"Crescentsky! Crescentsky!"

"S-what?" It was difficult to drag herself out of sleep. Crescentsky felt the cold air touch her flanks as she was hoisted up and then shaken.

"Oof, she's so heavy! I'm sorry, sister. But we have to go now." Tinyflame said, meowing in her face as she blinked sleep from her eyes.

"Cheetah saw wolves heading this way, and there's a lot of them!"

Crescentsky's senses sharpened as she shook off the Starclan dream. She stood up on her own four paws.

"Are you guys ready? Let's go." Cheetah meowed urgently from beneath some entwined brambles. As she sat crouched there, shadow swamped her pelt, and her golden eyes could barely be seen.

"Yes. Come on, Crescentsky. You'll have to tell us what you saw later." Tinyflame lowered her head, striding into a quick stalk beside the most well-protected undergrowth.

"The Moonpool's vegetation ends down there." Crescentsky took the lead as they came to the foothill of a rocky descent that led them away from the stream.

"We'll have to skirt the valley and then cross Windclan's hills, since we don't have claws."

She took a reassuring breath, steadying herself. All three cats studied the soft earth where they would land when they jumped down.

"Tinyflame, stay close to me. Cheetah, I think it's best that you backtrack and climb that hawthorn tree." The tree was still within viewing-sight of them. It had a giant leafy crest, dark and full of long lanky branches. They had skirted it on their departure from the Moonpool. Though its main trunk was bent at an angle, the tree's topmost branches nearly scraped the dim-lit night sky.

"There's no possible way they can reach you up there." Crescentsky aimed her mew over her shoulder as she paced rapidly across the terrain.

She had expected the she-cat to nod and head off obediently, but instead Cheetah replied;

"I'm not climbing a tree without you. We'll end up separated. I'm staying," the spotted she-cat insisted.

Crescentsky didn't have time to argue. She tried to supress her worry. The canine odor was fresh on the wind now. It seemed to carry in billows from upwind.

They're close. Somehow she knew they were being followed.

"Where do we even go? They'll track us down!" Tinyflame yowled with distress.

The three she-cats crossed the last stretch of scant undergrowth. Beyond this, there wasn't much cover between them and the Horseplace.

"Head straight for the Thunderclan-Windclan stream," Crescentsky ordered. "That might be our only chance at breaking the scent trail and escaping."

"Won't they just follow us across the stream, if it's shallow enough?" Tinyflame looked dubious. Her chest expanded and fell as she took frantic breaths.

"Just trust me!" Crescentsky snapped impatiently. She kept her gaze forward.

I hope Cheetah had swimming lessons while I was gone. The tabby-and-white she-cat swallowed, tense as she studied the open path that they were about to take.

"As soon as we run they're going to see us. They're somewhere behind us." Tinyflame's meow was petrified. Her ears were so flat against her head that it looked like she didn't have any.

Unfortunately, Crescentsky didn't have time for consoling her. But she crouched with her muzzle close to her sisters, and laid her tail on her shoulder in preparation for the release call.

"Wait..."

Silence filled the air. After a few heartbeats, she heard the sound of a large muzzle snuffling close behind them.

"Run now!" Crescentsky's shriek of panic was jarring. She lifted her tail from Tinyflame's back in one fluid movement. Her paws worked beneath her, tail streaming behind, ears flat to blot out the wind.

Tinyflame's chest was heaving. The she-cat launched herself into a frantic sprint. She hurled across the moonlit grass desperately, paws flicking out like a rabbits. Crescentsky's heart skipped a beat as she heard pawsteps thumping against the ground behind them.

"Don't look back," she gasped in-between breaths at her companions.

Their instinct had been right. There was indeed wolves behind them, but until they looked they wouldn't know how many.

A frustrated yip rang out across the plain. It pierced their ears and pushed their paws faster, so that Crescentsky could barely breathe for the effort.

A glowing quarter moon clung to the inky sky above, as shadows stretched more than twice their length across the denticulated grass.

By the time they made it to the stream her paws were shaking. They struck the ground with echoes of pain, and her companions didn't seem any better off. Cheetah was lagging behind them, a wince in her step as she struggled to keep going.

Tinyflame saw Cheetah's condition as well, and made a straight streamline for the Windclan stream. Right before her sister lept to the other side, Crescentsky yowled.

"Not there!" The dark tabby-and-white she-cat pointed her tail farther downstream.

"We can't fight against the stronger current, Crescentsky. We could drown!"

Tinyflame veered from the bank where she had been braced to jump. It was swollen from the storm a couple of days ago, but nowhere near fast enough to sweep a wolf off its paws.

"The wolves will just follow us across if we don't. They can leap this part of the stream easier than we can swim it," the tabby warrior insisted. Crescentsky didn't bother to wait. She turned tail and dashed down the bank.

Water slipped over stone and foamed along the edges. It reflected the dropping moon, as it made way for the fiery rising sun that would soon befell them.

A string of wolves was approaching the muddy riverbend where Cheetah and Tinyflame had just fled. They had their heads lifted. But then all of them paused, shoulders flexed and heads dipped as they bent to sniff along the grass. Adjusting their course, the wolves loped into a barreling head-long run.

The knot of them seemed to move like one creature until they spread out from one another, one positioned just ahead of the other.

There's five of them! What in Starclan..? Crescentsky couldn't recall ever seeing so many at once. Their lanky legs strode across the earth rapidly, moving underneath the moonlight with a hunter's ease.

We have no chance. We'd be killed instantly in a fight against five wolves. Her heart plummeted in her chest.

Unless we do this!

As soon as Crescentsky reached the most dangerous fast-flowing water she lept for its center. Just before she hit the surface she saw Tinyflame's eyes widen with shock, as she watched her sister drop into the waves.

Then the she-cat's legs jerked into a frantic leap, as she hurdled off the edge as well.

Cheetah fell from the inclined shoreline and into the churning water after her, not watching where she was putting her paws on the dark and murky bank. Her head had been swiveled to look at the wolves following behind her.

As Crescentsky was tugged ahead of them atop the frothy surface, she lost sight of her companions. She felt slippery rocks scrape against her haunches.

She span in a circle rapidly, her paws twisting beneath her. Her thick pelt was weighing her down. Despite this, her back paws were doing most of the work, as she fought to keep herself right-sight-up against the crashing water.

A stone cut into her right hock so hard that she gritted her teeth. Then she felt her forelegs dragging over some uneven river-rock. She tried to stick her paws in-between the stones for purchase, but the current only wrenched them out again.

Will Tinyflame make it? And Cheetah? She couldn't say any words aloud. It was a struggle to keep her jaws out of the water. Her front end kept wanting to sink and hit the serrated stones, and her hind legs were weakening.

How much longer can I keep myself afloat?

Water kept pouring into her mouth as waves battered her. Her sense were all but gone. She couldn't hear anything but the rushing stream. She couldn't see anything but frothing, splashing waves.

She felt herself shivering, exerting more energy than before. Her tail was a plume of soaked fur being tugged through the water behind her. There was no sign of Cheetah, Tinyflame or the wolves..

Then Crescentsky saw something outlined dark and craggy up ahead of her. It was jutting far out into the center of the river. The Riverclan warrior knew she only had one chance to grab it.

She kicked her hind paws and reached for the mossy surface. A fallen tree that had uprooted and tipped over in the water. However, her missing claws found no purchase, and she slipped away from it.

Crescentsky had no choice but to keep swimming, churning her paws to stay above the stream's surface.

At least the water is a little bit calmer here. Maybe I could drag myself to the edge and crawl out.

But at this point, she knew she wouldn't last much longer. Her shoulders sank under, and her breathing was ragged and uneven. Crescentsky was simply too fatigued.

If there was some cat there, she felt certain that they would've heard her gasping for air. The Riverclan she-cat swam agonizingly closer to the shallower water, but then she accidentally took a mouthful of it and began coughing. Her legs jerked out feebly.

She fought to stay upright, but her lungs were contorting in protest. Ingesting the water had caused her to gasp and splutter, and now she was taking in even more of it; dropping below the surface like a stone.

Her legs kicked in a last desperate attempt, but there was no saving herself now. Crescentsky was about to hit the bottom, and even now the current was shoving her along.

Then she heard a giant splash close to her head. Someone grabbed her by the scruff and began towing her through the clutching waves. Crescentsky saw her white paws dragging limply through the current, as she fought not to take in more water.

She gasped with relief when they surfaced. Her eyes were bulging out of her head, her sodden fur streaming.

It wasn't Tinyflame or Cheetah, she realized when they reached the shore. It was a large black-and-silver tom with a white muzzle and paws, his whiskers dripping as he dragged them both out with difficulty. Even after they had reached the edge, the tom still kept ahold of Crescentsky.

Mud was working its way into her fur. "I can climb the bank on my own!" She snapped at the stranger ungratefully. Crescentsky kicked free of him and retched up some of the water in her lungs, then stifled a sigh at the state of her pelt.

"Sorry," he said breathlessly. Crescentsky's flanks were also heaving. "I was just trying to help. You were half-drowned by the time I found you. I heard some cat struggling as I was traveling upshore." His yellow eyes were concerned.

Her hindpaws were trembling, and she was fighting to hide it. Crescentsky's eyes were half-closed to avoid the water streaming off her face.

"Thanks." She grumbled, soothing herself with a lick. Her breath rattled as she fought to catch her breath.

"Wow..." the tufty-furred tom stepped in front of her as if trying to catch her gaze.

"Your eyes are beautiful." His thick tail waved composedly. "I've never seen a cat's eyes be two different colors."

"Yeah, a lot of cats haven't." She was used to dealing with this since she'd been a kit. Crescentsky flicked water off her paws and into the grass.

"I think I remember you from a gathering. Not seeing you, but cats talking about how you were the first in generations to have different colored eyes."

The tabby-and-white Riverclan warrior was already growing impatient. She had to find her clanmates.

"Who are you, anyway?" Crescentsky took deep breaths, trying to control the sting of river-water searing her throat.

The tom didn't have any particular scent on him. In fact, he smelled liked a loner. Peaty heather and unknown wild-grasses were laced within his sharp, waterlogged scent.

Despite this, Crescentsky felt like she ought to remember him. She'd seen that same arching slope to his shoulders somewhere, and those same huge, triangular ears with bushy tips.

"I'm Nighthowl. I'm formerly Shadowclan."