Hawkstar prowled alone through the autumnal thicket, his dark pelt gently warmed by the last reaches of the sun as day gave way to dusk. He was alone, as he often was of late. A week had passed since he’d been granted his lives and assumed Leadership of ThunderClan, but the boundless energy that came with StarClan’s blessing had yet to fade. So he found himself taking on extra patrols and hunting more frequently. The solitude gave him time to really think about everything that had happened.
Rational understanding still eluded him, but he’d managed to perform the basic tasks expected of a Leader. Not that much had happened. Outside of the grisly murders that had occured when he’d still just been Hawkbite, a young father and Warrior. He had hoped in vain that a brush with StarClan would result in some clues about what had really happened. Yet it seemed they were on their own. There were two options, mainly, that the killer was either a Clan cat or an outsider. They’d determined it was no beast, as the corpses showed no signs of the ravaging that generally accompanied an animal seeking food. The deliberate mutilation indicated an intelligent mind, and the wounds matched what a cat could conceivably inflict. Although it was apparent that no Clan cat could imagine such horrors; Hawkstar felt safe in assuming the killer did not hide in their ranks.
Copperheart was no true Warrior, his mind reminded him.
He only wanted to kill Lilypool, however, not…… desecrate her corpse.
Hawkstar went around and around the matter often. But his own thoughts never provided new information.
This time his train of thought was interrupted by the sight of a gray-tabby cat he did not recognize by the RiverClan border. If his eyes did not already tell him so, his nose surely said that this was a RverClanner. On ThunderClan’s side of the border, though just barely.
Charging ahead, Hawkstar vaulted over a fallen log to land squarely before the gray tabby with his own pelt fluffed up a tad.
“Declare yourself, RiverClanner, your paws are on ThunderClan soil.” He growled.