Nightshade stepped forward, blocking Shadow's view. The apprentice quickly lowered her gaze to her paws and tried to look as tired and helpless as she could.

"Hello," Nightshade called out, "We mean no harm, just a safe place to spend the night. We got lost when we went exploring."

The tom narrowed his dark eyes in suspicion as three cats joined him.

"Who are you?" One of them asked, a pale tortoiseshell with golden eyes. She had abnormally long claws, Shadow noticed. Before they had approached the den, Nightshade had given them all new names that would help sell their act of innocent kitty-pets.

Shadow had become Cloud, Ivy was Leaf, Nightshade was now Midnight, Quartz was Fluffy (much to his dismay), and Flame had been renamed Rusty.

Nightshade quickly introduced everyone and then proceeded to look around with wide eyes.

"Wow, your den is so big!" She meowed with fake excitement. Flame let out a snicker but was quickly silenced by a merciless jab in the side from Quartz. A white and light gray she-cat with feathery fur and sparkling light green eyes broke her silence and piped up,

"Well, don't just stand there in the dark, come inside! And stop looking like you're about to claw their pelts off Jupiter" She added with a playful glare directed to the tom with amber eyes who had first spoken to them.

The tom grudgingly nodded and padded inside the small wooden den, flicking his tail as a signal for all of them to follow. Nightshade led them inside, and Shadow followed eagerly, hoping to finally rest her sore paws.

Once they had all settled, the tom with amber eyes spoke.
"Welcome to our den. You can call me Jupiter, here next to me is North." He said, nodding to the pale tortoiseshell beside him. "Over by the wall are Fae and Otter."

The white and gray she-cat who had invited them in earlier greeted them with a meow, and the brown tom with a tabby pattern and a white underbelly flicked his tail at them in a friendly gesture.

"Thank you for letting us stay here," Ivy said, blinking at the cats, "we'll be out of your fur by tomorrow morning, we promise!"

"Oh, no need!" Fae said airily, "Guests are always welcome here. Otter, go get them some good food, they must be starving." Otter slipped out of the den, barely making any sound, Shadow noticed.

Nightshade led them to a corner of the den, where a pile of leaves and moss lay, she looked surprised that kitty-pets would have moss, as they would have had to go out into the forest to get this amount.

They settled down, relieving their tired paws. Flame dozed off after a while, but Shadow was too curious about the kitty-pets to even think about sleep. Jupiter was curled up on the opposite side of the den, his face towards the wall.

Fae was carefully grooming her long fur but kept an eye on the strange cats in her den. After what seemed like forever to Shadow, Otter finally returned, fresh-kill clamped between his strong jaws.

Fresh-kill?

Shadow thought, confused about how kitty-pets could have possibly gotten four mice, a squirrel, and two birds. It would have been a good catch for trained, BloodClan cats, but for soft, weak, kitty-pets? Impossible! 

Shadow saw her mentor's eyes narrow slightly, also having noticed the big pile Otter had accumulated in such a short time. Jupiter rose from where he lay, and let out a massive jawn, his fangs gleaming in the moonlight filtering in through the roof. 

"Snapper and Willow helped me catch all this food, so I managed to get back faster!" Otter chirped, before proceeding to mutter under his breath about how he had done most of the work and Willow had just sat on her fat tail the whole time.

"Thank you, Otter! Feel free to take some food." Fae directed the last line to Nightshade and the rest of the group, giving them a friendly nod. Ivy walked forward meekly, clearly hating having to act this way. She slowly lowered her head and picked up a gray squirrel. She padded back to Shadow and dropped the prey in front of her.
"Let's share."

Shadow nodded, and settled down to eat, while the rest of the cats also took their pick of fresh-kill and began to satisfy their hungry stomachs. The apprentice bit back a snicker as she saw how Quartz gave Flame a forced, fake purr of gratitude as the ginger tom pushed the rest of the bird to him, glaring in the process.

"So where did your owners go?" Nightshade inquired, "Surely they will be back soon, us kittypets could never survive without one!" She let out a mirthful meow that almost sounded genuine to Shadow. 

North and Jupiter exchanged uneasy glances while Fae and Otter shifted nervously.

"We aren't kittypets," North began, "We used to be part of a large group of cats, but most of them died of a mysterious sickness. We were one of the only cats to survive, and we decided to take refuge in this abandoned den, it's much safer among two-legs than in the forest."

Shadow almost let out a gasp of surprise, what would they do now?! If these cats used to live in the forest they must be strong, and they could never capture them without severe losses. Ivy must have come to the same conclusion because she looked at Nightshade and they shared a silent conversation with their eyes.

"To tell the truth, we haven't been completely honest about who we are either," Nightshade ventured, ignoring the sharp looks the rest of her group gave her. "We too, come from a large group of cats, called BloodClan. We are in need of strong cats for our clan, as we don't have many kits at the moment." Nightshade looked each of the "kittypets" in the eyes before continuing carefully. 

"You can hunt well, and if you lived in the forest, you must know how to fight. We would like to invite you to join BloodClan as warriors." The black she-cat finished. Shadow's mind was reeling, and it felt like she couldn't breathe. Every time she thought she had figured out how BloodClan worked, they kept surprising her. What was even real at this point?

Jupiter rose to his paws slowly and didn't move for several heartbeats, the only sign of motion was the end of his tail twitching. When he finally spoke, Shadow jumped even though she was expecting it and she tried to relax her tense muscles.

"Thank you for your offer, we will discuss it amongst ourselves and let you know in the morning." The tom answered, nodding his head to Nightshade before turning back to his friends.

~~~

Despite her sore limbs, Shadow could barely sleep that night. Despite the soft moss and peaceful night, the soft whispers of Jupiter and the other cats kept her awake. Her mind was racing at all the possible scenarios that could come from this. 

Shadow must have fallen asleep at some point because suddenly Flame was prodding her with a not-so-gentle paw. She dragged herself upright and blinked her sleepy eyes.

"Nightshade was yowling at me to get everyone up so you better get your tail out of our nest before she scratched my whiskers off." Flame muttered, rolling his eyes at Shadow's futile attempts to smooth her unruly coat down.

When everyone was up and gathered around Nightshade, the forest cats padded over to them. 

"We have carefully evaluated your offer and come to a decision," Fae stated, calmly sitting down and wrapping her tail around her paws neatly.

Sorry for making you guys wait literally 8 months for another chapter, I was in a writing slump, but I'm back to writing now! What do you think of the new characters? What do you think they will do? Will they join Blood clan or refuse, which could end in a battle....

Anyways, see you guys in the next chapter, and thank you so so much for reading! <33

(Word Count: 1301)