Clue's To The Killer

Characters
Leader: Smokingstar - Dark gray tomcat with battle scarred ears

Deputy: Flarepelt - Light orange she-cat, amber eyes

Medicine Cat: Fallenpetal - White and silver she-cat with blue eyes

Warriors:

Brindleleap: Silver she-cat with black stripes and green eyes

Frothtail: White she-cat with dark blue eyes

Littlesun: Golden tabby she-cat with green eyes and white paws

Apprentices:

Barkpaw: Dark brown tabby tom, big paws, and green eyes

Queens:

Spottedwing: Tortoiseshell and white she-cat, green eyes, mother of Daykit

Kits:

Daykit: Tortoiseshell she-cat with white chest, muzzle, underbelly, and paws

Chapter One
"Brindleleap! Come look at this!" Brindleleap turned to see Littlesun crouched over something; a patch of mud? She padded towards her Clanmate and crouched beside her. At first, she saw nothing; then she spotted tiny paw marks, half washed away by rain. There were bigger pritns mixeed in with them. One pair of tiny marks was wide, the other narrow.

"Briarkit and Bramblekit's pawmarks," She murmured darkly. "But who's are the bigger prints?" Littlesun sighed dramatically.

"Honestly, Brindleleap," The golden she-cat huffed. "They're the killers' prints!" Brindleleap stared at them a moment longer, then looked up at Littlesun.

"So?" She muttered. She got to her paws; crouching made her joints ache. Littlesun yowled in frustration.

"You have the prints! Compare them to our Clanmates!" Brindleleap didn't understand at first, then she got it. All she had to do was get each of her Clanmates to press their paw to mud, nad compare the mark to the prints here!

"Oh, Littlesun, you're brilliant!" She squealed. She bounded away to tell Smokingstar her idea.

Chapter Two
"Yes, Barkpaw, I know you don't like to get your paws muddy," She huffed. She'd dragged the brown tom out of his nest in order to get his paw mark in the mud. He was tired and cranky, and he hated mud. But his paws were big and wide, and they could be the ones she saw by her kits' marks, even though she had no idea why Barkapw would kill her twins. "Right here, Barkpaw. It's drier, won't stick as much to your paws." The tom grumbled as he pressed his paw to the mud, then pulled it out; it popped out with a sucking nosie.

"Blech!" The tom snarled. He shook his paw roughly, making drops of mud fly; they splattered onto Brindleleap's silver striped pelt. "I'm going back to my nest," He growled, slinking into the shadows. She stared at the print and sighed. As most of them, his paw was too big to be the killer. She'd already tested five cats, not including Barkpaw, and she was getting nowhere. She headed back to camp, head and tail drooping.

"Hey, Spottedwing," She greeted the queen as she padded towards Frothtail. Her friend was gnawing on a squirrel's bone. She flopped down, exhausted, beside her.

"Any clues?" Frothtail asked, picking a piece of leaf from her teeth with the bone. Brindleleap shook her head sadly. "That's too bad. Using the prints was a good idea." She tossed the bone away and got to her paws. "I'm gonna go get some moss for Fallenpetal. Driftingleaf fell ill with whitecough and she doesn't have any for a nest." Brindleleap nodded, and Frothtail darted out of camp. She unwillingly dragged herself to her paws and thunked to the leaders den.

"Smokingstar? May I come in?" She called at the enterance.

"Yes," Came the reply. Brindleleap slid in; Smokingstar was grooming himself, licking an outsretched hindleg. "Did you figure anything out?" The gray tom asked between licks.

"No," She sighed. "All I know is that Barkpaw is too big, Flarepelt is too narrow, Dustheart is too wide... Nothing helpful. I'll have to test as many cats as possible tommorow, before it rains again and the rest of the prints get washed away." Smokingstar nodded and flicked a piece of moss of an ear.

"Well, I hope you figure this out." A dismisal. Brindleleap bowed her head and backed out.

Chapter Three
Brindleleap yawned and stretched in the warmth of the greenleaf sun. The rays filtered through the waxy leafs of an oak, and her pelt dappled green. She flicked her ears to Daykit, who was chasing a fly around the enterance of the nursery, and she halted.

"Wait, Brindleleap! My mama wants to talk to you!" The kit disappeared in the den, and Spottedwing emerged a moment later.

"Brindleleap," The queen greeted her. "I know you're going out to test pawprints today, but be careful. Rouge's were spotted in territory limits. Keep a cat with you at all times." Concern made the queens eyes glitter.

"I will," She assured her friend. She licked the tortoiseshell's shoulder and headed towards the mudpatch where the prints were.

Bird-song echoed through the leafy trees, and the scatter of leafs told ehr she'd tread to close to a mouse's hole. It was peaceful in the forest, but she hadn't felt peaceful since her twins deaths. Only when the killer had been identified and killed would she be able to sleep well at night.