Blood warning

BACK AT TREECLAN

Woodspots yawned, stretching in his small nest. Even though most cats, including his sister, had recovered from Greencough, he still had too much stress on his shoulders to stay asleep as long as he used to. After LeafClan had told another patrol that they were going to start a battle over basically nothing, he couldn't stop thinking about all the bad things that could happen.
He eventually decided to stand up and, avoiding tails and stray paws, walked out into the clearing. He sat down in a corner, near the medicine den, and started to groom himself. He needed a bit of peace in his life, even though the loneliness made him a little bored.
As he was about to go check the fresh kill pile, Darkoak stepped in front of him.
"Good, your up. We need someone else on the dawn patrol." Darkoak mewed calmly, as if nothing was wrong in the Clans, "Wake your apprentice, I bet Ashtalon would want him to come, too."

"Well, how have you guys been doing?" Woodspots asked, itching to get out of the complete silence that encapsulated them. They had just reached the end of the StoneClan border, and were heading toward LeafClan.
"Decent enough," Lostpaw was the first to reply,  not seeming quite as awake as he should.
"Good," Darkoak stated second, his pale blue eyes daring back and fourth.
"Good, you?" Ashtalon, the deputy, asked.
"A bit stressed, but good enough," Woodspots admitted.
"Well we a-" Darkoak stopped, "Did you hear that?"
"No," Lostpaw replied, "But I smell it."
 "Stop!" A voice demanded, cutting through the air like a knife.
As the cats did so, three cats emerged out of the bushy border. One was the large and fluffy Leafstar, one was a bright ginger tom, and the other a small bluish she-cat.
“What do you want?!” Ashtalon hissed, staring right into the leader’s eyes.
“You know what we want!” The orange tom hissed, fur on end.
“Tell us who crossed into our border so they can get their punishment and we’ll be on our way,” Leafstar announced, “If not, the entirety of TreeClan will be no more!”
“More like LeafClan will be no more,” Lostpaw muttered, getting a gentle shove from Woodspots in return.
“And what if we chase you away first,” Darkoak challenged, his brown tail swishing with anticipation.
Suddenly, guilt flooded through Woodspots. He knew this was his fault.
“You have until I count to three,” Leafstar growled, her ear twitching slightly.
“One.”
A heartbeat slowly ticked by.
“Two.”
Another heartbeat before Woodspots yells out, “I did it!"
“Does he look similar enough?” Leafstar asked, looking directly at Woodspots with her soul-piercing green eyes.
“Yes, but I thought there was another.” The blue-ish she-cat stated, “Black, perhaps?”
The orange tom glared at Lostpaw, and the young tom gulped nervously.
"It was both of us,” Woodspots, “But it was my fault. Punish me, not him," he glances to Ashtalon.
“But Woodspots-“ Lostpaw started, only to get his mouth covered silently with a tail, by Ashtalon,
“You can get a punishment back at camp; let your mentor handle this,” he whispered.
Leafstar growled, then looked at Woodspots, “Step forward, code-breaker, and accept your punishment.”
Woodspots stepped to the edge of the border, avoiding her eyes.
“Are you ready?” Leafstar hissed, making it sound more like a statement than a question.
Woodspots looked at her before letting his gaze drop to the grass, “I’m ready.”
Suddenly a pair of unsheathed paws hit his head and pushed him to the ground.
The last thing he could hear was a faint, “Now you won’t even think about bringing your apprentice back here,” before the world turned black and seemed to fade away.

BACK AT LEAFCLAN

Leafstar smiled, watching as the brown splotched tom's eyes shut, and the crimson blood puddle she had made slowly grew. It had been a while since her paws had gotten so dirty.
    "W-what did y-you do?!" A black tom cried, running up to the other cat's body and shoving his face into his chest fur, which hadn't gotten bloody.
    "He won't be making any 'mistakes' anymore," she declared, staring at the three cats with a sharp and penetrating gaze, "Now, if you don't mind, I have a Clan to lead."
    With that she padded away, back to what she had called home. The TreeClan border was much too dense, unlike her perfectly divided trees.
    When she had returned, mews if excitement rose from the Clan. "All cats old enough to fight their own battles, gather under the Wooden Stone for a Clan meeting!" She announced.
    As soon as all the cats had gathered, she began to talk. "As you all know, a TreeClan cat- well, two- came onto our territory. The one who was guilty will not be causing any issues anymore, and I'm sure of it."
    "How can you be so sure?" A young apprentice, Bushpaw, questioned.
    “Well, I mean, you can’t really do anything if you’re dead,” Leafstar chuckled, flexing her bloodied claws.

BACK AT STONECLAN

"I'm so over it," Swanpaw rolls her eyes and inspects her front right paw.
"No you're not," Amberpaw laughs, "you talk about him every day!"
Swanpaw falls onto her back, "you're right! Its been too long! Its been 19 days!"
"C'mon," Amberpaw rolls her eyes, "I'm gonna go see if I can go on patrol or something, you should ask if you can come with to gather herbs or something."
"A patrol won't fix my aching heart!" Swanpaw is still on her back.
Amberpaw grabs her by one of her hind legs and drags her a few tail lengths, "come on!"
Swanpaw rolls over and dusts herself off a bit before they go to find their mentors.
"Can we go hunting?" Amberpaw walks beside Snowcloud, "and could we take Swanpaw with us so she couldn't gather herbs or something?"
"Ask Gravelstripe," Snowcloud has little to no emotion in his voice.
"You ok?" Amberpaw tilts her head.
Snowcloud shakes his head, "nope."
"Wanna talk about it?" Amberpaw looks at the ground.
"Nope," Snowcloud hurries up, "I'll be waiting at the entrance."
"O- ok," Amberpaw stutters.
What's gotten into him? She wonders.
She walks to the medicine den where she sees Swanpaw talking to Gravelstripe.
"So can I go?" Swanpaw finishes.
"Yes, yes, make sure to bring back more comfrey, we used it all on- we used it all on Rocktail," Gravelstripes eyes darken with sadness.
Rocktail had fallen from High up in a tree and broke two of his legs, he died from the injuries two days ago.
Gravelstripe turns her head to look through the storage again.
"Ok," Swanpaw looks at the ground, "its- its not your fault."
"Hm?" Gravelstripe turns back.
"There's nothing you could've done differently to make him survive," Swanpaw mews.
Gravelstripe nods, "I know."
"Come on Swanpaw," Amberpaw mews, "let's go, Snowcloud is waiting."
"Ok," Swanpaw nods.
The two she-cats pad out into the camp clearing.
"Let's go," Snowcloud rolls his eyes.
The group leaves the camp and goes out into the forest.
"Can we go this way?" Swanpaw asks, tilting her head to the right, "there's a good spot to find herbs over there."
"Alright," Snowcloud changes his course and leads the way in the direction Swanpaw indicated.

They gather the herbs and Amberpaw catches a small mouse while Snowcloud catches a plump shrew, impressive for the season. They then head back to camp.

BACK AT FROSTCLAN

"Shadowblaze," Snowfang beckons her mate into the corner of camp, "I need to tell you something."
"Hm?" Shadowblaze pads across the camp.
He sits a tail length in front of Snowfang.
Snowfang takes a deep breath, "I'm pregnant."