Gosh, I really meant to get this chapter out a couple days ago. I guess I've just been so busy I forgot! :( Sorry!

Leopardstar2002: Cool! I've never met someone who likes bears before, but yeah, now that I think about it they can be kinda cute at times. :)

ShadowHawk540: I also do rowing, and that murdered my arms this afternoon! I looked up the peregrine falcon because I wasn't sure what they exactly looked like (specific species of falcon and all) and they look really cool! They're all contrasting with their coloration and all. xD

QLKwriter: Thanks! :) I think they're all getting hungrier... A red panda's pretty original, if you ask me! But yeah, cats... this is a Warriors fanfiction I'm writing here.

ilovewarriorcats: I don't mind long reviews or short reviews. :) Any type is fine with me, depending on how much time you have or how much you have to say. One word is kind of hard to reply to, but... well, yeah, you get the point. I think. And I just watched Jurassic World a couple weeks ago with a friend who fangirled the whole time over Blue and the other raptors! But yeah, I also like horses. :) They're pretty amazing.

EradrinSkyleaf: Thanks for checking out my channel! :D But yeah, after this book... *sniffles* it'll be over! But don't worry, I have more plans to come... *shifty look* I may or may not be doing a choose your own adventure-type thing and another really long really complicated story I'm really excited about...

The Guardian of the Sky: I used to absolutely LOVE the clouded leopard! Whenever I'd play Zoo Tycoon I'd buy like 30 of them and go broke. :P They were always unhappy though...

Sootstar's POV

We had some of our own exploring to do. After settling the new territories with Rockstar, I led my cats back to the stone hollow to make the announcement.

"The new territories are agreed upon!" I called, bounding up the Rockfall to the Highledge. "We have given up a good portion of our territory to SkyClan, but as long as we expand up the hill, we should be able to feed ourselves through Leafbare." I cast a quick glance at the fresh-kill pile as I spoke. It was low, alarmingly low, even for Leafbare. "Rustpelt," I ordered, "take a border patrol around the new borders. You remember where they are?"

Rustpelt dipped his head. "I do, Sootstar," he confirmed.

I nodded back, then continued. "I will lead a hunting patrol into the unexplored territory over the hill. Hopefully we will find something there."

Bounding down the rocky hill again, I surveyed the Clan. Dawnshine obviously would be staying in camp; who knew what might be lurking out there? Molewhisker might be good to have—he was decent at fighting. If we encountered a fox or badger or something we'd definitely want to chase it out as soon as possible.

"I'd like to go on the hunting patrol with you," a quiet voice said beside me. I turned to see Iceheart, her ears halfway back, glancing between me and the ground, as if scared I'd punish her for asking.

"Sure," I meowed. "You can come. Can you go tell Molewhisker and Streamfrost to meet me at the camp entrance?"

She nodded and dashed off. As I padded across the camp toward the thorn barrier, I spotted Rustpelt leading Tortoiseheart, Breezelark, and Snowclaw out into the forest. They nodded at me respectfully as they passed.

Iceheart soon returned with the two warriors and we set off. I led the way through the snowy forest, forging a path through the drifts with my wide shoulders. Soon, we reached the edge of our current territory.

"Well, off we go to explore the great unknown," I muttered, and stepped over the invisible scent line.

Unfamiliar forest greeted me. Moons of time spent leading ThunderClan had well acquainted me with our territory, but this was foreign to me. Even when Cinderstar, Rainstar, and I had first come to the lake, it had been in ShadowClan territory that we'd first set foot, not ThunderClan.

Iceheart padded up beside me, her amber eyes wide as she gazed around at the silent landscape. "I wonder if there'll be prey here," she murmured.

I glanced around at her. "Why, do you think there'll be more prey here than in our old territory?"

She nodded. "Cats haven't hunted here in ages, I bet." She hesitated, then continued. "It's good that we're getting this territory, you know? The other Clans aren't as close to here. It'll be a reliable food source."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "What are you suggesting? That the other Clans would try to steal prey?" I asked incredulously. "Nonsense. We're at peace, for StarClan's sake!"

She shrugged. "Hunger does strange things to cats." She dropped back to walk beside Streamfrost.

I stared ahead, not really seeing the path in front of me, only functioning enough to keep plowing through the snow. ThunderClan was flanked on one side by ShadowClan and on the other by WindClan. Well, ThunderClan used to be flanked by WindClan. Now it was SkyClan. Would they try to prey-steal?

Not intentionally, surely? I thought. They'd be too busy exploring their own territory, getting settled in their camp. Maybe by accident, but not on purpose! We welcomed them with open paws, for StarClan's sake! Yet I couldn't just forget Iceheart's words.

Shaking my head to attempt to clear it, I turned back to the warriors. "We'll have to split up to hunt at all," I meowed. "Let's try in pairs, how about? Let's see… Iceheart, you can go with Molewhisker. Streamfrost, you're with me."

Iceheart dropped back even farther to stand beside the brown and cream tom. Streamfrost bounded forward to stand closer to me. "Let's go," I said.

Streamfrost padded beside me as we headed through the forest. "How far away from our old territory can we go?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. Let's just go until we smell—" I caught the whiff of a rabbit. Well, that was quick, I thought, impressed.

One glance at Streamfrost's face told me she smelled the rabbit too. I nodded in its direction and, together, we crept through the trees toward it, careful not to step on any dry leaves or sticks hidden under the snow, lifting our paws high to clear any clinging foliage. After several long moments of silent stalking, I finally spotted a bobbed tail bouncing through the grayish trees.

Streamfrost began circling around. I remained where I was, hidden with the wind pointing at me and the rabbit's nose away. It dug its paws under the snow's surface, apparently searching for something tasty to eat, completely unaware that in a moment, it itself would be food.

"Sootstar!" a voice called, breaking the silence like a rock thrown into the Moonpool. The rabbit's head jerked up. I lunged forward, desperately trying to catch it, but I wasn't fast enough. With a kick of its hind paws and a flurry of snow, it was gone.

I turned toward the voice, fury pounding beneath my pelt as Tortoiseheart came skidding into view. "What were you thinking?" I burst out savagely as the tortoiseshell tom slid to a stop in a drift. "I almost had a rabbit. If there's a shortage of prey tonight, you won't—"

"Sootstar," Tortoiseheart interrupted. "Come with me. We've found something."

Despite my anger, his words piqued my curiosity. I stared shrewdly at him, trying to decide whether to keep yelling at him or shut up and follow him like a baby mouse. As if he knew what I was thinking, Tortoiseheart added, "Trust me, you won't want to miss this. Rustpelt sent me to get you as quickly as I could."

Well, if this really was not important, I could always discipline my warrior later. I nodded stiffly. "Lead the way."

Streamfrost pounded along at my side as we raced through the forest, Tortoiseheart leading the way. We headed straight back along the path he'd already made, making our progress much easier than it would otherwise have been. Eventually, we emerged at a spot just outside of our territory.

"It was just along here," Tortoiseheart panted, padding away from the camp along a second path smelling much like Rustpelt, Breezelark, and Snowclaw. "It was incredible…"

And I saw it. My jaw dropped; Tortoiseheart was right, it was worth missing a rabbit just for this, though obviously it would have been best to have caught the rabbit and seen this. It was a giant pile of fresh-kill, though not fresh-kill any cat could eat. It was really more like crowfood now.

The rest of the border patrol crowded around the base, picking at it with their claws. As I drew closer, Rustpelt shook his head. "It's no use. It's all inedible." He caught sight of me. "Sootstar! I'm glad Tortoiseheart was able to find you so quickly."

"What is this?" I asked, still staring in horror at the giant pile.

Rustpelt shrugged. "This might be the reason for our food problem."

"But what cat would do this?" I argued. "What cat would go out of their way to catch this much prey and let it go to waste? It's completely against the Code!"

"I know," Rustpelt muttered tersely. "It's stupid. But it's done, I'm afraid. And I can't identify any scents on them other than natural forest smells."

"This prey's got to be only a quarter moon old," I argued. "If we'd found this a few sunrises ago, we could have still eaten some of it, at least. Scent doesn't disappear that quickly."

"If a Clan cat did it, they made sure to cover their scent well. Maybe they covered themselves with mud or something."

I shook my head, still in awe of the giant pile of crowfood. "I need to discuss this with my senior warriors," I muttered.

"But what about the patrol?" Rustpelt asked, glancing over his shoulder. "We still need to mark out our new boundaries."

I turned to Streamfrost. "Go get Iceheart and Molewhisker," I instructed her. "Send Molewhisker back to camp with any fresh-kill they might have caught. Breezelark, go with her. Snowclaw, Rustpelt, and Tortoiseheart, come back to camp with me. Once Molewhisker gets back, we can have a proper meeting in my den."

Six cats gathered in the leader's den as the sun began its slow descent to the horizon: Rustpelt, Goldenwing, Molewhisker, Tortoiseheart, Snowclaw, and myself. I sat in my nest because there really was no room in my den for me to head the meeting from a more suitable position.

I began by describing the afternoon's events for the benefit of Goldenwing and Molewhisker. When I'd finished describing the giant heap of rotting crowfood, silence descended like a mist over the meeting.

"But…" Molewhisker meowed slowly, staring hard at the ground as if it could give him answers. "But who would do this? Just steal prey from their own Clan?"

"There's no guarantee it was a Clan cat," Tortoiseheart reminded him. "It could very well be a rogue or loner."

"It would have to be more than one cat, though," Goldenwing meowed analytically. "There's literally no way one cat could catch that much in one day, or two days, or even an entire quarter moon, if the pile's as big as you say."

I nodded. "It must have been six or seven tail-lengths high. It was incredible."

"Incredible indeed," muttered Snowclaw.

"Maybe it was multiple rogues working together?" Rustpelt suggested.

Tortoiseheart shook his head. "I lived amongst rogues," he meowed. "Maybe one could do this in revenge to the Clans? Possibly two? Never more. It would take at least four cats to catch this much fresh-kill."

I grimaced. "Maybe NightClan remnants here to torture us further?"

Snowclaw gasped. "Maybe they're reforming under a different leader!"

"It's not a possibility we can rule out," I meowed regretfully.

Rustpelt stood immediately. "We need to send out more patrols," he said. "I can get on that immediately."

I motioned for him to sit down again. "Not yet. We need to announce this to the Clan. It's a big bit of news and we shouldn't rush through telling them."

"Then let's tell them now, so we don't have to wait as long," Rustpelt countered, kneading the ground with his claws. "NightClan is dangerous," he reminded us, like we'd already forgotten the moons of terror we'd experienced."

"It would be a rather dumb move for them to attack all the Clans like this," Goldenwing meowed nervously. "Let's not jump to conclusions."

"Who else could it be?" Molewhisker asked. He glanced over his shoulder and I knew he must be thinking of Amberwing and his three remaining kits.

"Let's make the announcement," Rustpelt urged.

"Yes." I stood up, silencing all the talk. "I will talk to the Clan. But," I added as Goldenwing opened her mouth, "I will not mention NightClan. I'll say it might be rogues. But if the Clan wants to believe it's NightClan, there's nothing I'm going to do to disprove it. We don't know anything yet other than some cat's taking our prey."

Goldenwing nodded. "That's fair," she meowed.

I padded out of the den into the quickly diminishing sunlight. Already one side of the hollow was in shadow. Living at the bottom of a stone pit really did have its disadvantages, among them a certain lack of sunlight.

"Cats of ThunderClan!" I called. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting!"

I waited until most of the Clan had emerged from their warm dens, settling in one dense clump in the center of the clearing, before speaking again. "While out on patrol today, Rustpelt and his warriors found something exceptionally alarming. It was a great pile of rotting fresh-kill, six, maybe seven tail-lengths high. That's why we have so little prey—it's all been stolen and wasted."

Horrified, alarmed yowls rose from the clearing below. I paused a moment before attempting to make myself heard again. "We… We will…" But it was no use. My Clanmates were too busy talking amongst themselves, calling to StarClan, loudly expressing their amazement, anger, and fear. Finally, they quietened enough for me to yowl, "Quiet!"

The cats' voices faded into relative silence once more, broken now only by low murmurs as cats continued to discuss the anomaly with their neighbors.

"We are going to send out patrols to mark our new borders," I meowed. "We believe this to be the work of rogues, but we have no proof of who did it. All cats are instructed to be on high alert. We will have guards posted day and night from now on, just like in the old days. Every border patrol must be on high alert for any strange cats outside our borders."

"Or the other Clans!" someone called from the Clan.

Dead silence followed the cat's words. I stared into the crowd, but I couldn't pinpoint who had spoken. The cats were so packed together. It could have been any of them.

"Let's not blame the other Clans just yet," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. There was no way Rainstar or Cinderstar had stolen the prey! Was there?

"What about SkyClan?" Rustpelt asked from the base of the Rockfall.

"They just got here!" Robinchest retorted, staring hard at Rustpelt from the edge of the crowd. "Sootstar said the pile was of crowfood, not prey caught yesterday!"

"But they could have stayed in the forest past the edge of our territory," Rustpelt argued. "Who says they just got here?" He turned to look up at me. "With your permission, Sootstar, I'd like to take a few cats beyond our new borders and search for any trace of SkyClan camping in the general area."

I hesitated. We really couldn't spare many warriors right now. But if SkyClan really was stealing the fresh-kill, I needed to know about it and tell the other Clans. Had we been right in welcoming SkyClan in so easily?

"Tomorrow," I meowed. "Tonight we need to define our borders. It wouldn't surprise me if the other Clans already had their boundaries marked twice over."

Rustpelt nodded and beckoned to a few cats, leading them out through the barrier. The meeting broke up, with cats discussing the day's events in excited or incredulous voices in small groups of two or three.

Dawnshine padded up the Rockfall to meet me. "You look tired," she meowed anxiously, pressing herself against me.

"I'm fine," I murmured, rasping my tongue over her cheek. "Just tired."

"Go eat something," she encouraged me. "Molewhisker was able to catch two whole sparrows this morning and I went out hunting with Robinchest. The Clan has been fed."

"I need to share with someone," I muttered, beginning to descend the Rockfall. "Prey's so scarce… I can't eat an entire piece of prey by myself."

"I can share with you," Dawnshine smiled. "I need to keep eating, don't I?"

I grinned as the thought of my future kits crossed my mind. "Yeah," I meowed. "Yeah, let's go share one of those sparrows."

Yeah, I wrote this chapter last weekend sometime, along with like half the next chapter. I might be able to finish it sometime this Sunday or Saturday but until then my schedule's packed! o-o

AOTD: I like dragons. And gryphons and phoenixes and... what was that? We're talking about REAL animals here? Man, I thought it could be fantasy too! Oh well, if that's the case, then I like cats (yeah), horses, wolves, and huskies. (shh yes huskies are a separate animal no they're totally not dogs what are you talking about)

QOTD: I'm doing this drama/playwriting camp this week. Do any of you like acting or playwriting?