A.N: Hello friends!

I'm avoiding AP work again. And Driving stuff...

Don't worry about it!

So unfortunately, I've been spoiling you with really long chapters recently, this one's more to scale because... I just can't resist the cliffhangers... Yum XD I have a better work ethic currently, so you won't have to wait long at least ^.^

Enjoyz

They faced the oncoming danger with dread as the growls grew closer and closer before shadows flooded into the clearing.

Hollystar paced the rotting wood of the decaying two-leg nest, green eyes glowing as bright as fireflies in the darkness that hung inside like a shroud. Her tail flickered nervously back and forth before she sat down suddenly, a heavy sigh coursing through her body. Behind her were only three warriors: her brother, Brightheart and Thornclaw. None of them felt like making conversation, and eventually the two warriors left to hunt, giving Jayfeather and Hollystar time alone.

The gray tom was hunched in a corner, swirling his paw through the gossamer strands of a spider's web with the monotony of a long practiced task when the she-cat broke the silence hesitantly. "I still remember some of what… she… taught me. Do you want any help?"

Tabby fur stood on end as the tomcat turned quickly, blue eyes burning brightly in the darkness.

"Okay, sorry," She murmured, mistaking the anger for the usual egotistical outbursts that Jayfeather was known for when he suspected cats making a jab at his condition. Understandably, she was confused when he stalked over to her, tail lashing like a demented snake.

"Do you realize what has happened?" He hissed, and for a second, she mistook the sudden brightness in his eyes for unshed tears. But that was impossible; Jayfeather never cried, not even when

they were kits. "More than half the Clan is dead! The cats we grew up with… our own mother! You haven't shown one moment of compassion for the dead; how can you live with yourself right now?"

The emotions were bright in his eyes, and with his dark fur puffed out to look twice his size. His face was thrust up straight to Hollystar's face, forceful in ways that she had never seen in her brother before.

"Do you think I don't know that?" she turned away angrily, hurt by his accusation. It was true that she had been focusing on saving her living Clanmates. Was that so much of a crime?

"We will never reclaim the numbers that we have lost," The tabby followed, voice haunting in the way a prophecy was. "This battle will scar the Clan until Darkness reigns over the Earth."

"Is that a threat?" She hissed, turning to him, energy pounding through her veins. "Or is that StarClan telling us that the Clan is broken?"

"The time of Fire has passed," Even though Hollystar was just a few whisker lengths taller, it seemed that her brother loomed over her with the power he held. "The Great Leader has died, and a time of hardship has come. So it was foretold, so it shall come."

Fur prickled along the ridges of the leader's spine in fear as she stared him down. Was ThunderClan really doomed at the fall of Firestar? "I don't believe the well-being of the entire Clan was dependent upon Firestar keeping his leadership." She mewed, revealing a small bit of what she began to understand in the Tunnels. StarClan may have been all-seeing, but sometimes, cats had to think for themselves. It was illogical that the Clan would drop into despair because of Firestars absence; though because of the small number left, it wasn't hard to believe.

"You keep sending cats out, as if we have more to spare." Jayfeather had lost the eerie tone from his voice, and now just looked tired. Did he just deliver a prophecy from StarClan? Or was he just angry at Hollystar? "You need to realize we don't have anymore, Hollystar. All our friends, they're dead. We can't control that, but we could save those remaining."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, jade slits in the dark as she stared at the medicine cat. "Are you telling us to flee? What about the other Clans?"

Tabby paws unsheathed in the darkness. "Hollystar, if it comes down to it, the Clan must come first. That's part of the warrior code, you know that. We may need to leave the others to their own devices if we lose many other cats."

"It's hard to believe that you would be the one to tell me this," Her meow was hesitant, she turned over the idea in her mind, blocking out the hurt of so many faces that should've been with them. "But I see what you mean. Okay." She sighed heavily, heart heavy with guilt. "If it comes down to it, I will gather ThunderClan and leave. No matter who gets left behind, the Clan must survive."

The two siblings sat in silence, Hollystar watching the dust motes float through the air with the tension of a general, Jayfeather winding the last bit of cobweb around his paw and pulling the bundle off with his incisors. Between them, the air was heavy with a shared sense of desperation and guilt at the decision they had shared, and neither wished to discuss it further.

'Where would we go?' Thoughts were flying through the leader's head, her ears flicking back and forth to catch the sound of a mouse scrabbling about in the piles of wood about the edges of the den, probably looking for food. 'Far away from here. Toward Sun-Drown place?' It took her only seconds to realize that all the cats who had first made the Great Journey were dead. She had been the first in generations of hope for the lake, and had never explored past the territory the Clans had marked as theirs; it was unthinkable that they would need to flee again, and so quickly.

"It's my fault," The mew interrupted her contemplation and turned her attention back to the male feline. "My powers weren't good enough. I should have warned Firestar earlier. Maybe this all could've been avoided if we didn't push so many cats away… If we disturbed the other Clans less…"

"Jayfeather," the black cat comforted quietly, "There's nothing you could've done to stop this from happening. Some cats were just born with hatred in their hearts- some couldn't forget things that had been done to them or others around them. Cats can come away from that in two ways: they can try to be better than what they saw, or succumb to it and inflict pain on others. Not everyone is capable of forgiveness."

The cat blinked and turned his head back to his work, disbelieving. There was no way for Hollystar to comfort him more and instead she sat quietly once more, listening intently for her warriors to return. She regretted not being able to go with them, but it seemed that everyone she talked to insisted on keeping her safe. Somehow that included keeping her in one place instead of with a guard detail, something that she didn't quite understand but complied with anyways.

A striped tail touched gently against her side, drawing her attention back to the tom. "I do need help collecting herbs if you really feel the need to do something…" In his gruff voice and twitching whiskers, she could tell that she was forgiven and in fact was being laughed at for her impatience.

"Sure, what do you need?" Trying to recall her memory of herbs from her short apprenticeship to her mother, Jayfeather relayed a list of leaves and roots he needed, and sent the restless cat out into the nearby woods.

Stepping paw outside the Two-leg nest was refreshing, and stepping into the woods felt like coming home for a short time. That was before she recognized the absence of everything that made it home: the familiar scents and sounds, the feeling of stability and safety. It all had been ripped from the territory in a single invasion, and now she wasn't sure if she would stay here even after the attack. The entire forest seemed to be doused in the blood of her Clanmates- 'Stop.' She shut down the thought and emotions, concluding it was not yet time to mourn.

The presence of catmint filled her senses when she opened her mouth, making it water uncontrollably as the sharp, clean smell triggered some kithood memories. Brushing off the recollection, she foraged farther from the nest, nosing through the long grasses to locate the faint scent of borage or whatever other herbs that Jayfeather wanted. A few white petals caught her eye as she picked her head above the weeds to look at the flowering chamomile. Usually used in a travelling herb mix, Leafpool had told her once that it helped ease cats' minds. She hadn't noticed any cats in shock- she assumed it would be after the battles that the loss would truly be felt by her warriors. Nevertheless, it was still an important herb for Jayfeather to have in case.

She bent to nip the stems of the flowers off when the ground beneath her paws thrummed with vibrations and she ducked down among the bright stems. Cursing silently to herself, she wished that her pelt could be more adapted to the subtle forest shadows instead of the jet-black shade that now made her very apparent to any cat who took the moment to look.

A tabby pelt appeared, streaking through the trees with a sudden victorious yowl. With narrowed eyes, Hollystar leapt out of the foliage, bowling the tom over in a heartbeat, her claws unsheathed to strike down at his throat. From behind her, a dark shadow pushed her off, forcing her to stumble and turn yet not fast enough. The dark gray shadow pinned her while the brown tom rose from the dirt and shook out his pelt; he glanced back at the snarling ThunderClan leader and actually snorted in amusement. "Crowfeather, let your daughter up."

The dark tom above her recoiled as if burned, lip curling up as he stepped away from Hollystar, who shot to her feet. "Onestar, you surprised me," She mewed, trying to cover her embarrassment by licking her chest fur back into place.

"And you, I." He laughed quietly, unusually happy. "Your plan went perfectly," the elder leader's eyes sparked. "The Dark Forest cats that we found were taken care of quickly. My warriors were barely scratched until we had to go rescue your cats." The smile faded off his face. "We got seven of them out. I hope that's all you sent in."

Though the number sounded high, Hollystar reflected that she had sent a patrols worth of cats. That meant that they only managed to get a few cats out of the camp. 'Wait,'

"Where are they?" Her thoughts steadily began racing out of control as she looked behind the two WindClan cats for her Clanmates. More eyes lit the foliage, which was beginning to grow long shadows as the sunlight turned gold, the day waning closer to dusk.

Onestar cocked his head silently and turned back to the trees. "They should've been following us. As more dark warriors came they fled with us; Crowfeather and I were the last cats out of the camp."

The smoky tom next to him shuffled almost silently in the leaves, as if flustered to be praised in front of his kin. Yet Hollystar could sense that he would snap at her if she brought it to attention, and instead joined Onestar with looking out into the woods.

It was not yet too dark to see, and with a quick word to the pair, she brought the single stalk of chamomile back to Jayfeather. She had to return and search the woods for the cats that had retreated into the now-hostile territory- and especially the WindClan cats who were at the most risk.

"Jeayfeather!" She called as she entered, voice strong with smothered desperation. She was too hasty to wait for her brother to appear, and instead threw down the herb and spoke again. "I'm going with Onestar and Crowfeather to find the others. They were separated when they escaped from the camp." Her green eyes searched as far as the gloom inside allowed before turning and sprinting back out of the nest. If she had waited a moment longer, she would've heard the raspy muffle of a cat crying out for help.

"Let's go!" She commanded, forgetting for a second that she and Onestar had equal authority, and she was in fact the youngest of the small group. So instead of obeying blindly, the two cats shared a glance and Crowfeather voiced a snort before the other could stop him.

The mottled leader didn't bother to reprimand him though, and instead turned to Hollystar himself. "We should stay together, the terrain is strange to us, and there are enemies about as well. They pursued us from the camp." The black cat felt a shiver trickle down her spine like cold rainwater. "We have reason for haste then," She said gravely, and started off into the forest with the two WindClan cats on her tail.