Okay, here is your treat! Two chapters in one day!

When we left off, our intrepid travellers had been found by an old friend in the form of Squirrelflight. What is she doing there? Is she going to take them back to the lake?? Let's find out!

Shout out to HorseAngel101: thank you so, so much for favouriting me! It means a lot that I have fans!

This is from Squirrelflight's POV

Chapter 3 – Squirrelflight's Tale

"Oh, Leafpool, I missed you so much!" I cried.

"I'm so sorry I left you, but I couldn't say goodbye!" Leafpool sniffled.

We stood there for what seemed like moons, just sobbing in joy. I noticed that Brambleclaw had pressed closer to me, which I was grateful for his warmth. Crowfeather had done the same thing to Leafpool.

"How did you find us, what are you doing here?" Her flurry of questions came in a flash.

I dismissed them with a flick of my tail and instead asked, "Where have you been?" Leafpool looked beyond me for a second and asked "Who else have brought?"

"Uh…" I had to look behind me to remember, embarrassingly really considering that my best friends were around me. "Brambleclaw," he licked my shoulder, "Tawnypelt and her kits, Flamekit, Dawnkit and Tigerkit-"everyone flinched at the sound of Tigerkit's name, I rolled my eyes Superstition? Pah! I thought indignantly. "Stormfur and Brook, and I think that's it. We were sent to find you –"

"No, please don't make me come back! I can't! I miss you, but Crowfeather needs me. I'm all he has left! Please –"

"Leafpool, we aren't here to take you back; quite the contrary really. Firestar asked us to see if you were both ok, and if you wanted some travelling companions…"

"No, we're fi-"Crowfeather began.

"Just think for a second. We'll be safer in a larger group; we have already found a good home, at least for the moment; we're with old friends and what about our Clan ambition?"

"Mmmmm….okay we'll see how it goes," he finally conceded grumpily.

"Yeah…but wait," Leafpool asked. "How did you know we were?

"Well, it wasn't easy, I'll tell you that right now. But I'll start at the point where you left us….

"After a couple of days later we were attacked by a huge group of badgers, massive in size. We lost Sootfur and Sorreltail is very injured, after being swiped by a massive badger that broke into the nursery while giving birth-"Leafpool gasped in sheer horror. "Don't worry, she's on the mend! Cinderpelt is fixing here up nicely. She was lucky she was not at the battle. She was outside thinking about you. She didn't look all that well for the first couple of days after that, but she's alright now. Anyway, she's training Brightheart to be a temporary medicine cat so that Cinderpelt can come with us to be with you…"

"She's gonna do that for me?" I asked. I didn't she felt that much about me.

"Yeah, she insisted, and Firestar was powerless to stop her. I don't think she knows quite what she's doing, but she's still working hard nonetheless.

"At the next Gathering, we met up and decided that you needed to found alive. We convinced our leaders to let us go looking for you. We couldn't let you face these dangers on your own. The journey was long and arduous, and finally, a half-moon later we managed to find your scent around here and it led to this den. And here you are!"

Leafpool looked like she was going to burst out with something she really wanted to say.

"Doyouwanttojoinourclan?" she said faster than a rabbit on catnip.

"How, there are no cats around here for a start," I exclaimed.

"We are the cats, and surely there must be some cats nearby. As for a camp, we are standing in it. It's perfect; we were going to explore it more today. And we can sort out Clan boundaries later.

"I suppose…but will we live under the rules of StarClan?" Brambleclaw asked uneasily. He was right; could StarClan see us here? If we were to have kits, what ceremonies could we use to make apprentices or warriors?

"Of course!" said Leafpool rather indignantly.

"If you want to do this, I am gonna do this!" I stepped forward to lick my sister's muzzle. "You, Brambleclaw?" I hoped that he would. I would be lost without him.

"I'm with you every pawstep of the way!" Brambleclaw entwined my tail with his. That was the great thing about Brambleclaw. He was very loyal, funny, brave and generally a great cat. However, it was still hard to forget the blazing look in Ashfur's eyes when I had 'dumped' him; he was a great friend, but deep in my heart, I always knew that Brambleclaw were destined for each other.

"I'm not being left behind!" Tawnypelt said dryly in her very Tawnypelt-like manner, while her kits squealed with delight, oblivious to the massive decisions that these cats had to make.

"Same here, Brook are you in?" Stormfur asked his mate.

"You know that I will follow you anywhere," Brook licked his shoulder.

I felt some sort of beginning. Our new Clan! I thought happily!

-x-

The rest of the day was spent exploring the gorge. The den that Leafpool and Crowfeather had stayed in was much like a leader's den. Crowfeather was for once, lost for words, when the rest suggested he should be the leader, considering that this was his ideas along with Leafpool's. That was now his den. There was a cave at the top where there was room for a few dozen cats. The nice thing was that there were little walls made of some very tight lichen that had curled around each other to form a make-shift wall. Maybe this was for 'privacy' reasons! This was most likely to become the warrior's den. Just below was a smaller den with room for about eight cats in. This became the elder's den (even though we didn't have any elders…). This was easily accessible by walking up the flattened path that had formed on the way up.

Then below this was a large bracken den that had a sturdy entrance. Further inside this, was some bracken walls, so that the queens could also have some privacy. This was inside a small cave that had an opening at the back, which turned out to end up in a small bracken bush that had some very sturdy walls, and no holes. The kits could play here! I thought as I thought about upbringing kits here. Will me and Brambleclaw have kits I wondered in interest. Maybe not for the moment…

Finally there was another crack in the gorge walls, which had a small stream flowing through. This would be a great medicine den. There were some cracks in the cave walls which could store herbs and remedies. There was some more space towards the back for sick patients. This was almost too good to be true…..

-x-

As all of the cats said their goodnights, Brambleclaw and I walked off towards the warrior's den. Tonight was going to be a much more comfortable night…

Well that's Chapter 3. I hope you are enjoying the story… 1,218 words!! A new record! Well, if you're super duper lucky you may manage to worm out Chapter 4 from me….or I may start my new humour series: Warriors Go To The Shops…depends what my McCoys crisps think….yum yum…