GUIDE TO THE POWER OF FOUR: BEHIND THE SCENES

Willowbranch Worries

Willowbranch winced as Flintpaw flew through the air and onto the ground. His head landed directly onto a rock. She raced over to her kit, but he didn't even look the same. His legs were mangled, and he was sticky with blood. 

"F-Flintpaw?" She mewed shakily. 

His eyelids barely hung open. "I'm... a warrior now...I fought...mom.." his voice faded as he lightly closed his eyes. 

"NO!" Willowbranch wailed. "NOT YOU!" It went from desperate screaming to sobbing and hiccuping for breaths. 

I failed him, she thought. She whipped around to see Sagepaw sitting by the bush, humming, peacefully healing a ShadowClan warrior. 

She looks safe. I need to avenge Flintpaw. Willowbranch reared up on her hind paws and straight sprang onto the WindClan warrior who had flung Flintpaw into the sky so carelessly. 

She desperately clawed and bit his body with everything she had. The WindClan warrior was already on the ground panting when she found him. 

When Willowbranch got up, her front paws red, she looked at the large tom. He was definitely dead.

A WindClan she-cat rushed towards him and sobbed just as Willowbranch had for her fallen kit. The she-cat was much smaller than the tom, and it was obvious that the tom that Willowbranch has killed was the small she-cat's father. 

 A nettle pierced Willowbranch's heart-a nettle of regret. Then it was washed over with grief and rage. He deserved it. Flintpaw... he was my kit. It was only 3 moons ago that he was at my stomach, pouting because he was cold. 

She hung her head and padded over to Sagepaw. There were severe yowls of pain as she got closer. Not her too. No. Not Sagepaw. NO! Willowbranch now began pelting towards her daughter.

Sure enough, a ThunderClan she-cat licking blood off of her muzzle slid out of the bush and into the shadows. Sagepaw was surely either dead or had fainted. 

"MOM! HELP!" She had yelped. 

Willowbranch's heart filled with hope. But when she found her daughter, she had already died. Sagepaw's body was dead cold.

Her third kit was her last chance. Willowbranch raced closer ThunderClan border. Nope. Pebblepaw was crush between two boulders.

"Mother..." He choked. 

Willowbranch tensed, wondering why ThunderClan and WindClan did this together. Bramblefern had told her that ThunderClan and WindClan were going to team up and talk to ShadowClan. When he said that, she didn't expect this. 

"M-m..." 

She turned her attention right back to her squealing kit. 

"I... fought...bravely?" 

"Yes," Willowbranch choked. "Flintpaw and Sagepaw are dead," she told him. "But you'll see them in StarClan, honey. You guys have always been my everything. And once we die, we'll be a family."

Pebblepaw chuckled. "Willowbranch... wake up!"

Then, suddenly everything flashed away and then flashed back to the warrior's den. 

Willowbranch was laying next to Pineneedle. He had invited her to sleep next to him on the edge, since it was greenleaf. In his normal hours. She thought she was starting to understand what was happening. But when Pineneedle was normal, he was sweet. 

She understood that it was dream. She didn't have kits. They didn't die. And ThunderClan and WindClan wouldn't do that. Kestrelstar wouldn't do that...

right?