Wildstar's POV

Thick clouds covered the entire sky as I led my patrol to the border opposite of RockClan. Crescentmoon and Chippaw trotted in behind me as we neared the territory marks. There was a groaning sound coming from the barrier, meaning there was an infected creature captured in one of our traps. None were caught in the sharpened sticks lined up at the edge of our territory, so I knew it was in one of the many deep holes. I sped up my pace to see what species was there. Chippaw hurried in beside me and wrinkled his nose at the gruesome site of another Twoleg. One of its legs were bent back the other way, maggots eating away at the decaying flesh. It lay, clawing at the dirt with twisted paws, on top of an infected dog that was no longer moving.

"What do we do with it?" Chippaw asked, backing away. Sighing, I wrinkled my nose at the revolting smell of the two rotting bodies and turned to face the growing apprentice. "We will have to leave it and let it starve." I answered, turning around to see two stumbling cats coming our way. Crescentmoon was already on it. She slashed at their faces one at a time, hopping backwards to avoid any bites. One had no fur at all with few oozing gashes here and there - whether it was naturally a sphynx, there was no way to tell - while the other drug its hind leg behind it, its orange tabby fur stained with blood.

I bounded toward Crescentmoon to help her fight them off. The black she-cat swung at the hairless cat and sent it stumbling back, but it immediately was coming after her again. I slashed at the orange cat and backed up, planning to lead it into the hole. It snapped at me, so I kept hopping back to avoid any contact with it.

As I lead the moaning creature toward me, Crescentmoon lashed at the naked cat. It staggered back for a split heartbeat, and during that time Crescentmoon turned and used the back kick technique to send it flying into the wall of sharpened sticks. The sound of the sticks piercing through its infected body made my stomach turn, but I had to focus on leading the orange cat to its dungeon. It squirmed and kept moaning even with the stick jabbing out of its stomach.

I gave the orange cat a few blows to the head and then pushed it with my front paws into the hole. It tumbled onto a white cat, its face sunken in and one eye missing. They stared up at me with open jaws, clawing at the dirt. The white cats' paws were raw from trying to get out. Soon the orange cat will have raw paws too, I thought, turning to face Chippaw and Crescentmoon.

"How could you do this to me?" A familiar voice whimpered. I froze, my heart leaping. Crescentmoon, on the other paw, was teaching Chippaw the same move she had used. Neither of them seemed to have heard the voice. "Help me!" I slowly turned around, expecting to see a cat in need of help. Instead the calls for help echoed from the hole. 

"Why, sister? We are your Clanmates!" The white cat sobbed. I blinked, and all of a sudden Lightfeather and Spottedfire were gazing up at me. A lump formed in my throat and I felt a whimper escape my lips. Ignore it! The trauma is getting to you; you have to be strong for your Clan! "Help me! Help me!" They chanted, reaching up to me. The trance filled my heart with sorrow, I'm so sorry I couldn't save you... "Don't leave me here to die!" 

My heart sped up and I started breathing heavily, feeling lightheaded. I felt a nudge in my side, jolting me from my imagination. "Are you okay? We were calling your name but you didn't answer," Crescentmoon meowed, her eyes filled with concern. 

I nodded and took a deep breath. "I'm alright, just had a flashback. Are you two going to train before you stay to guard?" They exchanged glances, and then Crescentmoon replied, "I think he learned enough for today. When I finish watching over the barriers, I will take him out tonight for some hunting." I dipped my head in agreement and wished her luck as Chippaw and I headed back to the camp.
***

Chippaw padded into the camp first and was welcomed by his father. The young apprentice ducked from his tail, embarrassed, and hurried to the fresh-kill pile. Wolftail snorted and watched his son pad away. "Do you think that's normal for him to give me such attitude?" 

"I think he's mad about your new mate, if anything. He's young, and is also Loudbird's son!" Pain filled his eyes for a moment, but when he turned to face me he had hid it with humor. "True that," He murmured. 

I decided to switch the subject to our current problems instead of focusing on the past. "As for the border patrol, there have been different kinds of infected creatures venturing toward our barriers. A Twoleg had fallen into one of the holes on top of the dog we fought the other day." He nodded as I spoke, taking in the information with narrowed eyes.

"So we should keep up daily patrols, especially ones to check on Crescentmoon and Ghostglow. Should we update the sharpened sticks and try to come up with new traps?" Wolftail tipped his head to the side. I considered it, Would it do anything to make new traps? What would these 'new traps' even be? We can barely dig out a hole big enough for a Twoleg with such a low number of warriors...

I took a deep breath. "I will ask the Clan of their ideas for new traps and how we should go about it. After all, this is our Clan, not just mine or yours. We should also consider giving Chippaw an assignment to see how well he is doing with his training. We need all of the warriors we can get at this point." Wolftail's eyes brightened and he gave me an eager nod. "I'll keep that a secret!" He chirped.

Before we could go any farther with ideas, Smoketail burst into the camp with Whisperbreeze limping in behind him. The medicine cat had asked that a warrior come with him to get more herbs. I instantly stood up and hurried to her side. "Those mouse-brained RockClan cats dug holes in our territory! I could smell their retched scent from tail-lengths away, and when we went to investigate, Whisperbreeze tripped in a hidden hole. Luckily nothing is broken, and that I was there to wrap it up." Smoketail was furious, fur spiked up and ears back. 

A growl rose in my throat, tail lashing. "Wolftail, watch the camp. I'm going to speak to Silverstar right now." As I headed out of the camp, a warrior came up behind me. "I'm coming with you. You never know what those fools will do..." I turned to face Thornfall. Dipping my head to him, we trotted out of camp and toward RockClan.
***

I almost hesitated as I crossed their border, but I knew no warrior had any good reason to stop a leader from entering their territory, especially under such circumstances. Their camp was in plain view from that moment we entered their territory. We headed toward the flat rock, rage pulsing through my veins. 

Neither Thornfall nor me spoke, we just hurried to their camp in silence. With Thornfall on my tail, I hopped up onto the boulders and let myself in. Many cats turned to face us with concerned facial expressions. A few were hostile but remained mute.

"I need to speak to your leader. Now." I snarled, looking to each of the warriors faces. A few narrowed their eyes, while two looked away. They know something is up! As I went to demand for Silverstar again, Crowflight appeared out of the leaders den. 

"Where is Silverstar? I don't want to talk to you, I need to have a word with the one who makes the decisions around here!" I snapped, taking a step toward the tall black deputy. Calmly, he announced, "Silverstar is ill and wishes for me to speak to the intruder."

I let out a bitter purr. "The intruder, you say? I came to your camp to ask why there are hidden holes in my camp, reeking of your Clan! I would say someone here is the intruder, not me!" Crowflight tipped his head to the side as if he didn't know what I was talking about. "I apologize for the injury of your warrior, but it must have been one of our apprentices disobeying orders. We wouldn't let any cat into your territory unless there was a reason." 

"This sounds fishy..." I scoffed, "How would an apprentice get across our borders without someone seeing? Why would they come and dig holes, too? Do not lie to me, Crowflight." There was a purr from beside me. "We're not the ones who smell fishy," Someone snickered and I watched Thornfall out of the corner of my eye whip around to face the cat, teeth bared. 

As I kept my eyes locked with Crowflights, he shook his head with no emotions showing in his eyes. "I'm sorry but I'm not lying, Wildstar,' he insisted.

"Then keep your apprentices away from my borders. We need all of our warriors to be healthy at a time like this! If this, or anything like this, happens again, we will be here looking for a fight." I spat, teeth bared and fur spiked up.

I stormed out of the camp and hurried back to my territory. Thornfall took a heartbeat longer to follow in behind me, clearly distressed and unsatisfied with the answer we had gotten. When we were close to our border, Thornfall muttered, "They are full of mouse-dung... I know for a fact that it was on purpose! It made no sense that an apprentice would just wander into an enemies territory only to dig holes!" I nodded in agreement, "They must be planning something. We need to be on guard at all times..."

Thornfall gave me one stern nod, "I will stay up tonight with Ghostglow to help patrol the territory." He offered. I thanked him and mentioned Chippaw will do the same with Crescentmoon the following morning.

"Wait!" A voice called. Not this again... I expected it to be a flashback, but to my relief Thornfall had heard it too. We both glanced over our shoulders. A slender tabby hurried toward us, with a familiar bushy red cat in behind him. "I mean no harm! I have something to tell you!" The tom hissed, trying to keep his voice low. Thornfall and I waited; he unsheathed his claws but stood firm. 

It was Tigerstripe and Foxtuft. "Silverstar has gone crazy. I cannot tell you her thoughts out of fear that she will kill me, but I insist you be careful." He panted. Foxtuft held a sparrow in her jaws and kept her gaze to the ground. With narrowed eyes, I dipped my head to him and padded away without a word.