<This is kinda late. So what will I do for that? Give you extra art of course! So there shall be more art than usual at the end. Now enjoy!>

It was a bright and early morning when the party of cats who'd be going to Willowclan met up at the leaders den. The one's there went as follows: Turtlestar, Frostfoot, Adderleaf and Kestrelshine. Birdwing had wanted to come with them, but he'd been denied his request. At first he had wanted to fight his new leader on it, but with a shake of the head from Whitehawk he backed down.

"I'm glad to see you're all here on time." Said Turtlestar, eyes looking over the other three cats. "Let's get going shall we?" 

After receiving affirmative nods from the others they headed out, Kestrelshine taking up the front. It didn't take long for them to reach the border to Willowclan, the ground growing damper and trees changing to ones with low hanging branches. The rays of the early sun shone through and warmed their pelts where they hit, making the trek through the snow covered marshes a bit more bearable.

They walked for a while longer before reaching a big shallow pond. In the middle of the pond was a small island with a massive willow three hanging over it. The branches were covered in a blanket of snow, with the cover the branches glittered like stars in the sun.

"This is the Willowclan camp?" Asked Adderleaf in awe. He had never seen anything like this before!

"It is indeed." Purred a voice from behind them.

The group spun around to be faced with the smirking face of a small fluffy brown she-cat. Behind her stood two, what they could only assume were, apprentices. The two younger cats were pressed close, trying to contain their laughter no doubt.

"Fawncould." Acknowledged Frostfoot. The medicine cat recognised the cat who always sat with Speckledmask at gatherings, they were sisters if she remembered correctly.

"Hello!" Greeted Fawncloud, dipping her head in greeting. "What brings you four all the way to the wetlands of the willows?"

"I'd love to say why. But I fear it would be better if we said it with Cypressstar there, I'd rather not repeat myself." Half deflected Turtlestar. He really didn't want to say it twice, once would be enough.

The fluffy Willowclan warrior frowned before turning to one of the apprentices and telling them: "Go ask if Cypressstar will accept our guests, me and Hazelpaw will wait here."

The apprentice nodded before bounding off, easily moving through the shallow pond.

It didn't take long for him to return, two warriors following him. "They can come!" Squeaked the apprentice, his dark gray pelt fluffing up as every eye was turned to him. "Alos she warns that she has, uh, personal company and that what they may see won't ever be talked about outside of the one who knows."

That peaked the Spruceclan cats interests. What kind of personal company? And why couldn't they speak of them outside of here? Deciding that the best way to find what was going to the camp they followed obediently when warriors walked back the way they came.

Adderleaf nearly fell face first into the pond, because by Starclan was it cold! But before he fell over Fawncloud came and braced his side. She left after he gave the nod okay. The rest of the way passed by easily without any more incidents.

As they walked through the lower branches of the willow that guarded the camp of the clan of the same name they could see how different the camps were. Den's were made out of sticks and covered by leaves and moss, and cats lounged about in groups just relaxing like they could care less. The ground was covered by moss in places, most likely popular places to rest on. The willow three had a naturally carved ledge in it that was most likely used by the leader for clan meetings. And speaking of the leader, she was just under it. But with somecat they would never have guessed.

Curled up with the leader of Willowclan was a pinkish-red she-cat kittypet, purple and blue collar dotted with white start sticking out like blood on new fallen snow against her light pelt.

Both resting cats looked up at the sound of the arrivals pawsteps, the kittypet looked suspiciously at them whilst Cypressstar stood up and walked to them. "Hello you four! You wanted to see me?"

"We did." Said Turtlestar. If they wanted the lungwort being rude and asking about the kittypet might not be the best idea. "We were wondering if there was a chance we'd be able to get some lungwort?"

The brown and white tabby leader frowned, head tilting to the side in thought. "Lungwort? Hmm, I'll go ask Skytail and Speckledmask. Wait here!" She then headed to what they assume was the medicine cats den.

This left the four outsiders just standing awkwardly in the middle of camp. They looked around, hoping to find a distraction of some kind, but their eyes always strayed back to the kittypet. It didn't take long before Adderleaf asked about here. "So, uh, who are you?"

The pinkish-red kittypet looked at them a bit longer, tail twitching minimally. "I'm Amber. And who might you be?"

"Adderleaf." Was the toms immediate response. "Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?"

"Visiting my mate." Was her answer, brown eyes glancing back to wear Cypressstar had run off too.

Kestrelshine looked at her a bit more before sucking in a breath of air. "I remember you! You're the kittypet that me and Cypressstar met as apprentices!"

"That would be." Confirmed Amber. "Your Krestalpaw or something, right?"

"I was Kestrelpaw, it's Kestrelshine now."

The kittypet shrugged, as to say 'eh, same difference'. She then laid back as she had before, as Cypressstar was coming back with Skytail in toe.

The tabby shook her head as she got near, making the four Spruceclan cats tense. "I'm sorry, we don't have any lungwort left." She looked at their tense postures and sullen faces with a frown. "Why do you need the lungwort anyways?"

"Sparrowflight has yellowcough." Wheezed Adderleaf. Claws digging into the ground, and ignoring the horrified and shocked gasps around him, he looked up at the leader and her medicine cat. "Do you think there might be any in the forest?"

Skytail touched his nose to the black and red toms cheek in comfort. "I'm afraid it will be fruitless, last night there was heavy snowfall in the main area they grew in. There is most likely nothing but dead plants there now."

Turtlestar swallowed heavily before dipping his head at the white tom. "We thank you anyways, Skytail." He then turned to Cypressstar. "Thank you for letting us into your camp, and for trusting us with your secret, even though you didn't have any lungwort we are grateful you even consider it."

The other leader dipped her head back, eyes shining apologetically. "I thank you for your kindness, Turtlestar. Can I offer that a group of warriors escorts you all back to the border?"

Everyone knew, no matter how friendly cats may be, that it wasn't a good idea to let cats of another clan walk freely on your territory. So the Spruceclan leader accepted it easily.

The two warriors from before, now introduced as Aspensun and Needlewhirl, lead the four out. The walk didn't take long and it remained mostly silent, only filled with a few quiet words between Turtlestar and Frostfoot. The two Willowclan wished them well before running off once they'd reached the border.

"What do we do now?" Asked Kestrelshine, looking up at his leader.

The dark gray-brown tom sighed. "We say the truth."

"Birdwing won't like that." Hummed Frostfoot, pawing at a bush hoping to find something useful. "The entire clan won't like that."

"I know." Said Turtlestar, looking up at the bright sunny sky. Ironic that one of the sunniest days of leaf-bare was the most bitter. "But there's really not much else we can do."

Soon after that they reached the camp. Cats came out to greet them, but their happy demiors darkened as they noticed that the four had returned empty handed.

"Turtlestar?" Asked Greenclaw, eyes wide as he looked over the returned party of cats. By his side Redpaw looked hopeful, having not yet noticed that they hadn't returned with anything."

"They didn't have any." Revealed Turtlestar, head bowed. "There is no lungwort."

"But-but what about Sparrowflight?" Stuttered Redpaw, hopeful eyes dimming.

"His fate is in the paws of Starclan now." Said Turtlestar sadly, meeting the apprentices gaze. "I'm sorry."

Sparrowfligh has been lucky this long. But how long will that luck last?

<Let's start with the art this time!

The two StarClan cats!

A quick little drawing of Wolfsong.

And then the 1/3 way done drawing of Turtlestar, Greenclaw, and Frostfoot! I'm going to make a "Leader, deputy, medicine cat" drawing for hopefully every clan eventually!

Now with the art done here's a fun little fact: 4 out of the 5 personal WC OC's are in Willowclan, and 3 made an appearance/were mentioned in this chapter! You can guess who if you want, or wait for chapter 8 since I'll say then.

And that's all I have to say! So stay safe and have a wonderful time everyone!>