[dino.]

With Dawnstar prepared to hand Sunkissed Creek back over without a fight, Bumblestar wanted to take a survey of the extra piece of territory she'd laid claim to after giving RiverClan what she saw as a helpful paw with Beansprout. It had given her a lot more trouble than she thought it was worth and if it didn't serve any further purpose, she had no qualms with returning it to RiverClan.

Light rain pattered against the canopy and the underbrush as Bumblestar approached the break in the bushes. From here, the sound of droplets hitting the surface of the pond was able to reach her ears. But the sound and the smell of the rain was enough of a distraction that she almost didn't see the massive creature ahead of her until it was too late.

The stench punched her nostrils without warning and Bumblestar's hackles shot up in response. She shrank back into the edge of the clearing underbrush to scan the area, and her eyes landed on what was probably the biggest badger she'd ever seen. Its fangs bared in a bloody snarl as it lifted its head from the half-eaten corpse on the ground. What animal it belonged to was unclear, but the fate the creature had met at the massive claws of the badger was frighteningly evident.

Bumblestar's ears flattened as the badgers nostrils flared and its stained black-and-white face turned in her direction, beady black eyes locking onto her with a scary amount of precision. Apparently it deemed its earlier target a good enough meal, because it merely growled and looked away again. The faint smell of milk wafted toward her with the movement.

That was more than enough for Bumblestar to make a decision. Cattail Pond had originally been nothing more than a claim of status in the first place. Dealing with the poison had made Bumblestar question its worth already, but now a badger that likely housed kits nearby was scoping out the area, and the Pond was no longer worth the effort in defending. This could be RiverClan's problem - given all of the trouble they had handed ThunderClan and now WindClan, they deserved to be the ones to handle it.

With a flick of her tail, Bumblestar backed out of sight and scaled the nearest tree. Her journey back to camp would be made through the branches; there was no sense in leading the massive predator right to her front door via a ground trail.