Duskelle bounded forward into the forest, a smile spreading over her face as soon as her paws touched the soft and springy undergrowth. It was the first time she had been alone since she had come to the RiverClan camp.

  To tell the truth, she wasn't exactly alone. She was probably not very far from Stormpaw, and the camp was less than a tail-length behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Maybe even less than a mouse-length.

  But still, she was alone in the sense that there was nobody watching her, speaking to her, not even in her sight. And that felt good.

  She didn't dwell on it for long though. She didn't have enough time. The splash of water on her nose confirmed that, and she looked up to see the sky, which had been pale gray for most of the day, now was a dark gray. Much like Stormpaw's pelt. Duskelle shook her head to get rid of that thought. The important thing was, the storm that had been threatening had finally broken.

And now it was raining.

  Duskelle snorted. Absolutely perfect. It'd make it so much easier for a Twoleg such as herself to travel in the forest this way. And to add to that, it was nearing sundown.

  But none of that mattered now.

  It couldn't matter.

  Not when so much was there to be gained.

She ducked her head and began padding to the forest edge, each drop of water seeming to hit her, and then run through an individual strand of head-fur, and finally deposit on her skull, creating the most annoying pitter-patter rhythm that she had ever experienced in her entire life.

  Just because she liked water did not mean that she liked rain.

Duskelle stopped just under the cover of the trees, where the rain, which had escalated from slow drizzle to pounding, hard droplets in just a few moments, did not hit her quite so frequently and sharply. She looked from side to side, trying to decide which way to go. She had not thought about this part. How was she supposed to find Hawkkit? She didn't have the scent-tracking nose of a cat, and even if she did, the fresh, sharp scent of rain would have already covered everything by now.

  As she struggled to make a decision, a whisper of movement at the corner of her eye made her snap her head to the side, just in time to see a long gray tail whisk up and away from behind a deep green bush.

  Duskelle smiled.

  Of course.

Just a small moment later, Duskelle was silently padding through the undergrowth. Well, it was more of a 'crashing through the undergrowth', but that was beside the point. The point itself was that Stormpaw had not detected her yet. His nose was probably blocked by the scent of rain and hearing muffled by the sound of the relentlessly falling raindrops.

  Duskelle smiled to herself. She was proud of herself for managing to find a way of...well, managing to find a way. She had no idea where Stormpaw was going or what his purpose was, but she could look for Hawkkit as she followed him or have somebody to stand with if something bad happened.

  Suddenly, something struck her paw, and before she knew it, the world had been set a-tumble into a jumble of whirling colors, and then she struck something, and then a dark gray that she had seen before became half of the color she could see. She stopped moving, and after a moment, her sight finally set itself right and she could make the deep green of the tree leaves above her and the droplets of water falling towards her.

  And then what had just happened clicked into place and Duskelle pushed herself away from the warmness under her which was Stormpaw, heat burning under her pelt. She had tripped over a root, and with her wonderful luck, rolled onto Stormpaw, the very cat that she had been trying to hide herself from.

  Duskelle raised her bright blue eyes, which had been looking down at the moss-and-fern-covered ground in front of her, up to the tom in front of her. He slowly pushed himself up to his paws, incredulousity and anger warring in his deep green eyes. He spoke, his voice dangerously low.

"Why, may I ask, are you here, and just why are you following me?"

  "I wasn't following you."

  "Then why were you padding along just behind me and deliberately trying to be silent?"

  "Uh-well...um...no! I was not doing that! You're just-you're just imaging things! Yes, that's what you're doing! I was just going along on my way."

  Stormpaw gave her an exasperated look, one which looked to have been perfected over many seasons. "Stop trying to trick me, and just tell me the truth. This isn't getting us anywhere."

  Duskelle sighed. It was no use hiding the truth anymore.

"Iwasjusttryingtofindthekitthatismissingandkindofyouknowsaveherandthenyouknowhaveeverybody....accept me more."

  Stormpaw stared at her. "All I understood of that was the last three words."

  Duskelle began to speak again, this time drawing out each syllable. "I. Was. Just. Trying. To. Find-"

  "Ugh! Just tell me normally!"

  "I was trying to find Hawkkit."

At that, Stormpaw appeared to do a double take. "What?" Incredulousity spread across his face.

  "I was trying to-"

  "No, no, I understand what you said. What I don't understand, is why you're saying this and doing this in the first place."

  Duskelle lifted her head in a defiant gesture. "I have my reasons. Anyways, why are you out here? I've answered your question. Now answer mine."

"I have no need to," Stormpaw said, and Duskelle opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. "I had a right to ask you. You were following me." He paused. "But since it looks like I'm stuck with you for the time being-" He stopped again.

  Duskelle gazed at him, waiting for to speak.

"I'll tell you."

  'Victory!' announced Duskelle's brain.

"I'm here for the same reason you are."

  What?

"I'm trying to find Hawkkit."

Duskelle stared at the tom in front of her in amazement. How coincidental was it that it was Stormpaw who'd caught her, Stormpaw who'd let her go in return for her silence, and Stormpaw who was sneaking out of camp with the same purpose that Duskelle had?

  A thought struck her, and her face broke into a smile. "That's great. Now we can work together!"

The only sound that came from Stormpaw was a groan.

---

"Where do you think she is?"

"In this forest."

"How far do you think she got?"

"Not very far."

"Do you think she'll be alright?"

"If the fox doesn't catch whiff of her."

  Duskelle's every attempt at creating conversation was warded off by Stormpaw and his very helpful and most definitely not obvious replies.

He wasn't a very sociable cat.

They'd been walking through the forest for a long time now. Sundown had come and gone. The sky above was now pitch black, patched here and there with the dark undersides of storm clouds. The rain had continued to fall relentlessly, and Duskelle felt as if she was now soaked to the very core. It wasn't a very nice feeling. It certainly didn't make it better that Stormpaw had been getting grumpier and ruder with every passing moment. Each word Duskelle said was cautious and slowly spoken so as not to annoy him.

"You know what?" Stormpaw's voice made her stop walking and look up at him. He'd also stopped and was looking over his shoulder at her.

"What?"

"How about," he started, a gleam that Duskelle did not like sparkling in his eye, "We split up? We'd be more likely to find Hawkkit that way because we can cover more ground. If one of us finds her, we can give a call to the other and head back home. Alright? Good idea?" He didn't wait for her answer before turning away and beginning to pad to the left. "Okay, then, it's settled."

"Wait, no!"

He stopped. "Why?" Irritancy showed in every fiber of his being.

"Because-well-we can't split up! It's too dangerous!"

"No, it's not. The fox probably isn't even on this side of the forest. I think it's over in the west border territory."

"But-"

"No, no buts. We're splitting up, and that's that." With that said, Stormpaw slipped away, leaving Duskelle gaping after him.

Now she had to search for one kit in a thick forest under the cover of night all by herself?

Great.

  Duskelle started moving again. It was the only thing to do. Anger at Stormpaw for leaving her surfaced hot in her thoughts. How dare he just run off like that? What was wrong with that tom?

  She continued to walk on, though her search was useless, given her riled up thoughts and emotions, combined with her lack of observance.

  She finally noticed her surroundings when her paws touched wet grass instead of moist earth. She was in a clearing, the trees around her forming what seemed to be a perfect ring around the small area. It was odd, this clearing. Why did trees not grow here?

   As Duskelle continued walking, she realized that the soil under the grass was different form the soil of the forest. The soil here was made up of hard grains that shifted under her paws, and she realized that the plant that grew upon it was not grass, but some other plant that secreted a sticky liquid when the stalks broke under her paws.

  Movement caught her eye. She looked up just in time to see a small blur of something disappear around what seemed to be a lump in the ground. It looked as if something large and round had been put underneath the ground and it pushed outwards, creating the lump.

  Duskelle stepped forward, curious. She had definitely seen something that was alive. Could it be Hawkkit? She cautiously set one paw in front of another, careful not to make noise, as she made her way to the lump. She stopped just in front of it and pressed herself against the lump. She slowly began to move to the side of the lump, the soil scratching her delicate Twoleg skin.

  Duskelle held her breath as she reached the side of the lump and peered around.

She had expected to see a wet, cowering kit, or perhaps a prey animal taking shelter, but instead, she saw a hole. A hole smack in the middle of the lump, sloping into darkness. She stepped away from the lump and crept closer, curiously sniffing the air around her. There was an odd, musky scent that Duskelle couldn't quite place covering the place. There had been an animal around here, but Duskelle had no idea when or what.

   She didn't know if it was safe to go inside or not. What if something that she'd regret meeting was there? She almost turned back then and there to leave, but a sound stopped her. She stopped moving and swiveled her head back towards the hole. The sound came once more.

It was a kit's mewl.

  A smile spread over Duskelle's face, happiness at having found Hawkkit showing radiantly. She'd done it! She'd done it, and now all the cats' misconceptions about her would go away!

Duskelle abandoned all precaution and bounded forward. She stuck her head into the hold and began to wriggle her way in. It took a long time, but, eventually, the last of her haunches were through and she tumbled inside. She landed with a plop on hard dirt and looked up to see a dim darkness, since the only light came through the hole that was both the entrance and exit. It took a moment for her eyesight to adjust to the lack of sufficient light, but she finally noticed that she was not alone.  Three small shapes were huddled against the opposite wall of the den, for she had realized that was what the hole was, as far away from her as they could get.

  Duskelle slowly advanced, and the shapes began to make noises, kit noises, though they were different from that of the kits in the camp nursery. These were deeper, with more of a growl imbedded in them, and a strike of uncertainty hit Duskelle, though she didn't stop moving. Finally, she stood right in front of them, and Duskelle got her first glance of the now-infamous Hawkkit.

To tell the truth, she couldn't make out much because of the darkness. All she saw were bright blue eyes that appeared to glow in the dimness and a glimpse of shaggy brown fur.

   But it was not Hawkkit that had the majority of Duskelle's attention. It was the other two kits. They were some other kind of kit, some other animal, most definitely not cat. One had brilliant green eyes, and the other a dark amber. Both glowed like Hawkkit's eyes, and thick russet-colored fur covered their small bodies. Duskelle caught a sight of the black tip at the end of the shaggiest tail that she had ever seen and lithe limbs that were trembling with either excitement or fear.

But her examination of the creatures in front of her didn't last very long. A low growl from behind her made her turn around, thought she couldn't move much more than her head and shoulders in the cramped position that she was in.

    A creature, which appeared to be the bigger — adult? — version of the non-cat kits in front of her was standing in the entrance way, feet planted defiantly and teeth threateningly bared. It's green eyes glowed intensely. It stepped towards her, and Duskelle tried to move away. Her position made it hard, but she managed to make it happen. Now she was pressed about a tail-length away from the kits, in the same position that they were in. Suddenly, one of the creature kits detached itself from the side of the den and headed towards the bigger one, which bent down and rasped a tongue over its ear as the kit snuggled close. The second kit followed the first's lead, and Duskelle realized that the big one was their mother, and this was their home. That was why it appeared so fearsome and defensive.

    Duskelle realized that she had to somehow get out of the den, and take Hawkkit along with her. As long as she made no threatening movements, there was a chance that it was possible. She began to inch towards Hawkkit, and at her first movement, the creature's head snapped up and its eyes fixated on her unblinkingly. She paused, and then started again, making sure not to move more than a mouse-length at a time.

     Slowly, slowly, she gained ground. Her heart pounded in her chest. The sticky substance that formed when she was hot beaded across her face, even though it was cool and damp in the den. Finally, she reached the trembling blob that was Hawkkit. She paid no attention to the kit and its expression. She was too focused on the creature blocking her way. She slowly raised her right forepaw and reached towards the kit, ignoring the feeble swipes that she made. For once, her weird paws proved to be useful and she was somehow able to wrap her paw around the kit's scruff and raise her in the air. Duskelle inched towards the entrance, staying pressed to the wall. The creature did not move until Duskelle was almost at the entrance. Its eyes widened and it appeared to understand that she was trying to get away. It started to take small steps away from the entrance, herding its kits along as it did. It watched her closely, the sharp green eyes boring into her. Duskelle set a paw into the tunnel entrance and started to pad away backwards, keeping her blue eyes on the green ones, which, in turn, stared back at her. Eventually, she felt rain hitting her legs and she ducked her head out of the entrance.

   A smile spread across Duskelle's face, happiness covering every inch of it. She had never felt such ecstasy. She's done it! It was over! She had succeeded in her quest, and now, she would be a hero.

   Such thoughts were what were racing through her head as she turned around.

They turned into thoughts of a very different kind when she Stormpaw lying by the side of the den.

His dark gray pelt was covered in the red of blood.