Rating:

K+ (for now)

Pairings:

SquirrelXBramble, FireXSand, LeafXBilly, CrowXLeaf (and a few more)

Disclaimer:

Warriors doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Erin Hunter.

Information:

This is set after The last Hope, however that whole thing with the Dark Forest never even happened. They were blocked the moment Brambleclaw killed Hawkfrost. Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Dovewing still have their Powers and Hollyleaf is still with the Clans.

Summary:

One day Firestar, Blackstar, Mistystar, Onestar and Leafstar disappear from their clans. Everyone is shocked, even StarClan. Three moons later, the clans follow them to a place where they have to learn to survive. A bid City. Not just that, but they all get turned human. Can the Clans find their leaders and a way home?

Brambleclaw ran a hand through his head-fur and sighed. He'd lost track of the time that had passed since Sandstorm had left to help Firestar, but her long absence did no good to her kits. The four of them were barely responsive by now. The clans had managed to hold on.

Occasionally they'd find big bundles of those strange green leaf-like they'd already gotten a few times.

Right now most of the clans were spread out in the forest, exploring and reporting if they found a good shelter or a safe food and water source. They'd soon realised that, in the bodies they were in now, they were neither too good at hunting, nor did fresh-kill taste appetizing. On the clearing remained only all Queens, Elders, Kits as well as a few warriors. At the moment it were Birchfall, Ivypool, Tawnypelt, Crowfrost, Heathertail, Petalfur, Robinwing and Brambleclaw himself.

Suddenly they heard growling.

Everyone looked up while the Queen ushered the kids into the middle of the big clearing, so they were protected. The next second something brown leaped out of the bushes and at Ivypool. The warrior gave a startled cry and leaped to the side, dodging the creature. It skidded to a halt and Brambleclaw gasped. Of course, he was much bigger than he used to be at the moment, but the dog that crouched in front of them was massive. It easily towered over even the biggest kits and probably also almost all apprentices. Its shaggy fur was brown and covered in dirt and leaves.

The dog's gaze was crazed and it growled in a terrifying way. The former cats backed off slowly. Such a creature freaked them all out.

The dog growled louder, then leaped forward again. This time he targeted Tawnypelt. Brambleclaw cried out to his sister, when suddenly a loud BANG rang through the air. The dog gave a whimper, then fell over, toppling to the ground directly in front of the ShadowClan deputy.

"Is everyone alright?"

Brambleclaw felt like his heart would pound out of his chest at the familiar voice. He spun to the sound, to find a familiar ginger-haired twoleg standing there. Worried Brambleclaw noticed that Firestar still looked a lot paler than he did the time he brought Spottedkit back, but the leader held himself with the same familiar pride the deputy knew from him. Now he took in the rest.

Firestar's right arm was stretched out in front of him, holding a strange black thing. Firestar, apparently seeing what everyone was staring at, lowered his arms and put the thing away. Then he turned his head and called: "And that's why, when you own a gun license, you should carry your weapon with you!"

There was a snort, then Blackstar stepped out and asked: "What for if we have you to shoot down anything that threatens us?"

Firestar rolled his eyes, then answered: "We had no guarantee I would hit Blackstar. I could've easily missed and then that…thing of a pet, would've hit Tawnypelt."

"Pet", stated Onestar, now appearing with Leafstar and Mistystar by his sides. "Who the hell has such a pet?! That dog was rabid!"

"What with StarClan did you do to this thing?", asked Crowfrost now, prodding the dog with a stick.

"Firestar killed it", answered Leafstar with a shrug. She looked at the dog, pity flashing through her eyes. "I pity the humans that owned him for losing their dog, but it was rabid and would've gotten killed soon anyway."

Her words made close to no sense to Brambleclaw, but he ignored and asked: "Firestar…what are you all doing here?"

At this the ginger-haired man smiled and answered: "Returning to our clans of course."

Joy rushed through the deputy at those words and Robinwing raced up to her leader, asking: "Really?!"

Mistystar laughed, but answered: "Yes Robinwing, really. We would've come sooner, but Firestar needed to recover and we needed to finish a few things."

"Things as in?", asked Heathertail.

Onestar shook his head and answered: "I doubt you would understand even half of it. Believe me, it took us long enough to learn it."

"Where is Sandstorm?", asked Ivypool now. Brambleclaw looked back at Firestar, who turned around and walked back into the trees. "Huh?", asked the warrior with a tilted head.

"We left Sandstorm a little farther behind. This dog already tried to attack her once. She didn't need another meeting", explained Leafstar.

That was when Firestar returned already, his hand in the hand of a female twoleg. Had Brambleclaw not recognized her colouring, he wouldn't have believed it was Sandstorm he was looking at. The female looked so different in the new layers she wore and her tail had disappeared. "Mother!" Brambleclaw leaped left, to not be run over by Spottedpaw and her siblings, who all rushed up to Sandstorm. The female fell onto her knees and pulled them all closer, tears streaming down her face.

"I still wonder why this all happened." Firestar looked at Mistystar.

The five of them had gathered around one of the many camp-fires they'd started. It had taken a while to have the clans remain calm around the flames, but soon their warmth had chased away the cold of the night and had left most former cats sleepy. That and the five of them had sold just about everything they'd ever owned, then bought an incredible amount of clothes and blankets, even some tents. It was a bit like a camping-trip, only that it were a lot more people than on a usual camping trip.

"Who knows? Even StarClan has no idea why we turned into twolegs and got transported here", answered Onestar, a serene smile on his features.

Being back with their clans had calmed them all. It made them feel…at home.

"Maybe we were to learn a lesson?", sinned Leafstar. They all looked at her with raised eyebrows and she answered: "Don't tell me you don't remember. Before we landed here, we were on a gathering and ready to rip each other's throats out."

"She does have a point", admitted Blackstar.

Firestar nodded, then answered: "No clan can survive without the others. We're like this city. Each clan is needed for a certain thing to work and…" Firestar trailed off when realisation hit him.

"What? What is it?", asked Blackstar.

"The reason we got transported here…was because we almost destroyed the clans", whispered the ginger-haired man.

"What?", asked the other four in unison.

"Think about it. One clan can't exist without the others. And if he had fought back there, we could've destroyed each other. And here, here we had to work together. Leafstar couldn't to her job safely if it wasn't for mine. I couldn't do mine properly without Mistystar's and Blackstar's, no one could've lived right without Onestar's, who in turn needed mine as well, otherwise there would've been no criminals to be sent to the court. We worked together like a well-oiled machine, despite the fact that we still had other points of view, other opinions. With the clans it is the same. Of course it's much harder to find out who works how for what, but the principle is the same. When we come back to the territories, we'll part and have our arguments about borders and fights again, but those would be the same fights I had with Onestar about imprisoning criminals, or Leafstar had with Mistystar about visitors, or Blackstar had with his council, which could stand for loners."

Firestar smiled at all of them and said confidently: "We were here to learn that we need each other to survive. We don't have to be close. We can be friends, but we are opponents as well. What we'll have to keep in mind the whole time though is very simple…"

"…as clans, we're in something very big…together", ended all five unison.

The next second the camp-fires flared brightly, blinding everyone. When it faded, Firestar felt different.

He blinked heavily and slowly his sight unburned again. Then he gasped.

He wasn't on clearing in front of a campfire anymore. No, he crouched in familiar surroundings. Surroundings he hadn't seen for years. The leader gave himself a once over and smiled. It was over. Here he was, crouching atop the Highledge as ginger-furred tom as if nothing had ever happened. "But something did happen", whispered the ginger tom and raised his head to look up at the almost full moon.

"Somehow, somehow without most of StarClan knowing someone taught us all a lesson. So the clans can continue."