“The battle wasn’t won or lost,” Lionpaw pointed out. “The vanishing sun stopped it. Now that the sun’s back, WindClan might return to finish what they started.”

“They can’t!” Hollypaw bristled in shock. “StarClan has told us that we mustn’t fight!”

“If it was StarClan who hid the sun,” Lionpaw muttered.

Foxpaw came hurrying back with a large feather fluttering from his mouth. “Will this do?” He sneezed, and the feather shot into the air and drifted onto the ground.

“It’s a start,” Lionpaw mewed. “But I think we should look outside the camp. We’ll need a lot of bedding.”

Hollypaw glanced at Squirrelflight, lying on her side. Her flanks were hardly moving, and she looked small and cold. Jaypaw was pressed close to her, his muzzle resting beside hers as though he were listening to her breathing.

“Come on,” Lionpaw urged. He led the way through the entrance and out into the forest.

Hollypaw gazed around in surprise. It’s so peaceful. As if nothing’s happened. The sun streamed through the branches, and birds sang in the trees. A few leaves drifted down. Leaf-fall drew closer by the day. Many of the ferns were browning into bracken, too brittle and hard for a nest.

She padded after Lionpaw, her exhaustion returning. Here and there a flattened clump of grass or a scrap of fur caught on bramble reminded her of the battle just fought, and the sting of her wounds began to prick her once more.

“These ones are soft.” Lionpaw stopped beside a green swath of ferns. He began to tug at a frond with his teeth, hauling it out of the ground.

Hollypaw grabbed another in her jaws and heaved it out of the clump. They worked steadily until they’d gathered a thick pile.

“Foxpaw!” Lionpaw called to their denmate.

“We’re coming!”

The undergrowth rustled, and Foxpaw and Icepaw appeared with great wads of moss hanging from their jaws.

“I think we’ve got enough,” Lionpaw decided. He hooked his paw over the pile of ferns and began to drag them back toward camp. Hollypaw followed, shoving the fronds together when the pile began to loosen and scatter. She was so tired that the edges of her vision blurred, and the forest seemed to sway about her.

“We would have won anyway,” Lionpaw puffed as they neared the barrier.

Really? Hollypaw wasn’t so sure. Swerving wearily to avoid a thin trail of blood, she felt as though all four Clans had lost something, though she wasn’t sure what.

Squirrelflight hadn’t moved when they reached her. Jaypaw was still curled beside her. He looked up as they neared, then stood and stretched. “Put the moss underneath her,” he instructed. “The ground’s very hard.”