throat off and get his revenge for what was happening.

He locked gazes with Jayfeather before he even knew it. Jayfeather narrowed his eyes, questioningly, as though asking him silently whether what Cinderheart said was true. Lionblaze answered it by shaking his head slightly. Jayfeather did a short nod before flicking his tail, indicating that Firestar looked like he was going to say something. Lionblaze turned back.

"We'll discuss about this later," he meowed. Turning to Onestar and Breezepelt he told them, "You two can leave. What I do to Lionblaze is none of your concerns."

Onestar nodded politely but looking quite unfriendly. He signalled to Breezepelt and both the cats turned and padded off out of the ThunderClan camp. Before Breezepelt disappeared, however, he shot Lionblaze a look of triumph and pride before exiting. This gesture made Lionblaze claw the earth, unleashing his fury on the solid ground below him.

Firestar set his gaze on the Clan. "Meeting dismissed."

"But what do we do with Lionblaze and Dovepaw?" Thornclaw asked. "They've done the wrong thing."

'I did not!' Lionblaze thought angrily. Whatever respect he had for the senior warrior – if there was any respect, that is – immediately vanished. He glared at Cinderheart, who was looking quite uncomfortable. Mousewhisker threw back a stare at Lionblaze, looking pretty proud of himself. Lionblaze hissed.

"I will discuss with Lionblaze and Dovepaw about their doing," Firestar replied calmly and steadily. Dustpelt snorted and muttered something to Thornclaw before returning to their duties. The rest of the Clan parted as well. Dovepaw quickly scurried up to Lionblaze and sighed with frustration, sitting down. Lionblaze felt exactly how she did too. They both heard the sound of pawsteps and looked up to see Firestar advancing them. Lionblaze braced himself for a lecture of some sort.

Instead, to Lionblaze's surprise, Firestar asked, "You didn't go to WindClan territory, did you?" He sounded doubtful, as though he did not know what to believe.

Dovepaw leaped to her paws. "Of course we didn't!" she answered, her tail lashing from side to side, looking like she could claw someone. "I don't know what happened with Cinderheart and Ivypaw, but Lionblaze and I were really battle training! Someone must've threatened Cinderheart not to, or maybe –"

"You're yowling, Dovepaw," Firestar interrupted. "Do you want the whole Clan to know what we are saying?" Lionblaze quickly stifled a purr of amusement when Dovepaw glanced around, realising that some cats were staring at her, flashing her weird looks.

"Umm . . . no," Dovepaw replied, her voice quickly dropping. She glanced down at her paws, flushing with embarrassment. "But we really didn't do anything . . ." she added, muttering.

Firestar sighed. "I don't know whether to believe you two or not," he meowed admittedly. "But I highly disbelieve that you would do such a thing. Perhaps Breezepelt mistook the two cats for you when it was actually another two ThunderClan cats. The possibilities could be endless. But," he added, "both Cinderheart and Ivypaw confirmed that you two did."

"That's the problem!" Lionblaze meowed, exasperated. "I don't know why they would side up with Breezepelt! Obviously something's up . . ."

Firestar thought for a moment, then finally said, "I still can't say that I don't believe you, but I don't believe you either. I'll be keeping a close eye on Cinderheart and Ivypaw to see if they speak the truth or not. At the same time, I'll be keeping an eye on you two. If anything suspicious happens, then I will know who's lying and who's not." Then he turned and walked off.

Lionblaze and Dovepaw both exchanged a glance. "Well, we don't have to worry," mewed Dovepaw. "After all, we didn't do anything wrong, so they won't ever suspect anything from us. It's just Cinderheart and Ivypaw. I can't believe they'd lie to the whole Clan!" Lionblaze could sense sparks of annoyance coming off her. At the same time, hurt was detected.

He rested the tip of his tail on Dovepaw's shoulder. "At the same time while Firestar is keeping an eye on all four of us, I'll be finding out why Cinderheart and Ivypaw said what they said."

Dovepaw narrowed her eyes. "Then wouldn't that make Firestar suspect us as well, because you'll be basically stalking Cinderheart wherever she goes. And then we'd end up getting punished instead of them, yes?" While Lionblaze thought about it, Dovepaw went on, "Plus, with my power, I can find out anyway."

Oh, right. Dovepaw's power. Lionblaze almost forgot about it. "You're right," Lionblaze agreed. "You can use your power. Anyway, you go and rest while I head out hunting."

Dovepaw rolled her eyes. "You're hunting to release your anger out, aren't you?" When Lionblaze didn't respond, she added, "Well, I want to as well. Let's just go hunting together." Lionblaze didn't really have anything to argue about. Having someone to hunt with him didn't sound like a bad idea.

The two cats set off out of camp. On the way, they passed Berrynose, who twitched his whiskers and meowed to Mousewhisker, loud enough for Lionblaze to hear, "Hey, I bet they're going out of camp to do hunt on WindClan territory again. What do you think?"

Lionblaze scowled but continued to head out, Dovepaw following him. Before they left, Lionblaze only faintly heard Mousewhisker's voice as he said something along the lines of ". . . going too far . . . Cinderheart getting caught . . ."

Dovepaw rushed up to Lionblaze. "Did you hear their conversation?" Lionblaze shook his head. "I can't believe it. They persuaded Cinderheart and Ivypaw to lie to the whole Clan. Wait, let me rephrase that. They forced Cinderheart and Ivypaw to lie to the whole Clan."

Her gaze met Lionblaze's utterly shocked one. "No way," Lionblaze whispered, horrified. "How could they force them to do that?"

Dovepaw shrugged. "They must have threatened to kill them or something to make them say what they said. You know, I would usually never use my power for doing things like this, but really, they've reached the limit. I'm going to find out why they are doing this to us."

Lionblaze glanced at her. "Not us," he meowed. "I think it's all aimed towards me."

A/N: Gasp! Sorry for the short chapter! But I promise I'll make the next chapter even longer! Review~