"Come on, Scarpaw, leap!" With a grunt, Scarpaw flew forward, crashing her smaller body into Leopardpaw with precision; paws outstretched, sliding to the side, she brought her friend to the mossy ground.

       Leopardpaw yowled, scrambling to get up, shaking wet soil from her pelt as she grumbled, "Mouse-dung! I can't land a hit when you're always jumping around like a rabbit!" 

      Owltail flicked an ear in annoyance, sighing, "Your enemy won't leap under your paws for you to catch them in the heat of battle. Again!"

      Stormspirit sat on the other side of the cats as the two apprentices practiced their fighting skills near the mud-hollow. Scarpaw's training had certainly been paying off, for she felt a new surge of accuracy and swiftness with every swipe of her paw. Leopardpaw was improving greatly too, she noticed, with visible muscles and powerful pounces. With a surge of pride, Scarpaw couldn't help but wonder if their training would soon come to an end.

      Leopardpaw didn't seem as enthusiastic, rolling on her back in the mud.
"This is impossible without fresh-kill in my stomach. I'm dying out here." Owltail shook his head, casting an apologetic glance towards Stormspirit, who smirked. 

      "Leopardpaw, you should've eaten this morning; it's not like you to miss out on a meal." Leopardpaw grunted, and Owltail sighed, shutting his eyes. 

      "I suppose we've been training for quite a while; go and hunt for your lunch, and bring it back here." Stormspirit waved his tail, the usual gleam shining in his eyes. 

      "You go along too, Scarpaw; bring me back something as well. I'm starving." Owltail twitched an ear with annoyance, and the two apprentices dipped their heads, bounding off into the undergrowth. It wasn't until they reached the far end of the hollow, past the encasing brambles, when Leopardpaw stopped, looking Scarpaw in the eyes.

      "Alright, we have some time to talk before anyone will get suspicious. What are you planning on doing about this prophecy?" Scarpaw gulped, anxiety gnawing at her stomach.  

     "I don't know. This seems like something that Snowstar should know about, right?"

     "Yeah, but we don't want him knowing about Venomsight, remember? If the two are somehow connected, we'd have to spill the truth." 

     "Right," Scarpaw's tail drooped in disappointment, "that's true; we can't tell him." She wanted nothing more than her leader's help in reading the prophecy, but she couldn't risk the possibility of revealing her secret suspicions towards Venomsight. "Oh, StarClan, send me strength..."

      Leopardpaw flattened her ears, looking thoughtful. "Well, we know for sure that you're connected to the prophecy somehow... but yours seems different than the one Snowstar had described to the clan. He was given the same message, but he spoke of monsters, blood and death..."

      "Right, I didn't see any of that; just a storm, and the rose bush."

      "So either you both were given two halves of one prophecy, or... he's lying about what he saw."

      Scarpaw felt her pelt bristle against the breeze. How could she have the second half to the prophecy, when all she saw was a strange cat and a storm? Snowstar's dream sounded different, violent; a scene playing out before his eyes. Scarpaw had experienced hers in first person, it all seemed so real... They didn't seem connected at all. Could Snowstar have really lied about what he had seen?

      "The only way to know is if I tell him," Scarpaw sighed, "and I can't do that; not yet."

      "Then what do you propose we do?"

      Scarpaw blinked at her friend, panic clear in her green eyes. "For now, we need to focus on Venomsight. If he is up to anything, we need solid proof before we expose it to the clan. We should try and learn more about him, too; there's too much that we don't know."

      "Right," Leopardpaw mumbled, "It's just going to be difficult; he's always either training with Woodpaw, or off doing things alone."

      There was a rustle in the undergrowth behind the two she-cats, and they bolted straight up, fur on end as the questioning mew of Stormspirit called from somewhere in the woods, 

      "Scarpaw, Leopardpaw? What are you two doing lounging around? Go and spread out; you'll find prey much quicker that way. And hurry, too; I'm getting hungrier than a badger!"

      "Yes, Stormspirit!" Scarpaw called, casting one last panicked glance towards her friend before bounding off, towards the direction of the Great-lake.

      Scarpaw sighed, crouched hidden behind a patch of reeds and bramble near the water's edge. A water vole was approaching the edge nervously, and Scarpaw waited, claws unsheathed, ready to pounce when the moment was right. She kept herself completely still, ears pricked towards the water, and as soon as the prey lowered it's head, she bolted, grabbing it by it's neck and twisting until the body fell still. The satisfying taste filled her senses, and she brought it away from the lake, burying dirt over it for later.

      Looking across the shimmering water, she spotted the point on the other side where she had last seen the mysterious set of eyes on her way to the gathering. Now the distant bushes were still, and the brilliant maple trees seemed dull. She could smell rain on its way. A single drop hit her nose, causing her to sneeze, as she turned away back into the familiar marshy woods. She couldn't stop worrying over the prophecy, and what was going to happen; everything Slowcloud had told her about Venomsight's past seemed to point towards the possibility of him being behind Rosegaze's death. She thought of Toadface, pity causing her tail to droop behind her. He lost not only his mate, but his litter; how was he doing? Scarpaw hadn't seen him in camp very often since. Was Sparkpaw's training being affected as a result? Whoever was behind this, Venomsight or not, Scarpaw vowed to bring them to justice.

      Looking up, she blinked in surprise, finding that her paws had taken her to the sandy training hollow near the river. It was eerily empty, she noticed, as this was near where the patrol had found Rosegaze's body; fear pricked at her like a sharp thorn. She shouldn't be here, all alone.
     Her ears flicked at a new thought, however; this was her chance to investigate! Glancing around, she noticed the bramble path leading behind the clearing towards the river's edge. She gulped, padding carefully inside, having to avoid sharp patches of twigs. Even before she reached the end, she could pick up the stale scents of Rosegaze, along with blood. She stepped out of the brambles, facing the river, and noticed almost immediately the edge. Blood was still visible there, along with patches of fur, scattered across the grass and reeds. Her breath hitched, both from fear and horror, as she forced herself forward.

      Rosegaze's gentle scent was almost completely overcome with that of crow-food, causing vile to form in Scarpaw's throat. The patrol was right; there were clumps of fur near the edge, some stuck in the reeds and pebbles. There seemed to definitely be a sign of struggle, but where was her body? Snowstar had sent patrols to search the territory, and each time they came back with nothing; no clue's, either. This was all they had, and it gave nothing away.

      StarClan, send some sort of help, she thought, neck fur prickling.

      Then, she froze, ears suddenly pricked. There was another scent here, something she had never smelled before; it was faint, and she couldn't quite get a grasp on it, slowly stepping closer to the water's edge. It slipped from her senses, and she hissed, frustration biting away at her spirit. Why was it all so confusing?

      Fear began to prickle its way back into her senses as she realized how dangerous this was; she was all alone, where Rosegaze had mysteriously been killed. She had to get out of here, before something happened to her!

      Backing away from the river's edge, she tried catching her breath, taking one last glance at the blood before bolting back into the familiar bramble. Scarpaw didn't stop running, pelting faster and faster, trying to make her way towards the lake and her kill; something appeared quickly ahead of her however, and she crashed into a bundle of silvery spotted fur, rolling harshly into the trunk of a nearby tree with an alarmed yowl. Leopardpaw spit out a mouthful of leaves, ears flat.

      "Scarpaw, what in the name of StarClan do you think you're doing, pelting towards me like that!"

      "I didn't see you," Scarpaw mewed in between breaths, "I went to the river, to see where Rosegaze had died."

      "Alone? Scarpaw, what's gotten into you? We still don't know what happened to her! You could've been killed!"

      Scarpaw looked to her paws, her pelt on edge. "I know; I'm sorry."

      "Did you find anything, at least?" Leopardpaw reached around to smooth her now ruffled fur, removing a sharp twig from her back.

      "No, it was just as the patrols described," she mumbled, "but... there was a weird scent, one I had never smelled before. I couldn't tell what it was, it was too faint."

      Leopardpaw stopped her grooming, looking back to Scarpaw with concern. "It wasn't Venomsight?"

      "No, this was different; I don't even know if it was cat."

      Leopardpaw shook her head, twitching her spotted tail against the green ground. "Well, it could be nothing. I'm sure the patrol had scented it as well; they didn't seem to find it important enough to report."

      "Yeah," Scarpaw agreed, but doubt still ebbed at her mind. If it wasn't Venomsight, what could it have been? 

      "I ran into Woodpaw and Venomsight while hunting," Leopardpaw mewed, "they were practicing battle moves closer to the ThornClan border."

      "Did they see you?" Scarpaw's ear twitched.

      "No. I hid in the brambles; I was following a bird, and it flew above my head too quickly. I could hear them ahead, and followed to see what was going on. It seemed normal, up until..."

      "Until what?" 

      "Well, Woodpaw seemed extremely tired. Venomsight was trying to teach him this move to flip your enemy off of your back, but he just couldn't get it right. Venomsight grew agitated," she narrowed her eyes, "and stopped the lesson. He started saying things like, 'you're going to have to know this for when they come to asses you,' and talking about this 'they'... Woodpaw just nodded, looking uncomfortable."

      Scarpaw's belly twisted. "What? It's Venomsight's job to asses his apprentice. Could he have meant Snowstar?"

      "No, I don't think so... the way he spoke about 'they', it felt a lot different; like outsiders. Cats from somewhere else."

      Scarpaw scraped at the earth with her claws, twitching her tail. "He's definitely up to something."

More droplets of rain hit the two she-cat's pelts, and before they knew it, the rain was falling hard onto the forest. Leopardpaw gasped, "My prey! I've got to go collect it before the rain washes it away!"

      "Me too," Scarpaw mewed, thinking of her water-vole. "Come on, lets meet back at camp. Stormspirit and Owltail won't be happy."

      With a nod, Leopardpaw pounced away, leaving Scarpaw alone. She took one last glance behind her, towards the river, before bounding off to find her catch.