Skypaw snapped awake. Sandstar's words were still buzzing in her head as she gazed around the dark den. Her sisters had joined her sometime while she was asleep, speaking to the cat that most of her Clan hadn't thought of in moons.

The gaps in between the leaves and twigs that made up the shelter couldn't be seen. The light given off by the stars and the moon would usually shine through them, but Skypaw figured that it must have been a cloudy night. The fact that Silverpelt refused to show itself and its light after her summoning by StarClan made her paws itch and gave her an uneasy feeling.

The apprentice decided that it would be best to get some fresh air instead of cowering in her nest alone with her thoughts. She knew she wasn't going to get much more sleep, and instead of laying there for hours to come, she wanted to make herself somewhat useful. Maybe she would try to tidy up the camp or strengthen the gorse tunnel. Climbing to her paws, she stretched briefly before ducking out of her sleeping place.

The camp, as she anticipated, was dark. She gazed up and found that clouds indeed covered the night sky. Every cat was in their den, the chill of leafbare driving them to their nests for the night. Skypaw found this to be unusual that Sunstar or Russetsky wouldn't place a cat to guard the camp, but she decided that she didn't want to question it. She had far more things to question than why there wasn't a guard standing in front of the tunnel.

 The fresh-kill pile, that would normally be stocked with a large pile of prey in greenleaf, was completely empty. The remaining prey had been buried in the Clan's best efforts to preserve it.

Skypaw sighed. Her eyes scanned the camp over and over as she focused her mind on her dream. Sandstar needed her to focus, but she didn't know if her grandmother actually realized how full her paws were. She needed to pass her warrior assessment if she wanted her Clan to respect her, and she assumed the prophecy needed the Clan on her side. She needed to hunt as much as possible, searching the forest for any type of available nutrients that could help the queens, kits, and the rest of her Clan. The whole Clan was stressed, for this leafbare was harsher than any one that Skypaw had ever experienced. She remembered the way Appleleaf told her about all the leafbares he'd experienced, and it made her paws heavy with dread as she realized how many leafbares she had left to experience in her own lifetime. She should be grateful that she was still young and had her whole life ahead of her, but leafbares were not easy to live in at all.

However, above all Clan responsibilities, another thought lurked her mind. She had to make sure everything in the Clan was done, but she also had to make sure that she had time to continue to visit a cat that had more meaning to her every time she saw him.

Hawkspirit.

Skypaw had continued to visit the ShadowClan medicine cat repeatedly at the Gathering island. She had no set pattern of when she went to meet him, which she figured was better in case any cat noticed something going on. She didn't want to leave a trail behind her, and she decided that being missing during the dark nights was better if done at random times. She hoped that it would diminish any suspicion of her whereabouts, and so far it seemed to be working. No cat had questioned her about her disappearances.

Sitting down on the layer of snow that covered the camp, she ignored how cold it was. She imagined his pelt and his eyes in the scenery of the island, and she had remembered their conversations. She remembered mrrowing in laughter at least once every time she was in his presence, and she remembered the game they had played of racing to the top of the big tree. She could remember the way the four main branches smelled of the Clan leaders that sat there the previous moon, and the way her tail spiked if she stayed on Sunstar's branch for too long.

Skypaw had thought long and hard about her meetings with Hawkspirit, and she had decided that no real harm was being done by meeting him. They weren't exchanging Clan information much, and they definitely weren't spilling Clan secrets. In fact, the backgrounds of which the two cats came from barely was mentioned at all. They were there to escape their Clans for a little while, now, weren't they?

There had been once or twice where Rainpaw had stirred in her sleep when Skypaw returned to her nest, but on the rare occasion she did wake up, Skypaw just said she went to the dirtplace. She felt guilty about lying to Rainpaw, no doubt about it, but she didn't want her sisters thinking she was a traitor to her Clan. Skypaw insisted to herself that since no harm was being done that there was no way she could be considered disloyal in the long run. 

Except for the warrior code.

The warrior code became something that the silver she-cat tried to forget, along with the battle with ShadowClan. She knew its rules like the back of her paw, and she had never done anything to break it. The number one rule was to defend your Clan at all costs, and it stated she was allowed to have friends from other Clans as long as she was able to fight them. She knew she could do this, but she liked to tell herself that even if Hawkspirit wasn't exempt from fighting she would fight against him. However, him being a medicine cat gave her relief, knowing that she wouldn't have to fight him anyway.

Although she was aware that the warrior code allowed her to have friends in other Clans, she knew that meeting a medicine cat in secret at the Gathering island crossed the line of what the code considered having friends. She knew that it was talking about Gatherings, and times when Clans were strongly allied. She also knew that those weren't the circumstances she was under.

Skypaw perked her ears as she heard an owl's call not too far away. She jumped slightly, she was used to the quietness that leafbare brought upon the forest. Gazing up in the branches of the trees above her, her eyes rested on the bird that was strangely looking right at her.

Skypaw got a bad feeling as she made eye contact with the owl's unusually green eyes. She cocked her head, curious, since she had never seen an owl with green eyes before. Admittedly, she hadn't seen many owls at all, but all of them she had seen usually had either orange or amber eyes. The uneasy feeling strengthened when she felt as if she had seen those eyes before, the pang of familiarity pulling her from her thoughts.

Skypaw's head snapped away from the owl when she heard a few pebbles tumble down from the cliff of the Highledge. She braced herself for what she knew was coming, and her eyes slowly rose from the ground all the way up to the leader's ledge. Fiery orange paws came into view, then a fiery orange pelt, then a fiery orange face. Finally, her eyes met piercing green eyes.

The owl flew off the branch it was perched on, landing on a branch of a tree that was next to the Highledge. Skypaw's eyes switched from the owl's eyes to Sunstar's, and she knew immediately where she had seen those eyes from.

The eyes shared the same mischievous gleam, the same evil, yet clever, look to them. The eyes had the same depth to them. They were almost exactly the same.

The owl then blinked slowly before letting out a screech. It turned and flew upwards, expertly through the branches, and out of the apprentice's sight. The screech had struck her as a screech of triumph, a screech of strength, maybe even a battle call.

Skypaw's paws itched to run as the leader's deep voice called down to her.

"Can I help you?"

Chapter 3 out in less than 24 hours whattttt? 

Hopefully this is a better chapter. Not too exciting, but I did say that there had to be some filler chapters. And I made sure to mention Hawkspirit, because let's face it, he's almost equally as interesting as the prophecy is.

Thanks for all the votes and comments of encouragement that I got on Chapter 2! I'm so glad that you guys decided to wait for an update, even though it was wayyy too long of a wait. I'm positive many people deleted Skyfall and Skylight from their libraries long ago, and I completely understand that. I do, however, hope they'll find their way back!

Do I dare say Chapter 4 for tomorrow? Do I? I don't know...but we'll see!

Proof reading again isn't too great on this one, so if you guys see something that doesn't make sense/something that is spelled incorrectly (I did catch that I spelled "sight" as "site" while I was proof reading...DANGIT KAYLIN) please let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!