𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗧

> Ten <

Acaciapaw opened one eye, and everything flooded back to him. He was lying on a cold wooden floor with rogues surrounding him. Not just rogues! Among the gathered cats he saw Silverstreak, Canaryflight, Koipaw and Flashpaw. Is Azrael one of these cats?

"Why are you intruding our territory?" Snarled a white tom with a speckled brown back.

"Let him speak, Fawn." Meowed the yellow-and-black tom Acaciapaw had met before. Fawn dipped his head, muttering, "Fine, Cicada."

Acaciapaw heaved himself into a sitting position and explained why he had come. Fawn still looked disgruntled, but Cicada was looking interested. Silverstreak's expression remained unreadable.

"What do we do now?" Fawn asked once Acaciapaw had a finished. "Kill him?"

"Kill him?" A dark ginger tom's amber eyes widened scornfully. "I know Olivestar and her stupid idea of what loyalty means. She'll send out a patrol to hunt us down."

"It was only an idea, Reeftail!" Calmed a ginger tabby she-cat, her pale blue eyes soothing. Her gaze flicked to Fawn. "The answer is no."

Reeftail? Acaciapaw had heard tales of the bold warrior who had betrayed Olivestar and taken three of her lives. Luckily Acaileaf and Cherrydusk had uncovered the plot and exiled him. That was moons ago. So Reeftail is still a danger to the Clans. He felt sick. There was so much danger - Azrael, Reeftail, rogues, and leaf-fall would be slowly approaching. Acaciapaw missed his carefree days in the nursery, where his only worry what's whether Koikit would play moss-ball with him.

Reeftail dipped his head to the ginger she-cat. "Spark."

A ginger she-cat with darker stripes shouldered her way to glare Acaciapaw. Her belly was swollen with kits, yet her gaze was filled with hostility. "Clan cats and their stupid dreams!"

Acaciapaw bristled. They're not stupid! He wanted to snarl, but moons of following the warrior code held him back. Instead he lowered his head. "I only want to speak with Silverstreak, and the others who left BrineClan with him." He carefully avoided mentioning and the other BrineClan cats, in case Reeftail decided he wanted to intrude their conversation.

Silverstreak's blue eyes flashed, but he nodded. "Okay. Also, it's not Silverstreak - call me Silver now."

"I'm Koipounce." Koipaw puffed out his chest. "But Flashpaw didn't want a warrior name."

Acaciapaw's gaze flitted to his former denmate, and one of his friends. Koipounce, no, Koipaw - he was still an apprentice, no matter his name - has made the journey to find Cedarfrost with him, and he'd saved Applepaw from drowning in the swamps. Does friendship mean anything to him?

In BrineClan, Flashpaw has always eaten less and his fur was more ragged but here he was sleek, his black pelt showing muscles. They've all changed. Even Canaryflight - or is it Canary now? The tom was looking much plumper than before, and grunted as he heaved himself up from his nest of the yellow stuff. In BrineClan, he would probably retire soon.

As if reading his mind, Silver meowed, "Yes, he's Canary now." He led them behind a big box of the yellow stuff - "hay", Koipounce muttered crossly as some of it jabbed his ear - and sat down. "What is it?"

"I- I think I made a mistake." Acaciapaw's voice cracked. "I did have the dream, and I did see you with a big black rogue. I saw him with the other cats."

"Azrael." Koipounce put in approvingly. "He likes to give me some battle training."

Acting as if he didn't know the name, Acaciapaw went on. "In the dream I saw a silver tabby cat with blue eyes talking to Azrael."

Silver swished his tail. "Give more detail. There are heaps of silver cats with blue eyes in the Clans. Brookshadow of SplashClan, for one."

"That's dark silver." Canary meowed. "Brookshadow is darker."

Acaciapaw closed his eyes and soaked in the memory. "The cat had sleek fur, and a light silver pelt, striped with darker silver stripes - you know Olivestar's tabby stripes? That shape - and mesmerising blue eyes. It was sort of sky blue, but lightly darker, and singed with cyan around the middle."

Silver looked mildly surprised. "Silver tabby with blue-cyan eyes, you say? Acaciapaw, that's Acaileaf for you."