"Oh good."

Fireheart takes in a deep breath and sighs it out.

"So, we went to fetch WindClan, and there was some trouble on the way back which resulted in the death of a RiverClan warrior.  Graystripe and I were given apprentices: Cinderpelt and her brother - which I guess isn't really important information about how the Clans relate to each other.  Er.  Around then is when he started seeing Silverstream, and then we had whitecough going around the camp, which in Bluestar's case developed into greencough bad enough that she lost a life.  Cinderpelt had - her incident, with the Thunderpath.  I'd call it an accident except that I believe it was a trap which Tigerclaw had set for Bluestar.  And also because it was my fault for not teaching her well enough."

"...how would Tigerclaw set a trap that took the form of a car?"

"He sent another cat back to camp saying he had an urgent message for Bluestar and that she should meet him at a particular spot where the Thunderpath is narrowest and hardest for a cat to realize they're near it.  It probably only worked on Cinderpelt because she was so overzealous and ran right out onto it, and I imagine the plan relied on how sick Bluestar was.  Maybe he would have pushed her."

"But there aren't constantly cars, it would have required pretty delicate timing to do on purpose."

"Well, Tigerstar is very clever.  And anyway it still wasn't really an accident because I just should have been a better mentor and taught her to be more careful."

"I don't think it's your fault Cinderpelt got hit by a car."

"Anyways, after that Princess gave me her firstborn, now named Cloudpaw, to be raised in ThunderClan, and then there was some tension between the Clans because everyone was scenting trespassers - I think that was one of the times StarClan covered the moon with clouds at a Gathering, like I mentioned before - but it turned out to be Brokenstar and his rogues."

"Huh, when Princess mentioned wanting to see her family she didn't bring up Cloudpaw. I guess she can sometimes see Cloudpaw."

"We visit her pretty often."

"I wonder if that will be weird now that her housemates know cats can talk."

"It's 'housefolk', if you're using the kittypet word.  Why would it be?"

"Because it will make her social life less inscrutable to them."

"I don't really see how that would change anything.  Unless you mean risking them finding out about forest cats before we're ready to tell them?"

"Maybe, yeah, if it occurs to them to follow somebody, though you'd probably notice and I'd imagine you could lose them."

"We'll be careful.  So: Brokenstar's rogues still smelt like ShadowClan, so when we found concrete evidence of them having hunted in our territory most of our warriors went to go confront them.  Yellowfang realized who it actually was, but they'd already left and so I was the only warrior in camp when the rogues attacked.  We killed or drove most of them out despite that, but Brokenstar himself still had a life left.  He'd been blinded in the battle, and rather than kill him in cold blood Bluestar decided to let him live with us."

"How does a cat come to smell like a clan?"

"A Clan's scent is made up of all the cats who live together, and what they eat and where they live.  So a cat joining a Clan would start to pick up its scent, but they'd also change everyone else's, a little."

"Huh. But can't you distinguish individuals by smell too?"

"Yes?"

"So the scented trespassers were - identified as Brokenstar et al, but you didn't know they were not part of the clan?"

"Oh, no, it's just that you have to know a cat fairly well to recognize them individually, and we mostly meet multiple members of other Clans at once - and not usually for very long.  That's why Yellowfang was able to tell the difference, because she used to live in ShadowClan."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"Right.  A while after that ShadowClan and RiverClan tried to drive out WindClan again, and ThunderClan was called in to help defend them.  - That was the time Tigerclaw saw Leopardfur about to kill me and did nothing.  Which I mentioned before because Spottedleaf had warned me about it."

"Whence the grudge against WindClan?"