Lilypetal's POV

I narrowed my eyes, growing wary as a mottled gray tom stomped towards our patrol, his eyes blazing with anger. I didn't even have to get a good look at him, for I knew almost immediately that he was from RiverClan, given his watery and damp-like scent.

I'm sure that it's RiverClan taking this drought the hardest, I realized as I watched the tom quickly approach us. I mean, their whole Clan revolves around the concept of water...

"This is our water!" The tom suddenly growled, almost supporting my thoughts. He then shot his gaze back to Ivypaw, whose eyes were wide with surprise and confusion. "And that is a RiverClan fish!" He insisted, baring his teeth and lashing his tail towards the fish that Ivypaw had sniffed at just heartbeats ago.

All she did was sniff it! What's the big deal? I realized to myself, shaking my head slowly. Other Clans, sometimes. I swear...

"What-" Ivypaw stammered as the RiverClan tom began to stomp towards her, but she then gasped shakily as the tom suddenly slipped and fell into a large puddle of mud. My heart nearly stopped as I realized that he was slowly starting to sink down into the ground, helpless to get himself out.

"Help!" he shouted, trying to sink his claws into the dirt to keep him from sinking in deeper and already spitting chunks of dirt and water from his mouth.

"Rainstorm!" Brambleclaw yowled, his eyes widening with alarm. He then leaped over to stand beside the sinking tom before whipping his head around to look back at our patrol. "Lionblaze, grab me a stick! Now!" He barked at the young warrior.

Lionblaze nodded urgently, scanning his gaze around the area before quickly finding and grabbing a very flat-looking stick. I almost wanted to grab it from the tabby tom and look at it as I noticed that it had some strange markings all over it. But I pushed my curiosity away, knowing that I might as well choose for this stubborn RiverClan tom to live over getting to look at a cool stick.

Lionblaze was just about to give Rainstorm one end of the stick when Jayfeather suddenly appeared out of nowhere from behind some bushes, over by the forest.

"Don't use that stick!" he hissed. Snowflight was trailing behind him, her face clearly overcome with shock at what was happening, but I had to suppress a purr of amusement as she briefly glanced over at her former mentor, her pale blue eyes flashing with concern and confusion at his behavior.

Wow, I guess I'm not the only one emotionally attached to this stick, I realized jokingly as I saw the look of fear of Jayfeather's face.

"What?! Why not?" Lionblaze asked, seemingly growing angry and more anxious as Rainstorm sank lower and lower into the mud.

Jayfeather hesitated for a few heartbeats before finally answering. "Just... just please don't use it!" He demanded, unsheathing his claws and sinking them into the earth, and glaring back at his brother impatiently.

Lionblaze was clearly concerned about Jayfeather's fuss over the stick, but he knew that he didn't have time to deal with it.

"Fine then!" Lionblaze growled before throwing Jayfeather's stick aside and quickly grabbing another. He then gave it to Brambleclaw, who gave one end to Rainstorm to grab onto. My stomach twisted nervously as it looked like for just a heartbeat that Rainstorm was too low into the mud to reach. But conveniently, after a small prayer to StarClan, Rainstorm managed to bite the other end of the stick, and Brambleclaw pulled Rainstorm out of the mud with almost no struggle at all.

Rainstorm let out a loud grunt as he finally made it to higher ground. "Thanks," the tom meowed roughly, shaking out his fur as mud splattered everywhere. I hissed as I almost had to duck down. I definitely am not turning into a brown tabby-and-white she-cat with extra brown splotches today!

I immediately pushed away my annoyance, padding up to the RiverClan tom worriedly. I mean, he had just nearly drowned! I wasn't going to let Clan rivalry get in the way of showing compassion.

"Great StarClan! Are you okay?" I asked Rainstorm, putting the tip of my tail on his shoulder for support. "That was a nasty fall!"

I nearly flinched back as the tom let out an angry hiss. "I'm fine!" Rainstorm growled, jerking himself away from me. I tried not to show my annoyance at how rude he was being, despite after what we had just done for him. Our ThunderClan deputy just saved your life, mouse-brain! I told the tom in my head, but not daring say it out loud.

"Let's take you to our medicine cat," Brambleclaw offered, looking at Rainstorm up and down, who was now covered from head to paws in mud even after shaking out his fur.

Rainstorm then looked as if one of us had physically swiped one of our claws across his face. "I don't need help from another Clan!" The gray tom insisted, barring his teeth with aggression once again.

I then watched as Cinderheart padded up to stand in front of the stubborn tom. "Actually, I think you should come," Cinderheart commented, looking at Rainstorm up and down as Brambleclaw had done. "You must rest until your are strong enough to travel back to RiverClan... which certainly isn't now!"

Rainstorm hesitated greatly before muttering something I couldn't make out. But to my relief, and I'm sure everyone else's too, he then finally nodded begrudgingly without another word.

Thank StarClan! I thought as I watched Rainstorm shake out his fur again. As hard as it is, sometimes you have to let your guard down for your health, buddy!

"Okay, then. Let's go," Brambleclaw murmured, interrupting my thoughts as he let Rainstorm lean on his broad shoulder.

Once our patrol had collected our water-filled moss, having dropped them out of the shock of the situation, we then began to travel back to the ThunderClan camp with great urgency.