Sunlight filtered through the bare branches high above, dappling the snowy forest floor. Lightpaw's own dappled pelt moved over it, silent as an owl, one paw carefully in front of the other. Ever since her last stealth session with Flamestrike, she had decided that leafbare was her favourite season. No rustling leaves on the ground or big bushes to push through. Only snow, pristine and cold against her paws.

    The scrawny squirrel did not even squeak when her claws pinned it or when her fangs broke its neck. She pushed aside the temptation to devour it there and then; others needed it more than she did. Lightpaw buried the squirrel and continued her hunt.

    Somewhere nearby, Rainpaw and Beetlepaw did their own hunting. The three apprentices had been delegated by Flamestrike and Dapplefrost, who needed the day off to visit Reedpaw. The she-cats did not complain – it gave them all a chance to practice their skills before the final assessment, which would be announced any day now.

    By the time the sun was nearing the horizon, painting the sky in swaths of fire and plum, Lightpaw had not had any luck. Her front paw ached from the thorn stuck in it, and her rear paw stung from the buried branch she had tripped over, scaring away the bird she'd been stalking.

    "Catch anything?" Rainpaw asked when she caught sight of her.

    Lightpaw nodded. "Just need to retrieve it." Then, through clenched teeth, "I forgot how much thorns hurt."

    "I haven't," Beetlepaw said, joining them. She proudly dropped two mice to the ground. "I constantly have thorns in my side."

    Lightpaw did not dignify her littermate's words with a response. She limped back into the forest to retrieve her squirrel.

    //

    The healer's den was a lot more crowded and loud than usual. The coughing hit Lightpaw first, then the sharp smell of a herb she did not know. Her mouth watered around the squirrel and mice she held in her jaws.

    Reedpaw was nowhere to be found and Lightpaw cursed internally as the thorn in her pad throbbed. She decided to drop the freshkill off, laying one of the mice in Reedpaw's den – his favourite freshkill – and bringing the other two pieces carefully over to the sick lying at the back of the den.

    Minkfur sat with her tail curled around her tiny kit who, every so often, coughed and stirred in his sleep. Her face was worried and her shoulders sagged. She hardly had the energy to thank Lightpaw as the apprentice dropped the other mouse before her. The squirrel she lay before Spiderthorn, who was curled up in a tight ball of black fur. She lingered, looking down at the steady rise and fall of his sides. In his peaceful state he didn't look sick at all.

    "Lightpaw, please move back." Reedpaw's voice startled the she-cat and she jumped back, landing awkwardly on the thorn.

    "Get it out," she cried, clenching her teeth tight against the pain.

    To her surprise, Reedpaw's face almost brightened. Minkfur hissed angrily at the noise, curling her tail tighter around Antkit.

    The healer took a quick glance at Lightpaw's pad. "Oh, it's only a thorn. I'll have it out in no time."

    He disappeared, returning with a branch and some herbs.

    "Bite down on this." Lightpaw dutifully took the stick between her teeth.

    Then, quick as a flash of lightning, the thorn was out and Reedpaw was applying a poultice of herbs on her pad. He wrapped it swiftly in cobwebs, nodding once at his handiwork.

    "Now, I really have to ask you to leave," he said, glancing back at his other patients. "I don't want you getting sick too." If not for his pleading gaze, Lightpaw might have stayed.

    "I brought you some freshkill," she said by way of goodbye before slipping out of the den.

    The camp was in a slight state of panic. With their deputy sick, Skunknose was doing his best to put together patrols. In Lightpaw's opinion, the old tom was much better at solo hunting than organization but she kept that to herself.

    "Dusk patrol tonight will consist of Newtfang, Flamestrike, Stormpaw, Lightpaw, and myself," Skunknose called now. "We will head to the Twolegplace border. The other patrol, led by Rowanstorm with Shadowpelt, Oakshade, Duskwhisker, and Yewpaw, will take a look at the moors, where we picked up the scent of a fox not too long ago."

    Lightpaw groaned, glancing down at her cobweb-bound paw. By the time she returned to camp tonight it would be soaked through.

    "Skunknose!" Lightpaw glanced up to see Flamestrike approaching their patrol leader. "I was actually wondering if I could stay in camp tonight. You see, Dapplefrost – "

    Skunknose fixed Flamestrike with a point blank stare. "Is your first duty to the Clan?"

    Flamestrike's face adopted a surprised expression before melting into blankness. "Yes, you're right." He dipped his head.

    A purr reached the group as Smoketalon approached. "Don't worry, I'll look after her while you're gone. You have nothing to worry about." Flamestrike nodded, brushing his tail over the grey tom's shoulder in a show of trust.

    "Let's head out then," Skunknose said, looking around for the other members of his patrol. His gaze landed on Lightpaw's bandaged paw.

    "Not another training injury, is it?" He sounded exasperated.

    Lightpaw bristled, remembering the shoulder injury dealt to her by Smoketalon a couple moons prior. "No, just a thorn in my pad while hunting."

    "That's roughly the same thing, isn't it?" Skunknose replied. The more power Skunknose had in camp, the less Lightpaw liked him.

    Before she could retort, a tom's voice cut her off. "Give her a break, at least she brought back some freshkill today. I'll take her place on the patrol."

    Skunknose bristled slightly – he himself had not brought back any prey to the camp today. Still, he accepted the offer with a brisk nod, breaking out into a quick trot towards the camp entrance.

    "Thank you," Lightpaw said quietly, not quite meeting Shademask's eyes.

    He brushed his pelt along hers as he padded by in pursuit of the patrol.

    //

    Four days later her paw was as good as new and Lightpaw, once again, found herself on a hunting patrol. The pressure of finding freshkill was a lot higher this time; since her last hunting trip the entire Clan had only been fed once. The sickness was spreading too – Minkfur, with all her time spent in the healer's den with Antkit, was now coughing and Yewpaw was nest-ridden. Spiderthorn's own coughing had grown worse.

    After a day in the forest, however, Lightpaw did not have a single piece of freshkill to show for her hunt. Rainpaw returned with one sparrow, it's wing broken before she caught it.

    "Where's Beetlepaw?" Rainpaw asked as the two she-cats sat at the bramble bush that served as their meeting place.

    Lightpaw shrugged. "She should be heading back now." Her mind was not on her own littermate, but on Rainpaw's littermate. Over the course of the past few days she had seen Reedpaw racing about the camp, organizing and re-organizing his herb stock in search of whatever herb it was he needed to cure the coughing. There had been patrols sent out in search of it too, but Lightpaw had never been allowed to join one.

    "There she is!" Rainpaw said excitedly. "And look, she's got something!"

    Sure enough, Beetlepaw came strutting up to them, a rabbit hanging from her jaws.

    Lightpaw cocked her head. "Where'd you get that? I thought we were supposed to be hunting in the forest?"

    Beetlepaw's eyes glinted. "Lot of good that did you. I decided to try my luck on the moors and it looks like I got lucky!"

    If not for the fact that the rabbit would feed four of their Clanmates, Lightpaw might have felt angry. "The Clan needs a good catch like this one. We should be heading back."

    Even behind the bulk of the rabbit, Beetlepaw's smug grin did not disappear.

    The camp was busy again but nearly everyone stopped as the small hunting patrol walked in. Hungry eyes stared at the rabbit, which Beetlepaw placed gingerly in the small indent meant for the freshkill pile. Besides the rabbit and Rainpaw's sparrow, only a half-frozen shrew remained. As much as Lightpaw would have loved to eat, she knew it was not her turn tonight.

    She headed for the healer's den instead, poking her head in to see if Reedpaw was awake. Lately, he'd been staying up throughout the night to take care of his patients, who coughed relentlessly, and took naps throughout the day. She had watched him toss and turn the day before, and the day before that too.

    "Lightpaw, how many times do I have to tell you to stay away?" Reedpaw's tired voice came from his herb storage.

    The she-cat felt the slightest twinge of guilt. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried about you. Is there anything I can do to help?"

    Reedpaw's tabby head poked out of the storage area. "Unless you can find a crop of catmint and bring it back there's really nothing that will help." His amber eyes were cloudy from sleepless nights and his fur untidy from the stress of taking care of his patients.

    "Is that what the patrols are for?" Lightpaw asked. "I'll join one if you need me to."

    "No, you won't have time," Reedpaw replied. "They're announcing the final assessments tonight, and I wouldn't want you to miss it."

    A shock ran through Lightpaw. "Even with Spiderthorn sick?" She found it hard to believe Dawnstar would announce the final assessments without her deputy and mate at her side.

    Reedpaw nodded. "Lightpaw, I need you to leave. I don't want you getting sick." He went back to rummaging in his herb stock.

    Still, Lightpaw held her ground.

    He let out an exasperated sigh at her stubbornness. "Lightpaw, go. If you really want to help me so badly, take these to Pigeonfang and Dapplefrost." He waved his striped tail at a pile of leaves.

    It took Lightpaw a moment to understand. Pigeonfang's belly, growing rounder every day, meant her kits would be due soon, so the herbs were probably meant to help her along. Dapplefrost, on the other hand...

    "Dapplefrost's pregnant?" Lightpaw wasn't sure if the horror in her voice came across. She squeezed her eyes shut against the image of Smoketalon and Dapplefrost in the forest.

    "Yes, Flamestrike's been in here nearly every day asking me questions and, honestly, I don't know the answers to most of them." Now, Lightpaw could see the beginnings of panic in Reedpaw and any conviction of leaving him alone disappeared completely.

    "I'm not leaving until you tell me what to do," Lightpaw said firmly.

    She jumped back as Reedpaw's fangs snapped. "No. Out, Lightpaw. Now." The hard light of his eyes pierced through her.

    The she-cat glanced at the back of the den once more. "Can I at least say goodbye to Spiderthorn?" If her assessment really was being announced tonight, who knew when she would see him again, if at all?

    Reedpaw seemed to understand this and he nodded, but only after giving her a pointed look. Lightpaw promised to be quick and approached the sleeping form of her father. His sides still rose and fell but in a much more ragged pattern.

    "I'm starting my assessment today," she told him quietly, brushing her tail over his. "I hope I can make you proud." Checking to see if Reedpaw was looking, she quickly pressed her nose into Spiderthorn's side.

    To her surprise, the tom stirred and his eyelids opened just enough to show the amber beneath. He said something, his voice choking with disuse. Lightpaw leaned in closer, trying to hear. Spiderthorn tried again, tongue tripping over the syllables.

    "I don't understand," she whispered, shaking her head.

    "M-Morningfire."

    Lightpaw froze.

    "I... thought... I'd never... see you again."

    Lightpaw shook her head. "No, it's Lightpaw. Spiderthorn, it's Lightpaw, your daughter."

    But Spiderthorn's eyes were once again closed, his breathing more steady than before. Lightpaw backed away slowly, then hurried out of the healer's den, nearly crashing into Flamestrike as he came to collect Dapplefrost's herbs.

// Another bit of a filler chapter but I think we learn a bit more about a lot of the characters here so hopefully it's worth the read! Have a good week :)