Lionblaze is working on the elder's den when Brambleclaw finds him and asks him to lead a hunting patrol. He tells him to take Leafpool, Cinderheart, and Dovepaw and go by the WindClan border. He tells him not to go looking for trouble but make sure WindClan isn't crossing the border. Lionblaze is irritated because he is still mad at Leafpool and is avoiding Cinderheart. The four cats head towards the border and split up. Lionblaze sees Breezepelt and Crowfeather approaching and hides. Breezepelt chases a piece of prey over the border and Lionblaze kills it. Breezepelt demands it back but Lionblaze points out it is on his land now. He taunts Breezepelt, telling him to come get it if he really wants it. Breezepelt crosses the border and attacks Lionblaze. Lionblaze easily fights back but Leafpool catches them and breaks up the fight. She asks Crowfeather how can he watch his sons fight. Nightcloud approaches now and spits out that only Breezepelt is Crowfeather's son. Leafpool places herself between the two cats and Breezepelt attacks her. Lionblaze is shocked but before he can act Crowfeather drags his son off of her. Crowfeather hisses at Leafpool that she chose her clan. She responds that that doesn't mean she didn't love him. He answers that is wasn't enough, though. Nightcloud then grabs Crowfeather and demands he get away from Leafpool. Crowfeather and Nightcloud argue and Breezepelt places himself between them, telling Crowfeather to leave Nightcloud alone. Lionblaze feels sick, wondering how he can fight his brother while acknowledging as he watches the arguing cats that they are not his family. He realizes the fight was about blood and never about the prey. He looks at Leafpool, silently blaming her for the fight yet also feeling sorry for her. WindClan leaves, telling ThunderClan to keep the thrush. Lionblaze suddenly wonders if it is fair to fight other cats. Cinderheart voices the same concerns. He sends Dovepaw away to hunt and Leafpool away to Jayfeather. Alone with Cinderheart he tells her he has no choice since he was born this way. Back at camp Sandstorm is sick, which causes a fight between Jayfeather and Leafpool on how to treat her. Firestar puts an end to the fight, siding with Jayfeather for now. He then asks Lionblaze about how hunting went. Unable to admit to his leader that he taunted Breezepelt which resulted in a fight he admits there was a dispute over prey but nothing else. Sandstorm points out that by the border this happens from time to time and the matter is dropped.
Jayfeather makes his rounds around the camp. More cats are sick now. Rosepetal brings him some yarrow she found outside the camp. She assumed Jayfeather left it out there, forgetting about it. He goes to the area it was found but cannot scent any cat there. As he tries to solve the mystery, Thornclaw and Spiderleg bring Mothwing to him. Sensing she wants to talk alone he brings her to the lake. She tells him of Willowshine's vision and asks him if it is true. Yellowfang comes to Jayfeather, whispering to him that he better not tell Mothwing anything. He is unable to do anything with Yellowfang right there but she realizes he knows more then he is letting on. They get into a fight over StarClan and Jayfeather walks away. She offers him some herbs for the white cough in his camp but he refuses her offer. She tells him if he changes his mind to come to her but he tells her he won't. Disappointed, Mothwing leaves. Jayfeather asks Yellowfang if she is happy now but the old medicine cat has left him. When he gets back to camp Cherrykit is sick. Everyone starts panicking and Dovepaw tells Jayfeather that Littlecloud had green cough. Jayfeather calms everyone down and leaves. Leafpool asks him what he is going to do about Littlecloud. He tells her nothing. Leafpool is upset but Jayfeather tells her he barely has any herbs for their own clan he cannot afford to give any away to ShadowClan - and he cannot pick any more because if he does the plants may die. Leafpool is upset but he feels he cannot tell her of his dream from StarClan. Instead, fearing that Leafpool may pick the herbs, he goes to Brambleclaw and asks him to post a guard by his herbs. He reminds Brambleclaw of Ivypaw's dream about ShadowClan wanting their herbs. Even though Jayfeather knows the dream is a lie he feels that right now it is helpful. Brambleclaw agrees. Jayfeather walks away upset. The Dark Forest is rising in strength, StarClan is frightened, and he does not trust his own clanmates.
Dovepaw and Tigerheart meet. Talk turns to Littlecloud being sick. Dovepaw mentions Jayfeather's herb patch and Tigerheart is surprised to hear of it. Dovepaw, in turn, is shocked, since she thought they fought the battle over it. Tigerheart has no clue what she is talking about, telling her that Firestar just demanded the land back. Tigerheart gets even more upset when he finds out that Leafpool asked Jayfeather to give ShadowClan some of the herbs but he refused. Dovepaw offers to steal some but he says no. She then tries to distract Tigerheart by trying to do a backflip. Ivypaw catches them, leading to a fight between the three cats. Ivypaw accuses Dovepaw of betraying the clan. Dovepaw counters that Ivypaw betrays them every time she goes to the Dark Forest. Ivypaw tells Tigerheart to tell Dovepaw the truth, since she doesn't believe her. As they argue a ShadowClan patrol approaches. Tigerheart hides Dovepaw and tells the patrol he found Ivypaw trespassing. She tells them she crossed the border accidentally while hunting. The cats insist on taking her back to their camp for Blackstar to deal with. Dovepaw feels awful as she watches her sister taken prisoner. She goes back to camp and returns to her nest. When it is time to wake up she pretends that she cannot find Ivypaw anywhere. Everyone starts to panic and search parties are organized. Since she knows where Ivypaw is but cannot say she races to Jayfeather, telling him only that Ivypaw is at the ShadowClan camp. He takes her to Firestar to tell him. Firestar then makes an announcement that he suspects that is where she is, and asks Brambleclaw to lead a patrol there to find out if it is true. Dovepaw joins the patrol and they wait by the border. A ShadowClan patrol led by Rowanclaw comes along. He admits to having Ivypaw but says they will only return her in exchange for catmint. Brambleclaw brings this news back to the camp which causes a panic. If their catmint is given away there may not be enough for Sandstorm and Cherrykit if they need it. Jayfeather leaves to pick the herbs and Firestar tells everyone they must first deal with the cats who are in the most danger - Ivypaw and Littlecloud. Dovepaw feels awful, knowing that all of this is her fault.
Ivypaw is surprised to find out that ShadowClan is just like ThunderClan. She even notices they look alike - though she is annoyed that they raise their kits on stories of how sneaky ThunderClan is when she feels it is ShadowClan that is sneaky. She finds out from Tawnypelt that she is going to be traded for herbs. She also finds out that ShadowClan didn't know about the herb patch. At first she starts to wonder if Tigerstar lied to her but she is quickly distracted by the news that Tigerheart found out about the herbs. She realizes Dovepaw must have told him and gets angry at her for betraying the clan. While there Flametail has a vision of darkness coming, of the greatest fight of their lives. Blackstar talks of getting ready but Tigerheart looks at her as if to say they are already ready. Ivypaw doesn't feel ready, though, she feels scared. If a fight is coming she wants to go home and fight for Firestar.
So, once again, Ivypaw is an idiot. She finds out Tigerstar lied about ShadowClan and the battle and instead of thinking on that she instead gets angry at Dovepaw. Don't get me wrong, what Dovepaw did was wrong, but talk about ignoring an obvious truth that is staring you in the face! And Dovepaw should not have told Tigerheart, but likewise Tigerheart should not have used Dovepaw or Ivypaw like that. I wonder if this will kill Dovepaw's relationship with him. I am glad that Littlecloud might be saved - especially since Jayfeather is not comfortable following StarClan's orders completely on this - but it should not have gone down like this. And StarClan still will not tell everyone who the enemy is - leaving ShadowClan to speculate all the other clans are going to turn against them! Really, they need to be united not divided.
And that fight between Breezepelt and Lionblaze! Lionblaze was right. Once the prey crosses a border that is that. But that whole situation was ugly. At least Crowfeather stopped Breezepelt from attacking Leafpool, but that made things worse. That WindClan family is falling apart - if they were ever unified - and it is having a serious impact on the clans even though they don't know it. After all, it has driven Breezepelt to the Dark Forest.
As for the yarrow, I was worried that the squirrel was going to have death berries in it or something - that is was a trap left by a ShadowClan warrior who was furious over the battle. But, no one died and now there is yarrow. Only Jayfeather cannot scent a cat. Which means who is giving ThunderClan food and herbs? Part of me wants to believe it is Hollyleaf, but she is dead. And if it was her Jayfeather would instantly recognize her scent - after all he did when he found a clump of her fur in the medicine den. Plus, Jayfeather said he couldn't smell anything. So who - or what - is leaving these gifts?
On a final note I am surprised Mothwing reached out to Jayfeather. But, then again, Jayfeather is the only cat she can trust outside of her clan with her secret. I do wish Yellowfang had not arrived because I think Jayfeather wanted to tell her something. Maybe not everything, but at least of the Dark Forest. And he couldn't so all clans are still in the dark.
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