Crescentpaw turned her head just in time to see the creature pursuing. It took the exact path that Hillflower had taken, as if it were following her scent.

The animal had a dark, distinctive predatory aura. As if it had no goal other than to kill them.

Which it does. The wolf's head was lowered as it sniffed along Hillflower's footfalls. It was trotting quickly, large paws skimming the grass. It looked like a young wolf.

Crescentpaw's ears flattened. She barreled her head into Oatkit's flank, shoving the tomkit into a barreling run.

"Get back to Windclan's camp! Back to the maple tree!" She snapped.

Cloverkit stumbled over her own paws.

"That's too far!" The kitten wailed pitifully, hardly looking where she was stepping.

Oatkit darted ahead of them. Crescentpaw tensed.

"There's no trees out here, Cloverkit! We have to go now."

They had waited too long. The wolf overcame them, and Crescentpaw flattened herself to the ground beside Cloverkit, trying to cover the kitten's nape with her outstretched paws.

The wolf didn't even glance at them. Its feet flung up dirt as it passed them by. The animal rounded the bend of a hill and within seconds was gone.

It's following Hillflower's trail so closely that it didn't notice us. Cloverkit trembled in the grass.

"Go now. Get to the maple tree now!" She pulled the kit up by her scruff. Cloverkit's white tail was fluffed with terror.

"By myself?" She asked, glancing around.

Crescentpaw's blood was roaring in her ears. She swiveled her head, a sense of foreboding swelling in her chest.

The apprentice twitched her tail, not sure what to do next, yet knowing she had no time to think about it.

"Yes, just go! Follow Oatkit's scent trail to the Windclan camp." She meowed firmly a few seconds later.

"I've got to see if Hillflower's okay. Go, hurry! You'll be fine."

Crescentpaw made sure that Cloverkit headed in the right direction, and quickly. Then she leaped off the path toward the wolf's scent trail. Windclan grasses blurred around her, golden-gray in the wash of shadow beneath a dim-lit sky. Twilight would fall soon.

The apprentice was perturbed. I thought we'd be lucky enough to make it back to Riverclan before a wolf showed up. I thought we'd have more warriors to deal with something like this, if it did happen.

She trudged on with oatgrass lashing against her muzzle. Hillflower can't be killed. She can't be. She's got to be okay. Crescentpaw pushed through the stems, her adrenaline growing.

Her turmoilious thoughts were cut off as she skidded into a sloping dip with gritty earth. Dark spiky plants grew from the loosened soil, strong-smelling and stiff.

Crescentpaw hurled around them and drew up short, paws faltering as she nearly slipped in blood.

Hillflower's fluffy neck-fur was a mess of torn flesh, exposing the pale pink-and-white windpipe inside. The she-cat's eyes were blank and reflectionless.

She stared up at the soft peony clouds, but Crescentpaw knew that she wasn't seeing anything while she laid there on her back.

Starclan help us...

The only other injury was a tapering trickle of blood from bite wounds in her back. The wolf had killed Hillflower and left her here.

To come back later. Very soon later. They didn't even bury her. Her pupils shrank into slits, and Crescentpaw felt her heart swell with terror.

The others.

She left Hillflower and hurled herself through the heather, away from the spiky plants and the medicine cat's stiffening body.

Am I crazy or have these wolves learnt some sort of strategy for hunting us? Slay as many as you can first, then come back later to eat the victims.

Just how intelligent are they? Her tail bushed as she ran. A clear scent-trail was laid out before her.

It's heading in the direction Cloverkit went. A sickening feeling rose within her. It plagued her thoughts and set her nerves on end. Inquietude caused her paws to jerk.

She followed the musky canine scent straight to the source. Crescentpaw saw a pair of fluffy grey haunches in the gloom ahead of her. The Riverclan she-cat ran harder as she drew closer, fur streaming in the wind.

The wolf's back arched as it flinched and then lunged toward something. She pulled up behind the thick-furred animal, snarling.

Has it got Cloverkit? Crescentpaw glimpsed two other cats from the corner of her eye.

Trufflefur and Sootface were beside the wolf's front paws, aiming slashes at its muzzle and face. The thick-furred animal snapped at their ears and forelegs.

She saw Trufflefur flinch back and hiss when a tooth caught his shoulder. He attacked all the more savagely in defense. Right when Crescentpaw bared her teeth to join in, the wolf lifted its head above their assaulting claws.

It focused on the retreating Cloverkit. She looked injured, dragging a bloodied hind-leg behind her. One part of her face was ripped apart and raw, streaming with a dark red liquid. Her flesh caught the light of the claw-scratched moon between cloud, exposed and glistening while the mangled kit pulled herself along. She looked like half-dead prey.

The wolf stepped over Sootface and Trufflefur, launching itself into a loping run. Panic exploded in Crescentpaw's heart.

She stamped her back paws and took off in a flying sprint. Her legs were a blur as she sailed above the higher Windclan grasses, paws barely touching ground.

"Help! Help!" Cloverkit was wailing now, to no cat in particular since she was faced toward Windclan's dark open moorland.

She's too exposed! "I'm coming, Cloverkit! Just run!"

The Riverclan she-cat managed to reach the wolf before it reached Cloverkit. She leaped onto its shoulders, planning to fasten her foreclaws into the thick fur of its ruff and bite at its eyes.

It was an impulsive idea. She slid off immediately.

Crescentpaw didn't give up her attack. She showed the wolf a relentless spitting assault, lashing her forepaws against its muzzle and drawing her lips back in a snarl. With her ears flattened, she leaped onto its nose with her teeth bared.

Her fangs sunk into the leathery flesh with a grating spurt of blood, and Crescentpaw felt fierce satisfaction aiding the ferocity of her attack.

However, the wolf merely lifted a foreleg. It scraped a strong set of blunt claws against her ribs, causing her to let go immediately. The animal snapped strong jaws at her forehead, just barely missing her skull and smashing it to oblivion.

Her flank was smarting when Crescentpaw reached the earth. She landed on her feet and recovered quickly, glancing in dismay as the wolf rapidly left her behind.

Cloverkit was still dragging herself, but slower now. The wolf took a few more striding steps, bending its neck to reach for her.

Terror bushing her pelt, Crescentpaw surged forward again without hesitating. She was aware of the other warriors beside her. She thought she could hear Jadestar yowling orders behind them.

The Riverclan apprentice didn't know or care when Skyclan's leader arrived. Her gaze was fixed on that grey-brown pelt.

As she fell upon the wolf a second time, she ripped her teeth into its back tendon. The animal seemed not to react, its shoulder muscles rippling as it tore at Cloverkit's body.

Let Cloverkit go!

The animal was so much larger than her that she couldn't lift its hindleg, let alone imbalance it. When Crescentpaw released and bounded towards the wolf's forelegs, she halted.

Cloverkit's head was in the wolf's mouth. The kit's eyes were already clouded. Her neck was gripped firmly by the wolf's lower jaw, while the crest of her skull took the brunt of its sunken-in canines. Her brown-and-white body hung down limp.

Turmoil rotted in Crescentpaw's belly, until it felt like maggots were eating her alive.

I was too late. I failed.

"Stay back!" Jadestar was screaming at her.

Twice.

The Skyclan leader took a flying leap from her rapid running and knocked into the wolf's temple. It scrunched its eyes and flinched backward, taking the full force of Jadestar's hit.

Jadestar was on it again instantly. The wolf pinned its ears. Her claws ripped at its lips and eyelids, so that it was forced to drop Cloverkit. In attempt to regain line of sight, the wolf blinked and backed away.

Trufflefur and Sootface approached behind her. The two warriors aimed blows at the same area, copying the Skyclan leader's relentless attacks.

Within a few seconds they had disoriented the lone wolf. The animal flicked blood from its shredded maw. It took a few faltering pawsteps backward.

Underneath a darkening ashen sky, the wolf whined with confusion and gave up.

The remaining warriors watched it walk away. Darkness swallowed the moorland, as the stormy sky above tugged the clouds along with a hefty, humid wind.

Rainpaw approached from a shadowy area of well-grown horsetail. Clearly she had been hiding. She smelled of the plants she'd emerged from.

Glancing over at Cloverkit's bloody body with concern, Crescentpaw expected her to say something, and when she didn't Jadestar spoke up.

"We must bury Cloverkit, find the others and leave." Jadestar's tone was grave.

Crescentpaw looked at her chest-fur with dismay.

"Hillflower isn't... alive either. We have to bury her, too." The Riverclan cat's voice was strained. She felt her tail fall several inches lower, as she went on to explain what had happened while she was watching the kits.

"Why wasn't she with Pepperpelt? I said to keep in pairs!" Jadestar's emerald gaze was exasperated. She cursed and began pacing.

In the gloom of Windclan's sky-exposed moor, the cats just stared at one another.

"Whatever the reason, we can't just leave their fresh bodies lying around. More wolves could come soon." Rainpaw's eyes were wide with distress, and Crescentpaw could understand why.

The Riverclan apprentice opened her jaws to speak, clear and patient as she questioned the others. "Can't one of us go back to the spot we split off from? Pepperpelt might be waiting there with prey." If she somehow missed the wolf scent.

"And Oatkit's back at the Windclan camp by now." Crescentpaw urged.

"Hopefully."

I don't want Pepperpelt returning to a buried Cloverkit, then finding out her son is dead as well...

"We have to find her," Crescentpaw pursued. "Whether she's still alive or not."

"It's not safe. It could get another one of us killed," Jadestar shook her head, long whiskers swaying.

"And we can't leave Cloverkit here, either. That's asking for the wolf to come back."

Ugh. What if the wolf crosses Pepperpelt's path on her way back? But she accepted the clan leaders choice and began to dig alongside them. Crickets chirped in the waving grasses beyond, while Silverpelt twinkled above.

When they were done they went back for Hillflower, dragging her body right up next to Cloverkit's.

"They will be buried together. Side by side," Jadestar meowed at her clanmates while Crescentpaw and Trufflefur worked alongside them.

Their paws were gritty and dirt-stained. The cool breeze provided relief to their labor, tousling Crescentpaw's plumey fur.

I hope Oatkit made it to that maple tree. Her breath became ragged as she shoved the last piles of earth into the hole, finishing up beside the other cats.

May you bound as a Starclan warrior in Silverpelt. She prayed for Hillflower and Cloverkit as the other cats bent their heads in silent prayer.

Crescentpaw's ears swiveled as she heard light pawsteps approaching from behind.

Pepperpelt's belly swayed as she increased speed, speaking around a large grouse in her jaws. The feathers on its neck were stuck out at awkward angles.

"Where are my kits?"