AN: Warrior Cats belongs to Erin Hunter. I made up CrystalClan and FlareClan and their members. This is for fun, so I hope you all like it.

Mysterious Melody

Chapter Three: The Things That Bind Us

Leafpaw woke up. Her first thoughts were: where am I? What happened? Where's Snowfur? Is he okay? How long was I asleep? Where's Songpaw? Who's gonna help me? But somehow she knew that she shouldn't say any of that out loud. Instead, she looked around. She was surrounded by silvery stuff, shaped in squares. It was everywhere, on all sides, over her head, and under her paws, and it was cold. Coldly unnatural.

"Excellent."

Leafpaw shrank back. On the other side of the silver, there was movement. A shape unfolded itself from the shadows. A raggedy black she-cat slunk into the light. "Yes, a most excellent specimen," she mrowed, brushing up against the silver. Leafpaw glared up at her and bared her tiny fangs. The cat slapped at the silver. "I meant the cage, kit."

Leafpaw struggled to sit up. Something kept her from moving around. Looking down, she saw more of the silvery stuff wrapped around her paws, all knitted together somehow, and holding her down against this 'cage' thingy. Inside, it smelled horrible! Like tons of crow-food, piled and rotting in the dirtplace.

Leafpaw was trying to move as little as possible, not touching the silver squares, when another she-cat appeared, this one silver with a white tail. This one moved slowly, gracefully, somehow strutting even in this stench, and paced slowly around Leafpaw. The scraggly black cat sat quietly to one side.

The large silver cat laid down before Leafpaw, stretching out and crossing her paws. Her slitted eyes looked down at Leafpaw. "Prisoner," she intoned.

"Um, my name is-"

The large silver cat flicked her tail sharply, cutting her off. "I care not what you call yourself, kit. You will respond to Prisoner from this day forward. Prisoner, and nothing else. I assume you understand?"

Leafpaw nodded.

" … and you shall refer to me as Mistress Aurora."

"Okay."

The large cat – Aurora – glared down at her.

"I mean, okay, yes, Mistress Aurora."

"Prisoner, can you hunt?"

Leafpaw nodded. "Yes, Mistress Aurora."

"Can you fight?"

"Um, well, I'm getting better, but, um -"

"It matters not. Can you pull your own weight?"

"Yes. Yes, Mistress."

"That will have to do." Aurora rose, shook herself, and turned sharply, away from the cage. She trotted a few steps away, then spoke to the shadows. "She's all yours, boys."

Leafpaw cringed as two large toms, one black and the other wood brown, slowly advanced into the light. They both carried what looked like half-circles of silver. Leafpaw looked around furtively, desperate for escape. It was dark everywhere, and the sounds didn't echo right. She realized she must not be anywhere near Frogfur Bog anymore. Oddly-shaped moss-like coverings hung everywhere, limiting her vision beyond the cage. Even if she could squeeze through the squares, wriggle out of silvery restraints, and outrun the two toms, she had no idea where she was. It didn't look good.

The scraggly, black she-cat stirred. "Ah, Masters Night and Birch. Bringing the new restraints! Researcher Violet has been crowing about this wonderful new thing for so long. I'm so glad we finally have some new blood to test it on."

"Been looking forward to this myself, Star," said the brown tom. Leafpaw guessed he was the one called Birch.

"If you'd be so kind, Cagekeeper," said the other one – Night. "Please open the gate."

"Of course, Master," the black she-cat – Star – turned and fumbled with the lock. Her claws clinked inside the lock, and Star swung open a section of squares.

"Thank you, Cagekeeper," Birch meowed, advancing toward Leafpaw.

"S-stay away from me!" Leafpaw unsheathed her claws and nipped at the large tom.

"I am so very scared," Birch rolled his eyes. He and Night easily pinned Leafpaw down. "Star, we'll be done here quickly I think. Please go and get the Commander."

"Of course, Master." Star bowed and disappeared behind the hanging moss. Leafpaw quivered under the two tom's paws, imagining the monstrous mass of fur and claws that these brutes' commander surely must be. Birch had one paw clamped down over her muzzle and another on the back of her neck. Night stood over her, holding all four limbs down. Leafpaw pinched her eyes shut tight, thinking to herself, I'm not gonna cry … I'm not gonna cry. I will be brave. I will be tough, like Songpaw. I'll make her proud of me. And just like that, even though the two toms held her painfully tight, she wasn't afraid anymore.

Claws sounded on the hard, smooth gray earth, which reminded Leafpaw of a Thunderpath, and slowly, a new cat came into view. Leafpaw watched, as a lean, blue-and-silver she-cat stretched around the mossy curtain and padded closer. Claws gleamed in the half-light. Intelligence shone behind deep purple eyes. Leafpaw barely registered the Gatekeeper, Star, returning along with the new cat. The new cat had presence. She wasn't large, but she just seemed … huge.

"How do you do, Commander Jay?" Birch meowed in greeting.

The new she-cat, Commander Jay, acknowledged the toms with the barest of an ear flick. She paced to a stop in front of Leafpaw's cage. Then she sat, serenely, tall and dignified, looking at the little kit down the bridge of her nose. "Proceed," was all she said. Her voice was level and even, but the two toms leapt like she'd cracked a whip.

"Gerrofameeeee!" Leafpaw struggled, but it was all in vain. The next few minutes passed in a blur, as Birch and Night produced ropes and bound her limbs tightly in place, muzzled her and trussed her up like a thrush fit for a feast. Once she was bound in place, Birch and Night fitted the half-circles around her neck, which snapped into place with a terrible sound, and a finality like a thunder crack. Commander Jay stepped forward then, and tugged experimentally at the new, fully constructed circle. "Excellent," she said. Then she turned to the shadows. "Your designs are becoming more ingenious with every trial you undertake, Violet. You may make Head Researcher before the next moon."

Leafpaw saw now that a new cat had joined them. This new cat was truly a strange sight. Her coloring, ginger with brown markings that resembled socks, wasn't that odd. Neither were her emerald green eyes. But around her neck was this monstrous, unnatural silver thing, covered in knobs and dials and sparkly do-dads and whizzing thingies and all sorts of whatchamacalits that Leafpaw usually associated with Twoleg camps. The cat sat with a slump, shoulders heavy, and Leafpaw somehow knew that this new she-cat carried this machination around with her all the time. She idly looked at Leafpaw, and said, "Prisoner 1-20, accounted for," in a bored tone, and pressed one claw against part of the thing around her neck. It buzzed, and Leafpaw shockingly felt an answering buzz from the new collar around her neck. What kind of crow-brained thing have I gotten myself into?

The Researcher cat, Violet, slunk back around the corner, and Birch meowed toward the Commander. "Now, my lady?"

Commander Jay nodded once.

Birch released his hold on Leafpaw, and Night did the same. Leafpaw struggled and swiped at the two of them, but they just hissed in laughter while the little kit struggled against her restraints.

Aurora had come back, and now sat with the Commander and Cagekeeper Star, all three she-cats facing Leafpaw. "Proceed," the Commander said again, and Star came into the cage and fumbled at Leafpaw's bindings. She finished and backed away. Leafpaw was rubbing at her sore paws when Aurora suddenly lunged into the cage and pinned her to the ground.

"Listen, for I will say this only once. You hunt for us. You help transport us. You do what we say, without question or complaint. And if you go as much as half a mouse length outside the city, well," Aurora looked back at the others, "let's just say, you'll be in for a shock. Understand?"

Leafpaw nodded in silence.

Aurora got up off her. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go!" She pointed at the cage door.

Leafpaw took one quick look at the assembled she-cats, memorizing their faces, and then she leapt for the exit.

Snowfur trudged back into CrystalClan camp just as the Meeting was getting started. His pelt was a mass of cuts, scrapes and bites.

"Snowfur!" a feminine voice shrieked.

Snowfur's eyes were caked over and swollen, but he could still see his mate, Brightfeather, bounding toward him from the camp entrance. The startled silhouettes of Streamtail and Duskclaw – the camp entrance guards – came just after her. His mate must have been concerned for him and stood vigil right along with them. He felt bad about worrying her so. That was the last thing he thought before he collapsed in a heap. He heard Brightfeather screaming for Featherpelt – the Clan's medicine cat – and saw other Clan members begin to gather around him, but then his eyes closed. So he didn't see Featherpelt come rushing out to attend to him. And he didn't see the medicine cat scold his mate for being out by the guards when she should still be in the nursery, preparing to give birth to their kits. And he also didn't see Brightfeather double over in pain, crying out that the kits were coming. He was sure, however, that Featherpelt was in charge, having some cats escort his mate back to the medicine cat's den to get ready to deliver the kits, while she had some other cats lift him and find a place to start healing his battered body. He knew, despite what he couldn't see, that at least some cats still do what they're told.

Hours later, six new and healthy kits became the newest additions to CrystalClan. Brightfeather bore five toms, named Lizardkit, Lionkit, Lakekit, Larkkit and Llamakit, and one she-kit, Zephyrkit. All the toms had blue eyes like their momma, and little Zephyrkit got her daddy's brown eyes. It was when Songpaw was allowed in the nursery to see the new kits that she thought about Snowfur. When she found him, in the medicine den, looking horrible, she cried out, "Leafpaw! Where's Leafpaw!? Where is she, you big bully? What happened to her?!"

Featherpelt held Songpaw back, her little paws flailing at the air. She kept trying to push Songpaw out the door, but the apprentice ducked under her forelegs and bound back to the invalid tom. "Tell me now!"

"Rogues," Snowfur croaked. His voice barely registered. "Rogues attacked. Taken. She's been taken."

Songpaw felt her world shatter. No, not Leafpaw! She was Songpaw's best friend, her adopted sister, the one cat she could talk to about anything and always, always count on. She couldn't be gone! "L-Leafpaw ..."

She wanted to lie down, right there next to that meany Snowfur, and fall asleep on the medicine den floor. She wanted to just shut her eyes and let it all go away.

But she couldn't. That's not what Leafpaw would want.

I'll go to the Meeting, she thought. And I'll go to every Meeting with a smile on my muzzle and throw myself into my training, and I will be the best warrior this Clan's ever seen. And I'll do it for you, Leafpaw.

And with that, she got up, and left the den. It was Meeting time.

AN: I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Please read and review and tell me what you think. Thanks!