𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 #3: 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

Spottedsong nervously and subconsciously paced the den. She had been worrying about Dovesong every day, knowing that she could be hurt or worse. They had to get her out quickly. But she just didn't know how.

"Spottedsong, what are you so worried about?" Gorseberry asked from the corner of the den. He had been remaking his nest, and now he watched Spottedsong worriedly. "Is it about Dovesong? You know she'll be fine. I'm-"

Spottedsong turned to him sharply. "Don't you understand this is MoonClan we're dealing with? They could hurt her! I don't want to risk it. And neither do you, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I don't want to risk getting shredded at the MoonClan camp," Gorseberry grumbled.

"I would fight at the cost of my life to save Dovesong. She's our medicine cat and my friend. I don't want to lay back and watch it all play out if we have a chance to save her! If we wait any longer, she could be seriously injured, or worse, dead."

"Okay, I get it. But really, what if we go and we get killed immediately? We both know how brutal they are. They shouldn't even call themselves a Clan; they totally ignore the code. But anyway, we need to think about this before we jump into action," Gorseberry explained, obviously cautious to not raise Spottedsong's temper.

"Fine. What do you suppose we do?" Spottedsong asked.

"We can talk about this later. First, you have to go see Badgertooth," Gorseberry pointed out.

"Why?"

"He told you to check in every day so he can see to those paws," Gorseberry told her, nodding to her injured forepaws.

Spottedsong sighed. It was true. But she didn't want to go because she knew she was fine. "Okay, fine. But you have to promise to plan this rescue afterward."

"I promise." Gorseberry touched his nose to her ear promisingly and she left.

Spottedsong glanced at him affectionately as she left the den. She headed for the medicine den, her heart immediately pounding as she approached it. She wanted to save Dovesong now. There was no time to make a plan, when she could be suffering. And Badgertooth and Mousetail were counting on her the most to get Dovesong back again. True, it was frustrating that Dovesong wasn't able to protect herself and got herself captured again, but she wasn't trained like a warrior; she was a medicine cat. It wasn't fair to blame her for that.

Badgertooth was busily grooming himself when Spottedsong came in. "Well, hello there. What do you need?"

"I've come for my daily check-up," Spottedsong explained, gesturing to her paws. They were no longer bandaged, but there were still scars left from her accident.

Badgertooth nodded. "Right. Settle down and let me check on those."

Spottedsong settled down on a nest and stretched out her forepaws to let Badgertooth take a look. While he was checking, she meowed, "Gorseberry and I are making a plan to save Dovesong. I just thought I'd let you know."