“We were kidnapped!” He cried. Orangedust snorted. “What!?” Mushroomeye yowled. “Don’t make up stories.” “Huh?! We can prove ourselves!” Stormpelt came out of the warrior’s den. “How?” “By speaking to bugs!” “Leafclan cats can always speak to bugs.” “Yeah… And were Leafclan cats! Besides Rubystar!” “We know you’re Leafclan cats.” Stormpelt said, rolling his eyes. “Then why are you guys so upset? We were just kidnapped and we got free!” Bumblefern hissed. “That’s it.” Orangedust said. “The fact that you keep joking about being kidnapped.” “We’re not joking!” Rubystar lashed out, showing her matted fur and scars, “Why would we do that?!” “To protect Sunset.” “But he’s dead, isn’t he?” Rubystar said flatly. The orange tabby tom prisoner poked her head out of his prison den. “Am not!” “WHAT.” Sunset folded his ears back. “Why is that so hard to believe?” “We thought the rouges killed you.” Mushroomeye said bluntly. Sunset turned to Stingfoot. “See! We were kidnapped by rogu

Stingfoot hissed, “We’ll judge that when Hivestar gets back!” “Why?” Sunset shot back. “Are you so helpless that you need your leader to back you up?” His hackles began to raise. “No. She’s the ruler of this Clan. Her word is law!” “And you don’t have a mind of your own?” “I can. I think this is crazy. If there WERE a group of rogues the clan would’ve already ran them out.” “Why won’t you believe I’m innocent!?” “Why would we? You came out of thin air!” Sunset folded his ears back. “It’s not my fault that rogues took us when we were taking me back!” “How do we know that you didn’t lead them there or~ Are working with the rouges.” Badgerpaw smirked. Sunset whipped around. “How could I lead anything when I’m stuck here!?” “I don’t know! You’re the mastermind!”

The orange tom leaped at the apprentice, biting his shoulder. Badgerpaw yowled, and the huge apprentice slammed him off. Stingfoot grabbed Sunset by the scruff and clawed his face. Sunset yowled, trying to bat away his paws from clawing his eyes. Stingfoot bit his paw. Sleekshine ran over to the fighting toms. “Hey!” She yowled, grabbing Stingfoot’s scuff and trying to pull him away. Stingfoot yowled. Suddenly, a call bellowed out. “STOP!” Hivestar ran into the crowd. All of the Leafclan cats stopped what they were doing and looked up at their leader. Hivestar yowled again, “SLEEKSHINE! EXPLAIN!” The gray she-cat flinched. “Well,” Sleekshine began, explaining what happened from starting to take Sunset home to a few moments ago. Hivestar nodded, pleased. “I believe you.” She turned to her clan, “Sunset is innocent.” “What?” Orangedust hissed. “You can’t really believe these lies!” “Why would they lie?” “Well they must be protecting Sunset!”

“And why would they do that? They never knew him before all of this, especially Rubystar.” “How am I supposed to know? For all we know, Sunset could have callen his rogues at the beginning of the trip, kidnapped them, and threatened them into saying he’s innocent.” “That’s false.” Beedew called out, “He went through the same thing that Sleekshine and the others went through! He has scars, and he’s still weakened from them.” The medicine cat snarled and wiped her tail, “If you can’t trust me OR Sleekshine, or anyone else or was kidnapped, you should just leave, you foxheart!” Orangedust turned to the medicine cat and puffed out her chest. “Those scars could be from when they retaliated.” “Then, why won’t they tell? And remember a few moons ago we had different cats scents on our border? AND, when we had cats carving things into OUR trees and HIVES?” “That hasn’t happened for a while.”

“Because! Those cats were the rogues! They were too busy with the prisoners! And before you say anything, no Sunset couldn’t even have done any of that- His claws are too dull. I doubt any tough rouge group would take him, he’s such a lovable softie!” Whitesnow blinked. “Did you just say, lovable softie?” “Oh shut up. Now I can’t have affection? I also call my brother that and no one blinks an eye!” She snarled. The white queen folded her ears back, wrapping her tail protectively around her kits. “Sunset is innocent. Our Clanmates wouldn’t lie.” “They still shouldn’t be trusted.” She murmured to herself. “We all heard that.” Hivestar cooly called out. She turned to the kidnapped group, “They’re innocent and will be cleared of any duties for a moon, or until their better. For now, they’ll stay in the medicine cat den. Sunset is free now. He may do whatever, just as long as it’s not harming anyone.” “But how will I get back home?” He asked.

“We’ll have to wait until we find the rouge group, and take them down.” “They’re pretty big.” “We’ll team up with Crystalclan, then.” Sleekshine spoke up. “They’re ruthless and merciless. They won’t be afraid to kill.” “Then we’ll be the same,” Hivestar said cooly. “We have wasps on our side… Hornets too… We can take them down. Sleekshine glared at Stingfoot. “You’re a fool. If we attack them, they’ll kill more cats, to make a point.” Stingfoot hissed, “That’s why we need to take them down all at once- Or at least, the majority of them.” “We don’t even know where they are!” “Then, I’ll get in contact with the other Clans and we can organize a huge search party…” Hivestar replied, Rubystar nodded, agreeing along. “Who will contact the other leader… Flowstar I think it was?” Sunset mewed. “Flutterstar,” Beedew corrected. Hivestar blinked, “Well… We could send a big party of cats towards their territory, and send in bugs first to tell us if it’s safe or not…”

“Would some flies be best?” Sleekshine suggested. “It would look less suspicious? Or butterflies.” “Both. We could have both of the bugs go in opposite directions to check all around.” Sunset set down. “Wait, what’s all this about bugs?” “We can talk to them.” Beedew explained. “... Well, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard.” He padded back into his prison den. Hivestar sighed, “This meeting is dismissed.” *** Meadowclan was, for once, silent. It was almost like the calm before the storm. Everyone was feasting silently, and sharing tongues, divided from each other. For once, the flowers under the frost seemed to be dying. Ripelily was lazily lying in the middle of the clearing. Ice was padding around the inside of the camp wall - which had started being built to keep other cats out. “Still pretty drafty.” He muttered to himself. “It’s fine.” Ripelily croaked, “If you want it to be better, do it yourself.”

Ice only twitched an ear and ignored her. Ripelily lashed her tail as she went on, “And, the way your building this is bad. It’s not waterproof.” “There’s no need to make it waterproof. It just needs to keep the wind and other cats out.” Ice said, still inspecting the wall, keeping calm. “Don’t yell at me when this dirtplace is all frozen up with rain water.” “Oh yeah? Then how did you stay waterproof before we camp, when you didn’t have a wall?” Snowflakes began to drift lazily past them. “We made holes in the ground, and covered everything with bark and waterproof leaves.” Ripelily turned to her side. “Well you go do that if you really really want to.” Ice signaled to Shadowleg with his tail to inspect the wall with him. Shadowleg came over. “Yes?” “How do you think the wall is looking?” “It looks perfect.” “Good. But maybe it needs more protection against the wind.” “Alright… I can deal with that.” The tom continued trying to fix the wall. Goldenbreeze padded over to Bearflinch. “How’s it goin’

Bearflinch shrugged, “Well. You?” She sighed. “I have only gotten to help kill one cat in about a moon. Where’s all the action?” “Oh Goldenbreeze… We’ll get action soon enough.” The she-cat huffed. Bearflinch sighed, “We could go kick around the prisoners.” “How about that black Crystalclan tom?” Bearflinch smirked, “Sure.” She walked over. Goldenbreeze went into the medicine cat den. She glared at Robin and Flytail and they shuffled to the far side of the den. Mossheart was helping them sort herbs. Shakingly, he glanced up at the golden cat. “What’s your name?” She demanded. “Mossh-heart.” “We need you to do chores.” She began to push him out of the den with her head. “I’m a-already doing ch-chores.” “Well you’re doing more.” “Why?!” “Because we said so!” Goldenbreeze hissed, cuffing Mossheart over the head. Mossheart winced, and with big, pleading eyes he glanced over at Robin and Flytail to save him, the youngest medicine cat. As Goldenbreeze pushed him out of the den, Robin spoke up to Bea

Bearflinch. “You-You need to leave him alone.” Bearflinch snorted, “Why? He’s a slimeball.” Robin tried his best to puff out his chest. “Because I said so.” “What? Is he hurt or something? Have greencough?” The dupety poked his chest, inflating him. “You keep bossing cats around and hurting them. I say you can’t hurt Mossheart anymore.” “You can’t tell us what to do.” Retorted Bearflinch as Mossheart slowly, pawstep by pawstep back into the medicine den, with a mouthful of yarrow still fresh in his mouth. Robin padded between the black tom and the brown she-cat. “I just did.” Bearflinch hissed, “Shut up.” “No. And I’m not letting you tell me what to do anymore.” Bearflinch looked at Goldenbreeze, her eyes blazing. “What should we do with this crusty medicine cat.” The she-cat shrugged. “I dunno. The only thing that needs to be done is to feed the rat and her kits.” “Milk has already done that.” Mossheart croaked wearily. Goldenbreeze wiped her head around. “Did I ask you?” She said, annoyed.

“I was just telling you.” Mossheart replied, twitching his tail timidly as he ran back into the den. “Now leave.” Robin said boldly.

YES

oof