Lightpaw did not tell anyone what she had seen that day in the forest. She was too afraid to.

Smoketalon's eyes followed her as she crossed the camp from the apprentice den to the freshkill pile and she forced her fur to lie flat. It was sundown, just before the dusk patrols were to set out, and DarkClan's members sat in haphazard arrangements, enjoying freshkill and company. The drifts of snow throughout the camp had been flattened by numerous paws, leaving no places to hide.

She glanced over at the warrior's den, where Flamestrike and Dapplefrost sat sharing a mouse. The tom twitched his whiskers in amusement at something his pair said, giving her ear a playful lick. As Lightpaw watched, Flamestrike's ginger fur turned grey and his amber eyes took on a hazel sheen. Then, she blinked, and he was the same fiery colour as always. Her eyes did not dare slide to Smoketalon, who sat not too far off.

Lightpaw snatched a piece of freshkill off the pile, too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice what it was. As the she-cat straightened she came face to face with a worried face.

"Are you really sure you want that measly shrew?" Shademask gave the freshkill in her mouth a pointed look. There was hardly any meat on its thin bones but Lightpaw just gave a nod.

"Positive," she said through the mouthful, eager to get away. She hadn't talked to the tom since running in to him in the healer's den a quarter moon ago. In fact, she had hardly spoken to anyone since then.

She returned to the apprentice den, settling down to eat a little further away from the other apprentice's than usual. Only Stormpaw gave her a curious look. The others, preoccupied with their conversation about training, did not notice her. It was as if she had become ethereal, a spirit that walked through their ranks.

She bit into the shrew and immediately regretted the nod she gave Shademask earlier. The meat was tough and had no taste. Still, her stomach growled with hunger and she ate every last piece of the shrew, crunching the bones between her teeth for good measure.

Though hunger still gnawed at her, Lightpaw knew she could not eat more. There was hardly enough freshkill for the entire Clan; she was lucky she had gotten to eat tonight. She settled her head on her paws and her eyes slowly drifted closed as the light faded from the world around her.

A thud startled her awake. Her nose twitched furiously as she picked up the scent of fresh squirrel rising up from the freshkill before her. Glancing up she saw Spiderthorn's amused face.

"I saw that shrew," he commented. "Come, share this with me." He picked the squirrel up and began to pad in the direction of the log. Aware that the other apprentices were now watching her, Lightpaw followed.

Spiderthorn gestured for the apprentice to take the first bite and, unwilling to displease the deputy, Lightpaw took a small mouthful. The rich taste flooded her mouth, blood still warm.

"It's just the beginning of a hard leafbare," the tom mused after taking his own bite. He was sitting across the freshkill from her, looking entirely at ease. Lightpaw shifted uncomfortably.

"It's my first," she replied before realizing that, as her father, Spiderthorn would be well aware of the fact.

"Leafbare is much harder for an apprentice who tries to run away from her Clan." The deputy fixed her with a stare so intense Lightpaw shuffled backwards. In the moment she was able to hold it she saw anger and – dare she say? – disappointment deep in the depths of his amber irises.

Then, her racing mind and heart came to a sudden stop. "Running away? Why would I be running away?"

Her voice, earnestly confused, caused Spiderthorn to pause. "You're... not?" All Lightpaw could do was shake her head. Who would accuse her of such an act?

"Smoketalon mentioned you at the Twolegplace the other day, and he said he saw you out alone in the forest just a few sunsets ago." The deputy's own confusion was evident.

The she-cat turned to survey the camp, looking for any sign of the grey tom who seemed to plague her every waking moment. By the time she caught sight of him he was heading out the camp entrance with Pigeonfang, Duskwhisker, and Yewpaw on a dusk patrol.

Then, an awful idea occurred to her. Carefully, Lightpaw remembered her exchange with the kittypet.

"I have been doing the opposite of running away," she said quietly. "My trip to the forest was a hunting trip. I travelled further out, hoping I might find something for the Clan. When I ran into Smoketalon I hadn't had any luck." Her tongue burned with the lie and she had to bite it to keep herself from telling Spiderthorn about Dapplefrost's presence as well. She reminded herself of the way Flamestrike looked at his mate and knew that if she turned her in, and he found out, he would never forgive her.

"What about Twolegplace?" The deputy pressed. "Allying yourself with kittypets is hardly a way to show loyalty to DarkClan." The disapproval in his tone made her fur rise.

"Smoketalon didn't hear what happened," she spat before collecting herself. "The kittypet approached me as I was marking the border. He said something about the rebels."

This time, it was Spiderthorn's fur that rose. When he didn't say anything, Lightpaw continued.

"He said something about the rebels," she repeated. "And a gang of some sort, and alley cats. The rebels must be in hiding with them. He got very defensive when I asked about their whereabouts."

Spiderthorn considered this and Lightpaw, who had told nothing but the truth in her recollection of that night by the Twolegplace border, willed him to believe her words over Smoketalon's. Then, quite suddenly, she caught sight of someone she knew would back up her side of the story.

"Shademask was there," she said, waving her tail in the tom's general direction, who began to make his way over. "He defended me when Smoketalon started his accusations."

By the tilt of Shademask's head, Lightpaw could tell he had heard her words. The deputy turned to the younger warrior as he arrived.

"Is this true?" he asked.

Shademask did not even look in the apprentice's direction. "It is," he said, voice confident. Lightpaw felt herself glowing at the affirmation.

Spiderthorn held her lightened gaze as if searching for something. When he didn't find what he had been looking for, he nodded.

"I will speak to Dawnstar about this. It seems Smoketalon has not been truthful as of late."

The deputy's words elicited a mental image in Lightpaw but, in that moment, she hardly cared. Finally, someone had listened to her.

A shifting body beside her reminded her she had not won this battle alone. But, before she could thank Shademask for his help, the tom was already slipping away.

//

"Keep your footsteps quieter!" The directive came quietly but Lightpaw took it to heart, softening her pawsteps. The snow made it easier; the soggy leaves beneath it too. The she-cat was quickly coming to know leaf-bare as her favourite season.

"Watch out for the brambles." She slipped around the bush easily, careful not to let them snag her fur. Nothing was stopping her this time.

"Log." She leaped over the felled tree adeptly, making just the slightest sound as her body dropped to the snow beyond. The apprentice streamlined herself, slithering through the drifts unheard.

Not nearly as silently as her mentor, who suddenly appeared in front of her.

"I thought I was doing well?" Lightpaw said, tilting her head in confusion.

Flamestrike nodded, though there was some hesitation. "Yes, for someone who is constantly being directed. But the point of stealth is for you to be able to recognize all of those things for yourself. I shouldn't have to tell you to be quieter, or to watch out for brambles, or that there is a log coming up."

The she-cat felt her fur burn under his veiled reprimand.

"I'll try harder," she replied, already sliding into her crouch.

Flamestrike continued to bar her way. He was looking at her with an expression she couldn't quite place.

"I heard something rather distressing about you the other day," he said after a pause. Lightpaw's eyes widened as her mentor looked for his next words. When he didn't continue, she pressed him for more, heart pumping wildly.

"It's just that..." The ginger tom levelled his gaze with hers. "Rowanstorm believes you're ready for the next stage of your apprenticeship."

When the words registered Lightpaw realized the faint light was pride. Then, her nerves took the better of her.

"I can't believe you just made me fear for my life like that!" she shrieked, pouncing onto his back. Flamestrike howled with amusement, flipping over onto his back to dislodge her. Putting her training to good use, Lightpaw jumped nimbly, landing on the tom's stomach. Claws sheathed, she pummelled the soft fur of his underbelly until he finally managed to stop revelling in his amusing deception.

"Alright, that was rather mean," he agreed. "But don't you think you're almost ready for the meanness of the warriors' den?"

"Already? I'm only eleven moons old you know."

Flamestrike acquiesced. "You do have one more portion of your apprenticeship to pass before you are able to join the warriors."

Lightpaw brightened at the challenge in his voice. "Tell me what to do and I will pass with flying colours."

The ginger tom twitched his whiskers. "I don't know what it is quite yet. Back when I was an apprentice they made us leave the camp for three days, returning on the third sunset with any prey or prisoners we had caught. If we passed we were made warriors." He puffed his chest out proudly.

Lightpaw nodded, eager to know more. Then, another thought hit her.

"What happened if someone didn't pass?"

The expression that passed over Flamestrike's face was like nothing Lightpaw had ever seen on his features before. The only was she could describe it was morose, as if something had been lost.

"It meant they didn't have a place in DarkClan," he said after a while. Lightpaw longed to know more, but she suddenly became aware that, just this once, she didn't want to know what happened to those not worthy of DarkClan's ranks. Her ears rang with the shrieks of the tortoiseshell sentenced to death by Dawnstar.

"Yours will be quite different, I think," Flamestrike said, tone of voice brighter. He got to his paws, shaking out his fire-coloured fur. "You will know soon enough."

To Lightpaw, it seemed as if she would not know soon enough at all.

//

The third sunset after her conversation with Spiderthorn, a quarter moon since seeing Smoketalon and Dapplefrost in the forest, Lightpaw was once again summoned to Dawnstar's den. She approached carefully, unable to tell if the summons were friendly or hostile. With Dawnstar, she wondered if summons were ever anything but the latter.

When the scent of two others hit her nose, Lightpaw was all of a sudden reminded of another night. Back then, she had been stuck in camp for a quarter moon, cleaning out dens.

"Still at the same location," she heard Shadowpelt say now. It sounded like a continuation of the report she had given Dawnstar only a moon ago.

"Any other news?" Dawnstar's voice sounded intensely bored.

"Internal strife," came Newtfang's response. "And our inside source is in. We have not heard from him just yet but there will be more soon undoubtedly." Lightpaw could only see part of Dawnstar's face from where she crouched in the den entrance, but what she did see lit up.

"Perfect," the pale she-cat purred. "And we will have even more inside sources soon, if all goes according to plan."

Lightpaw's head swirled but, unwilling to get caught eavesdropping as she had last time, drew herself up. She stepped lightly into the den, startling the two guardians.

"I'm sorry to intrude, but Dawnstar summoned me," the apprentice said. With a wave of Dawnstar's tail, Newtfang and Shadowpelt took their leave.

The cold amber observed Lightpaw for a long moment before the DarkClan leader spoke again.

"Yes. Yes I did."

This time, Lightpaw did not let Dawnstar scare her.

// Sometimes, writing nearly 3k words in one sitting seems like a really daunting task, especially when it's the last day to hit that Camp NaNo goal... But I managed to do it! And here's the next chapter of Unmarked as a result :)

What do you think Lightpaw's last assessment will be? Will she be able to pass it?