During the entire trek back from MoonMouth, Blazestar was in an absolute daze. The visions of the cats she’d met—the visions of her mother--kept her so preoccupied that she’d barely noticed when she’d reentered the edges of her clan’s camp. In fact, she didn’t even realize she was home at all until she saw a strange orange cat lounging in the middle of her camp, staring out at the glistening open lake. Snapping back into reality, Blazestar ran over to him, yowling over her shoulder as she did. “Moonpelt, Maplepaw, hurry! We have an intruder!” Before she could get any closer to the lackadaisical cat, however, a flash of blue stopped her, and suddenly, she found herself tumbling across the field, landing directly next to the strange orange cat with Moonpelt huffing by her side. “Moonpelt!” she spat, quickly scrambling to her front paws and licking her chest, embarrassed. “What in Starclan’s name was that about?” “He’s not an intruder!” Moonpelt said, speaking quicker than Blazestar had thought possible. “Intruder?” The orange cat mewled, looking lazy as he rolled over to face the clan cats, eyes blinking slow in the sun. Blazestar stuttered, unsure of the interaction she was having. “Well, then what is he?” Moonpelt purred, getting to his feet to sit next to the lounging cat. “He’s a friend.” The leader was exasperated. She’d spent barely three days away from camp, and quickly, Moonpelt was already turning their clan into a kittypet refuge. Briefly, she found herself questioning her judgement, before quickly banishing the thought—if she kept thinking like that, so quick to judgement, her small clan would fall apart quicker than it had been born. She had to think fast. Turning to the lounging cat, she mustered a smile, before turning back to her still-purring medicine cat. “Moonpelt,” she began carefully, “Can I have a word with you? In private, please?” Moonpelt puffed out his chest, and gladly got to his feet. “Certainly.” He followed his leader across the field until they were out of earshot of the fluffy orange cat. Taking a small breath, Blazestar slowly began. “Look, Moonpelt, I know you have a history of a kittypet. And I would never, ever judge you for something like that. We all have our backgrounds, and we are all just as equally entitled to them as anyone else. However…” she stumbled for words “We can’t just go letting…every cat who’s looking for a home into the clan, you understand?” Moonpelt nodded. “I do.” “So you understand that this cat is probably not cut out for clan material?” “Sure.” “And, even though I have nothing against kittypets, he is definitely not the sort of kittypet we need bringing about a name for our clan, right?” “Right.” “So you understand that he probably shouldn’t stay?” “What?” Blazestar winced. “Moonpelt, I’m sorry—what did you not understand about that exchange we just had?” Moonpelt shrugged, speaking in a low voice, careful to not let the strange cat overhear. “Look, Blazestar, I get it, I do. Sure, Cedar can be kind of lazy, and he’s definitely no one’s first pick for a warrior—let alone mine. But his twolegs left him, and he’s been wandering around this territory for so long now. He has nowhere else to go. You know as well as I do that if he goes anywhere else, he won’t last long. He literally fell out of a tree into our camp—it’s why he’s been laying around in the field for so long now. He’s just too tired to move. We need to help him. Isn’t the core of the clans a deep sense of love and compassion for those we consider family?” “Ugh—yes, Moonpelt, but—well—the point of family is that, you just, you don’t consider everyone family.” Moonpelt cast his gaze across the field, looking over at where Maplepaw was now tussling happily with Cedar, mewling and playing as they gently poked one another in the glistening sun. “Doesn’t that look like family?” Once again, Blazestar’s heart was conflicted. She knew that if she gained a reputation for letting just anyone into her clan, she wasn’t going to get the respect she needed. But Moonpelt wasn’t wrong—Cedar needed help, and he clearly already fit in with the rest of the clan. At the very least, having another warm body around wouldn’t hurt for border patrols, even if that was probably all he was good for. Sighing, she realized she had already made her choice. Though she let out a slight grumble, she nodded to Moonpelt, who immediately broke out in a grin. “Really? Oh, thank you, Blazestar—you won’t regret this!” As Moonpelt turned to leave, Blazestar quickly paused him. “Tell him he needs a warrior name. Tell him its Cedarskies.” “Aren’t you going to give him a ceremony?” “I will when he deserves it.” Nodding happily, Moonpelt dashed across the glowing field to congratulate his new warrior friend. Though the sight of her first orange warrior panged her heart, she found herself strangely at peace with the decision she’d made, knowing somewhere deep inside her soul that she’d done the right thing. Casting a small, knowing glance to the stars, she sat down calmly, wrapping her tail around her paws, watching, for the first time, her small clan simply play.