Chapter 19

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Next morning, Skyfall watched the dawn patrol leave before going to relieve Thunderstone from his vigil. Her injured leg felt stiff, but the bleeding had stopped.

"All quiet?" she meowed. "Do you want to sleep now, or are you up to going hunting? We could go through Tallpines, if you like, and see your family."

Thunderstone stretched his jaws in an enormous yawn, but a heartbeat later he had sprung to his paws. "Let's hunt!"

"Okay," Skyfall mewed. "We'll take Sandstorm with us. She has met Puma too."

Skyfall knew that whatever relationship she had with Sandstorm was ebbing away ever since she had stopped the battle with WindClan. Sandstorm was the one to mention not wanting to lose the closest thing she had to a sister, but it was also her who was pushing Skyfall away. Perhaps inviting her on a hunting patrol would help their bond a little.

Glancing around to see if she had emerged from the den, she spotted Dustpelt padding toward her, with Fernpaw following. As they drew closer, Skyfall could see that the brown tabby looked worried.

"There's something you ought to know," Dustpelt announced. "Fernpaw, tell Skyfall what you just told me."

Fernpaw's head was lowered, and she scuffled in the dust with her front paws. Her hesitation gave Skyfall time to wonder what was troubling her, and why she had chosen to confide in Dustpelt instead of her mentor, Darkstripe.

The second question was answered by Dustpelt as he must have seen Skyfall's questioning look. "She didn't think Darkstripe would care enough to come to you," he explained.

"Come on, Fernpaw," Skyfall tried to sound as gentle as she could. "Tell me what is the matter."

Fernpaw's green eyes flickered toward her and away again. "It's Swiftpaw," she mewed. "He. . ." She hesitated, and this time with a glance at Thunderstone, and then went on: "He was really angry that Bluestar wouldn't make him a warrior. Last night he got all us apprentices together in the den. He said we'd never be warriors unless we did something so brave that Bluestar couldn't go on ignoring us anymore."

She paused again, and Dustpelt murmured, "Go on."

"He said we ought to find out who has been killing prey in the forest," mewed Fernpaw, her voice shaking. "He said you seemed more worried about Bluestar than finding our enemy. He wanted us to go to Snakerocks because that's where most of the scraps of prey have been found. Swiftpaw thought we might pick up a trail."

"Why would he do that?" Thunderstone cut in.

"And what did the other apprentices think of this?" Skyfall asked, flicking her tail for Thunderstone to settle down.

"We didn't know. We want to be warriors, but we all knew we shouldn't do something like that without orders, and without at least one warrior with us. In the end, only Swiftpaw and Brightpaw went."

"Did you see them go when you were on vigil?" Skyfall demanded, turning to Thunderstone.

Beginning to look worried, Thunderstone shook his head.

"Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneaked out through the ferns behind the elder's den," Fernpaw mumbled.

"When was this?" Skyfall demanded.

"I'm not sure—before dawn." Fernpaw's voice rose as if she were about to start wailing like a tiny kit. "I didn't know what to do. I knew it was wrong, but I didn't want to give them away. Only I've been feeling worse and worse, and so when I saw Dustpelt, I went to tell him." She gave the brown tabby warrior a grateful glance and he dipped his head lightly.

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