"It's a long story, so if you're hungry then grab some prey." Alpinefog mewed forlornly.

"Don't feed kittypets. Prey is scarce enough as it is!" Quietdew snapped, looking over at her son Emberfawn with a heavily suggestive tone. She's trying to become a Riverclan apprentice, so clearly she isn't a kittypet anymore! Crescentpaw made sure that she visibly rolled her eyes at the commanding she-cat's mouse-dung choice of words.

The young warrior however ignored her, doing so anyways. He got up to get a piece of prey for them and dropped it near Cheetah's paws. Nervously, Cheetah's huge yellow eyes rounded as she looked at the fish and then back over at him. "Thank you! I have never tried fish before! It looks kind of slimy, but cool!" She meowed loudly, while Quietdew bitterly narrowed her eyes.

Alpinefog clawed tufts of moss out from his coat while waiting for them all to settle. Clearing his throat, he began.

"The night that you left," Crescentpaw immediately opened her jaws to argue, then decided she definitely needed to hear at least the next part before interrupting. "-Smallsparrow was killed by the jaws of a wolf. We once again had no body to mourn or bury. They ate him here in camp." The other warriors were silent, not an ear twitching or a tail swishing.

"The killings kept happening, and that's why you don't see several warriors here among us today." He paused, and the cats around them looked on with disturbed expressions. Rowanpaw's muzzle crinkled with unpleasant memories. Her intelligent eyes glowed as she looked up at her mentor.

"Chaosclaw, our last senior warrior. Tidepaw, his apprentice. And Aquasplash, your mentor."

Crescentpaw flinched. Not Aquasplash! Her mentor had been closer to a friend than a teacher. And that many cats was a huge blow to the clan. Her eyes burned with remorse as she stared at the scarred clan members. Emberfawn's ears were shredded. One was nearly completely ripped in two. Alpinefog's muzzle was slashed deep by wolf teeth. And Rowanpaw had a scab healing on her side, as well as missing fur all over her previously-uniform tail.

Quietdew stepped closer, and Crescentpaw had to lean away as she saw it. The she-cat's eye was grotesque. The wound was seemingly healing, but it was half raw with dried blood and torn-apart flesh. She hadn't noticed it initially since it was beneath Quietdew's left eyelid, where a patch of dark grey fur blended in with most of the wound.

"I got this just last night. You're lucky ya'll weren't here before that."

The dark tabby she-cat thought about how they'd shared that teeny mouse and slept beneath a rooted cavity in a too-small nest they that they had built together. And that whole time her clan had been hunted. From the moment we left, Riverclan has been in even greater danger.

"But that's the only cats we've lost in battle, right? This can't be what's left of the clan," Tinypaw meowed loudly from the edge of the crowd, where she was now ripping into the remains of the fish Cheetah had shyly nibbled at.

Crescentpaw knew what she meant. Had their other clanmates left to be kittypets like Goldenheart?

"Ah, no. Raccoonstripe is resting off a sprained paw in the warriors den. He's exhausted after yesterday's patrols. And Houndspots is out hunting with Lagoonstripe," Alpinefog explained. "They'll be back soon."

Crescentpaw still frowned. That wasn't very many cats left in Riverclan, though. And no queens, kits or elders had been named in the past paw-full of moons. "I'm sure Houndspots will be happy to see his apprentice again, once you explain to us what it is you were supposedly doing in Twolegplace." The clouds were thick and knotted together behind Alpinefog's blocky head.

Behind her, Tinypaw shuffled her paws. There was no denying the trace of Twolegplace that they had carried back with them. Cheetah still sat by the fish bones that Tinypaw had picked clean.

"We were captured!" The crescent-marked apprentice turned her head towards Rowanpaw as she hissed. "Rowanpaw, didn't you tell them what happened?"

Her chestnut-furred sister's initial reaction was to look bashful. As Crescentpaw watched she found that her kin's behavior was strange. Instead of answering outright, she looked at the other cats with exasperation.

Clearly the brown she-cat was hiding something. And as Crescentpaw stalked towards her sister to force it out of her, Rowanpaw's eyes flashed with worry before she exclaimed "I- I panicked!" She fidgeted, flattening her ears and looking over at her kin. "I told the Clan that you guys ran off to be kittypets because I didn't want them to think I couldn't save you. I-I didn't want them to think it was my fault that you were trapped." Her eyes were round with pleading innocence.

"My assesment was supposed to be soon, remember?" Rowanpaw specified as if that made more sense. What a lousy excuse.

"How does that even relate?" The larger tabby-and-white apprentice argued.

"Our assesment," Tinypaw corrected as she moved through the small group of watching warriors. The stretching shadows had disappeared, replaced by a dark wash of stunted moonlight. The lithe black she-cat blended into the vegetation behind them. As night settled, the clouds above only grew heavier with rain, crossing over the moon and distorting its rays.

"We're the same age, you know! And by the way, that looks horrible on us!" She stopped beside Crescentpaw, both she-cats now glaring at Rowanpaw from a few tail-lengths away.

"How were you both captured?" Emberfawn asked before the she-cats could really start arguing.

"We-uh... found a mesh box with some prey in it. Beside the Twoleg-path where they set up pelts in Greenleaf." She sighed, ashamed. "Then a Twoleg came and took the box after we got stuck inside. She brought us to her Twoleg nest and that's where we were trapped for most of the time."

"Rowanpaw, the reason you gave doesn't give you a right to lie." Alpinefog groaned as he prepared to lecture his apprentice, rising to his paws.

"I know we were supposed to go train, but it seems the afternoon has gotten away from us. And you've clearly got some explaining to do amongst your kin." His pale green eyes were lit with confound shame. "Go ahead and chat with them while I fetch Lagoonstripe and Houndspots. They'll want to hear about this." Alpinefog's deep mew was stern as he directed Rowanpaw closer to her sisters.

The brown she-cat looked apprehensive, following just behind her mentor's shoulder and dragging her paws. After a moment Alpinefog turned away and mewed "Emberfawn. It's your turn to stand guard. Give them some time to catch up before our other warriors return, and then we can all discuss again."

"When did we start standing guard during the day?" Crescentpaw called to Emberfawn's retreating hindquarters as he moved toward the camp entrance. Alpinefog's fluffy grey tail disappeared, whisking behind the lichen as he exited.

"Right after Smallsmarrow was killed." Emberfawn turned back to look at her. Though his expression was clear, the dark ginger tom's words were heavy.

Smallsparrow was his father! She threw him a sympathetic glance and mewed a thank you before he left.

Crescentpaw sat in contemplation about her destroyed clan for a moment. She was so troubled by their lack of a leader, medicine cat, and deputy now; that she immediately began trying to problem solve.

But all of her ideas seemed too far-fetched. And she kept thinking of bad ones as the clouds broke open, and slanted rain finally began to fall. Her tabby fur grew sodden within seconds.

Maybe send another cat to the Moonpool to commune with Starclan?

Bad idea... it had always failed before. They either arrived back injured or didn't come back at all. She thought of Goldenheart, their previous medicine-cat turned kittypet. She had abandoned her clan in return for a life without fear of the wolves.

Too bad we can't just move all of the Clan territories. We don't have Starclan's approval for anything like that. Her whiskers began dripping beneath the heavy overflowing cloud-water. Droplets slid down her forehead and muzzle, plopping onto the ground with a gentle patter.

We could just elect a temporary leader and medicine cat from within the clan ourselves. Like, now.

Crescentpaw's thoughts took off with the prospect. Her paws tingled at the idea of becoming a warrior, then deputy, then clan leader. She had secretly relished the idea of becoming such an important cat in the clan one day. She had even yearned for it.

But of course that idea sounded horrible within mere seconds of its arrival. Cutting out Starclan like that just feels so wrong... it's against Clan tradition, and disrespectful. She sighed as she heard her sisters start arguing beside her.

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Crescentpaw