Lilypetal's POV

"Hey, Lilypetal!"

I looked up at the voice that I heard to see that Brambleclaw was standing in front of me, his tail lashing back and forth.

I dropped my fresh-kill I had in my mouth to speak. "Hey, Brambleclaw!" I meowed kindly. "Did you need something?"

"I suppose I do!" Brambleclaw purred. "Well, Firestar, rather. He was wondering if you wanted to go to the gathering tonight? Maybe you and Squirrelflight can expose another cat?"

I let out a mrrow of laughter. "StarClan forbid!" I exclaimed. "Hopefully it's not necessary."

I then realized the small pang of guilt that was tugging at me as I thought about the depth of those words. There definitely were things to expose, but they were only things that would hurt Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Leafpool, and her kin. But I wasn't going to do anything about it, I had already promised Squirrelflight that.

Pushing down my negative feelings, I dipped my head to the dark brown tabby. "Thank you for letting me know, Brambleclaw," I meowed. And I'm sorry that I'm hiding so much from you...

I forced a happy gaze as Brambleclaw gave me a small nod. "Sure," he murmured. I then watched as he turned around and began to pad over to Squirrelflight, who was taking her pick from the fresh-kill pile. I couldn't help but let out a shaky sigh as I watched the two of them touch noses. Brambleclaw has no idea of all of the things that are going on inside his mate's head, all that she's keeping from him, I realized sadly. I don't know how Squirrelflight's been able to stand it for so long.

I then flicked my ears as my eyes fell on the fresh-kill pile, and I remembered that I had prey to drop off there. So, forcing down my sympathy and sadness, I bent my head down and picked up the chaffinch I had managed to catch, and tried to avoid looking at Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw as I padded over and dropped the prey down into the pile.

I then sat down in front of the pile, becoming very deep in thought. Unfortunately, as much as I could push down my sympathies for the ThunderClan deputy, that wasn't all that I could have to be sad about.

The hunting patrol I had just been out on with Cloudtail, Brightheart and Spiderleg had been tough. Really tough. It wasn't even close to leaf-bare yet, which was the scariest part about our lack of catches. But, prey had been scarce since the lake had begun to dry up about four moons ago. No cat yet had been able to give an explanation as to why this was happening, and all we knew was that it was.

The lake was slowly disappearing right in front of us.

Starting to grow anxious, I then shook my head quickly and took a deep breath. Calm down, I told myself. Everything is going to be fine. And now that you're back to being a warrior, you can help out ThunderClan in so many ways!

I decided that I might feel a little better if I picked up some prey and distributed it to the cats who weren't able to take the time to travel over to the pile. I picked up a vole and padded quickly over to the elders den.

"Ah, fresh-kill!" I heard Longtail say as I made my way into the den.

"Oh, yes!" I exclaimed through a mouth full of fresh-kill before dropping it in front of Longtail and Mousefur. "Here you go!"

I tried to suppress a purr of amusement as Mousefur let out an annoyed grunt. "It's about time!" The old she-cat murmured.

I rolled my eyes. You're welcome!

Longtail shot Mousefur a half-amused, half-warning glance before meeting my gaze and dipping his head. "Thank you, Lilypetal," he meowed.

I dipped my head to Longtail, thankful for his kindness before turning around and leaving the den. Leave it to Longtail and Mousefur to make your day a little more interesting!

I arrived back to the fresh-kill pile to pick up a squirrel for the nursery. Which... is not my den anymore, I thought sadly, still not having fully processed leaving the den after being in there for about eight moons.

Immediately as I crawled into the nursery, my head was practically flooded with memories. I suppressed a whimper, wishing more than anything at the moment that I could lie down in my old nest and have Snowpaw and Goldenpaw with me, nuzzling themselves into my fur.

Luckily, I was distracted as my gaze met Whitewing's kind eyes. I then averted my focus to what I was here to do.

"Hello, there!" I purred to Whitewing, dropping the squirrel at her paws. "You're going to need to eat if you want those little scraps of yours to have lots of milk!" I flicked my tail towards Ivykit and Dovekit, who looked like were in an intense game of mossball.

Whitewing stared lovingly at her two daughters for a few heartbeats before turning back to me. "You've got that right!" She agreed, bending her head down to take a bite. "Thank you."

"Sure," I meowed, dipping my head before scanning my gaze around the nursery. "Hey, where's Millie?" I then asked, realizing that the silver tabby might want some prey as well.

Whitewing nodded her head towards the nursery entrance. "Oh, she's just outside with Blossomkit, Bumblekit and Briarkit," the white she-cat answered. "And she just ate something, so you don't need to worry about her!"

"Alright, then!" I meowed before glancing out of the nursery entrance. I saw that the sun was beginning to sink the bottom of the sky, and the night creatures were beginning to make their usual cries. ThunderClan is probably leaving for the Gathering at any moment now! I realized.

I turned back to Whitewing, dipping my head to her once again. "Well, it's probably time that I head out. Time for another Gathering!"

"Ah, yes," Whitewing purred, flicking her tail towards the nursery entrance. "You go on then, but make sure you update me once you get the chance!"

"I definitely will!" I called back to the queen as I crawled out of the nursery den. Great StarClan, I don't see how I could have ever have felt so negatively towards Whitewing at one point, I realized, looking back to the time that I had once felt jealous of Whitewing, thinking that she and Thornclaw possibly had some sort of connection before he and I had become mates. She has become one of my closest friends in this Clan, and I could not be more thankful for that.

I let out a sigh of relief, realizing that I had succeeded in making myself feel a little better as I padded over to the group of gathering ThunderClan cats.

As I settled down next to Brackenfur and Sorreltail, I scanned my gaze around the camp. My eyes stopped to see that Millie was where Whitewing said that she was - sitting close to the nursery while her three kits played near some rocks. Berrynose and Honeyfern were just a couple of tail-lengths away, watching them. I looked away, purring with amusement as I had glanced at the kits' fun.

But almost immediately after, my breath caught in my throat as I realized that something had been off about what I saw.

Hold on a moment... I quickly whipped my head back to look at where the kits were, over by the rocks.

I then let out a hiss, unsheathing my claws as I noticed a long, dark shape slithering its way right towards Brairkit.