A Discovery ~ Open - Leader or Deputy needed!

Leopardpaw dashed in through the camp entrance at full speed, his fur flattened against his body from the resulting breeze. In a breathless voice, he yowled out "Nightstar! Blizzardshine!" Skidding to a halt, his paws sprayed sand into the air as he let out another yowl. "I know where Lichenpaw, Stillpaw, and Spottedpaw are!"

Blizzardshine was taking a short nap right at the entrance of the nursery. Since she had brought the young kit now known as Snowkit and had decided to adopt her as her own she tried to spend as much time with her until she was old enough to become an apprentice, and that included sleeping with her so she wouldn’t feel lonely.

However, the slumber of the white deputy was cut short by Leopardpaw’s voice. At the start she failed to understand what was going on, somewhat confused thanks to the sudden awakening, but as soon as the names of the missing cats reached her ears she turned around to nuzzle Snowkit, letting her know without words that she would be back as soon as possible, and bolted out from the nursery right after.

“Darkstar isn’t in camp right now, Leopardpaw, but I am” She mowed as her paws hurriedly carried her to the agitated apprentice “Tell me whatever you know, and if I’ll let her know if she isn’t back soon” She had a bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling. Should she call a clan meeting? Could this be that important? Or she was just being paranoic?

Goosepaw was already used of different interupts and she was not suprised when another happened. When Leopardpaw rushed into the camp, Goosepaw slowly steped out of the den and listened when the deputy answered tense cat which arrived. She was amazed because Leopardpaw knew where missing apprentices were. This was not ordinary interupting, this was more special and Darkstar was not in the camp.

Leopardpaw's heart flooded with relief when he saw Blizzardshine rush out of the nursery, and took a moment to catch his breath.  His eyes wide and worried, he began to speak.  

"I found Lichenpaw on the border.  She told me that she and the other missing apprentices had been captured by a rouge and taken to the abandoned barn across WindClan territory!  She said that cats from the other clans are there too, along with some rouges and loners.  They're being held there, and watched by what she called 'enforcers'."  His voice becoming quieter, he continued his speech.  "But...the lead rouge found her on our territory.  He attacked me and re-captured Lichenpaw."  Shame could be heard clearly in his voice as he continued; "I...I couldn't rescue her..."

Seeming to push those notions aside, his eyes gained a glimmer of fury as he growled "We need to do something!  Who knows what's going to happen to Lichenpaw now, she's definitely going to be punished.  They could kill her!"

The usually calm expression of the deputy turned hard and serious as Leopardpaw talked, worry flashing on her eyes. These were bad news…no, not bad, terrible. She wasn’t a stranger to rogue clans, she had either heard or even crossed paths with members of some before. Dear StarClan, she was even close friends with some of them! But a rogue clan strong and wicked enough to start to kidnap clan cats and force them to stay if they want to keep their lives…that was unheard of for her.

Letting out a deep sigh and looking down, Blizzardshine allowed several seconds of tense silence pass by as she thought. Everyone in the clan knew that she was mainly pacifist and preferred to avoid fighting if she could find any other way around, but knowing that the lives of several clan cats, and not only from ThunderClan, were on the line mad her want to just call to all the cats of her clan and march there to either convince or fight for their freedom…

But even she knew that was a foolish idea…

Feeling a lump on her throat and her chest heave, she finally raised her head, looking at Leopardpaw and the ones around them “As much as I want to go there right away, it won’t be possible. A rogue group strong enough to capture and keep clan cats shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially if not only apprentices are between their prisoners. I would be leading the whole clan to a suicide mission from which we may not be able to come back” Her words were slow and serious, the impotence and the frustration deriving from it flooding her words

“I’ll let Darkstar know about this as soon as I see her, and this will be discussed during the next gathering with the other leaders. If my suspicions are right and they lost cats too, I know they’ll want to take action as well. Divided, the clans may be an easy target if the group is as strong as I fear, but together we are unstoppable” Her eyes scanned through the cats gathered around her, waiting to see if they had anything to add or a suggestion for the plan…plus, she could already expect some of them either jumping at her for not organizing the rescue party right away even after her previous explanation, or willing to volunteer as part of the future rescue party of her plan.

Leopardpaw's claws dug into the soft earth when Blizzardshine delivered her verdict; the young tom wanted to bolt out of the camp this very second and fight off all those disgusting rouges himself. Deep down though, when he looked beyond his intense fury, he knew the deputy's idea was the right, proper choice. They truly had no idea how many cats would be there to defend their captors....it would be too risky.

Still, Leopardpaw felt as if he needed to do something. His best friend, and clanmates, were being held captive and he had to sit here and do nothing? To him, that was the worst thing of all. His jaw set stubbornly, he padded forward, his tail lashing aggressively. "When we do send a rescue party, I will be going with it."

He was aware that he had just given a superior warrior an order, but in the moment he was too worked up to care. I need to save Lichenpaw, I need to be there! I need to save ThunderClan.