Chapter 14

"Wait, what?!" Thin exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

"We were a group. Small, but we we were a group," White said. She kept looking at her paws.

"You told me you were chased out by a raccoon!"

"Um, we weren't." White looked up at Thin. "Fade chased us out. She had at least two times as many cats as we did."

"But why would you lie?" Thin asked.

"We didn't want you to go off attacking Fade."

"Why would I ever do that?"

"Well, I didn't know you wouldn't at the time."

"You could've told me later!" Thin said, hurt. She was hurt that White would've lied to her. She never saw through the lie though. Maybe she was a bad leader after all.

"Thin, I just-" White stopped as Thin ran off towards Thicket Group territory.

Thin stopped when she reached the pond. She sat down beside it and looked down at her reflection. She couldn't believe White lied to her! She'd trusted her. Enough to even make her co-leader!

Storm, Wave, White, and Cloud came up to her.

"Hey," Storm said. "I'm sure White was just-"

"Just leave me alone!" Thin yowled.

Storm flinched, pinning his ears in fear. "I'm sorry we just-"

"I don't care!" Thin yelled at him. "Leave me alone!"

Storm backed up with his ears still pinned and his eyes wide. He ran off in the direction of camp.

Wave went up to Thin. "Come on, Thin," he said. "Let's just wrap up and get back to camp."

Thin growled. "Fine."

The four cats walked back in the direction of the area they'd gathered.

***

Back at camp, Thin and White sat in the middle of the thicket.

"Why would you lie to me?!" Thin yelled. Storm sat in a corner nearby, flinching every time she yelled.

"I'm sorry, Thin-tail!" she yowled. "I was trying to protect you!"

"Why? Why do you think I needed protected? Why was lying the answer?!"

"It wasn't," she whispered. "I just didn't want you to attack Fade."

"I wouldn't have!"

"How was I supposed to know that?!"

"She has a point," Wave interrupted them. "She had no clue."

"But- ugh!" Thin ran off towards her hole.

She curled up on her grass bed. She buried her face under her paws. She felt so angry but she also felt that everyone was going against her and siding with White. Then again, that's probably because they were. Everyone was on White's side. No one thought of her thoughts and feelings on the matter.

So she just had to lay in her hole. Thinking about everything was so overwhelming and tiring. So, eventually, she fell asleep.

She dreamt she was Storm. It was about mid-day. Storm walked with Chestnut through the forest.

"Come on, Storm," she said. "You know you can tell me anything right?"

"I know..." he replied. "But what happened when Thin yelled... I just kinda..."

"Come on, Storm," she said again.

"It's just, when Thin yelled, I got scared because the leader of my old group would yell at me all the time."

"So it brought back bad memories," Chestnut said nodding. "I understand. I'll talk to her about it later. She's sleeping I think."

The dream changed. Now she was Fade.

"Ugh!" Fade exclaimed angrily. "We'll never get that land now!" She paused. "But we need it so bad. All our cats are either sick or hungry as it's getting colder and colder. How's Acorn holding up?"

A cat Thin didn't recognize shook their head. "Not well. We have no prey and the hunting groups haven't been coming back with any more. She's fighting the sickness gard though. She might live."

"Send another hunting group, Dark," Dark nodded and walked away. "We'll need it." Fade muttered. "Since Thin won't cooperate."

Thin's dream changed again.

Cream-splotch curled next to Berry and Cresent-moon. She was trying to warm them up.

"Where's mom?" Berry asked.

"She'll be b-back," Cream said, shivering. She was closest to the entrance of the healer's hole to try and block the cold winds from getting to her smaller siblings.

"Are you cold?" Cresent curled closer to her. "I can help!"

"N-no," Cream said. "I'm f-fine."

Chestnut and White still weren't back. White had told Thin to protect the three kittens if both her and Chestnut were gone... So where was Thin?

Cream kept getting colder as the wind blew straight into the hole. Cream just had to hope she could save her siblings from the harsh weather.

And Thin woke up.