Tanglestar bounded through the shallow stream towards the cats on the other side. In her mouth was the glowing stone. When she was standing on firm ground, she dropped the stone.
"I'm glad you got the stone," Frostpelt mewed, his white fur glowing in the night.
"Yes," Tanglestar said nodding, "let me go grab the others. Apprentices, come with me."
Tanglestar headed to the forest, and the apprentices followed.
"What happened?" Duskpaw asked, interest filling his voice.
"Well, there was a lot of running."
"Did you fight?"
"Yes," Tanglestar pawed at the ground, searching for where she buried the stones, "that reminds me, good job in the battle. You fought well."
"Thank you," the apprentices said in unison.
"There!" Tanglestar found a small pile of glowing stones. She picked two up in her mouth, and the apprentices picked up the other two. The cats returned to Frostpelt.
Instead of only Frostpelt, four other cats stood beside him, all of them different shades of gray.
Tanglestar dropped the rocks, and asked with a hint of threat in her voice, "who are you?"
"The cats sent into exile. Now give us the stones," Frostpelt hissed.
"It was a trick, wasn't it? The other StarClan cats sent you here as punishment. I should have guessed," Tanglestar growled.
Without responding, Frostpelt leaped at Tanglestar, knocking her off her feet. Yowls echoed through the forest, filling the leader's ears. She swiped her paws at the white tom on top of her, claws extended. She felt tufts of fur snag in her claws, which encouraged her to fight even harder.
A paw smacked her across the face, and her nose burned. She tried to jump to her feet, but Frostpelt pushed her back.
"You can't get those stones!" Tanglestar hissed, flattening her ears and swatting at the tom, who easily dodged the attack.
"You just watch," the white cat said, ramming into Tanglestar.
He knocked her onto her back, and as she struggled under the weight of the tom, something caught her eye. It was a glowing… growing stronger by the second.
Yay, only one more chapter to go!