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Larkpaw's jaw dropped in astonishment after she had slipped through a thick curtain of leaves and now found herself in front of a dark hole. She squinted hard, but the blackness made it impossible for her to recognise anything.
"And you went in there of your own free will?" she murmured in disbelief. "Are you crazy or something?"
Shadowpaw ducked his head. "Please, we should look for Mistpaw before something happens to him," he begged.
With his fur ruffled in fear and the way he stood huddled together, he really made a pitiful sight. Larkpaw cautiously took a step towards the cave. She suddenly had the feeling that a great weight was bearing down on her and was forcibly pulling her away from the cave.
Great StarClan! No matter what's in there, I don't think I want to know!
Nevertheless, she plucked up all her courage. Mistpaw was in there, and he was possibly in danger. As a future warrior of RoseClan, it was her duty to save her Clanmates. She only hoped that she wouldn't have to be rescued herself in the end.
"Let's go in," she meowed, trying to sound confident.
It felt like she was walking on the tips of icicles as she was swallowed up by the darkness of the cave. Shortly afterwards, she noticed with relief that Amberpaw, Shadowpaw and Splashpaw were also following her.
"That's scary. We shouldn't be here." Amberpaw checked the air with a worried expression. "Besides, I can't smell anything."
Shadowpaw let out a startled squeak. "It was just like that! That's why I didn't find Mistpaw again."
Fear crept up in Larkpaw like a treacherous creeper. The longer she stood here, the greater the desire to run outside again became.
Without their sense of smell, they were completely lost. To all appearances, it looked as if the cave would lead much deeper, until even the sunlight could no longer follow them.
At a sudden squelching noise, she flinched reflexively and took a few steps backwards to be on the safe side.
"I'm sorry," Splashpaw meowed. "But everything is so muddy here."
Suspiciously, Larkpaw felt the ground beneath her pads. It was hard and dry. "Wait, I'll come over to you," she replied.
To her amazement, Splashpaw was right. She had barely taken two or three steps when she felt herself sinking into the cold, damp earth. With a disgusted face, she took a closer look at the ground, here, where they still had enough light.
But the muddy ground here and the dry ground she had just been standing on didn't look any different. To be more precise, the dry part didn't even look as dry as it had felt.
Larkpaw's fur bristled fearfully. "I don't like that. Not at all."
