Chapter 13

   As the the patrol of Flamefur, Silverheart, Thunderclaw, Crowpelt, and Flowerpaw entered the forest, they could hardly scent the fox, rabbit, and bird smell. They saw the camp, but stayed out. They all hid behind a bush, watching closely what was going on inside.
   Flowerpaw scented her brother, as alarmed as ever, she searched frantically for him. Then she saw him, with two ForestClan warriors, both toms and a bit bigger than most cats, standing beside him, as if guarding him. As if making sure he wouldn't run away...
   "You weren't even with a warrior? And you trespassed on our territory?" Thornstar, the leader of ForestClan asked Stonepaw.
   Trespass? He wasn't trespassing! Stonepaw wouldn't do that! Flowerpaw thought with fury. She watched how Stonepaw would reply.
   "I wasn't trespassing! I was on DuskClan territory! These two were trespassing! And I was with my mentor!" Stonepaw cried out, sounding brave, but with a bit of pleading in his tone.
   Thornstar looked disgusted. "I told you to never come back! You're exciled from our territory, remember?" He hissed. "And don't you know it's against the Warrior Code to trespass?"
   "Well, I wasn't on your territory!" Stonepaw meowed with despair.
   "I've heard enough! Mudfur, take him to the forest. You know what to do there," Thornstar said devilishly.
   Flowerpaw's eyes grew wide with horror. "They're going to kill him!" She said loud enough for only the patrol to hear. "All of that Thornstar said isn't true! Stonepaw is telling the truth! He didn't trespass."
   "She's right!" Thunderclaw meowed. "If we don't stop this now, he'll be crow food."
   Flamefur shook her head with frustration. "Come on," she growled angrily.
   She stood and led the cats to the camp. All of the eyes of ForestClan trailed on the patrol, and their fur bristled.
   Flamefur walked to Thornstar, in a rapid pace. "We're not here for a battle. We're here to explain."
   Thornstar looked evil with denial. "No, don't try to defend this foolish apprentice of what he's done."
   "You've been fooled!" Crowpelt spat out. "Mudfur and Nightblade are the one's who are guilty!"
   Mudfur and Nightblade's fur bristled as they growled. Thornstar, though, didn't get angry. Instead he just hissed, "Well if I'm such a fool, why am I the one with the Clan who doesn't trespass!"
   Crowpelt nearly pounced, but Flamefur held his ground, "Steady, Crowpelt," she whispered to him.
   "I'm his mentor, and I told him to go hunting as a test. He vanished the second I laid eyes off him. He couldn't trespass that quick, don't you think?" Thunderclaw's tone was calm, but angry inside.
   "They brought foxes with them! You don't find foxes in the forest! Only in DuskClan will you find foxes!" Silverheart mewed with confidence.
   Thornstar looked a bit uneasy as he wondered who was right. He felt his confidence fade. "My warriors wouldn't disobey the warrior code. And maybe the fox they found was just a few trails off from your territory."
   "You don't understand! We have the scent trail to prove it!" Flamefur announced.
   Thornstar looked frustrated now, as his muscles relaxed a bit he sighed. "Show me the scent trail. I'd like to smell it myself."
   As they were about to exit camp, Flowerpaw caught Stonepaw's glare for a brief moment. She saw how tired and in pain he was. She even noticed he had scratches on him. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach.
   "And you, Stonepaw. You're coming with us!" Thornstar yowled.
   Flowerpaw turned and saw him weakly limp with the patrol. She slowed a few paces to speak with him. "My goodness, Stonepaw," she sighed and licked him gently. "Where did they hurt you?"
   He didn't reply. He only shook his head.
   "Stonepaw? It's all right, you can speak to me," Flowerpaw felt for the first time, that he was slowly dying. His lack of energy brought herself to think he was fading away from her. "Stonepaw!" she cried.
   He looked at her. "I'm fine, Flowerpaw," he said with frustration.
   Sadness grew in her. The fact that he wouldn't admit to being hurt, worried her. She knew he was slipping away from her without a medicine cat. He is dissapearing in the sight of her own eyes.
   No words were spoken after that.

Chapter 12

   Flowerpaw spun around, seeing Thunderclaw rushing into camp, out of breath. Flamefur was first to ask, "What is it? Someone attacking?"
   "No, it's Stonepaw! He's gone!" Thunderclaw breathlessly yowled.
   Flowerpaw froze. "What does he mean gone?" She thought, "He couldn't have ran away? Or worse, got taken?"
   Flamefur seemed a bit too surprised her self, "What do you mean?"
   "I was giving him a test. I told him to go around hunting. And I was watching. But before I could catch up to him, he had vanished!" Thunderclaw looked almost insane, trying hard to make everyone believe it's not his fault.
   "Did you get any scent tracks?" The deputy asked.
   "No, his scent just stopped so suddenly... As if... As if he was lifted off the ground..."
   Flowerpaw felt her heart nearly thump out of her chest. "It must be a hawk or eagle of some sort," she thought.
   "But, I did scent a fox where he was. A bit stale, I might have mistaken it for a bird. As for I have never scented a bird," Thunderclaw looked frantically around the camp, waiting for the reaction.
   Flamefur looked to puzzled to respond, so she tried to not make the decision herself. "I'll go get Fawnstar." She walked away from the group of cats.
   Flowerpaw felt a ripple of worry cross her spine. She felt as thought someone was chanting in her ear, "Go, run. Run and find him." But she tried hard to stay back, as for whatever was out there, if it could catch her stronger brother, it would catch her.
   Fawnstar was half walking- half running towards the group of cats around Thunderclaw. "Flamefur told me what's happened. Is there any way you could show a patrol where you lost Stonepaw?"
   "Uh, sure," Thunderclaw mewed in confusion, "Who shall come with me?"
   "I'll go!" Flowerpaw meowed louder than she expected.
   "Oh, um, all right. Who else?" Thunderclaw yelled to the Clan.
   Silverheart stepped out, "I'll go, since she is going," she pointed her tail towards Flowerpaw.
   "And I will go."
   Flowerpaw never thought he would join in the patrol to find Stonepaw. The sleek, black tom stepped out of the crowd and stood beside Thunderclaw.
   "Are you sure, Crowpelt?" Flamefur had gently asked.
   Crowpelt nodded in answer.
   "Anyone else?" Thunderclaw meowed.
   "I suppose I'll go, as last cat." Flamefur joined the patrol. "Okay, Thunderclaw. Show us where the apprentice was when you lost him."

   Flowerpaw grew so worried, that she could hardly focus. She began tripping over things, bumping into trees, and sometimes walking straight through bushes. She had been only thinking about her lost brother.
   "Here," Thunderclaw came to a stop. "This is where I lost his scent."
   Silverheart took a sniff and tasted the air, "It smells like a mix of fox, rabbit, and bird..."
   Flowerpaw bent down and only scented fox. She wondered how the others could smell bird or rabbit.
   Crowpelt leaned over. "It smells like rabbit and bird, to me."
   Flamefur didn't know how to handle the situation with so many people smelling so many things. "How about we split up? Silverheart, Thunderclaw, and Flowerpaw can follow the fox trail, Crowpelt and I will follow the rabbit. Since the bird can fly, there's no use trying to locate it. I just wonder how all three came into a single place."
   "Sounds good to me. Let's split," Crowpelt went along, following the rabbit scent.
   Flowerpaw noticed that the fox and bird was following the rabbit scent too. She kept following it, and realizing she was following Crowpelt, Silverheart voiced her thoughts, "They're all going in the same direction."
   "That might change," Thunderclaw tried.
   "He's right, let's just keep following all three. But why would the bird be on the ground?" Flamefur sounded frustrated.
   They all stayed silent until they met up with ForestClan border.
   "I think I know what's going on. They were trying to trick us into going into their border, just to punish us!" There was real anger in Silverheart's voice.
   "They must of caught a bird, rabbit, and fox. And they dragged it along with them, with Stonepaw on their backs. Trying to confuse us into thinking that the animals caught Stonepaw!" Crowpelt concluded. "And that also means they were hunting on our territory!" He began a low growl.
   "But that means Stonepaw is there!" Flowerpaw pleaded.
   "She's right, we need to go see for ourselves. But listen, we're not asking for a fight. We won't battle unless they come at us first." Flamefur ordered. "Let's go."

Chapter 11

   Flowerpaw inched her way towards the medicine cat den. She had just gotten back from training with her mentor. She had promised her brother last night she would apoligize to Snowpaw. She just didn't know how.
   "Something wrong?" Leafwind had asked.
   Flowerpaw stuttered, "Uh, ye- I mean no. I just need to see Snowpaw for a quick moment, please?"
   Flowerpaw watched as Leafwind's eyes trailed to the floor. "About that... You see, Fawnstar specifically told me not to let you see her. Only for safety reasons of course."
   The apprentice looked stunned. "You don't understand! I have to apoligize to her."
   "Eh... Cloudpaw!" Leafwind called. She heard rustling in the back of the den and saw the white half-blind apprentice step out.
   "Yes, Leafwind?" she had sounded utterly exhausted.
   "Take Flowerpaw to see Snowpaw. If anything goes wrong, escort her out, alright?" Leafwind mewed.
   Cloudpaw nodded. She turned and led the way to Snowpaw.
   She looked horrible. Her tail was wrapped in soaked blood-red cobwebs. Her neck was covered in green herbs, the juice of the herb all over the scratches on her body. Her pelt was horrifying, muffled and smelled for having not being washed for a while.
   "Snowpaw, visitor." Cloudpaw meowed without expression.
   Snowpaw opened her eyes to tiny slits, and when she had seen Flowerpaw, she had opened her eyes wide. She called to Cloudpaw, "Please stay in here! Please!"
   Cloudpaw looked awkwardly at her. Flowerpaw spoke, "I'm not her for more destruction. I know apoligizing won't be enough to repay my mistakes, but I must say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I shouldn't have gotten in the way of you two and I should've let you stay together in peace."
   Snowpaw kept staring at her in awe. She hesitated before she spoke, then replied with nothing more than, "Fine."
   Cloudpaw stood, and escorted Flowerpaw out. Flowerpaw had not wanted to leave though, she wanted to hear more. But she got her to forgive her and that was all she needed to hear.
   Flowerpaw looked for her brother, excited to tell him the news. Yet when she had reached the apprentice den, he was not there. Probably with his mentor, Flowerpaw thought.
   Then, she heard it.