I groaned as I was thrown to the snowy ground; I had landed on my bruised shoulder. I slowly stood up and shook my head, eyes narrowing at my opponent. I charged forward and nipped at his shoulder before darting to the opposite side.

My opponent, Fogbreeze, threw his weight towards me but I narrowly dodged being rammed into. His paw darted out, though; I winced at the jab. I quickly spun and tried to slide beneath the grey warrior but he dropped on top of me before I could escape.

"Okay, you win!" I said with a short laugh. The tom was pushing me into the ground, driving the breath from me.

Fogbreeze stepped off me with a small smile. "You're fast, but not fast enough."

I slammed into him, catching him by surprise. I ended up pinning him down. "Who's not fast enough now?"

"Hey, I thought we were done with training." The grey warrior said with a purr.

"It's like you taught me, never let your guard down in battle." I said.

It had been a moon since arriving to Mistclan. I still wanted to leave, but I also didn't want to spend my whole life as an apprentice. So I had trained with Fogbreeze every day since he made me his apprentice. He seemed a cold and a bit, I don't know, sort of emotionless at first; I don't know how to describe it but something was off about him. Now he was beginning to warm up to me.

Fogbreeze looked me over and nodded, agreeing with something in his mind. "Why don't you go hunting? You've seemed to grow more accustomed to hunting in our foggy territory since you first arrived."

"You're not coming with? I thought you said a cat is never sent out here alone in case they got lost?" I questioned.

"Who says I won't be nearby, assessing you?" The grey warrior responded.

Surprise lit up my face and he purred. "Don't worry, this isn't your final assessment."

That didn't exactly help with the worry I felt, but at least if I messed up it wouldn't affect whether I became a warrior or not. I nodded. "Okay," and started off into the misty forest.

-

On my hunt I had caught a skinny squirrel and a healthier looking mouse that had been scavenging for food in the snow. Prey had become harder to find as leaf-bare continued and the snow began to come.

Fogbreeze followed me into camp and went over to the leader's den. I dropped my catch on the small prey pile and made my way to the medicine den, bringing along the mouse I had caught.

In the past moon as the days grew colder, more cats than just Lightstar had grown sick. None had the same wounds as the leader, but the pain was on the inside. I didn't know everyone's names yet, but about six or seven other cats were sick. Lightstar still hadn't recovered, and though she was still alive she seemed to be hanging on by a mouse tail some days.

I stuck my head in the den and called out to Bella. Who emerged, though, was the black and white speckled apprentice, Poppypaw.

"Bella's tending to Dawnwillow." The young tom responded.

Dawnwillow, I remembered her. Wasn't she the queen who got sick? How unfortunate that the only expecting queen was the one to get sick. I set down my catch.

"How is she? Are the kits alright?" I asked.

Poppypaw glanced nervously inside. "No better, no worse."

I nodded and nosed the mouse toward him. "I caught this for you and Bella. The medicine cats need to stay healthy, too."

Poppypaw smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Lavenderpaw." He picked up the mouse and emerged into the den again.

I sighed and padded to the edge of camp. Flick was out on patrol, Fogbreeze was still filling in for Lightstar, and Bella was taking care of the sick cats. I liked alone time, but that was when I'd had to much time with some cat. The last time Flick, Bella, and I had all spent time together just the three of us was the day we discovered Mistclan and their foggy forest.

I yawned and looked up at the sky. It was almost sunhigh, and I didn't have training until closer to sunset. I had time for a nap. So I curled up and closed my eyes, letting sleep engulf me.

-

"Lavenderpaw."

I groaned and opened my eyes to see who had whispered my name. Familiar green eyes stared back at me.

"Flick?" I said, stretching.

The sand colored tom sat up. "I need to talk to you."

I looked around the clearing. It seemed to be full of cats sharing meals. I looked up at the sky. "Okay, follow me."

I made sure no one was following before heading out of camp with Flick following. Once we were in a good spot, I turned back to him. "Just be quick, because I have training soon."

Flick nodded. "Straight to the point, then. Lavenderpaw, we need to leave."

My eyes widened. "What? Why?"

"I've figured out some things about Mistclan since we've arrived, and it's not safe here."

I couldn't believe what he was saying. "You're the one who said we needed to stay. Now that I've finally picked back up on my training you want us to leave? Do you want me to be an apprentice forever?"

Flick shook his head. "I know you've gotten more comfortable here, but you have to listen to me. Mistclan hasn't been entirely truthful. You remember the other clan Lightstar told us about, Leafclan? Well, I have reason to believe that Mistclan is the reason they aren't a clan anymore."

"And what is this reason?"

Flick shifted his paws. "I kind of . . . can't tell you. Plus, I don't want to end up accusing the wrong cat until I get proof or something."

I narrowed my eyes. "What happened to always being truthful?"

"Look, there are some things I just can't tell you, okay? Things you would be better off not knowing." Flick said.

"Okay, so which cat do you think is responsible for getting rid of Leafclan?" I asked, growing suspicious.

Flick looked down. "Well I'm not completely sure and for all I know it could be more than one cat but I mean there has to be a main cat behind it, right?"

"Tell me."

Flick finally met my gaze. "Fogbreeze."

Shock pulsed through me. "What?!"

"I mean he isn't the most social cat and he's acted pretty strange since we got here and-"

I cut him off. "Why would you accuse the cat who has welcomed us and took me on as his apprentice? Of course he would act a little strange, his leader has been sick for over a moon which means all her duties fall to him as her deputy. He's been nothing but kind to me since taking me on as his apprentice."

"Lavenderpaw, you have to listen to me."

"Why should I?" My fur was bristling now. "Why should I listen to the one cat closest to me when all he's done for the past moon is shut me out and ignore me?"

Flick shook his head. "I didn't ignore you."

"Oh really? Then how come every time I want to talk or spend time with you, you have something else to do?" I hissed.

Flick gave me a look. "Well you didn't exactly have tons of free time yourself, training with the one cat we should avoid."

"Well excuse me for wanting to finally become a warrior. I should be one by now but being taken from Shadeclan has put me farther and farther behind!" I couldn't believe he was against me.

"Don't you want to return home? If we leave now, we still have a chance of finding them." The sandy tom said, trying a different approach.

I looked down, my voice quieter, but almost just as harsh. "I don't know if I want to keep looking. Trying to find them was just a waste of time and set me back even further. Now I've at least found a clan who is willing to take me in and train me as one of them. It's like Fogbreeze said, no one deserves to be an apprentice forever." I looked back up at Flick, meeting his gaze steadily. "I want to stay. Not just until I become a warrior, until Starclan takes me."

Flick's eyes widened. "Lavenderpaw, no. You can't! Things aren't right here, we have to-!"

"I'm done listening to you." I interrupted him. "You won't sway me on this, I've made up my mind. You can't just make all the decisions for me." I turned back to camp, leaving him there.

Flick was one of the only cats I felt I could trust, the one I almost saw a future with. Now that future was crow-food. How could he expect me to just follow him blindly while he kept me in the dark? Maybe he just didn't like me growing close with Fogbreeze. Either way, I wasn't going to listen to anymore of his nonsense.

As I entered camp again, I was surprised to see everyone crowded around the medicine den.

"What's going on?" I asked.

One of the cats near the back of the crowd, a grey tabby tom, turned to answer her.

"It's Lightstar, she's dead."

Sorry it's been awhile, it's hard to come back from timeskips sometimes.

Tell me what you think of the story so far in the comments.

Also, would anyone be interested in me making this into a series?

//Word count: 1578//