Amber eyes burned into the green gaze of Tawnysplay. The tortoiseshell looked at Mapleshade with fear in her eyes. The calico's pelt was bushed up and her eyes blazed with fury.
  "Why has she stopped coming?"  Mapleshade's gaze seemed to burn deep into Tawnysplay's soul. "Did you have something to do with it?"
  "N-no Mapleshade!" The life was a stammer as Tawnysplay shrunk beneath her pelt. "Maybe a different recruit figured it out and told her?"
  "What recruits have left us other than Whitepaw?"
  "None, but a spy is a possibility." Tawnysplay was surprised at how her lie sounded so truthful.
  "And who would spy on us?"
  Tawnysplay raked her mind through each of the apprentices she knew. It landed in one bold tom, who was in Whitepaw's same Clan and didn't seem to care for any of the Dark Forest warriors except his mentor. The name nearly evaded her as she picked her mind on a creamy-brown tom. "Milkpaw."
  Mapleshade's amber eyes turned thoughtful. Tawnysplay guessed the ancient she-cat was thinking the same thing as her for reasoning. The calico warrior turned and headed off, quick chit followed by the gray tortoiseshell. The trees were all the same, and they still creeped Tawnysplay out, but Mapleshade seemed unbothered. The she-cat obviously knew her way around compared to Tawnysplay nervously following.

  ~~~

  "Milkpaw." Mapleshade's voice was a low growl that chilled Tawnysplay to her core.
  The tom looked at her with annoyed hazel eyes as he was interrupted from his fight with his mentor. His mentor was a gray, spike-pelted tom Tawnysplay knew as Thistleclaw.
  "What?" Milkpaw's time was annoyed and angry.
  "We've gained word you might be a traitor."
  Milkpaw's hazel eyes widened in surprise. Though she guessed it wasn't, Tawnysplay wondered if the tom actually had been betraying them. Thistleclaw's low growl made the gray tortoiseshell's pelt prick as the yellow-eyed tom headed forward.
  "My apprentice? A traitor? Well, that must be punished." Thistleclaw leaped as he finished, bowling the shocked Milkpaw over.
  The cream-brown tom fought back, using all he'd learned from them to stay alive. Mapleshade leaped in, and after a moments hesitation, as did Tawnysplay. The feel of the apprentice's pelt under her claws was still a pang but she forced herself to claw into the young cat's pelt.
  'It's for the Clans it's for the Clans.' She reminded herself as she stood back to watch the tom fade from the forest, his eyes rolled back and his claws still unsheathed. 'But what if I become one of them before I can save the Clans?'