Hello! Chapter 25 is finally here! Sorry it took so long for me to post it. I kept procrastinating reading it for grammar mistakes. While I do enjoy grammar, it can be a little boring.

I want to give a shout out to Snow0Storm! Thank you for your kind comment! It's wonderful to see a fellow Jesus lover on here. Also, don't wish to be anyone else but yourself. We all have talents God has given us to spread His Word in the ways we are able.

To those that don't agree with my faith, let me just say that you might be tempted to say that God isn't real because of our economy and worldview today. However, there are so many things in this creation that point to a Creator, and honestly, if I were going to debate, I would say that life with Jesus is so simple to achieve, and once you've truly felt His love, you'll never want anything more. Either way, I can't force anyone to believe anything, but I only hope they will come to see the love of Christ if they never have before.

I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's a little more slow, but don't worry *smirks* the next chapter will be much more intense!

Chapter 25

Out of the corner of her eye, Starrypaw watched Firestar plant his injured leg, attempting to hide the weakness. Despite her rising fear as the WindClan patrol drew closer, Starrypaw stepped in front of her leader and father, ready to protect him no matter what.

When the patrol got closer, Starrypaw could see Weaselpaw and Webfoot-who must've been Weaselpaw's mentor since he stuck with him so closely-and to her dismay, Mudclaw.

"What are you doing trespassers?" Mudclaw snarled, lip curled as they came to a stop in front of them.

Starrypaw lifted her head, attempting to hide her misgivings. "We're simply on our way back from the moonstone. There should be no reason that we can't pass through." She desperately hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.

"It's fairly late in the day for that to be the case," Mudclaw argued.

Firestar stepped around Starrypaw, his ears flattening as he stood boldly through his pain. "You don't know the circumstances of our visit to the moonstone, and it isn't your business to know in the first place."

Mudclaw looked taken aback. It seemed that he hadn't been able to tell Firestar was the cat standing behind Starrypaw. He quickly recovered however, and took a menacing step forwards.

"Fine," he growled. "Just get out of here, and don't hang around. We'll be watching your every step until it's over our border."

Starrypaw narrowed her eyes, but she turned away regardless, staying close to Firestar's side as they walked off slowly. She could feel Mudclaw's gaze on them through every step on WindClan territory, just as he had promised.

Finally, after a long and painful trek through fourtrees and ThunderClan territory, the gorse tunnel came into view. Firestar's steps were a bit lighter, and Starrypaw could tell he was eager to address his Clan. However, she pushed into his side, attempting to remind him silently that he shouldn't be walking so much on his injury.

Whenever they entered the gorse tunnel, movement in the camp completely froze, and all eyes turned to rest on them. Suddenly, Sandstorm bolted out of the crowd.

"What happened? I told you something bad would happen, but do you listen? No!" she exclaimed frantically. Starrypaw could tell by the way she sniffed them up and down carefully that she really wasn't angry at them, but she'd been afraid.

It seemed the whole of ThunderClan had been afraid. A sort of relief washed through the clearing like a flood, and Starrypaw silently spat at herself for being the reason they were late and injured in the first place.

"Starrypaw!" Shrewhunter came trotting up to her quickly, pushing through the now curious crowd of cats. "Are you alright?"

Starrypaw nodded, purring a greeting. In reality, she felt far from alright, but she didn't feel like speaking her mind at the moment. With the new knowledge of something stirring within VenomClan and the fact that she was responsible for her leader's injury, she felt like a heavy weight was pressing in on her from every side. On top of that, memories from her dream had been consistently flooding in throughout their walk back, and Starrypaw felt that it might've been even more of a warning added to the already spoken omen.

"Alright, alright. Everyone back up! Out of the way!" came Cinderpelt's voice as she pushed through. "Come to the medicine den you two," she said more softly to Starrypaw and Firestar.

Starrypaw and Shrewhunter brought up the rear as Cinderpelt led them and Firestar and Sandstorm. The cats parted to let them through, but many curious questions were shouted at Firestar before they made it to the quiet den.

Unfortunately, the den wasn't as quiet as Starrypaw wished. Sitting in the corner with a frustrated look in her eyes was Mousefur.

"Did everyone have to come in with you?" she asked bitterly. "I was resting pretty well until everyone had to start being so loud, and now I won't be able to rest at all!"

Cinderpelt shot her a glare. "Mousefur, why don't you go rest outside? You need some fresh air."

The new elder scoffed before limping out.

"Shrewhunter, could you go fetch Leafpaw for me? She's in the elder's den," Cinderpelt added.

She's probably doing the duties I'll be doing for another week, Starrypaw thought to herself, flicking her tail in frustration. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shrewhunter do the same, probably upset that he had to leave the medicine den. However, he didn't argue and slipped out into the clearing.

"So, what happened?" Cinderpelt asked as Firestar settled into an empty nest with a relieved sigh.

Starrypaw cringed as she thought back to the fight with the dogs, but Firestar didn't recount the story in much detail. Even still, she felt guilt tugging at her heart, and she only wished she could go back in time and undo her mistake.

"Well," Cinderpelt began after Firestar had finished speaking and she had checked over his leg. "These things will happen. Nothing's broken, you simply need a few poppy seeds for the pain and definitely rest." Her whiskers twitched in amusement as she froze and scanned her former mentor up and down. "It doesn't matter what I say though. You'll still do crazy things to yourself for the sake of the Clan."

Firestar flicked his ears in what Starrypaw thought might've been frustration. "I'd do anything for my Clan."

Sandstorm headbutted her mate before rubbing her head across his cheek. "Of course you would."

Cinderpelt nodded and then turned to face Starrypaw. "Now, let's look at the wound I specifically warned you that could be reopened."

Starrypaw flattened her ears in embarrassment, but she didn't have anything to say to defend herself. It had happened just as Cinderpelt said it could, and Starrypaw wondered if she hadn't froze when the dogs had come running, then maybe she could've avoided reopening her wound as well as causing Firestar's injury.

"I sure hope you didn't apply these cobwebs, Firestar," Cinderpelt said as she pulled them off of Starrypaw's wound. "They're extremely messy."

Firestar's whiskers twitched. "No, that was Ravenpaw."

"How is he?" Sandstorm asked. "We haven't seen him in a while."

"He seems super happy where he is," Starrypaw answered.

Firestar nodded. "Yeah he's definitely got it pretty good with all those plump mice."

Suddenly, the tom's gaze hardened. Starrypaw had a feeling he was comparing the mice to ThunderClan's prey supply at the moment. It wasn't hard to see the ribs of their warriors beginning to jut out of their skin.

"We're suffering," he said in a defeated tone, "all because of those horrible rogues."

"What did StarClan say to you?" Cinderpelt asked, her bright eyes showing she'd been itching to ask the question.

Firestar sighed. "It was an omen."

"Yeah," Starrypaw piped in, "I sort of remember it. The bird may think he has the snake, but talons can't hold on to something so sly."

It was silent as everyone considered the words, but Starrypaw's pelt burned with embarrassment as all eyes rested on her.

"Or something like that." Starrypaw ducked her head.

The uncomfortable silence was broken with the arrival of Shrewhunter and Leafpaw.

"Sorry we took so long," he said. "Leafpaw had to wash the mousebile off of her paws."

Cinderpelt snapped back into her medicine cat duties. "Leafpaw, could you get Firestar a couple of poppy seeds?" Firestar opened his mouth as if to argue, but the medicine cat silenced him with a look. "Stay right there, Starrypaw. I'll go get some horsetail for your scratch."

As the two cats slipped into the storage area, Firestar and Sandstorm took up a whispered conversation that Starrypaw felt she wasn't supposed to hear, so she turned to Shrewhunter.

"Did you go on any patrols today?" she asked.

Shrewhunter nodded. "I was on the dawn patrol. Everywhere is completely quiet except for twoleg place. Even the guards say they can hear them fighting with kittypets and other rogues through the fence."

Starrypaw sighed. "It's not going to get easier before battle comes."

Shrewhunter's ears flattened. "Yeah, but when will it come? I hate that we're spending all this time prepping for battle when they may never come for battle. If only we were stronger and could go in and battle them ourselves."

Starrypaw was surprised. She hadn't known that Shrewhunter felt that way. "Battle will come Shrewhunter. StarClan has warned it, and Hawkfrost has proved it. We don't know when, so that's why we must spend our time preparing."

Shrewhunter let out a long breath. "You're right."

Cinderpelt came limping over, holding the horsetail leaves in her jaws. As she prepared the poultice, Starrypaw watched Leafpaw and Sandstorm try to convince Firestar to take the poppyseeds.

"I want to be able to speak to the Clan," he argued. "This will just make me sleep."

"But you won't have the strength to speak to them if you're in pain," Sandstorm pressed.

"Exactly," Leafpaw began, "and you will do nothing more than worsen your injury if you don't rest."

Cinderpelt's whiskers twitched. Though the medicine cat wasn't turned towards the three arguing cats, Starrypaw knew that she was listening.

"You're all a stubborn family," she said softly to Starrypaw. "Even though you weren't born into them, you're stubborn too."

Starrypaw turned her head away in embarrassment, but she couldn't hold back an amused purr.

When Cinderpelt had finished applying the horsetail, she told Starrypaw she was free to go. Thankfully, her recovery would only continue for a few extra days, and the reopening of the wound hadn't lengthened anything drastically.

"I'm sure you're hungry," Shrewhunter said to Starrypaw as they exited the medicine cat's den into the chilly leaf-fall air. "Wanna come get something to eat?"

Starrypaw lowered her head, unable to hide her shame. "Actually, Firestar and I got to eat some of the mice in Barley and Ravenpaw's farm this morning...so.."

Shrewhunter flicked her ear with his tail. "So what? That's good that you got to eat well. Don't feel bad about the rest of us."

Starrypaw scoffed, slightly surprised Shrewhunter could even tell that's why she felt guilty. "Everyone here is my Clanmate. Of course I'm gonna feel bad. It seemed so unfair even when I was eating it."

Shrewhunter simply shook his head. "Any of us would rather someone else have a better meal than ourselves, and you know that."

"Yeah...I guess you're right," Starrypaw replied thoughtfully.

"Well," Shrewhunter added suddenly, "Dappletail might not think that way, but...you know.."

Starrypaw headbutted the warrior in the shoulder. "That's not nice!" she exclaimed. Still, she couldn't hold back a loud purr.

"Hey, Starrypaw."

Starrypaw turned her head to see Squirrelpaw padding over. "How was your trip? I know there was a bit of trouble in the end, but I suppose I mean...overall."

Starrypaw hesitated to reply. Something about Squirrelpaw's tone threw her off, and she wasn't acting like the chipper, curious apprentice Starrypaw was used to seeing.

"Well, it was pretty good I guess. The moonstone was beautiful like always. It was pretty scary to actually-"

Starrypaw stopped mid-sentence, realizing she had been about to reveal that she'd spoken to StarClan through the moonstone. She didn't feel uncomfortable sharing that news, but she wasn't sure if Firestar wanted anyone else to know. I know you aren't supposed to share what you saw, but...I don't know about anything else. Do apprentices normally touch the moonstone?

"Pretty scary to what?" Squirrelpaw narrowed her eyes, and her tail twitched impatiently.

Starrypaw shuffled her paws uncomfortably. "Well...uh...it was kinda scary going into mothermouth...you know how it is."

Squirrelpaw nodded skeptically. "I'm gonna go see if I can join a hunting patrol."

She turned and trotted off briskly, leaving Starrypaw hurt and confused.

"What do you think I did to make her upset with me?" Starrypaw asked Shrewhunter, lowering her ears.

Shrewhunter touched her cheek with his muzzle comfortingly. "I don't know. Sometimes others get hurt for reasons we don't understand, or take out their anger on us."

Starrypaw didn't respond. All she could think about was the time when Squirrelpaw had absolutely hated her, and she couldn't bear the thought of their relationship reaching that point once more.

"The next twoleg place guards are Brightheart, Thornclaw, and Shrewhunter!" Graystripe called out from the highrock.

"Sorry, Starrypaw," Shrewhunter said softly. "I gotta go. I'll see you tonight when we get back!"

Starrypaw watched him leave the camp with thoughts and emotions swirling inside her like a storm. It seemed like everywhere she turned there was something new to add to her worries, but she knew for certain now that StarClan was watching over her.

The trip really did work out as Firestar said it would, Starrypaw thought, my loss of faith in StarClan is gone.

"Hi, Starrypaw," came a small voice. Starrypaw looked to the side to see Larchkit bounding over to her. "I'm so glad you're back!"

Starrypaw touched noses with the she-kit. "Me too."

"Could you play with us?" Hollykit asked, trotting up behind her sister.

Starrypaw sighed. "Sorry guys, but I'm really tired. I didn't really get to sleep last night."

Hollykit's eyes betrayed her disappointment, but Larchkit simply nodded. "That's fine I get it. Come on, Hollykit, we can play something different for now."

"Okay," Hollykit said as they trotted away back towards the nursery.

"Rest well, Starrypaw!" Larchkit called over her shoulder. Starrypaw blinked gratefully before heading for the apprentices' den.

Starrypaw's nest was extremely welcoming after a night of travel. Despite the fact that every attempt to fall asleep for the past week held a nagging fear that she might return to the starless forest, this time her slip into rest was quick and easy.

Starrypaw knew she didn't sleep very long because when she awoke and went out into the clearing, the last bit of sunlight was splashed across the ground, plastering the trees with a mesmerizing golden glow. It was a beautiful sight for such a low time in ThunderClan.

A group of cats were huddled by the warriors' den, speaking in low excited voices. It was a mixture of a few warriors, elders, and queens. Starrypaw strained her ears to hear what they were talking about as she stretched out her legs and smoothed her ruffled pelt, but she couldn't make out any words.

Suddenly, Frostfur broke off from the group and trotted over to Starrypaw. She quickly pretended to be surprised by her presence, trying to hide the fact that she had been attempting to listen.

"Did you hear the great news?" Frostfur asked.

Starrypaw shook her head. "What great news?"

"Sorreltail is expecting kits! I'm sure you know who the father is."

Starrypaw could think of any other better time for ThunderClan to have new kits, but she didn't say it aloud. Regardless, it warmed her heart to think of more tiny little kits growing up right in camp. "That's great! Brackenfur isn't it?"

Frostfur nodded. "She'll be a great mother, and he'll make a great father. Don't you think?"

Starrypaw purred. "Definitely."

"Alright well, I'm going to continue spreading the word! Don't worry I got permission from Sorreltail. See you later, Starrypaw."

Starrypaw dipped her head politely as Frostfur walked away. The elder headed for where Squirrelpaw and Whitewing were lying together, sharing a pitiful looking thrush. Starrypaw felt a pang of sadness as her worries of Squirrelpaw's seemingly injured feelings returned.

Once Frostfur had shared Sorreltail's news with them, Starrypaw padded over to her sister carefully, hoping to start a good conversation and mend the tight awkwardness.

"Hi Squirrelpaw, Whitewing. What do you think of the news? Isn't it great?"

Whitewing purred a greeting. "It really is. I do hope that the twoleg place rogues are simply a memory by the time they're born though. I would hate for them to grow up in a desperate time like this."

Starrypaw nodded in agreement. "If they keep on stealing our prey, then we're in for a rough leafbare. That's right around the corner."

Squirrelpaw swallowed a piece of the thrush. "You know, we'd have more prey if we had more paws pitching in to help."

Whitewing turned her head in confusion. "I guess so, but what paws could we get to help? It's not like we could invite rival Clan warriors to hunt for us."

Starrypaw had a feeling she knew exactly what paws Squirrelpaw was talking about, especially as Squirrelpaw looked up directly at her with an angry glint in her eyes.

"Me?" Starrypaw asked, her heart sinking.

"If you could manage the journey to the moonstone, I'm positive that you could join simple hunting patrols."

"Why are you being rude, Squirrelpaw? Starrypaw's not choosing when she should or shouldn't be recovering. That's up to Cinderpelt," Whitewing said in Starrypaw's defense.

"She could at least try and ask to have her recovery time shortened," Squirrelpaw argued.

"Well...I..." Starrypaw stammered.

"Nevermind. I gotta go," she muttered, shooting one more angry glare in Starrypaw's direction before stalking off.

Whitewing sighed. "I'm sorry about that, Starrypaw. I don't know what's gotten into her. Ever since you left for the moonstone she's acted...different. The other warriors have said they noticed it too. Especially Dustpelt."

Starrypaw settled beside the young warrior. "It's okay. I really do feel bad that I can't chip in though."

Whitewing gave her a reassuring lick on the ear. "We've all felt like that at times. Recovery is no fun."

Starrypaw didn't have anything to say in response, but she continued racking her brain for any clues as to why Squirrelpaw might be upset. Maybe it's not just me. Whitewing said all the warriors noticed it.

"Whitewing!" Graystripe called out across the clearing. "You're on the evening patrol."

Whitewing rose and stretched her back. "See you, Starrypaw. Hope you sleep well tonight."

Starrypaw muttered a reply as the white warrior trotted away, and she watched her go until she had disappeared through the gorse tunnel. However, something was giving Starrypaw an odd feeling. She looked towards the nursery to see Squirrelpaw sitting in the shadows watching her. Her green eyes reflected the steely glint of hate, a look that Starrypaw had not seen from her in a very long time.

As the sun completely vanished below the horizon, Starrypaw settled at the edge of the clearing, watching the gorse tunnel for Shrewhunter and the other twoleg place guards. A deep fear of all the things to come threatened to overtake her, but she forced it down.

The next steps aren't gonna be easy, she thought, but at least I know StarClan is with me. Firestar was right: if faith cannot be kept, then what's the point of it?

But even with that reassuring thought, an image of Hawkfrost crossed Starrypaw's mind, and Bluestar's words echoed in her ears.

"Battle is going to come! You can't stop it, so you must be ready!"