DOVESONG LIMPED ALONGSIDE Goldenheart, following Moonclaw and Blizzardpelt. As they made it further and further into the wide expanse of land, Dovesong got even more tired. She was struggling to cope with her useless hind leg and struggling to keep up with Moonclaw and Blizzardpelt, who led them restlessly down the plains. The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon, but there was no Twolegplace in sight like what Luna had said. "Goldenheart?" Dovesong mewed softly.

Goldenheart looked at her. "What is it?"

"Do you know what happened to my leg? I just realized a few days ago what happened to it, and I've been struggling to walk around with it. . . ." Dovesong trailed off.

Goldenheart's eyes widened, as if she forgot that Dovesong didn't remember anything. "I never really heard the whole story," Goldenheart explained. "But all I know is it happened a few seasons ago."

"Oh. I was thinking it happened during the flood," Dovesong figured.

"No way. It would have hurt way worse then," Goldenheart told her. "You should be happy that your leg didn't break then. Losing all your memories is bad enough."

"Yeah. I wish I remembered. I wish I remembered everything. The good, the bad, and the in between," Dovesong mewed wistfully.

Moonclaw seemed to overhear because she fell into step beside them and said, "I don't know if you want to remember anything. I would give anything to forget."

"You would think differently if it actually happened to you," Dovesong sighed. "Besides, what happened to you? Luna told me a few days ago that she knows a few troubled cats, and she mentioned you."

Moonclaw stiffened, her eyes flashing with alarm. "Now that's something you don't want to remember. I wish I never told Luna anyway."

"Okay. I won't ask," Dovesong meowed.

"What is all of this about?" Blizzardpelt demanded over his shoulder. "We're here to go on a journey, not to chit-chat!"

Moonclaw began to bristle. Goldenheart laid her tail on Moonclaw's shoulder and murmured something but Moonclaw ignored her. "Maybe if you knew what we were talking about you wouldn't have said that!" Then she sighed, but in a mocking manner. "Maybe if you were even remotely interested in what I have to say, you wouldn't be so ugly toward me."

Blizzardpelt bristled. "Maybe if you were never so submissive all the time I would have never treated you like this!"

"Do you have any idea what I had to go through before I finally agreed-unwillingly-to work for MoonClan? If you knew, you would be more sympathetic! But then, you always see the bad side in every cat," Moonclaw retorted, venom laced in her voice.

Dovesong stiffened when she watched the two cats fight. She exchanged a glance at Goldenheart, who was also watching with wide eyes and with fur that bristled with alarm.

"You say that, but you bring out the bad side of every cat, so you have no right to be saying that!" Blizzardpelt snarled, his tail lashing.

Moonclaw's fur spiked along her spine. Her tail lashed once. "I'm working on it, okay?"

"You're not very good at it," Blizzardpelt pointed out.

"I said I'm working on it!" Moonclaw exclaimed exasperatedly, her voice raised. "Do you understand, or are you just deaf?"

Blizzardpelt growled, his claws sliding from their sheath.

"We can't let them fight!" Dovesong gasped at Goldenheart.

Before Goldenheart could answer, Blizzardpelt snapped, "Didn't any cat teach you respect?"

Moonclaw sank her claws into the ground, as if to stop herself from jumping at Blizzardpelt in blind fury. "I was taught to treat cats with kindness and respect, but only if they deserve it. You, Blizzardpelt, do not deserve my respect. Do you understand?"

"I won't respect you, then," Blizzardpelt hissed.

"Fine," Moonclaw agreed, turning her gaze away from Blizzardpelt.

Dovesong glanced at Goldenheart nervously as they began moving again. She was watching Moonclaw and Blizzardpelt warily, expecting them to snap at each other again. But they didn't do as much as walk beside each other.

Soon they began to approach a wide expanse of Twoleg nests that were bound to be the Twolegplace. The four cats stopped to rest for a few moments. "Should we go in now?" Goldenheart asked. Dovesong turned to her to see her crouching beside her, looking at the Twolegplace with wide, excited eyes that were also clouded with tiredness.

"I think so. Perhaps we can find Flick, too," Moonclaw mewed.

Dovesong suppressed a shiver of dread at the name of the abusive tom. She didn't want to have to deal with him, even if Luna wanted them to give him her message. From what she heard, the tom wasn't a cat that they wanted to deal with if he was on his bad side.

"Don't look so scared," Goldenheart whispered. "You've handled worse things."

Have I? "Okay. Thank you," Dovesong mewed, looking at the Twolegplace nervously again. "But aren't you scared? Luna told me about Flick, and he's . . ."

Goldenheart tipped her head to one side as Dovesong thought of a word to describe Flick.

". . . strange," Dovesong finished. "She said-or she kind of suggested, since she didn't want to say it-that he hurt her and tried to kill her."

Goldenheart failed to stifle a quiet gasp of horror. "No," she breathed. "That's horrific."

Dovesong nodded. "And that's why I don't want to meet him."

"I get it," Goldenheart mewed. "We can do this, though. There's four of us, and only one of him. We've also got senior warriors with us? I mean, Moonclaw is a medicine cat but she used to be a warrior, right? We'll be fine."

Dovesong looked at Blizzardpelt and Moonclaw doubtfully. The two still stayed well away from each other, one on either side of where Dovesong and Goldenheart were resting. Sometimes Blizzardpelt shot Moonclaw an occasional glare, but Moonclaw just ignored him and kept her attention on her grooming.

"Fine," Dovesong finally agreed reluctantly. "But just because you say that doesn't mean it's true."

"We have Moonclaw on our team!" Goldenheart exclaimed at once, a little too loudly. Moonclaw looked up, looking startled. "We'll be fine."

"How does that affect anything?" Dovesong asked.

"There's no way I'm letting you three use me for this quest," Moonclaw hissed. When Dovesong looked at her, she saw that the pretty black-and-white cat was bristling and her eyes were slitted in anger. "If I refuse to help those mange-pelts in MoonClan until I'm on the brink of death, then obviously I won't let you use me."

The fur on Goldenheart's neck and shoulders rose. "Okay, never mind." She turned back to Dovesong. "We'll be fine," she reassured her. "There's just kittypets and Twolegs in there. We're warriors! We've handled worse things." There was a determined fire in her blue eyes that raised Dovesong's spirits. Maybe it would be fine.

"We should go now," Blizzardpelt said, as if on cue, glancing over his shoulder at the three she-cats. "We're losing sunlight."

Dovesong, Moonclaw, and Goldenheart exchanged glances. "Fine," Moonclaw muttered after a breath of silence. "Let's go."

Dovesong felt Goldenheart's flank press against hers in a reassuring manner. "It'll be okay," she murmured.

When they came in, Dovesong felt like the world was growing larger. The Twoleg dens were huge, and there were countless sounds around them. "That doesn't sound like a cat," she meowed shakily when a loud bark split the air.

"That's a dog," Goldenheart explained. "You want to stay clear of them. But Twolegs keep most of them tied up so they won't attack us."

Most of them? Dovesong looked at Goldenheart suspiciously. "Are you sure?"

"More than sure," Goldenheart reassured her.

"Hey, you four!"

The four of them turned toward the sound of a friendly meow. It wasn't familiar; it must have been a kittypet. Dovesong could see the kittypet now: a fluffy short-haired cream-colored she-cat sitting on top of a short brick wall, giving her face a good wash. "Are you four lost?" she asked, looking up from her grooming.

Blizzardpelt exchanged glances with Moonclaw. The hostility in both of their eyes had vanished and were replaced with surprise. Blizzardpelt took a cautious pace toward the kittypet. "No. We can find our way around. We have to get out of here before moonhigh."

The cream kittypet's amber eyes gleamed with sadness. "You're leaving already? Can't you stay? You do look like you could use a good night's rest and some food! My housefolk wouldn't mind some strays like you four in their den."

Strays? Is that what we are?

The other three didn't seem to mind the phrase strays. "No, but thanks for the offer," Moonclaw mewed kindly. "But you could do us a favor."

The cream kittypet pricked her ears excitedly. "Ooh, what is it? What is it?"

Dovesong exchanged an amused glance with Goldenheart. "She looks and sounds like an excited kit," Goldenheart whispered, her voice tinged with amusement.

Dovesong didn't know what an excited kit looked like, but she guessed that Goldenheart was pretty accurate. She turned her attention back to the cream she-cat and Moonclaw. "Do you know a cat named Flick? We were told he lives around here."

The cream cat's amber eyes widened. "Flick? Oh, no, I don't know who you're talking about. But perhaps we can take a stroll and see if we can find him!" Her voice was enthusiastic and excited.

Moonclaw's eyes narrowed. "You know where to find him." It was no doubt a statement, not a question. "Tell us where."

"Oh, fine, you got me. You don't want to meet him," the cream kittypet warned. "He's weird! His mate left a while ago because of him. We haven't seen her since. I was friends with her, and she told me that he . . ." She leaned in closer and lowered her voice to a whisper for dramatic effect. ". . . hurt her."

She's talking about Luna, Dovesong realized. She stepped forward. "We just met Luna, actually. She wanted us to give him a message."

"I can give him the message," the kittypet offered.

"Pearl!" A short-haired dusty brown tom leaped onto the wall next to the kittypet. "What did I say about talking to strangers?"

"You didn't say anything about that, Bronze," Pearl argued. "These cats just got lost. I was helping them out! They said that they were looking for Flick," she added dramatically.

Bronze eyes widened. He looked at Moonclaw and the rest of them. "Is this true? Haven't you heard about him?"

"Yes, we met his mate a while ago," Goldenheart told him. "It sounds like this entire Twolegplace has heard of him."

"'Twolegplace'?" Bronze and Pearl exchanged bemused glances.

Goldenheart sighed. "Don't worry about it. Luna asked us to give him a message."

"Maybe we can show you to him. But forgive me for asking: why does there need to be four of you?" Pearl asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

"It's a long story," Blizzardpelt answered. "You wouldn't understand anyway."

"Well, we've got time!" Pearl exclaimed, her amber eyes glowing. Bronze nodded eagerly.

"Well, we don't," Goldenheart intercepted. "Can you show us where he is?"

Pearl's shoulders slumped disappointedly. "Fine. We live just a block away. I think Bronze wants to stay here."

The brown tom nodded quickly and jumped off of the brick wall back into the Twoleg nest.

Just a block away? Dovesong pondered what that could have meant as she followed her companions and the cream kittypet down the hard, hot path toward another Twoleg den. Pearl said that Flick's nest was in the blue den. A silver monster squatted beside it, sleeping. A Twoleg and her kit were hopping out of the monster's belly and walking into the den, the kit squeaking excitedly. Her paws were full of colorful items. Dovesong dragged her gaze away from the scene and continued following the other four cats into a thin passageway into a lush green yard where a surprisingly muscular white kittypet with a black tail-tip was sitting on a fence.

"Flick?" Pearl called quietly, as if cautious to startle the kittypet. "Some strays want to see you."

Strays. Dovesong repeated the phrase in her mind over and over again, but it still didn't make sense. These cats didn't see her and her companions as equals, so what were they? Goldenheart said they were warriors. She said they did hard things. But what hard things?

The tom twisted around to look at them through slitted amber eyes, then gracefully leaped off of the fence and bounded toward them. "Strays?" he echoed with a suspicious glance at the Clan cats. "Thanks, Pearl. You can go if you want."

Pearl nodded and left. "Bye!" she called as she left.

"So," Flick meowed, startling Dovesong, "what do you need from me?"

"Do you remember Luna?" Moonclaw asked.

Flick froze for a second when he met Moonclaw's gaze. "Oh-yes, of course I do. Have you seen her?"

"We have a message from her," Moonclaw explained. "We stayed with her for a few nights and she told us about you."

"Oh? What does she have to say?" Flick asked.

He's not all that bad, Dovesong thought with a hopeful look at Goldenheart, who returned her gaze with a look that said Told you.

Goldenheart intercepted. "She said that she wants you to know that she is alive and well. And that you have kits."

Flick's eyes shone. "I have kits? That's amazing! Do you think she would be happy to see me again?"

The Clan cats exchanged glances amongst themselves. "Um . . . I don't know. I don't think so," Goldenheart told him.

Flick's shoulders slumped. "Okay. I didn't think so."

Dovesong couldn't help but ask: "What Luna said . . . is it true?"

Flick's eyes flashed with alarm. "What did she say about me?"

"She said . . ." Dovesong couldn't get the words out. Flick seemed like a nice cat. Why would he hurt them? But then, why would Luna say that if it was untrue? Dovesong looked at Goldenheart.

Goldenheart turned to Flick. But before she could say anything, Dovesong decided she could say it and interrupted the yellow she-cat. "She showed me a long, thin scar on her flank. She said you left it. What did you do?"

"Oh. Well, that's in the past." Flick shrugged.

Moonclaw bristled and her eyes narrowed into slits. "Do you not care that you hurt her? That she left you so that you wouldn't hurt her kits? Do you even understand even the tiniest bit of what that feels like? How can you just shrug it off?" She sounded genuinely outraged. Dovesong stared at her in shock. Why was she so angry?

Flick bristled also. "Look, I-" He paused, then continued. "I was born this way. I can't help it."

Moonclaw sniffed. "I doubt it. I've known enough cats that are as monstrous as you to know that it was your choice."

Behind the fear and alarm in Flick's eyes, Dovesong saw admiration. "No, you've got to-"

Moonclaw curled her lip. "I won't believe-"

"Moonclaw, you're letting your grief get in the way of your judgment," Blizzardpelt meowed, resting his tail-tip on her shoulder.

Moonclaw hissed and pulled away. "Maybe I am! But this cat is denying that he abused and hurt Luna, and I won't let that slide! I don't want all of the cats he interacts with to end up like me. Scared of everyone else around them, not being able to sleep at night because they endlessly think about how mistreated they were. No one will be able to understand, but soon they will. And I won't let that happen."

"What do you mean?" Goldenheart asked.

"Doesn't matter." Moonclaw lowered her voice, as if ashamed and tired. "Sorry." She looked at Flick and ducked her head. "I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

"O-of course." Flick looked confused. "Thank you for giving me that message. Where did you four come from? I thought I knew every cat in this place."

"We came from far away," Goldenheart answered. "The reason we're here is a long story."

"Oh, well, I have time. I would love to get to know you four. Especially you." He looked at Moonclaw, a glitter in his eyes.

Moonclaw seemed to be fighting the urge to hiss at him. "Why me?"

Flick purred. "You seem like a brave cat. A beautiful one, too." His words were flirtatious and made Dovesong's fur tingle. She saw the fur on Moonclaw's neck and shoulders lift.

Moonclaw shot him a look that said Shut up or I'll claw your ears off. "Too late. I stopped loving cats a long time ago."

"Oh? How come?" Flick asked.

Moonclaw curled her lip. "That's my business." She turned back to the other Clan cats. "Can we go now?"

"Sure. We delivered the message, so yeah," Goldenheart mewed.

"Good." Moonclaw looked at Flick with pure disgust. "I don't want to stick around here any longer."

Suddenly Flick collapsed. The four Clan cats turned their gazes to him, all bristling with alarm. He seemed to be unconscious now, lying limp on the ground, his limbs twitching and his tail thrashing as if he were having a bad dream. But then Dovesong realized that his eyes were open but glazed over as if dead. "W-what's happening?" she asked.

"I've never seen this before. But by the looks of it, I think it's a seizure," Moonclaw mewed, her voice wavering. "I-I don't know what to do."

"We need to get help!" Goldenheart rushed out of the area before anyone could stop her.

Dovesong watched her go, then turned back to Flick and her companions. Flick's seizure had passed, and now he lay limp on the grass, his eyes closed. "F-Flick?"

Flick groaned and opened his eyes. "You're still here," he breathed. "Where's the other one? The yellow cat."

"Goldenheart went to get help. Are you okay?" Moonclaw asked.

"I will be. Don't worry, that's happened before." Flick grunted as he got to his paws. He stumbled a bit and collapsed on the ground again.

"That's not good," Blizzardpelt told him. "Have you done anything about it?"

"My housefolk have taken me to the vet before. But they couldn't do much. At least, I don't think so," Flick explained.

"The vet?" Moonclaw repeated, tipping her head to one side. "What's that?"

"Oh, nothing. Point is, they couldn't do anything. And I don't know what I can do to stop this. I get really weird hallucinations, too. They couldn't fix that either." Flick's voice was solemn and somber.

"Is that why you attacked Luna?" Dovesong asked.

"Yes," Flick admitted. "I tried to explain, but she didn't understand. And one day, she just left. With my kits. I have been heartbroken ever since."

"Will you attack us?" Goldenheart had returned. "And you're okay!"

"I was just explaining to these three that this has happened ever since I was a kitten," Flick told her. "And no, I would never attack you four. I never really had the intention to hurt Luna, either. It's just this condition that . . ." He trailed off, his eyes narrowing into thin slits. He curled his lip in a snarl. "What are you doing here?" he demanded as if he were talking to someone else.

Dovesong felt her fur prickle. "I think this is one of the hallucinations that he was talking about," she told the others, backing away from Flick.

"Yeah," Goldenheart agreed. "We should probably get out of here."

"Good idea. Come on. He has the message, so we have no more business here except to get out." Moonclaw waved her tail and she led them out of the area. They leaped on the silver boulders that were standing beside the Twoleg den and onto the top of the den. They stopped there and looked over the top.

"Where's Moonclaw?" Goldenheart asked.

Dovesong looked around frantically for the feisty black-and-white she-cat. Flick was gone, too. Oh my . . . "Flick's gone, too."

The fur on Goldenheart's spine spiked. "Great. Let's look for them." She leaped off of the Twoleg den, then when Dovesong and Blizzardpelt didn't follow, she peeked over the top and asked, "Come on, you don't want to leave her behind, do you?"

Dovesong glanced at Blizzardpelt, then back at Goldenheart. "No. Let's go." She followed Goldenheart, Blizzardpelt behind her. Her heart began to race at the thought of what they might find.