"ShadowClan and RiverClan unsuccessfully tried to clear out WindClan again, and ThunderClan was called in to help defend.  It was this past leaf-bare."

"Season doesn't narrow it down enough, unfortunately..."

"I don't recall any cat dying that day."

"If I conjure models of you on particular dates with your surroundings throughout that leaf-bare will you be able to say if it's before or after the day?"

"I didn't get any scars in that battle."

"Did anybody else?"

"I'm afraid I don't remember.  It was . . . probably not more than a quarter-moon after the death of Clawface and when Brokenstar was blinded and lost a life?"

Okay. Barely visible dead Clawface model and then skip forward two weeks, what's the scene around Tigerstar then.

In the middle of the woods, looking fairly relaxed, a sleek white cat and a dark gray tabby on either side of him, dead prey in all their mouths.

"Do you remember this event?"

"Not specifically.  It's a hunting patrol."

He skips around fairly aimlessly till he finds something Tigerstar can direct him from.

" - There."

The battle is far larger than the Sunningrocks one; probably ten or fifteen times as many cats are fighting here.  There is indeed a moment where Leopardfur has Fireheart pinned and is repeatedly scratching him pretty badly; Tigerstar looks on for a moment before running over to intercept someone about to tackle a dark brown tabby.  And later Fireheart is attacked by a silver, black-striped cat who he manages to get on top of before pausing, stepping off, and racing away to pounce on someone else.

"Yup, seems like Fireheart maybe read into that one."

"What a surprise."

"Do you have any idea why he is so suspicious of you?"

"I cannot think of why any reasonable cat would be.  I could guess; my guesses may be unkind.  I suppose he has not worked very hard not to be unkind to me."

"I mean, I guess not, but it has to have started somewhere."

"Kittypets love gossip and big stories, and he wanted to make a villain of the only authority figure who didn't deny the reality of the situation in favor of trying to appease a vague prophecy.  He thought that being strict is the same as being evil.  Or maybe he ran into a series of wild coincidences which he didn't have the intelligence - or experience, I suppose, if I am aiming for kindness - to evaluate as such.  He hasn't even had his second leaf-bare as a Clan cat, and he joined ThunderClan right at apprenticing age."

"The reality of what situation?"

"That he was raised as a kittypet.  I admit he has certainly surprised me in the particular ways he has developed incompetence; I would have expected him to be lazy or bad at hunting or unprepared for the harshness of wild life rather than skilled at turning his Clan against an entirely innocent cat.  But kits begin their education well before they're old enough to be apprenticed, and Fireheart spent his first four moons getting coddled by creatures he had no way to talk with."

"Oh. Well, now my guess for what originally set him off was you being prejudiced against cats with kittypet backgrounds. I have no idea how much of a handicap living indoors for four months would be, though, when a twoleg is four months old they can't even sit unsupported."

"I took less issue with Cloudpaw, Fireheart's nephew, since he joined ThunderClan when he was still a young kit.  I would take less issue with an adult kittypet who has their own skills and can be assumed to understand the weight of their decisions.  I did think that admitting a random adolescent into the Clan based not on any personality traits he had displayed at the time, but on the color of his coat, was somewhat hasty; it is true."

"What does him being orange have to do with anything?"

"Maybe an honorable warrior wouldn't divulge even their former Clan's secrets, but since I am clearly dishonorable enough to be exiled I see no reason not to say there was a prophecy stating that 'Fire alone will save our Clan', and Bluestar found the closest orange cat and named him to suit."