The moment Lightpaw woke she knew something was different. Stirring in her nest, she peered through the entrance to her den only to see a great wall of white. Her nose twitched and her mouth curled into a grin.

"What are you so happy about?" a grumpy Beetlepaw huffed as she curved her back into a stretch.

Lightpaw shot her a dark glance. "Always ruining the fun," she commented, more to herself than her littermate. Beetlepaw scowled all the same.

"I'm not about to have my fun ruined," Stormpaw said excitedly, also having woken. Without another word, he plunged forward into the snow. Lightpaw followed closely behind.

It was not the cold that hit her first but rather the softness of the freshly fallen snow. It felt like new moss, feathers, and clouds – or what she imagined clouds might feel like. In front of her, Stormpaw's grey body cut through the drifts, head hardly high enough to break the snow's surface.

Finally, they broke through to the Speaking Rock, a circular area around it already trampled by warriors' paws. A meagre freshkill pile lay before the leader's den.

"It must have snowed all night," Stormpaw said, turning to Lightpaw. She stifled a purr, brushing a lump of snow off the tom's nose with a flick of her tail.

"I'm surprised it's not colder," she replied. The sun shone brightly above them – sunhigh – making the snow around blindingly white. Not a breeze stirred the tall drifts.

"I'm surprised your mentors haven't clawed your tails off." The voice from above was unimpressed. Lightpaw shrank back from Dawnstar's glare and found herself stepping on Beetlepaw's forepaws. The black she-cat hissed but held her tongue.

"I'm sure they will punish you all accordingly," the pale tortoiseshell continued with a flick of her ear. Her eyes travelled lazily to a point behind the apprentices.

"There you are!" An exasperated Flamestrike padded forward, Dapplefrost following at his heels. The tortoiseshell looked at Lightpaw briefly, an almost unsettled light in her eyes.

"You're lucky Newtfang's out," Flamestrike continued, looking at Stormpaw pointedly. "I'll make sure Thistleshade puts you through your paces today instead." The grey apprentice shrank back but nodded obediently.

"Actually, Flamestrike," Dawnstar cut in, jumping down from the rock in one graceful leap, "I think you should take Stormpaw out with Dapplefrost and Beetlepaw. I need to have a word with Lightpaw."

This time, it was Flamestrike's surprised eyes that met Lightpaw's, but he too nodded obediently before setting out with the others. None of them looked back as they left the camp.

"Shall we?" Dawnstar said, her question a command. The apprentice had no choice but to follow.

Lightpaw's fur bristled, though the coldness of the den beneath the Speaking Rock made it impossible to tell whether it was from fear or cold. She did not know what to expect from Dawnstar, but just the she-cat's poised trot and quiet calculation were enough to set her on edge.

The DarkClan leader beckoned her in, taking a moment to lick down a stray chest hair before turning her amber gaze back to Lightpaw. The apprentice shuffled her paws.

"Smoketalon reported something strange to me," the tortoiseshell began slowly. "It appears he and Dapplefrost caught you defending a kittypet."

Lightpaw's heart thundered in her chest. Only a moon ago she had been here, listening to Dawnstar accusing her of stealing prey; now, she was accusing her of something far worse.

"I was on border patrol," she said, almost too quickly. "He started taunting me from the fence."

Dawnstar flicked her tail. "Taunting? Or talking to you?"

"Taunting. He could smell DarkClan on me." The apprentice could not sit still.

"And instead of jumping up and attacking him for his insolence you chose to talk instead?" Dawnstar hissed, her fangs suddenly mouselengths away from Lightpaw's nose.

The small she-cat flinched but did not jump away. "I can explain."

The larger she-cat snorted. "I doubt it." Lightpaw opened her mouth to continue but was cut off with Dawnstar's dismissal: "I'll be watching you, make no mistake. Any misstep on your part could mean consequences."

Lightpaw did not want to stay and find out what Dawnstar meant. With a solemn nod and the sense of injustice in her chest growing, she left the den.

//

With Flamestrike out of the camp, Lightpaw found herself wandering. With Dawnstar's eyes on her she didn't dare leave the camp so she instead settled herself down to wait by the old log in camp. It smelled of dew and mould so strongly she wrinkled her nose with displeasure.

From her vantage point on top of the log she could see above the tall snowdrifts covering the camp. Each den had a thin line leading from it to the centre of the camp, where a large ring had been flattened out by multiple paws. Smoketalon and Skunknose shared a mouse near the warriors' den, the freshkill hardly enough to feed the two muscular toms. Scared of having Smoketalon meet her eyes, Lightpaw quickly looked away.

A small black shape caught her eye. It weaved through the snow drifts, one moment here and the next gone. In the entrance of the nursery sat Minkfur, her eyes also trained on the little speck. Antkit, Lightpaw realized, and purred as she saw the kit attack a pile of snow. He was four moons old now, nearly old enough to be apprenticed. She thought of how little the tom was, and how gruelling training could be, and her heart sank.

The unease in her chest grew the longer she watched the kit and, unable to stand the feeling any longer, the she-cat abandoned her post. The smell of mould faded as she padded across the camp to the healer's den.

She didn't know what she expected to find, only that Reedpaw's absence made something within her pang. Though the den still smelled of mint and lavender, like it always did, it felt empty. Lightpaw sighed, turning to leave.

Her sigh turned into a meow of surprise as her nose met the dark fur of someone's chest. She leaped back, her claws threatening to slide out of their sheathes.

"It seems we're both out of luck," Shademask commented, regarding her with amusement.

Lightpaw forced her breathing to return to normal. "You scared me. But yes, Reedpaw's out."

The tom held her gaze for a moment before giving a slight nod. The she-cat found herself half relieved that she was not the one to look away first. Then, she noticed the gash on the tom's foreleg.

"What brings you to the healer's den?" Shademask asked before she had a chance to point out his wound. His reason for seeing the healer was blatantly clear; she, however, found she had none. Only that she had suddenly felt suffocated, a disquiet building up within her.

Her wide eyes watched Shademask, the look of suspicion – no, worry? – that crossed his features. She remembered Dawnstar's words and snapped out of her thoughts.

"I just felt queasy," she replied evenly, breathing in the soothing scent of lavender. "But I think I'll be alright."

The tom nodded. "Well, I'll be here."

They walked past each other, she heading for the entrance and he limping for the moss nest in the corner, and their fur brushed, bodies passing just a hairlength too closely.

//

The forest was quiet but the thoughts rattling about her head made the silence overwhelming, a roiling thunder like that of a storm quickly approaching. She ran and ran, pelting through undergrowth and tearing through brambles, no care for the fur that tangled and tore. She left the camp far behind, yet the feeling of being watched followed.

And followed.

And followed.

She pushed herself to go faster, hoping against hope to outrun the eyes, but they matched her pace for pace, step for step. They were everything at once: an accusatory hazel, a suspicious green, a worried copper.

But, mostly, they were a cold, cruel amber.

Finally, unable to run any longer, she stopped. The trees around her were unfamiliar. She had never been this deep in the forest before. Though her heart hammered with fear at the thought of being lost there was also a sense of comfort. She was far away, somewhere where she could be alone. The air around her smelled only of snow and pines.

Lightpaw remembered the unease she felt sitting on the log. Why had it hit her so suddenly? Why did watching a kit who would soon be in her position make her feel so uncomfortable?

Rowanstorm's harsh growl came to her mind, the way his praise was never really praise, just a dulled thorn rather than a sharp one. Spiderthorn's calculating gaze, his piercing yellow eyes narrowed as he watched, following every move and judging its strength, its speed, its execution. Smoketalon's lazy grin, barbed words that were meant to hurt.

And, within all of that, a tiny kit – this time white, cream, and blue – shaking with fear but wishing with all its might to please its elders. Always pushing to be stronger, to be faster, to be stealthier, to be better.

Why? To what end?

Lightpaw thought of the kittypet, sitting high on his fence. I won't let you hurt my friends. They've suffered enough at your claws as it is, he'd said. Is that what her purpose was? To hurt? To kill?

No, she thought. But the thought remained, burrowing somewhere deep inside her where she knew, with almost utmost certainty, that her training was meant for exactly that.

A sudden feeling of loneliness hit her. I won't let you hurt my friends. But who were her friends?

An image of Reedpaw appeared first. Stormpaw and Rainpaw and Yewpaw too. She remembered Thistleshade and Oakshade whispering of a better life in the forest and felt unafraid to trust them.  Her fur warmed as another image began to form, a black tom with green eyes watching her worriedly.

But no, it couldn't be. Worry shifted to suspicion in her mind and the black fur became the colour of storm clouds, the green eyes a muddled hazel. Her hackles rose, a growl rising in her throat.

She found herself running again, running from thoughts she couldn't leave behind. Maybe, if she ran far and fast enough, her mind would become as tired as her body and her thoughts would stop racing alongside.

The anger hit her mid-step, sharp and cruel, and she stumbled over her own paws, rolling straight into a bramble thicket. Lightpaw stifled her hiss of annoyance.

When the she-cat opened her eyes, she stiffened. The scene before her unfolded slowly. The longer she watched the more sick she felt.

There was no mistaking that dark grey fur, or the black and red of the tortoiseshell entwined with it, so close that it was nearly impossible to say where one body began and where the other ended.

She shouldn't be here.

But the brambles held her fast. Stupidly, she tried to free herself.

The two cats broke apart, rounding on her. The shocked look on Dapplefrost's face slid quickly to something akin to guilt. Smoketalon's bared fangs spoke only of rage.

"And here I thought you wouldn't be causing any more problems," he hissed, aiming a blow at her head. She scrambled out of the brambles, tangled fur bristling. The tom advanced.

"Smoketalon," Dapplefrost warned. The she-cat's voice was soft, hesitant. When Lightpaw looked at her, she saw Flamestrike beside her, the way his tail usually curled around hers. She was betraying him.

Her eyes snapped back to Smoketalon. He was betraying Flamestrike too.

The tom saw the accusation in her eyes. "If you so much as breathe a word..." he hissed.

After everything the apprentice had felt that day, the numbness that entered her felt almost welcome. She nodded her head solemnly, avoiding both of their eyes.

When Lightpaw arrived back in camp, a startled Shademask greeted her at the camp entrance. She brushed right past him, uncaring of the many pairs of eyes trained on her. The healer's den was no longer empty and the eyes that met hers were questioning but patient.

The scent of lavender enveloped her, wrapping itself into the darkness.

// Wow, it is so good to be back. It's been a long two semesters and a heck of an emotional ride since I last updated. Writer's block has also been keeping me away but everything seems to finally be looking up!

I still can't believe the amount of support I'm getting on Unmasked and Unmarked and that is, largely, the reason why I forced myself to sit down and write this chapter. I will (hopefully) be going back to a weekly updating schedule, so sit tight until next Sunday for Dewpaw's chapter!

Much love for all fans of this novel <3