Murder in the Woods: A Warrior Cat Mafia

Round 8, Part 3

None of the cats spoke, other than Bearfoot's low mutter of "Maybe it was Rowanpaw?". That is, until Eagletail spoke up.

"Littlepaw, why were you in the warriors' den?" he asked. Littlepaw looked at him with annoyance.

"I told you, I went to check on Swiftstep," the brown tom replied. Eagletail shook his head, and turned to the other cats.

"I think Littlepaw attacked Swiftstep. Why else would he be in there?" he declared. Various cats nodded their heads in agreement. A few declared he was innocent, and a few refused to vote. But it was clear that the majority of the clan thought he had done it.

Briarthorn stepped forward, and pointed to the camp entrance with her tail. "Go, Littlepaw. It's pretty clear what the consensus is". Littlepaw growled at the cats who had voted against him.

"I hate all of you! First, you force me to become a medicine cat apprentice, because of a stupid injury you believe makes me incapable of fighting! Then, you exile me out of the belief that I killed one of the cats I swore to protect!" he spat. He ran to Mudwhisker, and buried his face in his father's fur, sobbing. "I'm sorry Mudwhisker, I know I blamed you when I shouldn't have been. Please, I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you".

Mudwhisker embraced his son with shock, and turned to look at Briarthorn and the other cats. "Please, he's just a crippled medicine cat. You can't just send him out there to die. Can't we take him somewhere safe? I'll take care of him". Briarthorn dipped her head once, and Littlepaw almost fell out of relief.

Mudwhisker escorted Littlepaw out of the camp, and to a small cave in the edge of the territory. He helped his son make a nest, and pointed out the small stream in the corner of the cave where he could get water. He promised to bring Littlepaw prey every day, until the tom could rejoin the clan.

Mudwhisker returned to camp as the sun began to set. This time, Eagletail took over the watch, with the help of Sunpaw. The rest of the cats either sat vigil, or slept peacefully. There weren't any more attacks that night.

In the morning, the cats woke up. Squirrelfrost divided them into their tasks. As Lightstar's sister, she knew a fair amount of how it worked. She chose Tawnyclaw and Mudwhisker for patrol leaders, then assigned Dapplepelt and Slatefur to help her bury Lightstar, Sprucefang, and Ashpaw.

Tawnyclaw left, followed by Bearfoot, Briarthorn, and Skypaw. Mudwhisker took Hawknose, Cloverwing, and Rowanpaw hunting.

Due to Swiftstep's injury, and the death of Sprucefang, Breezeflight was allowed to wait at camp until his sister woke up. Dustpool, being the medicine cat, had to stay to watch over her as well.

Dustpool eventually went out to go get more herbs for Swiftstep, with Squirrelfrost escorting him. The she-cat had finished burying the bodies, and Dustpool never left camp without a warrior.

The two cats stopped by a cliff-edge, where one of the herb patches was located. Dustpool leaned down to pick an herb, then felt a hard shove and tumbled off the edge.

"Dustpool!" Squirrelfrost yowled. She turned on the two murderers, growling. "I should have known it was you two! Your innocent acts may have fooled everyone else, but not me!" She leapt at one of them, claws outstretched, and dug into its pelt.

The murderer hissed back, clawing back. The ginger she-cat was winning. The second murderer decided to intervene. They grasped Squirrelfrost by the scruff, then hurled her off the cliff.

"I need to go clean myself up," the injured murderer muttered. The murderers split up, and headed into the forest.

Tawnyclaw's patrol wound their way along the mountain path, no sign of loners or rogues to be seen. Then, Skypaw stopped, nose low to the ground. She had one of the best senses of smell in the clan.

"Skypaw, what is it?" Briarthorn asked. The light grey she-cat looked up, and motioned towards the cliff edge.

"I smell Dustpool. His scent is distinct, since it's normally mixed with herbs. He went this way," she mewed. She padded towards the edge, then stopped and looked over. "Oh, no!"

The rest of the patrol joined her at the edge, looking down at the bodies of Dustpool and Squirrelfrost. Bearfoot shook his head.

"First the leader, then the deputy. Then we exiled our medicine cat apprentice. Now our medicine cat was murdered, along with one of our senior warriors? This isn't good," Bearfoot murmured. Tawnyclaw growled.

"Someone killed my best friend. We need to catch these fiends!" she declared. The tortoiseshell set off at a quick pace towards the camp. The rest of the patrol followed her.

They burst into camp, where the rest of the clan was already gathered.

"Squirrelfrost and Dustpool are dead!" Tawnyclaw announced. Cats began murmuring about the loss of every high-ranking cat in the clan, and panic soon spread.

Dapplepelt shot up. "We have to get rid of the traitors! Does anyone have any suspects?" Slatefur fell onto the ground, cackling.

"I told you! She's doing it! She knows all of this! Isn't that right?" he mewed to no one in particular. He let out a huff, as though someone had knocked the air out of him. "Let me up!"

"Moron," Tawnyclaw muttered. Cloverwing walked up to Slatefur, concerned.

"Slatefur, did you see anything? Who is 'she'?" the golden she-cat asked. Slatefur continued to giggle, rolling back and forth on the ground.

Sunpaw padded up to Cloverwing, and looked up at her comfortingly, while making sure to avoid eye contact. "I don't think he knows what he's talking about," the ginger tom mewed gently, "we should just vote". Cloverwing nodded, and the voting proceeded.

Murdered: Dustpool, Squirrelfrost
Healed: No one
Accused: No one
Revealed: No one
Revived: No one
Murderers Left: 2