Briartail watched as the white tom slipped away through the grasses before turning her stance back to the pile of rocks in the centre of the clearing. Waiting until the only noise she could hear was the gentle blowing of the wind against the trees, she began to examine the rocks for the space she had managed to slide into last time. When she saw a reasonable gap, she approached the pile and sucked in her stomach to push her front paws in. All around her was dark and she couldn't see a thing, yet she continued to push along with her back paws until she managed to squeeze her back legs through the small space. 
Darkness engulfed her. Briartail examined the space around her, gently calling out the name of the kit in a whisper.
"Heronkit, Heronkit!"
She tried her best not to show her impatience through her voice. She lowered her head so her ears wouldn't hit the rocky roof to the strange den and continued to make her way forwards. Suddenly, she paused in her footsteps when she barely saw a soft, brown patch of fur besides the unusually black rock.
Briartail felt herself fuming. "Heronkit, you've been disgraceful! Get back here!"
Briartail raised her ears. Her eyes widened in panic when the kit didn't move.
"Heronkit!" 
Raising her voice heavily, Briartail thundered over to the kitten and leaned her head over her small body. She felt a rush of relief wash over her back when she realised that the kit seemed to be absolutely fine, just asleep.
Feeling too assured to sound angry, she lightly brushed her head against the snoozing brown patch of fur. When the kit didn't budge, Briartail flattened her ears and pushed her harder until she toppled over onto her other side. The silver warrior wasn't sure if she was panicking or if she was being plain impatient, but she was feeling each individual hair on her pelt prickle up with anxiety.
"Heronkit, wake up!"
She stared at the kit for a few moments, but her words still hadn't seemed to have awakened her. Rolling her eyes heavily and letting a moan flow in the back of her throat, Briartail bent down and stuck her muzzle under the kit, swinging her over her back harshly. She turned around abruptly and made her way towards the light, away from the dark stone in the centre of the clearing. 
Staring at the line of light, she stopped to wonder just how she would manage to get through the narrow space with a sleeping kit on her back. She tried to push her head through, but once she reached her shoulders she wasn't able to budge any further.
She lowered her shoulders and let the kit slide down onto the rocky ground. Staring at her, annoyance flashing in her tail, she began to push her harshly through the space. Once her shoulders were through, Briartail went muzzle first in, looking down carefully to make sure she didn't stand on the kit - although she knew how much she wanted to. She continued to shove her way in, grunting heavily as the rocks pushed against her fur. Once she was down to her belly, she sucked in the air and clenched her rear to give herself a final push to free herself - only to go tumbling into the mud and flicking dust behind her. She wasn't sure which emotion hit her when she felt the memory of when she had pushed Bulkfur down a hill when they had been meeting in secret, only nights before she was caught by Cometcloud. She picked herself up, turned around and pushed her muzzle back into the hole to pick up Heronkit. She pulled her out gently and once her brown and white body was dozing on the fresh grass, she lifted her up and shoved her onto her back. A flash of anxiety bit into her pelt, forcing the idea upon her that Heronkit must have fallen unconscious, but she refused to believe. 
"Ryepelt!" Briartail called out, flicking her tail and padding forwards. "I've found her!"
Only moments later, the snowy white tom came emerging through the trees, padding towards her, relief in his eyes. When he noticed Heronkit slumped on Briartail's back, he tensed and the pleasure in his eyes quickly faded. "What happened?"

"She's fine, I think," Briartail replied. "She was sleeping."
"Sleeping?"
Briartail nodded, almost as confused as he was as to why the kit had fallen asleep somewhere so far off a cosy nest. "I've flung her around but she still hasn't woken up."
Ryepelt's gaze hardened. "You should treat her safer, I taught you better than that."
"I'm not throwing her," Briartail argued. "I wanted her to wake up, so I wouldn't treat her like a feather."
Ryepelt flicked his tail anxiously. "If she hasn't woken up, she needs to get back to camp immediately. We have to get back now."
Slightly surprised by the seriousness in Ryepelt's tone, Briartail stretched her back legs behind her and proceeded to follow Ryepelt through the trees, Heronkit wobbling on her back. 

After what had felt like a moon, she approached Ryepelt at the leafy tunnel. She felt as if all of her stamina had faded away from carrying the weight of a cat who was nearly ready to be apprenticed. When Ryepelt turned to check on her, she simply breathed off the exhaustion, flicking her ears. "Let's drop her off," Briartail huffed, struggling the tiredness in her voice. She opened her mouth to continue speaking, but she lost her words when she saw a sandy she-cat prowling through the tunnel. "Where has she been?"
Echostar didn't sound frantic. In fact Briartail couldn't tell whether she was angry or relieved. 
"The same place Briartail found her last time," Ryepelt murmured. Echostar's eyes flashed, but before any cat could speak again, the kit on Briartail's back let out a wail. Anxiety flooding her, Briartail quickly bent herself down to the floor and gently rolled Heronkit off her. "Are you alright?"
Heronkit said nothing. Her eyes barely opened, and she drew only a breath before Echostar thundered to her side. "What did you think you were doing?"
Heronkit's eyes widened slightly, and Briartail stepped away.
"I..." The kit's voice was timid, and her eyes were dull, as if she was confused as to why she had woken up outside the camp and not in the rocky clearing.

"You've had the Clan and I worried sick," Echostar growled. "Dustkit hasn't stopped searching the nursery!"
"I'm sor--"
"Don't even use that on me," Echostar spoke, her voice icy and cold. "We need our warriors hunting for the Clan and patrolling our borders, not searching for a kit who can't stay where she's told. From now on I'll assign different warriors to keep the closest eye on you, and if you step one paw out of the camp borders again, I won't hesitate to cancel your apprentice training until you learn to act like one."
Heronkit was silenced. She sat herself up, glaring sadly at her paws. She opened her mouth as if she was going to defend herself, but Echostar approached her and picked her up with her teeth, swinging her gently onto her back with a hiss before she took the small kit through the leafy tunnel and up towards the nursery.
"I don't know who to feel sorry for," Briartail admitted to the snowy white warrior when Echostar was out of her range. "Heronkit or Echostar."
Ryepelt grunted. "I can't see why you'd feel sorry for the kit."
Briartail shuffled. "She didn't seem to get to say what she wanted to," she admitted. "Perhaps she was going to tell us the reason she won't stop sneaking off."
Ryepelt seemed to shrug slightly, dipping his head. "About time she gave us an explanation," he meowed. "I can assure you, I wouldn't fancy sleeping on a cold, stone ground." 
"Neither would I," Briartail huffed. "I don't think that could appeal to any cat."
"Maybe the kit's just gone mad," Ryepelt meowed. 
"She must have told somebody," Briartail meowed thoughtfully. "If something has been happening, you know that kit - she can't keep her mouth shut."
Ryepelt raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. "Perhaps," he muttered. "But she obviously hasn't mentioned anything to Echostar or Cometcloud, and she hasn't said anything to me."
"Nothing to me, either," Briartail meowed. "And Aspenclaw doesn't really spend any time with the kit, so I doubt he would know anything."
"Perhaps Spiderpaw?" Ryepelt questioned.
Briartail raised her ears. "I think Spiderpaw would have told me," she meowed. "Besides, he hasn't been here for a while now. But a part of me just wants to ask him."
"Unfortunately you can't," Ryepelt reminded her. "But he can't stay there forever."
Briartail shuffled her paws. "I miss him."
"I miss him too," Ryepelt meowed. "But I'm sure he's fine, and we both know he misses us too. If anything was to happen, Muskstar would tell us right away."
Briartail rolled her eyes to the top of her head. "I'm sure Echostar would be pleased with that," she murmured sarcastically. 
"Of course she wouldn't," Ryepelt meowed, a snap of anger in his voice. "She has every single reason not to want any of those crow-food eating cats on our land."
Briartail half-nodded, her eyes set on Ryepelt's white paws in front of her.
"Briartail, are you listening to me?"
"What? Oh." Briartail shook her fur. "I'm sorry. I just can't stop thinking of Heronkit. She has to be hiding something."
Ryepelt beamed humorously. "Kits always to stupid things. I'm sure you don't want me to remind you of the time-"
Briartail cut him off. "I'm good," she replied with a smirk. She whipped around through the thorn tunnel, faking a beam at Ryepelt as she padded towards the warrior's den. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about the kit, no matter how hard she tried.
She's up to something, and I want to know what.