There was some confusion, sorry.

Falconflight is a she-cat! Hawkeyes is a tom! The mistakes are now corrected!

So, now...

Enjoy!

-Windy, because Naturethorn is not available :(

Written By: Naturethorn

Edited By: Windbritsle

Chapter 2

Moonpaw felt dread claw up her throat, and suddenly felt herself dart to her paws. She watched as Icestar leapt nimbly down from his den and began rapidly organizing a patrol. "Flowerdance, Lightfoot, Falconflight, and Hawkeyes, go with Dewstripe to chase away the foxes," he said, quickly picking out his best fighters. His tail tip twitched as he hesitated for a moment, then added, "Grassheart and Frosttalon, I'm putting you in charge of rescuing the kittypet. We don't want any cats harmed," he added. Moonpaw felt Nightpaw give her a nudge, then whispered quietly, "I don't know what Icestar is doing risking his best warriors on a kittypet, but it better be worth it."

"But what if it's the one we saw earlier;" Moonpaw challenged, "the one who just happened to look like my reflection in the lake?" Nightpaw had no answer to that. Suddenly, Moonpaw felt as if StarClan had shone a ray of sunlight sunlight in her mind. She quickly worked an idea into a plan, which she eagerly told Nightpaw. They both nodded simultaneously, then bounced up to their leader.

"Icestar, can we go help chase off the foxes?" Moonpaw begged.

"It would be good training for us, and yesterday we learned some great techniques for fighting badgers and foxes!" Nightpaw added eagerly. The two cats watched as Icestar narrowed his eyes in thought, then slowly shook his head. "No, I'm afraid that letting you go would just be too dangerous. You're both still newly appointed apprentices and have a lot more to learn."

"But both of our mentors are going!" Moonpaw pleaded, her eyes wide, "And there would be a lot of other warriors there to protect us!"

"Yeah," Nightpaw agreed. Icestar let out a slow, deliberate sigh, flicking his ears in amusement. "Dewstripe," he called out, just as the patrol was heading through the thorn barrier. "Take Moonpaw and Nightpaw with you." The two apprentices felt fierce whispers at their backs as they passed the other cats.

"Why is Icestar letting two inexperienced apprentices go fight not one, but two foxes?"

"They haven't even learned how to kill a squirrel!"

"Icestar is an old fool. He never should have become clan leader!"

"I knew Icestar was picking favorites. . . That's why he never payed any attention to me during training!"

Moonpaw and Nightpaw ducked their heads in embarrassment as they headed through the thorn barrier. As soon as they were out of sight of the camp, both Falconflight and Hawkeyes turned around to glare at their apprentices, who glanced at each other, then down at their paws.

"What were you thinking, arguing with a clan leader like that?" Falconflight demanded, her voice stern but not harsh.

"We just wanted to-" Moonpaw started.

"Well, I hope you've learned your lesson, now that you'll be cleaning the elders' ticks for the next two moons." Hawkeyes ordered with a snort, his eyes flashing.

"And that goes for both of you," Falconflight added.

Nightpaw turned and cast an accusing glance at Moonpaw, who averted her gaze.

The group of cats ran nimbly through the forest, following Dewstripe while leaping over logs and ducking under low branches. Moonpaw felt thorns and brambles tear at her fur relentlessly, and bit her tongue to hold back her yelps of pain. The sounds of the kittypet's cries of fear became audible as they drew closer. Dewstripe fell back a little to allow the cats other cats to join him, as he began rapidly devising a battle plan to distract the foxes long enough to allow Grassheart and Frosttalon to rescue the kittypet. "Ok," he started, "this is going to have to be executed in a way no cat gets hurt. Hawkeyes, take Moonpaw with you to attack from the stream side, towards the closest fox's left flank. Falconflight, you take Nightpaw with you to attack from the other side, towards the same fox's right flank. Flowerdance and Lightfoot, you two will be coming with me to distract the other fox until Grassheart and Frosttalon are able to get the kittypet away from the first fox." The cats listened closely as he spoke, then nodded once he was finished. Moonpaw could hardly hold in her kitlike excitement as she and Hawkeyes stalked towards the fox in a semicircle in order to be able to attack at their designated point. As soon as all the cats were ready to attack, Dewstripe gave the signal with a harsh lash of her tabby tail. Immediately, all the cats leapt out into battle, striking the foxes all at once. Moonpaw clawed with all her fury at the fox's flank before remembering the techniques that Hawkeyes had taught her a few suns ago. She hopped onto the fox's back, looking for the fox's blind spot right behind its neck, and bit down as hard as she knew she could. She pressed down until she tasted the satisfying, metallic tang of blood. She heard Nightpaw scream, "Watch out, Moonpaw!" as the second fox swiped at her powerfully, knocking her off the fox's back onto the hard, rocky ground. As it did this, she felt its claw catch on her ear and rake all the way across her face. She gasped from the burning pain.

She had time to glimpse Hawkeyes clawing at fox's tail before the fox dropped down on top of her, now fighting from the ground after being battered down by Hawkeyes and Falconflight. She immediately felt the immense weight crushing her to the ground until she could barely breath. Hawkeyes had warned her of what to do in this situation, and remembering her hard-taught lessons, bit down on anything she could find. The fox immediately yelped in pain, and leaping to its paws, it limped away as quickly as it could.

It took a few moments for her to find her breath before realizing that both foxes had run off, and that the kittypet was now safe and among them. She looked around, searching for the kittypet, wondering if he was the one who she had seen earlier. She gasped as her gaze fell upon Falconflight. She was panting quickly, exhausted, and had a long, deep cut from one of the fox's claws. It already smelled rancid and was bleeding heavily. Moonpaw now felt as if her own wounds were nothing, although she felt one of her eyes force itself shut in pain. She examined the other cats and saw that other than breathing heavily, were all fine. Before Moonpaw could continue on her search for the kittypet's whereabouts, Nightpaw bounced up to her, yelping from surprise. "Moonpaw! What happened to your face?" She said bluntly with worry.

"What do you mean?" Moonpaw retorted.

"Stop acting like a hero, Moonpaw! Get back to the camp immediately and look for Cherrywhiskers," Flowerdance snarled. Moonpaw gingerly felt her nose with a paw, and cried out in surprise. When she look at her paw, it was covered in bright red blood. "Don't make me get Hawkeyes to carry you there!" Lightfoot added, more kindly.

"But what about Falconflight?" Moonpaw asked, with worry in her voice.

"She can take care of herself. Nightpaw, go make sure that Moonpaw gets to Cherrywhiskers." Lightfoot said.

"Of course, Lightfoot," Nightpaw answered. "Come on, Moonpaw, let's go."

As they quickly padded back to the camp in silence, they heard a particularly loud rustle coming from a bush directly behind them. Moonpaw paused, ears pricked, although Nightpaw ignored it and kept on walking. "Moonpaw, come here! Don't get distracted," Nightpaw exclaimed. "Wait," She answered with reluctance. "I think someone's following us…" Without any warning, a tom stepped out from the bush saying, "How did you do that?" Moonpaw yelped in surprise as she examined him, finding that he was the same cat from the earlier patrol. "Would it be okay if I came with you?" He asked. "I didn't think you would mind if I followed you. I just wanted to see what your camp looked like. I've heard all about you guys. Are you really as savage as everyone says you all are?" Suddenly, the bushes nearby rustled, and a vole darted out. The tom jumped in surprise, his fur fluffing up to twice his size. Moonpaw and Nightpaw watched, amused. "No, you couldn't be," He concluded. "You seem nice enough," He added, "although that was some pretty cool fighting back there. You were like, pow! And bam! Where did you learn how to do that? Can you fight foxes by yourself? Are the foxes going to come back?" He spoke rapidly without pause, not waiting for an answer. "Ummm…" Nightpaw twitched her ear, thoroughly confused, but Moonpaw just gave a small laugh. "Let's just get to the camp. We'll show you the way. Follow us." She offered. The tom jumped up in excitement, his eyes shining with eagerness to see what forest cats lived like, and if all the stories were true. The cats all padded back to the camp, silent except for the tom's constant chattering. When they reached the camp, Nightpaw directed Moonpaw towards Cherrywhisker's den, making sure that she entered it, before taking the tom to Icestar.

"Woah… So many cats!" The tom gasped, suddenly in silent awe. Curious warriors poked their heads out of dens to see who the newcomer was, then crept out slowly, one by one. Some headed to the medicine den to talk to Moonpaw, asking about the battle, while others simply sat and examined the new tom, all noticing his likeness to Moonpaw but not one cat saying a thing. The camp seemed to be eerily quiet as Nightpaw took the wide-eyed tom to Icestar's den. Before she could reach the entrance, however, Icestar himself stepped out into the sunlight, and for a moment, his fur seemed to glow ice-blue. His eyes shone with the glory of the great warrior he used to be. The tom's fur sprang up once again, inflating him now to look triple the size of Nightpaw, and simply stared with his mouth hanging open in unhidden astonishment.

Icestar nodded curtly to Nightpaw, then asked "Who is it that you have brought back, and without the permission of a senior warrior?" "He asked to temporarily stay in the clan until the fox is gone, so Moonpaw offered to take him back." The black apprentice replied, then added, "She's in Cherrywhisker's den if you would like to see her."

"No, it's fine. If you may," Icestar started, signaling with his tail for the tom to enter his den, but when Nightpaw stepped forward to join them, Icestar blocked her out. "I would like to speak to him on my own," he said with a strange, icy tone to his voice. Nightpaw simply nodded in bewildered acknoledgement, startled and slightly offended, then turned and padded down to check on Moonpaw.

"Now, what is your name, and where do you come from?" Icestar coldly asked the tom. The tom blinked several times. "My name is Fuzzball, and I come from…" Fuzzball started, then realized he couldn't finish the question. "I don't know where I come from, really. My housefolk found me as a kit, or at least that's what Cloud used to tell me."

"I see…." Icestar said. "And who is this Cloud?" "My friend." Fuzzball answered calmly. Icestar nodded. "What does she look like?" Confused at the question, FUzzball answered with a voice innocent as a kit's, "Oh, she looks a lot like Moonpaw." At this, the ThunderClan leader's eyes grew wide and his fur stood up. He pounced onto his feet, then hissed with sudden, unleaderly frustration, "Do you already know about Moonpaw and Nightpaw? Did Mistwhisker tell you?"

Fuzzball's eyes stretched so wide in wonder a mouse could've fit in it: "Did who tell me what?" he asked innocently. As Icestar's fur slowly started to lay flat again, the clan leader turned his back. "Please leave my den." He mewed, the tone of an order seeping into his voice. "I need to think." "Yeah, okay, I'll leave you so you can think." Fuzzball agreed, then backed slowly out of the den. When Icestar was sure the kittypet was gone, he collapsed inside his den. "Oh, StarClan…" He murmured as dark memories flooded his head. "Please, tell me what to do…"

Italics weren't transporting properly in copy-and-paste... So some are a bit confusing. Sorry!

Review! For... Confused clan leaders!