Chapter 12
Three kits, Jadepaw heard. Two she-kits and a tom. Jadepaw didn't get to see them yet, but Peppernose had been boasting all day about how alike they looked to Creamcall. Jadepaw sniffed sharply, and dirt flew up her nose. "Gah!" She screeched. Jadepaw rubbed her nose over her paws roughly. "A..a..a-choo!"

Clearpaw turned around, annoyed. "How many times do you think you have to scare off of the prey before it never comes back?" He growled. He had had his head stuck inside of a hole in the ground. It probably used to be the home of a mole. But now it was deserted. Clearpaw didn't seen to believe that, and he had had his head stuck in there for half of the day.

"Sorry, sorry. It's probably just allergies." Jadepaw apologized. She drew away from where Clearpaw was hunting. She was several tail-lengths away from him, but every once in a while he let out an annoyed grunt. Sorry! Jadepaw Parted her jaws slightly, letting scents flow in.

The scent of oak trees overwhelmed the other scents of the forest, though Jadepaw could distinguish the smell of squirrel anywhere. She followed the source of the scent, not even bothering to use her eyes in the process of searching for it. The trees formed a canopy over her head, not allowing much sunlight to filter through their branches.

Speckles of sunlight decorated Clearpaw's pelt. Golden spots of sunlight danced on his thick white pelt, flowing from side to side as the branches swayed in the breeze. Jadepaw let her eyes close. Light gray light was all she could see, but her attention was focused on her other senses. The squirrel was probably storing food for Leaf-Fall, which was already showing itself.

The breeze had became colder, the days seemed to be dragging Jadepaw with them as the extended a little longer, and Jadepaw had been noticing a decrease in the more delicate herbs in the medicine cat's stores. The prey, though, hadn't began to hide in their dens, and that Jadepaw took advantage of.

She opened her eyes to see that she had weaved her way through a few trees, and Clearpaw was now out of sight. A squirrel perched above, and, just as Jadepaw had suspected, the squirrel was stuffing a store of food into a hollowed out space in a tall oak. Jadepaw hoped that she had learned enough from Ravenstar's tree climbing lesson to catch this squirrel.

Riverrush hadn't been eating much, and he would appreciate this squirrel. The squirrel gave a little chirp to her, thinking that Jadepaw didn't have a chance at catching him. Jadepaw dug her claws into the bark, and fortunately, it was still soft from the recent downpour. Well, everything was wet, she realized.

The bushes glistened with dew, which brought Jadepaw back to Dewstorm. Remember who the villain is. Jadepaw eased her grip on the bark and climbed back down. The problem was, she didn't know who the villain was in the first place. The cat who killed Pondnose is the cat who can kill many more if they desire to.

Jadepaw shuddered. She wished she could've seen Pondnose in StarClan. To see if cats really did look younger in StarClan. Jadepaw knew that that was probably selfish of her, so she dismissed the thought. The squirrel was long gone by now, so Jadepaw padded towards where Clearpaw was sniffing. "Where were you?" Clearpaw asked. A sparrow lay limp on the ground beside him.

"Hunting." "Oh. Did it get away?" "Yeah, sort of." Clearpaw nodded dismissively. "Do you want to go back to camp?" He asked. Jadepaw nodded. She didn't feel much like hunting. As they began to head back to camp, Jadepaw began to think. There weren't really any suspicious cats in ThunderClan camp, but ShadowClan's the complete opposite.

Even their leader was shady. Well, Ravenstar was kind of suspicious, also. "I think it was Amber," Clearpaw said suddenly, exhaling. "What?" "I think Amber did it. I mean, killed Pondnose." "Why would she do that? We're caring for her and her friend, too. She has absolutely no reason to." "Think about it. The middle of the night after the Gathering, Pondnose...Pondnose...died."

"Amber, Tawny, Creamcall, Adderjaw, and Moonrise were the only cats in camp, and Adderjaw, Moonrise, and Tawny were in the medicine cat den, and Creamcall was in the nursery. Amber had some free time in camp, enough time to poison prey." Jadepaw let out a snort. "That doesn't even make sense, and it doesn't answer my question."

Besides her dismissive tone, Clearpaw's theory made sense, and it unnerved her. "She's a rouge, she doesn't have to have a reason. It's not like she's going to stay after the medicine cats heal Tawny," "Well, they could." Jadepaw murmured quietly, squeezing between two bramble bushes. Clearpaw fell silent, as though realizing that he couldn't win with her.

After trekking through the woods in silence for a while, Clearpaw spoke up. "Okay, if Amber didn't do it, then who did?" Jadepaw let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know! Why does this matter so much to you?" Clearpaw's expression grew grim. "Because we have a murderer in our camp."
. . .
Jadepaw padded cautiously into camp. After their talk, she didn't feel too safe in her own camp. She looked over to Fireclaw, who was sharing tongues with Yellowstone. He didn't seem like the bad kind of cat, and he wasn't vulnerable. Jadepaw looked at Sparrowflight, and instantly eliminated her from her mental list of suspects. Sparrowflight was Dewstorm's apprentice, she would never do anything bad.

Jadepaw's gaze traveled to Riverrush, who was staring sadly at the mouse that Drizzlepaw had gave to him earlier. Her heart melted at his sadness. An elder wouldn't kill another elder, and, Riverrush hadn't ate hardly anything since Pondnose's death, only enough to keep him from starving.

Jadepaw felt her heart sink. Every cat in camp was good, she couldn't find out who had killed Pondnose even if she had nine lives to do so. Jadepaw sought out Amber, who could be anywhere in camp. She just wanted to see her. Jadepaw caught a red pelt underneath the cover of a tree. Amber was lying there with her head in her paws.

"Oh, hey, Jadepaw." Jadepaw loved Amber's voice, which sounded like a new queen's voice. It was soft and kind, but Jadepaw knew it could grow stern if need be. Most cats would think that Amber's voice made her sound soft, but Jadepaw thought it made her sound protective and strong. Jadepaw wondered if her voice would change when she got older.

"Hi." When Jadepaw drew closer, she noticed how thin and frail Amber seemed. "Why don't you eat something?" Amber shrugged. "It just doesn't feel right taking your Clan's hospitality for granted. I didn't catch it, so I don't eat it." Jadepaw couldn't see how Clearpaw suspected this cat of murder.

"Oh." Jadepaw paused. "Then why don't you hunt yourself?" Amber seemed to think about this for a moment before sadly shaking her head. "I couldn't. It's your territory that you fought for, I can't take your prey." Jadepaw sighed and sat down beside her. "We'll have to leave once Tawny's healed. If he gets healed." She added darkly.

What if Tawny doesn't get better? "Why do you have to go?" "Because, I can't bare to take things that aren't mine. Even with permission, it makes me feel guilty." It was hard to believe that this was the same cat that tackled her and kept her prisoner so she could help Tawny. I guess she just really cares for him. Jadepaw sat there quietly.

Amber's silky red fur brushed against hers, and Jadepaw realized how much Amber had shrank in the past few moons. Jadepaw glanced at Amber's glistening yellow eyes, which were staring at the ground. An idea sparked inside of her, lighting her mind up.

She sat up and left, not really bothering to say goodbye. Flipnose was pacing around in camp, maybe going over the dawn patrols. "Hello, Jadepaw." He greeted her and turned away. Jadepaw followed him, keeping pace with his random path. "Um, Flipnose, can I talk to you?" "Not right now, sweetheart."

Jadepaw rolled her eyes and wished that she was a bit bigger and Flipnose was way smaller. Despite Flipnose's medium built, he was way bigger than her. Jadepaw was small, and Flipnose was like a combination of a WindClan cat, a ThunderClan cat, and a ShadowClan cat.

Flipnose was muscular with long legs and he was fat. "No, it's really important," "Umhmph," Flipnose murmured, veering away from her. "No, really!" "Sweetie, please-" "Please don't call me sweetheart." Jadepaw said, frustrated. Jadepaw realized how small she really was. Her legs weren't necessarily short, but they weren't long.

She had a very small build, despite her excelling at her battle skills. Her sparkling green eyes were barely visible from behind her wide pupils. Her whole pelt was gray, and her short fur didn't make her look any bigger. Her paws were just a bit bigger than a new apprentice's. The point was, Jadepaw was very tiny.

Jadepaw followed Flipnose, who had purposely steered away from her. "Hey, you're not even doing anything!" She called, but she knew Flipnose wouldn't listen to her right now. Jadepaw had been planning on asking Flipnose to make her a warrior. She sighed. He probably wouldn't have agreed, anyway.

Adderjaw was padding towards the recently-replenished fresh-kill pile. "Oh, Adderjaw!" Jadepaw circled around back towards him. Adderjaw dipped his head and acknowledged her. "Yes?" "How's Tawny doing?" Jadepaw asked him. Her spine tingled uncomfortably as Adderjaw gave him this questioning look, like; don't you want to know about Ravenstar? "Er, and Ravenstar."

Adderjaw gave her a tiny nod of consent. "Well, Ravenstar has a broken leg...and a cracked spine. His right leg is broken and has a nasty cut that could easily become infected." Jadepaw felt her heart jump into her throat, and her stomach filled the space her heart had been.

Jadepaw felt horrible guilt eat up her insides, and she felt like it was all her fault that Ravenstar had fallen. "So...he's not doing too good right now. And Tawny...well, we don't know what's wrong with him. He's been vomiting blood, and he's been having horrible chest pains. It's like we can't diagnose him with a single treatment, so we're trying different herbs on him."

"Why are you telling me this?" "Well, I figure that we need all the prayers we can get, and I can't keep a secret." Adderjaw offered her a small wink. Jadepaw didn't know Adderjaw could wink. Jadepaw was bewildered by his sudden cheerfulness, though, she was glad that at least one cat could be happy.
. . .
"....and we saw this beautiful clearing! Sunlight leaked through a gap in the overhead canopy, and not a single thing was out of place! Birds of all kinds circled just below the trees, as if trying to find a way out. Lightningstrike wouldn't let me catch one, though, so I didn't bring any back."

Sparkpaw was a really good story teller, but the sun hadn't emerged from behind the clouds in two sunrises, and birds don't circle unless they were hawks. Though, once, Riverrush had told her a tale which described a huge bird called an eagle sweep up a blind and deaf kit.

Jadepaw shuddered. She was glad that she wasn't blind. Jadepaw lead Sparkpaw along, encouraging her to finish her story. "And..and...then a pack of foxes attacked us! They were huge! And quick. They snapped at me and Lightningstrike, but I managed-" Lightningstrike was observing from behind them.

"Well, it wasn't quite like that. Sun did filter through an impressive canopy of trees, and a few sparrows were fighting over a worm.." Jadepaw let out a snort. Sparkpaw sunk into her pelt. "I would have let Sparkpaw climb a tree and snatch one, but last time that happened, she fell right out of it. Luckily she wasn't very high up."

An image of Ravenstar slipping from that tree branch flashed through her mind. "We smelled a stale scent of fox, but not from your lifetime!" Jadepaw burst out laughing, mainly because of how exaggerated Sparkpaw's version of the story was. "But," Lightningstrike attempted to make Jadepaw stop laughing.

"But," Jadepaw stopped laughing. "But, Sparkpaw does make a really good storyteller. You'll make an interesting elder." Lightningstrike looked meaningfully at Sparkpaw, and Jadepaw couldn't help but chuckle. Sparkpaw flashed Jadepaw a joking glare. Jadepaw grinned at Sparkpaw and turned towards the camp entrance.