Later that evening, Pigeonwing and Bearpaw asked to bask in the sun outside. When one of the guards approved their request, they settled themselves on a large rock just inside where the captor's guards patrol. Earlier that night they had come to the conclusion that if they wait in the same spot enough times, someone is bound to find them.
After some time, they spotted a gray pelt weaving through the trees. Both RiverClan warriors' ears pricked, only for them to droop down again. It was only Thorn, one of the patrol guards.
"What are you two doing this far from the hut?" Thorn asked, her prickly voice making Bearpaw's tail twitch with irritation.
"We have permission to be here." Pigeonwing answered quickly. "No need for you to stay then, if we have permission."
"Why are you in such a hurry for me to leave?" Thorn twitched her ears, pretending to be nonchalant. Bearpaw glared at Pigeonwing.
Never let Pigeonwing lie.
"I'm taking you back to the hut." Thorn sneered at Bearpaw and Pigeonwing. "And you won't be going outside until we finish preparing Honeyripple; she's long overdue."
They arrived at camp a little bit later, where they found Honeyripple being held to the ground. She had five very large and heavy looking stones pinning her paws and the base of her tail to the ground. Bearpaw was disgusted by the sight of his friend looking like that. Socks, Whisker, Nook, and Scarlet were all circled around the golden she-cat. Thorn rushed to join her comrades. Whisker, a former kittypet, was crouching over Honeyripple's head. He was salivating so much that his spit was dripping into Honeyripple's eyes. The other ShadowClan cats were huddled in the corner, talking quietly among themselves, as if nothing significant was happening right now. Selfish fish-brains. They probably don't care if a RiverClan cat dies, but if a ShadowClan cat was about to be eaten, they would come running and scratching!
"When can we begin?" Whisker's voice sounded like a young kit, but there was malice behind the innocent mew.
"We begin now." Scarlet's tone was terrifyingly delighted, as if she had just caught a large piece of prey her first time hunting.
Whisker immediately leaped for Honeyripple's hind legs, while Scarlet, Nook, Thorn, and Socks began gnawing on the she-cat's front paws. Honeyripple screeched in agony. Bearpaw flinched away at the terrifying noise, but the hungry cats didn't seem to care. They only seemed to be hungry; starving, even.
These cats have to wait days, even moons for their next meal. Bearpaw almost felt sorry for the now scrapy looking cats. Suddenly, a crashing came from the other side of the hut. A cat was barreling in through the wall! The newcomer leaped for Socks, who was chewing thoughtfully on a paw, and tore at him with thorn-sharp claws. Scarlet and Nook leapt up into the air, and then Bearpaw realized who it was.
"Plumeshine!"
Plumeshine ran towards Scarlet, and didn't even glance in Bearpaw's direction. Instead, he called "Get Honeyripple out from under the rocks! You," He lifted his muzzle in Thistlefur's direction while still battling with Scarlet. "make the others fight! We need to get you out of here!" After he had said that last word, Scarlet came to her senses after being so frightened and leapt into action. She was a formidable fighter, Bearpaw had to admit. She was clawing, biting, and yowling like a warrior of TigerClan itself. Nook had no time to thrust himself into battle as well, because by then Thistlefur had roused the ShadowClan warriors, and they flung themselves at their captors.
Soon, inside the hut was nothing but screeching and claws and teeth. Bearpaw found himself face-to-face with Whisker, who was frothing at the mouth. Bearpaw hurled himself at the gray and white tom, despite his fear. Whisker had long, cruel looking claws that sunk into Bearpaw's skin like a cat sinking their teeth into a piece of prey. Bearpaw screeched with pain and fury, and he hurled himself at the seething tom. Whisker was bowled over, as he flailed his paws at Bearpaw's stomach. Bearpaw closed his jaws around Whisker's throat, and he went limp. Bearpaw yowled in triumph, and bit down on his opponent's throat; but before he could deliver the killing bite, he heard Rainstar's voice in his head. Only kill if you have too. You don't want a cat to die without any reason. Bearpaw quickly let go of Whiskers, and instead bit down hard on his tail.
"This is for what you did to my tail!" He said through a mouthful of fur. Bearpaw began ripping at Whisker's tail, until a large chunk of it fell off and revealed a slimy bone underneath. Whisker shrieked with pain, and Bearpaw let him go, the strip of his opponent's tail fell to the ground. Before Bearpaw could move, a weight landed on his back. Bearpaw spun around to see Nook and Plumeshine tumbling together on his back. Bearpaw shoved the two fighting cats off him, and joined Plumeshine in scratching and biting Nook. Bearpaw threw himself on Nook's back, tearing at his large, floppy ears. Plumeshine pushed Bearpaw away, and momentarily looked at him, menace in his eyes.
"I don't need your help! I can fight my own battles!" Plumeshine snarled.
"Why are you telling me this now? We have a battle to fight!" Bearpaw turned and rushed to help Pigeonwing battle with Socks.
Why does Plumeshine hate me so much he won't even let me help him! Bearpaw thought as together, the two RiverClan warriors made Socks surrender.
Suddenly, the battle was over. The screeching of cats had died down to a faint whimper coming from Thorn, who was being pinned down by Thistlefur and one other ShadowClan warrior. Suddenly, Bearpaw realized something.
"Has anyone seen Scarlet?"
All the cats shook their heads. Bearpaw started to panic, and he could see Pigeonwing shuffling uncomfortably.
"What if she comes back?" A ShadowClan warrior yowled.
"It's all RiverClan's fault for not keeping track of her!" Bearpaw was surprised to hear Beetlestalk's voice. He turned on his former friend.
"Beetlestalk, didn't RiverClan help you when you were sick? Didn't RiverClan Give you the herbs you needed to heal your Clan? How could you turn your back on us now, after so much we did for you!" Bearpaw was quivering with anger. Beetlestalk only shuffled his paws.
"You only did two things. Anyhow, RiverClan cats let Scarlet go. I don't want to be eaten!" That last sentence Beetlestalk muttered roused all the other ShadowClan warriors even more.
"This is all RiverClan's fault!"
"RiverClan should leave the lake!"
"Let's drive RiverClan out! Then we wouldn't have to deal with them!" Beetlestalk told the ShadowClan warriors. Bearpaw was appalled. How could a cat that I used to trust betray me- and all of RiverClan- like this!
"We should leave now. Get back to your Clans." Plumeshine stood beside Honeyripple, who was now freed from the stones but badly injured. "RiverClan, you take the prisoners. ShadowClan, go home, and don't ever think about driving out this Clan again." Bearpaw's brother pulled his lips back in a snarl at the ShadowClan warriors. Beetlestalk looked back at Bearpaw one last time, menace in his gaze, and left the hut. As soon as Beetlestalk had left, all the ShadowClan warriors streamed out after him. As Bearpaw stared after the enemy warriors, Plumeshine's voice startled him. "We should get some backup from the camp, to bring Honeyripple back. I don't think she's fit enough to get back on her own."
Honeyripple looked indignantly at Plumeshine.
"I can make it just fine!" She tried to stalk out of the clearing, but her four injured paws gave way, and she was left lying in the entrance to the hut. Bearpaw immediately volunteered to go, and bounded out into the evening sunset.
By the time Bearpaw reached the camp, it was almost completely dark. He burst into the entrance, to find Rainstar talking with a patrol.
"Check the border running with ShadowClan-" Rainstar cut himself off to stare at Bearpaw. "You're back!" Rainstar rushed over to his apprentice, and sniffed all along his body. "What happened? Were you captured by Twolegs? Is that why you've gotten so… so large? I don't smell any Twoleg scent on you…" Rainstar got to his tail-tip, which had healed badly and looked like the end of a rat tail. "What happened to your tail?" Rainstar asked, horrified.
"It's a long story. Now, I need your help getting Honeyripple back to camp. She's injured badly in all four paws."
Rainstar nodded, and signaled for the patrol he was organizing to come with them.
It seemed like a long journey to the hut, and no one spoke while they were arriving. Plumeshine and Pigeonwing were sitting side-by-side, outside the hut.
Rainstar squinted his eyes. "Is that Plumeshine?"
Bearpaw nodded, and bounded up to meet them.
"Where is she?" Bearpaw directed the question at Plumeshine, but Pigeonwing answered. "In the hut. Did you bring a patrol?"
Bearpaw nodded, and signaled for the patrol to follow him inside the hut. There, Honeyripple was lying, her bleeding paws sprawled out. Rainstar rushed over to her, and bent down.
"We should've brought Maplefern…" Bearpaw heard his leader mumble under his breath.
"It's good you didn't. One of our captors, Scarlet, is still lurking about. There is no telling what she could do to a medicine cat, who has barely any training in battle skills." Pigeonwing stopped speaking to take a breath, then continued. "The best thing we can do right now is take Honeyripple back to camp, and try to track down Scarlet."
Rainstar nodded, and began giving directions to his patrol. "Peachblossom and Ivorytooth, help Honeyripple back to camp. Flintfoot, Sandfang, and Mintbreeze, scout for any signs of Scarlet." Rainstar looked at Bearpaw and Pigeonwing. "What does Scarlet look like and smell like?"
"Well, she has fur as red as a fox's pelt. As for how she smells… she smells like cat blood mixed with fear scent." Bearpaw rushed to reply before Pigeonwing could have a chance to mess up the description. Rainstar nodded, and repeated the details about Scarlet to his scouting patrol.
"Be back at camp by moonhigh. If you find Scarlet, bring her back with you. Don't forget to post a guard to make sure the prisoners don't escape." Rainstar mewed as the three cats trotted off into the trees together. Rainstar flicked his gray tail, signaling for Pigeonwing and Bearpaw to come with him. They followed without comment, until they came to the edge of the RiverClan camp.
"It's nice to be home." Pigeonwing said after they had gone inside.
"Go ahead, Pigeonwing. I know you would like to speak to your Clanmates after moons of being away." Rainstar waved Pigeonwing away with his tail, and the warrior happily bounced over to Littlerose, who was sitting outside with her kits.
"I see Littlerose has kitted." Bearpaw commented.
"You can go and visit them if you would like. I want to speak to you later in my den." Rainstar walked away towards Spiderstrike, who was sitting next to the freshkill pile.
Bearpaw bounded over to the four kits, who were huddled at their mother's stomach. One was a little cream colored she-kit, who looked just like her father, Sandfang. The second kit was a dark gray tom with black patches. One of the kits was a musty gold she-kit, like a sunrise in greenleaf. The last kit, however, was very strange.
"What are the kits' names?" Bearpaw asked hesitantly after staring at the fourth kit. Littlerose wrapped her tail protectively around the kit.
"I know what you're looking at. A white kit with pink eyes; what's so interesting about that?"
"It also has seven toes on each paw…" Bearpaw stepped back a mouse-length.
"So? You don't have to make her feel like she's different because she has a few extra toes. Her name is Pearlkit." Littlerose stopped to take a breath, and unwrapped her tail from Pearlkit and put it on top of the golden she-kit's head. "This is Dewkit." Littlerose touched the gray and black kit. "Patchkit." She rested her tail-tip on the last kit's head. "And Gorsekit." Then, Littlesrose's amber eyes lit up. "I just realized- you're back! The Clan was worried sick about you!"
"Yeah, yeah." Bearpaw mumbled under his breath. "I'm going to go to my nest." Littlerose had put him in a bad mood after she had scolded him, so now all he wanted to do was sleep.
He crawled into his nest, and moved around a bit trying to get comfortable. The nest was cold and a little bit soggy, like no cat had slept in it for moons. Well, no cat did sleep in it for moons. Why would anyone sleep in my nest? When Bearpaw finally got comfortable, he sank into a deep sleep.