Two moons had passed. The apprentice siblings were now nine months old, leafbare was coming and food was a bit scarce. Emberpaw had been struggling with his new responsibilities and even seeing Lionfang. Emberpaw felt a rage like nothing he had ever felt before whenever he saw the tomcat. Woundedheart had simply grown worse since the fight, Brawnypelt had grown quite disappointed with Emberpaw and the sisters had become worried for their brother since he had been punished.

Emberpaw begrudgingly walked with his sister to the blackberry bushes around the borders of their clan’s territory. They had to collect blackberry leaves because of some apprentice who had been trying to show off by climbing and fell onto a beehive. “I don’t understand why I was punished as well.” Emberpaw huffed, “You do have a temper…” Twistedpaw sighed, “What!?” her brother whined as she began to pluck blackberry leaves. The shecat slowly lifted her head and placed the blackberry leaves into the large leaf she had brought and wrapping them up. “You heard me.” she responded. Emberpaw huffed and rolled his eyes slowly plucking a berry and licking it off his claw eating it slowly. “Whatever.” he mumbled, licking his lips before picking some leaves as well and following his sister.

They walked slowly but as they got closer to the camp sounds of panic filled their ears. When they arrived cats were running around and looked worried. The apprentices ran towards Dovefeather’s den in a rush, dropping the leaves they had packed when they entered, panting heavily. “Wh...whats going on!?” exclaimed Emberpaw once he had caught his breath. Dovefeather was trembling and trying to calm a shecat they both recognized. Specklebelly.

She was a purebred tan Egyptian Mau. Her face was covered with dark brown spots and she was a recruiter who often appealed to younger rogues. She was a sweetheart and had previously been a kittypet. She had recently had kits. Two kits, one had died during birth. Fawnkit and Logkit.

“W-We were all eating and.. And we heard something outside the den and… and…” Specklebelly broke down into wails. Dovefeather nuzzled her, rubbing their heads together gently. “It was feeding time for the mothers and… there was a thud outside on the side of den. The mothers ran out to investigate and… something attacked. Or someone attacked, we’re not sure. There’s signs that something went into that den and… Four kits have gone missing. Fawnkit and Logkit being two of those said kits.” Dovefeather explained calmly and delicately.

“F… four kits…” Twistedpaw choked out, Emberpaw was frozen. His eyes were wide and emotions throbbed through him. Fear, anger, confusion. He slowly backed out of the den, his legs trembling. He turned and ran off to his den. No one was inside. Where was his mother? He looked around in panic, his chest heaving and his ears pinning back. Kits. Missing. Four of them. All gone. No one knew where they were or who had taken them. No one knew anything.

He looked around frantically. In the chaos he heard mewling. Somewhere. He heard it in the chaos. He looked off into the silence of the surrounding trees and panted. The mewling continued. He growled and took off in the direction of it. He stumbled a bit but forced himself to stop. He peaked through a cluster of bushes at six cats. They were surrounding the four kits. They were rogues.

One was a large black tom with a green eye, the other being closed with a huge scar over it. To his left was a thin brown she-cat tabby with yellow eyes and the top part of her ear missing. Next to her was a younger looking tom white cat with pale blue eyes and a few whiskers missing. The others were hidden in the shadows. Two other toms and another she-cat.

“Do you think this is enough?” sighed the large black tom. “Yes I am sure, Jingo. She asked for kits of her own and four should be enough.” The she-cat huffed. “If she doesn’t want one we can just kill it.” spat one of the cats in the shadows. “That is cruel.” hissed the white cat. “You know she will tell us to though.” laughed the hidden cat.

Emberpaw couldn’t help himself any longer. He launched out from the darkness and tackled the tom named Jingo, clawing at his chest and biting into his neck. The large tom cried out in pain, clawing and kicking at the apprentice. “G-Get him off of me Storm!” he yowled. The white cat ran over and ripped Emberpaw away making him yelp and stumble, his vision blurry as he tried to steady himself. The white cat then made to attack the tom but there was a blur of beige and the white cat yowled. Emberpaw scrambled to adjust now and realized his sister Mousepaw had just ripped out the throat of this cat, Storm. He knew instantly from the glossy eyes that he was dead. He panicked a bit but was shocked back to reality as the large black tom attacked him, his sister now busy with the other she-cat.

Emberpaw scrambled and kicked, clawing at the large tom trying to get a fatal blow of some sort. He finally managed to get the black mass off of him and bit into his tail causing him to scream. He yanked on the tail, blood spilling. While the cat was distracted Emberpaw leaped onto his back and bit into the back of his neck. The tom yowled and slammed Emberpaw into trees and rocks over and over again, covering the apprentice in cuts, scrapes and gashes but as Emberpaw felt the hot gooey blood fill his mouth the tom grew weaker and weaker before finally collapsing. Emberpaw released and backed up, staring horrified at what he had done. He looked over at his sister, her coat covered in red splatters of blood. Her eyes were wide and tears were streaking down her cheeks. “Wh...what have we done…” The kits were huddled against the trunk of a tree. Emberpaw spun around hearing movement in the bushes, Ryestar emerged followed by Lionfang, Brawnypelt and Foxtail. By the time Emberpaw had spun around the two kits who had been in the shadows were gone and so were two of the kits. In a blur Dovefeather was caring for the two remaining kits, Foxtail and Lionfang chasing after the two other cats and Mousepaw collapsing onto Rystar. Emberpaw was frozen, the strange taste of blood stung his mouth, soon he felt himself fade as well.