"No! Minnowstar! Come back!" Icefrost called out in grief for her dead leader. Emberstar had silently padded up next to her.

"I-I am s-sorry for what I have done. I did not know she was so weak. I would have been more thoughtful of my actions if I had known she was on her last life. WindClan would never kill unless they had to. Please forgive me." Emberstar said with his head down, while Icefrost stood speechless. "She was a kind and thoughtful leader. I will call off my warriors and leave you to mourn."

"Th-thank you," Icefrost stuttered, and Emberstar walked away and called retreat. Soon, all of the WindClan warriors were gone, although some were reluctant, and left the battling RiverClan cats confused.

   Greybrook, Icefrost's brother, came to stand beside her and asked, "Why did Emberstar retreat? He was winning. Are you ok?" The tom asked after noticing how dazed Icefrost looked.

   "Minnowstar," Icefrost choked out, "is dead!"

Greybrook gasped. "What happened?!" When his sister didn't answer at first, he realized that she needed some time alone. He let her lean on his shoulder and was going to guide her back to camp, but Icefrost shook him off.

"I'm ok. I need to check on everyone else, though," she reassured her brother. Louder, she called, "Is anyone badly hurt?"

   At that moment Willowshine came out of the camp entrance to heal injuries with a mouth full of herbs. She went to go check on a panting Flickerpaw, who looked like he might have trouble walking, while the RiverClan warriors filed into camp to rest from the exhausting battle. Only Willowshine, Flickerpaw, and Icefrost remained outside.

At that moment, cats burst through the trees on the other side of the river. It was the WindClan reinforcements. Apparently, word hadn't gotten to them that the battle was over, as they were confused at seeing only RiverClan. "Go away! The battle is over." Icefrost hissed at them.

Behind her, she heard a rustling in the bushes and breaking twigs, as if something big was approaching. The WindClan cats that were standing in front of her froze in place and crouched, fearfully looking over Icefrost's shoulder. She spun around to see a badger, lumbering out from the edge of the woods. It stared hungrily at Willowshine, who was standing alone, paws planted as if she couldn't move them. Flickerpaw had gone back into camp, but Willowshine had stayed out checking to see if there were any last cats.

"I think I know what actually has been happening to our food," A light brown tom mewed fearfully. The WindClan cats must have gotten some of their fear controlled, because they ran off away from Icefrost and the badger. It must have smelled the blood from the battle! she thought. The badger took a step towards Willowshine and swiped out a huge paw, sending the medicine cat flying into a tree. She lay stunned, with a cut in her head, but still breathing.

At this Icefrost ran forward to nip at the badger's huge legs, then ran under it and clawed at it's belly. This confused the badger, for it kept twisting its giant head to try and strike her, but she was always out of reach. Icefrost came out behind it, and slashed at its hind legs. The badger roared with pain, and spun around to give her a blow to the shoulder. The deep scratch stung badly, but Icefrost knew she had to keep fighting.

She leaped up onto the badger's back, and clawed at its ears and fur. The soon-to-be-leader had the advantage now of being out of reach of the giant claws and teeth, but still able to give the badger bites and scratches. It realized this too, so it stumbled over to the tree it threw Willowshine at and smashed itself against it, sending Icefrost tumbling off its back, momentarily stunned. Willowshine tried to scramble out of the way, and succeeded, but only by managing to also back into a thorn bush. In the back of her mind, Icefrost heard an alarming screech of a cat in pain, but couldn't process it with the blood roaring in her ears.

When she was able to stand, the badger was lumbering off, leaving the medicine cat lying ominously still.