As expected, the most powerful StarClan cats were opposed to letting any cat enter the Dark Forest once again.

"Do you want more cats to be taken? Then we'll have to send additional rescue patrols, which would get captured, and soon there would be no StarClan left! We'd all be dead at the hands of raving lunatics in the Dark Forest!"

Dawnstrike edged away from the stinky tom, whose smell ebbed off of him in waves, just like the paranoia that ebbed from his distraught figure. And he thinks that Dark Forest cats are the lunatics around here.

To Juniperleaf she whispered, "Who is that?"

"The old RiverClan medicine cat," she whispered back, not that they would be heard over the cat's cries of doom and darkness. "Heronwing."

"I'm surprised no cat died from him taking care of them. He looks insane."

"He is," Juniperleaf assured her. "There were so many omens that StarClan sent to RiverClan, about coming dangers, that he eventually cracked at the strain of carrying all of those secrets."

Finally, Heronwing quieted down, and eventually the leaders were able to resume their debate with Mousestar and Dawnstrike. Wavestar stood to the side of them, uttering a helpful word here and there.

"Our cats are in the Dark Forest," Mousestar spat," being tortured and forced to send false messages to the Clans, thus sparking a war between WindClan and RiverClan. During leaf-bare!"

"We will not allow a patrol to go in there," Violetstar's thick tail caught Squirrelstar on the nose, and the red she-cat jerked away with a hiss. "It is too dangerous. Especially," she licked a paw and drew it over her ear, "for cats foolish enough to get themselves captured in the first place."

"Rabbit-dung!" Dawnstrike glimpsed the calm Berryfur leap over the heads of the spectating cats. The leaders in the center of the clearing looked shocked, but none more that Violetstar, who was getting the full force of Berryfur's temper. "My mate did not get foolishly captured. We were by the border on a  patrol, and when remarking the border the tip of his tail drifted over. Paws of shadow gripped him and pulled him inside, but my fellow patrol members wouldn't let me go after Eagleleap. The Dark Forest cats are splitting whiskers, Violetstar, and not at all because any cat is foolish."

A broad-shouldered tom with scars slashed against his thin brown pelt stood and firmly looked at Berryfur, although he addressed all cats.

"It is true, what Violetstar says," he said solemnly. "It is far to dangerous to send a patrol to rescue these cats. If one dies, no cat knows what happens. Incredibly painful, it is, to give up one's last dying echo."

"I'd rather die than give Eagleleap up to those dung-balls," Berryfur hissed.

"Coldstar," Juniperleaf padded out from beside Dawnstrike, "I know as well as you that when alive, you and ThunderClan were never ones to turn away from a battle. Why a sudden change of heart?"

Coldstar narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. The other leaders extended glances.

What is she doing? Dawnstrike wondered, who had been sitting, watching the drawn-out discussion through slitted eyes.

Juniperleaf waited until every cat had their eyes on her. "You are cowards," she said icily," if you will leave your clanmates there in that prison." She turned her back to the leaders, now facing all of the other cats. "Warriors, deputies, apprentices— when we were alive, whether it was in the forest or the lake, would you have left your friends and clanmates with another Clan?"

No cat answered, until a small voice said," Never." A small she-cat stood on her paws, tail whipping from side to side.

"My apprentice is right," called Burrnose, sitting in the front of the crowd. "Flowerpaw and I died on a mission to rescue a pair of kits from wandering off into Twolegplace. We would have done the same even if those kits were in another camp— because our Clanmates are more important than our own lives."

After he finished speaking, the growing chorus of "never", had grown, until Mousestar and Dawnstrike stood triumphantly next to Juniperleaf, and Coldstar was hunched over with his ears pressed up against his head.

"Your warrior are calling," Juniperleaf informed the leaders. "Will you deny them their last battle? I may have been a medicine cat, but I know how a true warrior never stops defending their Clanmates— even in death!" She glared at the leaders, tail bristling and looking like she was about the charge into the Dark Forest herself. "Will you let them fight?"

Mousestar smugly looked at her fellow leaders. As one, they gazed at her, and most nodded in return.

We are going to fight! Excitement pulsed through Dawnstrike's veins, and hope filled her heart. We are going to defeat the Dark Forest!

"We will let a patrol try and rescue these cats," growled Coldstar, after moments of the leaders discussing the plan. "But Dawnstrike, you may not go."

"What?" The ground seemed to fall beneath her feet. "But I've worked so hard to help save these cats!"

"And now you will let other, more experienced cats save them."

Dawnstrike curled her lip angrily. "I went on the spying mission, okay? I'm plenty experienced for what lies in the Dark Forest." When Coldstar didn't say a word she cast glances at all of the other leaders. "What is wrong? Why can't I go?"

Emberstar looked steadily at her. "You are part of a prophecy, Dawnstrike. It was never part of the original prophecy for you to die, and now if you die once more, the Clans will never see another green-leaf. You and your sister together are the only thing that can keep the Dark Forest at bay— at least for a while."

All thoughts of keeping calm in the face of all of StarClan left Dawnstrike's mind. Everything she had been yearning to say... for moons came out of her in a long, slow parade of hisses.

"Oh, now you acknowledge the fact that I'm in a prophecy, do you? I thought that no one cared, since it's obviously too much to ask about the prophecy's contents itself." Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she took a step closer to the leaders. "Tell me now, StarClan, because I am fed up with waiting. Whose idea was it to not tell me? Whose frog-brained idea was that?"

Firestar padded out from behind Emberstar, muscles rippling beneath his flame-colored pelt. His green eyes were curious as they rested on Dawnstrike.

"I believe that was my 'frog-brained' idea."