Blossompaw shivered, “Why did the forest have to be so cold?” she thought. The tall, magnificent trees blocked all sunlight from coming down, if there was any sun to begin with.

“Blossompaw, have you noticed there’s no prey? We’ll starve!” Sootpaw hastily whispered. “Yes, but we’ve been walking for hours, and I’m not hungry.” Blossompaw whispered back. “We ate before going to bed though. Bramblepath reasoned.”

            “Did you hear anything Leaffox?” a raspy voice said from behind a bramble bush. The three cats immediately stopped bickering and ran up the nearest tree. “Yes I did Darkflight, should we check it out?” “Of course.” Blossompaw thought they would never find them, but alas, she was wrong.

            Sootpaw accidentally stepped on a twig. Leaffox’s eyes immediately went towards their tree. “Up there.”

“What are we going to do now?” Sootpaw asked. “We might as well jump on them.” Blossompaw sighed. “That’s dangerous! What if we break something? There’s no medicine cat to help!” ”Well, if we stay up here they’ll push us out of the tree and we’ll have nothing soft to land on!” Blossompaw reasoned. “Well, I guess you’re right. Three, two one, go.” Bramblepath counted down.

The three of them jumped on top of Leaffox and Darkflight. Leaffox grunted under the weight, but Bloodflight didn’t say anything. He was dead and he faded away. “You! Leaffox said struggling to get up, I loved him! I will get revenge some day!” Leaffox yowled and started to walk away. She didn’t realize Sootpaw coming up from behind her until too late.

Blossompaw stared as Sootpaw cut her throat. “Sootpaw, you killed her?” “This isn’t a place that follows the warrior code, we must not follow the code here if we want to live.” Sootpaw’s words sent a shiver up her spine, but she knew he was right. They needed to survive.

“Guys, have you noticed that we’ve only found cats in pairs?” Blossompaw whipped her head around to look at Bramblepath, he had a point. “I guess they think it’s safe here, I’m sure we’ll start finding bigger groups soon. They continued to walk and Blossompaw noticed that Bramblepath was limping.

“Bramblepath! You’re hurt!” “Oh that, it’s nothing, it’s just from the fall.” “No, you need to rest Bramblepath. Blossompaw and I will take turns as guard, don’t worry.” Bramblepath sighed, “Fine, but wake me up when there’s trouble.” “We will.” Blossompaw told him. Bramblepath closed his eyes and fell asleep. “Sootpaw, I’ll take the first shift, I need to think.” “Okay Blossompaw.” Sootpaw lied down next to Bramblepath and fell asleep.

Blossompaw stared at his chest moving up and down. Suddenly she had a thought she’d never had before, and a feeling that was new to her. “I never noticed this before. Sootpaw’s actually handsome, and he’s really kind. Do I love him? Does he love me back?

Blossompaw spent the rest of the night thinking about that before rousing Sootpaw and falling asleep.