Lilyfrost is ducking away from me, her eyes filled with tears and hatred. Everyone is staring at me, a vicious circle of my clanmates turned against me, their voices full of bile.

"You killed him!"

"How could you?"

"I hope you get exiled."

Firepool shakes his head sadly. I have nothing to say. My throat is dry. I sputter a bit, a kitlike mewl rising up in my throat, one of abandonment and sadness.

All my fault.

All my fault.

All my fault.

Shadowstep walks forward, and lowers her head. She examines Hawktalon's limp body, which is bruised beyond recognition. It looks like he got thrown against rocks and then run over by three monsters, followed by being eaten and spit out by a mountain lion. The worst part by far is the only source of blood on him- his eyes have been torn out of the sockets, leaving the empty holes oozing blood. The fur is ragged, but my fur is still there, my claws still bloodied, the marks still barely evident."These claws are raking backwards." She says.

"What does that have to do with anything? She k-k-killed him!" Lilyfrost wails.

"No, that doesn't make any sense. See, these are shallow, shallow wounds with no sign of blood loss. They're obviously dragging backwards as well, so from what we've seen he fell off a cliff. She would have to have been floating in mid air to pull him off the cliff like that..."

"So she just happened to be sitting on the same mountain and he just happens to have her fur in his bloody flank." snarls Blazefur, who I know to be a close friend of Hawktalon's. He used to be, anyways...

Another cat runs towards us, skidding and dirt flies into the air. Rabbitpaw, oversized ears falling in front of his face, squeaks, "Blazefur, you have to stop the trial for now! Mothstar's- Mothstar's patrol!"

"What about it?" Blazefur says, jumping to his paws without hesitation, hackles raised. He's not going to take any more bad news.

"StoneClan attack... again. FrostClan... is with them..." He stops wheezing, and looks up at Blazefur pleadingly.

"Beesting, Dragonwing, Lionfur, Tigerfang... any other warriors in camp not in the trial?"

Everyone else in camp looks up at him, and shakes their heads vigorously. Blazefur grumbles deep in his throat and then flicks his tail.

Tigerfang turns back and says to them all, "I have a gut feeling that she's guilty. Better exile her."

As he leaves, he whispers in my ear, "What a terrible shame, isn't it?"

My fur raises like spikes on a hedgehog. My eyes are wide with fury and pain as he laughs, padding away.

His adopted son is dead and he finds time to mock me.

What an old badger.

Shadowstep continues, "These scars indicate that she was pulling him back, which would mean she was trying to stop him. Doesn't that fit with her story?"

"The whole 'dark cat' thing is ridiculously suspicious." sighs Foxfang.

"I believe her." Lilyfrost says. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll go with innocent until proven guilty. If those scars... m-m-match... up..."

I stare at her in pure shock. I thought she hated me. Shouldn't she, of all cats, be the one to dish out the blame? Not a word is said as the tears roll down her cheek, and I walk over to her and comfort her.

"He loved you." she whispers. "I-I heard him talk about you on that day... he didn't know I knew his plan..."

"It was the dark cat messing with his feelings." I tell her, purring between my hiccups as the tears flow.

She presses into me, and then Firepool walks over, then Cobrastrike, Brightpaw, Sunpaw, Shadowstep... all of them protecting us.

"We're here for you."

The sound of mourning rings through the camp, and in the early dusk I almost see another star, brighter than the others.

Our peaceful, eerie silence is upset by a wail of terror.

The StoneClan attack is going poorly.