Crescentpaw swished her tail in an arch behind her, then began pacing in the trembling ryegrass.

"Are we burying them or not? Because if we aren't then... it would be best to go." She glanced at Hillflower, and the she-cat meowed in agreement.

Pepperpelt grunted and looked down at the Windclan cats, as if she hadn't thought of that.

"Why would we? They're so disgusting and crawling with maggots, they'd fall apart if we touched them!"

Crescentpaw lashed her tail. That wouldn't have been my choice of words, but okay.

"We shouldn't waste energy by burying their mangled carcasses. It would take at least a hunting trip's worth of time just to wrap their bodies and dig each grave," Pepperpelt meowed dismally.

Thick, tussocky grass whipped and whirled in the wind behind them. The branches of the mighty maple tree clattered together.

This wind was particularly strong.

Could Starclan have sent the storm?

Will it help protect us against the wolves or will it just make our travels slower?

The massing grey clouds were knotted together in billowing layers of fleece. They looked laden with rain.

"Let's just go," Jadestar said, finalizing the decision. "Somehow it feels wrong to disturb their bodies now, after they've become so decayed." The Skyclan leader sighed while Pepperpelt nodded.

"If we leave them here as carrion for the wolves, they might not follow our scent-trail back to Riverclan."

Silence fell, and whipping wind whistled into the cat's ears. Jadestar looked at the smaller grey she-cat beseechingly, but Pepperpelt didn't add anything else.

"That's disrespectful to these Windclan warriors," Trufflefur spoke up just as Crescentpaw turned toward their descent. The queen in turn opened her jaws to start arguing.

"One of them wasn't even a warrior," Pepperpelt patronized.

She felt her nerves thinning. Trufferfur was right, but couldn't he have argued later?

If I don't leave this awful rot-place soon then I'm going to freak!

"Shut up!" The fluffy apprentice snapped, lowering her head and lashing her tail.

"Stalkpaw died as a warrior if he died protecting his clan. You dare speak on the right that Starclan would give him? Of the title that they would give him?" Crescentpaw corrected herself. With her lip curled, her eyes bore into Pepperpelt's.

Pepperpelt had the gall to look ashamed. Jadestar's brazen look fell upon her.

"Crescentpaw's right. Even though we won't hold vigil for these cats or bury them, they deserve the respect of not being talked about in such a manner."

Pepperpelt shrugged with an ignoble pout. Flicking her tail, she passed the three other cats and set off downslope.

I'm sorry, Sunrunner and Stalkpaw. It felt wrong to just leave them there. Without any Starclan vigil, without any burial, without any hope left for them.

A storm is brewing, and only speed will get us home safely. Jadestar and Hillflower say we should go now. Which, Crescentpaw had to begrudgingly admit they were right.

The black tabby-and-white apprentice stepped forward with confidence. She heard the other cats fall into step behind her while she padded out of Windclan's camp.

🐈‍⬛

"We need to eat again before we reach Riverclan," Sootface meowed. He stomped along on huge paws with his black tail curled up behind him.

"Do we?" Hillflower meowed thoughtfully. "We had a bit of prey earlier, and if we keep going it's almost certain that we'll reach Riverclan before nightfall."

"I agree," Crescentpaw meowed fruitfully.

"It's quite a ways off. We need to keep up our strength." Sootface lifted his head higher, tufted ears curling back with the wind. "We'll have a lot to explain when we reach Riverclan, and it'll be too late to send out hunting patrols."

Not more arguing..! She could see Sootface beginning to puff up.

"I'm sure my clan will have something left on the fresh-kill pile when we arrive. It is greenleaf, after all." Crescentpaw soothed.

Sootface looked at her, his mouth twisted into a stubborn grimace.

"Isn't that breaking the warrior code?" Trufflefur mused, sitting down and licking a forepaw. He drew it over an ear with his eyes half-closed.

"As if that matters when Windclan no longer exists," Sootface spat. His dark ears were outlined by the pallad grey-blue sky.

"That, or the survivors have fled to a different territory. Perhaps they're even all kittypets." The deputy kept quarreling.

Isn't he supposed to be an experienced warrior?

"Fine," Jadestar growled. "Twenty minutes to hunt- and no more. If you get lucky and find something, you share it with the other cats. If you do not then we move along. Better get going."

The cats split off from one another, so Jadestar opened her jaws to yowl at them. "Hey! Pepperpelt deserves to hunt sometimes too. Somebody watch her kits. And STAY IN PAIRS," She warned.

"NO! You two aren't hunting together. Trufflefur can Sootface can hunt, and you can hunt with me," Jadestar said to her daughter when Rainpaw paired with the Thunderclan tom.

What's that about?

Crescentpaw didn't have time to wonder. She knew she couldn't hunt with one of these other cats, less she might reveal her secret.

"I'll watch your kits!" The Riverclan she-cat meowed hurriedly, skittering over to Pepperpelt before Hillflower could reach her.

"Thanks," Pepperpelt slow-blinked at her and then sauntered off to hunt. The queen disappeared into a rise swelled with tall grass. Swathes of periwinkle heather grew at the bottom of its ridge.

While Hillflower followed behind her, Crescentpaw glanced at the sun. It was indeed dipping toward the far edge of the horizon, with one end of the sky garnishing into a cavernous lapis hue.

Ugh. This is a waste of time when we could've kept going. She turned toward the inquisitive eyes of Cloverkit and Oatkit.

The Riverclan apprentice had no problem watching two of-aged apprentices. She kept them entertained with an old classic; warrior training. She touched up on their hunting crouches, watched them stalk and then demonstrate down-swipe forepaw slashes. Luckily the two kits were so focused on themselves that they didn't ask Crescentpaw to demonstrate.

As they shredded leaves, the apprentice felt herself becoming more enthralled in the training. She almost forgot her surroundings.

Crescentpaw noticed that Cloverkit in particular was struggling. She didn't have much efficiency, and the leaf merely flicked to the side rather than tearing with a deep gash like Oatkit's did.

"Look." She leaned over a small oval-shaped leaf. With an outstretched paw, Crescentpaw patiently showed Cloverkit the gesture; without shredding her intended leaf for her.

Which of course, she couldn't have done anyways. Even if she had tried. Crescentpaw's ears gestured toward the leaf and then she backed up.

"Make sure the power of your swipe is coming from your back and shoulders, not your forelimb or paw."

As Cloverkit demonstrated the simple move easily this time, she watched with warm approval.

"I'm suprised you guys haven't learned such early-training things like this."

"We've wanted to learn this stuff forever. But we can't even become apprentices!" Cloverkit crowed. She sounded upset.

Oatkit was nodding as well now. "They won't let us." He gazed up at Crescentpaw with indignation in his eyes.

"Rainpaw can't either, and she's been waiting longer than us. Which is like... forever."

Crescentpaw wasn't surprised. Rainpaw already looked like a fully-grown warrior. She was almost the same height as her mother. Even when she sat down, she was a tall and muscular she-cat.

"Nobody lets us do anything! We're always controlled. We have to stay as kits forever and Rainpaw has to stay as-..." the kit died off as the sound of pounding paw-steps reached their eardrums. All of the cats turned their heads to see Hillflower bolting towards them.

The flame-orange sun was mostly hidden behind a knot of stormy grey clouds. Its light had nearly passed behind the hills, so long shadows stretched from each of the cat's bodies.

Hillflower's black mimic followed behind her, as she rapidly crossed the space between her and them. The she-cat's jaws were parted while she panted for breath. How long has she been running?

The medicine cat drew up with her chest heaving. Her paws faltered as she overstepped them in her haste to stop so quickly.

She tumbled past them, then righted herself. Hillflower's eyes were huge pools of fear. The tabby she-cat was gulping air, her brown tabby fur bristling all over. She had no prey in her jaws, and Crescentpaw now knew why. She could smell why.

"A-wolf- there's a wolf!" Hillflower cried, zigzagging around Crescentpaw and the kits after spitting the words out. Her back arched and stretched beneath her rapidly moving paws.