Mother sent a search party out. We search, and we searched, and we searched, but no sign of him. Not even a scent. I was depressed. Me and Dawn both. I couldn't help but think he was too.

I used to think he had a crush on me, but obviously not. He has a mate. A healer mate. I think about it and she's lucky he has him. Well, not now exactly.

I felt tears run through my fur. I had never cried before. I let it out, though. I had so many wolves come and ask me what was happening. My voice quivered. Dawn pressed close to me and comforted me.

I went out of the clearing and looked around. I saw glowing, sad eyes in a bush. It saw my tears and said in a familiar voice," This is bad. You're crying." I growled back at it," No." It hopped out and it was Twilight. I went up and thrust my muzzle through his fur. He laughed," Ok. Ok. You missed me your best friend." I laughed too. Then got serious," You need to go back to Dawn, she's heart broken." He nodded.

"I'm not ready though." I sat back. "Do you even like her anymore?" I asked. He sighed and said," I thought I did." I tried to make it sound sad and unexcited," You don't have to like her." He sounded relived," Good. I don't think I was ready."

We walked through the woods together. When we finally got back to the clearing, Dawn ran up and howled in our ears.

Really.

I stood back as Twilight took her to the side and told her that he wasn't ready for a mate. She ran into the healers den and he sat beside me and sighed. I copied him. He looked at me and said," Don't copy me." I looked at him and say in a sarcastic voice," Don't copy me."

I suddenly had a pain in my paw. "Owww," I cried. He sniffed my paw and nudged it up on his nose. He looked at it and said,"I'm no healer, but I think I have a diagnosis. You must have stepped on a sharp twig, rock, or thorn. It's bleeding." I lifted my paw from his nose and looked at it. It was bleeding.

He looked at me with a concerned look in his eye and said," Go to the healers." I nodded and hurry over to the den, trying to hold my paw up causing me to limp. I walk in and Dawn growls," Haven't you had enough?" I stagger back an inch. "Look, he told me he wasn't ready. I don't even like him. We're only friends," I whisper. She looks up at me," Seriously?" I nod. I sit by her and say," Now that that's over with, my paw has been punctured. Can you see what happened, please?"

She picked up a leaf and dabbed my paw. Once all the blood was gone, she took a look. "I'm pretty sure that you stepped on a thorn," she gripped the thorn between her teeth and pulled. I yowled in pain. She stopped and said," That sucker is really stuck. Hold on a second."

She grabbed a stick and said muffled by the stick," Put this in your mouth." She let it slide in my mouth and said," Stick out your paw." I gave her my paw and once again she gripped the

thorn. She pulled as hard as she could this time. I bit down on the stick and it spit in two, sending splinters flying. She had the thorn in her mouth and set it on the ground. "That things huge! No wonder you were in pain."

She gave me some herb, I really didn't care enough to find out what it was. She told me to go in my den and go to bed. I did as she said only because its night out and I'm tired.

I got to the spiral rock and past out half way up. I was too tired to climb. I'll let somewolf carry me the rest the way up. I started to drift into sleep and found myself in darkness