“What happened to you?” Sandstorm demanded, rising to her paws and coming to meet the two she-cats. “Thornclaw and I thought you must have followed a prey trail. Didn’t you catch anything?”

Blossomfall shook her head. “We got lost.”

Ivypool realized how lame the explanation sounded. She couldn’t blame some of the cats for looking at them with suspicion, and her heart pounded harder as Firestar summoned them over to him with a flick of his tail. The ThunderClan leader studied them, his brilliant green eyes narrowed. “You got lost?” he echoed. “In ThunderClan territory?”

“And why do you look as if some cat pulled you through a bramble thicket backward?” Thornclaw asked. “Did you meet rogues? Or WindClan?”

“No,” Ivypool meowed. “We just—”

“Ivypool!” To Ivypool’s relief, her mother, Whitewing, padded up, pushing past Thornclaw and shooting a glare at Firestar. “What does it matter where they’ve been?” she demanded, in between covering Ivypool’s face and neck with licks. “They’re obviously hurt. I thought you’d just been distracted by newleaf prey,” she added to Ivypool. “I can’t bear to think that you were in real trouble.”

“We’re fine, honestly,” Ivypool insisted.

Whitewing’s green gaze was loving. “It’s hard enough having one daughter out of sight,” she mewed. “I can’t lose track of another one.”

Ivypool noticed that Millie had appeared from the medicine cat’s den, helping Briarlight over to the fresh-kill pile. She seemed not to notice Blossomfall until Whitewing called out to her.

“Millie, Blossomfall and Ivypool got lost. It looks as if they’ve had a tough time.”

Millie looked up, then left Briarlight to carry on dragging herself across the camp, while she stalked up to Blossomfall. Her tail-tip was twitching in annoyance.

Wow, Ivypool thought, feeling a pang of guilt that Whitewing had been so kind and sympathetic to her. Millie really does think she’s got only one kit now.

“Where have you been?” Millie snapped. “You’ve wasted a whole morning when you could have been hunting!” Glancing back at Briarlight, who was struggling to join the group at the fresh-kill pile, she added, “Your sister would give anything to be able to help feed the Clan! It’s time you grew up, Blossomfall, and started to behave like a proper warrior.”

Several of the cats stretched their eyes wide.

“There’s no harm done,” Brackenfur meowed, blinking at Blossomfall in concern. “Both cats are home safe, and that’s the main thing, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Millie drew her lips back in a snarl. Her eyes were full of bitterness as she went back to Briarlight.

Feeling awkward, Ivypool padded over to Blossomfall. “Your mother doesn’t mean it….” she began.

Blossomfall dismissed her words with a swish of her tail. “Whatever,” she muttered, her gaze following Millie as she helped Briarlight pick out a plump vole from the fresh-kill pile. “This is just the way it is now. I’d better get used to it. At least I get noticed in the Dark Forest.”

Her words sent a chill running through Ivypool. I wonder how many other cats would be ready to listen to Hawkfrost’s clever words, she asked herself as she looked at her Clanmates, peacefully settled around the fresh-kill pile. It could be any of them training to fight their own Clanmates when the final battle comes!