CHAPT 31

Leafstar had allowed them to stay a few more days, because Gingerstep had fallen down the rocks and twisted her paw.
"I will allow you to stay here until Gingerstep is ready to leave, until then, you will continue with your warrior duties," Leafstar lectured.
"What about me, I'm not a warrior?" Woody smirked.
"You can do whatever Lionblaze does, or would you rather become an apprentice?" Her tone was serious.
"I guess I'll stay with Lionblaze," Woody murmured. The padded out of the rocky den, and to where Sharpclaw was organizing patrols.
"Woody and Lionblaze you can come with me and Heathertail on a hunting patrol," Sharpclaw called to the two toms. Lionblaze nodded. Sharpclaw was not as accepting of the outsiders as Cherrytail was, he never let them out of his sight. He went on every patrol with them, and it made Lionblaze a bit nervous.
"I think we should go to the river, prey come down there to drink, so we should find a lot of fresh kill," The other cats nodded, and followed Sharpclaw down the gorge.
Lionblaze could smell a few birds, but most were scrawny. He saw a bush quiver, and then the scent of mouse hit the roof of his mouth. He flicked his ears in the direction of the bush to Woody, who nodded his head in acknowledgement. The two cats padded around the bush. Lionblaze could see the mice now, there were four of them, which was a large number by any means. He hissed to Woody then jumped out behind the bush. He grabbed a mouse and killed it. The other mice ran the other way, but Woody was there waiting. Lionblaze grabbed another mouse and killed it while Woody took care of the other two. They padded out from the bush and saw that Heathertail had caught a thrush and Sharpclaw had a fish from the river.
"Good, we have enough to go back to camp now," Sharpclaw praised, surveying the cats.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sharpclaw, Sagewhisker, Sparrowpelt, and I will escort you off the territory now," Leafstar mewed briskly to the patrol. Gingerstep's paw was fully healed now. It was a few days after the hunting patrol with Sharpclaw and the patrol was getting ready to go home. Lionblaze was not happy about leaving empty handed, he wanted Leafstar to change her mind. Lionblaze sighed.
Soon all the cats were gathered and they were on their way. They soon arrived at the border.
"This is where we will leave you, I hope you all make it home safely. May Starclan light your pa-" Leafstar's words were inturrupted by a terrifying caterwaul. Then battle noises broke out. Lionblaze could tell it was coming from the gorge, though he couldn't see it. All the cats charged back to the gorge. The battle had paused.
A large broad shouldered warrior was standing in the midst. He was holding down a ginger tom, Lionblaze recognised as Bounceheart.
"Hello, my name is Tigerstar. I have come here to demonstrate what will happen to," He looked down to Bounceheart,"to cats who struggle against the will of the Dark Forest. If you join us, we promise you will not just live, but you will thrive," Tigerstar looked back at the crowd of cats.
"Stop this Tigerstar, these cats will not be tricked into being ruled by you!" Lionblaze ran down the rocks.
"Ruled by me? No, Lionblaze. They will not be ruled by me," He smirked,"Now, let me show you what will happen to disobidient cats," Tigerstar was about to sink his teeth into Bounceheart, but Lionblaze launched himself on top of the dark tabby's shoulders. Tigerstar hissed, and threw Lionblaze off him. Tigerstar jumped on him.
"Do you think you can beat me? I trained you, don't you forget that. I can destoy you if I wanted. I can destroy all of you!" Tigerstar bit on Lionblaze's throat, almost killing him. Lionblaze kicked him off with his hindlegs, throwing Tigerstar off balance. Lionblaze jumped up. Suddenly, he remebered Mountainkit, circling his opponent, confusing them. He began circling Tigerstar, and Heathertail joined in. She too remebered the attack. Tigerstar tried to keep his eye on both of them, but couldn't. Lionblaze jumped on him as he was looking at Heathertail. He flipped Tigerstar on his back and clawed his under belly. He swatted the dark tabby's paws away from his face and sunk his teeth into his throat. Unlike Tigerstar, Lionblaze killed him. Lionblaze knew he would be back, and next time he would kill Lionblaze. Lionblaze would not let that happen. He dove back into battle. A warrior with spiky fur jumped on him, his eyes gleaming in anger.
"Thistleclaw! Leave him to me," Hawkfrost pushed the bracken colored tom off Lionblaze, his paw on the golden tabby's throat.
"Hello Lionblaze. I saw what you did to my father. You will pay for this, you know that right? I am not foolish like my father. I know of the prophecy. I will not fight you, no, I will let you live. Barely," Hawkfrost lashed his tail, and four more cats padded out. One cat was a scrawny black tom, tinier than any full grown cat he'd ever seen. Mountainkit was bigger than him! Around the cats neck was a collar, studded with the teeth of dogs, and cats. The other three cats were larger. One was a sleek, gray tabby tom. The last was a huge long haired black tom.
"Brokentail, grab his hind legs, Darkstripe you get his scruff. Scourge clear the way," Hawkfrost ordered the toms.
"What about you?" The cat called Brokentail looked defiantly at Hawkfrost, as if he was unsure he should be the one taking the orders.
"I'm going to be the one who stops him from escaping. Now go," The cats charged through the clearing, avoiding all fighting cats. Everytime Lionblaze squirmed, Hawkfrost clawed him. Everytime he would move, Hawkfrost would attack.
"Where are you taking me, what are you going to do to me," Lionblaze coughed.
"That will be for our leader to decide," Hawkfrost mewed simply.
"I fought Tigerstar before, I can fight him again," Lionblaze challenged. All the cats carrying Lionblaze stopped and turned to Hawkfrost, each one smirking.
"Tigerstar, leader," Hawkfrost scoffed. The other cats chuckled, which made Lionblaze confused. If Tigerstar's not their leader, who is?
"How will she meet him here, she can't get here now?" Scourge murmured to Hawkfrost.
"We'll have to put him to sleep, Darkstripe run the medicine den, grab four poppy seeds. Don't kill the medicine cat, just push her out of the way," Darkstripe nodded and pelted towards the rocky medicine den. Lionblaze tried to brake away from the cats but Hawkfrost put a claw to his throat.
"Don't struggle, or I'll feed you deathberries,"  Soon Darkstripe arrived with a few poppyseeds wrapped in a leaf.
"What did you do to Echosong," Lionblaze mumbles his face shoved in the dirt.
"Nothing, these stupid cats don't even protect their medicine stores!" Darkstripe laughed. Hawkfrost put a few poppy seeds in his paw and tried to force them into Lionblaze's mouth.
"Eat them, now," Lionblaze opened his mouth to protest, but instead was stuffed with seeds. He choked and coughed, forcing the seeds down his throat.
"Good," Hawkfrost purred, watching Lionblaze slowly fall into unconciousness.

"A heartbeat seemed to pass before Lionblaze woke in a dark forest. He had been here mny times as an apprentice, training with Tigerstar and Hawkfrost. He was in a clearing, no prey could be heard. All he could smell was the leaf mold and a few old cat scents.
"Hello Lionblaze. I thought I'd see you here soon," Lionblaze spun around to see the cat that lead these dark warriors into battle. He was speechless.
"Yes Lionblaze, it's me. I know what you are thinking, but don't you see I had to do this," The black cat's eyes glazed over in insanity,"The clans are tainted with the blood of unloyal cats. I have to destroy every cat in them to ensure they will grow strong again. Even you Lionblaze, will have to die. All of Thunderclan will die. They have disrespected the warrior code a thousand times over. Telling a clan to leave the forest, giving their kits to another clan, mating with another clan! Taking in a kittypet as an apprentice. I won't bore you with all the lies and deceit, but you can see that Thunderclan is disloyal to everything the warrior code stands for. I might have let the other clans live, well except for Windclan. They are all fox hearted pieces of crowfood," Lionblaze couldn't believe his ears. This cat had gone crazy, she was still rambling on about how all the clans must be destoyed.
"What about you," He interupted.
"What about me?" She tilted her head quizzically.
"Your killing cats, innocent cats. That's against thee warrior code. Your making cats disloyal, recruiting them to destroy the clans," Lionblaze looked into the black cat's eyes.
"Haven't you listened to a single word I've said, these cats' aren't innocent. They've all been disloyal to the warrior code. The cats I asked to join with me have realised this too and want to rejuvenate their souls by destroying the cats who hurt the code. We are doing this for the code, for us, for everything we believe in," She looked genuinly confused as to why Lionblaze didn't understand.
"You've broken the warrior code, when we were kits and we went to find the fox, when-when you killed Ashfur! Don't you remember that," Lionblaze looked into her green eyes, pleading she would change her mind.
"I have rejuvenated my soul," She mewed simply. She turned away and padded across the clearing.
"Wait, what are you going to do with me," He whispered.
"I'll let you go back to your clan, to be with your kits while you can. If you tell anyone about this meeting, I will kill your kits, then Cinderheart, then you, slowly and painfully, with you watching," She whispered slinking away through the trees. Lionblaze sat and waited to wake up, but instead he was still in the clearing. He padded quietly though the bush where the she-cat had left. He could smell her scent and followed in around a dead tree. He stopped as another cat approached him. He turned around to see Jayfeather!
"Jayfeather! It's me Lionblaze," He hissed to the small tabby tom. Jayfeather whisked around and saw his brother.
"Lionblaze, what are you doing here," Jayfeather whispered.
"Come I'll tell you up there," He pointed to a tree with his tail. Forgetting Jayfeather couln't see he caught himself and explained the tree.
"I can see when I dream, mouse-brain," Jayfeather chuckled and climbed up a tree, to a high branch where no cat could see them. Lionblaze was not particularly fond of climbing, but he struggled to stay quiet.
"So, tell me what happend when you found Skyclan," Jayfeather whispered.
"We found a patrol and told them we needed to speak to their leader. We went to their camp and met, Leafstar, their leader. I explained that Starclan wants them to come to our camp. She got angry and told us we had to leave the next day. Gingerstep twisted her paw, so we weren't able to leave until today. We were at the Skyclan border when the battle broke out at the gorge. We raced back and saw Tigerstar was holding down one of Skyclan's warriors. I jumped him and killed him. Then Hawkfrost came with four other cats and fed me poppy seeds," He gulped, thinking about whether he should tell Jayfeather about meeting the leader," I-I woke up here. There was a cat here, she was the leader."
"She? She was the leader? Tigerstar isn't the leader!" Jayfeather whispered wide eyed," If Tigerstar's not their leader, who is?"
"Hollyleaf," Lionblaze whispered.