Edited ✔️

The large branches of the tall oak trees were caught with the wind, rustling as the cold breeze swept by. The sun was barely visible against the gray clouds in the sky, and Icetail felt cold. Two moons have passed since DarkClan had attacked MoonClan, and things were different ever since. Nobody in the Clan felt easy anymore—Dewstar stole a small portion of MoonClan's territory that day as well, declaring that they had won the battle, and MoonClan had lost.

He clawed the ground just thinking about it. Cold-season is so close now, he thought, and MoonClan is already starting to go hungry. If only we had won the battle, if only I had prevented it, then we would still have that part of our territory. The Clan wouldn't be so hungry if it weren't for me!

"Icetail!" Amberpaw called, running up to him. "Icetail, look what I caught!"

He looked down to his apprentice, his thoughts broken apart. "What is it?" he asked her, trying to sound nice.

Amberpaw held up a scrawny black raven. "I stepped on a dead leaf and it heard me coming, but I caught it's wings and killed it before it could take off," she meowed. "How did I do?"

"You did great, Amberpaw," purred Icetail. "Go on, get back to hunting now. We're going to go back pretty soon."

She nodded and ran off with the raven in her jaws, eager to take it back to the Clan. Icetail sighed, and concentrated on his own hunting. He listened to his surroundings carefully. He wasn't so good at scenting, but he had very good hearing.

He could hear a mouse scrambling inside the trunk of a tree, and the sound of a bird up high in the branches flapping quietly around. He listened more carefully, trying to see if there was something he could reach. Small paws pattered against the earth, stepping over dead leaves and broke twigs.

There!

A scent reached his nose; vole! Icetail crouched down on the ground, and saw the vole looking around the forest floor for food. He crept from his spot, keeping as low to the ground as he could possibly go, until he was close enough to taste its scent, and pounced. Immediately, his teeth grappled around its body, and it squealed, but the sounds died away as he delivered a swift killing bite.

Pleased, he buried his prey and went out to find more.

"That was a good catch you had there," Ashtail's voice rose from the undergrowth. The warrior crept out from the cover. "I was going to hunt that before you came."

"Sorry," Icetail apologized.

"It's okay," Ashtail meowed with a shrug. "At least it'll feed the Clan."

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess." He looked from his spot and studied his surroundings. A large crash sounded, and he jumped, suddenly alert. "What was that?" Icetail demanded.

"It was probably a tree," murmured Ashtail. "The same thing happened a quarter-moon ago, remember?"

"All the prey is going to be scared away!" he hissed. "Why can't those dumb Twolegs stop cutting our trees? It's not like they need them!"

Ashtail sighed. "I'm going to go back to hunting," he meowed. "I need to bring back something for the Clan too. I'll meet you here soon." He padded away, his tail flicking. He disappeared once more into the undergrowth, and Icetail watched until his friend was gone completely.

He fixed his gaze on the forest around him. Things really haven't been the same for me or the Clan, he thought. I wish Dewstar never turned against us.

These thoughts kept running in his mind, until he heard something else. A squirrel was climbing an oak tree, and settled on one of the branches, chewing away at a seed in it's paws. His heart leaped. More prey!

Silently, Icetail began to climb its neighboring tree. He gripped onto the soft bark of the oak tree with his claws and hauled himself upon the first branch, and then leaped to the next as silent as a night predator. He gathered his haunches and leaped at the next tree, landing as lightly as he could. His eyes narrowed at the squirrel, and he leaped onto the branch, taking no time at all to grip his claws into its fluffy tail. It screeched with fear and tried to leap away, but Icetail had already caught a hold of it. He snapped it's neck with a killing bite, and then leaped down from his spot on the tree, landing roughly on the forest floor.

He dug up his vole, and took his prey away, decided that what he had was good enough. He stalked through the forest silently to the spot he was supposed to meet with his patrol, and waited patiently until his apprentice and Ashtail showed up.

Amberpaw was carrying her raven and a scrawny mouse, and Ashtail held a thrush in his jaws. He nodded to them, and led them back to camp quietly. Icetail wasn't in the mood to talk. His mood hasn't been good for a an entire moon now.

He sighed and kept padding on until the camp walls were visible. He walked through the entrance and padded over to the fresh-kill pile, dropping down his share on the empty pile.

"Amberpaw, take your raven to the elders please," he meowed, "And then give the vole to Sagepelt and the kits."

"Yes Icetail," Amberpaw said, doing as told.

Icetail padded from the fresh-kill pile, wandering around the camp. There was nothing going on—DarkClan had often tried to pick fights with MoonClan border patrols, but MoonClan often got away from them, carrying out their duties as usual. All of his comrades knew that they had much to lose. Engaging in battle with DarkClan again would only make matters worse.

Ever since that battle at the gathering, nothing had been the same anymore, he thought once more, sitting by himself. He looked up to the dark sky, wondering what had gone wrong, wondering what he had to do. I don't know the next steps that I need to take in order to find the meaning of the prophecy. This is too hard!

He clawed the ground as he thought, thinking about Shard's warning from two moons ago. If Icetail didn't do anything about the prophecy, Shard explained that his loved ones would die. He sighed, and began to groom his pelt.

Mousetail limped over. "Hi Icetail," meowed the old warrior. "You seemed pretty lonely, sulking in the shadows all by yourself."

"I guess," Icetail mumbled.

Mousetail hadn't been able to walk properly since that battle. The she-cat apparently caused a permanent wound on his leg and stirred up an infection, and Mousetail claimed it was much too painful to walk. He had to retire to the elder's den because he couldn't carry out his duties well, but Mousetail said it was about time anyway.

"How was hunting?" he went on.

"It was good," Icetail explained, "better than it has been compared to yesterday. I hope Silverleaf's patrol finds something. We only have enough for a paw-full of warriors right now . . ."

Mousetail's gaze was up in the sky. "If anything, I wouldn't eat if the warriors are starved." He sighed and lied down right beside Icetail. "It makes me feel bad that they waist their energy. Being an elder isn't fun, in my perspective anyway. I wish I could have done more for the Clan."

"I wouldn't eat if my Clanmates were hungry, either," Icetail commented.

"You're a good cat," purred Mousetail. "Brightstar was right for choosing you as her deputy. You'll be as good as a leader than Sparrowheart could of been."

"Thank you," Icetail meowed. I'm not sure if I'll even become leader, Icetail thought. Dewstar might kill me before that can ever happen.

"Look, the hunting patrol from the DarkClan border is back," said Mousetail, standing up.

The DarkClan hunting patrol was lead by Silverleaf, followed by Dropeyes, Volefur, and his apprentice, Blackpaw. At the same moment, the DarkClan border patrol padded through the entrance. Sharpfang was in the lead of that one.

Icetail got up from his spot and padded over to Silverleaf. He noticed a long scratch along her side. "What happened, Silverleaf?" he asked. "DarkClan?"

Silverleaf's claws scraped the ground as she shook her head. "Twolegs, that's what happened. We barely managed to catch anything! Those Twolegs had to cut down that tree—"

"You were there?" he asked.

"Yes, I was," growled Silverleaf. "Those fox-hearted Twolegs almost crushed us! We all barely managed to escape being crushed. I just got scratched by a branch, that's all. We're all fine, though."

"That's good to hear." Icetail's shoulders slumped with relief. "Now that there are no patrols left by DarkClan, I'd better set out watch patrols."

Watch patrols were patrols that kept an eye on the DarkClan borders in secret all night to make sure that there was no trouble stirring up there. A moon ago, Icetail and Brightstar decided to establish them because they felt uneasy leaving their borders unprotected. If anything were to happen, those who watched the borders would return straight to camp to report.

"I'll come with you," Silverleaf meowed. "Anyways, as I was saying, we didn't really catch much. I managed to catch a starling, and Blackpaw caught a frog."

"A frog?" Icetail asked with surprise as they padded over to the warrior's den. "What was a frog doing on our territory? Don't they normally reside in MarshClan?"

"I suppose, but prey is prey," mewed Silverleaf.

Icetail shuddered. There's no way I'm eating a frog! he thought with disgust. He entered the warrior's den, looking around to see which three cats should go on the watch patrol. Most were in camp already, the only patrol left out being the CloudClan border patrol.

"Stonetooth," he meowed, seeing the warrior sitting alone. "You can lead the watch patrol tonight. Crowflight and Rosepetal may go with you."

Stonetooth dipped his head. "Alright, that's fine by me."

Icetail nodded with approval, and turned back to Silverleaf. "I'm done with that," he said.

"The second border patrol had just returned," Silverleaf informed, her eyes turned to the camp entrance.

Icetail watched as Brightstar's patrol arrived. The leader was carrying a small mouse, and she dropped in on the pile as soon as she returned. The rest of the patrol clambered in to camp, exhausted. Icetail felt bad to see the state his Clanmates were in.

Dawnstripe was getting skinny, her ribs almost showing because she hadn't had much to eat these past few days. Swiftbreeze and Fireshade were both getting sick due to the chilling weather. Goldenpaw and Silverbreeze both kept waking up on the painful feeling of an empty stomach, and the rest of his Clanmates were plain hungry, with barely enough to go by each day.

Icetail was hungry himself, but he didn't want to admit it in case his Clanmates felt bad.

"The warriors may begin to pick their shares of the fresh-kill pile," called Brightstar after she checked on the elders and kits.

Icetail peered over to the pile. There were only two mice, a starling, a thrush, a squirrel and a frog. His belly rumbled, so he forced himself to turn his gaze away.

Silverleaf grabbed one of the mice and padded over to Icetail. "Want to share this?" she asked. "You look hungry."

"I . . . I'm not," meowed Icetail. "I shared a mouse with Sweetheart this morning." He felt bad for lying, but he didn't want his mate to go hungry. "Share it with Dawnstripe instead, don't worry about me."

She sighed and nodded. "Alright, if you had already eaten," she mewed, padding over to Dawnstripe.

He was pleased to see the pleasant look on Dawnstripe's face once the prey was shown to her. He sighed and padded to his nest, willing to sleep. Maybe if I dream about eating prey, I won't be so hungry anymore, he thought.

He lied down in his nest, sleep overcoming him.

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Hi :D So this is officially the start of part three, and it is starting in leaf-bare. Yay, who's excited? c:

Well, this was just a filler chapter to inform readers what's happening to MoonClan after the battle. I've never done this Clan-starvation thing before, so I decided to give it a try to make the book more interesting and have more drama n' stuff.

How do you guys like this chapter? ^_^ as always, vote, share, comment.

~L.TC