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"[Sandstorm] pointed with her nose. Fireheart followed her wide-eyed stare along the dusty strip of grass. It was empty apart from a tiny flicker of movement where the tip of Whitethroat's tail was disappearing into the ground, underneath the stinking flat stone of the Thunderpath."
Below contains in-depth information for chapter eight of Rising Storm. If you are looking for a shorter summary of the entire book, please check the main article.
Fireheart is woken suddenly by pounding paws. Sandstorm pokes her head through the branches of the warriors den and tells him the morning patrol had found two ShadowClanwarriors on the border. Fireheart leaps to his feet and runs out of the den. He remembers his dream he had after the Gathering, where cats had been backing away from him as if he were an owl. The new deputy realizes his days of being an outsider aren't over yet. He finds the dawn patrol surrounding the two ShadowClan cats. Pushing his way through through the others, Fireheart recognizes one of them as Littlecloud, whom he'd met at a Gathering when Brokenstar was still the leader of ShadowClan. Looking down at them, he notices they are scrawny and unkempt. He asks Whitestorm about finding the two, and the white warrior tells him that they begged the patrol to bring them to camp.
Bluestar suddenly yowls out, questioning if the warriors were attacking. Fireheart, in spite of his instinct that the cats were nothing to fear, sends out a few cats to check for any other ShadowClan warriors. He then turns to their captives and asks what they were doing on ThunderClan territory. Littlecloud shakily replies that he and his companion, revealed to be Whitethroat, had come for prey and herbs. Fireheart stares in amazement at them, wondering how desperate they are to ask for help from ThunderClan. Cinderpelt asks Fireheart to wait, and limps up to the prisoners. Touching Littlecloud's pad, she notes that he had a fever. Yellowfang suddenly bursts through the crowd and screeches at her apprentice to get away from the sick cats. Cinderpelt leaps back and protests that they needed her help. She looks pleadingly at Fireheart and Bluestar. The Clan turns toward their leader, who stares wide-eyed at the prisoners. Fireheart, noticing that she needed more time to collect her thoughts, asks the captives why they had come to ThunderClan.
Whitethroat explains that Nightstar was sick, and they hoped ThunderClan would assist them again. Yellowfang asks what Runningnose was doing and Darkstripe protests that Nightstar had seemed fine at the Gathering the night before. Littlecloud mews his leader had become much worse and Runningnose wouldn't leave his side for anything. Yellowfang warns Bluestar that the Clan could not take another sickness, nor could she. Bluestar agrees to send them away and asks Fireheart to take them. He agrees and chooses Sandstorm to accompany him in escorting them back to the border. He orders the rest of the Clan to their dens and Yellowfang pulls Cinderpelt away to wash her muzzle. He turns away from her pleading eyes and tells the two ShadowClan cats they would escort them across the Thunderpath. Littlecloud tells them there was no need, but Fireheart insists they at least take them to the edge.
The four cats make their way towards the Thunderpath and catch a mouse along the way. Whitethroat and Littlecloud eat some of it, only to retch it up a few moments later. They soon reach the Thunderpath and Fireheart wants to watch them cross to make sure they leave. Littlecloud insists that the ThunderClan warriors leave at once, and Fireheart reluctantly agrees. Sandstorm gives him a quizzical look, but sits when he asks. As soon as the two slink into the undergrowth, the ThunderClan cats jump up and follow them. They soon realize the two sick warriors aren't crossing the Thunderpath, and quicken their pace to find out what they are doing. They catch up, and notice the two toms are taking a path parallel to the Thunderpath, and question where they are going. The ThunderClan tom follows, the sick cat stench now washing out everything else. They reach the Thunderpath and can't see the two ShadowClan toms. Sandstorm suddenly spots them slinking under the Thunderpath, as if it had swallowed them.
