Ignore the cattails on the right and the weird wood structure thingy. This is where the Twoleg Bridge is [think of it as that tree branch at the far end of the river].

"Uh...Graysplash?" Duskelle said, her voice cracking because she hadn't spoken in so long. Graysplash didn't seem to hear her and so she tried again, louder this time.

"Graysplash!"

He jumped a tiny bit and turned around to face her.

"What? Is there anything wrong?" he asked, both looking and sounding alarmed.

"No...it's just...I think there's going to be a storm."

"A storm?" Graysplash asked, glancing at the sky as if he hadn't notice the steadily darkening colors.

"Oh-yes, it does seem like it. Hmm, then I suppose that just gives us a reason to hurry along faster."

He picked up the pace, making it so that Duskelle had to struggle to keep up. It was easy for him. It wasn't like he was the one with useless split paws and rounded nails that did nothing to dig into the soil for balance as she [rather clumsily] hurried after her 'mentor'. Until now, they had traveled across mostly flat territory with the entire sky open above their heads, but they had just entered into a small, but thickly tree-packed grove. Duskelle couldn't see the river they had been following, the sky that had been hovering above, or for that matter, anything except for the tree trunks and the dark shadows that they casted. It didn't help at all that her eyes were not able to pierce through the darkness like River's had. At the thought of River, it felt like a heavy stone had dropped into her heart and sunk to the bottom, weighing down her whole body with its weight.

She lifted her head up again at a few rays of sunlight filtering through the damp forest air. The trees had started to thin out. She went a little faster, eager to get away from the cage of trees over her head.

"Duskpaw, watch-," Graysplash started to say, right before one of her weird paws caught on an oversized root extending from the ground and she tumbled head over heels forward and stopped by crashing into a particularly thick tree trunk.

Graysplash ran up to her as she lay panting in a heap, disoriented and dizzy. "-out," he said, finishing his earlier statement.

"Are you alright?"

Duskelle straightened herself and shook to get some of the dirt off of the colorful and flimsy pelt-thing that covered her real pelt. She hated the way it felt against her almost nonexistent fur, but she knew that it was the only thing protecting her from the cold and other thorny objects of the world. But that didn't stop her from getting rid of the things that covered her paws, which she really hated. And speaking of thorns, she had a fat, big one embedded in her right forepaw. She winced as the movement made a white-hot spike of pain course through her. Then she realized that she had a companion and looked up at Graysplash's wide amber eyes, which were examining her with a mixture of worry and possibly a hint of amusement.

"Yes, I'm alright, except for a huge thorn poking into my paw," Duskelle said, a note of irritancy in her voice.

Graysplash let out chuckle, which happened often, Duskelle noticed, and bent his head down to her outstretched paw.

"What are you doing?!" Duskelle exclaimed, flinching, when he clenched his teeth around the thorn and started to move it around, causing more pain to hit her.

"Jwut waith," Graysplash replied through his teeth.

Duskelle winced and bit down on her tongue as he worked the thorn out, trying to keep from moving. Eventually, he succeeded and pulled the thorn out and spat it to the side. Before Duskelle could withdraw her hand, he started to lick it, clearing the blood away.

"Just a minute," he said before vanishing for a moment and reappearing with cobwebs, which he wound around her hand to discourage more bleeding.

Duskelle watched him, astonished. How did he know all these things?

"Did-did Lilacfeather...teach you all this?" she asked.

"Oh, no. It's just you pick up things when you're father's a medicine cat."

He smiled at her and a twinkle shone in his eyes.

Duskelle was baffled.

"But Lilacfeather isn't your father..." she started, and then hurried on when she saw the amused look on Graysplash's face, "And anyways, Seapaw told me that a medicine cat can't have kits, so how..."

Graysplash's face hardened into an expression that didn't suit his usually friendly demeanor.

"That's a long story which we don't have time for now. And I don't think you've noticed yet, but we've reached our place."

He swept his tail in a grand gesture and Duskelle observed her surroundings for the first time. They had emerged from the forest into a small, grassy clearing to the side of a river that spanned many fish-lengths. The water sparkled in the sunlight and Duskelle could tell that it was good and clean.

"This territory," came Graysplash's quiet and deep voice from next to her, "is ours until those trees."

He pointed with his tail to where a dense forest began past the river.

"If you go up the river, that way-", he pointed with his tail again, "-you'll reach the Half-bridge."

"Oh," Duskelle said.

There was nothing remarkable about this place. Why had Graysplash wanted to travel all the way here on the first day just to see this?

"You must be wondering," Graysplash began, snapping her out of her thoughts, "about why I brought you all the way here. It's a beautiful place. But not significant enough to have to visit the first day you're here as an apprentice. But it is."

He turned to her, amber eyes serious and shadowed.

"This place is very very significant. Not for the Clan, but for me. This, is where my father...my father..." he paused and looked away.

When he spoke again, it was in a choked voice.

"This is where my father died."

Duskelle was quiet. Everything was misted over to her. Graysplash's father...a medicine cat, who should not have had kits in the first place...had died here...so far away from the camp...

"It was a fox."

Graysplash's voice, only a few moments ago so full of life and amusement, was now dull and empty of emotion.

"He tried to fight it. But he couldn't. Didn't know much more than the basics. Fight took them to the edge and it pushed him right in."

Duskelle was confused. Pushed him in? Pushed him into what? Then, as her eyes roamed her surroundings, she realized the full extent of danger in the river. On the surface, it seemed to be a light stream, a little wide, but shallow and harmless. But on closer inspection, one could see that underneath, the water churned deep and powerfully, easily able to drag a shocked cat underwater. To add to the danger, sharp rocks jutted out from the riverbed, just under the surface of the water, unable to be seen unless looked for, but able to cause a wound serious enough to kill.

"Of course, he could swim, being a RiverClan cat and all. But the fox...wounds...rocks...he fell...so much blood...and I was there the entire time. Shivering with fear, in a tree, not like a true RiverClan cat, unable to leap out and help, unable to save my father..." Graysplash was now completely turned away from her and he looked far away into the distance, towards the Half-bridge.

Duskelle didn't know what to say. What could she say? Tell him it wasn't his fault? Wouldn't work. Tell him it wouldn't have made a difference if he fought? Wouldn't work. So she said nothing at all, and stayed where she was as a silent shadow, trying to give off a comforting vibe, though she didn't know how to.

After awhile, Graysplash moved and shuffled to his feet. He rose, and Duskelle copied him. He turned to her, expression speculating.

"I don't know why I told you this. Of course, I haven't told you everything, but still - you know a significant part of my past. I think...I think I was trying to get a grip on myself again. After all these moons." He looked away, into the distance towards what she didn't know. "To convince myself that I'd gotten over it. And, well, I failed. I haven't, and I never ever will." He turned back to her. "But there's also something about you, Duskpaw," he said, the amber pools that were his eyes boring into her own ice blue ones.

"Something about you that says I should trust you, that you would understand. There's a sort of a sense about you, the kind that a warrior has, a true warrior, not a Twoleg. You also seemed to have...not had much to begin with and, well...I can tell that you lost that too a few days ago. But that feel, that sense, it's nagging at me. It's telling me you're not a broken, lost soul or a wayward Twoleg. You're special, Duskpaw, and I believe in you. I know it seems untrue, seeing as I just met you only a little while back, but it's true. I believe in you and your measly Twoleg body. You will be made into a warrior, and that too by my very own paws."

His intensely spoken words shook Duskelle and she gazed in wonder upon the extraordinary tom in front of her that she had met a little while ago. She couldn't believe that anybody could be so trusting, so unquestioning, so undoubting. Graysplash truly was a wondrous and unique cat, one that no cat could ever be alike. At that moment, Duskelle realized that even if Minnowstar, Frostmist, and the other cats wanted to throw her out of the clan after she had been deemed useless, Graysplash would stand up for her, would somehow make sure that she stayed, because he was like the one rock that'd been weathered so much that there was nothing for him to do other than stand strong and take on the wind and water so that they could not get to the other rocks behind him. The rocks that he was protecting.

His voice, like all the times before, broke her out of her thoughts.

"It's getting dark. We've got to get back to camp."

He turned and broke into a sprint, making Duskelle rush to keep up, stumbling over roots hidden by shadows, crashing through the undergrowth, brushing by leaves moist with sundown dew.

---

Duskelle skidded to a stop, panting. Why had Graysplash stopped? She leaned around him to see what had stopped him. In the near distance, a small black blur was racing towards them. Graysplash lifted his muzzle in the air.

"Shadowflight. And with fear-scent written all over him too. Let's go see what he wants."

The sleek gray cat started off again and Duskelle followed, chest aching from the strain of keeping up with Graysplash the entire way.

"Graysplash!" the jet-black tom called as soon as they were within earshot.

"Graysplash, it's serious! We have to get back to camp!"

Without providing an explanation for his urgent call, Shadowflight turned and zoomed off towards the camp, becoming a black blur once more.

"He's...very...fast...isn't...he?" Duskelle managed as she blundered hurriedly after her 'mentor'.

"Yes, yes, he is," Graysplash said evenly, his breath not affected by the very speedy - at least for Duskelle - pace.

Just like you are.

They caught up with Shadowflight at the camp entrance, where he finally slowed down to let them catch up.

"Shadowflight, what's happened? Why are you so flustered? What's the hurry? What's wrong?" Graysplash fired question after question at the young warrior, who only shook his head once and answered with two simple, but weighty words, his crystalline blue eyes serious and worried.

"Hawkkit's missing."