Moon has been acting very odd as of late. He hasn't been his normal, social self. He hasn't been reclusive, as that seems to be impossible for him, but his social presence seems restricted.

I don't know if this is something that I should be wary of, in case he's planning something, or he could just be getting older and more narcissistic than he already was. The former is incredibly more likely, as Moon is smart enough to know how much narcissism is too much narcissism.

He hasn't been volunteering for patrols, or gloating about who knows what.

This makes me very concerned. Moon wouldn't change lifestyles that easily. That means that he has to be planning something, likely that will cause someone to die.

Or, he's being quite the genius himself and he's just messing with my head. Who knows?

I continued digging into my mouse, which was starting to get a little cold from me not eating it. I made sure to keep an eye on Moon as he moved around the camp, watching him as he went over to Greytail and asked if there were a patrol he could go with.

Moon nodded in response to whatever Greytail's answer was, and turned to go back towards the fresh-kill pile. As he bent down to grab a piece of prey, he froze. Moon turned to me, his eyes wide, and then he snapped his head to look at the nursery.

I quickly looked in the same direction as Moon, intensifying my glare as I focused in on the nursery and whatever Moon was looking at.

What? I asked.

I heard something behind the nursery.

But what are you so panicked about?

Remember Frostkit?

Oh. Frostkit had mysteriously been killed overnight in Riverclan, or so I'd heard. It was announced at the last gathering, but I was surprised that Moon had remembered. What about it?

Lion told me that he heard a noise the day she was killed.

But there aren't any kits inside the nursery.

Which makes me worried that whoever is doing this isn't going for just kits.

Oh.

"Maplepelt? Are you alright? You're just staring at the nursery."

I shook my head and looked over to see Thrushheart settling down next to me. He drew a paw over his ear and then ruffled his fur, countering the breeze that was flowing through the air. I snuck a look back over at Moonpelt, who nodded and continued on his way.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about something." We sat in silence after that, enjoying the warm sun that was coming with new leaf and the breeze.

Our silence was interrupted by a clanmate. "Would you two care to join me on a hunting patrol?" Tigerpelt asked.

Thrushheart answered for us, because I still wasn't really paying attention. "We'd love to. Where are we headed?"

"I thought we could check towards the lake, and then move up to the Greenleaf Twolegplace. No one has been on that side of the territory in a few days, so prey should be running rather well. We can leave right now if you're ready."

Thrushheart looked over to me and asked, "Maplepelt? Would you be okay with leaving right now?"

Still partially focused on my amazing task of paying attention to the nursery, I distractedly replied, "Sure." My mind still drifting off into thought, I moved towards the tunnel out of camp. Thrushheart stayed at my side, while Tigerpelt moved out ahead of us to lead us towards the Twolegplace.

If the mysterious killer were to target someone in our clan, who would it be? Frostkit had no relation to our feud, so it wouldn't make sense for the target to be any of the reborn. I quickly ran through a list of all the possible cats that could be in danger.

It wouldn't make sense for the killer to go after a senior warrior, that would be too risky. Going after a leader or deputy would make sense to disturb peace, but also risky. Finchfur was a warrior before he was a medicine cat, so that doesn't make sense either. That left the young warriors who weren't reborn.

But who?

"Maplepelt, will you look past that bramble patch? Thrushheart, you go down by the lakeshore and try to find something. I think I heard a thrush a few tree-lengths back, so I'll go and check that out. Meet up back here once you've caught a few pieces, and then we'll go to the Twolegplace", Tigerpelt said, interrupting my train of thought.

Right. Clan first. Then thinking.

"Sure thing", I responded. Thrushheart nodded in agreement before bounding off further down the path, towards the lake in between the five clans. Tigerpelt turned in the opposite direction and went back the way we came, ears pricked and mouth slightly open to taste the air.

I split the difference between them and went towards the bramble patch, intending to make it to the other side of the patch. Looking around to make sure that no one was watching, and then extended my roots out from my paws to be able to walk over the patch without getting poked by the brambles.

I retracted my roots immediately after I made it to the other side of the brambles, and opened my jaws to see if I could taste any prey scents.

Padding around, I couldn't seem to find any prey, despite the warmer weather of Newleaf and the sun shining down through the canopies. This meant that I was able to let my thoughts wander back to the potential murder that might take place tonight.

Thrushheart, Amberpool, and Frostfur were all unlikely targets, as they had some relation to the ongoing war, despite two of them not even knowing anything about it.

That left Galebreeze, Birchclaw, Poppyfern, and Goldenstripe. All four were young warriors. Galebreeze was the oldest, so that took him almost completely out of the picture. That left the other three.

Suddenly, the scent of vole washing over my nose brought me out of my thoughts. I swiveled my ears, trying to pinpoint its location. I finally locking onto a tangle of roots under a large tree, and saw a little ball of brown scurrying around. I bunched all of my legs in, settling into a hunter's crouch, and ever so carefully stalked forwards, getting as close to the vole as possible without alerting it of my presence.

Once I felt as though I was close enough, I stopped, and transferred all of my weight into my hind paws. I would've leaped immediately, but the vole picked up its head, and looked straight at me. We both froze in place, staring at each other with our eyes wide. I made sure to keep my weight bunched in my hind paws, just in case I had to react quickly and chase after the vole.

The vole suddenly took of, and I sprinted after it, legs churning against the ground. I wasn't the fittest cat in the clan, so my breath ran out rather quickly, and I was soon wheezing for my breaths as I slammed into countless leafs chasing down this vole.

As our chase continued around a rather wide tree trunk, I started to hear voices. Whether they were clanmates or not, I could use them to help me catch this vole. As the voices got louder, I shouted, "Vole coming your way!"

The leader of the group turned towards the sound of my voice, and almost jumped in shock as the vole ran directly into her paws. The cat immediately slammed its paws down on the vole, killing it instantly.

"Thank you, Starclan, for this prey", I heard them mutter. The cat then looked up, and at me. "Who are you?" They asked.

Only after my adrenaline from the rush of the chase had died down, did I realize where I was.

Quite a ways into Shadowclan territory.

"I'm Maplepelt of Thunderclan. Sorry about being on your territory, I didn't realize. Would you let me take the vole back to Thunderclan?"

The same Shadowclan cat at the front responded, "Absolutely not. This prey was caught on Shadowclan land, and a Shadowclan cat caught it."

"Now now Dawnfire, let's be reasonable here", I looked to who was now talking, and saw Shadowclan's leader, Stygiastar. "Maplepelt chased the vole from his territory into ours, and even warned us that it was coming. I think he deserves the vole."

The cat who caught the vole, Dawnfire, responded, "But Stygiastar-"

"No buts, give the vole back to Maplepelt."

With a large groan, Dawnfire picked up the vole, walked over to me, and dropped it at my paws. "Whatever."

"Thanks", I whispered as she turned around to head back towards her patrol. I quickly said another thanks to Stygiastar before turning around and heading back in the direction of Thunderclan territory.

Note to self: Dawnfire isn't the friendliest of cats.

I made my way back to our meeting spot, as the whole chase and running over the border ordeal had taken up a good deal of time. I smelt a thrush on my way back, and the thrush decided to not be difficult and allow me to catch it.

Which was obviously quite a nice break from having to run into Shadowclan territory.

"Maplepelt! What took you so long? It feels like we've been waiting here for moons!" Tigerpelt shouted as I appeared into his field of vision, a playful grin across his face.

"Sorry about that, chased a vole into Shadowclan territory and met a patrol. Stygiastar was nice enough to give the vole back to me though."

"That's good. If you two want, you can head to the Greenleaf Twolegplace right now. I'm going to start taking this prey back, and also report to Lynxstar about what happened at the border. I know you may not like it, Maplepelt, but she should know", Tigerpelt said as he bent down to pick up a few pieces of prey.

"Are you sure you don't want any help with those, Tigerpelt?" Thrushheart asked.

"Yeah, it's okay. I'll get someone back at camp to help me out."

Thrushheart nodded, accepting Tigerpelt's response, and turned, beckoning me with his tail to follow his brisk pace in the direction of the Twolegplace.

We kept the brisk pace on the way to the Twolegplace, barely speaking despite our friendship. I took the silence as an invitation to once again dive into my thoughts about who the targeted cat could possibly be.

The issue with this is that there is yet to be a pattern since only one cat had been killed. I know it may be psychopathic, but having another cat die might help prevent further deaths.

No, that's stupid. Even under the ideology of "sacrifice one to save many". I have to figure this out today.

I looked over to Thrushheart, who was still blissfully unaware of my trance and had his eyes focused straight ahead.

If whoever this cat is is trying to kill cats close to involved in the war, the target would be Goldenstripe. But I don't think that Frostkit had any relation with Heron, other than them being denmates.

"Hey Maplepelt?" Thrushheart suddenly asked.

I shook myself out of my thinking trance and looked to Thrushheart, who was still held his gaze straight ahead. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can! What's up?"

"I'm having some romantic troubles." This was a mild surprise. Even with my wits, and Thrushheart being my best friend, I had never realized that he interested in someone.

"Oh?" I responded.

"Keep this between you and I, okay?"

"Yeah, I kind of figured." It was kind of amazing me how Thrushheart was able to keep walking whilst talking to me.

"What would one do if their preferred mate wasn't a clan cat?"

That sent me into some kind of shock. I had never noticed Thrushheart sneaking off to see someone, much less a rogue that wasn't in the clan. "You're seeing a rogue?"

"No."

I stopped immediately in my tracks, and Thrushheart did as well. "Thrushheart."

"What?"

"You're seeing a kittypet?"

"Yes."

I genuinely didn't know how to respond. Here I am, this once in a generation genius, and I could never smell the scent of kittypet on my best friend.

"Well..." I started, "I don't... I don't know where to go with this. I thought this would be something with another cat in Thunderclan, especially with you. But, I mean, I guess try to make it socially acceptable if you want to be with her forever."

I continued walking in the direction of the Twolegplace, "I'm fine with your relationship with her, it's just weird, is all. What's her name?"

"Her name is Willow. I can take you to see her soon if you'd like."

"Yes, that'd be nice and a help. Just take me next time you go to see her."

It's still crazy that Thrushheart is mates with a non-clan cat. And a kittypet no less! It's weird being surprised...

Wait.

I stopped in my tracks once again.

Surprise. I need surprise.

I turned to Thrushheart, "Finish hunting at the Twolegplace. I need to go." I immediately sprinted off in the direction of camp, leaving Thrushheart in my dust.

I don't need to figure out who is the target if I can stop the killer before they kill. I can listen for the sound of a cat moving in the brush and then force them into the open secretly with my roots.

Thrushheart called after me in confusion as I ran, but I didn't acknowledge him or turn around at all. If my memory serves me right, Heron mentioned that Frostkit was killed in the late afternoon.

I quickly took a look up into the sky, and saw that the sun was starting to dip below the horizon.

Fox-dung.

I may have taken too long to crack the code to saving a cat. And what use was cracking a code if it doesn't end up helping anyone?

This killer must have been quite skilled to have pulled off such a feat in Riverclan in broad daylight.

My heart pounded in fear that I hadn't thought fast enough as I neared the camp. If I wasn't fast enough, that might mean that I indirectly allowed the death of a clanmate. And I couldn't live with that, especially if the war were to come to a point where cats must decide between two sides. How could a reasonable cat choose the side of a cat who indirectly killed a clanmate?

Then, suddenly, as I was about to enter through the gorse bush that led into camp, I heard rustling.

My head snapped in the direction of the sound, and my paws followed suit. It took a lot less time to reach the sound than I thought it would, which only meant I had to work on my hearing later.

I broke through a layer of bramble and continued sprinting, the perpetrator coming into view.

"You", I spit, still running, malice heavy in my voice.

The cat turned their head and looked at me, surprise evident in his gaze.

And I leapt.

AND THAT'S A WRAP FOLKS!

Book one is officially completed!

It's been absolutely forever since I started this book, I think December of 2020?

Thank you to all who actually read this book, and an even bigger thanks to those who submitted their cats to be used way back at the beginning. 

There will be a follow up part after this concerning the next book in the series. Please read it.

Thank you everyone!

- Maple