"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." — Maya Angelou.

When Littlestar woke again, she awoke to the monstrous roar of another bulldozer. On her paws in a heartbeat, she found herself alone in the ThunderClan medicine den. She took one deep breath to familiarize herself with the scents and then walked out into the carnage.

A great bulldozer had found itself in ThunderClan's camp, and knowing that ThunderClan's destruction was at paw, Littlestar stepped forward to defend her second home.

The monster turned, scattering the elders' den and the nursery. Littlestar watched in calm serenity as ThunderClan and ShadowClan warriors hissed and yowled at the great beast while the others evacuated the camp. Her ShadowClan warriors were inspired by her actions in the previous moonrises, and the thundercats had always been mouse-brained brave, but she could see that there was no real plan. There were no dynamite sticks lying around, and even if there were, Littlestar doubted any of the cats present had the prescience to use them.

Littlestar trotted slowly toward the monster, not caring if anyone saw her approach. She stopped and looked up. The great bulldozer's wheels turned, but Littlestar noticed that this model didn't have windows across the cockpit; instead, it had metal crisscrossing frames to protect the driver. Littlestar did not know whether the twoleg driving the machine cared or even noticed the cat colony he was destroying. Still, whatever reason he had for being bold enough to enter ThunderClan's camp with a windowless bulldozer, she would make him pay dearly for it.

As the evacuations escalated and cats began to retreat, Littlestar approached the monster, now making its way toward the medicine den. "Yes," she purred with a low sultry growl. "Come right at me!" Her world narrowed down, her eyes solely on the bulldozer's scooper – it would come down, and she would ride it right up – all she had to do was get on top of the machine, and then she'd be biting another twoleg jugular. She watched the scoop come down.

She was so confident in her plan that she didn't see Spiderpaw and Scorchpaw rush forward from behind her to charge at the approaching monster. The duo of apprentices bayed like dogs, and Littlestar saw that instead of getting on the scoop, they were about to be crushed by it. "Frog-brains! Get out of the way!" she called, but they didn't hear her, so she watched in horror as the heavy metal came down.

Spiderpaw was a ThunderClan apprentice, while Scorchpaw was ShadowClan; both were relatively nobodies. From what Littlestar's memories could remember, neither would make any meaningful impact on the Clans. Some cats would mourn their deaths, but that was life in the wild – the inherent gamble they had signed up for.

Spiderpaw and Scorchpaw weren't important.

Littlestar rushed forward and slammed into the duo of mouse-brains from behind. "Littlestar!" cried Scorchpaw, who recognized her instantly. He looked up as the metal rapidly descended and grabbed Spiderpaw, who hadn't realized the danger. Littlestar hit them hard enough they rolled.

"Scorchpaw," she meowed, mostly to herself, "you're on tick duty for the rest of your life."

The metal scoop came down, and Littlestar imagined it crushed every bone in her body.

"I'm guessing you're here to judge me for my poor life decisions," Littlestar meowed in another field of starlight. "Then you'll tell me to bend over and let the twolegs take me."

"It has not been a mistake so far lending you a life, but I will admit, ever since becoming a part of you, that understanding the slang behind 'bend over and take me' and all your other 'twolegisms' has been less than pleasant," Raggedstar replied from a frog-length away.

"Hey," Littlestar shrugged. "You StarClan warriors are always using terms such as 'we shall become one with you' and 'we'll be part of you,' that one-time Spottedleaf said she'd 'be inside me' as she 'guided me through the motions.' You cats keep walking into it."

"She said that?" Raggedstar meowed.

Littlestar did her best imitation of clicking her claws and said, "Hey! Did you know I'm sleeping with your half-sister? She's a bit younger than you, but I still think she's the cougar in our relationship. As the deputy of war hero Littlestar, I've been giving her 'extra training' on the side in more ways than one."

"I know," Raggedstar replied.

"Right," Littlestar meowed, her smile dropping. "I forgot about that. Do you like experience it with me? Or is it a voyeuristic thing?"

Raggedstar didn't respond to her probing. "You need to stop," he said finally.

"Stop?" Littlestar meowed. She had a feeling that he wasn't talking about her sex jokes. Eager to get to the actual discussion, she began working herself up. "I can't stop. Losing is a privilege! Every time StarClan warriors from sky high come down and deliver an Aesop about 'finding peace with one's capabilities' or 'embracing humility alongside defeat,' real cats die. If you haven't peaked voyeuristically recently, ShadowClan's territory is gone! ThunderClan is also about to be destroyed, and StarClan knows what's going on in WindClan right now! So no, I can't stop! Stopping is conceding. Stopping is giving up on everything my ancestors fought for, everything living cats have fought for! Being able to lose and walk away without losing everything is a privilege! A gift!"

"A gift that Tawnyspirit has delivered," Raggedstar replied.

Littlestar scoffed. "Isn't that supposed to be 'a gift we have delivered?'"

"No, Tawnyspirit and her group did everything on their own," Raggedstar meowed. "Littlestar!" He raised his voice when Littlestar opened her mouth to argue. "I am not disappointed how my life of faith was spent; protecting apprentices is a life never wasted, but rather, I ask that you take the faith spent and take it with you to the Clans' new home."

"Your son killed you nine times. That's pretty embarrassing, and I think it says something about you. You shouldn't be telling me how to spend my lives and when to give up," Littlestar retorted but knew it was a weak and petty reply to someone who had been nothing but helpful to her throughout her life.

Raggedstar sighed. "All I ask," he said, "is a little faith in Tawnyspirit's group and the prophecy."

Littlestar closed her eyes. A drop of water hit the great sea.

Littlestar ripped herself across the ThunderClan camp even before her body had finished healing. The bulldozer had gained ground while she was dead, but Littlestar ran with the power of StarClan, and just before Raggedstar's strength left her body, she leaped.

The strength of the stars propelled her high, and she hit the back of the bulldozer with a heavy, hard thump. This time, there were no apprentices to distract her, and the majority of the warriors were gone, so there was no one to stop her as she crawled into the cockpit with screaming, defiant fury.

The twoleg, fat, ugly with a donut in his mouth, and sitting down with a tight seatbelt, didn't stand a chance.