Hollyspeck's p.o.v.

The sunlight slowly started to fade as we headed back to camp. Silverstar was fierious with me, and my almost killing Nightshade. Like I was going to anyway! I may fight to the death, but sometimesI change how I work. Plus, I wanted something far greater than the assurance that my former band leader was dead! Gosh, I mean, why would I want to just kill Nightshade?

~~~~~

The moon was out when I got out of my nest. After being lectured on how my behavior was, and had my actions that saved Silverstar totally ignored, I had been sent to pick through the elders' pelts for ticks. Why was I chosen to do that? That was the apprentices job! After that, I slipped into my nest for a nap. With what I was planning, I needed the rest. All the patrols, except for Silverstar's, had come back with news of not finding Ice. Of course, it made sense why after Silverstar called a clan meeting where she talked about what happened, totally dropping out the part with me.

Right as I am almost out of camp, through a secret passageway that only I know about, I hear a rustling. I freeze, and slowly turn my head. I think I see a flash of hazel eyes, but it is gone in a moment, and I continue.

Now, I trekked through the white night, towards my destination.

~~~~~~

When I arrived, there was a yowl of anger, and a white tom with dark gray speckles and paws, white wings speckled with dark gray, and dark gray eyes jumps out at me. I dodge his attack nimbly, quickly jump away, and continuing.

"Hi Jag," I call over my shoulder, not looking back. He didn't attack anymore, so I guessed he was stunned to see me. Pitifulcats! I think to myself as I continue to walk, being careful not to disturb anyone or anything else.

When I enter the camp, I see all the cats are sleeping, but a few of them raise their heads.

"Blaze, Meg," I nod to a fire orange and white tabby tom with orange tabby wings and green eyes, and a brown she cat with brown wings, and hazel eyes. They look surprised, but are too tired to do anything.

I walk into a cave, but before I can do anything, a shadow moves, and I am instantly pinned to the ground.

"I knew you would come!" A familiar voice calls in my face.

I kick the attacker off me easily, and stand up. "Wasn't it obvious?" I reply smugly. "We need to talk."

The she-cat that attacked me comes closer to the opening of the cave, and I see her.

"Yes, I know. You weren't actually going to kill me, were you?"

"Of course not," I say convincingly. "Why would I, with our plans?"

The she-cat scratches the ground with a claw. "I don't know, OK. Anyway, when will it happen?"

"Soon. It has to happen soon. She trusts me, so it shouldn't be that hard."

"Except for the fact that she has 9 lives still."

I shrug. "Then kill her 9 times. I already knew that anyway. Don't worry, though. You get some of the honors too."

"Perfect..." A smile forms on the she-cat's mouth. I can see she enjoys this plan.

"I'll run away from the clan just before to tell you when. It has to be a perfect time, so I can't decide the day right away. You understand, right?" I inquire.

"Oh, yes, I do."

"Then it's decided. It will be soon, and I will tell you when the day arrives."

I wish her farewell, and leave silently. If I do this right, no one will ever know I did this.

~~~~~

BacktoSilverstar's pov

I fumed back into nest, annoyed with how Hollyspeck had behaved. I knew they had probably tried to kill her, but it was unnecessary for her to intervene like that! I was going to get away from Nightshade anyway, so Hollyspeck didn't need to rescue me! Mostly, my pride was hurt. I settle down in my nest, wanting to go back to the old days, when everything was perfect.

~~~~~~~

"Hey Silverstar!" A whisper wakes me up.

I raise my head tiredly, and see Dappledwillow.

"What is it?" I question tiredly.

"Sorry, to wake you up, but Boulderblaze is coughing. Grayfoot and Squirrelheart were also coughing too. It's so loud with the three cats coughing, it's waking everyone up! Also, we still have to make sure the kits don't get sick."

Rising to my feet, I reply. "OK, let's tell Goldenleaf then."

We walk out to the medicine cats' den, where we find Goldenleaf asleep, but Sparrowpaw going through some of the herbs. Featherlight lies beside the small river that runs along the side of the cave. Upon our entrance, Sparrowpaw jumps.

"Sorry," I apologize. "We were coming to tell Goldenleaf something, but it appears she's asleep."

"It's OK," Sparrowpaw answers. "You can tell me, unless only Goldenleaf can know."

"No, we can tell you," Dappledwillow comments.

Sparrowpaw motions for us to sit. I always was fond of her, as she was always so nice, and considerate.

"Boulderblaze, Squirrelheart, and Grayfoot have started coughing," I meow.

Sparrowpaw instantly goes into medicine cat mode. "How bad?"

"Pretty bad," Dappledwillow sighs. "They are keeping me up."

Sparrowpaw nods, then dissapears for a moment. She returns, three very small catmint leaves in her jaws.

"We don't have a whole lot, as it rarely grows up here, but we want to make sure this doesn't evolve to greencough, if this is whitecough. Thank goodness we have a few twoleg dens around here. Otherwise I don't think we would be able to find any. Feed these to them. It won't immediately help, but it should help in time. In the morning if they are still coughing, or if it's gotten worse, come get either me or Goldenleaf. We will deal with the rest."

"Thank you so much!" I say. "I have no idea what we would do without you!"

Sparrowpaw's amber eyes shine. "Thanks!"

We leave her den, and approach the nursery.

In the nursery, Applekit, Redkit, and Stripekit huddle around Mossshine. Boulderblaze sits in the corner, hacking madly. I notice how plump Mossshine looks, and I guess that her kits will be due soon. I pad over to Boulderblaze, and drop the catmint in front of her.

"Here, this should help your coughing," I mew.

"Oh, no!" Boulderblaze eyes the catmint. "Use that-*hack*-for someone else who-*sneeze*-actually needs it!"

"Take it," I insist as I push it closer to her. "We need to keep you healthy!"

Boulderblaze hesitates for a moment longer, then excepts the help, and eats it.

"Thank you Silverstar," Boulderblaze mumbles.

"No problem!" I reply, as Dappledwillow and I walk out of the nursery.

"Thank you!" Dappledwillow whisper mumbles through the catmint in her mouth.

"I knew we would start having problems soon," I shrug. "It's winter, whitecough and greencough season. Let's just hope that this doesn't get worse."

When we reach the elders' den, I can see that things are not much better here. Grassfur and Rowenpelt sit in a corner, obviously trying to get away from Squirrelheart and Grayfoot, looking tired. Squirrelheart and Grayfoot sit in the opposite corner, looking miserable.

Rowenpelt sighs in relief when we enter, and he sees what Dappledwillow has.

Dappledwillow lays the leaves delicately down in front of Grayfoot and Squirrelheart.

"Here, soon you should feel better," Dappledwillow assures them.

"Thank you," Squirrelheart coughs, looking defeated, and not like herself. "I'm not as young as I pretend, and wish."

Squirrelheart is usually a happy, nice, and bouncy cat, even though she's an elder. This slightly worries me to see her like this though I know she must be feeling horrid.

Grayfoot doesn't speak as she gulps down the catmint. Squirrelheart also eats her leaf.

Grassfur gets up, and bows his head to me. "Thank you, I thought we would never sleep again."

I nod to him, and reply with a simple, "Don't worry about it."

"Please tell us tomorrow if you don't feel better," Dappledwillow says kindly. "We want to keep you guys nice and healthy."

Grayfoot nods, "We will."

We leave the elders to hopefully get some sleep. After Dappledwillow and I am out of the elders' den, Dappledwillow yawns.

"I think I'm going to attempt to get some sleep now," she yawns widely.

"Me too," I agree.

Dappledwillow then walks away, toward the nursery. I stay outside, standing in the middle of camp. It seemed weird that just now we were getting whitecough. I mean, yes, it was winter, but now especially with all of out problems.

It brought me great sadness as I though about my sister. She had been such a good person before. Her words echoed inside my head.

Theywelcomedme, andIbackstappedthem. AndIlovedit!

How could the sister that I had known be so corrupt? It wasn't like her. I knew her as a kind, and caring sister, who shared a special bond with me. Now, all she wanted to do with me was to killme! I look up at the stars. Where was our mother and father? I knew they weren't in StarClan, but where werethey?

Suddenly, a glimpse of rats and many cats flash in my eyes. I remember what I can remember, and it's horrible!

~~~~~~~~~

Rats swamed around me while panicked cats rushed everywhere. I was just a kit, but the memories were seared into my mind.

My mom, Silverfeather huddled over me and Nightshade, who at the time was Smokekit. I saw the look on my mother's face. Our father, Fangwillow, had been killed by the rats.

Silverfeather says in a quiet voice, "Lightkit"-that had been my name at the time-" and Smokekit, we have to leave now. We are not safe here, and Spiderstar has agreed that we must leave."

Tears form in my sister's eyes. "What about Father?"

Silverfeather's eyes close. "He's gone. I'm sorry." Her voice quivers.

We rush to get out of the croud. It is very hard, and we almost don't make it.

We are skirting the edge of the croud when some rats see us, and come attack us.

My mother protects us, and sacrifices herself so we can live. As she lay dieing after the rats finally left her, her last words were, "Go find the other clans..."

~~~~~~

No one ever spoke of our existence. It was a really rare thing that no one knew about, except for our clan. It was kept a secret.

I took my mother and my father's names to remind me of who I am, and what I am meant to be. Smokekit kept her name, just dropped the kit and added a "y".

My mother and father, and potentially my sister and I, were SkyClan at first. We were so young that we do not know basically anything about SkyClan other than that they disbanded.

We travelled far, but never found the other clans. We even came to the lake where the clans are now, but they had not arrived yet.

That is why I chose to leave Smokey, and travel. She may not have remembered, but I did.

We never talked about what happened in SkyClan. I believe she forgot about it, but I  will never forget.