To get to the Pack of Silver Sun was easier than Pepper thought it would be. Within an hour of traveling, Pepper, Lark, Oak, Solar, and Bird had arrived in the camp... but immediately, Pepper felt that something was wrong.
        Skip and Feather were severely wounded, with Feather missing a leg and lying in the Healer's den, while Skip's tail seemed to be severed.
        "What happened here?" Solar asked, gazing at the bloody clearing. He received an answer almost instantly.
         "A stick-wielder came, carrying a stick with a sharp point made of stone. We attempted to warn them off, except failed, and they severed Skip's tail, then pulled out another stick, not as long as the first, but with a sharp stick part made of stone, cut Feather's left leg clean off." Snowfall spoke with a bitter tone.
        Lark snarled. "Those crooked-minded stick-wielders... but now that you also know, Pepper has to tell you what she saw herself." He had calmed himself down at the second half, trying to hold onto his sanity.
        Pepper started to explain once everything calmed down, and all of them listened to her. "I saw hundreds of stick-wielder dens. They appeared to be made out of wood, and some kind of stone and clay. One was pouring a gray-ish mud that seemed to appear as melted pebbles, or maybe thousands of tiny ones, maybe some kind of gray sand, yet I didn't dare to go close. They were sealing us away from the Celestial Caverns, and claiming it as their own." Pepper finished, reliving the flight above their dens. But then she continued with what she had to say.
        "I could find a way to the ancestors, maybe. But without help, we'll be unable to cope with these stick-wielders. If your pack helped as a distraction, maybe your fastest runner, then I could sneak into the cave to see. But of course, we need Swiftfall and Dusk to approve of this, with your help that will be possible. Especially if you send another to come along to hear the ancestors. We need you all. Even the Pack of Falling Moon..." Pepper's thought trail changed, into a direction of where the Pack of Falling Moon captured Pepper and used her as a device for their evil-doing.
        Pepper also knew another way to speak to the ancestors. But of course, 
        "In that case... if we want to keep our territories, it might come to war. And if it does, we'll fight alongside the Pack of Howling Hollow. You have my word." Snowfall dipped her head. "Now please, be on your way."
        The alpha ushered the five out of their territory, escorting them until the edge of it. From there, they would have to rush back to tell Swiftfall and Dusk the news. Which, they reacted a lot better than when Pepper first told them. But it wasn't all good news.
        "So we have the Pack of Silver Sun on our side. Which is good. But the bad thing is, the Pack of Falling Moon refused our offer to ally. They said if we gave them Pepper, they'd ally if the stick-wielders didn't leave to follow Pepper as they were her 'army'." Swiftfall paced.
        The Pack of Falling Moon suspect me to be the cause? Except I wasn't.... this is what they were planning. They want the forest for themselves, and they know that without the winged wolf the other packs would be vulnerable for attack, and then the forest would be theirs. I can't allow that to happen, Pepper thought, coming to realize the Pack of Falling Moon's plan.
        Swiftfall suddenly spoke, starting off a plan. "Of course, we need more of us to be ready. Once all the current Pupils are done training... we can take back what is rightfully ours. Tonight, Snake and Forest shall be assessed to see if they are ready to finish their training. A quarter moon-cycle after that, Bird and Blueberry. It may take long, but we have to prepare before twelve moon cycles. Dusk, start sending out nightly patrols. Murky and Alpine, prepare a lot of herbs. Squirrel, Mouse, and Pepper have to train regularly. We have to get a plan in motion, and send messengers to the Pack of Silver Sun constantly to make sure we both know the plan. And I understand that you are not evil, Pepper, so you will not be kept away from training."
        Although the she-wolf spoke fast, there was a hint of pure anxiety in Swiftfall's voice. But Pepper knew that the alpha had a plan, or at least a scrap of a plan to get them ready, and that it would work. 
        
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        No one knew how long it would take for all the wolves to be ready to take the caverns back. That's why they sent Pepper to look from above; to see if the stick-wielders had gotten any closer, and if they carried more of their crafted things to determine how long the packs had.
        Pepper glided across the stretched fields, looking down below at the strange stick-wielder dens. There seemed to be stick-wielders gaurding the fields, carrying the same sticks that had severed Feather's leg, and severed Skip's tail as well. They would have to prepare for those.
        But they wouldn't fail to overthrow these stick-wielders- they couldn't, as Pepper promised the Ancestors of the Starryfall that she wouldn't fail them. As Pepper flew back though, the pieces to the puzzle started to make sense.