"Do you smell cats?" a grayish black tom broke the green-leaf silence.
"Indeed, Stonecloud," answered a black she-cat with a whit underbelly, "but where are they?"
"When I do find them, I'll claw their ears off for laying paws on our territory!" a gray tom with green eyes growled.
"Calm down, Sagepaw," the she-cat mewed, " they do not carry the scent of clan." The scent led up to a group of ferns. The she-cat pushed them aside with her tail, and was horrified by what she saw. Two dead she-cat, one older and one younger, lifeless, with blood splattered everywhere. "These cats are dead!" she exclaimed.
"It hasn't been very long, if their scent is still fresh." Stonecloud observed.
"Yes." The she-cat answered.
" I scent Badgers." Sagepaw hissed.
"Good job, Sagepaw!" Stonecloud praised.
"That's not all," the she-cat mewed, " they left dung behind." There was indeed a heap of Badger dung near the dead bodies.
Sagepaw noticed something moving near the two dead cats. "Kits!" Sagepaw screamed.
"What?" the she-cat asked.
Stonecloud padded over to the dead rouges. " He is right, Shadestar. There are two kits here. One is only days old, and the other is a few moons, but unconscious. I fear that moving them may harm them worse."
Shadestar turned to Sagepaw. "Go back to camp," she ordered, " and have Blackthroat organize a patrol to look for the Badger. Get the elders to burry these two, and fetch Whitewhisker. Tell her to bring some herbs for broken bones and deep gashes."
Sagepaw opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it and ran off.
"These four are somehow related." Shadestar meowed. "They all have Black pelts."
"Yes." Stonecloud mewed.
" I think the big one should be Darkkit, and the small one Nightkit."
Stonecloud pricked his ears when he heard that. "Surely we can't keep them," he began, "they are rouges."
"Do they know that?" Shadestar challenged. "And the Warrior Code says 'No Warrior may neglect a kit in pain or danger' I would say these two are in both."
Sagepaw then returned with a calico she-cat, mouth full of herbs. Behind her were two old toms, one with brown fur, the other a tabby. "Here's Whitewhisker, and I brought Hawkblaze and Mudpelt to burry the other two." Sagepaw panted.
Whitewhisker immediately go to work "They will both live, once I am finished with them." She mewed. She wrapped each in cobwebs, after putting marigold on the wounds. " This small one has a broken leg." She said, " I hope it will recover." She put a reed on the small newborn leg, and fed the kit comfrey.
Then, a patrol came through. It was Blackthroat, another pure black tom, and Icefur, a white-gray she-cat with blue eyes, came through. "Sagepaw, come with us," Blackthroat ordered, "we have a Badger to track down." The three of them left, and Whitewhisker finished her work. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead, she stood, gazing seemingly into nowhere.
"Has Starclan spoken to you?" Shadestar asked
"Yes." Whitewhisker replied, "A great Darkness will fall upon the forest!"