The patrol accelerated to a run, urgently evading the ice-cold rivers, leaping over frozen streams, and ignoring the temptation of curious prey, making their way across the territory as swiftly as they could without bringing damage to Wishfern's herbs.

A familiar anxiety clawed its way up Silverjaw's throat as the stench of blood permeated the air, acridly mixing with a familiar, heart-wrenching stench. Her heart skipped a beat as the horrors of the night swamped over her, nearly halting her in her tracks, especially as the stretch of territory became painfully familiar.

Just beyond these trees, there will be a rotten tree stump... She shuddered, recalling the feel of the slimy bark under her claws, the uncertainty in Owlpaw's eyes. It was the border they'd hesitated at. The border she'd been so eager to penetrate, while her brother failed in convincing her to leave.

A decision that had gotten him killed.

"Silverjaw, look out!"

Silverjaw skidded to a halt just as a pair of claws closed around the back of her neck. She gasped, dropped to the ground and twisted wildly. She kicked at her attacker's stomach, the sharp pricks of claw-tips against her throat making her eyes stretch with fear. Heatfur rushed over and hauled the tom away, snarls erupting through the sky as the large she-cat flung attacks at the similarly sized rogue.

"Keep going! I'll hold this one off," the ginger warrior hissed.

Scrambling to her paws, Silverjaw pushed into a clearing with Lichenpaw and Wishfern by her side. Spiderfrost stood, panic clear in her one eye and carrying a limp paw by her stomach. Nightpatch lay beside her, unconscious and bleeding profusely from dozens of wounds.

A beautiful tortoiseshell rogue lunged and tackled the one-eyed warrior, the two rolling in a mess through the snow.

"Nightpatch!" Lichenpaw cried, charging into the clearing. She dropped by her mentor's side, touching her nose to his thick black-and-white pelt. She shot her wild, blue-eyed stare back towards the patrol. "Wishfern, he's still breathing!"

Wishfern raced to join the black apprentice, her paws working quickly to unwind her bundle of herbs. Lashing her tail, Silverjaw's gaze flashed about the clearing. The only other rogue she could spot was the tortoiseshell, who appeared to be winning the fight with Spiderfrost, ruthlessly using the ginger warrior's blind spot to her advantage.

Wasting no more time, Silverjaw leaped on the tortoiseshell's back. The rogue collapsed to the ground, but she was nimble and managed to slip out of Silverjaw's grasp. She flashed a claw across Silverjaw's cheek, scoring her talons deep into the flesh of the silver tabby's scar. Silverjaw yowled, squeezing her eye shut against the pain, blood piercing her vision. In retaliation, she gouged her claws deep inside the rogue's shoulders, heaving her to the crimson-dyed snow.

Silverjaw fought to pin the she-cat, a snarl vibrating through her chest. The rogue clawed at Silverjaw's underbelly and snapped her teeth, narrowly missing her throat. Spittle flew from her mouth.

"There's another one!" Spiderfrost cried.

Silverjaw rolled out of the way in the nick of time as another rogue flung at her. She cuffed her claws across his side and turned to see Spiderfrost racing to assist, while behind her, Wishfern urgently cleaned and mended Nightpatch's wounds with Lichenpaw's assistance, her ears attentively flicking in all directions.

Pressing their flanks together to guard one another's blind spots, Spiderfrost and Silverjaw pushed against the duo of rogues, working in perfect synchronization as they'd been trained to. Silverjaw clenched her teeth as she remembered her apprenticeship. She and Owlpaw had stuck to the Training Pool instead of finding themselves a meal, working together to perfect this exact move.

The rogues exchanged glances as slowly, their fur grew battered and beaten due to their uncoordinated defenses. The tortoiseshell spat furiously, and spinning around, she fled back to the border, the yellow tom at her tail.

Silverjaw stared after them with her hackles raised for what felt like moons until she finally heaved a sigh of relief, rubbing a paw across her eye. Worry twisted in her chest; she'd been lucky it hadn't been damaged in her first battle, but would it be fine this time? She looked at her bloody paw, unease growing in her gut. It didn't hurt too terribly. Perhaps it was just a scratch.

"Thank you," Spiderfrost murmured, dropping to her haunches and giving her flank a brisk lick. "They nearly had me."

Silverjaw nodded wordlessly, her eye following the trail of blood into the trees. "Was there anybody else on the patrol?"

Spiderfrost paused in her lapping. "It was me, Lichenpaw, Nightpatch, and..." she froze. "Stonefur was here, too. Where's Stonefur?"

Silverjaw's head snapped up, and she scanned the undergrowth. "Let's check this way," she mewed, immediately moving in the direction the rogues had fled.

Spiderfrost followed, urgency in her limp as the two warriors pressed through the undergrowth. A screech cut the air, prompting them to run. They emerged into another small clearing. Stonefur was lunging after the tortoiseshell rogue. Midway through his pounce, his body spasmed and he reeled off to the side, landing on the ground with a painful thump.

The tortoiseshell glanced at the arriving she-cats and swiftly vanished. Silverjaw darted forward. Stonefur scrambled to his paws, heaving for breath, red spittle decorating his muzzle.

"Don't!" Silverjaw hissed, blocking the tom's path as he fought to lunge past her. "You're too hurt."

A long gash snaked along Stonefur's stomach and towards his chest, oozing thick crimson. "I need to stop them!" He hissed indignantly.

"No, you don't," Spiderfrost mewed shakily, weaving around him and giving him a lick between the ears. "Wishfern is here. You need to see her."

Stonefur's shoulders sagged. "She is?"

"That's right." Spiderfrost blinked slowly. Her words, soft as they were, grew dopey.

Concern sparked in Silverjaw's mind. She gave the ginger warrior a long look out of the corner of her eye. Following her was a blood-streaked trail, thick and dark, steadily growing as her injuries continued to bleed.

"You both need to get to Wishfern," she mewed, careful with her tone.

Stonefur nodded begrudgingly. Silverjaw pressed up against the tom's side, taking his full weight. Spiderfrost took up position on his opposing side. As if the tom knew of her equally poor condition, he maintained his balance primarily on the silver warrior's shoulders.

The three stumbled back into the clearing where Wishfern was urgently trying to stop Nightpatch's bleeding. Lichenpaw was beside the medicine cat, her blue eyes bright with fear.

"Wishfern," Silverjaw called out. "I think Spiderfrost has lost too much blood, and Stonefur's injury is severe."

Wishfern, her paws still firmly against Nightpatch's blood-soaked fur, glanced over. She cursed under her breath. "Lichenpaw, please press your paws against these cobwebs." Lichenpaw did as instructed. "Now," Wishfern pressed her paw atop the apprentice's, "hold this firmly. Yes, that's right. Keep doing that until I tell you not to."

The white medicine cat grabbed her bundle of herbs and raced to Silverjaw. "Have you applied cobwebs to an injury before?" She mewed briskly.

Silverjaw shook her head.

"Here," Wishfern scooped up a bundle of cobwebs and crammed them into the pad of Silverjaw's paw. "Take these and do your best to apply them to Spiderfrost's injuries. I'll handle Stonefur and help you once I'm done. Make sure to cover all corners of the wound."

Her amber eyes shone anxiously as she met her gaze to Silverjaw's. Swallowing her fear, Silverjaw nodded.

As the white medicine cat scurried off to save Stonefur's life, Silverjaw brought her attention to the bleeding Spiderfrost before her. The ginger warrior was sitting now, panting heavily, while her eyes were glazing over as unconsciousness threatened to take her.

"Silverjaw, I'm... I'm not feeling too good," the she-cat mewed weakly.

"Lie down," Silverjaw meowed sternly, struggling to keep her voice calm.

She scanned the warrior's body. Her deepest wound penetrated from her neck and along her upper shoulder, leaking a steady flow of blood so thick, it made Silverjaw's stomach twist with nerves and panic cloud her mind.

She fought through the darkness and struggled to focus on the present task. As she slicked the webs onto the warrior's bloody fur, they slid straight off. She attempted again, but yielded the same results. "Th-They're not sticking," she panicked, looking at her scarlet-stained paw. "Wishfern, they're not sticking!"

"Stick the edges to her dry fur," the medicine cat snapped as she tended rapidly to Stonefur. "Remember, I can't help you right now."

Taking a deep, rattly breath, Silverjaw patted the edge on the lower area of Spiderfrost's wound where her fur remained mostly dry, then stretched it across towards the top, sticking it to the fur up there. She pressed firmly to ensure it stuck, then continued the process along the length of the wound. Stick, stretch, press.

Spiderfrost began mumbling incoherently, her tongue rasping across her lips periodically. "I'm... thirsty," she mumbled.

"We'll get you water soon," Silverjaw promised shakily.

Her vision danced between clarity and blurriness. Fear was threatening to take over, but she clung to reality with a viselike grip, holding to her focus as she pressed her coated paws against hot blood. The thought that she held Spiderfrost's life in her paws terrified her. A single slip-up and the weakening warrior would be gone. Just like Owlpaw and Sorrelmouse.

Before she knew it, Wishfern had returned to her side.

"Well done," the medicine cat praised, nudging Silverjaw aside with her red-stained paws. "Go fetch three wads of water-soaked moss. They'll need to hydrate after losing so much blood."

"Y-Yes, Wishfern." Silverjaw stumbled back.

Gathering her focus, Silverjaw bounded away, pushing away every ounce of fear as she raced towards the river. Spotting a mossy boulder, she stopped only for a moment to gather up a few mouthfuls, then continued on. She reached the sluggish bank and dipped the moss in, soaking up every droplet she could, before spinning around and racing back towards her injured Clanmates.

She exploded into the clearing and gave the wads to Wishfern. She watched anxiously as the white medicine cat gave some to each cat. Spiderfrost, though sluggish, greedily lapped it up, while Wishfern had to nurse it into the mouths of the unconscious Stonefur and Nightpatch.

Heatfur was sitting with Lichenpaw, her thick pelt snared with blood, though it had already stopped bleeding. She was watching her fretting sister through a furrowed brow, her jaw clenched and tail draped over Lichenpaw's trembling shoulders.

"We need to get them back to camp," Wishfern said, lashing her tail. "Silverjaw, do you think you can support Nightpatch's weight?"

Silverjaw clenched her jaw. "I can try."

"Good. Heatfur, you'll carry Stonefur, while Lichenpaw and I will help Spiderfrost walk."

"I can walk just fine," Spiderfrost protested feebly, hobbling to her paws. To prove a point, she took a step forward, but her injured paw buckled under the weight of her body.

Wishfern caught her with a pointed scowl. "I said, we'll help you walk."

Spiderfrost quietly mumbled her agreement. Wishfern and Heatfur worked together to sling Nightpatch across Silverjaw's shoulders, then Heatfur carefully lifted Stonefur.

Giving a satisfied nod, Wishfern took the lead, guiding the warriors back towards camp, their pace much slower than the initial run.

Silverjaw's legs wobbled under the weight of her Clanmate, her vision blurring in and out of focus. His body fought to crush her to the ground, and his fur pierced against her wounds. She could feel dizziness threatening to overtake her, and the shallowness of her breathing nearly felt fueled by her heart, bringing a frightening darkness to the corners of her vision.

Once they reached the crossing stones, Silverjaw anxiously hung back as the rest of the patrol hobbled across. Sucking in a deep breath, she leaped onto a stone.

She dug her claws fiercely into the hard surface, clinging so firmly, her knuckles pulsated. She took a moment to steady herself and Nightpatch's limp body before leaping to the next stone. Icy water licked at her toes and threatened to overbear her, but by some miracle, she made it safely to the other side.

Lichenpaw stood by the camp entrance and scurried towards Silverjaw's side, her eyes shining with worry as she gave Nightpatch's nose a ginger sniff. "I'll help," she whispered, pressing up on Silverjaw's flank.

"Thank you," the silver warrior gasped.

The two squeezed through the twisted reed barrier and emerged into camp.

"Set him down where you can," Wishfern ordered, carefully sliding Stonefur down from Heatfur's shoulders. "I'll fetch some herbs. In the meantime, you three had best clean your injuries."

Silverjaw obeyed the medicine cat's orders. Once she carefully lowered Nightpatch from her back and stretched the stiffness from her limbs, she licked a paw and drew it across her stinging, bloody cheek. Finished with that, she leaned to her side and lapped at her belly. It was a bloody mess, but the scratches were shallow and not as bad as they'd initially appeared.

Shock rolled in waves through her body, following the steady rasps of her tongue. She breathed deeply in a futile attempt to steel herself, but her blood still roared in her ears. The camp was quiet, aside from the incessant fretting of Ravenfire and the moans of the injured.

Wishfern eventually came over to survey Nightpatch's injuries, reapplying a more complicated poultice and patting them down in a denser layer of webs. She turned to Stonefur and Spiderfrost, then had Silverjaw and Heatfur assist in carrying the unconscious to her den, where they were settled into their nests. Only then did Wishfern turn to evaluate the rest.

The medicine cat attended to Lichenpaw first, courtesy of her worse injuries and Ravenfire's demands, then Silverjaw. With a swathe of cobwebs and a poultice slathered over her paw, she dressed the warrior's wounds with quiet efficiency.

She reached up to the scratch above Silverjaw's eye. "Keep this injury as clean as you can. If it gets infected, it may affect your vision," she warned.

Silverjaw nodded stiffly. She sat patiently as Wishfern dressed her wounds, before the white she-cat at last turned to her sister, who looked to be in the best shape of them all.

"You're all very lucky," Wishfern mewed as she wrapped a cobweb over Heatfur's paw. "If there had been any more rogues, the tides of battle would've been turned against us. It wouldn't have been pretty."

Silverjaw's stomach flipped. "I know," she whispered, terror creeping into her voice.

"Will Nightpatch be okay?" Lichenpaw mewed anxiously.

Wishfern was quiet for a moment. "I can't promise a thing, but I'll do everything in my power to save him."

Lichenpaw's face fell, and Ravenfire draped her tail over her shoulders. "Come with me," she murmured. "Let's find something to eat."

Guilt squirmed in Silverjaw's chest as the elder guided the apprentice away. Lichenpaw's blue eyes shone with a layer of tears.

Shaking out her fur, Silverjaw rose to her paws and padded away, leaving Wishfern with Heatfur. She was surprised Dappledfang hadn't roused from the ruckus, but if he was as sick as she'd been when she'd fallen ill, it would make sense. With a heavy sigh, she flopped to her side in a corner beneath the shade of the willow tree, resting her chin on her paws.

It took a while for her to tussle with her adrenaline, but eventually, the last of her leaping energy began to wane, only to be replaced with squirrels of anxiety. The battle replayed in her mind dozens of times; if she'd gone out to find Stonefur sooner, would he have stayed conscious? If she hadn't hesitated when Lichenpaw had arrived for help, would Nightpatch be okay? And worst of all... what if she could've done something to prevent the attack in the first place?

Silverjaw groaned, rubbing a paw over her eyes. She winced as she pressed against the injury on her forehead, which only swelled her troubles more. And what if I lose my eye? What then?

Her worries were cast away by a fuss at the camp entrance.

"Get Wishfern, now!" A voice shouted.

Silverjaw bolted to her feet, shock skyrocketing through her body as Crowspots thrust into camp, a limp figure strung across her back.

It was... Paledusk.

Behind the older warrior limped in Pinestar, blood caked across his shoulder and his eyes clouded over with pain. Salmonskip was the leader's primary support, pressed against the tom's side with a clenched jaw. On Pinestar's other flank was Robinleap, who appeared to be in worse condition, but pushed himself to help his leader regardless.

They were followed closely by Honeywhisker, Minnowstripe, Mistpaw, and Toadpaw. They weren't too terribly wounded in comparison to their Clanmates, but their downcast expressions spoke wonders.

Befuddled, Silverjaw's eyes roved over the patrol. She managed to briefly catch Mistpaw's eye. The black apprentice merely shook her head and continued following the rest of the patrol.

The group of bedraggled cats met with Wishfern just outside the medicine den. She urged the ones with the worst injuries inside, uttering a quick mouthful of words to the rest before following them in.

A confused silence claimed the air, tainted by the stench of blood and fear.

❀

Later that evening, with the sun setting, Silverjaw found herself sitting outside the warrior's den. The vigil for the warriors who died had passed swiftly. Their bodies rested in the clearing, awaiting their burial and absent of loved ones. Their injuries had been too much for most cats to bear.

Silverjaw struggled to wrap her head around it herself. After all, she'd just hunted with them today. How could it be true that they, too, were gone?

She flicked her tail and struggled to keep her sorrow at bay. She was on the brink of losing herself to her grief, the faces of her brother and mentor swimming in the back of her mind, now joined by the senior Paledusk and his young companion, Robinleap.

A sound tugged at her throat, begging to escape, but she kept it down, afraid of what her Clanmates would think of her. Instead, she curled her claws into the earth, kneading in and out in surges to the beat of her heart.

"Silverjaw? Are you all right?"

Silverjaw looked up to see Mistpaw approaching her, the dark apprentice's green eyes round with concern.

"Am I?" Silverjaw muttered, drawing her paws together and sheathing them. "I honestly don't know anymore."

Mistpaw plopped down beside her, their flanks pressing together. "Lichenpaw's freaking out," she said. "I don't know what to do to help her."

Silverjaw glanced to her friend. "Because of Nightpatch?"

"Yeah," Mistpaw sighed.

"He's still alive, at least. There's comfort in that."

"But will he stay alive?" Mistpaw retorted dully.

Silverjaw flattened her ears at the thought. "I hope so." I can't bear the thought of another death.

Mistpaw sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Me, too."

The she-cats sat together in silence. It wasn't long until Toadpaw joined them, quietly pressing up on Silverjaw's other side. She leaned further against him, the softness of his fur bringing solace to the battle in her mind.

Together, the three cats sat, allowing the weight of the day's events to settle over them.

❀

Hey everybody, thank you so much for waiting for an update! I wrote these last two chapters nearly a year ago and wanted to post them once I finished the whole story. Sadly, however, my life has been unbelievably busy with work, school, and other such obligations, which has given me next to no free time. In return, I haven't been able to write.

I 100% intend to finish this story one day. Even though it has it's flaws, I still love it and have been working on it for years at this point—so there's no way I'm going to abandon it!

In the meantime, I'll likely attempt to make more art for the characters in here, which you can view in my Art Book, though postings may be slim.

Lastly, I would like to push out a gentle reminder that a lot of the art in here wasn't made by me! There are dozens of talented artists who contributed to the chapter art, and they're all linked on my ToyHouse (https://toyhou.se/kittennoodle) with the corresponding artworks.

Thanks for reading!
~ Kitten