Criminal Claws [UnitedWarriors]

Day 4

A/N: I am SO sorry to everyone for the extremely long wait for this chapter. It was a difficult chapter to write, totalling at 5420 words, but I ended up writing about a hundred or two hundred words a day, then having to stop and think about what I was going to do next. Thank you to everyone who was so patient with us, especially with all the false alarms with the chapter accidentally getting published before it was ready. Anyways, without further ado, I give you the finally completed Day 4.
- Dragon

~★~

The apprentice's den was dark. Only a little moonlight shone through the gap in the brambles, glinting off of several pairs of bright eyes. All six of the den's occupants were awake tonight.

"I don't like it," Tinypaw mewed nervously. "It's too dangerous. What if someone gets hurt?"

Blackpaw swished his tail, flippantly brushing her worries aside. "No one will get hurt," he reassured his denmate, despite not having any proof to back his claim.

"I agree with Tinypaw," Redpaw said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "There are so many things that can go wrong. I don't think we should do this."

"We should let the leader deal with it," Echopaw agreed, nodding her head.

Blackpaw's dark fur started to prickle up around his scruff as his fellow apprentices shot criticism at his plan. "Because she's doing so well so far?" he challenged. "Cats are still dying. We need to find out who the traitors are. This will make them reveal themselves!"

Dewpaw was the only one who seemed to be really considering Blackpaw's proposal. "It does have something to it," she meowed eventually, a contemplative look in her yellow eyes. "It just might work. If only one of us does it, and then the others can look for the traitor's reactions..." she trailed off, but then continued before anyone else could speak. "I want to be the one to do it."

Blackpaw immediately fluffed out his fur indignantly. "No way! It's my plan, I'm doing it!"

"Wait!" Echopaw hissed, sounding like she was yelling even though she was keeping her voice down so as not to wake any warriors in the camp. "We aren't really going through with this?"

"Of course we are," Dewpaw replied, looking unruffled. "It's a clever plan."

Viperpaw stared at her incredulously. "I can't believe you just said that about something Blackpaw came up with."

Blackpaw glared at her. "You'd better watch your nest for fire ants."

Ignoring them, Dewpaw continued. "I think it's our best shot at discovering who the traitors are. It should be safe enough as long as we can all keep up our acts."

Redpaw looked slightly excited at having a part to play, despite his earlier doubts, but Tinypaw, Viperpaw, and Echopaw were still against it.

"There's no way I'm letting you guys do this," Echopaw said in a bossy voice. "It's not our job to find the traitors. It's Graystar's."

"Besides, it's too dangerous for us," Tinypaw insisted. "Why don't we get a warrior to do it instead?"

Viperpaw rolled her eyes. "And risk spilling all of our plans to a traitor?"

"Then we get Graystar to help us," said Tinypaw. Irritation was starting to overpower the concern in her green eyes as she stubbornly defended her 'against' standpoint.

Dewpaw just shook her head. "It wouldn't work the same. We need everyone's reactions to be pure, especially Graystar's."

Echopaw looked about to say something further, but Redpaw cut her off. "Echopaw, think about it. If this works, and we find out who the traitors are, Graystar would be so proud of us. We might even get to be warriors."