Big flakes of snow fell from the murky sky, leaving swaths of white on the frozen ground. Dewpaw watched their descent calmly, paws tucked underneath his grey chest, from the shelter of the Tumble Down Den. He hated the cold, but the fresh snow meant training was cancelled and it was a welcome reprieve from the intensity of the past moon.

Dewpaw found no joy in training anymore, despite his slowly growing understanding of his own abilities. The others were always so competitive and, with the threat of DarkClan attacking looming ever closer, the higher ups of the camp kept pushing for more and more and more.

Just a couple sunsets prior, Beaver's patrol had encountered a Clan cat – or, rather, Lightpaw had. He still didn't know what to make of her.

The snow held a lull over the camp, the first peaceful day in Dewpaw's recent memory. There were no cats rushing about trying to get patrols in order. There were no trainees sitting around freshkill and arguing over battle strategies. It was still early and, so far, Dewpaw had only seen Sprucetail wandering in and out of the camp.

Briefly, he wondered if he should follow her, but decided against it. Though his paws itched to test his stealth, he knew the more often it happened the more likely he was to get caught. Already, he knew he'd heard much more than anyone should have overheard.

He had tried piecing the various bits of information together – Mothpelt's revelation of her dream and the need for the three Clans of old to rise again, Gannet and Killian's conversation of joining the fight, and Nightchaser's arguments about DarkClan and the need to attack. One thing was certain: they were going to fight DarkClan and, if they won, establish the three Clans of old, just as this StarClan had told Mothpelt to. If they didn't...

Dewpaw didn't want to think about that and instead rose to his paws. With training out of the question today, he decided hunting would be his best course of action. Ever since Sprucetail decided to increase training, the trainees had spent very little or no time hunting and Dewpaw found he missed it sorely.

He crept out of camp and disappeared in the direction of the border.

//

He returned to camp with sunhigh still a ways away, two mice in his jaws. He was surprised he'd scented them through the stench of DarkClan, let alone caught them with his lack of recent hunting training. He had put himself to work testing his stealth instead, and found that he was a lot quieter than he thought. He had even managed to sneak up on Killian, who had also decided to make himself useful by hunting.

"Nice catch!" purred Beaver as Dewpaw entered. He nodded his head, surprised to find Cinderblossom sitting at Beaver's side. They had seemed rather close as of late.

He dropped the freshkill in the meagre pile and turned in the direction of Oats and Crisp, who sat chatting with, to Dewpaw's annoyance, Beetlepaw and Lightpaw. He decided to visit Crowpaw instead.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Crowpaw commented as he sorted herbs.

Dewpaw wrinkled his nose at their scents. "Training has been so intense we hardly ever had time to ourselves," he replied.

"Must be snowing pretty hard out there to deter Jaystrike from a training session," Crowpaw said dryly. He was still not on good terms with his ex-mentor.

The grey tom shook his head. "It's not too bad. Managed to do some hunting."

The medic's apprentice lifted his head briefly from his sorting. "Hunting is probably the only thing I miss about warrior training. Otherwise, I think this was really the best thing to happen to me. Thank you, Dewpaw." His voice was genuine warm and happy.

Dewpaw whisked his tail. "I'm happy for you."

"Me too, especially since I don't need to put up with Webpaw and Hazel everyday." The two she-cats had grown ever more competitive, especially now that Beetlepaw and Lightpaw had proved themselves decidedly better in battle.

"Webpaw's happy for you too," Dewpaw said quickly. "But, yes, they can be a pain."

"Dewpaw, you're not in pain are you?" Mothpelt asked as she entered the den, voice muffled through the soggy leaves in her mouth.

He shook his head. "No, just visiting Crowpaw."

The she-cat dropped the leaves to the ground. "Oh, good, but make sure he doesn't slack on his duties. I just rescued these leaves from the weather, hopefully they'll dry out nicely and still be useable. Crowpaw, make sure to lay them out separately."

Crowpaw nodded, hopping to his paws and starting on the work. Dewpaw watched in amazement as his paws skillfully separated the wet leaves and put them out in a straight line along the den's edge. The tom was meticulous, smoothing each leaf out with a couple of brushes with his paw.

His methodical approached pricked at Dewpaw, and he wondered if the tom might be able to help him figure out his earlier musings. He looked left and right for signs of others before speaking.

"Crowpaw, do you know anything of Mothpelt's dreams?" he started.

The black tom shook his head. "No, but I've been told that StarClan visited medicine cats in the Old Life frequently. I haven't been visited yet but if we defeat DarkClan I'm sure it will happen."

"Do you know what will happen after we defeat DarkClan?" Dewpaw asked.

Crowpaw hesitated for a moment. "Mothpelt told me that we were going to establish the three Clans of old. But don't tell anyone else."

Dewpaw nodded. "I already overheard her saying so to Cinderblossom."

The other apprentice purred ruefully. "Anything else you've managed to overhear? I hardly hear anything while I'm stuck in this den." He didn't sound disappointed, just curious.

"I heard Sprucetail and Nightchaser arguing about the attack on DarkClan," Dewpaw replied in a hushed voice. "She wanted to increase training and he said there was no time, that they were too close to attacking. He seemed to think Beetlepaw and Lightpaw were sent as spies for DarkClan."

Crowpaw's head snapped up. "You do know that Nightchaser is unstable, right?"

Dewpaw's eyes widened at Crowpaw's frank tone of voice. He hoped, for the tom's sake, that Nightchaser was nowhere near hearing range.

"Sprucetail knows what she's doing," Crowpaw continued. "She takes Nightchaser's worries into consideration, but she needs to think about everyone else too. She and Bronco have been working together to provide the best possible life for all of us here until we're ready to face DarkClan."

"Yes, but what if Nightchaser's right? What if there are spies in the camp?"

Crowpaw paused. "I know you've seen Beetlepaw and Lightpaw fight, but have you seen Sprucetail?"

Dewpaw shook his head.

"Well, if you had, you would know the two of them wouldn't stand a chance against her."

The grey apprentice found this hard to imagine when Lightpaw's fighting skills were already so high above his own.

"Point is, Sprucetail knows what she's doing, and intensifying training is really the only course of action she could take. If she didn't and we attacked DarkClan right away, most of us wouldn't survive." Crowpaw shuffled the herbs in front of him around until they were in tidy piles. "Some of us may still not."

Dewpaw felt a blow to his chest. Until Crowpaw had said it out loud, the possibility of his friends dying in battle had not crossed his mind.

A stir at the front of the medic's den made them both silent. A small tabby and white figure appeared.

"Robin," Crowpaw greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"Crowpaw, Dewpaw," she greeted in return. She turned to Dewpaw first. "I was just wondering if – "

"I'd spoken to Cinderblossom?" Dewpaw interjected. "Because the answer is no."

She scowled and opened her mouth to speak again when a commotion from outside sent them all running for the den entrance.

The first thing Dewpaw saw was a mass of black and red in the centre of camp. The metallic scent of blood hit him quickly and the heaviness of the cat's breathing pervaded the air. Then, he saw the white fur surrounding golden orbs, hidden within the black.

"Nightchaser!" Sprucetail's voice cut through the camp. Nightchaser coughed, his sides heaving. Dewpaw lost sight of him as others rushed towards him, each shouting over the other.

"Get back, he's hurt!" Mothpelt's voice rose above the rest and the crowd slowly shifted aside. Sprucetail and Bronco stayed near, looking at the black tom incredulously.

A rustle to the left turned Dewpaw's attention from the scene, and he saw Lightpaw, Crisp, and Oats join the three of them. They looked just as confused as Dewpaw felt.

"What happened?" Sprucetail asked immediately. "You stink of DarkClan!"

Nightchaser took a couple of breaths while Mothpelt pored over his pelt, muttering under her breath.

"I – I killed him," he rasped.

Not a muscle moved in the entire camp and Dewpaw was almost certain everyone was holding their breath.

"Killed who?" Sprucetail said quietly. Her fur stood on end and her eyes were wide. Dewpaw's eyes ran over the three scars on her shoulder and he wondered if she was thinking about the family she'd left behind.

"The one cat who can help them if we attack," Nightchaser said as if in a trance. "The most important one in battle, the one who takes care of all the injured warriors."

Dewpaw felt a sick feeling in his stomach. The words were intensely familiar, almost too much so. He turned to look at Crowpaw and saw his horror mirrored there.

Nightchaser's words were almost identical to what Dewpaw had said in front of the jury who granted Crowpaw his position as medic's apprentice.

"Reedpaw!" The scream from his left made him spring to action. He swung his leg as Lightpaw threw herself forward, taking her back legs out from beneath her. Oats, Crisp, and Robin quickly pinned down her shoulders.

"Reedpaw!" she cried again, struggling to get up under their combined weight. Beaver had already raced over to help subdue her. Sprucetail's eyes shifted from Lightpaw to Nightchaser, her tail lashing.

"We'll win now," Nightchaser said and the happiness in his voice filled Dewpaw with disgust.

Sprucetail rounded on him, face full of fury. "You infiltrated the DarkClan camp alone at the crack of dawn and killed an innocent cat so you could be sure we would win?!" Dewpaw, and nearly everyone sitting around the edges of the camp, shrank back. The black she-cat suddenly looked three times larger, and her entire body shook with anger.

"Without a medic, they'll have no way of healing their injured after the battle," Nightchaser replied, so calmly Dewpaw shivered.

"That medic had no mentor, the chances of all of the injuries being healed properly were low as it was!" Sprucetail shouted at him. Dewpaw saw Lightpaw flinch, and wondered who the now dead medic had been to her. Her brother, perhaps? Or a close friend she cared for deeply? He glanced over at Crowpaw, wondering what he might feel like should the black tom suddenly die.

"But now they're non-existent," Nightchaser said in the same low voice.

Sprucetail's eyes narrowed. "You rebelled against DarkClan because you believed killing innocents wasn't right. In the Old Life, killing a medicine cat was punishable by death."

The entire camp drew in a breath, waiting for her next words to fall.

"I'm not a cold-blooded killer," she hissed through her fangs, "and I won't be killing you either. But your actions make me wonder if you're no better than them."

She nodded her head to Mothpelt, who began the task of moving Nightchaser to the medic's den. Crowpaw sprang to her help, Lily following soon after. Dewpaw kept his eyes trained on Nightchaser's face, the far-away look in his eyes irking him.

And the fact that Dewpaw's own words had come from Nightchaser's mouth... The guilt weighed heavily in the trainee's stomach.

The freshly fallen snow in the centre of camp, stained red by Nightchaser's blood as a result of his terrible actions, was gone by nightfall.

// I sincerely apologize for any broken hearts, but it had to be done.