Welcome back! I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day and weekend. Unfortunately for me, I was sick all weekend. I lost my voice Saturday night and have yet to get it back fully, thus causing me to have take a sick day both yesterday and today. Hopefully I'll get my voice back soon so I can stop lip-syncing in chorus and actually sing. So far, I've managed to evade notice. I guess being in the back row helps with that. I'm not looking forward to all of the make-up work I'll have for being out sick. Curse this stupid illness and its sources. Anyway, enough about me. How are you guys doing? Hopefully none of you are sick like me :/ If you are, I hope you feel better soon. I know how much it sucks. Trust me on that one. Shoutouts for this chapter:

blazelight790 - Yeah, Valentine will get more backstory later. Don't worry; his character isn't going to be one of those "born evil" ones. He'll have a method for his madness. I'm glad to hear that you are so interested now in this story! It's people like you that inspire me to keep pounding away at this story.

Whiskers Sage - Better him than Amaia. Besides, did you really expect anything else from Breezepelt? He sided with the Dark Forest cats during the final battle and betrayed WindClan. I'm really surprised Onestar let him stay in the Clan after that. He should have killed him like Blackstar killed Redwillow.

The Featured Story for Chapter 13 is An Alternate Destiny (Tigerstar's Story) by koshachii. "Tigerstar is a well-known threat to everyone, first banished to the Dark Forest by Scourge, then after a return to destroy the Clans. But what would happen if he had never went down his dark path? He was born with a bright heart, and after Redtail survives the battle with RiverClan for Sunningrocks, things begin to change in a way StarClan could have never predicted." Ever wondered how the series would have been different if Tigerstar had been good rather than evil? Here's your chance to find out!

"We need to keep calm! All of this yowling and shouting is going to attract their attention!"

Unfortunately, my attempt at quieting down the others was in vain. They all ignored me, continuing to wail about how they were going to die and for StarClan to help them. I exchanged a worried look with my brother, who was the only calm one in the group besides me. If everyone kept up all of this ruckus, the Twolegs would find us for sure. Either that, or the Bloodhunters would come for us. Neither possibility was a good one.

During all of the chaos that had followed the Twolegs' finding us, ThunderClan had been split up. Sunflight and I had escaped together, and had ended up with Perchleap of RiverClan and Emberfoot and Featherheart of WindClan. I rolled my eyes as the others continued shouting frantically. I was about to try and silence them again when the sound of something breaking echoed from nearby.

We all froze. The blood in my veins chilled as several thoughts rolled through my head. Twolegs? Bloodhunters? ThunderClan? Breezepelt?

Turns out that it was none of those.

A massive dog slid out of the shadows, saliva hanging in threads from its gaping jaws. Its beady little eyes were alight with madness, and its fur smelled worse than crow-food and looked mange-ridden. It slowly stalked toward us, a deep snarl rumbling in its throat. I unsheathed my claws and snarled, ready to attack this thing to protect my fellow warriors. Before I could move, however, Sunflight draped his tail across my shoulders.

"No," he growled.

I looked at him in surprise. "No? What do you mean no?"

He looked at me. "Thornsting, don't you see? This dog is mad. One bite, and you'll be mad, too. Remember what Squirrelflight told us? Madness kills in three days. Don't go near it."

I glanced at the dog, then back at my brother. "Madness isn't a real disease. Squirrelflight just told us that to scare us into staying in camp."

The big warrior shook his head. "You're wrong, Thornsting. Madness is a real disease. I too had my doubts, but this dog meets all the criteria. I must say that I feel bad for the thing."

I stared at him as if he were crazy. "You feel bad for it? It's a dog, not a cat!"

Sunflight snorted. "Just because it isn't like us doesn't mean I have to be prejudiced toward it. It has a family and friends, just like we do."

"What, now you're feeling sympathy for these killing beasts?"

"This dog is sick, Thornsting. Deadly sick. I feel bad for everything that is destined to die. I don't care if it's a cat, or a dog, or a mouse."

"You're crazy, then!" I snarled. My claws scraped against the hard earth. "I don't feel anything remotely close to sympathy for this dog! I'm gonna kill it!"

I started toward the dog, spitting bloody murder. Before I could get very far, teeth sank into my scruff and dragged me back. I snarled, kicking and flailing. "Let go of me!"

Sunflight flung me across the ground. I skidded a little before jumping to my paws. "What the fox dung, Sunflight!?"

He advanced on me until he was practically on top of me. "Listen, Thornsting. I've already lost one brother to this stupidity. I'm not about to lose another. Now let's go!"

The mention of Barkfoot got me going. I scrambled to my feet and ran, breaking out onto the main Thunderpath of the Twolegplace. The Thunderpath was filled with monsters, so much so that not even a whisker-length of space was left on the hard surface. Taking a sharp turn, I bolted down the grayish-white path that ran alongside the Thunderpath. My brother quickly caught up to me and began running alongside me, while the others ran behind.

I had absolutely no clue where to go. I could hear the howling of the dog behind us as it chased us. Twolegs were all over the place, both big and small. I kept running, not bothering to stop and see if any of them were friendly. In my mind, all Twolegs were dangerous now.

"Where should we head?" I yowled over the sound of monsters and Twolegs.

"There!" my brother cried, gesturing with his tail toward the tallest nest in the Twolegplace. "I'm sure some of the other Clan cats are there! It's where Bramblestar wanted to head originally, anyways!"

I nodded and continued to pump my legs, knowing that the dog was still chasing us. I thought back to when I was a kit in the nursery, listening to Squirrelflight tell us tales of cats with madness. The disease was spread by being bitten by an infected patient, and was able to spread to any animal. Twolegs could get it too, apparently. The symptoms of the disease were a foaming at the mouth, a mad look in the eyes, frequent and severe muscle spasms, and psychotic, erratic behavior. Those infected with it died in three days, the disease eventually shutting their whole body down. The Twolegs supposedly had a cure, but it was inaccessible to the Clans. So, the Clan cats had resorted to telling tales of madness to keep all of their kits away from any potential madness patients.

One story in particular had revolved around a cat named Sandstrike, who had lived in WindClan long ago. Back in the early days of the Clans, no one had any knowledge of madness. So, when Sandstrike went after a fox that had the disease, he had no idea what would happen to him when he got bit. The symptoms of madness quickly appeared in Sandstrike. The medicine cats tried to treat him, only for him to bite them, having been driven to insanity by the disease. The disease began spreading through all of WindClan. The other Clans forbid WindClan from leaving their territory to try and control the disease, but it didn't work. After all, insane cats don't follow rules. Pretty soon, all four Clans were infected. The disease took moons to fade away, and many cats died. The Clans were almost wiped out altogether. I shivered as I thought about a madness outbreak happening now. It would surely wipe out all that was left of the Clans.

By the time we reached the big nest, my muscles ached from all of the running. Seeing a wide opening in the front of the nest, we raced toward it. However, before we could reach it, a Twoleg stepped out to greet us.

We froze.

The Twoleg took one look at us before switching its gaze to the dog that was gaining on us. I tensed as the Twoleg moved, ready to defend myself and the others from its fire-stick.

Much to my surprise, it didn't come after us.

I watched, gawking, as the Twoleg raced past us, heading straight for the dog.

"Wait!" Perchleap shrieked. "Don't get close to it! It's mad!"

Sunflight slapped his tail over the she-cat's mouth. "Shut up," he hissed. "Do you want to die?"

The RiverClan warrior shook her head and was silent. I turned my attention back to the Twoleg.

I watched in shock as the Twoleg's paw collided with the dog's head. The sick creature let out a sound that sounded like a mix between a snarl and a howl. I felt a flash of sympathy for it for just a moment, with that sympathy vanishing as soon as I reminded myself that this was a dog.

The Twoleg was on that dog like its kind normally were on us. It curled one of its paws and started slamming it into the side of the dog's head, over and over again. Blood started to dribble from the dog's mouth. I continued watching the scene before me in odd fascination.

All of a sudden, loud wailing noises cut through the Twoleg's screaming and the dog's snarling. My group immediately scattered. Sunflight and I dove behind a stack of sealed wooden cube things. Flattening my ears against the noise, I peered around the corner at the scene.

The Twoleg had stopped beating on the mad dog and was now standing in front of two other Twolegs in identical pelts. The Twoleg who had attacked the dog was shouting and waving its paws up and down. It looked angry. The Twoleg it was screaming at looked exasperated as it tried to interrupt the other Twoleg. The third Twoleg innocently ignored the whole thing.

All in all, it was amusing.

Finally, after several minutes of shouting, the first Twoleg flung his long blonde fur behind its shoulder and stalked away from the scene. The second Twoleg shook its head, looking both amused and annoyed. It waited patiently as its companion bent over the now-unconscious dog and inspected it.

I held my breath as the inspecting Twoleg reached for something. A fire-stick?

Nope.

The Twoleg pulled out some sort of strange black box and spoke into it. After saying a few things, the Twoleg nodded and put the black box away. It motioned to its companion. Together, they picked up the dog and carried it away.

Sunflight, who had also been watching the scene, grunted. "I'll never understand Twolegs."

"Me neither," I agreed. Clearing my throat, I turned fully to face him. "Now, how do you propose we get up to the top of that nest?"

Sunflight looked up. "Well, it's obviously too high to jump or climb up to."

I glared at him. "No kidding."

He smiled a bit, which both relieved and annoyed me. While it was good to see him smile, it wasn't exactly at an appropriate time. "Just lightening the mood. There must be some sort of way onto the roof from inside."

I stared at him. "You're actually proposing that we go in there!?"

He shrugged. "Why not? It can't be that hard. I mean, it doesn't seem like the Twolegs in there are hostile."

"We saw one Twoleg. That doesn't say much. For all we know, that place could be full of anti-Clan Twolegs."

"It's worth a try. We have to find the rest of ThunderClan."

I looked away from him. After a few minutes had passed, I murmured, "Maybe we should just leave Raleigh by ourselves."

Sunflight's jaw dropped, allowing a loud gasp to escape. "Thornsting, you can't be serious. We can't leave our Clan!"

"Why not? For all we know, the rest of ThunderClan could be dead."

"You're in an optimistic mood today."

"I'm not a pessimist, Sunflight. I'm a realist."

"Well, I don't believe that we're the last ThunderClan cats left. Bramblestar has to still be alive, at least."

"Even so, they'll be better off without us, and we'll be better off without them."

"You can't be serious. If we leave here now, just the two of us, we're guaranteeing death for ourselves!"

"Death is much more likely if we stick in a big group. Remember, Sunflight, the Twolegs are looking for a large group of cats. They won't bother two of them. They'll never figure out that we're of Clan descent."

Sunflight bit his cheek. I could tell he was contemplating the idea. I silently egged him on, praying he'd say yes. Alone, neither of us would stand a chance. But together, we'd survive for sure.

After what felt like an eternity, he sighed and bowed his head. "I'm your brother, Thornsting. I have to stand beside you, no matter what you choose. But when I became a warrior, I promised to serve ThunderClan until I died. I can't just give that up in a heartbeat."

I opened my jaws to argue, but he cut me off.

"But I'm not saying I don't think your idea is a good one. You're right when you say that we can't stick around here much longer without getting ourselves killed. Whether it's by Twolegs, madness, or the Bloodhunters, one of them will get us if we don't leave soon. So, I'll make a deal with you."

I nodded, interested now.

"We go up to the top of this here nest. We wait there for any other Clan cats to show up. If no-one shows up by dawn tomorrow, then we will leave Raleigh and abandon the idea that ThunderClan survived that attack back there. Deal?"

I nodded. "Deal." Even if it wasn't quite what I wanted, at least he was willing to leave Raleigh with me if the Clans failed to show up. Besides, we only had to wait one night. It wasn't like he'd said we needed to wait a week or something ridiculous like that.

"Alright," he said. "Let's talk strategy. How do you want to get into that building?"

"Simple. We go in through the front door."

"Not a good idea. We'll get caught super easily then."

"I thought you said you weren't worried about these Twolegs."

"I changed my mind. We need to find a more secret way in, so the chances of the Twolegs noticing us are lowered."

"Okay. So then what about some kind of underground entrance? Surely there must be some sort of underground entrance in this huge place."

Sunflight nodded. "Yes, that's a good idea. There might just be one around this building."

I started toward the open. "Let's look."

"Wait." Teeth grasped my tail and tugged me back. I looked at Sunflight, annoyed. "What?"

His eyes glittered. "We can't just go racing out there. We need a strategy for how we are actually going to traverse through the building."

I sighed. "Fine, fine."

He carved a shape in the wooden cube next to us. After a bit of thinking, I realized that it was in the shape of the building that now stood before us.

"Alright, so here's the shape of the building. Assuming that the interior is proportionately correct, it should be laid out something like this..."

I hope you all enjoyed that chapter! Do you think the Clan cats will reach Thornsting and Sunflight in time, or are the two brothers destined to survive away from the Clans? Let me know!

Personally, I think this chapter is one of the worst out of all of them... I don't know why, but it just feels bland to me. I apologize if that is indeed the case, but I find it hard to think properly when I'm sick. Hopefully next week's chapter will be better. Just in case any of you are concerned, the Clans will not be spending much more time in Raleigh before moving on. Also, I updated my profile to contain information regarding this story. I suggest you check it out, as the information will prove beneficial toward your reading experience. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in a review and I will respond to them next chapter. Or, you can always PM me. I am currently not taking any more OC requests. I already have enough to put in at a decent pacing. If the need for more OCs comes up, I'll be sure to let you guys know about it.

See you all next week!