Once Willowleaf and Skyfall had trekked far enough into the territory for Willowleaf's comfort, she spun around quickly, stunning Skyfall.

"So, it appears we have a problem," She meowed, her tone as flat as her ears. Skyfall waited for her to continue, but the tortoiseshell she-cat remained silent. A few moments elapsed before Skyfall responded.

"Yes, we do," She agreed, still staring at the ThunderClan medicine cat. She was waiting for Willowleaf's game plan. Why isn't she saying anything?

Almost as if Willowleaf had read her thoughts, she continued, "I have no idea what to do."

Skyfall gazed at her with wide eyes. Willowleaf? Baffled? The witty she-cat always had something up her fur! Surely Willowleaf couldn't be stumped, at a time as critical as this?

"But, you have to!" Skyfall exclaimed. She was painfully aware at her kit-ish tone. She definitely was not living up to her new label of a warrior, but she found herself being unable to care.

Ever since she had overheard Willowleaf discussing the prophecy with Sandstar and her parents in the medicine den, Willowleaf had been her guiding paw for everything that had to do with the prophecy. She showed her her place within StarClan's mysterious words, gave her instructions on how to handle herself with anything pertaining it, and gave her a shoulder to lean on when she needed it.

Until now.

Skyfall couldn't fail to realize that this was most likely her own fault. While Willowleaf was harsh and diligent in her orders to her, Skyfall had failed to obey a good chunk of them. Ever since she was a young apprentice, Skyfall had been blessed with someone she could turn to when it came to the prophecy. While it was true that Willowleaf wasn't involved in the prophecy itself and didn't understand what Skyfall was truly going through, Skyfall always knew that she could talk to her if she needed to. And now, when Willowleaf needed her most, the ThunderClan medicine cat was as lost as she was.

Upon realizing Skyfall's panic, Willowleaf regained her composure. She hadn't necessarily been un-calm, but her tone and expressions had lacked any ounce of confidence. Skyfall knew that she was panicking on the inside, but was trying to backtrack and appear like she had everything under control.

"Skyfall," She said, her tone serious. "Do you have any idea how Sunstar found out?"

"No," She responded. She truly had no idea how Sunstar found out about StarClan's prophecy, or her place within it.

A shiver went down her spine. It suddenly became shockingly real to her that Sunstar knew exactly who she was. Beforehand, she had been able to blend in with her Clan. She didn't realize how comforting it was to know who he was while he remained blissfully unaware of her. To him, she had been just another boring apprentice. It made the fur on her neck raise when she realized that Sunstar had his eye on her, and that he had for StarClan knows how long.

He was expecting any move she had to make against him.

"This is not good," Willowleaf paced back and forth. "If he knows, that means the Dark Forest knows. They know that StarClan knows, before StarClan even knows!"

It pained her to realize how much at a disadvantage StarClan was at. The Dark Forest was gearing up to take them down, and they didn't even know! As Willowleaf frantically pointed out, the Dark Forest knew that StarClan would be receiving the message of their plans, if they hadn't already.

"They're going to step up their game," Skyfall whispered. "They're going to try to catch us when we're not expecting it, before we can build up our defense."

Willowleaf nodded. The sun had finally sunk behind the trees in the distance, and darkness was rapidly washing over the forest. Taking note of that, Willowleaf came to a conclusion.

"I need to go to the Moonpool," She announced. "I need to tell StarClan. This information has been floating around long enough. If only Darkface had just told us sooner-"

Anger flared up within Skyfall. How could she be blaming Darkface for this? He was betraying his own band of warriors by telling them in the first place! Not to mention that he had tried to tell them the night before, but Willowleaf had refused to go based on her own selfish reasons. She hadn't even bothered to listen to him before Skyfall convinced her of the legitimacy of his claims. "This isn't Darkface's fault!"

Willowleaf seemed taken aback by Skyfall's sudden outburst. She blinked once while holding eye contact, but didn't respond. Something within Skyfall knew that Willowleaf was aware that the blame did not rest on Darkface's shoulders - if anything, it rested on hers.

Continuing on as if Skyfall hadn't said anything, "I'll just tell Sunstar I need to take Amberpaw for her formal ceremony at the Moonpool. The mousebrain won't even realize that it isn't half-moon. He doesn't pay attention to anything but himself - and the Dark Forest, apparently. You saw how he acted at the ceremonies."

Skyfall nodded. At least someone noticed Sunstar's rude behavior. The Clan hadn't seemed to notice, and if it did, they had kept it to themselves.

Before Skyfall could respond, Willowleaf was bounding away, back towards camp. "I need to hurry!" She called behind her. "Sunstar has probably already updated the Dark Forest on the mouse-dung he did today!"

Skyfall watched the tortoiseshell she-cat disappear into the snow-colored bushes. She suspected that Willowleaf wasn't taking the normal path back to camp to avoid questions being raised if she ran into any mentors with their apprentices. Since the sun was down, they would be in the area returning to camp, if they weren't back already. Skyfall sighed.

She knew she had to get back to camp quickly to perform her silent vigil with her sisters. She would normally be excited for a milestone like this, but the prospect of the Dark Forest launching an attack sooner rather than later weighed down her excitement with stress.

She lifted her muzzle to the sky. Searching for any beacons of light through the thick forest canopy, she was disappointed when she found that her warrior ancestors were covered by clouds. As upsetting as it was, she knew it was fitting. StarClan was about to receive the worst news that it had in StarClan knows how long.

Skyfall took a moment to sit on the chilled ground. She just wanted a moment to breathe before she had to return to camp and be on guard all night. She was utterly exhausted - she had barely gotten any sleep the last few nights. The idea of staying up till dawn made her want to wail like a small kit.

Right when she was about to climb to her aching paws and make her way back, a rustling sound coming from the bushes reached her ears. Figuring that it was one of the new apprentices anticipating to scare her, she waited, somewhat impatiently.

To her surprise, it was not the striped pelt of Brackenpaw, the spotted one of Spottedpaw, or the cream one of Brightpaw. It was a ghostly, transparent pelt, one of no other. She mrrowed in surprise.

"Darkface?" She greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to know what Willowleaf was planning to do about Sunstar," His deep meow was loud, even in a whisper. "I saw what had happened during your ceremony."

Surprise pricked at her paws. Darkface really was like a StarClan cat - he was always watching. He must've been hidden in camp somewhere, undetectable to ThunderClan's unsuspecting senses.

"You were at my ceremony?" She asked, quizzically. Her heart warmed slightly when she realized that her ghostly acquaintance cared enough about her to want to see her become a warrior. However, this warmth subsided quickly when she realized that Sunstar had probably planned this move with the Dark Forest. Darkface probably knew it was going to happen, and wanted to see Willowleaf's reaction. Whichever it was, it was nice of him to be involved, and to want to help the Clans out, especially when his loyalties should technically lie elsewhere.

"Yes," He answered. "So, she's going to the Moonpool to warn StarClan?"

Skypaw nodded in confirmation. Darkface's eyes lit up.

"Finally!" He exclaimed. "I've been trying to get her to go talk to them, but she wouldn't. She doesn't trust me, and until your ceremony, I feel like she didn't fully believe the information I brought her when we were in her den. StarClan needs to get ready, and fast."

"Well, I feel like after all this, she will trust you now," Skyfall meowed, sympathetically. "She knows you aren't lying."

Skyfall could tell that her words were of great comfort to the Dark Forest warrior. His tail raised form its spot on the ground, and his shoulders rested a little higher.

She truly pitied him. She didn't understand how StarClan could have sent a cat killing his mother for the safety of his Clan to the Dark Forest. The oath she had just sworn earlier today made sure that every warrior would protect and defend its Clan. Obviously, Darkface thought his mother was a danger to ThunderClan, so wasn't he just upholding his duty as a warrior?

She was itching to know the details behind what had happened to him, but she knew she'd most likely never find out. Willowleaf would probably die herself before she relived that time in her life. She felt highly uncomfortable asking Darkface directly, since it was obviously a sensitive subject. If he wanted her to know, he would tell her. She wouldn't pry on some cat's past, especially when they were hardly more than acquaintances. Their relationship was solely based on the prophecy - if she wasn't the sky, she wouldn't even know of his existence.

Skyfall suddenly felt the awkwardness swarming in the air. Darkface began to stutter, "So, I guess I'll see you soon, then."

Skyfall nodded. "Yes, see you soon."

"Good luck with your vigil!" Darkface chirped, beginning to fade away. "You'll be a great warrior, I know it."

"Thank you!" Skyfall could barely finish thanking the ghostly tom before he faded away completely. Not thinking too much of it, she turned, heading her way back to camp.

Her paws filled with dread once more as she realized that she had to stay up and alert until dawn. Sighing to herself, she listened to the chirping of crickets and the scurrying of prey as she made her way through the territory back to camp.

Hiiii I'm sorry that I missed the past few updates! I've been trying to enjoy summer as much as possible before I start college (lol I'm scared). Not really an excuse since I had things prewritten, but it honestly slipped my mind. My boyfriend also has been officially hired as a firefighter recently and I've been celebrating that with him! With all this chaos, I wish that Wattpad had an auto-publish feature.

Expect consistent updates again. I hope you guys enjoyed this mainly boring chapter. There is an exciting (or however you want to put it...) event coming up though...stay tuned!

Enjoy your week!

Kaylin