𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐧 #3: 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

Mousetail was sharing fresh-kill with Skystorm when she saw Lynxstar leaving the camp. "What do you think she's doing?" she asked Skystorm. "I've never seen her leave without bringing warriors with her."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll find out what's going on soon enough," Skystorm told her. "It's probably not even that important." His voice was dry, as if he didn't really care much. He was always like that ever since he heard the news about Shadowheart. Whatever Mousetail tried to say to him to comfort him, it didn't work. She'd begun to run out of ideas for once in her life.

"I doubt it. If she's leaving without warriors, it must be private, which means it's important. And if it's private, then she probably won't share with anyone," Mousetail thought aloud.

"Perhaps," Skystorm mumbled.

Mousetail turned to her mate. "Come on, Skystorm, cheer up. He's still here with you, in spirit. But now, there's more important things that we have to worry about."

Skystorm looked up at her, his eyes flashing with recognition and maybe even anger. "You can't say that because your parents aren't dead," he snapped.

Mousetail looked at him with alarm. "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help you cheer up."

"You can keep trying. But you can't, because you haven't lost anyone you care about."

"Actually, I have," Mousetail reminded him. "Softcloud was like a mother to me. She was a mother to me."

Skystorm narrowed his eyes. "Okay, but you haven't lost your mother and your father to those terrible MoonClan warriors. Softcloud was killed by a fox, not a warrior! That's not half as bad!" His voice was raised now.

Mousetail looked around the camp self-consciously. "Hey, Skystorm, I'm just trying to help you like any other good mate would do. I might not have lost much, but I lost enough to know how terrible it feels."

"Then let me grieve for StarClan's sake!" Skystorm retorted. Then he got up and left.

Mousetail stared after him in dismay. Was that . . . the first time we've ever fought? she wondered. She sweeped away what was left of the sparrow and returned to the nursery.

When she settled back down in her nest and closed her eyes to catch some sleep, she heard paw steps outside and opened her eyes. It was Dovesong. "Hi," Mousetail greeted her sister.

"Hi. What was that all about?" Dovesong asked worriedly.

Mousetail met her gaze despondently. "He's still grieving for Shadowheart. I can't blame him. But I was trying to cheer him up, but then he snapped at me saying that I don't know what it's like to lose both parents to MoonClan warriors. And then he just . . . walked away. I wasn't trying to do any harm."