Numbuh 28

Aight, here we go like usual!

Now, there were several good questions, but Queen of Pens was one of the best; normally I don't wonder why a character does/does not do something, just that they do/n't. She asked why Northstar didn't just kill Blackmoon. I thought about it a bit, and realized that killing him would be an awful blunder. I'll post her question/reasoning, and walk ya through it~

Queen Of The Pens: I don't understand why Northstar doesn't go ahead and kill Blackmoon. After all, Blackmoon knows all his secrets and Northstar is already very twisted - he's killed his father and quite a few others. Is it because he actually, genuinely cares for Rosedapple, or is there some other reason behind him not killing Blackmoon? Northstar just doesn't seem like a character who would care for other cats.

Let's go through this step by step, eh? In amazing bullet form!

*Firstly, Blackmoon does NOT know Northstar's secrets. He basically knows that Silverstreak has some history with Northstar, and also that Forest was almost killed by him. Neither of those are really cause for concern, since PeakClan has always been brutal when handling rogues; PeakClan would probably applaud him for it. That isn't a whole lot to hurt Northy's rep; in fact, he uses it to his advantage in Chappy 28, as we see.

*Northstar has only very rarely killed with his own paws. Don't get me wrong, he's an incredibly brutal fighter when it comes right down to it, but he has a bit of finesse. He never took a single life from his father himself, and he always manipulated others into doing distasteful things; he even made other cats kill the medicine cats of the forest Clans! Why would he kill Blackmoon himself?
*He does care for Rosedapple. They're close, especially since he sort of equates her situation with his own mother. She's grown on him, like Rabbitpaw; why else would he make her promise not to end her own life? Why else would he warn Blackmoon to keep away from her?

*Blackmoon doesn't suspect Northstar of killing Lightstar, either, because of what he says to Silverstreak in this chapter; Northy killing Light would make no sense, from an ambitious stand point, because he'd just have a new leader with nine shiny lives to defeat in order to climb his way up the totem pole.

*It would be an incredibly bad idea to kill the only cat that can heal anyone in your Clan (he has no apprentice, remember!) especially with your arch-enemy and her group of rogues lurking around. Remember, he has no idea how many of them there are, or how strong; he has to assume that at least Ravenwing and Frostfeather are with her, and Eaglestrike, plus perhaps Brownfur and Silverstar, since they're also missing. And he knows how persuasive she can be, so he has to assume she has a large group of rogues aspiring to be warriors with her, probably being trained in butt-kicking. As such, Blackmoon is the only cat who could tend to anyone if anyone was hurt, or if a sickness decided to rear its ugly head -- remember, it's during leaf-bare.

*He knows Blackmoon's secrets are a little juicer than his own; he could turn Blackie against Rosedapple completely if he chose. Blackmoon won't risk that.

Hope that cleared some stuff up for you; enjoy your reviews like always, Queen. :)

The other main question is from another loverly reviewer, Lynxeye.

Lynxeye: I wondered why Lighstar didn't appear to give Stonestar one of his lives. Is it because he didn't want to tell him how he died? Or is he ashamed?

A little of both, really. Lightstar popped straight into StarClan, because he was honestly a good cat, even though he should have never been leader. Once in StarClan, though, StarClan had all the time in the world to show him all of his mistakes, everything he did wrong (Graywing, going to pieces after her death, Rosedapple, etc.). So he's filled with shame, from all he did wrong. (Fun fact: His warrior name was Lightheart, but not in a "beacon of gloriousness" kinda way, more in a "everything's a joke :D" kinda way, although he was a very good warrior). That and he was ashamed of how much he completely went crazy and offed himself, meant that he couldn't face Stonestar at that moment. He might talk to him later, but Lightstar has to come to terms with his own faults and accept them before he could bear facing any of his Clanmates.