CHAPTER FIVE:

Spying

Sandstar and Poppyseed got back to the AshClan camp well before sunset and decided to check on Shroudclaw and his followers. Sandstar didn't know for sure if they were actually were his followers of just warriors led astray but in her mind she couldn't trust them.

Sandstar padded into the warrior's den to find them lying around. No one was talking to each other and Sandstar found odd for warriors confined to one den. "How's everything doing?" Sandstar asked the warriors.

"Fine." Shroudclaw answered. He didn't say anything else. Sandstar also found this odd. Before a few nights ago he had been talking up a storm about nothing on subject. Now he couldn't think of any words to say otherwise. Sandstar wondered if Poppyseed was thinking the same thing.

"You can talk to each other, you know." Sandstar told them. Poppyseed looked at her as if she was out of her mind.

"Are you crazy?" Poppyseed whispered into Sandstar's ear. "You heard what Tomstar suggested!"

"Yes, I did." Sandstar whispered back.

"Yeah, we know." Shroudclaw replied ignoring Poppyseed interruption. "We just don't have anything to talk about."

Sandstar thought of what to say next. Then she noticed a hole in the back of the den. That wasn't there last time I was in here. And that was yesterday searching for Strongkit. She decided not to say anything about it.

"I just wanted you to know that your punishments will only be for the rest of today and then your free to go on with your regular schedule." Sandstar mewed. She knew that she could be sentencing herself to death but she wanted to see what Shroudclaw would do.

"If you say so." Shroudclaw mewed, revealing no emotion.

Sandstar nodded to them and padded out of the den with Poppyseed right behind her. "You want to get yourself killed, don't you?" Poppyseed asked as soon as they got into Sandstar's den. "They were supposed to be punished until the full moon."

"That's only in three days anyway." Sandstar reminded her. "So, I'm only taking away three days. You know that we've been short on patrols lately because of their absence."

"But they were allowed to hunt." remarked Poppyseed.

"They decided not to." Sandstar mewed. "And who'd blame them? I don't think our other warriors are very fond of them very much at the moment and I think some of them would kill Shroudclaw if they got the chance."

"Isn't that what you want?" Poppyseed asked. Sandstar gasped. "Your surprised I thought that! This is the cat that is trying to get all the rest of us killed. He shouldn't be part of this Clan!"

Sandstar didn't want to talk about Shroudclaw anymore. "I'll assign Sunclaw to make sure they don't get into any more trouble."

"Isn't that just putting Sunclaw into more danger." Poppyseed brought up.

"I guess but I think he's the best warrior we've got besides Leafdapple and I don't want Leafdapple to know about the threat to my life. If he did he'd get nervous because he could be leader soon, and that wouldn't be good for the Clan." Sandstar mewed.

"Sandstar, I think you need some rest. After all, you hurt your head on that rock on the way back from BrambleClan pretty hard." Poppyseed mewed.

"It's not even sunset yet!" Sandstar scoffed. "I still have plenty of time. I'll go tell Sunclaw about his new job." The leader didn't wait for Poppyseed's reply and ran out the den.

{SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE CLEARING} Sunclaw was eating a thrush alone when Sandstar ran up to him, tripping over his tail and falling in to the dust. "Are you okay, Sandstar?" he asked wondering if the leader was losing her mind.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Sandstar replied jumping off the ground. She landed right next to Sunclaw. "I've got a job for you." she told him, getting straight to what she wanted.

"What?" Sunclaw asked, not prepared for the question he was about to be asked.

"Will you spy on Shroudclaw and his friends to make sure they don't do anything bad?" Sandstar asked.

Sunclaw was shocked.

"Um," Sunclaw couldn't think of anything to say. It was everyday a warrior was asked to spy on another warrior by their leader. "Why don't you ask Leafdapple if he'll do it? He's your deputy after all?"

"That's not gonna work." Sandstar replied. "You're the only warrior capable of such an important job."

Sunclaw wondered if the AshClan leader truly was going out of her mind. "I guess I'll do it." Sunclaw replied.

"Thank you, Sunclaw." Sandstar mewed happily, padding off back to her den. Sunclaw watched as Poppyseed walked up to her and they quickly rushed into the leader's den.

Shroudclaw gonna kill me, Sunclaw thought. When he finds out about this!

Sunclaw wondered if he should only pretend to spy on Shroudclaw and tell Sandstar fake reports. He sat for a while debating with himself when he decided that it probably wasn't a very good idea to disobey a direct order from his leader.

He figured he'd have to start the next day so Sunclaw decided to go to asleep for it was oficially sunset then, so he could wake before Shroudclaw and his friends woke.

Sunclaw walked into the warrior's den to find Shroudclaw and his warrior's talking softly. "Don't worry about me." Sunclaw told them. "I'm really tired. I'll be alseep in a few minutes, then you can keep talking."

Shroudclaw nodded to him and Sunclaw sat down and closed his eyes. He lay for a few minutes, sleep not coming. Eventually Shroudclaw and his friend's starting talking again. "Do you think he's alseep?" asked Coniferleaf.

"Of course he's alseep, mouse-brain!" Shroudclaw growled. "What kind of idiot just comes and lies down when cats that got in trouble for attacking BrambleClan without consent are here and angry."

"I was just wondering. You didn't have to be a jerk about it." Coniferleaf mewed, obviously a bit hurt.

"Sorry." Shroudclaw mewed, not sounding very sorry at all. "It's just that Sandstar makes me so angry all the time. I can't wait for the day we get rid of her."

They are going to get rid of her!

"Do you all know the plan for tomorrow?" Shroudclaw asked the other cats.

Haha! I won't have to do anything to spy on them tomorrow! I'll know their whole plan!

"I don't." Shadowpaw mewed. Sunclaw wondered what the apprentice was doing in the warrior's den but guessed he was going to leave after the little talk.

"Alright." groaned Shroudclaw. "I'll have to explain it to the puny apprentice." He paused a second. "I want you to tell Ranchleaf that you aren't feeling good tomorrow so you're free the whole day. Then we'll meet at the Oak Tree mid-day. We'll head toward StrayClan territory and wait for some unknowing apprentice to stumble across our path. We'll kill him and leave plenty of AshClan scent so they'll know just who to get mad at."

"What about the rogues?" Coniferleaf asked. "Aren't we supposed to-"

"I was getting to that!" Shroudclaw snapped. "We'll travel back into out territory and then head toward the Twolegplace. We have to gather up as many rogues as possible. Then we'll bring them to them to start to kill off cats and attack territories, telling the Clans that AshClan had sent them so Sandstar won't blame it on us anymore and the other Clans will still blame deaths on AshClan. Then the other three Clans will attack us and I will have an opening to kill Leafdapple and Sandstar and take over this Clan."

"Couldn't we just tell the rogues to come and attack us?" Shadowpaw suggested.

"Uh, it's been done." Shroudclaw replied. "We wanted to try something a little more complicated."

Who's done it before? I don't remember of any cat bringing rogues to attack their own Clan to become leader!

"Then that's all?" Shadowpaw asked.

"Yep." Shroudclaw replied.

"Then I'd better go before any more warriors spot me. I'm surprised Sunclaw didn't notice me." Shadowpaw mewed. Sunclaw was surprised too. He was glad he had had the idea of going to asleep early because otherwise he'd never have heard this conversation and his job would've been so much harder. Now all he had to do is get Coniferleaf and Shroudclaw on patrol and leave the others to try an operation by themselves. He figured since they were the only ones that talked besides Shadowpaw so they were the leaders of Shroudclaw's group.

Sunclaw's last thoughts were consumed by thoughts of a battle. A battle that would possibly end in tradgedy.

{DAWN} Sunclaw woke up at dawn the next day and to his relief Shroudclaw and Coniferleaf were still alseep. Sunclaw got up and went straight to Sandstar's den. Her eyes looked bloodshot, as if she had been up all night. "Sandstar, were you up all night?"

Sandstar looked at him. "Beats me." she mewed. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I want you to tell Leafdapple to put Shroudclaw and Coniferleaf on a patrol that will take most of the day because I know that they're are planning something for today and if they're busy then they can't go on with it." Sunclaw quickly mewed.

"Alright. You can go tell him." Sandstar mewed. "I think I'm going to take a little nap." And with that Sandstar fell down right onto her moss, asleep.

Sunclaw walked out of his leader's den and looked around for Leafdapple. He saw him by the fresh-kill pile, eating alone. Sunclaw quickly went up to him and told him that Shroudclaw and Coniferleaf were to be on a patrol that would occupy their day.

"Are you sure?" Leafdapple asked. "Usually warriors have a little bit of free time each day."

Sunclaw shook his head. "Sandstar told me that they were to be busy all day."

"Is you say so." Leafdapple mewed. "I believe you." Sunclaw walked away and wondered what he was going to do. He decided that he'd join the a patrol.

So he went back to Leafdapple. "What do you want now, Sunclaw?" asked Leafdapple.

"I was wondering if I could join a patrol." he replied.

"When Mousecloud and Fernleaf wake up you can go on a border patrol." Leafdapple mewed. "Until then you can just hang out or do whatever you want. Just stay close so they can find you."

"Okay." Sunclaw mewed. He decided he'd just bask in the bright sun and lay in some grass, while watching the warriors den for any warriors to come out. He waited many moments and finally Fernleaf and Mousecloud came out. Leafdapple approached them and told them about the patrol. They nodded and headed towards him. Sunclaw stood up and greeted them. "Let's go."

"Let's check the border between us and StrayClan first." Sunclaw suggested, wanting to check if the other warriors in Shroudclaw's group had followed out with the plan.

The other warriors agreed and they headed off toward that border. During the whole border patrol they found no hints of the Shroudclaw group's plan They came back a little bit before dawn, after a bit of hunting. As they walked in Leafdapple approached them. "Did you see Shroudclaw and Coniferleaf out there?" he asked.

"No, why?" Sunclaw asked. He could see what was coming. Please don't say they're not in camp!

"Because they're no where in camp." Leafdapple mewed. Sunclaw's heart sank. But the deputy went on. "And either are Shadowpaw, Blackstripe, Raggedtail, Cloudfire, and Firefeather."

Those were all the cats that had been at that meeting.

Without say another word Sunclaw ran out of the camp. He heard shouts of "Sunclaw! Wait!" but he ignored them. He had to find those cats! He ran as fast as he could and as he entered StrayClan territory he saw them walking quite a bit ahead of them. He called to them. "Shroudclaw!" he yelled.

They ran toward him. "What do you want?" Shroudclaw growled. Sunclaw noticed he was being circled. "Or should we just kill you now?"

"I want to join you." Sunclaw mewed without thinking. Great StarClan! How am I going to get out of this?

"Are you sure?" asked Shroudclaw. "You realize we won't be able to go back after today. We know Sandstar knows we're going to kill her now. Do you want to be a part of that."

"Yes." Sunclaw replied.

"Okay." Shroudclaw mewed. "I assume you weren't asleep yesterday during our meeting?"

"Nope." Sunclaw replied.

"Good," Shroudclaw mewed. Sunclaw was surprised by that. "That means I don't have to waste time explaining the plan. Let's go." Sunclaw followed the cats wondering if he would have to act in the killing of the apprentice.

They hid behind a few bushes and waited. Sure enough, after a while an apprentice came strolling along. "Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone there."

Shroudclaw stepped out.

"Who are you?" the apprentice mewed quivering. Sunclaw could see the scene then but he moved so the tree blocked his vision.

"I'm your worst nightmare." Shroudclaw growled. Sunclaw heard a shriek, cut off quickly, that signified the apprentices' death.

"Now let's go recruit some rogues." Shroudclaw mewed happily, as if the murder he just commited didn't bother him at all. "Are you ready, Sunclaw?"

"Yes, Shroudclaw." Sunclaw mewed, dreading every second following Shroudclaw the murderer.