"I do train my daughter! If you had eyes in your skull for even your own clan, then you'd know that!"

Rainpaw hunched her blue-grey shoulders at being talked about again. Cheetah frowned and began to say something to the she-cat, but was interrupted.

"Oh please. I'm talking about Oatkit as well. The poor thing lies around all depressed because he knows he hasn't got any future." Lagoonstripe rolled her shoulders, squaring up to the she-cat.

"Wrong. It's because his littermate Cloverkit just died." Jadestar snarled. Her eyes were wild now, and she reared up as if she wanted to leap over Alpinefog, who kept blocking her way.

"Calm down, you guys. Aren't we warriors after all? Can't we settle this over a nice trout?" His voice was cool and unaffiliated.

"That's not the only reason and you know it." Lagoonstripe's pale green eyes narrowed.

"That young tom would've shed some of his grief already, if he had anything other to do than just sit there and wallow in it."

Jadestar's tail flicked to and fro, her mouth set in an ugly grimace. She repugnantly eyed Lagoonstripe, then turned on her heels.

"Fine. I'll have my daughter teach him some battle moves in camp tomorrow." She called over her shoulder, heading out into Riverclan's wetland forest again.

"So both of them can ultimately stay stuck in camp or on their mother's hip?" Lagoonstripe muttered with a baleful glare at the spot where Jadestar had left.

Then the she-cat raised her voice.

"Hey, be back before sunset! Unless you want to lose a life to the wolves!"  She left Alpinefog standing alone in the sunlit clearing, grumbling.

Seeing that the argument was over now,
Crescentsky gripped the soiled moss-wad in her jaws and dragged it all the way out of camp, to the foot of a ditch beside an area where the patrolling cats hardly ever trod.

Tinyflame and Cheetah followed her and did the same with the remainder of their bedding. Their fur shone as they passed underneath dappled pools of sun descending between the trees. They waited for Cheetah to claw off the cleanest moss they could find, then hauled it back to camp.

"I feel bad for Rainpaw," Cheetah said when she dropped her bundle in front of the apprentice's den.

"That's the last of it, right?" Alpinefog asked. "And fresh bracken was already placed in all the other dens?"

Crescentsky nodded. Alpinefog gave them an approving purr, his meow thick and kindly.

"Alright then, your punishment is finished. It'll be sundown soon, so help yourself to some prey before the vigil. Cheetah, I'm sorry, but you won't be attending it."

Cheetah nodded in understanding. She actually didn't look interested. Instead her eyes searched camp as if she were looking for someone.

"Take Pepperpelt and Oatkit some prey before you go to sleep. They're in the nursery." He addressed Cheetah in a congenial manner, and the she-cat dipped her head.

"And Tinyflame, it might be best to go and visit Houndspots again. Quickly, before the sun sets." The tom's voice turned soft with sympathy.

"I hope he's feeling better than he was earlier. He said his wound was hurting him badly." Her littermate fretted and strutted away.

It was brisk out tonight, as the colder winds made their way toward the lake for Leaf-fall. Crescentsky fluffed out her pelt.

Our sleep pattern will be messed up for a couple of days. But we'll be alright.

"I'm not hungry," Crescentsky told the fluffy grey Riverclan warrior.

Then she glanced over at Cheetah, who had crouched down near the fresh-kill pile to gulp down some minnows. Cheetah then waved farewell with her tail.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Crescentsky. I'm gonna hang out with Rainpaw while I wait for Emberfawn's hunting patrol to return, if she'll have me. Good luck with your vigil."

Cheetah didn't forget to pick up some prey and take it to the nursery first, though. She slipped in through the small root structure with Trufflefur's vole in her jaws, leaving the assortment of Riverclan fish resting on the shaded stone where it sat.

That's mindful of her. She could guess that the Skyclan cats preferred land prey to river-caught prey. Crescentsky knew that Trufflefur had only been being polite when he'd eaten that trout earlier.

"We might as well head off now, then. The sun is setting quicker as leaf-fall makes its way."

The tabby warrior couldn't help but agree, as dying light dampened one end of the sky to a mellow petrol. Edges of leaves hanging off the willow trees were turning yellow. They hadn't quite made it to falling off yet, and thankfully the days had stayed warm.

Alpinefog escorted Crescentsky to the guard posts with his small triangular ears pricked. The grass was flattened where other cats had took turns sitting watch day after night, their muzzles facing outward from the adjacent camp walls.

"As soon as Tinyflame gets back, not a word." He said critically. "I'll be telling her the same thing when she arrives. Now, I know it's exciting that we're getting a medicine cat sign and that Starclan has approved of your warrior names, but I'm serious. Not a word." He narrowed his gaze in order to make a point, and Crescentsky nodded agreeably.

Sundown was staining Alpinefog's shoulders with a radiant flaxen glow. His fluffy neck-fur was outlined with the dying light as he sat down to wait for Tinyflame. Crescentsky heard paw-steps and then caught sight of the last hunting patrol. They brushed past her on their way into camp. Emberfawn said hello, but she ignored him.

"That Jadestar made us late!" Quietdew complained as she stepped around them. "She ruined the later half of our hunt by giving us an earful of nonsense." Emberfawn had his ears flattened against his mother's babble. He plodded past the camp entrance with a strained expression, the fish in his jaws clenched tightly.

Crescentsky thought he looked tired from his mother's complaints, not anything that Jadestar had said.

A few moments after the cat's soft pawsteps had receded, Tinyflame returned. Her littermate sat parallel to Crescentsky on the opposite side of the entrance.

"Now listen and don't talk." Alpinefog told them.
"Lagoonstripe didn't expect to be back in time for the pre-sundown lecture, so she told me what to say to you. Besides," he confessed.

"Even if she is in camp right now, I'd rather let her blow off some steam after that disagreement with Jadestar. Which, by the way, was justifiable on my sister's end." His gaze was begrudging as he stared off into the willows.

Then he seemed to recall that he'd told them not to speak, and stiffened, correcting himself.

"Oh, right. Just make sure that if you scent the wolves or see one, you climb the closest tree. That one right there should be good." The long-furred tom nodded toward an easy-to-climb, low-branching ash tree.

"And equally as important is to screech a warning as loud as you can. We haven't had much wolf-combat training ever since Eveningstar died, so Lagoonstripe told me she would prefer that you guys just stay up a tree. If you wake us up with a yowl, we'll take care of the rest of the clan."

Tinyflame's violet eyes were nervous, gleaming in the dying light.

"You'll be fine," he reassured the she-cat after catching her look. "I doubt any will come tonight."

Crescentsky didn't believe that. She felt they were long overdue for a visit, and Tinyflame knew it, too.

"Just keep your eyes on all angles. They could come from the marsh, the shore, or our wetland forest. Face partly away from each other. And keep checking the wind."

Alpinefog's pawsteps were muted by the thick layer of grass and clover as he padded back through the camp entrance. His fluffy gray tail swished behind him. As his haunches brushed the undergrowth, a few dislodged leaves flitted to the earth.

Naturally, the first few minutes passed by quickly. But then Crescentsky felt herself growing bored, staring into the deepening pools of shadow until there was nothing but inky blackness and weak slivers of moonlight in the sparse forest beyond.

She turned her head to look at Tinyflame. The black she-cat had her watchful gaze on a rise that swept around one edge of their camp.

I wonder if we'll see Starclan's sign tonight, Crescentsky wondered. But then she recalled Cloverpaw saying that it would come when they least expected it.

Her thoughts then flied to the newfound power that Starclan had given her, and all of a sudden it was nearly impossible to stay quiet. She wanted to ask Tinyflame so many things.

Why did Starclan give me this ability? Why not a clan leader like Jadestar, who has more than one life to lose while using it?

...If I even can use it. She stifled a sigh, recalling how she had walked around all funny like a newborn kit. I'll have to do more training to see what that... thing is capable of.

It was hard to think of this power- the gift, as an extension of herself. Especially when this all had come across so unprecedented.

As Crescentsky thought of that, she felt her doubt growing. It seemed possible that since she could pose a threat to the wolves as a wolf, she could pose a threat to her clanmates as well.

And that's the opposite of what she wanted.

A few of them are going to be terrified or in denial like my sister was. She couldn't see any way around that. And it was valid.

But why give her this power if her clan couldn't possibly accept it?

And who knew that Starclan could even do such a thing? It wasn't as if she had ever heard of this before. Had some other warrior in the distant past faced something similar? Doubtful.

Starclan didn't tell me anything!

She almost wanted to shake out her pelt, to affirm that it still worked. To turn herself into a wolf now, so that she could find some of the answers herself.

But it wouldn't be wise. Not when her clanmates were right behind the camp walls. One of them might catch the wolf-scent, if they were still awake and outside of their dens.

Imagine that. Her clanmates turning on her because she was a wolf. That's why I have to tell them soon.

Tomorrow night she would sneak out and test her newfound potential. As long as the circumstances were right, and no cat saw her slipping out of camp, she could find out what she was capable of.

A/N:

Thought-Provoking Questions;

Q1: Who will be the next cat to die? 😂

Q2: Do you think it's possible that Crescentsky herself could be the next medicine cat?